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Rh liking, and after serving for six years he declined a reelection in order to devote his attention to his own private interests. His best remembered speeches in the house of representatives are those in favor of the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman silver act of 1890; in support of the Wilson tariff bill, opposing the income tax amendment to that measure; against Mr. Carlisle's Currency Bill; "Against Executive Usurpation," April 9, 1904; "On the Issue," April 23, 1904; and his "Reply to Mr. Dalzell," April 26, 1904; together with speeches on the impeachment of Judge Swayne, 1905.

In 1894, Mr. Cockran practically withdrew from Tammany Hall, and for some time thereafter continued an independent Democrat. With many other Democrats, he publicly repudiated the free silver platform of Mr. Bryan, in the presidential campaign of 1896, and gave his support to the Republican candidate for president, Mr. McKinley. In that campaign, he was a frequent and a most effective speaker, and to his persuasive and convincing eloquence must be attributed no small part of the unprecedented majority which Mr. McKinley received in the state of New York. In 1900, he returned to the regular Democratic fold, and supported the Democratic candidate for president on the ground "that the result could not in any way affect the coinage of the country, owing to the complexion of the senate, while the defeat of the Republican party would of itself have sufficed to expel imperialism from our political system." After an interim of ten years, at a special election held February 23, 1904, he was again elected to congress to succeed George B. McClellan, who resigned to become mayor of New York. His experience in former congresses, his readiness and force in the exigencies of debate, his legal knowledge and foresight, coupled with a strong individuality and fearless honesty of purpose, will undoubtedly place him in the foremost rank of the opposition in the fifty-ninth Congress.

In 1885, Mr. Cockran was married to Miss Rhoda E. Mack, who died in New York on February 20, 1895.