Cave Johnson was a veteran of Tennessee politics who served for seven terms as a United States Representative, managed James Polk's presidential campaign, and then served as Polk's Postmaster General. He is credited with introducing the postage stamp and corner drop boxes for mail.  He retired from politics in 1849 and became a banker.  He died at his home in Clarksville, Tennessee, aged seventy-three.  (By John Osborne)

The governments of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Holland signed a joint trade agreement with the Empire of Japan.  The convention reformed the tariffs then in force, provided for Japanese government import warehouses in Yokohama and Nagasaki, and lifted restrictions on Japanese subjects in dealing with foreign merchants.  (By John Osborne)

The Iowa state legislature, already under Republican control, was not up for re-election but polling for most other state positions resulted in victories across the board for Republicans. In a hard-fought election with a record turn-out, six U.S. congressional seats were also contested and all six of these Republicans won comfortably.  (By John Osborne)

The Democratic Party of Iowa met in Des Moines to nominate candidates for the upcoming elections. The convention voiced full support for President Johnson and his policies and called especially for the immediate admission to Congress of representatives of the former Confederate states.  The convention, interestingly, decided to adopt all the candidates that the "Conservative Republicans" had nominated two weeks before, with the exception of two minor posts.  (By John Osborne)

Calling themselves "Conservative Republicans," a political grouping that would quickly become allied with the Democratic Party assembled in a convention in Des Moines, Iowa. With former Union general and former Democratic candidate for governor, Thomas Hart Benton, Jr. in the chair, the gathering sought to establish a "new" political party opposed to the radical wing of the Republican Party, to be known as the "National Union" party. Two weeks later the Iowa Democratic Convention adopted almost all the candidates the Conservative Republicans nominated at this gathering.  (By John Osborne)

With only an estimated fifteen thousand of more than 350,000 registered voters not casting a ballot, Indiana Republicans scored a narrow victory in most of the races, including eight out of the nine contested races for the United States Congress.  The party also maintained a ten seat majority in the State Senate and a twenty-two seat edge in the State house.  (By John Osborne)

One of the numerous "Colored Conventions" being held around the United States in 1866 took place in Indianapolis Indiana and opened on November 6.  At its conclusion four days later, an address aimed at the "loyal voters of Indiana" called for the vote for African-Americans in the state.  (By John Osborne)