Stanton and Porter, and with full power to amend the bill to its liking,
was but a step. The Committee on Free Conference was Wolfe's aim. He
eventually got it.

Boynton and Walker were quick to see the trend of Wolfe's requests,
however, and Walker moved to vote on the seven vicious amendments on one
roll call, and on the ten correcting the typographical and clerical
errors on a second.

As a substitute Wolfe moved that the seventeen amendments be passed upon
under one roll call.

At first Senators Cutten and Stetson apparently could not see the trend
of Wolfe's scheming. In the debate that ensued Wolfe pretended
indignation that his motives were being questioned.

There was very good reason for questioning Senator Wolfe's motives, but
Cutten and Stetson and even Walker assured Wolfe that no reflection upon
him was intended. What these men should have done was to have denounced
Wolfe right there as a trickster and made no bones about it. But on the
absurd assumption that a member of the State Senate is necessarily a
gentleman, the much deserved denunciation did not come.

However, Wolfe's motion did not prevail and the amendments were taken up
one by one. Six of the seven vicious amendments were rejected, the first
of the six by a vote of 19 to 20.

This brought the Senate to the amendments intended to correct
typographical and clerical errors. And here the vote switched. The
reformers had up to this time been voting to reject the amendments,