A narrative of Daisy Williams’s life in the winter and spring of 1880 draws on her diary, transcribed by Tiffany Meadows, Sweet Briar College Class of 2008.

Voorhees became a major congressional advocate for the Library of Congress and served as chairman of the Senate Committee on the Library.

Payne's case was larger than Payne, as the nineteenth-century method of electing senators increasingly appeared vulnerable to money, corporate influence, and political machines. Legislative deadlocks were common. Accusations of bribery appeared in several states.

He became Speaker of the House, presided over one of the greatest concentrations of power ever held by a Speaker, survived a revolt against his authority, served forty-six years in Congress, and eventually had one of the great congressional office buildings on Capitol Hill named for him.

She would spend the final thirty-seven years of her life defending Wilson, preserving his papers and possessions, shaping his public memory, and keeping his Washington home almost as a shrine.