Book i OUR Gi;eat Men OR THl LEADERS OF THE NATION. BY C E. BUTTOLPH. Pn. B. mL ^(^ ^^^ •'•'"^ w»»»-^ ^ ^ -^^ The Loomis National Library Association: No. 2 Cooper Union, No. 1114 Main St., New York. Richmond, Va, No. 364 Warash Avenue, Chicago, UL 1S89. /■"■ COPYRIGHT BY Williams, Buttolphs and Johncton. PREFACE. MERICA makes her own rulers. Her great men come from the people, are of the people, and are citizens as well as rulers. Am such they should be more closely united to the masses than the rulers of other nations are to their subjects. The interests of one are the interests of ail. In legislating for their constituents they legislate for thcmseh^es. Good laws and the proper execution of them are advantageous to all alike. The men who have won a place at the front in the affairs of government are the servants of the people; they hold a great trust, and the eye of the Nation is upon them to see the trust is not betrayed. The object of this work is to draw into a closer relationship our great men and our people. Great questions of principle can be better known by a study of the men who advocate those principles. In this volume the author has endeavored to give impartial biographical sketches, together with extracts from their best speeches, of the leaders of the Nation. A knowledge of our lead- ers is indispensable to the intelligent American citizen, while to the young — those who are just becoming interested in the affairs of government, who are just on the threshold of active citizenship— this knowledge is especially important. (3) 4 PREFACE. The American people can truly be proud of their leaders. They are not without faults ; for who are faultless ? But no other nation can produce more able statesmen. Trusting this work will serve the purpose for which it was intended, and that its readers will glean some few grains of useful information, we leave it with the people. C. E. BUTTOLPH. Januaey 1, 1887. INDEX PAGE 1. Bakbouk, Johk S Virginia 701 2. Barksdale, Ethelbeht Mississippi 674 3. Bayakd, Thomas F Ddaware 288 4. Bayne, Thomas M Pennsylvania 623 5. Beck, James B Kentucky 31 6. Berry, James H Arlcansas 602 7. Blackburn, J. C. S Kentucky 645 8. Blaine, James G Maine 373 9. Blanchard, Newton C Louisiana 225 10. Bland, Richard P Missouri 310 11. Blount, James H Oeor^ia 694 12. Bbago, Edward S Wisconsin 384 13. Breckinridge, Clifton R Arkansas 365 14. Breckinridge, William P. C Kentucky 272 15. Brown, Joseph E Georgia 246 16. Browne, Thomas M Lidiana 641 17. Buck, John H Connecticut 643 18. Burrows, Julius C Michigan 660 19. Butler, Matthew C South Carolina 178 20. Butterworth, Benjamin Ohio 634 21. Cabell, George C Virginia 563 22. Caldwell, Andrew J Tennessee 664 23. Call, Wilkinson Florida 670 24. Cannon, Joseph G Illinois 639 25. Cameron, James D Pennsylvania 633 26. Carlisle, John G Kentucky 455 27. Cleveland, Grover New York 38 28. Cockrell, Francis M Missouri 684 / (a) b INDEX. FAOB 29. Coke, Eichaed Texas 497 30. Colquitt, Alfred H Georgia 108 31. Conger, Omar D Michigan 101 32. Cox, William E North Carolina 566 33. Crisp, Charles F Georgia 398 34. CuTCHEOK, Byboh M Michigan 648 35. Daniel, Johit "W Virginia 599 36. DiBBLi, Samuel Souih Carolina 696 37. Dingley, Nelson Maine 222 38. DocKERY, Alexander M Missouri 662 39. Dunn, Poindexter Arkansas 424 40. Edmunds, George F Vermont 576 41. EusTis, James B Louisiana 608 42. EvARTS, William M New York 617 43. FiNDLAY, JouN V. L Maryland 560 44. George, James Z Mississippi 280 45. Gibson, Charles H Maryland 477 46. Gibson, Eandall L Louisiana 689 47. GoFF, Nathan, Jr West Virginia 406 48. Gorman, Arthur P Maryland 484 49. Gray, Horace Massachusetts 638 50. Green, Wharton J North Carolina 671 61. Hammond, Nathaniel J Georgia 595 52. Hampton, Wade South Carolina 93 53. Harris, Isham G Tennessee ^12 54. Hemphill, John J South Carolina 676 55. Henley, Barclay California 681 56. Herbert, Hilery A Alabama 327 57. Hewitt, Abram S New York 427 , 58. Hill, David B New York 4: 59. HiscocK, Frank New York 61 60. Hoar, George F Massachusetts 18 61. HoLMAN, William S Indiana 261 62. Ingalls, John J Kansas 159 63. Johnston, James T Indiana 656 \ INDEX. 7 PAGE 64. Kelly, Weluam D Pennsylvania 650 65. K£NNA, James E West Virginia 699 66. LA2IAB, L. Q. C Mississippi 128 67. Logan, John A Illinois 314 68. LoNO, John D Massachtisetts 148 69. Matthews, Stanley Ohio 625 70. Maxjey, Samcel B Texas 703 71. McKinley, William, Jr Ohio 629 72. McMiLLiN, Benton Tennessee 672 73. Mitchell, John H Oregon 535 74. Morgan, John T ,-l/a6a7?ia 387 75. MoREisoN, William R Illinois 343 76. Norwood, Thomas B Georgia 401 77. Gates, William C Alabama 63 78. O'Neill, John J Missouri 690 79. Puoh, James L Alabama 330 80. Platt, Orvill II Connecticut 636 81. Perkins, Bishop II Kansas 654 82. Randall, Samuel J Pennsylmnia 539 83. Ransom, Matt W North Carolina 605 84. Reagan, John H Tczas 112 85. Reed, Thomas B Maine 408 86. Rkid, James W Norih Carolina. 667 87. Rice, William W Massachusetts 658 88. Richardson, James D Tennessee 669 89. Rogers, John H Arkansas 573 90. Sherman, John Ohio 430 91. Spoonek, John C Wisconsin 340 92. Springer, William M Illinois 468 93. Stanford, Leland California 692 94. St. Martin, Louis Louisiana 698 95. Taylor, Ezra B Ohio 631 96. Teller, Henry M Colorado 395 97. Thurman, Allen G Ohio 13 98. ThrocK-Mobton, James W Texas 191 8 INDEX. FAOB 99. Tillman, Geoege D South Carolina 666 100. TowNSEND, Richard W Illiiiois 481 101. Tucker, John E Virginia 686 102. Turner, Henry G Georgia 368 103. Vance, Zebulon B North Carolina, 201 104. Van Eaton, Henry S Mississippi 678 105. Vest, George G Missouri 490 106. VooRHEES, Daniel W Indiana 465 107. Waite, Morrison R Ohio 626 108. Walthall, E. C Mississippi 471 109. Weaver, James B ; Iowa 627 110. Wellborn, Olin Texas 680 111. Wheeler, Joseph Alabama 688 112. Willis, Albert S Kentucky 487 113. WoLFORD, Frank L Kentucky 186 List of Illustrations. 1. CAPiToii AT Washington, 2. Allen G. Thukman, 3. Grover Cleveland, 4. Wade Hampton, . 5. Lucirs Q. C. La>la.r, 6. John J. Ingalls, . 7. Zebulon B. Vance, . 8. Joseph E. Brown, 9. Thomas F. Bayard, 10. James L. Pugh, 11. James Q. Blaine, 12. David B. Hill, 13. John G. Carlisle, 14. Richard Coke, 15. Samuel J. Randall, 16. George F. Edmunds, 17. IsHAM G. Harris, TAQX Frontispiece 12 39 92 129 . 158 200 . 247 289 . 331 372 . 412 454 . 496 638 . 577 613 (9) To honor God, to benefit mankind, To serve with lofty gifts the lowly needs Of the poor race for which the God-man died, And do it all for love— oh this is great I And he who does this will achieve a name Not only great but good. —Holland. (10) A2LiL3E3^i ©. Hon. ALLEN G.THURMAN. LLEX G. THURMAX, or "The Old Roman," as he is commonly known among his political friends, was born in Lynch- burg, Virginia, November 13th, 1813. Rev. P. Thurnian was his father, and hi.s mother was the only daughter of Colonel Xathaniel Allen, and sister of the late ex-Governor William Allen, of Ohio. His parents removed from Lynchburg to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1819, and there Allen G. was educated, residing there till he removed to Columbus, Ohio, his present home. He studied law with his uncle, \A'illiam Allen, then a United States Senator, and subsequently with Xoah H. Swayne, afterward an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was admitted to the Bar in 1835, and continued his practice for several years. In 1844 he married Mary Drew, daughter of Walter Drew, of Fayette County, Kentucky. He was elected, in 1844, to the Twenty-ninth Con- gress, and served one term. While serving in the Twenty-ninth Congress he voted, with other Northern Democrats, for the " Wilmot Proviso;" and, in the many exciting questions which arose during that Congress, he (13) 14 OUE GREAT MEN. voted for and advocated what he believed would con- duce to the Nation's welfare. He resumed the practice of law after his term exj^ired. In 1851 he was elected a Judge of the Suj^reme Court of Ohio. He was Chief Justice of that court during two years of his term. After leaving the Supreme Bench he again resumed the prac- tice of law at Columbus, Ohio, and was engaged as counsel in the Supreme Court in many of the principal cases which came before it. His reputation as a sound lawyer and jurist was, to a great extent, founded upon the reports containing his decisions during the five years he was Judge of the Supreme Court uf Ohio; and his opinions on important legal questions were sought for and relied upon by many attorneys practicing in the State. He has always been a laborious student, and in the thorough preparations of his cases but few men excelled him. As a politician he has always been a Democrat and a great leader of his party. In 1867 he was presented by the party of his State as a candidate for the Governorship of Ohio. The cam- paign was one of the liveliest ever known in the State. The Legislature had proposed a "Negro Suifrage" amendment to the Constitution of the State, and this was before the people. Judge Thurman entered heartily into the canvass. His opponent was Rutherford B. Hayes, afterward President of the United States. The year before, the Republicans had carried Ohio by forty- three thousand majority. Judge Thurman was beaten by two thousand nine hundred and eighty- three majority. The "Negro Suffrage" amendment was defeated by over fifty thousand majority, and the Democrats carried the ALLEN G. THURMAX. 15 Legislature by a large majority. He was nominated for United States Senator, and elected in January, 1868, to take the place of Benjamin F. Wade, a Republican. Senator Thurman took the oath of office March 4th, 1869. He belonjired to the minority, and a yery small minority, there being only eleyen Democrats then in the Senate. He took position as a leader at once. As a debater he was fearless, with, perhaps, no man his equal on the floor of the Senate. He made his work count; and, while the South was not yet out of the hands of the "carpet-baggers," he thundered his eloquence against military rule. In 1873 William Allen, his uncle, was nominated for the Governorship of Ohio. Senator Thurman, by his active part in the State campaign of that year, succeeded in seeing Mr. Allen elected Governor by a few hundred majority. The Legislature was again carried by the Democrats, and Mr. Thurman was re-elected United States Senator. The tidal wave of 1874 made the Xational House of Representatives Democratic, and from that time Thur- man, perhaps, took a more active part than ever as the head of the minority in the Senate. He was a candidate for the nomination for the Presidency in 1876, again in 1880, and again in 1884. WTiile not nominated, he has proved the truth of the adage that statesmanship and leadership, in a great political party, seldom win the highest laurels. In 1879, he who had entered the Senate, and became the leader of a small minority, then became the leader of a majority. The Senate became Democratic, and he 16 OUR GREAT MEN. was elected President ])ro fonpore of that body. At the close of his term, March 4th, 1881, he returned to Colum- bus, Ohio, and resumed the i^ractice of law. Mr. Thurman's official life may be over, but as a leader and as a great man but few have been his equal; and, while his record may be made, he will ever be remem- bered as one of the men who stood at the helm of State when the Xation was tossed in the tempest of reconstruc- tion, and never failed in his duty to the Constitution or to the people. In a speech in the Senate, on the tenure of office of the President jjro tempore of the Senate, Mr. Thurman said : "I said that thirty-five years ago I heard this question discussed; discussed by great men, and discussed in the Senate of the United States. I was not in the Senate. I was too young, or the people had not discovered my merits then. It was on the occasion of the death of Gen- eral Harrison, and the question was whether Mr. Tyler had become President of the United States. When a motion was made in the Senate to appoint a commit- tee — the usual motion on the commencement of the ses- sion — 'to wait upon the President of the United States and inform him that both Houses of Congress had assem- bled, and were ready to receive any communication that he might be pleased to make,' a Senator from Ohio moved to amend, instead of saying ' the President of the United States,' by saying 'the Vice-President of the United States acting as President.' That gave rise to a rery interesting discussion; and the result of that discussion was, I believe, a vote, by a large majority, to retain the resolution in its original form, upon the ground that ALLEN G. THURMAX. 17 upon the death of the President the Vice-President be- came actually President of the United States. It was argued in support of the amendment that there was a dis- tinction between the case of the death of the President and a temporary disability, and that it could not be said that the Vice-President became President of the United States where the actual President was only under tem- porary disability, because that would be to have two Presidents of the United States at one and the same time. It is precisely the same argument that the Sen- ator from New York now suggests. It was said then that this clause in regard to the powers and duties devolv- ing on the Vice-President is precisely the same in respect to death or to inability to servo. Let me turn to that clause : " ' In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation or inability to discharge the })()wers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the A'ice-Presidcnt, and the Congress may by law [)rovide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.' "They are all put in the same clause, and the lan- guage is 'what officer shall then act as President.' I am speaking now from recollection, for I do not think I have read that debate for many years; but it made a great impression on my young mind at that time. The opin- ion expressed by leading Senators, who took part in that debate, was that in the case of death it is plain, and in 18 OUR GREAT MEX. the case of removal from office it is j^lain, and in the case of resignation it is plain ; all those cases put an end to the official character of the President; and it was only in case of his inability to serve (it might be from insan- ity, or from imprisonment, or from some temporary cause — sickness a Senator suggests, and that might well be) that there could be any question. The weight of opinion, as I recollect it, expressed then, was that in such a case of inability, as in case of captivity and im- prisonment — if, for instance, ]Mr. Lincoln had been cap- tured and imprisoned by the Confederates during the late civil war, his j^owers would have been in abeyance during that captivity, and the Vice-President for the time being would have been the President of the United States ; and no order given by Mr. Lincoln from his dungeon in a Southern State, if he had been in one, or in some for- tress there, could be obeyed as the order of the Pres- ident of the United States ; but the powers of the real President being in abeyance, by reason of imprisonment or inability to discharge his duties, the Vice-President for the time being would have been the President of the United States. " I do not find much light on this question from the illustration of mayors of cities and corporate vil- lages in the State of Indiana or the State of Ohio. It seems to me that it is a question which depends on the Constitution of the United States, and is quite irre- spective of any of those municipal laws to which the Sen- ator has referred. I did not rise, however, to argue that question, but only to say that I, for one, dissent from the views expressed by the Senator from Indiana in the ALLEN G. THUEMAX. 19 first remarks which he submitted this morning on this question. I think when the office devolves on the Pres- ident pro tempore he ceases to be Senator, becomes President, and liohls the office of President until the expiration of the term, or until another President is elected. 1 may be wrong about it ; I only state my opinion. That !« my judgment, because I can not in any way reconcile it to my mind that a man can at one and the same time discharge the duties of President of the United States and be a Senator in Congress, entitled to take a seat on this fluor, and to participate in our delib- erations with all the powers of a Senator; nor can I reconcile it U) myself to say that any act of Congress can deprive a State of one-half of its representation on this floor by making a Senator President of the United States, and at the same time leaving him a Senator in name but without power to act as Senator. That is all that I desire to say upon that branch of the subject. ''Upon thccpiestion that is immediately before the Sen- ate, and as to which I have said that I was not entirely clear, bill that the impression «»f my mind was in favor of the views of the minority of the committoo. T wish to say a very few words indeed. '•'The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice- President, or whrn he shall exercise the office of Presi- dent of the United States.' "I wish the attention of the Senator from Indiana for one moment. The Senator says that the power conferred ia this clause is precisely the same in respect to the Pres- ident of the Senate that it is in res])ect to 'other nffi- 20 OUR GREAT MEN. cers,' and that if it is competent for the Senate to remove its Secretary, or its Chief Clerk, or its Sergeant- at-Arms, it follows necessarily that it has a like power to remove the President j)ro tempore. I submit to him that he is entirelv mistaken in that. There is not one word in this clause that, by any implication whatever, lixes the duration of the oflSce of any officer of the Senate, except the President ])ro temj)ore. There is not one word in the clause which, either exi:)ressly or by any implication, fixes the term of office of the Secretary of the Senate, of the Chief Clerk of the Senate, of the Sergeant-at^Arms, or of any of those officers who are strictly officers of the Senate. But when you cume to the President fro tempore^ there are most j) regnant words that do intimate, that do raise a fjiir implication, if they do not express it in fact, that he is to hold during the entire absence of the Vice- President; and, if that absence be caused by death, as in the case now before us, that then he must continue to hold as long as ho is a member of the body, unless, in the meantime, another Vice-President has been chosen. Let us see liou- this matter is : '"The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote,' etc. '"The Senate shall choose their other officers.' "Wliy was the clause, 'the Senate shall choose their other officers,' put in at all? The reason of it is very obvious. You will find a like provision in regard to the House of Representatives. It was to give each body the absolute power to choose its own officers. Just for the same reason that each House is made the sole judge of the election, returns, and qualifications of its own mem- ALLEX G. THURMAX. 21 bers, so the choice of its own immediate servants is vested in each House; and it is to prevent the choice of officers of the Senate, or officers of the House, being made a sub- ject-matter of legislation, being governed by law, or being conferred upcjn any executive authority. It is for that reason alone that the clause is put here that 'the Senate shall choose their other officers.' Then the Constitution goes (Ml and says: 'And also a President ^>ro temjiore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when h(i shall exor- cise the office of President of the United States.' "If the Senator from Indiana is riirht, whv was ni»t this clause condensed so as to sav, 'the Senate shall choose their other officers, and, when necessar)', a President prr? 1em]>or('V Why was it not put in those few words? A\'lierr was the necessity of jiutting in words that import a term for which that President is to hold his office? If the Senator from Indiana and the majority t)f the com- mittee nvc correct, the whole object wouUl have been accom[)lished by saying: 'The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President ^/r(> tempore when nec- essary.' That would have left him in the i>ower of the Senate. But, instead of saying in those few words that the Senate should have the power to elect a President pro tempore^ they go on to say, 'and a President pro tempore in the absence of the Vice-President ; ' and that is not all: ' Or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States.' "It does look as if the plain import of this language was that there is to be such an officer, and it is admitted he is an officer; for, if he is not, he could not become President under the act of 1792, and that act would be 22 OUR GREAT MEN. unconstitutional. There is to be such an officer as a Pres- ident ]^ro tempore of the Senate, and that officer is elected by an absence of the Vice-President, and if that absence is to be continuous, as in the case of his becoming Presi- dent of the United States, upon the death, resignation, or removal from office of the President, then that Senator, thus President j'ro tempore^ is to hold for the whole term. "That is the natural import of this language, as it seems to me upon fiirtlier reflection. In view of the lan- guage of the Constitution, and in view of the fact that it seems to have been the idea of the framers of the Consti- tution that the presiding officer of this body should have a certain independent status, a certain i^crmanency of ten- ure of office, and with the strong reasons which have been given favoring this permanency of tenure, I can not bring myself ultimately to the conclusion that this is an office held (hirante heneplacito; that we are to turn our presiding officer out one day and put somebody else in ; and that, owing to some casual change of majority, or change of feeling in the Senate, we arc to reverse the thing next day and re-instate the old officer. I know that there is very little to be gained by supposing extreme cases. There is very little to be gained by sup- j)Osing that the Senate would do so impro2:)er a thing; and yet it might be done in times of high i)arty excite- ment. "Then, I think, Mr. President, that there is great force in what was said by the Senator from Florida. If you say that the President pro tempore can be changed at the will of the Senate, and the House of Representatives ALLEN G. THURMAX. 23 should take the opposite view of it, and the office of Pres- ident of the United States shouhl devolve on the Presi- dent of the Senate, you might have a conflict between the two Houses as to who was the Chief Executive Magistrate. If, for instance, we were to change our Pres- ident pro tempore, elect some one else in his stead, and (this not being a matter of the special privileges of the Senate, upon which our judgment is conclusive — for upon it depends who shall be President of the United States) if the House of llej)resentatives should tle for Mr. Hendricks while living, and the profound grief caused by his untimely death. These feelings, I am sure, are not confined to one section or to one party, but are shared by all classes wherever honor, integrity, virtue and piety, such as marked the character of the illustrious dead, are respected and venerated. As a proof of the truth of this, Mr. President, we need no stronger evidence than the scene which now meets our view in this Chamber, when members of both parties vie with each other in heartfelt expressions of esteem for the stainless character, public and private, of Mr. Hendricks. While this testimonial is honorable to those who offer it, and deserved by him to whom it is given, it seems to me that we can draw from it a lesson profitable to us all if we heed it. It should teach us to be charitable in our judgment of those who differ with us. Fortunately, in this case, we need not invoke charity in the judgment pronounced on the character of our dead Vice-President, for we can challenge for it universal respect and admira- tion ; but should we not in all cases deal charitably with the living as well as with the dead? We have been told on divine authority that faith, hope and charity are the cardinal virtues, and the greatest of these is charity. Xot that charity which merely relieves suffering humanity, but that broader charity which judges leniently the mo- tives and actions of men, which tells us to do unto others as we would have others do unto us — that sublime char- ity inculcated by our Saviour. In the friction caused by political differences, and in the heat of party strife, we too WADE HAMPTON. 97 often indulge in a bitterness toward our opponents as unjust as it is uncharitable. Motives are impugned, actions misrepresented, facts distorted and character assailed in this partisan warfare, and yet when one of the great actors in the political arena falls all animosities are buried with him, and in the awful j^resence of death friends and foes alike strive to do justice to his merits and to pay homage to his memory. Recognizing this fact, which docs honor to human nature, can we not agree to disagree without malice? Can we not believe that men may be conscientious even though they diifer with us? In a word, can we not be charitable in our judg- ment of our fellow-men? "Human nature is but clay Truly blessed by charity. These suggestions have naturally suggested themselves to my mind by the scene presented here to-day, and by others of a similar character which have so often of late transpired in this Chamber. Time and again, during my brief service here, have I seen these mournful ceremonies re-enacted, and on each have members of opposing parties, clasping hands over the grave of a col- league, paid willing homage to his virtues, while the mantle of charity was thrown over his faults. These scenes, which prove the brotherhood of mankind, and show that 'one touch of nature makes the whole world kin,' have left a deep impression on my mind, and that impression was indelibly fixed by the extraordinary spec- tacle presented at the funeral of General Grant. We all remember the imposing and touching ceremonies of that 98 OUR GREAT MEN. mournful occasion, and certainly no one who witnessed them can ever forget them. But the feature that struck me as the most significant, the most impressive, was the fact that among those who bore the body of the great captain of the Union Army to the grave were Confederate soldiers, who a few brief years ago were his mortal ene- mies. "Democrats and Republicans, men who wore the blue and those who wore the gray, met at his tomb to pay the last tribute of respect to his memory. Here to-day we, while honoring ourselves by doing honor to the memory of our late Vice-President, see exhibited the same kind and generous feelings which marked the obsequies of the dead ex-President. If, then, our political and personal animosities cease at the grave, should we not be tolerant, considerate and charitable in the judgment we pass on our contemporaries, even though they be our political opponents? All of us, sooner or later, must claim from the living that tender recognition which we now bestow on the dead. For our hearts, " ' Like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave ; ' And to that bourne we are hastening with steady and rapid steps. Fortunate, indeed, shall we be if, when we ^ reach that bourne, we may be able to meet the Great ''| Judge with a conscience void of oifense toward God and man, as was his whose loss the country deplores. " ' He, dying, leaveth as the sum of him '| A life-count closed, whose ills are dead and quit; WADE HAMPTON. 99 "Where good is quick and mighty, far and near, So that fruits follow it. No need hath such to live, as ye name life; That which began in him, when he began, Is finished ; he has wrought the purpose through Of what did make him man.' " He has, indeed, left a life-count closed, without one blot or stain to mar its fair page, and in every relation of life he proved himself, in the highest and best sense, a man. Firm and sincere in his convictions, true to his friends, liberal toward his opponents, conscientious in the discharge of every duty, a patriot and a Christian, he surely deserved, and doubtless has received, that highest reward that can be bestowed on mortal or angel, the final decree of the Judge of all living, ' Well done, thou good and faithful servant.' It is one of the inconsistencies, perhaps rather one of the infirmities, of human nature, that in spite of all the blessed assurances of Christianity we grieve when those who are near or dear to us are taken away by death. We know that, to those who are prepared to die, death is but the gloomy portal through which they pass to the realms of eternal happiness, and this conviction should teach us that all grief for them is selfish, but neither philosojDhy nor religion can soothe the anguish which wrings our hearts when a dear friend or a beloved relative is borne to the grave. " * The blood will follow where the knife is driven ; The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear.' " Thus, when the good are called home to enter on the true life beyond the grave, we grieve not for them, but vj 100 /\ OUR GREAT MEN. for ours^ives. It is well with them ; they have exchanged the sorrows, the suffering, of this world for the glories of heaven — a daily death for life eternal. There is a beau- tiful thought expressed by one of our oldest poets which seems to me peculiarly appropriate when a good man, fipe in years and rich in honors, passes away from earth. Speaking of our misuse of language, he says: y " ' We call here life. * * * * Angels who live and know what 'tis to be, Who all the nonsense of our language see ; Who speak things, and our words, their ill-drawn pictures scorn, When we, by a foolish figure, say, ' Behold an old man dead ! ' then they Speak properly, and cry, ' Behold a man-child born ! " " i Hon. OMAR D. CONGER, OF MICHIGAN. I MAR D. CONGER, of Port Huron, was born in Cooj^erstown, New York, in 1818. In 1834 his father removed to Huron County, Ohio. He received his education at Huron Institute, in Milan, Ohio, and at Western Reserve College, where he graduated in 1842. He was particularly interested in the study of Geology, and for several years was in the employ of the Geological Survey of the State of Michigan. In 1848 he commenced prac- ticing law at Port Huron, Michigan, which has since been his home. In 1850 he was elected Judge of the St. Clair County Court, and was elected Senator in the State Legislature of Michigan in 1855, and was re-elected the two suc- ceeding terms, the third term serving as President pro tempore of the Senate. He was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of Michigan in 1866. In 1864 he was a Presidential elector on the Republican ticket. He was elected a Representative to the Forty-first, Forty-second, Forty-third, Forty-fourth, Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses. March 4th, 1881, he took his (101) 102 OUR GREAT MEN. seat ill the United States Senate, to which he had been elected as a Republican. In the following we give a portion of Mr. Conger's plea for Alaska: " ]\Ir. President, when Alaska was received from the Russian Government there were a majority of the people in that Territory — all those called Aleuts — living on the islands awav from the mainland, and far over toward the Asiatic coast, who were educated, who were Christian- ized, who had schools in every hamlet, and who lived as civilized people live in the United States, in houses with their proper furniture and proper conveniences. They had their school-houses ; they had their churches ; they all belonged to the Greek Church, and were under the care of the Russian Government and that church for their civilization and their education. There was another class living along the coast and up in the edge of the mount- ains who were wild, unruly Indians, prone to drink, prone to robbery and theft. There were on two little islands in Behring's Bay a population of Aleuts who car- ried on the fur-seal fisheries there, numbering some four or five or six hundred people, who live there to-day, and have for the last twenty years, under the control, and car- rying on the business of, the Alaska Commercial Com- l)any, who lease these two little islands up in the mists and fogs of Behring's Straits, catching the fur-seals. " From the time these people became citizens or inhabitants of a Territory belonging to the United States, this Government never has, until within the last two years, made any eifort whatever to continue the education of these Russian-Greeks, the Aleuts ; never a dollar OMAR D. CONGEE. 103 appropriated for their education or for any purpose con- nected with their religion, their civilization, their liveli- hood, their protection, in any way. " We shall have received in the course of a year or two into the Treasury of the United States as much money as this Government gave for that whole Territory, from two little obscure islands in Behring's Bay, far north of where these Aleuts live. Three hundred and sixty thousand dollars a year for twenty years has been received in clean cash into the Treasury of the United States as a royalty upon the fur-seals and other furs caught in that region — paid into the Treasury of the United States with but a very trifling expenditure to keep our agents there to see to the delivery of the seals and their protection. " Now, sir, the generosity, the magnanimity, of the United States in regard to those i^eople is shown in the fact that some sixteen years ago, when the fur-seal fish- eries of these islands were offered for sale at j^ublic auc- tion, the law provided that the company which got the islands, with a monopoly of the seal fisheries, should maintain schools on the islands for the Aleuts therein, and give them a common-school education. The Grovern- ment did nothing; the United States contributed not a dollar to the education of any of the people of that Terri- tory. The Government of the United States has received and will receive back into the Treasury at the expiration of the twenty-years' lease the $7,000,000 which was paid for the whole Territory of Alaska. We have made that country a source of revenue ; we have subjected its prod- ucts to royalties for the support of our Government, and out of the five or six million dollars that we have received 7 104, OUK GREAT MEN. from these two little islands in Alaska we never have contributed, until two years ago, one single cent for the education of the people of Alaska. " These Aleuts are not, in any sense in which we speak of them in connection with education, Indians. They were originally Esquimaux, coming from Russia, then becom- ing, through generations, a distinct people, civilized. Chris- tianized, educated, living in houses, with their church in their midst and their schools with them. Of course, when our Government received that Territory from Russia by treaty, we were obliged to take care of the welfare of its inhabitants. It was not deemed necessary to put into a treaty made with the great Republic of the United States, so religious, with its people so educated, with its loud boasts in favor of the general and universal education of its people, a requirement that the Government of the United States should give some means of continuing the education of these people which the Russian Government had provided for. These several thousand Aleuts live in hamlets scattered along these islands for 2,000 miles, stretching from the neighborhood of Sitka far out through eighteen or nineteen degrees of longitude, almost over to the Asiatic coast. They have been left there to be edu- cated by their own people in their own little hamlets, by their priests in the Greek Church, as they were before. Now we are asked to extend to those people the common advantages for learning that we do to the people of other portions of the United States. " So, if there is one dark stain overhanging the Amer- ican Republic Avhich the nations of the earth may look upon and taunt us with, it is that we received from a OMAR D. CONGER. 105 barbaric government — from what we sometimes call a half-civilized government — a portion of its territory, with people in it educated, quiet, civilized, living, sleeping and eating in their own houses, with the furniture of reason- ably good houses in their midst, living in hamlets of from fifty to five hundred inhabitants, with their own churches and their own school-houses ; that we received that people from the Russian Government, and have never contributed one cent to their education, or per- mitted them, by any form of law, to educate their own children. Sir, these Aleuts have not gone back into barbarism. These Aleuts have not forgotten the sign of the cross. These j^eople have not forgotten to assemble themselves on the Lord's day to worship in their own form of worship the God that created them. They have not forgotten their own birthright, their own education, their own religion. They have not engaged in any act whatever unworthy of an educated Christian people. "There are thousands of them on the islands from Oonalaska on toward the west, and they are living there supporting themselves by the fisheries, and by fur-catch- ing, and by such means as they are able in that inhos- pitable clime to live by ; and a large part of their earnings, and a large part of what they may accumulate over and above the actual necessities of life, they ]3ay for their schools and for their churches, for their mental and moral improvement to-day. That is the stain upon my JS'ation, and that is the disgrace to our Republic; and if foreign nations understood, and if the philanthropists of foreign nations knew, how we oppressed these people, they could array it against the Republic more strongly than any IQQ OUE GREAT MEN. other matter that could excite prejudice against our Oov- eriiment and against our people. "Sir, what has become of the little appropriation which was made two years ago for that country, $25,000 for the Indians, and fifteen or twenty thousand dollars to help along their schools ? The money was there, but I say it with shame for my country, the men who were sent to take charge of its distribution, with the powers that were granted under the Territorial law or district law which we passed, if the reports are all true, joined with those wdio would encourage drunkenness all along the line of the shore Indians. They did not reach, thank God, the Aleuts, who live in a remote and a too-inhos- pitable region to be brought under their influence. The very man to whom the money was given to expend among these people was four times imprisoned and once sent into a dungeon by the authorities of the United States. Sent there to promote government, sent there to promote order, sent there to enforce good laws, sent there to give their influence as representatives of our people in favor of temperance, of sobriety, of education, and I might almost add, except that it would be met with scorn, in favor of religion of some kind or other, the tone and feel- ing of some of the oflicers of the United States was more in favor of distilling what they call in that country koochinoo, a vile intoxicating drink, than it was in favor of good legislation or good order or government. The facts in regard to that matter shall one of these days come before the Senate. They have already come before the Executive of the country, and I am thankful, for one, to give all due praise for the fact that when the present OMAR D. CONGER. 107 Executive of the United States obtained information showing how some of the officers of that Territory, ap- pointed under the Territorial laws, had dishonored their position, and done the direct contrary of what the people of the United States desired them to do, he removed them and put other, and we have some reason to hope better, men in their places. " If there is a place on the earth beyond the bounds of civilization removed from the influences which govern the good people of the United States in their homes, in their thoughts, in their education and in their religion, it would seem that if we send agents there to make that benighted country a part of our own and like our own, to give it education, to give it intelligence, to give it good govern- ment, they join with the worst element that can be found on that coast, and encourage the worst license and the most dissipation. That has been the characteristic of that region through the years that are past, and I speak of it now because I invoke beforehand what the world demands, and what the good people of the United States demand, a strict investigation of the manner in which the officials of the United States now removed have car- ried the flag and borne the authority and wielded the sword and governed that people. It is a disgrace to the human race anywhere — among the Kaffirs of Africa or the Patagonians of the South, or wherever barbarity or cruelty, or a reckless disregard of the advancing civil- ization of any people, has come to our knowledge. I have some documents on that subject which are not appro- priate to this occasion; I have some references to the needs and necessities of the people called Aleuts, diflbr- 108 OUR GREAT MEN. ent from the other Indians of that country, and as to the negligence with which they have been treated, which I shall take occasion, on some proper opportunity, to present to the Senate and invoke its consideration." ^J2 Hon. ALFRED H. COLQUITT, OF GEORGIA. ILFRED H. COLQUITT, of Atlanta, was born in Walton County, Georgia, April 20th, 1824. He is an alumnus of Princeton Col- lege, New Jersey, graduating there in 1844. He then studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1845. During the Mexican war he served as a staff officer, with the rank of Major. He was an active mem- ber of the Thirty-third Congress. In 1859 he was a mem- ber of the Legislature of Georgia, and a member of the Electoral College on the Breckinridge ticket in 1860. He was a member of the Secession Convention of the State of Georgia. He entered the Confederate service as Captain, and had risen to the rank of Major-General before the close of the war. In 1876 he was elected Governor of Georgia for a term of four years, and under the new constitution was re-elected for a term of two years. He was elected to the United States Senate at the close of his term as Governor, ALFRED H. COLQUITT. 109 and he is popular in the Senate, as well as in his Atlanta home, where he is a great temperance worker. On the bill, $800,000 for mail subsidies, Mr. Colquitt said: "But, Mr. President, I distrust the reception which the majority of this body will give my prescription for our troubles. I rather incline to the belief that they will go on piling up a superfluous production of home manu- facture, and then making the vain attempt to force this vast mass down the throats of our home consumers. We have offered us, however, a nostrum in this subsidy of 1800,000. By this it is expected to accomplish the work of relief. The amount of trade which this subsidy is ex- pected to create must be of very modest proportions. Eight hundred thousand dollars, it is true, should pay for a great deal of postage, and would if in the run of the luck of the experiment the postage should offer. We have heard of the Battle of the Books, but here to-day we are inaugurating the battle of the letters. England, so Senators allege, has secured almost a monopoly of South American trade because of her prodigal expenditure in subsidizing her mail ships. " We are advised to make this appropriation because the leading powers in Europe have expended great sums in fostering a splendid mail service with the States whose trade it is so desirable to secure. It seems to be, in the opinion of Senators, a question of expenditure, a sharp contest in which the potency of subsidy is invoked. The more lavish the appropriations the greater the trade, seems to be about the proper statement of the case. What, sir, is to be the inevitable result of the policy which this sort 110 OUR GREAT MEN. of legislation is to fasten on us? This seemingly harm- less sum of $800,000 is to be the excuse and precedent for the granting of numberless millions. If it is true, as has been claimed, that because of England's great expendi- ture, because France and Germany have spared no ex- pense for mail ships, that therefore they have superceded us in the markets we are so anxious to secure, what is the task we have set for ourselves in this mighty rivalry? "If money is to champion our ambition in this race, what a field are we contesting ! England, Germany and France, stimulated by rivalry and jealousy, would go on increasing their subsidies, furnished out of resources almost fabulous. If we attempted to overmatch the out- lay of these great powers, their obvious resort would be to larger and still larger subsidies, and in this desperate conflict of interest and ambition unimagined millions would be lavished upon an enterprise which at last is one of individual concern, and by which, let matters go as they might for our Government, capitalists and corpora- tions would be enriched. If we begin this conflict, national pride may take us a long way beyond the bounds of pru- dence and the dictates of sterling business sense, and we shall find at last, after the loss of immense treasure, that we began wrong ; that our diagnosis of our ailment was all at fault, and the last state of the patient was worse than the first. * * m m in ^ "In concluding what I have to say upon the question before us, I would remark that it may prove fortunate that in this unexpected way admissions have been made of the business conditions of this Union which call so ALFRED H. COLQUITT. Ill loudly for grave consideration. The discussion of these admitted facts has come up collaterally, and yet our con- sideration of them was natural, and we might say inevita- ble. The reasons given by Senators for the subsidy asked for by implication at least supposed a state of things, as regards our external trade, which is lamentable indeed, and is to my mind the necessary outgrowth of our reve- nue system. It is useless for us to attempt, by such expedients as the one we are now considering, to redress the blunders we are committing by that system. These are only palliatives, if they may be called such, and can effect no radical or permanent redress of our troubles. Resist as we may, the impregnable Democratic doctrine of a tariff for revenue, an honest and economical admin- istration of the Government, and a fair chance, and that only, for every bread-winner in the land, will triumph at last and assert itself as the only true 'American system.' " These considerations are conclusive with me, and I think they should be especially persuasive with the mem- bers of this body on this side of the House who have been placed in power upon platforms, speeches and declar- ations at the polls of what they meant to procure by a Democratic administration, the object being retrenchment and reform." JOHN H. REAGAN, OF TEXAS. ,®Ii^lK^e^| i^v.. U^^j^jOHN H. REAGAIS', of Palestine, who rep- resents the Second Congressional District of Texas in the United States Congress, was born in Sevier County, Tennessee, October 8th, 1818. He received a common-school educa- tion and a partial collegiate course, but did not graduate. In 1839 he made Texas his home, and has since then served well the Lone Star State of the South-west. Professionally, he is both lawyer and farmer. He was a Deputy Surveyor of public lands from 1839 to 1843. He was elected to the State House of Representatives for two years in 1847, and in 1852 was elected Judge of the District Court for a term of six years. He resigned the office in 1856, but was re-elected for another term of six years. In 1857 he was elected a Representative to the Thirty-fifth Congress from the First District of Texas, and in 1859 was re-elected, to the Thirty-sixth Congress. He was a delegate to the Secession Convention of Texas in 18G1, and was elected one of the Deputies to the Pro- visional Congress of the Confederacy. He was appointed Postmaster General of the Provisional Government of the Confederacy the 6th of March, 1861 ; and in 1862, (112) JOHN H. EEAGAN. 113 when the permanent organization of the Confederate Government was effected, he was reappointed to that office, which he held till the surrender. For a short time sub- sequent to the close of the war, he was also Acting Secre- tary of the Treasury of the Confederate Government. In 1875 he was a member of the State Constitutional Convention. He was elected to the Forty-fourth, Forty- fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth and Forty- ninth Congresses. " Interstate Commerce " has long been a pet theme of Mr. Reagan, and we give here portions of one of his speeches on that subject in the House of Representatives of the United States Congress. The House had under consideration the bill to establish a board of commissioners of interstate com- merce and to regulate such commerce; and on the sub- stitute offered thereby by Mr. Reagan to regulate inter- state commerce, and to prohibit unjust discriminations by common carriers, Mr. Reagan said : " We have, according to the best authority, now more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand miles of railroad, representing a nominal capital of more than 17,000,000,000, and a real capital of probably a little over 13,000,000,000. " The roads do the principal part of the carrying of the vast internal commerce of the United States. The gentleman from Massachusetts, Governor Long, esti- mates, as I understand him, the interstate commerce to be of the value of $15,000,000,000 a year, and I do not think this estimate too large. This interstate commerce is subject to just such charges and discriminations as the 114 OUR GREAT MEN. railroads see fit to make, whether just or unjust. And their power to levy unjust exactions on this commerce, and to make unjust discriminations as between persons and places, is not controlled or restrained by any legisla- tion. State laws do not and can not aifect them, and we have no Federal laws for that purpose. They may take away from whole communities all the profits of their labor and capital, leaving the people only enough to keep them at work, by charging, as they claim the right to do, whatever the commodity will bear. They may enrich one man and impoverish another in the same business by their unjust discriminations and rebates. They may destroy the business of one town or city, and build up another by their unjust discriminations between places. They may enrich one corporation to a fabulous extent, as they have the Standard Oil Company, and in doing so destroy rival corporations by the allowance of rebates to the one and denying them to others. " In the legislative investigation in New York three years ago it was shown that the railroad companies had allowed and paid rebates to the Standard Oil Company to the amount of $10,000,000 in sixteen months, and yet we have no legislation to prevent or to punish these great wrongs committed by this vast power. In the world's history there is no instance of the exercise of such jdow- ers afi'ecting so many people and such great interests as these which are not controlled and are not regulated by law, except alone the American railway system. As- sumptions have been made that the common law fur- nishes remedies for these evils. I will show as I proceed that it does not. JOHN H. REAGAN. 115 " The question now addresses itself to each member of this House : ' Do you mean to show to your constit- uents by your votes that you intend this condition of things shall continue ? ' or do you mean that your votes shall show that you will aid in furnishing a remedy for these great evils ? ^jp ^ T^ ^ * V " The gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Anderson] fitly and appropriately exposed the fallacy of Governor Long about the railroads of the United States only paying about three per cent, on investments in them, and showed that in reality they pay nearly ten per cent. I need not repeat what was said by him. " The gentleman from Massachusetts, Governor Long, also arraigns the Reagan bill as a 'cast-iron, inflexible, perfunctory method ; ' ' mere hrutum fidmen; ' ' a dead letter;' which 'would only embarrass business, increase rates and add to the burden of the people's cost of transportation.' " I appeal to the sense of justice and fairness of the House and of the country whether this characterization is either sincere, or fair, or just, as against a bill whose substantive provisions are few in number, simple in nature and easily understood by anyone who desires to under- stand them. He says : ' Hardly any remedy of this sort is proposed that does not exist in common law.' Is this a true and fair statement? The common law does not give triple damages for the wrongs provided against. My bill does. The common law does not provide either a civil or penal remedy for allowing rebates, drawbacks, etc. My bill gives both a civil and penal remedy. The 116 OUR GREAT MEN. common law does not prohibit charging more for a shorter than for a longer haul. My bill does. "The common law does not prohibit pooling. My bill does. The common law does not require schedules of rates to be posted up. My bill does. "And yet, in the face of these facts, the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Long] says : ' Hardly any rem- edy of this sort is proposed that does not exist at common law.' I am persuaded that the real reason why those who champion the interests of the railroads do not want my bill to pass is that it gives plain, statutory remedies not given at common law, and provides for their easy and effectual enforcement in the courts of ordinary jurisdiction. "On the subject of the long and short haul, the gen- tleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Long] has illustrated his views by two examples, plausible and deceptive enough, but which are only calculated to deceive. "He wishes to know if no more should be charged for carrying freight over the bridge at St. Louis, which cost many millions of dollars, than for a like distance over a road built at the ordinary rate of expense, and my worthy friend from Missouri [Mr. Clardy], who has just addressed the House, propounds the same inquiry, I am sorry to say ; and whether no more should be charged for carrying freight through the Hoosac tunnel than for a like distance over an ordinary road. "Now, under the provisions of the substitute bill in reference to the first illustration, as much may be charged for a given amount and kind of freight (if the road is continuous from New York to St. Louis) from East St, JOHN H. REAGAN. 117 Louis to St. Louis as from Indianaj^olis, or from Colum- bus, or from Pittsburgh, or from New York, to St. Louis ; and surely the railroad would not suffer any wrong from the effects of this bill if it could charge as much for the few miles crossing the Mississippi River as for all the distance from one of the places above mentioned. And this is what the bill allows. But the bridge at St. Louis is a road to itself, separate from the other railroads, and makes its own charges, and would be only bound like others not to make unjust discriminations in its rates. The same may be said of the Hoosac tunnel illustration, except that it is not a separate road. And the other gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Rice], in illustrating his objection to the provisions of this bill in relation to the long- and short-haul clause, asked if a car-load of flour could be hauled from St. Louis to New York for fifty cents a barrel, would it be reasonable to compel a train of cars to stop seventy-five miles this side of St. Louis and charge no more for a barrel of flour from there than from St. Louis. He, like the balance of the gentle- men who combat the provisions of this bill, finds it neces- sary, in order to ground an argument, to state an hypo- thetical and impossible case. " Who ever heard of a train of cars stopping to take on a barrel of flour anywhere, or who ever expects to hear of it except from the advocates of railroad monopo- lies? And who can doubt or deny that a freight train can take on a car-load of flour, or several car-loads of flour, seventy-five miles east of St. Louis and carry it to New York at as little expense as if its cars were hauled from St. Louis? 118 OUR GREAT MEX. " The gentleman from Massaclmsetts [Mr. Rice] says if the Reagan bill is enacted into a law it will be more desi:)otic than the Czar of all the Russias. I do not know how to characterize such an argument, except to suppose that it springs from the exuberant fancy of the youthful and untrained statesman from Massachusetts. Certainly it could not be said by a grave, serious man with expecta- tion that anyone would believe it. "And he gave us another specimen of his humor, Massachusetts Representative as he is, by warning us against the danger of consolidation and centralization found lurking in the Reagan bill. Doubtless, the House, like myself, was a little surprised to find any Republican from Massachusetts an advocate of the doctrine of strict construction and State's rights. He says there are fear- ful dangers in any attempt which may be made to 23rotect the people against the discriminations, exactions and injustices of railroad corporations, and finds an asylum for the re230se, security, j^rosperity and happiness of the people in a railroad pool, which erects one huge monopoly out of several small ones, denying to the people all com- petition in transportation, and subjecting them, without remedy, to such demands as the railroads may make upon their property. He has no fear of the consolidation and centralization of the thousands of miles of railroads. His fears are awakened only by the efi'ort to compel them to do justice by conservative, just and wholesome legislation. " My friend from Ohio, General Warner, illustrates his idea of the impolicy of the provision of my bill which forbids charging more for a shorter than for a longer haul by instaJicing a coal mine with inferior coal farther from JOHN H. EEAGAN. 119 market as compared with one of better coal nearer to market. He wants to know if justice would not require that the poor mine farther from market should have lower rates of transportation than the good mine nearer the market, in order to equalize the profits of the two. He might with this view have gone further, and inquired if a man with a poor farm should not have cheaper rates of transportation than one with richer land, in order to equalize the profits of the two farms. " Is it possible that we are to be treated to the assump- tion in this House, and in the discussion of this great sub- ject, with a statement which implies that a part of the business of railroads is to equalize the profits of inferior and good mines and of poor and rich farms ? The state- ment of the proposition is its condemnation, and shows to what resorts able and ingenious gentlemen are driven to combat a just and reasonable provision that more ought not to be paid for hauling a given amount and kind of freight one hundred miles than should be paid for haul- ing it one thousand miles. "The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Davis], the gentle- man from Michigan [Mr. Horr], and the gentleman froni Pennsylvania [Mr. Boyle], gravely informed the House that the Reagan bill, if passed into a law, would discrim- inate in favor of the JNTew York Central road and against the Erie road, against the Pennsylvania road and against the Baltimore and Ohio road, because, they allege, the grain from the lakes can be carried by vessels to Buffalo, Kew York, and from thence to New York City, on a road wholly within the State of New York, and would, there- fore, be taken from under the operation of the provisions 120 OUR GREAT MEN. of the Reagan bill ; while on the other roads named it would be under the operation of the Reagan bill. "Now, in the first place, the gentlemen have all the time contended that through rates were cheaper than local rates, and, if this be true, the through rates on inter- state commerce, instead of being higher, would be lower than local State rates; but their view rests upon the assumption that we are regulating railroads instead of the conmierce that passes over them. " The commerce which is shipped from a point in one State to a point in another State is interstate commerce, no matter by what mode of conveyance it is carried ; and the courts have repeatedly decided that this interstate commerce is beyond the reach of State legislation, and can alone be regulated by authority of the Federal Gov- ernment. So that if merchandise is shipjDed from Duluth, or Chicago, or Toledo, or any other place on the lakes, and is destined to New York, or any other place outside of the State in which shipment is made, it is interstate commerce. It can not be regulated by authority of State laws, and is only liable to be regulated by act of Congress ; and whenever it passes over a railroad in any portion of its transit, it becomes interstate commerce carried on a railroad, and would come fully within the regulations pre- scribed in the Reagan bill as to such commerce. "It is assumed that by some fraudulent device or trick of management it might be shipped to Buffalo, and from that point sent by a second shipment as freight under the State law. The Reagan bill provides against this very character of subterfuges. A portion of its third section reads as follows : JOHN H. REAGAN. 121 " ' That it shall be unlawful for any person or persons engaged in the carriage, receiving, storage or handling of property as naentioned in the first section of this act to enter into any combination, contract or agreement by changes of schedule, carriage in diiferent cars, o?* by other means, with intent to prevent the carriage of such prop- erty from being continuous from the place of shipment to the place of destination, whether carried on one or several railroads.' " But what motive could there be for shippers wanting to invoke State rates for through commerce instead of through rates? We all know that local State rates in both New York and Pennsylvania are much higher rela- tively than through rates on Western freight, so that w^e would be compelled to suppose that shippers would sub- ject themselves to higher rates of freight simply in order not to come under the influence of an act of Congress which would promote their interests. This is the sort of assumption and sort of reasoning necessarily resorted to in the efforts to defeat the Reagan bill. It can surely deceive no sensible man. "As evidence that the officers and attorneys of the New York Central Railroad do not believe what these gentlemen say on this subject to be true, they have united earnestly and vigorously with the attorneys and managers of other railroads in trying to defeat this bill, which they surely would not have done if they believed it would give their road the advantages over the other roads which these gentlemen assume would be given it by the Reagan bill. "The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Davis] and the 122 OUE GREAT MEN. o-entleman from Michigan [Mr. Horr] say that the Reagan bill would drive all the Western commerce away from our railroads and cause it to go over the Canada roads. Mr. Dcpew and others used this argument before the committee, and after the answer which was made to it there, it was hardly to have been expected that the argu- ment would have been repeated before this honorable body. The Grand Trunk Railroad, of Canada, from Detroit, Michigan, by way of Montreal, Canada, to Port- land, Maine, is 856 miles long. Its connection by way of Montreal with Boston, Massachusetts, is a little longer. Its extension from Port Huron, Michigan, to Chicago is 330 miles. This added to 856 miles makes the dis- tance from Chicago to Portland 1,186 miles. In the greater portion of its length it runs through a coun- try sparsely populated and with a limited commerce. Its equipments and the amount of its rolling stock are nothing like so great as are either those of the New York Central, the Erie, the Pennsylvania, or the Balti- more and Ohio roads. " From these causes, as well as because of its greater length, and the greater interruption from frosts and snows, and because it crosses the St. Lawrence River twice, at one place on ferry-boats and at another on a long bridge, it can not carry as large amounts of freight, or carry that freight as cheaply, at paying rates, as cither of the above-named four trunk roads on the south side of the lakes and of the St. Lawrence, and it does not go to the markets to which the owners of our Western produce wish to send their commerce. By the New York Central and by the Erie and the Pennsylvania Railoads the JOHN H. REAGAN. 123 distance between Chicago and New York is about nine hundred miles. The distance to Baltimore is more than two hundred miles shorter. The equipments of these roads are the best ; their rolling-stock is abundant ; they pass through densely populated States of great wealth and with very large local business ; they avoid the cross- ing and recrossing of the St. Lawrence River. "These roads are nearly three hundred miles shorter from Chicago to New York than the Grand Trunk from Chicago to Portland. These three trunk roads south of the lakes, as well as the Baltimore and Ohio road, have in many respects the decided advantage of the Grand Trunk road in fair competition. Either of them is prepared to carry more freight, to carry it cheaper and more expe- ditiously, and to better markets than the Grand Trunk by way of Montreal ; and yet the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Davis] and the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Horr] are dreadfully alarmed at the danger of the com- petition of the Canada roads. "But it may be said the branch of the Grand Trunk road, coming from the North-west to Buffalo, furnishes a route but little longer between Chicago and New York than the trunk lines south of the lakes. It is longer, however, and for more than two hundred miles it passes through a country with much less population, wealth and commerce than that through which the competing lines south of the lakes pass. And this line, too, has its long ferriage at Port Huron, and has again to cross the Niagara at Buffalo, and it would be dependent on the New York Central and the Erie for its connections at Buffalo with New York, and hence could not compete 124 OUR GREAT MEN. with them for the Chicago freights against their consent. It has no independent road to 'New York City. ****** "These facts show there can be no danger of compe- tition of the Canada roads with our American roads ; but it is alleged that as the American roads under the Reagan bill can not change their schedules in less than five days, that the Canada roads might, during that period, under- bid them for freight, and that this would be disastrous to their interests. In the first place, none of the railroad systems are anxious for railroad wars, and no road under sensible management would seek a railroad war for the advantage of freights for five days. In the next place, shippers from the West have no interest in sending their freights by the Canada roads, as they could not reach the markets south of Boston at any rate without being dependent upon the trunk roads south of the lakes with which they would have to connect; and it must not be forgotten that under the Reagan bill, if it should become ^ a law, the railroads could charge such rates for freight as they might see proper on all Western freights coming to Eastern ports just as they do now. -| " The gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Horr] also says | that the right of the railroads to discriminate in their I freight rates enables them to build up the commerce of ■' the country, not to destroy it; to enrich the country, not i to impoverish it. That is the right to allow their friends, such as the gentleman from Michigan, to send their ship- ments of freight to market at half-price, and to charge | his neighbors, to whom they feel under less obligation, ":' double rates, would be building up the commerce of the JOHN H. EEAGAN. 125 country, not destroying it; enriching the country, not impoverishing it. Such is the characteristic logic by which advocates and defenders of the great corporations attempt to persuade this House and the country that ine- quality, unjust discriminations, and harsh and oppressive exactions in freight rates U23on the commerce of the coun- try, is the way to build up its commerce and to enrich the country, "I call attention to two points made by my honorable friend from Vermont, Governor Stewart. He calls up the illustration used by others of the long and short haul as between Memphis and 'New Orleans by way of Winona, Memphis and New Orleans, both being on the Mississippi River, and Winona being an intermediate inland point. We were told by the gentleman from Mis- sissippi [Mr. Barksdale] that the railroad carries cotton from Memphis to N'ew Orleans, four hundred and fifty miles, for one dollar a bale, and that they charge three dollars and a quarter a bale for hauling cotton from Winona to T^ew Orleans, a little over three hundred miles. The gentleman from Vermont says this is right, and that if the railroads are not j^ermitted to charge more from Winona than from Memphis to New Orleans they could do no through business. "It is plainly seen from this statement that to do a through carrying business from Memphis to New Orleans involves the necessity of compelling the people of Winona to pay a large part of the freight charges for other people from Memphis to New Orleans, or else that the charges from Winona to New Orleans are unreasonably high, and therefore unjust. We must accept one horn or the other^- 126 OUR GREAT MEN. of this dilemma. There is no escape from it; and neither is allowable under any rule of justice and fairness. His difficulty in this case is that God made the Mississippi River, it cost men nothing ; while men made the railroad at great expense, and that railroad transportation can not be made as cheap as water transportation ; and no at- tempt, either by discrimination in rates by railroads or by legislation, to take from the people the advantage of || cheajD water transportation in order to increase the profits of the roads, or for any other purpose, should be allowed. * « * 4t Ht 4^ "During the Forty-fifth Congress, when this subject was first being seriously discussed in the House, Gov- ernor Cox, of Ohio, then a member of the House and a friend of this bill, and myself received a number of letters from railroad j^residents and superintendents approving the provisions of the bill, both because it would protect the people against the wrongs complained of, and because its tendency would be to benefit the railroads by prevent- ing railroad wars. " And this would undoubtedly be one of the necessary effects of the bill. It would compel the railroad compa- nies to adopt regular and honest business methods, such as are employed by persons engaged in any other large business, instead of employing such methods as they now do to cheat one another and the public. It would compel them to rely on the business legitimately belonging to their several roads, and would prevent them from endeav- oring to take from each other, by rebates and cut rates, business which would legitimately belong to other roads. Most of the railroad wars spring from the attempts of one JOHN H. REAGAN. 127 road to take from another or other roads business which does not belong to it, thus provoking counter efforts of a similar character. One of the great objects and one of the undoubted effects of my bill would be to prevent this. *«(• «^ «i* ^ «^ ^> ^* 'x* ^* *r* "Several of the gentlemen who have been engaged in this debate have spoken of the gradual reduction of freight rates in past years as if it resulted from the vir- tuous intentions of the railroad companies ; and some of them have compared the cost of railroad transportation with the old-time cost of transportation by wagons, as if the railroad companies had in their beneficence, and as a matter of good will to the people, caused this reduction of rates. It is not to them, but to the inventors and im- provers of the steam-engine and other appliances of transportation by steam, that we are indebted for cheap railroad freights ; and the gradual reduction of the rates of freight is due, not to the beneficent purposes of the transportation companies, but to the improvements con- stantly going on in rolling-stock, in facilities for handling- freight, and to the substitution of steel for iron rails ; to the constantly-increasing amount of freight and travel, and in some measure to the competition of different roads and systems of roads, and of water-ways. %lt vl« Oj> ^U *ir ^U ^» #X* 'T* *** 'T* 'T " In conclusion, I have to express my gratification that after years of struggle and labor we have at last got this matter before the people's representatives, where they, on their responsibility to their constituents, can act upon it, and provide such legislation as will remedy the evils complained of, and compel obedience to just and necessary regulations." Hon. LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR, OF MISSISSIPPI. UCIUS Q. C. LAMAR, of Oxford, Missis- sippi, is a native of Putnam County, Georgia. Here he was born the 17th of September, 1825. He was educated at Ox- ford, Georgia, until he entered Emory College, where he graduated in 1845. He then commenced the study of law in Macon, Georgia, under the guidance of Hon. A. H. Chappell, and two years later was admitted to the Bar of Georgia. In 1849 he removed to Oxford, Mississippi. He was elected Adjunct Professor of Mathematics in the State University of ^Mississippi, and also held the position of assistant to Dr. T. A. Bledsoe, editor of The Southern Review, which he resigned in 1850 to return to Coving- ton, Georgia, to there resume the practice of law. In 1853 he was elected to the Legislature of Georgia. The f(»llowing year he removed to his plantation in La Fay- ette County, Mississippi. Here he was elected to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixtli Congresses, and resigned in 18G0 to accept a seat in the Secession Convention of Mississippi. In 18G1 he entered the Confederate Army as Lieu- (128) ^^ ^^• SLWPIUS il. €'. IL^M^M. LrCIUS Q. C. LAMAE. 131 tenant-Colonel of the Nineteenth Regiment, and was pro- moted to the rank of Colonel. In 1863 Jefferson Davis intrusted him to represent the Confederate cause in Russia. He was elected Professor of Political Economy and Social Science in the University of Mississippi in 1866, and in 1867 he was transferred to the Professorship of Law in that University. In 1876 he was elected United States Senator, and served in that capacity till President Cleveland appointed him Secretary of the Interior, the 4th of March, 1885. He was a leader in the Senate. His speeches in the Senate did much for the South in bringing back the old feeling of unity. As Secretary of the Interior he has made an admirable officer, and has clearly demonstrated that President Cleveland was not mistaken in his choice. The home life of Mr. Lamar is simplicity itself. He, with his family, when at their home in Mississippi, enjoys that freedom from public care and ostentatious social life which many in public life desire, but which few ever realize. Their hospitality is known and appreciated by many, yet the days come and go with but little change in their quiet home. Here follows a summary of a speech by Mr. Lamar, delivered while in the Senate, on the negro question. Mr. Lamar said : " Mr. President, I ask the attention of the Senate for a very few moments to reply to some of the remarks made by the Senator from Minnesota. I do this with reluctance, because I am departing from a purpose I had formed not to address the Senate upon any subject at this '4 132 OUR GREAT MEN. :^ session if I could possibly avoid doing so. N'or would I dej^art from that purpose upon this occasion but for two considerations : "In the first place, the Senator from Indiana, whom I am proud to call my friend, has requested me to give my views upon the subject under discussion, doing me the 3 honor to think they will aid in dispelling the errors and d prejudice with which persistent misrepresentation has \ surrounded it. In the second place, if the extraordinary '; speech just delivered had been intended to produce any • impression or influence upon this body, or to aifect its J legislation in any manner, I should have allowed it to \ pass in silence ; but, sir, the words which the Senator has - uttered this day do not die upon his lips. They do not \ perish in the echoes of this chamber. They are, indeed, ^ winged words ; and where do they go ? Far hence amid .j the great cities of the West; all -over the broad farms | and in the prosperous villages of that center of the future | power and life of the country. And for what purpose? J If, sir, one tithe of what he said will be believed, men and ; women bound to us of the South by the sacred ties of race, of blood, of country and of common Christianity, will be led to believe that over that vast section of country 1 there is a population and a land in which justice has no i courts, religion no temple, humanity no home. 'i "But they go farther. Charged with a poison more subtle and fatal than our own malaria, they are borne on the wings of the lightning to every broken hearthstone of the South. The i)lanter who in poverty and amid dif- ficulties is striving to upbuild the waste places, where labor is the only salvation of the negro as well as of the LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR. 133 white man, turns away in despondency, feeling that this burden of hate is too heavy to bear. The untutored and impulsive negro hears them, and waxes reckless in the belief that in the law, property and order of society there, he finds the agencies of his own oppression and degrada- tion. The shrewd political adventurer, who once sub- jected that people to all the suffering and oppression which corruption could invent and tyranny inflict, catches their sound with joy, for they are to him a new hope for a new lease of plunder and spoliation. "I do not object, and never have objected, to the utmost scrutiny (provided it be fair and truthful) into the affairs of the Southern people, especially in their relations to the black race ; and, while I should not have asked such an investigation as this, I do not regret that the Senator from Indiana has called it forth, and I feel indebted to him, as the whole country will, for the facts which that investigation has developed, and his fair and masterly exjoosition of them. " I can add nothing to his argument, and will not detract from its force and conclusiveness by any attempt to follow on the same line. In order that I may not be misunderstood, I wish to assert once for all that this movement of emigration, which has been so falsely and so ridiculously styled the ' exodus ' of the negroes from the South, never had any terrors for me, nor have I looked upon it with either alarm or deprecation. If it be a normal movement of emigration growing out of a healthful demand for that kind of labor at the North, and a healthful sufficiency of its supply in the South to meet the demand, it should be regarded as a natural and 134 OUR GREAT MEN. vigorous play of the industrial forces of this country, fraught with no permanent evil either to the country which they leave, the emigrants themselves, or the land to which they go. If it be, as the Senator from Indiana has demonstrated it to be in this instance, a movement inaugurated and carried on by combinations and associa- tions for political purposes and for party ascendancy, in a great measure, while I would regret the injury suffered by the victims of the delusion, I should nevertheless think that there are benefits of an equivalent and com- pensating character attached to this movement. " Sir, the exposure of these negroes to hunger and the rigors of a Northern climate, to the conflicts with the hostile forces of nature to which they are subjected for a bare subsistence, though painful and lamentable to con- template, will develop a force of character, an energy of will and a spirit of perseverance under difficulties and misfortunes — qualities which their easy life in the genial climate, bounteous soil, under indulgent employers of the South, has suffered to lie dormant. " If it is good for these people to go, the voice of every patriot, and of every statesman, and of every man whose heart is not callous to the claims of humanity, will be, joy go with them. Even if they are deluded, the movement will still be an indication of aspiration, of energy, of a desire to improve their condition, which is always a hope- ful and fiivorable sign of progress in any people. And it is certain, if it is a delusion on their part, the move- ment will be of short duration, for the means of exposing that delusion are abundant and easily ajDplied. " I was reading the other day a work upon the subject LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR. 135 of new departures in political economy, in which the author traced the causes of great revolutions that had been wrought in the methods of producing and accumu- lating and distributing the wealth of the world. The chief of these, he said, were the electric telegrajih and the application of steam to locomotive machinery ; that they had brought the ports of demand and the ports of supply all over the world into such immediate and direct con- tact as to dispense with the old instrumentalities of com- merce, and brought producers and consumers into speak- ing distance. " Sir, the same agencies are at work more powerfully and producing more striking results in the distribution of labor. They are j^i'oducing revolutions greater than any that have hitherto been produced in the exchange of the world's commodities. The quickness with which communication can be sent to different parts of the world is bringing laborers everywhere into direct contact with employers, so that Avhenever the price of wages is de- pressed in one locality immediately a demand for labor is found in another, and without the intervention or the aid of any associations — political, benevolent, railroad or otherwise. "That agency is at work upon this very point at this very time. Even now, while the Senator was reading his diatribe before this body, the planters of Mississippi, as I know well, are in direct communication with the emigrant laborers who are in Kansas and in Indiana, and they look upon those bodies of laborers as more accessible sources of supply, from which laborers can be obtained on better terms and with more facility than either Alabama or 136 OUR GREAT MEN. Georgia. While these gentlemen are negotiating and plotting, the laborer and planter, face to face, are talking with each other over their heads, and they have only to listen to the tickings of the telegraph to hear the death- watch of their own departing schemes and opportu- nities. "The Senator from Minnesota, confessing in advance the weakness of his case, endeavors to shield his fail- ure behind the paltry complaint that his side had not a full and fair opportunity to be heard. Such a charge, in the face of the facts, is only puerile and petulant. Admit- ting that the number of witnesses called by the minority of the committee was less than that called by the major- ity, an examination of the record will show that, in actual amount of testimony attentively and patiently heard, far more than one-half was from witnesses who avowed their Republican sentiments and affiliations. The j^rinted tes- timony amounts to 1,568 pages ; of that the documents occupy only 368 pages, the Republicans 1,152 pages, the Greenbackers 36, and the railroad men 12. " Eleven of the witnesses which the minority called poured forth into this record over five hundred pages of their twaddle, and whatever of deficiency existed was amply made up by another species of statements which will strike the future examiner of this record with sur- prise, but will not be, I presume, embodied among the valuable results of his researches. They consist of cer- tain very dogmatic assertions, made by some of the gen- tlemen of the committee, who seemed to have supposed they were appointed to state facts and not to inquire into them. Under the form of an interrogatory, there were LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAE. 137 assertions of a very positive character to which the assent of the witness was invited or his denial challenged. The ^ facts ' thus suggested are indeed the most startling and striking in the book, and nothing which any witness testified to equaled the statement that forms the pregnant suggestions of the questions which the honorable Senators put to the witnesses. "But, so far as the real testimony is considered, no one can read it with close attention without coming to the conclusion that there was nothing in the condition of the States from which this emigration proceeded to pro- duce such a result as driving its labor from the employ- ments in which it was so actively and profitably engaged, and nothing in the condition of the States to which this current of emigration moved that invited such an influx of labor there; upon the contrary, that there was much in the pressure of labor upon employment in these States last mentioned, and the consequent depression of wages and want of employment, to discourage and repel such influx, and even to roll it back to the locality from which it started. It also, sir, discloses, beyond any question or cavil, that the emigration itself was in large measure one of those instances, becoming very frequent in modern times, of powerful combinations entered into for the ag- grandizement and enrichment of their projectors, which, by the magnitude of their operations, can contravene for a time the natural laws and economic principles which govern the production and distribution of a country's wealth — combinations that never fail to result in mischief and disaster, as this one did, to all except those for whose benefit they were formed. The proof, sir, which the Sen- 138 OUR GREAT MEX. ator from Indiana has brought together upon this sub- ject is absolutely impregnable, and stands unshaken by the angry rhetoric of the Senator from Minnesota, which, in dashing against it, has only foamed out its own imbe- cility. " There is no doubt about the fact that the testimony which has been adduced is contradictory. Gentlemen can bring witnesses here who will swear whatever is wanted for the benefit of their party. It is not the first instance in which the records of investigating committees are made the channel through which false- hood and slander and calumny throughout that section empty all their kennels of pollution upon the floor of the Senate. " But, sir, no man can read this testimony without coming to the conclusion, beyond a doubt, that this exodus, so called, or migration, of twenty-five thousand people (to put it at the biggest figure they state) — an exodus from a country of four million blacks — no one, I say, can come to the conclusion that it was caused by any demand for this labor, either in Kansas or Indiana, or by any oi^pression and suffering of laborers in the States from which they are coming. ♦ **♦♦»♦ " I am not prepared to say to the blacks, stay at home; I am prepared to say to them, 'Go forth if you have aspirations to better your condition, and to think you can do so by throwing yourselves into the conflicts and active competitions incident to the civilization of the North.' We know that for every one that leaves the South we shall have a white immigrant from the North better LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR. 139 skilled in labor and more advanced in intelligence and political experience. They are already coming to us from Indiana and Kansas and Michigan, and are con- tributing no little to the material development of our country. " Sir, movements of population possess qualities of interest in our country apart from that which now attaches to this mere local question. The activities of the present age are scientific and mechanical. Among the nations of the world this country is one of the most sci- entific and mechanical taken as a population. As a result from this we are a vigorous, active, restless people, abridging even human life by the attrition and waste incident to our perpetual activities. This has been so characteristic of the country, and so uniform, that it ceases to be novel with us. We not only bring emigrants here in excess of all other people in the world, but when they come they move, and the native population moves, and the whole country, if we look at it in reference to this question, is a popular ocean, whose waves are never at rest. This motive to movement and migration is the result of the growth of intelligence and mechanical development. " Now, in this tendency of the negro to emigrate we have a hopeful sign that he is catching the spirit of American energy and enterprise, and taking on Amer- ican habits and ideas, and there is therefore nothing in the movement which is not creditable to the institutions of the country and creditable to the race that is immedi- ately affected. " There is another cause which has contributed to the 140 OUR GREAT MEN. migratory tendency of the negro. There has been some disappointment among the negroes, arising from their failure to realize the sanguine expectations of acquiring homesteads and accumulating property. This has origi- nated in the A^ery nature of things, and is not chargeable to any political consideration, nor does it reflect at all unfavorably upon the people of the South. The im- pression is sought to be made that their disappointment arises from inadequate wages and from dishonest and oppressive treatment by their employers. Neither is true. As a class they are the best paid laborers to-day of the same grade in the world. Statistics will conclu- sively show this to be the case. " The negro is disappointed because of the condition of things in the South that would exist in any other country under the same circumstances, and because of the disposition and habits the negro himself has acquired, the purchase of his supplies on credit. G-etting credit so readily as he does, he runs up that credit too high; he uses it too recklessly, as is shown by the very accounts which were produced before the committee. The traders who charge him extravagant prices for these supplies do not belong to the native communities there, whether of planters or small white farmers, native merchants, or the negroes themselves; they generally come from foreign lands or the North. From this habit of not paying cash for what they get they do not really know how greatly their accounts are growing, and buy beyond their means without being conscious of the fact. They are not cheated, legally and technically, but they make needless and extravagant purchases in the use of the license of LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR. 141 credit with those cross-road traders, who would take, and do take, the same advantage of ignorance and credulity in the white man. Ignorant and credulous people, white or black, are treated in the same way at the North and the world over. "Under such circumstances the negroes can not but find difficulties in acquiring homesteads or accumulating property ; in fact, the race is yet in its infancy, and sim- ply going through its novitiate experience, an experience that all people have to go through. The negro is really learning in a school that will ultimately teach him more effectually than academies and colleges ; and in this con- nection the lesson is being taught to our planters as well. Their attention is being brought to this subject, and con- ventions and associations are held for the jDurpose of protecting their laborers from the greed and the avarice of the small traders. "If this or any other cause, however, shall create a desire among them to try their fortunes in other sec- tions of the country, there is no reason to believe that our Northern brethren would find such a population, even in considerable numbers, a drawback or drag upon their civilization. They are physically an extraordinary race, and stand, either in work or play, exposure to any kind of weather ; and I believe they have already shown they can endure the rigors of a Northern climate. They are excellent laborers in a certain sphere. It is true they are awkward and infacile as agricultural laborers outside of cotton culture, and not adapted to food-producing hus- bandry, but upon public works, or any large undertakings which require the supervision of intelligent superintend- 142 OUR GREAT MEN. ents, there is not a more efficient class of laborers in the world. "They are getting educated also — not as well edu- cated as the laboring population of the North, for our country is sparsely settled, and our people poor from the desolations of the late war. We have not as good school systems ; but in every State we have colleges, and acade- mies and schools, and the facilities for education are as good for the black as for the white, and they are under the influence of the Christian religion, as Bishop Simp- son says; they are believers in it, and can not be considered a barbarian race, or a barbarian immigra- tion wherever they go. For that reason I would not, as a Southern man, hinder their emigration, nor, as a North- ern man, repel it. "As to the emigration of twenty-five thousand from the South, why, sir, it is a drop in the bucket. There are more white men that have gone out of Mississippi than that number, and many more than that number have come into the State since the war, and fully fifty thousand negroes have come into Mississippi during the same period. This late movement, therefore, is no indi- cation of deep, grievous wrong perpetrated upon the one side, or great sufi'ering on the other. Taking the most unfavorable view of it, it will j)rove a state of things at the South precisely similar to that which exists at the North, and in every part of the civilized world, to-wit, a depression and want of prosperity among those who work for wages and a desire to better their condition by summary methods, by abandoning the work in which they are immediately engaged and embarking into other LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR. 143 and new fields of enterprise and industry. It is no evi- dence of wrong and oppression ; for, if so, wrong and oppression run riot at the North, where every day's paper tells of the strikes of laborers in larger numbers and of longer duration than that which has been signal- ized at the South by the name of exodus. "I have an account that I have just clipped from a paper before me of a strike of five thousand laborers in one community, and the daily papers come laden with notices of strikes and lock-outs in that section. But a short time ago there was a strike which ran through many great Northern commonwealths, and it resulted not only in armed mobs, but in the burning and pil- laging of $5,000,000 of actual productive capital and the derangement of the entire transportation of the country. " There is one difi^erence in the treatment of these in- dustrial disturbances. All the literature of the North, all the reviews, all the philosophical discussions, all the ap- peals from the pulpit, all the harangues from the stump, and all the speeches from senate chambers and houses of representatives, are against the strikes there, and in favor of the interests of property and order. Sir, bring to bear upon the laborers in the North the same enginery that is brought to bear against the industrial system of the South, and yours would topple into irreparable ruin in a short time, and carry with it the most precious institu- tions of society in that section ; and the very fact that, with all these appliances against Southern labor, only twenty thousand men have been jostled out of three States into two, shows the firm basis upon which capital 144 OUR GREAT MEN. and labor stand in relation to each other in the Southern States ; and what they teach in this way is true in point of fact. " The fact that Sir George Campbell refers to is one which can not be argued around, nor argued under, nor argued over, and that is that the production of the South in the articles to which negro labor is directed is greater now than it ever was when they were slaves, and is con- stantly increasing. Look at the vast amount of the prod- uct of the cotton crop, which substitutes the basis of your exchanges and commerce with the nations of the earth, and tell me if such a product of labor applied to capital can be shown in any country where tumult, disorder, in- security of person and insecurity of property and inse- curity of labor prevail. It is an impossibility. The Sen- ator from Indiana never uttered truer words than when he said that the very existence and presence of that man Stubblefield here was itself a refutation of all the charges against Mississippi of oppression and injustice ; * that he is a great fact that could not have existed in his prosper- ous condition and honorable station but for the protection of equal and just laws.' It is one of those facts which, like a single pulsation, reveals to the skillful physician the condition of an entire organism, and enables him to say that 'In this constitution there is no disease, no decay, no symptom of convulsion.' *' Sir, no man, no laboring population, will 23I0W the earth and work under a Southern sun, and live upon stinted means, toiling from morning till night, and laying his wearied limbs upon the bed of rest only to resume the same round of labor with the morning light, unless LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR. ' " 145 he feels secure in the result of every stroke witliiwhich he smites the yielding earth. Security of property, secur- ity of person, perfect serenity of mind and brave hopeful- ness of heart are necessary conditions of a successful application of labor and caj^ital, and as necessary to the laborer as to the capitalist. " Sir, who can contemplate for a moment this vast production of the South, giving so large a proportion of the exports of this country, really the basis of our ex- changes with the world, in the midst of tumult and strife, and the conflict of races, and of fraud, force, murder and arson ? " I notice, sir, that the witnesses who have been brought to prove the oppression and the fraud perpe- trated upon the negro labor of the South, have introduced what they called 'specimen contracts,' showing the lien of the employer upon the product of the laborer for his rent and advances ; and long accounts have been laid before the committee as those which were brought against the negro laborer and tenant. Sir, these accounts tell their own story. Whatever may have been the relative status of the two parties at the end of the year, they show that during the entire year the laborer had command of such supplies as he and his family needed. They show, sir, that he could get flour and meat, and sugar and coffee, and clothing, for himself and his children, and medical supplies, so that the total result proves that, whatever misfortune may sweep over the planter, what- ever losses he may incur by the venture, the laborer through the w^hole year has shelter, food, raiment, medi- cal supplies and the comforts of life, free from any con- 146 OUR GREAT MEN. tingencies and any misfortune, and an assurance of the same during the next year. " But, sir, there is another fact connected with this matter which is of profound interest. You may talk, sir, of the dignity of labor, but labor can be put nowhere upon such a dignified and equitable basis as it is in Mis- sissippi, where every laborer has an indefeasible lien upon the products of the farm, paramount to that of the landlord or the supply-man, for the payment of his wages or of his reward. Happy the country and happy the people where the toiling man has in the law of the land a mortgage upon everything which bears the impress of his toiling hand ; and the result is, sir, that in that coun- try so much abused there is not a man, woman or child that suifers from the pangs of hunger. There is not a man, sir, who has muscle and a willingness to use it, even though he may be out of employment and out of means, that can not earn his breakfast, or his dinner, or his lunch whenever he chooses to do so, and that in advance of the work to be j^erformed. Say what you please, sir, that must be a happy condition of society which is free from that leprosy of nations, chronic pauperism. " The Senator from Minnesota has referred to the laws of Mississippi. I assure the Senator that there is no law in Mississippi framed with any reference to the end which he has intimated. He can say that, by a certain sort of construction and perversion, such a result as he speaks of is possible; no such results are actu- ally produced, and no such objects were ever had in view by the legislators of Mississippi. ''In looking over this testimony and seeing that this LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR. 147 point was made in regard to the statutes of Mississippi, I took occasion to examine the code of Minnesota to compare it with that of my own State. I must confess that in going over that code I found it admirable in all its provisions. I could find no fault with it as a code of laws. I pronounce it 'simply perfect in its own resource,' and the gentleman is beyond the reach of my retort on this subject. I can say, however, that I take as much pride in whatever honors his State as he does himself. At the same time there are some things which, under the perverting criticism that the Senator has applied to the statutes of Mississippi, would render his State an unfit place for negro immigration. " Why, sir, under the code of Minnesota, whoever cuts down or in any way injures a tree growing upon the private lot of another, or carries away any wood from such lot, is punishable with ninety days' imprisonment or one hundred dollars fine. If he should take fruit of any kind from an orchard in another man's inclosure, he is subject to two months' imprisonment and a fine of fifty dollars. If he cuts down a tree — if one of our negroes should go in there shivering with cold, and should do what he always does in Mississippi, take enough fuel to warm himself and little ones — he would be indictable and pun- ishable with fine and imprisonment. "Now, sir, if I was to follow the style of the Sena- tor's criticism of Mississippi statutes, I could show that these laws of Minnesota would produce a sad havoc among our negroes emigrating there, accustomed as they are to helping themselves to the fruits and fuel of their employers and landlords. 148 OUR GREAT MEN. " Mr. President, the Senator is simply mistaken. The people of Mississippi are not the people he thinks them. If he will examine the statistics of 1870, the Senator will be surj^rised that of "all the States in this Union there are but few, perhaps not any, that show a larger proportion of people above the age of ten years actually engaged in productive industry than Mississippi." -**>^#^- Hon. JOHN D. LONG, OF MASSACHUSETTS. |OHN D. LONG, Representative from the Second Congressional District of Massachu- setts, was born at Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine, October 27th, 1838. He received a good common-school education in the schools at Buckfield, then attended Hebron Academy, Maine, and finally Har- vard College, where he graduated in 1857, at the age of nineteen. He taught for two years in Westford Academy, Mas- sachusetts. He studied law in private oifices, and at Harvard Law School ; was admitted to the Bar, and has won a reputation as a lawyer. During 1875, '76, '77 and '78 he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives; the last three years serving as Speaker of the House. In 1879 JOHN D. LONG. 149 he was Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, and in 1880 was elected Governor of the State. In the autumn of 1882 he was elected to the Forty- eighth Congress as a Republican. The following, from his speech on the silver question, gives his views on that subject : " Give silver coinage, then, at least a present or pros- pective rest. Do not demonetize silver, and do not take away its legal-tender function ; but suspend at some time its coinage, the unlimited continuance of which is one of the very best causes of the appreciation of gold, and therefore, as I have said, to some extent, of the present disparity between the two metals. In the interest, there- fore, of bimetalism, in the interest of silver itself, it is time to cast an anchor and take our bearings ; to suspend, or at least fix, a time for the suspension of silver coinage, whether it be in two or three years ; and then to see — for that is, perhaps, all we can do now — if some interna- tional arrangement with the other great commercial coun- tries can not then be made. " The only other point I care to make is as to the re- lation of this question to the interests of what are called the debtor classes. I agree that it is not the capitalists, not the bankers, not the money powers, whose interests should be preferred, but those of the body of the people ; the men who toil, and whose labor is the most sacred trust confided to the care of the Government. Indeed, I am inclined to think that nothing has been exaggerated more in this whole discussion than the attitude of capital. My experience and yours is that it takes care of itself under whatever circumstances. Come gold or silver, 150 OUtl GREAT MEN. come high rates or low rates, come boom or panic, come inflation or contraction, it eludes danger and improves opportunity. It is selfish, Argus-eyed, potential; and, from a look over my own section of the country, I am persuaded it is already discounting the future, and is un- alarmed, if not indiiferent, at any action Congress now seems likely to take. " I mean, of course, not that capital which is a trust for the widow and orphan, but that capital which is so especially obnoxious to-day to public sentiment, and which is the selfish equipment of the plutocracy. In homely phrase, that form of capital can stand the agony of a de- based coinage if the other great interests of the people can do so ; nay, would probably profit by the convulsions of which it would take advantage. I have no sympathy with it except as it serves its use and its employment to keep the blood flowing in our channels of industry. My sympathies, like those claimed by my friends on the other side, are with those who have not this plutocratic reli- ance, and whose labor, whose earnings, whose credit, whose homes, depend upon the financial standard and regulation which our legislation shall give to currency and the monetary system. " On that premise, what, then, is the best policy as between silver and gold, in their present disparity of value, as to the matter of a National standard? I can only gather my illustrations from homely life. I have been taught, and I know it is true, and no honest laboring man in my district would instruct me otherwise, that, if a w^orkman dependent on his hands for his living desires success, reputation, property, credit, he will obtain them JOHN D. LONG. 151 by turning out the best work, and not by turning out, in bare compliance with the letter of his contract, second- rate work. The latter would give him, perhaps, an im- mediate gain in a single transaction or in fulfilling an ex- isting obligation, but it would forever ruin him in all future negotiations, and stamp him as second-rate. "Just as true is this principle in our national as in our individual relations. Admit, if you please, that the Government is at liberty to pay silver or in gold. Admit that the silver dollar is not a dishonest dollar, and that it is hardly worth while, even in the eagerness of debate, to term it repudiatory. But, on the other hand, you must admit that it has fallen off in relative value, and that, as compared with gold, it is like the artisan's second-rate work as compared with his best. To pay our National debt in silver, the cheaper coin, and thereby driving gold out of the country to scale all private indebtedness, might be a gain in that single transaction, but it would be an indefinite injury to public and to private credit, and there- fore a source of burden and disaster and hard times, not to the Nation merely, which can stand almost anything, but to that very body of the laboring and debtor people who can stand very little, and for whom you are pretend- ing to legislate, and whose interest you claim to have at heart. " It is said. Why pay the bondholder in gold and every- body else in silver? A false impression is produced by these constant references to the bondholder, as well as by the whole foolishness of calling names and invoking rhetorical bugbears. "Whether it be silver-kings on the one side or gold- 152 OUR GREAT MEX. bugs on the other, we may be pretty sure that one is just as selfish as, and not a bit more interested in the ' dear people ' than the other. The bondholder is no worse and no better than anybody else. Taking into account the high premium cost of his United States bonds and the small rate of interest they pay, there is no other equally secured investor who gets so small a return for his money. Remember, too, that he by no means stands for the plu- tocracy, but represents many a poor widow and orphan, many a hard-working laborer, many a dependent salary clerk — all whose savings are invested in the securities of the United States, either directly or through the savings- bank or some other financial institution. There is, of course, no reason why the bondholder should be paid in any better coin than any other creditor of the Govern- ment. But the advantage of paying our National debt and interest in gold, or by the gold standard, is not because it is held by the bondholder class as such, but because the coin in which, or standard by which, we pay the National debt and interest is the one test that determines the credit of our Government throughout the world, and thereby establishes the standard and test also of jDublic and pri- vate credit, and, most important of all, the worth of the people's money. Like any other humble laborer working for the Government for my daily wages, I might ask why I should be paid in silver while the bondholder is paid in gold. But a moment's reflection shows me that it makes no difference to me so long as my silver, by virtue of the Government's resolute and honest policy, is just as good as the bondholder's gold. But, on the other hand, if the Government, by paying the bondholder in silver, thereby JOHN D. LONG. 153 impairs and discredits all its currency and its credit, and drives gold to a premium, and so out of circulation, then it does make a diiference to me, and a very damaging difference, for then the silver in which I am paid becomes of a less purchasing power ; I have killed the goose that laid the golden egg ; I am become the dog in the manger ; in my endeavor to bite off the bondholder's golden nose, I have bitten off my own silver one, which till then was just as good as his, and, had it been a rose, would have been just as sweet, called by whatever metallic name. " The laboring man is not a fool or a weakling. He knows perfectly well on which side his bread is buttered, is a good deal brighter than a silver dollar, and has organized for his interest and for that share in the ben- efits of the wealth he creates to which he is so justly entitled. You can not in the long run cheat him with sophistries. He is the one constant creditor. His pecu- niary interest is represented by his wages and his savings. These, to him, are sacred; and anything that impairs them is his enemy and ruin. He rarely owes anything, except for his daily supplies, which are less than his daily wages. On the contrary, generally thrifty, he has his balance in savings laid up for a wet day. In Massachu- setts there are in its savings-banks $274,000,000, almost equal to one-quarter of our National debt. It is an increase of twelve millions in the last year, and repre- sents in round numbers 850,000 open accounts, a number equal to forty per cent, of all the inhabitants of that State, and more than one hundred per cent, of all the families, with an average sum to each depositor of over three hun- dred dollars. It is the adventurous capitalist, the blood- 10 154 OUR GREAT MEN. sucking speculator, the gambler in property, the borrower on risks and chances, the would-be monopolist, the wrecker in mining ventures and land schemes and paper-and- water railroads, in other words it is the very vultures against whom to-day organized labor is most protesting, that constitute to a large extent that part of the debtor class for whom and in aid of whose reckless ventures you are really dei:)reciating the currency. Suj)pose we invoke just here some of the epithets of our friends on the other side. Suppose we throw back a little mud — in a purely Pickwickian sense, of course — at these silver cormorants who conspire in the interest of these outrageous schemes ; these bloated fatteners who feed on the rotting carcass of a debased currency; these vampires who eat out the hearts of women and orphans and the poor, and rob them of the security of their little savings, wrung out of the toil and sweat of days' works and worn muscles. The ghosts of Nero and Tamerlane and Philip II have been invoked ; but what are they, or what is the oblitera- tion of Poland or the oppression and robbing of Ireland, compared with this crime of clij^ping the coin and reducing the value of the wages of fifty millions of people, and then coupling with the crime the unutterable meanness of pre- tending to do it under the guise of protecting them ? So the wolf covers and devours the lamb. For heaven's sake, let us get out of this sickening air of bathotic and vaporous hypcr-rhetoric and unjust charges against par- ties who are just as honest and just as selfish on one side as on the other. The people only laugh at this bandying of epithets. They know that the various mate- rial interests of the country will naturally seek their own JOHN D. LONG. 155 promotion; that the owners of silver investments very naturally pull one way to secure sale and profit of their product, and the security holders, who are the wage- earners and wage-savers, pull the other to prevent the depreciation of their property. But there is no need to call names or throw mud. The simple question is whether on the whole and for the general welfare, as dis- tinguished from any private or local interest, it is better to maintain the standard of the people's money or to debase it. Certainly the laboring man wants no depre- ciation in the j)urchasing power of the wages he earns, or in the security of the savings he has laid by out of them. Yet to pay him in a baser coin is to diminish the pur- chasing power of every dollar for which he sweats and toils, and for which he gives his blood and bone. You can not in the long run deceive him by bellowing that you have clipped the bondholder's coin, if, at the same time, he sees that you in the same ratio have reduced his own coin and impaired his ability to buy flour and meat and lay up savings. He cares not whether you pay the bond- holders by the standard of gold or diamonds so long as you j)ay him in an equivalent thereto. Beware how you trifle with his dollar; for, let it be gold or silver, or paper, the moment it is worth to him less than a hun- dred cents, and will purchase for him less than a hun- dred cents' worth of bread and meat, he will justly turn and rend you. He owes no debts, and is under no temp- tation to scale them. It is capital, enterprise, employ- ment, which owe debts, and which owe him, and not he them ; and when they pay him he wants the best money, and if you give him anything less he will justly charge 156 OUR GREAT MEN. that he asks for bread and you give him a stone, for fish and you give him a serpent. I envy not the estimate in which he will hold the legislator, or body of legislators, who shall set in motion the avalanche of a depreciation of the currency of the laboring masses, clipping their wages, undermining the foundation of their profits, credit and accumulation, and reducing the purchasing power of their dollars. What is its purchasing power under the present gold standard as compared with its purchasing power when we had an inflated and depreciated currency? It will be the part of prudence to look at the statistics on this point, for they show that when in the inflated period, during and after the closing years of the war, wages were more in the number of dollars paid than they are now under a gold standard, yet their purchasing power, their equivalent in the necessary supplies of life, was less." JDMM J« IMS^^aLaLI Hon. JOHN J. INGALLS, OF KANSAS. ^OHN J. INGALLS, of Atchison, one of the most active members of the United States Senate, was born in Middleton, Essex County, Massachusetts, December 29th, 1833. He is an alumnus of Williams College, Williams- town, Massachusetts, having graduated there in 1855. In 1857 he was admitted to the Bar, and one year later, anticipating Horace Greeley's advice to young men, he left his New England home for the then far West. He settled in Atchison, Kansas, and soon became popular both as a professional man and as a citizen. In 1859 he was elected a member of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, and in 1860 Secretary of the Territorial Council. On the organization of the first State Senate he was elected Clerk, and in 1862 was elected a member of the State Senate of Kansas from Atchison County. He was Major, Lieutenant-Colonel and Judge- Advocate of the Kansas Volunteers, 1863-65. In 1872 he was elected to the United States Senate as the Republican successor of Hon. S. C. Pomeroy, and has repeatedly shown how well he merited the election. In 1884 his Alma Mater gave him the degree of LL.D. (159) 160 OUR GUIEAT MEN. Mr. Ingalls is one of the brightest, sharpest and keen- est debaters on the floor of the Senate. The following is a summary of his speech on "Rela- tions Between the Senate and Executive Departments:" "Contemporaneous construction of the Constitution, fortified by long usage and acquiescence, undisturbed for more than seventy-five years, has, to my mind, incontesta- bly and impregnably established two fundamental prop- ositions : First, that under the Constitution of the United States the power to appoint includes the power to remove, and that both these powers are vested in the President of the United States, subject only to the power of the Senate to negative in cases of appointment ; and, second, that where the tenure of an office is not fixed by the Con- stitution, it is held at the pleasure of the Executive. " I therefore take up this argument where the ojDpo- sition leave it; I begin where they close. I concede all that they demand as to the constitutional power of the Executive upon the subject of appointments to office. If it shall appear that the report of the Committee on the Judiciary is inconsistent with these declarations, that the report and the resolutions to which we are now asked to give our assent in any manner impair or infringe upon, or are in derogation of those admitted high executive prerogatives, then I shall submit to condemnation, for my signature is appended to that report. "The allegation has been made that while this contro- versy has proceeded the Senate has been inactive, inter- posing partisan objections to the transaction of executive business, to prevent the execution of his high trusts by the President of the United States. I yesterday had JOHN J. INGALLS. 161 compiled from the records of the executive office, for the purpose of showing what has been done in this particular, a statement, public under our rules, which shows that from the 25th of January, 1886, to the date of the last executive session, there had been confirmed by the Senate four hundred and ninety-three nominations of officers sent down by the President. Never in any single instance where there has been a vacancy, occurring by resignation, expiration of term, or proper removal, upon which we could properly act, has there been an instant of delay. The Senate has not inquired whether the nominee was a Dem- ocrat or a Republican, but has proceeded vigorously, in- dustriously and steadily in the performance of its consti- tutional duties ; and if there has been inaction or non- action upon nominations, I shall show before I conclude my remarks that it has been invited by the Administra- tion. "Again, it has been alleged that the action of the majority of the Senate is instigated by the purpose of keeping Republicans in office ; that we are moved by partisan considerations to thwart, by all means in our power, the efforts of the Executive to transfer the official patronage of the Government to the party that was placed in power by the votes of a majority of the people. I am not authorized to speak for others, but for myself, and for those who have accredited me here, I can not submit with patience to such an intolerable accusation. "Mr. President, the Republicans of Kansas are Re- publicans. They are neither afraid to be so classified nor ashamed to be thus described. They do not covet any qualifying or palliative epithets. Their attitude is neither 162 OUR GREAT MEN. apologetic nor defensive. They have an unconquerable pride in their political achievements, in the history they have made, in the triumphs they have won. For twenty- five years they have stood upon the skirmish line, neither asking nor giving quarter. They are Republicans not by inheritance, not by tradition, not by accident, but from conviction ; and they are as steadfast in defeat as in vic- tory. They are partisans, intrepid, undaunted, uncom- promising, and they can give good reasons for the faith that is in them. " They believe, and I believe, that for the past quarter of a century, upon every vital issue before the American people, secession, slavery, coercion, the public credit, honest elections, universal freedom, and the protection of American labor, they have always been right, and that their opponents have always been wrong ; and, while they concede unreservedly patriotism and sincerity to their adversaries, temporary impulse has not convinced them that they were in error. There is neither defection nor dismay in their columns, They are ready, they are impatient to renew the battle. Animated by such im- pulse it is not singular that they should feel that no Republican can hold an appointive office under a Demo- cratic administration without either sacrificing his con- victions or forfeiting his self-respect. "According, sir, when a little more than a year ago a Democratic administration was inaugurated, those who were in public station began with one consent to make excuse to retire to private life. They did not stand upon the order of their going ; they trampled upon each other in a tumultuous and somewhat indecent haste to get out JOHN J. INGALLS. 163 of office. There was no craven cry for mercy ; no mer- cenary camp-follower fled for shelter to the bomb-proofs of the tenure-of-office act ; no sutler crawled behind the fragile breastworks of civil-service reform for protection. They lost their baggage, but they retained their colors, their arms, their ammunition and their camp equipage, and marched off the field with the honors of war. If at the expiration of one year a few yet remain in office, rari nantes in gurgite vasto, it is because the victors have been unable to agree among themselves or been unable to discover among their own numbers competent and qual- ified successors. " Mr. President, candor compels me to say that the Democracy of that State share the same temper and spirit. From 1854, when the Territory was organized, down to the 29th of January, 1861, when the State was admitted, if there was a Republican holding any appoint- ive office, it was an inadvertence ; and if, from 1861 down to 1885, there was a Democrat holding an official position requiring confirmation by the Senate, it was an oversight-, it escaped the somewhat vigilant scrutiny of my col- league and myself and those who have preceded us here. "Therefore, Mr. President, I am not of those who believe in non-partisanship in politics, and I should be recreant to the high trust confided in me were I to refrain from declaring my conviction that political par- ties, energetic, vigorous and well-defined, are indispensa- ble to the success of free popular governments. Wherever the life of States is freest and most irrepressible, there party spirit is most active and aggressive. It is by the conflict and collision of political parties that the latent 164 OUR GREAT MEN. and richest powers of the State are made manifest; and those whom I represent have no sympathy with the dogma that it reflects glory iij)on a statesman to affect independence of his party, or that it is an indication of virtue in a citizen to belong to no political organization. "Political parties are social groups in the nation, allied by common purposes and kindred aspirations for the accomplishment of beneficial results. When parties perish this Government will expire, for we all understand that in this country the only government is the party in powder. Here is no dynasty, no ruling family, nothing corresponding to the functions of government under other systems except the party that is for the time being intrusted by the votes of a majority of the people with the execution of their will. And, sir, when a major- ity of the people declare that there shall be a change of administration, it is necessarily implied that there shall be a change of those agencies through which alone political administration can be made effectual. It is use- less to juggle and palter about this matter. A change of administration is a change of policies and methods, and the Chief Magistrate is entitled to the co-operation of agents and ministers who are in sympathy with his opinions and the doctrines which he is chosen to enforce and maintain. "Sir, unless the President of the United States is to be a mummy, swathed in the cerements of the grave, he must have powers commensurate with his duties. He is charged to Hake care that the laws be faithfully executed,' and unless he has the power to select the agencies through which the laws are administered ; through which JOHN J. INGALLS. 165 the revenues are collected and disbursed, the post-offices conducted, the Indians supported and controlled, the glory and honor of the nation maintained, that duty imposed upon him by the Constitution is an idle phrase ; it means nothing; it is an empty formula. Charged with these great duties, liable to impeachment if they are not properly performed, how can it be claimed with justice that there shall be an interpolation of novel doctrines of reform, under which, while the chief is still to be held responsible, he shall be deprived of all the agencies and ministrations under the Constitution by which they can alone be so administered in sympathy with him and the policy he represents ? " Therefore, sir, I am confident that, when it was ascertained in November, 1884, that a change of the political majority in this country had been registered, there was a general faith and conviction that a change of official holdings would follow. The Democratic party desired it; the Republican ]3arty expected it, and would have been content, and had it been done the people at large would have said, with one accord, amen. But this generation has witnessed the genesis of a new political gospel ; a novel organization has appeared upon the earth, a new school of political philosophers, who an- nounce that non-partisanship is the panacea for all the evils that afflict the Republic. Having no avowed opin- ions upon the great topics of the hour, they feebly decry the corruptions of the American system, and peevishly and irritably declare that the Government is degenerate and degraded, and that the true prescription to elevate, reform and purify the public service is to prevent the 166 OUR GREAT MEN. clerks from being removed out of their places in the De- partments. This brotherhood has not been hitherto very largely re-enforced from the Democracy. If there has been an original civil- service reformer who has deserted from the ranks of the Democracy history does not record his name. It has been left to the party to which I belong to afford conspicuous and shining illustrations of that class of political thinkers who are never quite sure that they are supporting a party unless they are reviling its candidates and denouncing its platform ; who are not pos- itive that they are standing erect unless they are leaning over backward, and whose idea of reforming the organiza- tion in which they profess to be classified is to combine with its adversaries and vote for candidates who openly spurn their ^professions and depreciate the stock in trade which they denominate their principles. Standing on the corners of the streets, enlarging the borders of their phy- lacteries, they loudly advertise their perfections, thank- ing God that they are not as other men, even these Re- publicans and Democrats ; they traffic with both to ascer- tain which they can most profitably betray. "Mr. President, the neuter gender is not popular either in nature or society. ' Male and female created He them.' But there is a third sex, if that sex can be called sex which has none, resulting sometimes from a cruel caprice of nature ; at others from accident or malevolent design, possessing the vices of both and the virtues of neither; effeminate, without being masculine or feminine; unable either to beget or to bear; possessing neither fecundity nor virility; endowed with the contempt of men and the derision of women, and doomed to sterility. JOHN J. INGALLS. 167 isolation and extinction. But they have two recognized functions : They sing falsetto, and they are usually se- lected as the guardians of the seraglios of Oriental despots. "And thus, to pass from the illustration to the fact, these political epicenes, without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity, chant in shrill falsetto their songs of praise of non-partisanship and civil-service reform, and ap- parently have been selected as the harmless custodians of the conscience of the National Executive. " Sir, I am not disposed to impugn the good faith, the patriotism, the sincerity, the many unusual traits and fac- ulties of the President of the United States. He is the sphinx of American politics. It is said that he is a fatal- ist ; that he regards himself as the child of fate — the man of destiny ; and that he places devout and implicit reliance upon the guiding influence of his star. Certainly, whether he be a very great man or a very small man, he is a very extraordinary man. His career forbids any other con- clusion. "The Democratic party was not wanting, when its convention assembled at Chicago, in many renowned and illustrious characters ; men who had led the forlorn hope in its darkest and most desperate days; men for whose character and achievements, for whose fame and history not only that organization, but the country, had the pro- foundest admiration and respect. There was Thurman, and Bayard, and Hendricks, and Tilden, and McDonald, and others, perhaps, not less worthy and hardly less illus- trious, upon whom the mantle of that great distinction might have fallen ; but the man who, at the mature age 168 OUR GREAT MEN. of thirty-five, abandoned a liberal and honored profession to become the Sheriff of Erie, without known opinions and destitute of experience or training in public affairs, outstripped them all in the race of ambition ; and when, but little more than a year ago, he entered this Chamber as the President-elect of the United States, he encountered the curious scrutiny of an audience to whom he was a stranger in feature as in fame; a stranger to the leaders of his own party as well as to the representatives of all the nations of the earth who had assembled to witness the gorgeous pageant of his inauguration. "Sir, the career of Napoleon was sudden, startling and dramatic. There have been many soldiers of fortune who have sprung at one bound from obscurity to fame, but no illustration of the caprices of destiny so brilliant and bewildering is recorded in history as the elevation of Grover Cleveland to the Chief Magistracy of sixty millions of people. "If, when he was inaugurated, he had determined that the functions of Government should be exercised by officers selected from his .own party, the Nation would have been content; but he did not so determine, and herein and hereon is founded the justification that the majority of the Senate can satisfactorily use and employ in demanding that no action shall be had in connection with these suspensions from office until there has been satisfactory assurance that injustice has not been done. If it were understood that these suspensions and removals were made for political reasons, the country would be content — the Republican majority in the Senate would be content. But what is the attitude ? Ever since his in- M JOHX J. INGALLS. 169 augiiration, and for many months before, by many utter- ances, official and private, in repeated declarations never challenged, Mr. Cleveland announced that he would not so administer this Grovernment. At the very outset, in his letter of acceptance, he denounced the doctrine of par- tisan changes in the patronage, and through all of his political manifestoes down to the present time he has re- peated these assurances with emphatic and unchanging monotony. "He has declared that there should be no changes in office where the incumbents were competent and qualified for political reasons, but that they should be permitted to serve their terms. Like those who were grinding at the mill, one has been taken and another has been left. Some Republicans have been suspended, and others have been retained. What is the irresistible inference ? What is the logic of the events except that, in view of what the President has declared, every man who is suspended is suspended for cause, and not for political reasons ? It is not possible to suspect the President of duplicity and treacherous deception. "For the purpose of illustration, let me call the atten- i tion of the Senate, and through the Senate the attention ^ of the country, which is to judge of this matter, to the .*) basis on which this inquiry proceeds. I read from th^,; letter of Grover Cleveland, dated Albany, August 19th, 1884, accepting the nomination for the Presidency of the United States. He says : ^-J '"The people pay the wages of the public eniployes, and they are entitled to the fair and honest work^ which the money thus paid should command. It is Jihe duty of ^i.. 170 OUK GKEAT MEN. those intrusted with the management of their aifairs to see that such public service is forthcoming. The selec- tion and retention of subordinates in Government em- ployment should depend upon the ascertained fitness and the value of their work, and they should be neither ex- pected nor allowed to do questionable party service.' "There is another utterance in this document to which I might properly allude further on, but which ap- pears to me to be so significant that I will read it now. It has a singular fitness in connection with this subject that we have been discussing. Speaking of honest ad- ministration, he says: "'I believe that the j)ublic temjier is such that the voters of the land are prepared to support the party which gives the best promise of administering the Grov- ernment in the honest, simple and plain manner which is consistent with its character and purposes.' " And now: "'They have learned that mystery and concealment in the management of their affairs cover tricks and betrayal.' " Yes, they have learned that mystery in the admin- istration of the patronage of the Grovernment, by the concealment from the people of the documents and papers that bear upon the character and conduct of officials sus- pended and those that are appointed, covers tricks and betrayal. 'I thank thee for that word.' A 'Daniel' has * come to judgment.' No more pertinent and j^ungent com- mentary upon the facts of the present situation could be formulated than that which Grover Cleveland uttered before his foot was upon the threshold, that mystery JOHN J. INGALLS. 171 and concealment in the management of the affairs of the peojDle covered tricks and betrayal. There are tricks, and somebody has been betrayed. "Again, on the 20th day of December, 1884, after the election, some of the contingent of Republican deserters who elected Mr. Cleveland to the Presidency, becoming apprehensive that there might be trouble about their thirty pieces of silver, formulated their uneasiness in words, and addressed him a letter calling his attention to the professions upon which he had been elected and demanding a guarantee. To that letter, on the 25th day of December, 1884, Mr. Cleveland replied, and from that reply I select certain paragraphs, not being willing to tax the patience of the Senate or waste my own strength in reading what is not strictly material. "'I regard myself pledged to this' — that is, to this practical reform in the civil service, this refusal to turn out competent and qualified officials and put in Democrats — 'because my conception of true Democratic faith and public duty requires that this and all other statutes should be in good faith and without evasion enforced, and because, in many utterances made prior to my election as President, approved by the party to which I belong and which I have no disposition to disclaim, I have in effect promised the people that this should be done.' Not his party, but the people — Republicans as well as Democrats. "Then he proceeds to castigate the Democratic party: " ' I am not unmindful of the fact to which you refer that many of our citizens fear that the recent party change in the National Executive may demonstrate that - 11 172 OUR GEEAT MEN. the abuses which have grown up in the civil service are ineradicable. I know that they are deeply rooted, and that the spoils system has been supposed to be intimately related to success in the maintenance of i^arty organiza- tion, and I am not sure that all those who profess to be the friends of this reform will stand firmly among its advocates when they find it obstructing their way to patronage and place.' "'He goes on thus; and this is a most significant promise and pledge : "'There is a class of Government positions which are not within the letter of the civil service statute, but which are so disconnected with the policy of an adminis- tration that the removal therefrom of present incum- bents, in my opinion, should not be made during the terms for which they were appointed solely on partisan grounds, and for the purpose of putting in their places those who are in political accord with the appointing power ' — and then follows that celebrated definition which lifted the lid from the box of Pandora — ' but many men holding such positions have forfeited all just claim to retention because they have used their places for party purposes in disregard of their duty to the people, and because, instead of being decent public servants, they have proved themselves ofl*ensive partisans and unscru- pulous manipulators of local party management.' " Here endeth the first lesson ! ' This was in the year 1884. "The first official utterance of President Cleveland upon the 4th of March, 1885, renewed the assurance that had been given. He declared: JOHN J. INGALLS. 173 " * The people demand reform in the administration of the Grovernment, and the application of business prin- ciples to business aifairs. As a means to this end civil- service reform should be in good faith enforced. Our citizens have the right to protection from incompetency of public employes who hold their places solely as the reward of partisan service, and from the corrupting influ- ences of those Avho promise and the vicious who expect such rewards. And those who worthily seek public em- ployment have the right to insist that merit and compe- tency shall be recognized instead of party subserviency or the surrender of honest political belief.' " How this system, thus inaugurated, this amphibious plan of distributing the patronage of the country among his own partisans, and at the same time insisting upon the enforcement of civil-service reform doctrines, practi- cally resulted, finds its first illustration in the celebrated circular of the Postmaster-General, that was issued on the 29th of April, 1885. I do not propose to defile my observations by reading that document. I allude to it for the purpose of saying that a more thoroughly de- graded, loathsome, execrable and detestable utterance never was made by any public official of any political persuasion in any country or in any age. It was an in- vitation to every libeller, every anonymous slanderer, every scurrilous defamer, to sluice the feculent sewage of communities through the Post-office Department, with the assurance that, without any intimation or information to the person aspersed, incumbents should be removed and Democratic partisans appointed. I offered a resolu- tion on the 4th of this month calling on the Postmaster- 174 OUR GREAT MEN. General for information as to the number of removals of fourth-class postmasters, not requiring confirmation by the Senate, between the 4th day of March, 1885, and that date. It was a simple proposition. It required nothing but an insi^ection of the official register and a computation of numbers. No names were required and no dates. There was a simple question of arithmetic to ascertain the number of removals of fourth-class postmasters not included in the list sent to- the Senate by the President, the salary being less than $1,000. Eighteen days elapsed. There seemed to be some reluctance on the part of the Department to comply with that request, and I thereupon oifered a su2:>plemental resolution, which was adopted by the Senate, asking the Postmaster-General to advise us whether that first resolution had been received, and, if so, why it was not answered, and when a reply might be expected. " On the second day following an answer came down. It does not include the number of places that were filled where had been resignations. It does not include the list of those appointed where there had been vacancies from death or any other cause; but simjDly those who had been removed without cause and without hearing in the space of the first twelve months of this Administration pledged to non-partisanship and civil-service reform. The number foots up 8,635. Eighty-six hundred and thirty-five removals of fourth-class postmasters under an Administration pledged by repeated utterances not to remove except for cause, making an average, counting three hundred and thirteen working days in that year, of twenty-eight every day; and, counting seven hours as a JOHN J. INGALLS. 175 day's work, four removals every hour, or at the rate of one for every fifteen minutes of time from the 4th day of March, 1885, until the 4th day of March, 1886. And that is civil-service reform! That is non-partisanship in the administration of this Government! That is exercis- ing public office as a public trust! "The Senator from Indiana [Mr. Voorhees] yesterday took occasion to advert with somewhat of animated hilar- ity to the suggestion of the Senator from Iowa about the evolutionary condition of the Democratic party, and dwelt with considerable unction upon a term that the Senator from Iowa had applied to the Democracy in his very able and interesting speech — a 'protoplasmic ' cell — and the Senator then proceeded to give us the definition of the term as it appears in the dictionaries, and sug- gested that, if those facts had been known at the time when the canvass was pending, Mr. Cleveland woiild un- doubtedly have been counted out in Kew York. "The Senator from Iowa might have gone further in his application of the doctrine of evolution with much propriety. Greology teaches us that, in the process of being, upward from the protoplasmic cell, through one form of existence to another, there are intermediary and connecting stages, in which the creature bears some re- semblance to the state from which it has emerged, and some to the state to which he is proceeding. History is stratified politics; every stratum is fossiliferous ; and I am inclined to think that the political geologist of the future, in his antiquarian researches between the triassic series of 1880 and the cretaceous series of 1888, as he in- spects the Jurassic Democratic strata of 1884, will find 176 OUR GREAT MEN. some curious illustrations of the doctrine of political evolution. "In the transition from the fish to the bird there is an anomalous animal, long since extinct, named by the geologists the pterodactyl, or the winged reptile, lizard with feathers upon its paws and plumes upon its tail. A political system which illustrates in its practical opera- tions the appointment by the same Administration of Eugene Higgins and Dorman B. Eaton can properly be regarded as in the transition epoch, and characterized as the j^terodactyl of j^olitics. It is like that animal, equally adapted to waddling and dabbling in the slime and mud of partisan politics, and soaring aloft with discordant cries into the glittering and opalescent empyean of civil- service reform. "The President is not responsible to the Senate, nor is the Senate responsible to him; both are alike resj^onsi- ble to the people. But in the cases at bar we are com- pelled to inquire, in justice to the people, whether those pledges have been redeemed, or whether they have been broken, violated and disregarded. Had the patronage of the Government, within proper limits, been turned over for its exercise to the party intrusted with j^ower by a majority of the people, there could have been no complaint; but upon the assurance that I have read, the declaration was made that in every case where an incum- bent was competent and qualified he should remain in office till the expiration of his term. "When, therefore, some were suspended and others were left, what is the irresistible inference, after the dc^clarations of the President, except that these persons JOHN J. INGALLS. 177 were suspended for cause, either affecting their personal integrity or their official administration? Upon the ground, then, of personal justice, if no other, we are en- titled to know whether wrong has been done by the accu- sations that have been filed in the Departments, so that we may protect those who are unable to defend them- selves from injustice and defamation. Since this debate began there are indications that the President has be- come convinced that his position is untenable, and that he has concluded to yield to the reasonable requests of the Senate and relieve suspended officials from the other- wise inevitable imputations upon their conduct and char- acter. "The Executive is not on trial before the Senate; the Senate is not on trial before the Executive; but both, as to the sincerity of their professions and the con- sistency of their actions, are on trial before that greater, wiser and more j)owerful tribunal — the enlightened con- science of the people, from whose verdict there is neither exculpation nor appeal." Hon. MATTHEW C. BUTLER, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. ATTHEW C. BUTLER, of Edgefield, is a native of Grreenville, South Carolina, where he was born March 8th, 1836. He received a classical diploma from the Acad- emy at Edgefield, and entered the South Carolina Col- lege in 1854, but did not wait to graduate before com- mencing the study of law. While pursuing his legal studies he resided with his uncle, Hon. A. P. Butler, at Stonelands, near Edgefield Court House. In December of 1857 he was admitted to the Bar. He commenced practicing at Edgefield Court House, and in 1860 he was elected to the Legislature of South Carolina. When the war broke out his heart was with the South- ern cause, and he entered the Confederate service as Cap- tain of Cavalry in the Hampton Legion early in 1861, and by regular promotion Avon the rank of Major-General. In 1866 he was again elected to the Legislature of South Carolina, and in 1870 was a candidate for Lieuten- ant-Governor. In 1870 he received the Democratic vote of the State Legislature for United States Senator, receiv- ing thirty votes. He was elected to the United States Senate, and took his seat the 2d of December, 1877. (178) MATTHEW C. BUTLER. 179 Senator Butler is a fine orator, a man of ability, and does honor to the State he represents. On the famous debate on the admission of Dakota as a State, Mr. Butler spoke against the admission. We quote from his speech : "Mr. President, I concede the right of the people of a Territory to apply for adfaission into the Union when they have reached that condition which entitles them to Statehood. The citation of precedents or authorities is not necessary to prove this. It is admitted by all per- sons who have given the subject consideration ; but I do deny that the inhabitants of a Territory have any in- herent or original power in and of themselves to organ- ize a State government. They have none of the attri- butes of sovereignty while in a Territorial condition except of an inchoate character. " Congress created the Territorial government of Dakota, and exercises as absolute dominion over it as the dominion of a State over its counties, and can abolish or modify the government at its will. Congress alone can authorize the transition from the Territory to a State. In Congress the Constitution and laws have lodged this power, and the exercise of it anywhere else is a bold, naked usurpation, which may lead to a serious conflict of authority, to revolution and bloodshed, and ought not to be sanctioned or encouraged by any department of the government or any law-abiding people. It may be said, and truly said, the people of Dakota, by their action, have no such purpose or intention ; but I am now talking about the tendencies and possible consequences of such action. Excited party feeling, under the lead of ambi- 180 OUR GREAT MEX. tious, unwise, indiscreet men, has engulfed more quiet communities than Dakota, with all her loyalty and com- posure in most perilous and dangerous complications. "Mr. President, this matter of making a State is a very serious business. A sovereign, inde23endent Com- monwealth — sovereign and independent as to the powers reserved to it by the Constitiftion — into whose charge the life, liberty, j)roperty and happiness of the citizens are to be committed. It is not a game of chance between political parties, a plaything with which demagogues and reckless men may gratify their unsavory ambition, or cliques and rings and cabals j)ly their unworthy av©- cations. ^ "N'o, sir; the interests at stake are too great, and our responsibility too grave to permit us to waive it in favor of anybody. The architects of our system were master workmen in the science of government. They erected a structure complete within itself, and yet sus- ceptible of almost indefinite expansion. Annex after annex has been added, until it has reached a size many times greater than the original. By whom were these additions authorized to be made by the original founders ? By the inhabitants of the Territory out of which the addition is to be established — of their own motion and volition ? Clearly not. That would be carrying the doc- trine of ' squatter sovereignty ' much beyond the point its most extreme advocates ever contemplated. "By whom, then, I repeat, shall the new State be brought into the Union ? I answer, Mr. President, in terms never before denied in the history of the country, in the territorial expansion going on for a hundred years, MATTHEW C. BUTLER. 181 I answer, by the people of the States, through their chosen representatives in the Congress of the United States — the sovereign people of the sovereign States, to whom belongs the materials out of which the new fabric of government is to be built — the people of the States, the masters of Congress, the owners of the public domain, and the source of all power. Into these hands, and nowhere else, the Constitution and laws have committed the power. "And how is it to be exercised? The process is very simple, attended by no complications or political legerdemain or mystery. It is by the passage by Con- gress of an enabling act empowering the people to erect a State within certain prescribed limits of the public domain, to be fixed in the act, and conforming to the requirements laid down in the Constitution and laws for new States, and submitted for final approval by Congress, that they shall be republican in form, not repugnant to the Constitution, etc. That is all, sir. It is very sim- ple — very plain and easily understood. No need to quib- ble or gainsay it, for it is the law, and the accuracy and correctness of the statement of it can not and will not be denied. Let us apply this test to the case now before the Senate. Have the people of Dakota, now demanding admission into the Union, complied with these plain requirements of the law? Has Congress passed an enabling act, and have they, in pursuance of its terms, organized a State government republican in form, and presented it for ratification or approval by Congress. If they have not, then I submit to the candid judgment of 182 OUR GREAT MEN. every Senator of every and all political parties and opin- ions whether they ought not to be required to await this indispensable authority before they can become a State ? I invite a discussion of the question on a plane higher than that of j)arty politics or party advantage, and j^lant myself on the invincible stronghold of the law of the case, and if I fail to establish the assertion that the law is as I present it, I give up the contest and support the bill reported by the majority of the Committee on Territories. "And, sir, with a view of making the issue clear and distinct and sharp, I have offered a bill, an enabling act, as a substitute for the bill under consideration. I need not exj)lain its terms in detail further than to say it is substantially the bill passed by the Senate at the last session of Congress, and therefore ought to be familiar to Senators. The main difference consists in this, that my substitute embraces the whole Territory, whereas the bill of last session contemplated a division on the forty- sixth parallel. I have read with care and interest the very able and plausible report of the majority of the committee, presented by the Senator from Indiana [Mr. Harrison], and the bill which accompanies it, and have failed to discover any preliminary authority whatever from Congress to organize a State government in Dakota. "But, say the advocates of this measure, no enabling act or other authority from Congress is necessary, and certain so-called precedents and compacts and guarantees are relied upon in support of this position. Let us ex- amine these and see what bearing they have on the case MATTHEW C. BUTLER. 183 made. Before entering upon this inquiry, however, I will say, in passing, that I believe Dakota has the essen- tial conditions for Statehood, and, further, when she pre- sents herself to Congress in an orderly, constitutional and legal manner for admission into the Union of States on an equal footing with the other States, I will be pre- pared to aid and welcome her and her enterprising, in- telligent population in rising to the dignity of an inde- pendent Commonwealth. But she must come with a clean record, expressing the free, untrammeled, uncon- trolled wishes of a fair majority of her people. ******* "If we had been as vigilant as our fathers, Dakota's petition would have been modified before reference to the committee. Like Michigan, she came here as a State, having usurped power to become a State, presenting the anomaly of two organized governments. State and Terri- torial, exercising the functions of governing at the same time within the same Territory. Where can a warrant for it be found in the Constitution and laws of this coun- try? Let us, then, discard this precedent as one unfit to be followed. And so with Arkansas — the circumstances of her admission are too well known to require extended notice. At that time the two political Titans, slavery and anti-slavery, were approaching each other on con- verging lines — Arkansas represented one and Michigan the other — and both Avere taken into the Union in an irregular, and, as I insist, unconstitutional manner, as acts of propitiation, of compromise, to temporize with the im- pending 'irrepressible conflict.' These two giants were each struggling for power, and many desperate expedi- 184 OUR GREAT MEN. ents were resorted to for aggrandizement. It would have been better for the country, better for j^osterity, if the issue had been joined then and settled than to have post- jioned it thirty years, when the power aAd capacity of the sections to destroy each other had so largely in- creased. " The same observations apply with equal force to Iowa and Florida, but they had enabling acts ; and Mis- souri, Wisconsin and ISi^evada, cited in the report, are not correctly cited. They had enabling acts, and under them organized their State governments. California and Ore- gon are also exceptional. The two former were remote, outlying Territories, difficult of access to and from the seat of Government at Washington, requiring weeks and months for communication, now accomplished in hours and days. The former, then lately acquired by conquest under the dominion of a military authority, a form of government repugnant to the American system, Congress might have been excused, if not justified, in making an exception in her favor under all the circumstances; and so of Oregon, and for many of the same reasons. Oregon was up to 1846 under the joint occupancy of Great Britain and the United States, and, as I have stated, she was a remote, outlying Territory. It, therefore, became important to the people of that section of country that they should have larger 2^owers than they could have under the protection of a Territorial government which has its existence only by virtue of the power of Congress over the Territories. "Is there anything in the present condition of our affairs to justify this confessedly extraordinary proceed- MATTHEW C. BUTLER. 185 ing on the part of the people of so-called South Dakota to set up for themselves a State government wdthout the consent of Congress, in defiance of the action of Congress on her former application? Slavery is dead, and has ceased to be an irritating factor in our politics. The ' irrepressible conflict ' is ended, and the sections are be- coming more and more homogeneous in thought and pur- pose. Time is smoothing down the asperities born of civil conflict. We are, hai^pily, at peace. The Terri- tories are being settled up by an intelligent race of pio- neers from all parts of the country, and, in the main, well governed. Why, then, depart from the time-honored, safe, constitutional rule for their admission into the fam- ily of States? I confess, sir, I can not realize the neces- sity. Of the twenty-five States admitted into the Union but five have come in in this irregular manner — one- fifth. " Is there a pressing political exigency lurking behind this movement which impels it forward with almost un- seemly haste and zeal ? Is there a purpose underlying the pressure for Statehood to forestall the orderly pro- gress of events in Dakota Territory under a new National administration, which might change the political com- plexion of representatives sent to the JSTational Legisla- ture different from those now seeking admission from this so-called State ? I can not divest my mind of such a suspicion, and that a ' snap ' judgment would be rendered if we ratify this effort to make a State." Hon. frank l wolford, OF KENTUCKY. J^^^JRANK L. WOLFORD, of Columbia, who represents the Eleventh Congressional Dis- trict of Kentucky in the Congress of the United States, was born in Adair County, of that State, September 2d, 1817. He received a good common-school education, and supplemented that with the study of law, after due prej^aration of which he was admitted to the Bar. He was a member of the House of Representatives in the G-eneral Assembly of Kentucky in 1847, '48, '65 and '66. In 1864 and 1868 he was Presidential Elector for the State at large. He was Colonel of the First Kentucky Cavalry from 1861 to 1864; and Adjutant- General of the State of Kentucky in 1867-68. He was elected to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses as a Democrat. In his remarks on one of the many pension bills brought up before Congress Mr. Wol- ford said: "Mr. Chairman, I desire to say that in Kentucky, Missouri, and several other States of this Union, when the great struggle was making for the life of this JS'ation all the males who were of age Avent into the army on (186) FRANK L. WOLFORD. 187 the one side or the other — those of rich families gener- ally going into the Confederate Army, and those who were poor into the Union Army. A few boys and old men were left at home to take care of the women, to plow, to raise corn and keep the women and children from starving. When Morgan came to Kentucky, when Pegrim came to Kentucky, when Price went to Missouri, these boys who had stayed at home came forward in many cases to assist in the defense of their State. I remem- ber a notable case in the State of Kentucky, when boys of sixteen and seventeen years left their plows stand- ing in the furrow and joined the militia. In one battle, which I remember, with General Pegrim, there were under my command two brothers — one of them a member of my division, while the other had come from the plow that morning to fight for his country. He came at the call of the provisional Governor, because the regular Governor of the State refused to muster soldiers in. He came and put himself in the ranks, and I placed him right by the side of his elder brother. I thought it best for the militia and the regular trained troops to stand together in that fight, for it was a terrible fight. "In that battle both these bovs were shot. One had his right leg broken, the other had both legs broken. The younger boy who had that morning left his plow standing in the furrow lay there a cripple ; both legs had to be amputated. I sent both home. I thought myself justified in doing so, because I had no place to take care of them. One of them is drawing a pension. The other, because he did not make his application in time under the law, which has now expired, has never drawn 12 188 OUR GREAT MEN. a pension. He is poor; the 'wolf is at the door.' That plow stood in the furrow till it rotted, for there was nobody else to take it. I think if there ever was a righteous measure it is that which proposes to allow pen- sions to these militiamen who came from their homes and burned with patriotism, all alive to the interests of their country, ready to shed their blood and lay down their lives for the country they loved." -«>J4^>=<-4^-^- HON. GEORGE F. HOAR, OF MASSACHUSETTS. IeORGE F. hoar is a native of the State which he so efficiently represents in the United States Senate. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, August 29th, 1826. When a lad he attended Concord Academy, where he prepared for college, and graduated at Harvard College in 1846, at the early age of twenty. He then completed a course at the Dana Law School, Harvard University. Worcester was his chosen home for the future, and there he commenced the practice of his profession, soon estab- lishing a good practice. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1852, and of the Massachusetts Senate in 1857. He was elected a Representative to the Forty- GEOKGE F. HOAR. 189 first, Forty-second, Forty-third and Forty-fourth Con- gresses, and declined the nomination to the Forty-fifth Congress. He was an Overseer of Harvard College from 1874 to 1880. He was Chairman of the Massachusetts State Republican Conventions of 1871, 1877, 1882 and 1885. Mr. Hoar was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1876 at Cincinnati, and of 1880 and 1884 at Chicago, serving as Chairman of the Convention of 1880, at Chicago. He was appointed one of the man- agers on the part of the House of Representatives of the Belknap impeachment trial in 1876. He was also a mem- ber of the Electoral Commission in 1876. In 1880 he was Regent of the Smithsonian Institute. He was formerly Vice-President, but is now President, of the American Antiquarian Society, and also Trustee of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology. He has received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Amherst, William and Mary and Yale Colleges. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Re- publican for the term commencing March 4th, 1877. In his remarks on the Bankruptcy bill, Mr. Hoar said : "The desire for a bankruptcy law, the opinion of its necessity, is one which is almost a measure of the pro- gress of civilization and of business, of wealth and of prosperity. Mr. Webster argued with great force that the constitutional mandate was intended to be impera- tive, peremptory upon Congress, in conferring the power to provide for a uniform system of bankruptcy. I do not agree with my friend from Kansas, that there is no desire 190 OUR GREAT MEN. for this legislation except from the wealthy merchant and creditor classes. There have been since the last bank- rupt act Avas repealed more than sixty-one thousand fail- ures in the United States reported to Bradstreet, and unquestionably, in addition to those, there have been enough to make the number in the United States much larger, beyond the amount one hundred thousand in all. "R-emember the constant increase of the dealing of our States with each other, so that the manufacturer in Rhode Island has his competitor in Ohio or Michigan, or Missouri or Kentucky, and his customer in Mississippi or Arkansas or South Carolina. Remember that almost every one of our great commercial cities is within an hour or two or three of journey to the border of the State where it is situated. Take Boston, take Portland, take Providence, take Worcester, take Springfield, New York, Jersey City, the great manufacturing cities of New Jer- sey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Chicago, Mil- waukee, St. Louis, Atlanta, and a great many others that I might name. The men who do business in these cities go in and out, day by day, to their daily occupations, large numbers of them from residences in adjacent States. Under the Constitution of the United States there is not one of this vast army of debtors who, if he happened to be so unfortunate as to become insolvent, is not, unless there be a bankrupt law, put at the mercy of a single creditor, and these men must pass through life j^aupers, unable to enter uj^on the ordinary business of American citizens, dragging ' at each remove a lengthening chain,' without right to lay up for their old age, for their wives, for their children, for those dependent upon them, what JAMES W. THEOCKMOETON. 191 it is the pride and ambition of every American citizen to be able to lay up, a provision after he has gone, unless the humane power conferred upon Congress by the Con- stitution be exercised ; and it is mainly and chiefly in the interest of this class of persons who are driven to the alternative of a life of poverty or a life of fraud." Hon. JAMES W. THROCKMORTON, OF TEXAS. IaMES W. THROCKMORTON", of McKin- ney, who represents the Fifth Congressional District of Texas in the United States Con- gress, was born in Sparta, Tennessee, Feb- ruary 1st, 1825. At the age of sixteen he emigrated with his father to Texas. By profession he is a lawyer. In 1851 he was elected to the State Legislature of Texas, and served as Senator and Representative for ten years. In 1861 he was a member of the Secession Con- vention of Texas, and was one of the members of that Convention who strongly opposed secession ; he, with six others, casting his vote against the measure. But, be- lieving, as did many of the brave sons of the South, that when his State called he must obey, he entered the Con- federate service, serving as Captain and Major until the 192 OUR GREAT MEN. autumn of 1863, when he was again returned to the State Senate. In 1864 the Grovernor of Texas appointed him Briga- dier-General of State troops, and commander on the north-west border of the State. Under the authority of the Confederate States Grovernment, and also the State Government of Texas, in May, 1864, he concluded a treaty of peace with all the wild tribes of Indians on the Texas border, not returning from the discharge of this duty till in June after the surrender. He was a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Texas, and was Chairman of the Convention. He was elected Governor of Texas for a term of four years, but after serving only one year was removed by order of General Sheridan, in August of 1867. He was elected a Representative to the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty- eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses of the United States as a Democrat. We give extracts from a speech of Mr. Throckmorton's on the Indian Question, which we consider to be one of his best: "I have said that this appropriation is useless and extravagant. I say so because it is money thrown away. The utmost we can expect to do in the way of education for the Indian is to make the eifort to teach him the ele- ments of an ordinary English education. This is pro- vided for in the treaties, and should be faithfully carried out. You can not make a Christian out of a Jew or a Mohammedan, nor can you make a Jew or a Moham- medan out of a Christian. Their religious j)rinciples have been grounded into them by centuries and ages of JAMES W. THROCKMORTON. 193 teaching, habits, thoughts and associations; no more can you change in a day or a generation the teachings, habits, thoughts and associations of the untutored savage of the mountains and plains. ^ * 4f Hf ^ ^ " I speak especially of the plain and mountain Indians ; there is as marked a distinction between those Indians and the Indians that formerly inhabited the country between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River as there is between the ferocious wolves of the j^lains and the dogs of our households. The Indians found by our ancestors on the shores of New England, along the Atlantic and Gulf coast, on the Ohio, the Wabash and the Mississippi, on the Tennessee and Cumberland, while they lived by the chase and were addicted to war, yet all of them, to some extent, cultivated vines and raised corn and beans, and tobacco where it would grow. No seed was ever planted, no vine was ever cultivated by those to whom I refer. * * * # « * "Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, allow me to present in the briefest possible manner my solution of the Indian problem. What I would do so far as this bill is con- cerned, if the rules permit, would be to insert a provision at its close requiring army officers, at the end of this fiscal vear, to be detailed and selected from the retired list to act as agents, special agents, inspectors, superintendents of schools, and as commissioners to assist in the purchase of goods and overlooking contracts, and non-commissioned officers and privates to act as clerks at the agencies and as a police force, and a further provision that the appro- 194 OUR GREAT MEN. l^riatioiis for the industrial schools and other schools at Hampton, Carlisle, Genoa, Salem, Lincoln, and all of them, should cease with the end of this fiscal year. This would give timely notice to all concerned and prepare the way for reform and economy. It would be better to j)ass a resolution by the House instructing the Committee on Indian Affairs to bring in a bill carefully prepared for this purpose. "The next step to accomplish reform, economy and energy in the Indian service would be, with their consent, to erect the five civilized nations into a Territory, giving them a governor from among their own people, allowing them a Territorial Legislature, that is already provided for by treaties, giving such Legislature jurisdiction of all matters affecting their interests with the General Gov- ernment, and regulating intercourse among themselves; give them a Delegate on this floor, elected alternately fi'om the several nations, to rejoresent their wishes and interests, and, as the less civilized tribes of the Territory are p)repared for it, admit them into this Territorial gov- ernment; leave these civilized nations free to control and dispose of their lands according to their own views and wishes, as were the people of Kentucky and Texas ; allow their national authorities, governors, legislatures and courts to administer and execute their own laws, protect the rights of their people, and attend to their own domestic concerns as freely and fully as they are doing to-day ; extend the civil as well as the criminal jurisdic- tion of the Federal courts over them in the same man- ner as it is extended over the other organized Territories of the country; extend to them citizenship and the pro- JAMES W. THROCKMORTON. 195 tection of life, liberty and property as amply as the Con- stitution and laws extend it over our own people; abolish their agency, and deal with them like you do with other free and intelligent people who have churches, and schools, and academies scattered everywhere among them. Do these things, and it will be but a few years until you w411 have another Territory knocking at your doors for admit- tance into the sisterhood of States that will be as fair and peerless, in all that constitutes a grand and noble State, as any now in this great galaxy of States. "In respect to other tribes, comply in the most liberal manner with all treaty obligations, and with the weak and needy go beyond this ; curtail their reservations, with their consent, by giving an equivalent, but do not crowd them on the same area of land upon which white men would make a comfortable support; enact laws authorizing and requiring the Department to lease por- tions of their reservations for grazing purposes, utilizing the rich grasses that should not be allowed to go to waste and decay, and by such means affording employ- ment to the Indians as herders, and learning them the value of cattle, at the same time making profitable these large tracts of country by producing cheap beef for the millions of toilers of the country, and thus creating a revenue that will largely contribute to the support of the Indians ; discontinue the vast sums you have been appro- priating for industrial and boarding schools, and for the support of sinecures in office, and cut off the large sums for transportation. Let them attend to their own home schools and schools of religious denominations among them, and when there is found now and then a bright 196 OUR GREAT MEN. pupil who would appreciate better advantages send him to an academy in one of the civilized nations, where they exist and are conducted under the auspices of Indians — by encouraging these schools and placing the young savage among his kind, where he will feel more at home ; encourage all religious denominations to establish churches and schools among them, and aid these relig- ious schools in a moderate and prudent way; dispense with every civilian employe' at the agencies except the interj^reters, physicians, engineers, teachers, farmers, millers, carj^enters and blacksmiths required by the treaties. Detail from the Army and take from the retired list officers to serve as agents, inspectors and superin- tendents, and non-commissioned officers or privates to act as clerks. Abolish the Indian police, and, instead of encouraging them to ride about in idleness and depend upon the Government for rations and a salary, teach them to rely upon their own exertions for a support, and detail non-commissioned officers and privates, changing them from time to time, to act as a police and keep from among the Indians bad white men who violate the inter- course laws; let the Government protect them from the greed of white men who seek a lodgment among them with a view to despoil them of their substance ; allot their lands in severalty among them, not by force, but when it is desired, and teach them to value homes that shall not be taken from them, and U2:>on which they may realize the hopes and aspirations of free and independent men, and where their labor wall be bestowed for their own comfort without the fear of loss or interference with their concerns and pursuits. Do these things with the JAMES W. THROCKMORTON. 197 wilder tribes, and teach them to rely on their own exer- tions, and by j^atient persistence in this policy you will gradually make progress with the present generation and greatly elevate succeeding ones. "And lastly, I would suggest a commission to be organized under the direction of the Interior Department, whose duty it shall be to investigate the Indian depreda- tion claims, as is now being done under the directions of the act of last Congress, but instead of reporting the claims back to Congress give them the powers of a court of equity, and authorize them to send for additional evi- dence if deemed necessary on the j^art of the Govern- ment, with the right of the claimant to introduce addi- tional testimony, and as each claim is finally made up direct a judgment to be rendered by such commission, and when that judgment is rendered make it final. If in favor of the claimant for any sum, the name of the party and tribe of Indians committing the depredations, and the amount found to be due, to be certified to Congress for an appropriation to pay the same. Out of the sales to the Government of the surplus reservations of the sev- eral tribes the Government should be reimbursed for any payments made under the provisions of this regulation. "The Government having been at fault so long in not withholding sufficient sums to pay the approved depre- dation claims should proceed at once to discharge its obligations to its own people, and no longer delay an act of justice so strongly demanded by every reason of humanity, honesty and fair dealing. * The economies and reforms proposed by me would be just and generous to all the nations and tribes of Indians with whom we have 198 OUR GREAT MEN. treaty relations ; they respond in a fair and liberal spirit to the promptings and demands of humanity; it would enable the Government, without imposing new burdens upon its Treasury, to meet just obligations long since due to its own despoiled, long-suffering citizens ; it would result in much needed reforms of abuses that have for many years been corrupting a part of the civil service of the Government, and infuse into our Indian management an energy and efficiency sadly needed, and which would result in the greatest good to every interest concerned." HON. ZEBULON B. VANCE, OF NORTH CAEOLINA. EBULON B. VANCE, of Charlotte, was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, May 13th, 1830. He received his education I at Washington College, Tennessee; Ash- ville Academy, North Carolina; and the University of North Carolina. He was admitted to the Bar early in 1852, and the same year was elected County Attorney for Buncombe County. He was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons in 1854, and was a Representative from North Carolina in the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses. He abandoned Congressional halls in 1861 to follow the god of war, and volunteered as Captain in the Confed- erate Army, but was soon promoted to Colonel of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina Regiment. In August, 1862, he was elected Governor of North Carolina, and was re-elected in 1864. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1870, but was refused admission because his disabilities had never been removed. In January, 1872, he resigned, and in the same year was Democratic nominee for the United States Senate, but was defeated in the election by (201) 202 OUR GREAT MEN. a combination of straying Democrats and Republicans. In 1876 he was elected Governor for the third time. The winter of 1878-79 he was elected United States Senator; and since he has been there has well demon- strated the wisdom of his constituents in electing him to re2:>resent them in the Senatorial Chamber of the Nation. The following are extracts from a speech made by Mr. Vance on Civil - Service Reform. Mr. Vance said: "At the close of the great civil war, when the party then in power desired to reconstruct a portion of this Government on principles which would secure its denom- ination, it so haj)pened that a constitutional President stood in the way. It was necessary to divest him of his prerogative before that party could accomj^lish its uncon- stitutional object, and a regular attack upon his rightful i:>owers was begun by the passage of the tenure-of-officc law. But soon after Mr. Johnson's term of office had expired — his successor being one who was in sympathy with the party then in jiower — the necessity for that law was no longer felt; that is to say, the offices could be secured without it. The law, therefore, was modified. But the remnant of it was left on the statute book as a reminder of the iniquity, to be brought up again when necessary. That necessity, however, did not arise until after the ^^residential election of 1884, when a Democrat was chosen to fill that office. But being wise in their generation, and fearing that for want of control of both Houses of Congress it might not be able to resurrect that law, the Republican party fell uj^on the plan of per- petuating the official existence of its friends by the enact- ment of a law 'to regulate and improve the civil service ZEBULON B.- VANCE. 203 of the country.' It was a continuation of the old assault upon the rights of the Executive ; and all of the present troubles between the Executive and the Senate are due and chargeable to that enactment. And I propose to address myself to that law, a bill for the repeal of which I heretofore had the honor of introducing. But before addressing myself to either the unconstitutionality or imjDolicy of that enactment, I wish to say that one of my chief objections to it, and to all other laws which restrict or intrench upon the established rights and prerogatives of any department of the Government, is the tendency to defeat the will of the people as expressed at pop- ular elections, and to that extent to impair and destroy the vigor and efficiency of political parties in this country. "Mr. President, in the broadest and most comprehen- sive sense of the term, I avow myself a party man ; not from natural pugnacity of temper, not because of preju- dice against those who may differ with me, nor yet because I believe there are no evils inseparably con- nected with party organization, but because I do believe most earnestly that jDarties are indisj)ensable to the exist- ence of liberty, and that a government by party is the only way in which there can be government by the people. "'Party,' says Edmund Burke, 'is a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavors the national interest upon some j^articular principle in which they are all agreed. Men thinking freely will, in particular instances, think differently. But still, as the greater part of the measures which arise in the course of public 204 OUR GREAT MEN. business are related to, or dependent on, some great lead- ing, general principles in government, a man must be peculiarly unfortunate in the choice of his political com- pany if he does not agree with them at least nine times in ten. And this is all that ever was required for a char- acter of the greatest uniformity and steadiness in connec- tion. How men can proceed without connection at all is to me incomprehensible.' " Said Horace Walpole : * * * ' I have a maxim — that the extinction of party is the origin of faction.' And Horace Walpole ought to have known. In my honest opinion, no more unmistakable sign of the decay of pub- lic virtue in politics has been furnished by American history than the rise, if, indeed, it can be said to have arisen, of that maudlin 23olitical sentiment which we recognize, for want of a better, under the name of ' Mug- wumpish,' a kind of sickly, sentimental, Sunday-school, ' Goody Two-shoes ' party, which appears desirous of ruling the world, not as God has made it, but as they would have it. * * * « « "The passage of the civil-service law, as I have inti- mated, was an attack upon the rightful j)i'erogative of the Executive, and a blow aimed at the integrity of political parties. It will be felt in all that parties are intended to preserve — the institutions of our country. The corner- stones of those institutions are : ^^ First. The eligibility of all qualified freemen to hold office, and therefore the right to seek office at the source of power. " Second. A brief term of office. ZEBULO^ B. VANCE. 205 " Tliird. A direct and immediate responsibility of all elective officers to the people. ^^ Fourth. A mediate and direct responsibility of all appointed officers to tbe people, througli the direct and immediate responsibility of the appointing power. "All these essential features of our Constitution of government are contravened by this law known as the civil-service act. "Every citizen of the United States is qualified by law to hold any office unless the disqualification appear in the Constitution itself. The only disqualifications found in that instrument are those contained in the four- teenth amendment thereto, for participation in rebellion; the requirement that the President of the United States shall be a native and thirty-five years old ; that Senators shall have been nine years residents of the States for which they may be chosen, and thirty years old, and that Representatives shall be twenty-five years old, and seven years inhabitants of the States from which they may be chosen. With these exceptions, every citizen of the United States is qualified by the Constitution and laws thereof to hold any office under the Government, and therefore entitled to seek any office, elective or appointive. ****** " By the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution it is provided that ' No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citi- zens of the United States.' "Of course, then, Congress has no right to make such a law which it has forbidden the States to make, unless 13 206 OUR GREAT MEN. such i^ower be clearly found in the Constitution. But there is no such power there ; nor is there any there from which that power might be derived by necessary implica- tion. By no process of logic can it be shown that the prohibition of the exercise of a power residing in a State by implication confers that power upon Congress. Noth- ing but express words or necessary implication can confer any power whatever upon the General Grovernment. Here there are neither express words nor necessary implication from express words authorizing any such power. In truth, the express objects of the Constitution in all its grants of power are intended mainly to preserve and enlarge, rather than to destroy or abridge, the rights of citizens. Having no right then by law to abridge the rights of citizens of the United States, it necessarily fol- lows that Congress can pass no law which permits any one else to do so. It can not, of course, delegate a power which it does not j^ossess. "I maintain that the civil-service law and the regula- tions prescribed thereunder manifestly do abridge the rights of citizens of the United States to apply for and receive office. In the lexicons the Avord 'abridge' is defined to mean 'to contract, to diminish.' Now, let us see if any man's rights have been contracted or dimin- ished by this law and the regulations made under its authority. " On the morning, we will say, of the 15th of January, 1883, any citizen of the United States not included within the disqualifications of the Constitution already mentioned, had the undisputed right to apply to and receive fi'om the President, one of the heads of the Executive Depart- ZEBULOX B. VANCE. 207 ments, the courts of law — wherever the appointing power was lodged — any office which it was lodged — any office which it was in their power under the Constitution to give ; and this without reference to the age, the scholar- ship, the State residence, or to the bibulous propensities or personal habits of the citizen. These, and all other requisites touching his fitness, were left in the sole discre- tion of the power which ajopoints him. And this uncon- trolled power to judge and to choose constituted an important part of his rights in the premises ; ' and wher- ever the power is lodged there it must remain,' says Mr. Cooley on constitutional limitations. On the morning of the 17th of January, 1883, the citizen awoke and found: ^^ First. That neither the President, the courts of law, nor the heads of Departments could appoint him to any place within the classified department service, the classified customs service, or the classified postal service, unless he were recommended by three men whose func- tions were first established by a law approved on the day before. ^''Second. That had he been over thirty-five years old, not all the appointing power mentioned in the Constitution, aided by that mentioned in the recently approved law, could have appointed him to any place within the classified postal service, or to any place in the classified customs service, or classified departmental serv- ice had he been under twenty-one or over forty-five years old. " Third. That no one, or all of them combined, could have appointed him to any place within the classified service had he been a citizen of a State which had more 208 OUR GREAT MEN. than a certain proportion of appointments with reference to j)opulation. ^^ Fourth. That he could not have been appointed legally to any office in the classified service if two mem- bers of his family were already in the public service. '^ Fifth. That had he been examined and found qual- ified, he could not then have presented himself and been appointed, even though the appointing power had desired it; but would have been compelled to wait until the board of commissioners had seen proper to present his name, and if it did not see fit to do so within a certain time his name would have been dropped from the list of ' eligible' never to be presented. And lastly, that he could not anywhere approach the appointing power to ask for j^osition. * * . * « * * " This civil-service law is the second attempt to recur to Hamiltonian principle, and is most cunningly begun at the bottom, where it would attract the least attention and indignation. Well did the late President G-arfield say the doctrine of Alexander Hamilton is waxing and that of Thomas Jefferson is waning. Had he happily lived until to-day and seen the operation of this law, and been a witness to the position which the Senate of the United States is now occupying, he would have been astonished at the rapid verification of his utterance. "If the Chief Magistrate can hold his office for four years only, why should a clerk hold his for life ? If the President, after four years of diligent and patriotic serv- ice, must submit himself and his deeds again to the judgment of his fellow-citizens, why should his subordi- ZEBULON B. VANCE. 209 nates be granted exemption from like submission and be endowed witb official immortality ? It works well they say ; the longer the clerk serves the more competent he is to serve well. Is not the same true of a President ? Is not the same true of a Senator, a Representative, and all other officers ? If the system works well with the minor officer, will it not work equally well with the major? And if that be true, will we not soon begin to extend it? Indeed it was announced in the discussion of the bill that it was tentative, and it was intended to be extended, as experience justified, to the whole civil service of the Grovernment. In fact, has not the President of the United States pledged himself, with certain reservations, in obedience to a supposed public opinion, to extend the spirit of the law beyond its legal efi"ect to all the higher appointments which pertain to him? If that be so, is not that the waxing of the principles of Alexander Ham- ilton and the waning of those of Thomas Jefferson ? t|s fls -ffi 7^ V * "We were often told in the debate upon the bill of the excellence of the British system of civil service, which, it was said, was not changed with every adminis- tration. Of course not. The executive power of Great Britain is hereditary, and changes only at the death of the monarch. The administration, however, changes at will, and may change every week; therefore, the idea of life tenure for executive officers is consistent with an executive for life; therefore, an official class of life-long tenure is consistent with monarchical and aristocratical government, which is peculiarly a government of classes. But it is not consistent with a democratic government 210 OUK GREAT MEN. and a short-lived executive, where no class is recognized bj law, and all men are equal. "When the people of England, through their repre- sentatives in the House of Commons, desire a change in the administration of the Government, they simply vote a want of confidence in that government. The executive officers in power are not changed otherwise than so far as the change of policy may require. That is all that is expected or desired. Besides, as the executive there was hereditary, there was no way of avoiding corrupt or ineffi- cient minor officers except by competitive examinations. There was no resj^onsibility to the people for bad appoint- ments. Here there is such responsibility ; here all is different. When the j^eople elect a President avowing a different policy from that of his ^predecessor, they thereby declare not only for a change of policy, but for a change in the 2^e'^so7inel of the Government as well. This has been the universal custom to the j)i'esent day. The peo]3le expect the man of their choice whom they have elected to remove those in office and aj^point every man whom he may deem necessary to the effectual carrying out, not of his, but of their will. And especially was this true of the last Presidential election, which was influenced more by the desire for a thoroughly radical change in the ijersonnel of the late Administration than for any other consideration whatever. The proof of this was the universal cry, the ^^arty slogan, ' Turn the rascals out!' It was said, and justly said, that so long a con- tinuance in power of one set of officials Avas hurtful to liberty and public integrity ; that wrongs and corruj)tions would naturally cree]) into official life, and remain unex- ZEBULON B. VANCE. 211 posed if new men did not frequently come in to investi- gate and denounce them. The people willed this in 1884. Their will has not been respected. Their President's hands were bound by this civil-service law which he had promised to maintain, and they were further bound by his own extra legal promises to carry the spirit of that law into his whole Administration. They are still bound by the presence of innumerable political enemies who surround him on every hand. And even in the few cases where he has attempted to surround himself with men in sympathy with him and with those who elected him, a hostile Senate stands ready to thwart him by the use not only of its confirming power, but by the usurpation of a power which does not belong to it, for the purpose of keeping the friends of the majority in office at any cost. « * * * * * "But if this law were constitutional, which it is not; if it were fair to all classes of citizens, which it is not ; if it were just in its operations upon the one party as well as the other, which it is assuredly not — still I would deny that it is wise and business-like. I believe it is not a better method than the old one, and the various heads of Departments have not yet said that clerks given to them under the civil-service law are better than those they had before. They do say, however, that it saves them a vast deal of importunity, and that is the most they have said in its favor. I have heard of many instances where the appointees under the new system have proven quite as inefficient and awkward as any others. "There seems to be an impression that the further you can get from the people the less importunity there 212 OUR GREAT MEN, will be and the better officers you will get. In my judg- ment the man who can not endure these importunities is entirely too good and too patriotic and too virtuous to hold office in a free country, and should be permitted to retire beyond the reach of such an annoyance, unless he can say that he has not himself spent the greater part of his life in importuning other j^eojole for office. In my judgment there is no more safe or j^urer source of office in a free country than the people ; and the man who desires to get away from that source should immediately become the subject of the like desire on their part to get away from him. I believe that when executive officers were appointed under the old system on the recommenda- tion of members of Congress, if you please, better selec- tions were made than have been or will be made by the Civil Service Commission, and I know they were more resj^onsive to the popular will. To say nothing of the Presidential responsibility of the Representatives, who are fresh from the j^eople, directly accountable to them twice as often as the Executive, and who have also a per- sonal acquaintance with the constituents whom they recommend. Most of them have had this personal knowledge for a lifetime, and are, therefore, infinitely better judges of their fitness than would be three strangers who may see them for the first time when they appear for examination, and when, in the brief space of perhaps an hour, they may ask them a few questions. " Recently the members of the Commission aj^peared before the Civil Service Reform Committee in the House of Representatives, and, Avhile they acknowledged the ZEBULON B. VANCE. 213 gross injustice that had been done one section of the country, advised strongly against trying to remedy it, for the reason that it would make the law unpopular in the K'orth, where its chief supporters were. That is to say, they advised that injustice must be perpetuated because justice would oifend the stronger party ! That is to say, that the South must submit to being denied an equal par- ticipation in the government of their country because the North, perhaps, would not like it ! That is to say, that the States thus deprived, being Democratic States, the Democratic party and a Democratic Administration must be the instruments to sustain a law for the benefit of the Republican party lest the Republican party should not like it ! "By an examination of the 'Blue Book,' or 'Official Register,' just prior to the date of the passage of the civil-service law, it will be seen that in the Department at Washington there were 7,273 employes, of whom but 1,353 were from the South. The State of North Carolina, of this number, was credited with 71, and of these 71 quite a number were persons who had, perhaps, never seen the State — certainly had no residence there. They were distributed in the various departments as follows Department of the Interior, 17 ; Department of State, 1 Department of the Navy, none ; Department of War, 1 Department of the Treasury, 45 ; Post-office Department, 6; Department of Justice, 1. Now, considering that North Carolina is one of the thirty-eight States, and has a population of 1,500,000, and is entitled, therefore, to at least five times that number of positions under the Gov- ernment if she had her rights under the law, and that the 214 OUR GREAT MEN. Board of Civil Service Commissioners refused to remedy this injustice, it can not be wondered at that there is dis- content in that State and in all others similarly situated. ^w ^ ^P ^f ^p "^ "The behavior of the Republican advocates of this law about the time of its passage was not only remarka- ble, it was shameless. In the face of their allegations that the spoils system was corru23t, and that by it we could not possibly get good and com23etent officials, they not only defeated by a solid vote in the Senate the amend- ment of Mr. Pugh, as I have stated, requiring their friends already in to submit to examination, but they made haste to fill every possible vacancy with their parti- sans before the law took effect. It is an open secret that on Saturday, the 14th of July, some of the heads of Departments in this city spent the day and night, far into Sunday morning, in filling every vacancy, promoting their friends and kin and degrading their political enemies. The law was to go into effect on the 15th of July. Quite a number of new clerks had been provided for by the a]3propriation bills for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, and a full supply of applicants had already passed the civil-service examination and stood by waiting for the law to go into effect. But when the offices opened on Mon- day, the 16th, not a vacant place was anywhere to be found. Every one was occuj)ied by a Republican or kinsman of the appointing officer ; and the men who j)er- petrated this fraud on their own law, with the cheek of a town cow, cry ' Spoilsman ! ' at every man who denounces their hypocrisy ; and Democrats are found who by their votes here sustain these men in the retention of their ill- ZEBULON B. VANCE. 215 gotten spoils, and who seem to think that fraud and hypocrisy constitute the necessary overture to the grand symphony of reform. "The meaning of all this is, the Republicans desire office from pure patriotism; the Democrats wish office simply for the emoluments. For a Republican to hold office after the people have told him to leave is com- mendable and pure ; for a Democrat to wish to get one after the people have declared for him is reprehensible and base. Now, grant that the offices belong to neither party, but to the people, for whose benefit they were instituted; when the people have once spoken, and declared by a constitutional majority that the Republi- cans must go out and Democrats come in, which of the two displays the most attachment to the spoils, he who desires them with the consent of the people, or he who holds on to them in defiance of the wishes of the people ? If the owner of a house desires his two guests to depart, which of the two is the gentleman, he who retires on the first intimation of his host, or he who lingers, claims the house, and waits to be kicked out? « m * * * ^ "Conceive of an old-fashioned fighting Democrat, who for forty years had stood by his party through good and evil report, because he believed in its principles ; who battled for it when it had no offices to give ; many times when it was buried beneath such vast majorities as left scarce a prospect of earthly resurrection ; often oppressed by a weight of odium sufficient to cow the bravest spirit, under the influence of which the faithful became even as the 'few names in Sardis, who had not defiled their 216 OUR GREAT MEN. garments ' — when the very name of Democrat became a convertible term with that of copperhead, rebel and traitor — fancy his iinconquered and undismayed soul still working for his principles, still watching for the dawn, still waiting with prayerfulness for the hope of his polit- 'ical Israel, thanking God for each town, township or county victory which showed that his principles still lived in the hearts of his countrymen, and were growing because they were immortal — quicker and quicker throbs his heart, higher and higher rises his joy as stronghold after stronghold is carried, as State after State is cap- tured in spite of unconstitutional laws and governmental interference, in spite of bayonets glittering at the polls, in spite of that gross and unblushing fraud which is the supplement of despair; and, lastly, imagine, if you can, the hot tide of triumphant joy with which he saw in K'ovember, 1884, the banners of Democracy full high advanced and successful over all the Union, and his party once more in control of the great destinies of his country. When the hope of his soul had thus been at last realized, and his old eyes had been permitted to behold the great salvation, when bonfires kindled in a thousand cities and hamlets had burned down, and the feasting had ended, and the oratory and all the elements of rejoicing had subsided, and the new Administration had begun its career amid the j^rayers and blessings of all Democratic hearts; imagine, I say, this old, faithful and honest man of principle coming to Washington, in the simj)licity of his heart bringing certificates from his neighbors of his character and services, and modestly asking for a position, naturally supposing that the king ZEBULON B. VANCE. 217 in making up his jewels would remember his faithful servants. But imagine that old gentleman's disappoint- ment when something like the following occurs between him and the Government's representative: " Old Democrat. ' I have come to make application for some position under the Government which I am compe- tent to fill.' " Government Bepresentative. 'You are too old; under laws of the Republic men over forty-five years old are not permitted to take ofiice.' " 0. -D. ' But I see men in places here who are sixty years old.' " 6^. i?. ' Oh, they were in when the law was enacted, and it does not operate on them.' "(9. B. 'Well, if such be the law, I submit; it may be that I am too old. But here is my boy; he is young and active and well educated; give him a position.' "6^. a. ' We can not do it; there is no vacancy.' "(9. D. 'No vacancy? Well, make one. There is a rank Republican. That man has been our bitterest enemy. He has denounced me and my party as traitors to our country again and again. Turn him out and put in my son or my neighbor's son.' ^^ G. B. 'It can not be, sir. The law forbids it; and, besides, if there was a vacancy your son could not get the place unless he stood an examination by the Board of Civil Service Commissioners and secured the favor of that board over many others.' "(9. D. 'Well! well! Did all those Republicans in there have to stand such an examination and get 218 OUR GREAT MEN. their places in the same way? If so, and they were smarter than the Democrats, again I say, I will have to submit.' "G^. B. 'Oh, no, my dear sir, no! You see they were all in when the law was enacted. They got in by that old corrupt method which we call 'the spoil' sys- tem. But being in, you see they had a sort of vested right to their places, and the law does not disturb vested rights, that is Republican rights, except for very serious cause.' " 0. D. ' Then, it seems to me there is nothing here for me or mine, and all that talk during the campaign about corruption in office, and turning the rascals out, was a trick and a lie. It appears that there were no ras- cals in, or, if there were, you like rascals better than you do honest men, and so keep them.' "6^. B. 'Old man, you had better go home; you are behind the times. This is an age of civil-service reform. Men can no longer be rewarded by office for party work ; that is, humble men like you and your son. The big ones may be paid that way; for that is true reform. But when such men as you confess that they want office they are spoilsmen, and that is what you are. I am ashamed of you ! Away with you ! ' "This final and insulting reply is the iron which enters his soul, and he retires crushed and wounded beyond recovery. The sense of disappointment, of in- justice, of humiliation, the ingratitude of those for whom ho labored, are too much for him to endure, and the enthusiasm of his life is quenched forever. The man who calls him a spoilsman, and charges that he served his ZEBULON B. VANCE. 219 party for the sake of office only, foully belies a better man than himself. " This, Mr. President, is no fancied picture. There are thousands and thousands of just such men, and we meet them or hear from them every day. They are the strength of the Democratic party to-day ; they have been its refuge and its shield in the past; they j^reserved it from annihilation in its darkest hours. I am not quite sure that they will continue its champions in the future. I can well see that they might be willing to concede any fair and impartial distribution of the places under the Government on principle of merit or anything else that patriotism might demand of them, but they will not submit to the disfranchisement of themselves and their children. Mark what I say ! And you will not improve the matter by impeaching the purity of their motives and bestowing epithets upon them. They will not fight to win great Democratic victories for Republican benefit. They will not continue to rally to the bugles of the party and win hard-fought battles merely that their enemies may remain in possession of the field. They will not preserve the discipline and organization of their splendid line of battle and charge with their ancient courage if the epaulets and honors which they win are to be bestowed upon their adversaries, or cowards who skulked in the rear, or the mercenaries who hung upon the flanks of the contending parties, alternately firing upon each host. The mass of the people on both sides demand an open fight, and upright and downright dealing after the fight. They believe, too, in the common virtues of humanity, among the most noble of which is reckoned gratitude. And so 220 OUR GREAT MEN. do I. They believe that if a man's friends take him up and enable him, after a great struggle, to arrive at the point coveted by his ambition he owes something to them. And so do I. They believe that, other things being equal, in the bestowal of favors that man should give preference to his friends over his enemies. And so do I. They believe that the man who is lacking in the ordinary sentiment of gratitude may be likewise wanting in other kindred and cardinal virtues. And so do I. "And yet, Mr. President, I believe in reform — such reform as the people want, and have been wanting for ten years or more. Between those who call me a spoils- man and myself there is perhaps only a difference of definition. They believe that 'reform' consists in a Democratic administration operated by Republican agents ; I do not. They believe in keeping Republicans in office by law after the people have declared they shall go out ; I do not. They believe in ignoring the people and their representatives as far as possible in the selec- tion of officials ; I do not. They believe there can be no sincere reform unless Republicans are the chief benefi- ciaries thereof; I do. And, lastly, I believe that as good material for all civil officials is to be found in the Demo- cratic party as in any other, and that it is the right and duty of a Democratic administration to select that mate- rial, and none other, as the implements of reform; they do not. "Let me warn men against those who assume to be above the homely virtues and common frailties of our race, and who affect to inhabit the untrodden altitudes of a world different from the one where our Creator has ZEBULON B. VANCE. 221 » placed us, and deny being of the earth, earthy. A man too good in politics or religion is quite as reprehensible as one too bad, and I am quite sure he is a greater nui- sance. For the most part they are men who have failed in securing the objects of their own ambition, and may be described either as political old maids whose blood has been turned to vinegar by a failure to secure lovers before their unappreciated charms had fled, or as the grass widows of politics who have failed to retain lovers they had won by artifice and fraud. They are men who desire to conduct politics without the aid of the politi- cians ; who believe that the most successful way to oper- ate mechanics is to work them without implements. "Let such, in God's name, on fine wheat be fed. And let us honest Democrats eat barley bread." Hon. nelson DINGLEY, Jr., or MAINE. ELSON DINOLEY, Jr., of Lewiston, who rej^resents the Second Congressional Dis- trict of Maine in the Congress of the United States, was born in Durham, Andros- coggin County, Maine, February 15th, 1832. He is an alumnus of Dartmouth College, graduating there in the class of 1855. He studied law and was admitted to the Bar, but never followed the profession, preferring the life of a journalist. He became proprietor and editor of the Lewiston (Maine) Journal in 1856, and is still con- nected with that journal. He was a member of the State House of Representa-, tives in 1862, '63, '64, '65, '68 and '73, serving as Speaker of the House during the sessions of 1863 and '64. He was Governor of Maine in 1874 and '75. In 1874 Bates College conferred on him the degree of Doc- tor of Laws. He was a Delegate to the National Bej^ublican Con- vention in 1876. At a sj^ecial election, the 12th of September, 1881, he was elected, as a Republican, to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives of the Forty- seventh Congress, caused by the election of Hon. W. P. (222) NELSON DINGLE Y, JR. 223 Frye to the United States Senate. He was re-elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and also to the Forty-ninth Congress. In quite an extensive speech on free ships Mr. Ding- ley said: "The statement, therefore, that all maritime nations except the United States have adopted the free-ship pol- icy is incorrect so far as it conveys the impression that the other maritime nations with which we are in compe- tition treat foreign-built vessels the same as vessels constructed in their own yards — England alone excepted. France pays a construction bounty to vessels built in her own yards, and a double navigation bounty to such vessels. Italy pays a construction bounty for vessels built in her own yards. Germany, in her latest subven- tions to German steamship lines, insists that the vessels shall be constructed in her own yards. England alone maintains the free-ship policy in practice, and simply for the reason that her insular position, the fortunate juxtaposition of coal and iron mines near her sea-shore, and her cheap labor to work them, enables her to build her steam vessels in competition with the world. But even England sees to it that British steamship lines receive the benefit of her large postal subsidies. Sev- eral years ago a contract for carrying British mails was given to a German line, but as soon as the fact became generally known a protest was made in the House of Commons and was responded to with loud cheers, and since that time the British authorities have not ventured to make a practical application of the free-ship policy in the distribution of postal subsidies. 224 OUR GREAT MEN. " The fact remains that every maritime nation has gained its position on the ocean by adopting such a pol- icy as would enable them to build their own vessels; and that no nation has gained a commanding 2)osition on the ocean which has relied upon foreign ship-yards for the construction of her ships. "Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I protest against the pending bill as not only the confessed abandonment of the ship-building industry in this country, but also as the ado2)tion of a policy which will lead to the gradual extinguishment of that maritime spirit which leads to the navigation of the ocean. We may rest assured that if we can not devise a policy which will enable us to build our own vessels we shall utterly fail to maintain maritime enterprises. Ship-building and ship-using are not antagonistic, as some free-ship advocates would have us believe, but in every nation rise and fall together. "My friend from Arkansas seems to look forward to the admission of foreign-built vessels into our coastwise trade as aifording a compensation in breaking down what he calls a 'monopoly,' and reducing rates of freight to our peoiole. He overlooks the fact that the protection which has been given our vessels in the coastwise and internal trade has given the American people the lowest freight rates by water afforded by the home fleet of any nation, and at the same time has so promoted the inter- ests of that branch of our shijDping, that to-day it exhib- its a tonnage three times as large as the home fleet of Great Britain." Hon. NEWTON C. BLANCHARD. OF LOUISIANA. lEWTON CRAIN^ BLANCHARD, of Shreveport, Louisiana, was born in the Parish Rapides, Louisiana, on the 29th of January, 1849. On his father's side he is of Virginian parentage, and his mother was the daugh- ter of Colonel Robert A. Crain, of one of the old Mary- land families. He received an academical education, and commenced the study of law in the office of Ryan & White, at Alexandria, in 1868. In 1869 he entered the Law Department of the University of Louisiana, at New Orleans; graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1870, and immediately commenced the practice of his chosen profession at Shreveport, Lou- isiana. After two years' practice he formed a copartnershijD with Major James S. Ashton, a lawyer of distinguished reputation ; and when, during the summer of 1873, the brilliant Mr. Ashton was numbered among the many victims of the yellow fever, which raged so fiercely there that summer, he found himself, at the early age of twenty-five, in possession of a practice it usually takes long years of incessant work and faithful service to (225) 226 OUR GREAT MEN. acquire, and showed his ability to jorotect the trust com- mitted to his keeping. In 1879 he again formed a copartnershij), and this time with an old friend and classmate, Taliaferro Alex- ander. The law firm of Alexander & Blanchard is well and widely known, and ranks among the best. Their l^ractice is extensive and lucrative. In 1876 Mr. Blanchard was made Chairman of the Democratic Committee of Caddo Parish, and took an active part in the politics of the State, working for the restoration of the government of the State to the hands of her own people. Early in 1879 a call w^as made, by legislative enactment, for a Constitutional Convention. Caddo Parish elected Mr, Blanchard one of the three delegates to represent its Democracy in that Convention; and, though one of the youngest members of the Con- vention, he was made Chairman of its Committee on Federal Relations, besides occupying places on several other important committees. He soon earned and won an enviable reputation, both in the committee-room and in the body of the Convention. He was appointed by Governor Wiltz, of Louisiana, to the position of aide-de-camp on his staif, with the rank of Major, in the Louisiana State militia, and now holds the same position on the staif of the present Governor of the State, S. D. McEnery. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of the South, at Scwanee, Tennessee. His life, both public and private, has been so satis- factory to the people of Caddo Parish that they, with other parishes of the Fourth Congressional District of NEWTON C. BLANCHAED. 227 Louisiana, in 1880, tendered him the nomination on the Democratic ticket to represent them in the Congress of the United States. He was elected by an overwhelming majority to the Forty-seventh Congress, and was returned to the Forty-eighth Congress without opposition, and re- elected to the Forty-ninth Congress by a large majority. One of the best speeches Mr. Blanchard has deliv- ered was that on the bill making appropriations for the construction, repair and preservation of certain works on rivers and harbors, and for other purposes. Mr. Blanchard said: "It is my purpose at this time to confine myself to a discussion of that part of the bill under consideration which relates to the Mississippi River, and appropriates for its improvement the sum of |4,923,000, to be expended by the Secretary of War in accordance with the plans, specifications and estimates, and under the supervision of the Mississippi River Commission. " In view, sir, of the bitter experience through which the people, or a large number of the people, of the State which I have the honor to represent, in part, on the floor of this House, have just passed, in respect to the inundation which recently swept over their country — a calamity as appalling in contemplation of the human and animal suffering, woe and death which it entailed as it were potential in the destruction of property estimated and considered in the sense of a diminution of the aggre- gate of national wealth— in view, I say, of this experi- ence, of the m'ournful array of incontestible facts consti- tuting it, and considering the deep interest which the people of my State might naturally be expected to take 228 OUR GREAT MEN. in the question under consideration, I trust I will be pardoned for asking the indulgence and attention of the House while I submit some observations in support of the appropriation alluded to. " ' The wisdom of Congress should be invoked to devise some plan by which that great river shall cease to be a terror to those who dwell upon its banks, and by which its shipping may safely carry the industrial products of twenty-five millions of people.' "So spoke James A. Garfield, late President of the United States, in his letter of July 10th, 1880, accepting the nomination for the Presidency conferred upon him by the Republican party. He reminded the country that, in order to secure to the Nation the control of the Mississij^j^i and its tributaries. President Jefi*erson had negotiated the purchase of a vast territory extending from the Grulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. "Prior to that utterance, from his place as a Repre- sentative upon this floor, he had declared that he believed that one of the grandest of our material national interests, one that is national in the largest material sense of the word, is this great river and its tributaries. His broad and liberal comprehension ena- bled him to grasp the mighty subject, for he ^^ronounced it 'the most gigantic, single, natural feature of our conti- nent, far transcending the glory of the ancient Nile or of any other river on the earth.' With prophetic vision he foresaw that its vast and growing interests would make themselves heard and felt, for he realized in anticipation that 'the statesmanship of America must grapple the problem of this mighty stream;' that 'it is too vast for NEWTON C. BLANCHARD. 229 any State to handle; too much for any authority less than that of the Nation itself to manage.' "Sirs, in view of the recent bitter experience in the valley of the great stream, the time has come when the liberal-minded statesmanship of the country must rise equal to the emergencies of the hour, and ' devise a wise and comprehensive system that will harness the powers of this great river' to the preservation and development of the material interests of the country, and no longer permit the same, in unrestrained fury and wilder license, to spread havoc, ruin, desolation, destruction and despair over one of the very fairest portions of this boasted land of freedom and progress. "President Hayes, in his message of December, 1880, speaking of the Mississippi and its tributaries, said : " ' These channels of communication and interchange are the property of the Nation. Its jurisdiction is para- mount over their waters, and the plainest principles of public interest require their intelligent and careful super- vision, with the view to their protection, improvement, and the enhancement of their usefulness.' "Here, then, are presented the opinions on this sub- ject of the two Presidents of the Republic who immedi- ately preceded the present occupant of that chair. Both avowedly went beyond the mere question of the improve- ment of the navigation of the river. Both had in their minds, when giving utterance to the sentiments quoted, the ultimate idea of affording protection to those who dwell upon its banks, as well as offering greater facilities to the immense commerce borne upon its bosom. ******* 230 OUR GREAT MEN. "This great Nation, with its fifty millions of people, its wonderful history, its immense wealth, its unparalleled resources, its prodigious enterprise, its onward march in all that constitutes greatness, glory and power, can not afford to permit the devastation of its fairest and most productive provinces by the great stream which God intended as a blessing, but which has often and but too recently shown its potency as an engine of destruction, and this because of man's failure to use the means at his command for the restraining of its fury. "When, in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte consented, on behalf of France, to Mr. Jefferson's proposition for the purchase of the Louisiana territory, he is said to have remarked : " ' To emancipate nations from the commercial tyranny of England it is necessary to balance her influence by a maritime power that may one day become her rival ; that power is the United States. The English aspire to dis- pose of all the riches of the world. I shall be useful to the whole universe if I can prevent their ruling America as they rule Asia. They shall not have the Mississij^pi, which they covet.' "And when informed that the treaty of sale to the United States was consummated, he said : "'This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the United States, and I have just given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride.' " He foresaw that the nation which controlled the territory drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries j would hokl the key to America, and discerned that the. NEWTON C. BLANCHARD. 231 immense possibilities offering in the develojDment of that wonderful country must, when realized, make its pos- sessor rich, great and powerful. We have, as a Nation, relatively reached that point already, but nothing com- pared to what we shall as, in the providence of God, the great work of development goes on. "An important step in that work of development is the protection of the richest portion of the country acquired by the treaty with France from the angry floods of the mighty river whose outlet into the Gulf we gained control of by the acquisition aforesaid. " Mr. Calhoun, in 1845, likened the Mississippi and its tributaries to an inland sea. Said he : " 'Regarding it as such, I am prepared to place it on the same footing with the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, the Chesai3eake and Delaware Bays, and the lakes, in refer- ence to the superintendence of the General Government over its navigation. It is manifest that it is far beyond the power of individuals or of separate States to super- vise it.' "Who doubts, if he were here to-day, he would raise his voice in advocacy of the General Government taking that step, germane to the improvement of the navigation of the river, and certainly essential to the development of its great interests — namely, the protection of the adjacent country from the periodical overflows of a national high- way. Individuals and separate States can no more handle this question of the prevention of inundation than they can the supervision and effectuation of systematic works of improvement of the navigation of the river. "As has been well said, 'the legitimate sphere of the 232 OUR GREAT MEN. ^Mississippi is the field of national commerce.' So it is that the improvement of its navigation and the construc- tion of works needful to restrain its floods within its channel are the province of the l!^ational Government. "Nineteen States, Mr. Speaker, and three Territories have a direct business interest in the river system formed by the Mississij)pi and its tributaries, and all the other States and Territories have an indirect interest. This system furnishes a connecting link between internal and international commerce. Considered as a drainage sys- tem, it extends through nearly the whole length of the United States, from Canada to the Gulf, and across more than half its width,. or from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the summit of the Alleghanies. Of the manv divisions and subdivisions of the river, two hun- dred and forty are considered of sufficient importance to be named upon the river map in Walker's Statistical Atlas of the United States, and probably as many more streams of minor importance are omitted from the map. "Steamers can now transport freight in an unbroken bulk from Saint Anthony's Falls to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of 2,161 miles, and from Pittsburgh to Fort Benton, Montana, 4,333 miles. Lighter craft can ascend the Alleghany, an extension of the Ohio River, to Clean, New York, 325 miles above Pittsburgh, and up the Mis- souri to Great Falls, near where that river leaves the Rocky Mountains. The total j^resent navigation of these rivers is about 16,000 miles, more than four times the length of the ocean line from New York to Liverpool, and more than four times the distance by rail across thej continent from New York to San Francisco. NEWTON C. BLANCHARD. 233 "Estimating the length of the numerous non-naviga- ble streams which flow into the Mississippi and its trib- utaries — including that portion of the navigable streams above the highest point of navigation attainable — as equal to the total navigable length of the rivers, and we have an aggregate length of waterway of 32,000 miles, draining, gathering, receiving, concentrating, pouring its accumulation of floods through the parent trunk into the Gulf. "Should we wonder, then, that in seasons of high water the great river labors and travails and groans under the effort imposed upon it by nature of discharg- ing this superabundance of water into the sea ? "Should we be surprised that it often finds itself unable to do this with safety to the millions of dwellers upon its alluvial banks? Should we hesitate to assist nature in the performance of the great work ? ****** "Already has this Government delayed too long in furnishing a greater degree of fostering care to that industry. And now that it has the best of pretexts for so doing, if pretexts are needed; now that the urgency upon it is so great; now that the full details of the late terrible scenes of suffering and destruction are fresh before it, let it not withhold its hand. Let it put it forth with sufficient might and power to result in the con- struction of such works of improvement and protection as will suffice to control the rising floods of angry waters, and thus, in humble and reverential imitation of the Divine Teacher of Galilee, say to them, 'Peace, be still.' ****** 234 OUR GREAT MEN. "This do, Mr. Speaker, and once more will that lovely country — but for the floods, fit to have been selected as the original Garden of Eden — blossom again as the rose; again will its soil of wonderful fertil- ity bring forth seeds sown in its bosom 'an hundred fold;' again will teeming busy millions find secure and happy homes there; and again will thousands of sturdy immigrants, fleeing from the overcrowded provinces and marts of the Old World, seek settlements within its borders. * "But it may be argued, the delegation of power to Congress to 'repel invasions,' 'to protect the States against invasion,' has reference to a human foe. I grant that that is the usual and ordinary meaning or signifi- cance given to the term, and it is likely that the framers of the Constitution had in contemplation a human foe when they inserted that clause. The connection, too, in which it is used gives additional weight to that argu- ment. But still, the power conferred by the words, 'repel invasions' by the clause, 'The United States * * * shall protect each of them (the States) against invasion,' is a general one, and might well and reasonably include defending the country against danger or harm of any kind. "Suppose, sir, some monster, like the fabled dragon of ancient times, were to rise up out of the deep and invade the land, spreading devastation, destruction, pes- tilence and death around him. Does any one doubt the constitutional power and duty of Congress to 'repel' his invasion, to bring the strong arm of the Government to * NEWTOT^ C. BLAXCHARD. 235 bear against him, to make war upon and kill and destroy him? I think not. And yet, sir, there are gentlemen on this floor who deny to Congress the power to ' repel ' the invasion of waters, to throttle the monster of inun- dation whose periodical visitation of the fairest portion of our country is but the recurring occasion for a perfect carnival of waste, ruin, rapine. "It is the duty of Congress to protect the States, or any one of them, against invasion. By 'invasion' is meant against harm or danger to the Government, the people, the country, threatened by an enemy. An enemy is only to be dreaded because of the suffering, destruc- tion, death, he may inflict. Judged by that standard, was not the recent great overflow in the alluvial basin of the Mississippi ' an enemy ? ' None will deny its potency as an engine of sufl'ering, destruction and death. Why, then, can not Congress under this clause of the Constitu- tion protect the Valley States against a recurrence of this 'invasion' of waters? "Again, it is made the constitutional duty of Congress to protect each of the States, under certain conditions, against 'domestic violence.' Why not against the vio- lence of domestic waters ? I say ' domestic waters ' for the reason that it is a fact that all the water which seeks an outlet to the sea through the Mississippi is the drainage of the territory of the United States, and in that sense is domestic, as pertaining to home ; not foreign. « * * * * ♦ "Mr. Speaker, the Mississippi River is a great national highway. It belongs as much to the United States as would a great trunk line of railroad that had 236 OUR GREAT MEN. been constructed, stocked, and was being run by the Gov- ernment. In the act of Congress enabling the people of Louisiana to form a constitution, there is a provision that the State convention shall 'pass an ordinance providing that the river Mississippi and the navigable rivers and waters leading into the same, or into the Gulf of Mexico, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said State as to other citizens of the United States.' And in the act for the admission of Louisiana, the above provision as to the navigation of the Mississippi is made one of the fundamental conditions of the admission. Similar conditions were likewise im- posed upon the admission of the States of Mississippi, Missouri and Arkansas. ^ * * * * * " It can not, therefore, be doubted that the river, for all practical purposes, is the property of the General Government, and subject to its 'regulations,' whether as respects prescribing rules for governing the commerce and traffic which make use of it as a highway, or as respects controlling it in the sense of denying the domin- ion and jurisdiction of the States or other powers ; or as respects j^reventing the river from rising up out of its customary channel and spreading over the country. It is true, the banks of the river and the soil under the river belong respectively to the owners of the soil adjacent to the river, but no one will deny to the General Government the right to make use of the banks and soil in the erection of the works requisite to the proper 'reg- ulation ' of the river for all useful purposes. Should, however, this right be questioned, there can be no doubt NEWTON C. BLANCHARD. 237 of the power of the Government, in the exercise of the prerogative of eminent domain, to appropriate whatever may be needed for the proper ' regulation ' of the river. " The law on this subject is universally recognized as laid down by Bynkershoek, that ' this eminent domain may be lawfully exercised whenever public necessity or public utility requires it.' "It may be objected by some, Mr. Speaker, that should the Federal Government provide the ways and means for the construction of a levee system for the pro- tection of the alluvial valley of the river, and as an adjunct to the improvement of its navigation, inasmuch as these levees will have to be constructed on the banks over which the jurisdiction of the States respectively extends, contention may arise between the State Govern- ment and the National Government on this point ; that the State Government may deny the right of the National Government to control the levees, to protect them after constructing them, and that the question thus raised may become a fruitful source of trouble between the sovereignty vested in the State and that reposing in the Federal Gov- ernment. " I am not one of those who apprehend that any trouble on this score would ever arise, but as a precau- tionary measure Congress might, if it sees fit, after hav- ing determined upon a levee system, enact that there should be no expenditure of money for such purpose within the territorial limits of a State until the State shall have ceded to the National Government the right to control and protect the public works to be constructed. * ^ iffl 4|r »|c 9p 15 238 OUR GREAT MEN. " If the Federal Government can legitimately spend millions in affording facilities to commerce by improving the low-water navigation of rivers, by parity of reasoning it may just as legitimately spend millions in improving the high-water navigation of rivers like the Mississippi liable to overflow their banks. And the weight of evi- dence is ten times over that, for the Mississippi and its tributaries ; a levee system is the most efficient method of imj)roving their high-water navigation. " By the navigation of rivers is meant not alone the passage of steamers and other craft up and down, but in a larger sense it includes likewise facilities for landing along the rivers, for the loading and unloading of car- goes, the taking on and putting off of passengers, etc. In other words, it embraces the affording of all needful facilities for intercourse, trade, traffic and commerce, besides the width, depth and extent of water requisite for the safe and easy passage of boats. "Again, navigation is only one of the elements of commerce. It is an element of commerce because it affords the means of transporting merchandise and the 2:>roducts of the country, the interchange of wdiich is commerce itself. The river is but an instrument of commerce. " It is now conceded that Congress, under the com- mercial clause, may regulate railroads. May it not also regulate the Mississippi, a national highway, and an instrument which commerce makes use of, so as to pre- vent it disturbing the commerce and intercourse going on by rail and by land in its valley ? NEWTON C. BLANCHARD. 239 "The term Ho regulate commerce' gives the power to restrain the destructive force of the thing used by commerce in its transactions. It is an incongruity to say that Congress, in the exercise of that power, may deepen or enlarge a river, but can not curb its force or exercise restraint over it. "The power 'to regulate commerce' necessarily includes protection to commerce. This idea has been acted on from the commencement of the Government. The construction and maintenance, all along our coasts, of light-houses, beacon-lights, fog-signals, sea-walls and breakwaters attest this. All are for the protection and convenience of commerce. " The laws of the United States require steam vessels to pay for the license or privilege to navigate ; and the officers manning such vessels are required to pay for the license or privilege of pursuing their respective calling or vocation, such as master, pilot, mate, etc. These ves- sels engage in the coasting trade as well as in the car- rying trade, and Congress is as much under obligations to afford needful facilities for the transaction of this coasting trade as it is for the transportation of through freights. One of the facilities needed along the Missis- sippi for the coasting trade is convenient landing-places at all times. " In seasons of flood these landing-places are supplied by the levees, and, in this sense, levees are but continu- ing piers or quays. A quay is defined to be a space of ground appropriated to the public use — such use as the convenience of commerce requires. Now, while the levees perform this service, while they furnish these 240 OUR GREAT MEN. needed conveniences to commerce, should it be objected that, at the same time, they protect the country behind them from overflow ? Suppose they do protect private property while performing a public service, should they not be commended all the more for that? Should not that circumstance really be an additional inducement or argument for their construction ? "Should not broad and liberal statesmanship, in con- sidering a question of this sort, rather approve of a sys- tem which, while subserving the public interests, at the same time aifords needed protection to the life and prop- erty of the individual? ^ Salus populi suprema lex.'' Sir, protection to private property, in some way, results from nearly every work of public import. If a street in a town or city be graded, paved, macadamized, the prop- erty belonging to individuals on that street experiences an enhancement of value as the result of the improve- ment. "Every railroad constructed through a country in- creases the value of the lands adjacent thereto. Every grand, imposing public building erected in this city (Washington), and every park laid out, beautified, adorned, adds something to the worth of neighboring private estates. ****** "Mr. Speaker, when the great Father of Waters, unhindered by an adequate levee system, rises out of its banks and sweeps with resistless might over the valley, a more than crisis, a sad realization of the worst, is upon the people of that unhappy section; and this grievous affliction of one of the members of the body-politic, in NEWTON C. BLANCHAED. 241 more or less degree, disastrously aifects the wliole. Sir, against the recurrence of the like calamity, national in its effect, we ask the aid of the National Grovernment. We ask it because we believe and hold that the powers delegated in general terms in the Constitution are broad and comprehensive enough to justify it; that the granting of national aid for such purpose is directly in the line of the effectuation of the legitimate objects of the charter. "'Constitutions of government,' says Story, Volume I, page 655, 'are not to be framed upon a calculation of existing exigencies, but upon a combination of these with the probable exigencies of ages, according to the natural and tried course of human affairs. There ought to be a capacity to provide for future contingencies as they may happen.' That this capacity exists in the Federal Consti- tution no one will deny. The trials it has undergone, the tests it has been put to and triumphantly emerged from, in the hundred years of its existence, abundantly attest it. Let this Congress, Mr. Speaker, give another evidence of this capacity by providing against the contingency of another overflow; let this provision be ample and unre- stricted. Let it meet the case. It will be instructive, Mr. Speaker, to glance at what has been done by other countries in the way of undertaking and prosecuting great works of public improvement. From it we may derive encouragement to expend a small part, at least, of our surplus revenues in protecting the property and lives of our brothers dwelling in the valley of the great river from its periodical floods. "The greater part of the Netherlands has been formed of deposits of rivers in the same manner as the Egyptian 242 OUR GREAT MEN. delta is formed by the Nile, or the delta of the Mississippi by that great river. The principal rivers which have so formed it are the Rhine, including its different branches, the Mouse and its branches and confluents, and the Scheldt. "To establish a firm footing amid so many rivers, the inhabitants have kept them as far as possible within pre- scribed channels by embankments, and have formed innumerable canals to receive the superfluous waters and serve as means of internal communication. ' The system of drainage,' says a writer in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, 'of what would otherwise have been an immense mud bank, well deserves to be ranked among the wonders of the world. The land thus rescued from the rivers is nowhere much elevated above the sea, and in many places is even below the sea-level, so as to require still more wonderful defenses against the ocean. These de- fenses are in part supplied by the operation of nature, casting up sand hills along a great part of the coast ; but where these have not been formed their place is supplied by dikes of vast extent, built in the course of ages, partly of huge blocks of granite brought from Norway, and partly of bundles formed of young trees reared expressly for the purjDOse. These dikes stretch for hundreds of miles along the coast, and with those which line the rivers and canals, and with the requisite sluices, draw- bridges and hydraulic works of every kind, are estimated to have cost not less than £300,000,000.' (Equivalent to about 11,500,000,000.) ' They form, in so small a coun- try, a most astonishing monument of human industry. Yet they are not greater than the situation requires. NEWTON C. BLANCHARD 243 They are barely sufficient to preserve the country from the dominion of the waters. The motto on the arms of one of the provinces, ^Luctor et Emergo,'' still describes the struggles of the invincible Hollanders requisite for maintaining the ground they stand upon.' The highways or roads often run for miles in a straight line along the summits of these dikes, and are thus at once dry and ele- vated, commanding extensive views. "Not only have the Hollanders done this, but they have also drained and reclaimed Lake Haarlem, contain- ing 42,000 acres. As early as A. D. 1643, a proposition to endike and drain the lake was made; and similar schemes, notably in 1742 and 1821, were brought forward from time to time. But it was not until 1836, when one furious hurricane, on the 9th of N'ovember, drove the waters as far as the gates of Amsterdam, and another on the 25th of December sent them in the opposite direction to submerge the streets of Leyden, that the mind of the nation was turned seriously to the matter. In August, 1837, the king appointed a royal commission of inquiry; the scheme proposed by the commission received the sanc- tion of the second chamber in March, 1839, and in the following May the necessary law was passed and the work commenced. The lake covered an area of about seventy square miles, and had an average depth of more than thirteen feet. As it had no natural outfall it was calcu- lated that probably one thousand million tons of water would have to be raised by mechanical means. "Pumping commenced in 1848, and the lake was dry by the first of July, 1852. The cost of reclaiming this 42,000 acres was £1,080,000, or about |5,400,000. The 244 OUR GREAT MEX. government, however, sold lands to the amount of £780,000, so that the actual cost to the nation was only £300,000, or |1,500,000. "But it will be observed the reclamation of this land was not the sole j^urpose of the work. Indeed, the main incentive was the protection of the adjacent country from occasional or j^eriodical submergence by the lake. It was judged that the best way to do this was to drain the lake, and accordingly it was done. Thus two beneficial purposes were effected : The protection of the surrounding country, and the opening up to cultivation 42,000 acres of land. "Sir, a greater argument presents itself why this Government should undertake the construction of an adequate levee system on the Mississippi, for the beneficial ends to be attained thereby are threefold, namely: The improvement of the navigation of the river; the protec- tion of the cultivated lands in its valley, and the lives and property of the dwellers therein from destructive floods; and the opening up to cultivation millions of acres of the finest lands in the world." Mr. Blanchard then goes on to tell of other rivers that have been diked; the Rhine, Mouse, Scheldt, Po, Vistula and Nile, and at great expense. After telling what other countries have done in the way of jDrotection from floods, and the great expenditures in improving the public highways and furnishing means of transportation, in many instances in order to compete with America, he makes a summary of what the Federal Government has spent in acquisition of territory, land grants to corpora- tions, money spent on account of railroads, canals, wagon NEWTON C. BLANCHARD. 245 roads and j^ublic works, which, in round numbers, reaches the vast sum of $489,000,000, and that with no more authority from the Constitution than that required for appropriating a few millions for the protection of the Mississippi Valley. And he asks who can question the constitutionality of those acts. Hon. JOSEPH E. BROWN, OF GEORGIA. JOSEPH E. BROWIN', of Atlanta, one of the most prominent men of the South, was born in Pickens District, South Carolina, April 15th, 1821. When he was a mere lad his father moved from South Carolina to Union County, G-eorgia, the State he has served so well both in public and in j^rivate life. His father was a poor man, and young Joseph worked upon a farm till he was nine- teen years old. Then, with his father's consent, he left home, with limited means, to attend Calhoun Academy, in Anderson District, South Carolina. After leaving the academy he went to Canton, Georgia, and taught school ; and in August, 1845, he was admitted to the Bar. He then entered the Yale Law School, and after graduating there, in 1846, returned to Canton, Georgia, and commenced the practice of his jDrofession. In 1849 he was elected a member of the State Senate of Georgia, but would serve only the one term, prefer- ring to practice his profession. In 1852 he was a mem- ber of the Electoral College when Pierce and King were elected. In 1855 he was elected Judge of the Superior Courts of the Blue Ridge Circuit, and served in that (240) v^jDjSI^^' "^ JOSEPH E. BROWN. 249 capacity till the fall of 1857, when he was elected Gov- ernor of Georgia by the Democratic party. He was re-elected in 1859, in 1861, and again in 1863. He was an ardent Secessionist, and an energetic war Governor after the State had seceded. He did all in his power to aid the Confederate Government, but after their cause was lost he believed in accepting the inevita- ble. He accepted the situation because he saw no other way out of the difficulty, and became for a time very unpopular with the people of Georgia because he did not advance some strong protest against the reconstruc- tion measures of Congress. The Democratic party refused to agree to those terms, and nominated Seymour and Blair on a platform which declared the " Recon- struction" acts of Congress to be " unconstituional, null and void." Regarding such a course as the worst possi- ble course for the South, Governor Brown went as a Republican Delegate to the Chicago Convention. As a Reconstructionist he voted for General Grant, who favored those measures. During 1868 he received the Republican nomination for United States Senator. He was defeated in the elec- tion, and it is the only defeat of his life. He has always received the hearty support of the people of Georgia whenever he has appeared before them for an office of any kind, with this one exception. After this defeat for Senator he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia for a term of twelve years, by Governor Bullock, and he held the position till 1870, when he resigned to accept the Presidency of the Western and Atlantic Railroad Company. He has held the position 250 OUR GREAT MEN. ever since, and has devoted his time mainly to his busi- ness interests. In 1872, when the Democratic party nominated Horace Greeley upon the j)latform of accej^tance of reconstruction measures, he again acted with it, and has worked with his old party ever since. In 1880, when General Gordon resigned his position in the United States Senate, Governor Colquitt appointed Governor Brown to till the vacancy, which, after much urging, he accepted, and has held his seat in the Senate since that time. He is still largely interested in busi- ness matters, and looks well to the interests of Georgia. The following is a summary of a speech by Mr. Brown on the "Silver Question: " " Mr. President, the silver question is in no sense a party question. Many of the leading Democrats, both in and out of Congress, differ with the President, Secre- tary of the Treasury, and other Democratic leaders upon this question. Many of the most distinguished and intel- ligent leaders of the Republican party agree with the President and Secretary of the Treasury. But a large number of Ile2:)ublican leaders, equally as distinguished, differ with their party friends on this question, and believe that the coinage of silver should be continued, at least to the extent now prescribed by law, while some think the annual coinage should be increased to a higher figure. No Senator or RejDresentative, no matter which side he takes of this important question, can be charged with a want of fealty to his party on account of his posi- tion. I have no hesitation in expressing my deliberate and fixed opinion that it would be unwise and unjust to JOSEPH E. BROWX. 251 the people of this country to discontinue the coinage of silver at present, or to lessen the amount annually coined under the present law. "An intelligent writer has lately made the statement that the national public debts of the civilized world, embracing mainly the public debts of Europe and America, amount in round numbers to $25,000,000,000. Upon this enormous sum the people are paying more than an average of four per cent., or $1,000,000,000 per annum, of interest. The same writer is of opinion that all the state and county and corporation debts of the world aggregate about $50,000,000,000, making the indebtedness of the world, national, state and corpo- rate, amount to $75,000,000,000, which, at four per cent., would be $3,000,000,000 a year of interest, with which the labor of the people is now taxed, an annual interest of twice the amount of the whole public debt of the United States. "The holders of this immense amount of bonds and other obligations form a class, and the laboring people of the world, who are wealth-producing and who labor to jDay this enormous amount annually, form another class. It is the interest of the creditor class, holding this immense amount of bonds and liens upon the labor of the people, to have both the princij)al and interest paid in the most valuable currency which it is in their power to receive from the debtor class. "These bonds and other obligations, so far as this country is concerned, were contracted to be paid in a tixed currency specified and defined in the contract. Most of the debt was contracted during the war, and it was agreed 252 OUR GREAT MEN. between the debtor and the creditor, as to the larger part of it, that the debt should be paid in the lawful money of the United States, or greenbacks, which were then the law^ful money and currency of the country, and, in fact, almost our only currency; and during a not inconsider- able proportion of the time one dollar in silver was worth two dollars and a half in greenbacks. "A farmer furnishing bacon to the Army worth $100 in silver received $250 in greenbacks, or a bond of the Government for $250. In other words, he received in a bond of the United States two and a half times as much as his bacon would have brought in silver. The same was true of the manufacturer, the merchant, and all other classes who furnished suj^plies to the Army of the United States. Thus the matter stood at the end of the war. The bondholders, during all the period while greenbacks were so heavily depreciated, got two or two and a half times as much in bonds for the articles delivered by them to the Government as they would have brought in gold or silver. In that state of the case, what peculiar obliga- tion rested upon the Government of the United States to pay these bonds in a better currency than was provided for any other creditor of the United States? "What peculiar claim did the bondholder, who ob- tained his bonds during this state of inflation and got this large increase upon the gold or silver value of his commodities, have to be paid in better currency than the balance of mankind who might be creditors of the United States ? Why should he receive in payment a better cur- rency than the Army or the Navy, or the clerks in the Departments, or the day laborer who toils upon the pub- JOSEPH E. BROWN. 253 lie works of the United States? I can see no reason whatever why the discrimination should have been made in his favor. The soldiers who imperiled their lives in the storm of battle received their wages in greenbacks. Their widows and minor children, where the husbands and fathers were slain in battle, received their pensions in greenbacks, and I believe they still do. All the ofiicers and employes of the Government received their compensation in greenbacks, and I believe they still do. The men who toiled upon the new vessels of the Navy, as well as the men who labored during the extremes of heat and cold in the improvement of your rivers and har- bors, received their pay in greenbacks, and they still do. What greater equity existed in favor of the bondholder than existed in favor of either of the classes to which I have referred? If there were any I am not aware of it. "But the association of bondholders, on account of the large increase that had been paid them above the gold and silver standard, had an enormous amount of our securities in their hands. The debt amounted to $2,756,- 000,000 at the end of the war ; and while a portion of this debt was owned by every class in the community, the great bulk of it belonged to a comparatively small class of capitalists, who were able, when a United States bond for |250 could be obtained for commodities worth $100 in silver, to advance the amount and take the bond. This creditor class, holding this large amount of bonds of the United States acquired under circumstances most favor- able to their own interests, naturally desired to increase the value of the obligations held by them, and they went to work, systematically, I have no doubt, and used the 254 OUR GREAT MEN. columns of influential newspapers and the brains of influ- ential men, and they finally had the pleasure to see the passage of the act of 1869, declaring that the principal of the bonds, as well as the interest, should be paid in coin. There was an exception in this act, applicable to a certain class of bonds, but the exception was so qualified as to destroy its effect and leave the rule substantially as above stated. "There was no new consideration for this important alteration in the contract so far as the then bondholders were concerned. Many of them got their bonds when the legal money of the United States (greenbacks) was so de- preciated that the bonds only cost them about forty cents on the dollar in gold or silver, and the contract between them and the people was that the bonds might be paid in the same currency they gave for them, to wit, in green- backs, or in lawful money, as it was called. Instead of carrying out this contract Congress gratified them by the passage of the act above mentioned, by which it declared that they should receive payment in coin ; that is, in gold or silver. But they were not content with this, and they soon had the pleasure to see the passage of another act, which is dated 14th of July, 1870, authorizing the refund- ing of the bonds, and prescribing that the new bonds should be paid in coin of the standard value prescribed by law at the date of the passage of this act. "The gold dollar then consisted of 25.8 grains of standard gold, and the silver dollar of 412.5 grains of standard silver. "But let it be borne in mind that while they were procuring this legislation greatly enhancing the value of JOSEPH E. BROWN. 255 their securities, they did agree to receive j)ayment in the coin of the United States of the standard of that date. In other words, they agreed to receive payment in silver dollars or gold dollars of the standard weight which the law then authorized, and of the standard weight which it now authorizes, as neither the weight of the silver nor the gold dollar has been changed by law since that time. "I^ow we would naturally enough conclude that this system of changing the contract from time to time, at each change making it more valuable to the creditor party, had been carried far enough, and that the people would not be asked to do more than pay an original greenback debt worth forty cents in the dollar in the gold and silver coin of the standard of 1870, or the gold and silver coin of the present date. But not con- tent with the advantages they had obtained over the people, the next step was that of demonetizing silver. What would have been the etfect if silver could have been permanently demonetized, and the coinage of the standard silver dollar discontinued, and the guarantee given that nothing but gold should be received in pay- ment of the public debt? This would still further have enhanced the value of their bonds, as it would largely have diminished the quantity of the coin with which, under the contract, they were to be paid by striking down silver coin, which would have greatly increased the value of the gold coin, which would have then been the only coin we could have had to give them in payment. This would have added probably from twenty-five to fifty per cent, to the value of their bonds, and it would have 16 256 OUR GREAT MEN. enhanced the burdens of the people, out of whose labor they must be paid a like amount. " But after the act demonetizing silver had gone into effect, the people, who felt that they had already been greatly wronged, determined to take the matter into their own hands, and they sent representatives to Con- gress to repeal the act demonetizing silver, and provide for a reasonable amount of annual coinage, and a very moderate amount under the circumstances. As the l^eople, since that period, at each biennial election, have selected members of Congress who could not be charmed by the seductive influence of this great creditor class, it became necessary in their estimation, notwithstanding their frequent failures, for the creditor class to continue their efforts to procure legislation to discontinue the coinage of silver. But notwithstanding this failure they have still been so fortunate, while others have been com- pelled to take silver or greenbacks, as to continue to receive gold alone in payment of both the principal and interest which have fallen due ; and up to this date, if I am correctly informed, there has not in any instance been a silver dollar paid to a Federal bondholder for years past, if, indeed, there has been any instance since the passage of the act in 1870. What has been the result ? "A six per cent. United States bond during the war was worth say forty cents on the dollar in gold or silver. Ul^on the j^assage of the act of 1869 they rose nearly to par. Upon the passage of the act of 1870 a four per cent, went to a par, and since that, as the interest and principal falling due from year to year have been paid in JOSEPH E. BROWN. 257 gold only, while all other creditors of the United Stat(\^ are required to take silver or greenbacks, the bonds have- steadily advanced until they are now worth one hundred and twenty to one hundred and twenty-four in the market, and still the cry is that the patriotic bondhold- ers must be dealt liberally with, and that the taxes of the people must be increased to give them a better currency than other people receive, so as to keep up the credit of the United States. "I think it proper that we keep the credit up to a point that is reasonable. When a three per cent, bond is at par I do not care to tax the people to put the credit any higher. If, with the suplus in the Treasury from year to year, we have to purchase the four per cents, to keep up the sinking fund, I do not desire that the people who sold them for forty to fifty cents on the dollar pay one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty for them. "There is neither reason nor justice in the demand that we depreciate ]3art of the currency of the United States, namely, greenbacks and silver, in order to make gold more valuable, and pay the bondholders a more exorbitant price. "I think that every officer of the Treasury who has to pay out money on the public debt or public expendi- tures of every character should treat all creditors alike, and should pay to the bondholder for his interest or his maturing bond either gold or silver, as the one or the other may be most convenient for the Treasurer at the time; and bear in mind, Mr. President, if you pay out twenty, or thirty, or forty millions of dollars a year in 258 OUR GREAT MEX. silver to the public creditors, who are a very influential and powerful class, you make it their interest to aid in keeping up the price of silver, while if you pay them in gold alone they will be always attempting to depreciate silver to make the gold received by them more valuable as the representative of more property. I say, treat every creditor alike. If you pay the bondholder in gold alone, pay gold to the officer, pay gold to the laborer ; and if there is really any diiference in the purchasing power of the gold and silver dollar, there is greater reason why the bondholder, in view of the original cost of the bond, should take the silver dollar than there is why the laborer should take it and leave the gold dollar to the bondholder. "There is a great clamor on the part of the bond- holders for a suspension of the coinage of silver, and much apprehension on account of the large amount of silver dollars lying in the Treasury vaults. Now, I say it is the duty of the Secretary of- the Treasury to dispose of those silver dollars by j^aying them out to the public creditors whenever anything is due, and the bondholder should take his full share of them. If this does not dis- pose of them, then the Secretary of the Treasury should call in enough bonds upon which the people are now -paj- ing interest to absorb the silver dollars that are lying in the Treasury, and thus relieve the people of a large amount of interest which they are paying annually upon the 2:)ortion of the debt that is subject to call and is not called in, and pay off the debt to all classes of creditors as far as we have silver coin not otherwise appropriated. If it is said this is not honest, as it is not an honest JOSEPH E. BROWN. 259 dollar, I reply that it is always honest to pay a debt in the very currency which the creditor by the contract has agreed to take. The contract in this case, as amended at the instance of the creditors, is that every one of these bonds may be paid in silver dollars or gold dollars, at the convenience of the Treasury, and no American need blush when the Government carries out in honest, strict, good faith its contracts with its creditors and pays them in the very currency which the creditors have contracted to take. "From year to year, almost without exception, we have imported more gold than we have exported, and we have exported more silver than we have imported, and all the reasonable probabilities are that we shall continue to do so. And bear in mind that at the end of seven years we have twice as much gold as silver coin in our country. We have a country of unparalleled capacity, of immense proportions, with more virgin soil and more productive capability than any other country on the face of the globe. We have a population of nearly sixty millions of people, with more inventive genius, more energetic industry and enterprise, than the people of any other nation. We produce by our facto- ries a very large proj)ortion of the manufactured articles necessary for our use. These advantages enable us to export more and import less necessaries and conven- iences of life than any other people. "The result is a constant balance of trade in our favor, with a strong probability, with our increasing capacity for production, and our increasing population. 2G0 OUR GREAT MEN. and our constantly increasing independence of other nations, that this balance of trade in our favor will con- tinue to grow instead of being diminished. Already within the last six or seven years it has amounted to over $500,000,000, which other nations have been obliged to pay to the United States as balance due on settle- ments ; and as gold is the medium of exchange which is adopted in settlements between us and European nations, this pours a steady stream of gold into the United States, and while the production of silver from our mines the last year has been greater than the production of gold, still the quantity of gold coin in the United States almost doubles the quantity of silver coin, according to the extract Avhich I have already read from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury. This shows that our country is being enriched by the importation of gold, and that we do not find it necessary to export gold to settle the balance of trade against us, as it does not exist to any extent with European nations. Why, then, should we fear a drain of gold and an influx of silver? All the probabilities are that there will be an increased influx of gold and export of silver. « « « « * « "The United States is probably the heaviest pro- ducer of silver in the world. The United States and Mexico together j^roduce about one-half of all the silver mined in the world. Why, then, should either of these nations array itself on the side of the powers that seek to demonetize silver and destroy its value ? "From the earliest ages of civilization silver and gold have been the metals used for the coinage of the money JOSEPH E. BROWN. 261 of the world. In all ages they have been mentioned alike as money, and the quantity of each in circula- tion has been nearly equaled. The Secretary of the Treasury informs us in his report that the 'statisti- cians all agree that silver is fifty-four per cent, of the monetary metals of mankind, while gold is forty-six.' While we have of gold about sixty-five per cent., and of silver about thirty-five, then if we were to strike down silver as money, and all other nations were to follow our example, we would destroy more than one-half of all the money in the world, and more than one-third of our own metallic money, and would reduce property to one-third its j^resent nominal value, and it would cost the debtor class twice as much property to pay their debts as it now costs them when both metals are coined and used as money. " Now, while it is admitted that fifty-four per cent, of the metallic money of the world is silver, it is sought to stop the coinage of that metal because it is said its mar- ket value is not at present equal to the value of our gold unit; in other words, that 412.5 grains of standard silver are not worth in the market a standard gold dollar, which is the unit of the United States. Why is it that silver, which, down to the period of the commencement of the war, at sixteen for one, was worth a premium as compared with the gold coin, has since fallen until the metal is not worth more than eighty cents on the dollar? This has resulted not from a superabundance of silver, but from the unfriendly legislation of Great Britain, G-ermany and the United States. If the principal commercial nations of the world will discontinue the coinage of gold as money 262 OUR GREAT MEN. it will decrease in value faster than silver lias done, as it is a metal not so well suited for use in the mechanic arts, and for various domestic purposes, as silver. The superi- ority in value that it now has over silver is entirely arti- ficial. It is 2:>roduced by unfriendly legislation against silver and partial legislation in favor of gold. Let the case be reversed, and permit the unlimited coinage of sil- ver, and stop the coinage of gold into legal-tender money, as they have done in India, and silver will very soon reassert itself, and 412.5 grains of standard silver will again become worth more money in the market than 25.8 grains of gold. * "But Great Britain is not very consistent in her course in demonetizing silver and making gold the stand- ard. While she adopts that j)olicy in her home govern- ment, she adojits exactly the reverse of it in her immense possessions in India. There gold is demonetized and sil- ver is the legal tender. By this policy Great Britain is enabled to draw the gold into the exchanges of the home government, and to put off any quantity of surplus silver that she may have on her possessions in India. And having there two hundred millions of subjects, she has an immense vent for all the silver that she may be able to control. This is a shrewd piece of financier- ing. At one end of the line gold is the legal money, at the other end silver alone is the legal money; at one end gold is demonetized, at the other end silver is demonetized. While we have not a country with the immense population of India to absorb and use our silver, we have a country of much greater extent, and with a JOSEPH E. BROWN. 263 population more productive than the whole of India to use the silver which is annually taken from our mines, even if a much larger proportion of it were converted into coin. "As I have already stated, we are in no danger of having our gold drained out of this country and silver imported to take its place as long as the balance of trade remains in our favor as between us and the principal European nations. As two of the chief powers of Europe coin gold as their legal tender, and as commercial settle- ments are made in gold, we get the benefit of it, and our stock of gold is constantly increased by a drain from those nations into this country to settle balances in our favor. "But there is another view of this subject in favor of silver to which I wish to refer in this connection. It is a well-known fact that silver is the principal money or medium of exchange used in China, British India, Japan, and in fact all the other Eastern nations. More than two- thirds of the people of the globe prefer it to gold, and use it chiefly as their money. South America is a large pro- ducer of both gold and silver; so is Mexico. But there the silver dollar is still recognized and used as a circu- lating medium, as legal money, and there is no discrimi- nation against it. "As we are fast becoming a vast manufacturing- power, as well as a great agricultural power, with a large surplus of the joroducts of our different manufacturing- establishments for exportation, we look chiefly to China and other Eastern nations, and to South America, as the markets where we can most successfully compete with 264 OUR GREAT MEN. England and France and other commercial powers, but especially with the former. There is a very long balance of trade against us in Brazil and the West Indies, prin- cipally for sugar and coffee. Both these countries use silver as legal money. In paying that large balance of trade in specie, why should we send our gold out of the country if we prefer to keep it when they would as readily accept silver? Why not send them silver in payment of these balances ? " The same remark applies to the Hawaiian Islands, where our purchases of sugar turn the balance of trade against us. Why not maintain our silver standard and our silver coins and pay these balances in silver or gold, as it suits our convenience, and why not send our silver to China and other Eastern nations to exchange for their commodities, as there, too, the balance of trade is against us? As the nations which owe us large balances must settle with us in gold, and the nations to whom we owe balances are willing to take silver, and as that state of things is likely to continue for many years to come, the successive reports of the Treasury Dej^artment which come to Congress annually, predicting great financial trouble by the drainage of our gold out of the country and the filling of its place with silver, no longer produce uneasiness, as they are found to have no practical signifi- cance. * * * * * ^ "It must be true either that the silver dollar is not the inferior currency which it is represented to be or that the rule above mentioned is not a sound rule, or else we must conclude that the effort at the Treasury JOSEPH E. BROWN. 265 heretofore has been to keep it out of circulation rather than to put it in. To the credit of the present Secretary of the Treasury I beg to remark that, as I understand it, he has greatly increased the circulation of silver since he has been in office, and I entertain so much confidence in his ability, his fidelity to principle and his patriotism that I have no doubt he will soon be able to put all the surplus he has on hand into circulation without driving out gold. Whether it be a less valuable or more valua- ble currency, the two can circulate together in large quantities without practical embarrassment, as the results have already shown. Intrinsically there is no substan- tial difference between the value of 25.8 grains of stand- ard gold and 412.5 grains of standard silver. The appa- rent difference grows out of unfriendly legislation against silver, and unjust and partial legislation in favor of gold. Hence the different Secretaries of the Treasury have been unable, as they report, to put the ' Gresham law ' in force, and have silver, which they say is bad money, go into circulation and drive out gold, which they claim is good money. The failure grows out of the fact that both are good money, and they circulate together, as they have always done, and neither can drive out the other. " It has been said repeatedly by high officials that the coinage of the silver dollar does great injustice to the laboring class of this country ; that the silver dollar is not an honest dollar, and that the laboring class should be paid in gold for their labor. Why, then, is it not done? We probably have gold enough in the Treasury to pay all who labor for the United States, and it is a little remarkable that this argument should be advanced 266 OUR GREAT MEN. by those who have power to pay, and refuse to pay, a dollar in gold to anyone laboring for the United States. Those who labor for this Government receive pay in silver or greenbacks. Not one of them can get an hon- est claim of a hundred dollars for which he has labored paid in gold at the Treasury. The gold is kept for the bankers and the bondholders; and notw^ithstanding they have agreed, as part of their solemn contract, to take payment both of principal and interest of their bonds in gold or silver coin of the j^i'esent standard value, not a dollar of silver is paid to them, but it is kept for the laboring class, and the gold is securely hoarded and; sacredly kept until it can be paid out to the bond- holders. "But the laboring class are, in fact, as well paid for their labor as they have been at any previous period in the history of the country, and a legal-tender silver dollar will buy more of the necessaries of life for the laborer than it would have done at almost any other time. The honorable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Beck], in his very able speech on this subject, a few days since, demonstrated that point very clearly. Before the war the laboring man who received a dollar a day for his labor, and a large proportion of them got less, could buy eight yards of calico for a dollar ; now the laborer can take the dollar which he receives for his day's labor ^ and buy twenty yards of calico. Then he could buy bacon at fourteen cents a pound ; now he can buy it at eight. And so with all the necessaries of life. "There is nothing, therefore, in the position that the laboring class can be damaged by the coinage of the silver | JOSEPH E. BROWN. 267 dollar. The laborers are generally glad to get silver. It is popular with the laboring class everywhere, and they would be glad to have a great deal more of it in circula- tion. The people can not be frightened by the statement that the laborers will suifer when they are paid in legal- tender silver dollars. "When you strike down silver you will depreciate property nearly one-half, and the price of labor will go down in the same proportion, and he who now gets a legal-tender silver dollar for his day's labor will then get but fifty cents in gold. How will the laborer be benefited by the change? But while the laborers will be content to receive silver dollars, they will insist that the bond- holders who have contracted for silver dollars shall be required to take their proportion in that currency. This is a case where equality is equity, and all that the labor- ers desire is that bondholders and laborers be placed upon the same equal platform; that the same equity be done to each class. With this the laborers will be con- tent. To this the bondholders should be compelled by law to submit. "If the national banks, by a system of hoarding gold or otherwise, attempt to practically demonetize silver and to force gold to a premium by refusing to take legal- tender silver dollars, or silver certificates, in settlement of balances or in any settlements, and if the ofiicers who represent the people in the different Departments of Gov- ernment at Washington will not take the matter in hand and enact and enforce the necessary laws, then the people at the recurring elections should take the matter in their own hands and fill all the Departments with men who 268 OUR GREAT MEN. will apply the proper corrective by a forfeiture of the charters of such banks as are abusing their privileges, or by the enactment and faithful execution of such other constitutional and just laws as the exigencies of the case and the interest of the people may require." Hon. WILLIAM S. HOLMAN, OF INDIANA. J jlLLIAM S. HOLMAN, Representative to the Congress of the United States from the Fourth District of Indiana, was born at a pioneer homestead called Veraestau, in Dearborn County, Indiana, the 6th of September, 1822. He received a good common-school education, and sup- j)lemented that with two years at Franklin College, Indi- ana. He then commenced the study of law, and was admitted to the Bar. He was made Probate Judge at the remarkably early age of twenty-one. He served as Judge for three years. From 1847 to 1849 he was Prosecuting Attorney for the I county. In 1850 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Indiana, and in 1851 was elected a mem- ber of the Indiana Legislature. He was a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1852 to 1856. He has been a member of the Thirty-sixth, Thirty- WILLIAM S. HOLMAN. 269 seventh, Thirty-eighth, Fortieth, Forty-first, Forty-sec- ond, Forty-third, Forty-seventh and Forty-ninth Con- gresses. Mr. Holman has had a long term of public service, and has always been an honor to his State and the Dem- ocratic party, of which he is a staunch member. He is a great economist, and has advocated that doctrine for years. We quote from a speech of Mr. Holman on the post-office appropriation bill appropriating $800,000 sub- sidies for mail : "But, Mr. Chairman, permit me to say that gentle- men deal with this subject and with the American people unfairly when they talk about this being a question of commerce. Our commerce is not declining; our com- merce grows steadily with the advance of years. Our shipping interests, our carrying trade only, have declined, and they have declined for manifest reasons, in addition to the burden imposed by our excessive taxation. Of those reasons I know of none so obvious as the fact that the American capitalist has been able to invest his money in more remunerative enterprises. When he enters into the carrying trade of the world (the most cosmopolitan of all employments), he comes directly in competition with the people of all other nations, and must adopt their frugal methods, and must be satisfied with their small profits, or must go to the wall. If it is to his advantage to put his vessels under the flag of foreign nations, as it frequently is in the interest of economy, he does not hesi- tate to do it. But generally our capitalists prefer more lucrative investments at home. * 270 OUR GREAT MEN. "Let gentlemen make their appeals to the American 1 flag as much as they may, the fact remains that sixteen years ago when this inquiry was made by the committee I have named, and up to the present time, a very consid- erable portion of our capital has been invested wherever it could be advantageously done, in foreign shipping doing business under the flag of other nations. At the time of this inquiry two iron ships were being built on the Clyde by American capitalists with the avowed purpose of put- ting them under the British flag and holding them under bottomry bonds. So, sir, the question upon the part of the citizen investing his caj^ital is not one of the national credit or the flag. It is not with him a question of national pride in the flag of his country, but a cold, delib- erate calculation of moneyed profit in the carrying trade of the world, and from that standpoint alone can this subject be fairly jDresented by gentlemen who ask for this subsidy in this carrying trade, which alike con- cerns all nations. Low taxes will generally secure the flag. Citizens do not hesitate to engage in the carrying trade of the nations sailing their shij^s under the flags of the nations where the greatest exemption from taxa- tion exists. ****** "But, Mr. Chairman, I sought the floor not for the purpose of discussing, except in a ^preliminary way, the question whether this was a subsidy or not, or to what | extent subsidy can revive our sliip2:>ing interest, but for the purpose of presenting another view which I think underlies this whole subject. I believe, sir, that this measure involves a i:)olicy of government which ought to WILLI.UI S, HOLMAN. 271 arrest in a very marked degree the attention not only of this House but of the American people. The sm;ill sum of money involved here is of but little moment. It would not be felt by our Treasury ; it would not be felt by our tax-paying people. But, sir, this is one class of measures w^hich, up to this time, have produced, as I think, only injury and disaster to the country. ****** " I think it is due to the people of this country, it is due to this House, that the fact should be stated that one of the great corporations appealing to you for this increased compensation for services to be rendered, here in the lobbies of your Capitol, came by its accredited agents with money in their hands to corrupt the legisla- tion of Congress, and by corrupt and dishonest means obtain money from your Treasury. "Gentlemen, here lies the great peril. Bad enough that the policy of our period should be to disturb the natural equality in the material condition of our people by operation of law, building up great estates for the few and producing corresponding poverty in the many, be- cause, independent of its injustice, it weakens the founda- tion of our Government; but how much less is that evil than that in our great Republic, in the opening of this our second century, a policy should be entered upon the natural fruits of which are to invite assaults upon Con- gress and the integrity of the agents of your Govern- ment? Can any man understand the extent to which the great subsidies already granted have affected your public men? How many public men have been brought into fearful and perilous temptations by motives unfriendly to 17 272 OUR GREAT MEN, the Government that employs them! That last experi- ence in subsidy legislation is one I think that ought not to be forgotten. It is a humiliating lesson, and ought not to be repeated, at least in our generation." -»H^>^H«- 7T^^ Hon. WILLIAM p. C. BRECKINRIDGE, OF KENTUCKY. ILLIAM p. C. BRECKINRIDGE, of Lex- ington, was born the 28th of August, 1837. He is an alumnus of Centre College, in Danville, Kentucky, graduating there when only eighteen years of age. He is also a graduate of the Law Department of the University of Louisville, where he took his diploma at the early age of twenty. He was elected to the Eorty-ninth Congress as a Democrat. Mr. Breckinridge is a successful attorney and an able orator, as all Avho read the following extracts from his speech on the j^ension bill will admit. Mr. Breckinridge said : " I plead to-day the cause of the humble home, whose father, buried in an adjoining grave, did not go to the war, but, with equal patriotism, did his part in the great battle of life. It is not only the soldier element that we are to legislate for, but it is every element of the coun- try in every part of the country. These are the condi- WILLIAM P. C. BEECKINKIDGE. 273 tions that stared in the face every man who had to pass an intelligent consideration upon this subject." " It will also be borne in mind that the object of the pension law is not to support, but is to assist in support- ing, its beneficiaries. It is impossible so to frame such a law as to help only those who absolutely need help. Such laws must be, in their nature and in their pro- vision, general; applicable to classes as classes, and not to each individual in the peculiar circumstances of his particular case. The country does not undertake to fur- nish full support for all the persons on its pension-roll, nor would it be able so to do. So the rates must be adjusted to aid in the support of those who are its objects. "Mr. Chairman, the addition to the annual expendi- tures by the passage of this widows' bill is estimated to be $6,106,922, which, capitalized at four per cent., is a real addition to our public debt of $152,673,050. If our annual appropriations for pensions be no greater than the amount covered by the bill now under discussion (175,754,200), it capitalized at four per cent., is an addi- tion to our fixed indebtedness of |1,893,855,000. In view of these figures and of the present condition of the country, I for one am not willing to go any farther in this road, which leads, first, to the repeal of the limitation on the arrears of pensions; and, second, to the grant of pensions to everyone whose name was borne, on the rolls of the Army during the war. No one can estimate what cost awaits us if we pursue this farther. "It is the misfortune of this weak human nature of ours that the noblest emotions may cause lower and 271 OUR GREAT MEN. meaner motives ; gratitude and justice to the soldier may give place to the attempt to gain or retain power by means of extravagant pensions. I impugn no man's motives ; I criticize the vote of no Representative ; but history reveals the dangers which lie in wait. The expenditure is startling, and destructive of every present hope of development, retrenchment and revision. But this is not its worst effect. It emasculates the courage of our public men; it tempts to low views concerning public moneys, and it fosters a spirit of dependence on Government bounty. It may be years before — God grant it may be never — that stalwart men will fill the air with shouts of ^^anem ac hides ! ' ' bread and games ! ' But this has been and may be. Let us appeal to the loftier spirit of self-dependence, the sterner love of inde- pendence, " These soldiers are our brethren — bone of our bone, blood of our blood — and want us to be frank and just. To them I confidently appeal from the clamors made ostensibly in their name. With them I am persuaded there is no desire to see heavier burdens laid on other people; they are not clamorous to live on the sweat of their neighbors and friends, of men as brave and as poor as they. I receive with some incredulity statements as to the poverty and sad necessities of any considerable number of the beneficiaries of these pensions. That some of them are in distress is undoubtedly too true. This is true of persons of every vocation in life. The fight to keep the wolf from the door, the strife to make 'tongue and buckle meet,' the ceaseless battle against sickness, misfortune, weakness, no doubt has gone against WILLIAM P. C. BRECKINRIDGE. 275 some of the most worthy. This is the not uncommon lot of humanity. But that any considerable number of the Federal soldiers or their families are objects of charity or the inmates of poor-houses I can not believe. It is not so in my section ; I never knew a Federal soldier in a poor-house. As a rule they are well to do, fairly successful, and more than usually thrifty. The qualities which as a rule urged them to volunteer and to persevere — the energy, earnestness, courage, enterprise, which made the Federal Army what it was — characterize them in peace, and bring their usual reward. "Mr. Chairman, it can not be; it would be a slander on the army of conquest. I recall another disbanded army — the army of the conquered — whose soldiers have received no pensions. These had borne four years of march and battle, had stood in the opposing ranks exposed to the storm of shell and shot. They returned, not to prosperous communities rich and happy, not to homes of plenty, but to a land desolate, conquered, in ashes. Without pensions they have fought the fight of life. "Mr. Chairman, all these soldiers were of common blood ; to-day they are brothers ; and I will not believe, I can not believe, that those who were victorious in war have not been fairly successful in peace. " For the brave soldier I have naught but esteem. To him who, from conviction, offered his life on the wager of the battle, I uncover my head and oifer my hand. By a tie of common manhood and like service we are brothers. To-day between us there can be no other rivalry than for our country's good, for her glory. 276 OUR GREAT MEN. He who gave his services to his country can now do her no greater benefit than to call a halt in this wild chase for pensions. The day of reckoning must come ; the day of payment will be the day of judgment. "The sober, solid, grave mass of the people, I confi- dently believe, a^ree with these views. For one, here I halt. "I do not mean to say, sir, that I am not willing to put individuals on those rolls who, for some technical or other reason, can not be placed upon the pension-rolls; nor that in certain specified cases, where the disability is of an exceedingly grave and painful character, I might not be willing to increase the rates received, or in some given case, for reasons peculiar to it, that I would not gladly vote vv^hatever might seem to be just; and I am willing, and more than willing, to give to the veterans wdio in the Mexican war won for us an empire so vast and so rich, and opened to us the gateway to other and not yet realized benefits, some testimonial, not only of gratitude but of the justice of the country whose area they so greatly increased, and whose pathway to a higher destiny they so gloriously widened. "And I entreat that from this time forward you marry indissolubly in the same bill increase of pensions to the mode of raising the necessary revenue ; no longer let the vast expenditures be hidden amid rhetorical gen- eralities about our great wealth and overflowing cofi'ers, but let us come down to the 23ractical calculations of the wise builder in the parable, and see where and deter- mine how the needed moneys are to be raised. If we will increase this debt to run for fifty years, let us dedi- WILLIAM P. C. BRECKINRIDGE. 277 cate a tax to its payment — a tax to be as sacred as the debt. Then we will deal candidly with the country, with the tax-payers, with the pensions and with ourselves. It is either mere hypocrisy or folly to thus increase our expenditures, to make promises so solemn, and then neglect to provide specifically for their payment. *']N'ow, when the coasts of the Republic are defense- less, when a dependent race enfranchised by the march of events needs care and education; when the fortifica- tions have rotted on our coast, and our flag has nearly disappeared from the seas; when the monetary system calls for revision and the tariif system calls for modifica- tion and reduction, I for one must halt before I go further in increasing either the lists of pensioners or the amounts that are to be paid them. When, sir, we are called upon to vote additions to these startling amounts, the additions in part to be borne by my people, I will not allow any man on this floor to challenge my vote for any past con- duct of mine or anybody else. "It is no answer to my conscience or my heart when men say to me, ' You must vote so and so or you will be suspected.' I will vote as I believe the best interests of the people, for to-day and to-morrow, and for years to come, require at my hands. "There are other things I wished to say, but I have only a few moments remaining. May I be pardoned, in conclusion, for a personal allusion? I feel I can speak with absolute frankness. I have no concealments; I have nothing to hjde. "Mr. Chairman, I believe that I represent, in the vote that I have cast, and that I may hereafter cast, that noble 278 OUR GREAT MEN. and beloved constituency which has intrusted me with its representation. In its boundaries there are no animosi- ties growing out of the war, nor has there been for years. May I be pardoned, merely to illustrate the condition of that district, a personal allusion ? Of the two grown men w^ho are dearest to me, one served four years in the Con- federate Army, one four years in the Federal Army; suckled at the same breast, instructed at the same knee, in early boyhood becoming motherless, between the three there is only confidence and affection. There was a fourth, for whom the mother gave her life, and who seemed to grow up with the sunny lovingness that made that mother dear to all with whom she came in contact. In the early flush of his young manhood he laid his life, a Federal soldier, upon the altar of his duty, and he lies at the feet of a venerable man whose earnest, intense and able devo- tion to the Union of the States is well known among the peoj^le from whom I come. " Standing by those graves and looking across the blue- grass sward can be seen in concentric circles the head- stones of the Federal dead ; and not far off, on the slope of a beautiful hillside, under the shade of forest trees, stands the St. Anthony's cross, draped with the furled banner on the broken flag-staff of a dead confederacy, guarding in its white purity the graves of those who gave their lives for that flag. Scattered all over that beautiful cemetery are fathers and sons and brothers who served in opposing armies ; and in the adjoining city, and through all the adjacent country, are those who loved those dead heroes, and now live in sweet accord, forgetful of all that was harsh and bitter, remembering with grateful piety WILLIAM P. C. BRECKINRIDGE. 279 only that which was brave and kindly and heroic. Among those people it has been my happiness to dwell, my hope to die and there lie until the resurrection morn, so that when the sun of righteousness comes in the East, and I rise to meet its beams, the first sight upon which my risen eyes may fall shall be the faces of those who, however divided we may have been in our view^s of duty, were never divided in our love. "Mr. Chairman, with memories like these, with ties like these, conscious of the rectitude of the motives which control the vote that I give, I shall meet with contempt all effort to intimidate, all purpose to misconstrue, speak- ing, acting, voting as an American Representative on the floor of the American Congress, officially the full peer of any other Representative, come from where he may, what- ever he may have been. It is our country, and I shall keep in view, with ceaseless care, her honor, her prosper- ity, and her glory, awaiting with calm confidence the decision of the tribunals to which I am responsible, my own conscience and the generous people whose commis- sion I bear." Hon. JAMES Z. GEORGE, OF MISSISSIPPI. AMES Z. GEORGE, of Jackson, Missis- sippi, is a native of Georgia. He was born in Monroe County, Georgia, in 1826. His : father having died in his infancy, he removed with his mother, when eight years of age, to Noxubee | County, Mississippi, where he resided two years, and then removed to Carroll County, Mississipj^i, where he was educated in the common schools of the neighbor- hood. At the age of twenty he volunteered as a i)rivate in the First Regiment of the Mississippi Volunteers in the Mexican War, commanded by Colonel Jefferson Davis, and was at the battle of Monterey. On his return from the war Mr. George studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in Carroll County. In 1854 he was elected Reporter of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, and was re-elected in 1860; and prepared and i^ublished ten volumes of the Reports of the decisions of that court, and in subsequent years prepared and published a Digest of all the decisions of the Supreme Court and the High Court of Errors and ApjDcals of that State, from the admission of the State into the Union, to and including the year 1870. (280) JAMES Z. GEORGE. 281 In 1861 he again abandoned his profession for the battle-field ; he was a member of the Convention in Mis- sissippi, in 1861, which passed the ordinance of secession, and he voted for and signed that instrument. He en- tered the Confederate service as Captain in the Twentieth Regiment of Mississippi Yolunteers, and was afterwards a Brigadier-General of State troops, and at the close of the war was Colonel of the Fifth Kegiment of Missis- sippi Cavalry in the Confederate Army. . At the close of the war Mr. George resumed the practice of his profession, and was Chairman of the Dem- ocratic State Executive Committee of Mississippi in 1875 and 1876. In 1879 he was appointed one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Mississippi, and was elected by his associate Justices to the position of Chief Justice. In February, 1881, he resigned his seat on the Supreme Bench of Mississippi to take his seat in the United States Senate in place of the Hon. B. K. Bruce, on the 4th of March of that year. In January, 1886, he was re-elected for another term of six years, from March 4th, 1887. He has served on the Committees of Education and Labor, Agriculture, Privileges and Elections, Claims and Territories. We quote from a speech by Mr. George on the Edu- cation bill: "Mr. President, I am very much obliged to the Senator from Massachusetts for making this contribution to the discussion of this question. "I was going to say when interrupted, that the State of Mississippi and her Senators are not here as suppli- ants for the National bounty, that we have all along 282 OUR GREAT MEX. regarded this measure and similar ones which have passed this body as generous offerings on the part of the Northern States to aid the Southern States in removino: that very great danger which exists there now, arising from the illiteracy of a portion of their people. " I find myself placed by this ofPer, the white people of Mississippi also find themselves placed in this con- dition: We have in that State a majority of about 180,000 of colored people. Here is an offer made, as we understand it, by the generous people of the JN'orth to aid us in educating them. Are we to reject it? Con- fessedly we are unable to educate them as we ought to. Then the question j^i'esents itself to us, my colleague and myself, and others representing the State in a sim- ilar position, are we to reject this ofi'er? It is in that attitude alone that I will consider the question. "The views and the wishes of the people of Missis- sij)pi of all classes and of all colors have been very dis- tinctly made known on this subject. I know of a few, and few only, who reject this offer. I do not know of a single colored man in the State of Mississippi who does not ardently wish that this measure should pass. "When such a measure is proposed I am bound to consider what might be the peculiar views and wishes of the colored j)eople of the South upon the question. I represent on this floor, as I have stated, a majority of colored j^eoplc. It is as much my duty to represent their interests, to j^romotc their welfare, to advance them so far as constitutional jDower is vested in me to advance them, as it is to advance the interests and the welfare of the white j^cople. JAMES Z. GEORGE. 283 "Now, sir, as I have just said, there is not, as I believe, a colored man in the State of Mississippi who is not ardently in favor of this bill ; and if I should under- take to present some of the arguments which a colored man in the State of Mississippi would present in favor of the passage of this bill, I would suppose that he would say something like this: That when the war ended he found himself enfranchised, made a citizen of the United States, clothed with the rights, responsibili- ties and duties of citizenship ; he was made a voter ; he was made a part of the governmental machinery, not only of the State of Mississippi but of the country at large. Probably when these came to him he found him- self utterly incapable of discharging these duties and these responsibilities. He would point to the long his- tory of himself and his race in this country as a slave. He would say during all that time that no man of my race, no man of my color, was allowed to read or write; that in all the States in which we have lived it was a part of the institutions of slavery, recognized so by every- body, that the slave should not be educated. He would plead this as an excuse for his ignorance, and an excuse for his incapacity to discharge the great duties and the high responsibilities which had been placed upon him by the act of the Federal Government. "Then, sir, he might truthfully say this: When the time came when he was first called upon to vote in the State of Mississippi he voted under a law which pro- scribed many of the most intelligent white people of that State. ' In my ignorance I was warned by a law of Con- gress proscribing those who were disfranchised by the 284 OUR GREAT MEN. reconstruction laws not to consult them, and as they had opposed my enfranchisement I did not feel disposed to consult them.' That being thus situated, being thus sud- denly called upon to discharge the high duties of citizen- ship, ignorant of the Constitution of the State, ignorant of the Constitution of the United States, ignorant of all statecraft, he was obliged to resort to what help he could find ; he was obliged to rely ujDon somebody. ' I found^ in the State of Mississippi at that time men who were' strangers, men who came from that section of the coun- try which gave me freedom. Ignorant myself, weak myself, unable to comprehend the great problems which were submitted to me for solution, I applied to them. I gave them my unreserved suj^port. I concurred in elect- ing to the Legislature of Mississippi, and to the Constitu- tional Convention of Mississippi, men who framed the Constitution, and who framed laws about which I knew nothing.' He would then point to the history of the leg- islation of that State during that period, and show that the taxes of that State had been raised in the course of four or five years more than 1,400 per cent. ; that he was urged by his friends to go for high taxation; he was advised that if taxes were imposed uj)on land at a high rate the owners would be compelled to surrender it, and that he would thus have an opportunity to get it. He | would point to the fact that within the short period of five years 6,500,000 acres of private property in land were sold for taxes to the State, because there were no private j^ersons, either white or colored, who were able to buy it for the taxes due on it. "He would point also to the further fact that taxes JAMES Z. GEORGE. 285 were levied for the purpose, as it was said, of educating the peoj)le of Mississippi; he would show that during that period the fund was so manipulated that only about twenty-five or thirty cents in the dollar actually collected from the taxpayer ever went for the purpose of education. He would point to the further fact that in his ignorance and weakness he was made a tool by which this onerous taxation should be so diverted to the advancement of pri- vate individuals, of adventurers, that more money was actually appropriated out of the Treasury of Mississippi, in a period of five years, for the purpose of supporting a partisan newspaper, than there was for the purpose of education. He would also say that when funds had been raised for education, instead of being carefully and eco- nomically disposed of, in many instances the fund was appropriated in buying, at extravagant rates, in order to enrich officials and their friends, exj)ensive furniture for school-houses, and in paying large salaries to county superintendents and State superintendents. And after all this he would say : ' This was done because I did not know how to exercise the political power which was vested in me; I meant to do right; I knew no better; I was not trained in statecraft; but I was obliged, in my ignorance, to do what no voter ever ought to do, vote at the dictation of another. Circumstanced as I am, and as my race is, in Mississippi, the great need for me and for mine is that we may be enabled to discharge the trusts and responsibilities of citizenship properly.' That his material advancement, his capacity to make money, to deal with other men was not equal to his necessities in life; that he was incompetent to cope in his dealings 2S6 OUR GREAT MEN. with sharpers and dishonest men ; and he would point to his present poverty and want of property and probably say that a great deal of this is attributable to that. And if the argument was stated to him that many years ago a large donation was made to the State of Mississippi for the purpose of education, that many thousand acres of land at one time, and the sixteenth section in each town- ship at another time, and a university fund at another time, he would answer: 'When these donations were made I was not a citizen; I was not a voter; if they were misappropriated and lost, I was not responsible for it ; ' and then referring to the history to which I have just alluded, he would add that every educational fund which had been donated in recent times by Congress to the State of Mississippi had also been lost. There was the agricul- tural school fund, which came to the State of Mississippi during the unhappy era of reconstruction, amounting to about two hundred thousand dollars, every single dollar ' of which had been applied during that era to other pur- poses than education, and that taxation in Mississippi to-day, taken every year from the hard earnings of the people, is necessary to pay the interest on that fund. He would say the same thing as to taxation in reference to the Chickasaw school fund, which was lost during the | war, and the same thing in reference to the University fund. 'All of these grand donations,' he would say, 'have been nothing to us; they have been lost, and with^ out our fault.' "So, Mr. President, whatever may be said about donations of school funds to the State of Mississippi, it ' can not be charged to the colored man that they are lost. JAMES Z. GEORGE. 287 Nor do I think that the white people there can be charged with this loss, but I am speaking now simply from the colored man's standpoint. '' If one of these colored men should hear that my colleague and myself were opposed to this bill, and he wanted to express his views in reference to our action, he would probably say to us : ' Why, I was born in Mis- sissippi ; I was reared in Mississippi with your people and with you. When the war came, and all the able- bodied white men of Mississippi had left the State for the purpose of engaging in it, leaving here only the women and children, I and my race stayed here ; we cul- tivated the soil ; we took care of your wives and children during that conflict, although we knew that our fate as free men or slaves depended upon the result. You rej)- resent us as well as you do the white people of Missis- sippi. Will you now resist this opportunity ? Will you reject this offering?' " 18 Hon. THOMAS F. BAYARD, OF DELAWARE. HOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD was born the 29th of October, 1828, in Wilmington, Delaware. He comes of a family that has made an honorable record in National affairs, and which is directly descended from Anna Bayard, the sister of Peter Stuyvesant, Grovernor of 'New Amsterdam. The grandfather of Thomas Francis Bay- ard, James Asheton Bayard, was born in Philadelphia in 1767, and was therefore a boy of nine on the breaking out of the Revolutionary war. Having removed to Del- aware Avhile still quite young, he was elected a member of Congress from that State, and while serving as such was appointed by President John Adams, Minister to France. He declined the appointment for reasons highly creditable to his sense of honor. He was subsequently appointed by President Madison one of the Commission- ers to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, and shortly after he returned from that mission he died, leaving four sons. James Asheton Bayard, the second son, represented Del- aware in the Senate from March 4th, 1851, to March 5th, 1869, and was one of the leading members of that body. He married Anne Francis, of Philadelphia, a grand- (288) i>M#ii^s w. mawm: THOMAS F. BAYARD. 291 daugMer of Caj^tain Tench Francis, of the Continental Army. Of this marriage were born James Asheton and Thomas Francis Bayard and three daughters. The eldest son and daughter died many years ago. Thomas F., the younger son, at the age of thirteen was sent to the school of Dr. Francis L. Hawks, at Flushing, Long Island, where he remained for several years. He subsequently went to 'New York, and became for a brief period a clerk in the merca-ntile house of his brother-in-law, and from there went to the counting- house of an eminent Philadelphia merchant, where he remained until he was twenty years old. His elder brother died, and he was summoned back to Delaware to enter on the study of law. In 1851 he was admitted to the Bar, and in 1853 became United States District Attorney for Delaware, but resigned the position the following year to enter into copartnership with William Shippen in the city of Philadelphia. In 1858 Mr. Ship- pen died, and Mr. Bayard returned to Wilmington, where he has ever since resided. He married Louisa, daughter of Josiah Lee, of Bal- timore, in 1856, and they have three sons and five daughters living. In January, 1886, they lost their eldest daughter, a brilliant and accomplished young lady, and in a few weeks the Angel of Death again vis- ited the stricken family, this time taking the loved wife and mother. The 4th of March, 1869, Thomas F. Bayard entered the Senate as the successor of his father, whose time expired at noon that day. He was thus chosen, not because he was the son of James A. Bayard, but because 292 OUK GREAT MEN. he was already recognized as a man of ability and integ- rity, such as is Delaware's boast that she has always contributed to the Senate. At that time there were but nine Democrats in the Senate, and every one of them was expected to do full service ; and so, on the 9th of April, but a little more than a month after his admission, Mr. Bayard began the fight, w^iich he steadily kept up for years, against the reconstruction measures of the party then in power. It would be but to write anew the history of that long struggle to attempt to record Mr. Bayard's part in the debate, for step by step, and almost inch by inch, he resisted every measure proposed by the Rejoub- licans, and he was the chosen leader of his party in its final and successful struggle against the famous "Force Bill." Even earlier than his entrance into the debate on reconstruction was Mr. Bayard's participation in finan- cial legislation, and eleven days after his admission to the Senate he made a speech on a bill then pending, in which he declared his inability to " understand the dif- ference between the principles that should be aj^plied to the honest extinguishment of a private debt and a pub- lic debt." For years, but in vain, he denounced the sales of gold to buy at a premium bonds not yet due, while the greenbacks remained unredeemed, as a false and dangerous policy, and he was one of the foremost leaders at all times in the movement for specie resump- tion. He never hesitated an instant about opposing the greenback and silver delusions which swept through his own party. The plea by which so many sought to THOMAS F. BAYARD. 293 excuse their sacrifice of consistency and convictions to a passing craze had no influence on Mr. Bayard. " Sir, I was sent here," he said, " to think on these subjects. I was sent here to give my best judgment on these sub- jects. It was not what the people might like to hear, but what my conscience taught me they ought to be told; and if I shall be found to have mistaken their interests, I shall not be found to have forfeited their respect." On another occasion he declared : "I think no greater insult can be offered to the people of America than to tell them that you suppose they will condemn a public man who tells the truth and endeavors to do jus- tice; and," he added, "if this Grovernment should fail and go down amid the tears of those who love con- stitutional liberty and republican freedom, close to the root of its cause of failure will be found the fact that her representative and public men disguised their honest opinions, and failed to tell the people the truth as they knew it to exist." The time came when Bayard himself was tested. Beginning at the foot of the Senate Finance Committee, he came in time to be its head, and undeniably felt hon- ored by the position; but when, at the height of the silver craze, he was called before the caucus and oflicially asked if he would report a bill to which he was con- scientiously opposed if sanctioned by the party, he instantly answered "IS'o," and retired, leaving his Chair- manship at the disposal of the caucus which gave it. The resignation was not accepted. Mr. Bayard has never been regarded as an extreme advocate of free trade, but he has been a persistent 294 OUR GREAT MEN. friend of revenue reform, and since the growing surplus offered unmistakable evidence of overtaxation he has been amongst those who insist that there should be no farther delay in setting about so important a work. But, while insisting on tariff reform, Mr. Bayard has always said that, in dealing with vested rights long encouraged and fostered by law, we ought to act, " not hastily and in no spirit of hostility, but in a judicial temper." He opened on behalf of the Democrats the great debate on the tariff bill which the House sent to the Senate in July, 1882, and he then declared that the time had now come for considering the question down to its very roots. Reduction must be made, and the princi- ple must be established once more that public property could not be taken for private use, and that the public taxing power could not be used to promote individual interests. " There," he said, " is the heresy, there is the danger. Into that, I do not say criminally, I do not say unpatriotically, but naturally and selfishly, I believe a favored class in this country have entered, so that to-day an unequal distribution of the burden of taxation rests on the American people. * * * * i would be glad to-day to go heart and hand with those of my fellows-citi- zens who have a share in these undue privileges in order that they should themselves, by taking part in the reform w^hich I am satisfied ought to come and is to come, pre- vent it from being violent or extreme." Such has been Mr. Bayard's consistency and moderation in this matter that he has enjoyed the confidence of men of all shades of opinion in his own party, with the exception of the extreme protectionists. THOMAS F. BAYARD. 295 Mr. Bayard has been a consistent advocate of civil- service reform, and is almost constitutionally a foe to the spoils system. He gave Senator Pendleton a hearty and unfailing support after the latter had introduced the civil-service law now in force. Mr. Pendleton will cheer- fully testify that he received from no other Senator more persistent aid and encouragement than was given him by Mr. Bayard, who specially devoted himself to meeting the several insidious side attacks made on the bill. In response to a complaint by Senator Brown, of Georgia, that many grossly incompetent men were already in public office, Mr. Bayard said: "Why are they there? They are there undoubtedly under a system that needs reform. I seek to remove the cause that enables them to go there. * * * I want no system which has resulted in placing such men there to continue. I do not wish my political opponents to place such men there, and Grod forbid that I should assist in placing men of my own political party of like character there. * * * I wish here to say that I do not desire to see a Republi- can spoils system replaced by a Democratic spoils sys- tem." He declared his belief that if the bill passed, and was executed in the spirit which animated those who framed it, "the reckless and trading politician" would find his occupation gone, and that the offices, salaries and official power of the country would cease to be expended "to make our elections more savage, more embittered, more anxious, every year." Mr. Bayard took a prominent part in the debates aris- ing out of the disputed Presidential election of 1876, and served as a member of the Electoral Commission, voting 296 OUR GREAT MEN. with the minority on the question of awarding the votes of Louisiana and Florida to Mr. Hayes, but voting with other Democrats and with the majority against counting the Cronin vote in Oregon for Mr. Tilden. He regarded the decision finally reached as a defiance of justice and the evidence, but as an accomplished fact he recognized it, and treated as absurd the argument that because he did not believe Mr. Hayes entitled to the Presidency, he should decline to vote in accord with his own convictions to sustain Mr. Hayes' veto of the silver bill. Mr. Bayard began to be mentioned as a probable Democratic candidate for President almost as soon as the result of the election gave evidence of the wisdom of his protest in the Baltimore Convention against accej)ting Greeley, and in the Convention of 1876, which nominated Mr. Tilden, Mr. Bayard received thirty-three votes. In the Cincinnati Convention of 1880 he was next to the leading candidate, receiving 153 J votes to 171 for Han- cock on the first ballot, Hancock being nominated on the second. In the Chicago Convention of 1884, Mr. Bayard was again next to the leading candidate, receiving 170 votes to 392 cast for Mr. Cleveland on the first ballot, eighty-eight being the highest number cast for any one else. On the second and final ballot, also, Mr. Bayard's vote was next to Mr. Cleveland's. As soon as it was known that Mr. Cleveland was elected, public opinion jumped with singular unanimity to the opinion that Mr. Bayard would be the leading member of his Cabinet, and this opinion was confirmed when Mr. Cleveland invited Mr. Bayard to Albany for consultation early in Decem- ber of 1884. THOMAS F. BAYARD. 297 He was appointed Secretary of State by President Cleveland the 4th of March, 1885. One of the able speeches of Mr. Bayard during his service in the United States Senate was on United States notes as a legal tender, from which the following is given : "Capital is the result of labor and frugality; it is by the virtues of thrift, economy and self-denial, working under the instruction of intelligence and enlightened self-interest, that capital is first created and then accu- mulated. "Wealth and property of all descrij)tions are but forms of capital. Encouragement is given by the insti- tutions of property, by the creation of government, by the enactment of laws, to induce men to exercise their faculties to gain wealth. Is all this founded upon fallacy and wrong? Is there to be discrimination, suspicion and assault visited upon those individuals of society who have been more successful than others in the accumulation of property ? Is it not ' money power ' that enables a poor laborer to become the owner of the pick-ax or shovel with which he prosecutes his daily task? Is it not ' money power ' that enables him to procure a wheel-bar- row? Is it not 'money power' that enables his savings of a year's labor, temperance and frugality, to give him the means to purchase a horse and cart? Is it not ' money power ' that enables him to educate his children and fit them for an improved condition in life ? Is it not the same ' money power ' that crowns his life of honesty, sobriety, and industry with an old age of comfort and respectability ? 298 OUR GREAT MEN, "Such, sir, are the humble but honorable and useful a| careers that America offers to the poor of all lands ; and ™ of all institutions to secure such results, a money having real value is the chief, because it is the true and only road by which the laborer honestly becomes the cap- italist. " Mr. President, there are few assemblages of men to whom I could appeal with more confidence to bear out the truth of my present utterances than to my honored asso- ciates in this Chamber, so many of whom have illustrated in their own careers the advantages and true glory of American republican institutions. "I do not shut my eyes, Mr. President, to the fact that the equal and wholesome distribution of property, which it was hoped by the founders of our Government would be attained by the abolition of the rules of primo- geniture, of entailments, of f)erpetuities, and the division of interstate estates among daughters and sons alike, has been greatly defeated. And I am inclined to believe the system of incorporation which we have introduced into all branches of industrial pursuits will be found nearly equal to the effects of primogeniture and mortmain combined in its influence upon the aggregation of wealth into a single and never-dying grasp. " But the millionaires of to-day, now to be counted by scores, where twenty years ago they were to be counted by units — were twenty years ago penniless boys, and I can not comprehend in this vague denunciation of their 'money power' at what point of their accumulations con- demnation and proscription are to commence, or should their riches take wings, as they have in so many conspic- THOMAS F. BAYARD. 299 uous instances, whether pardon will then await them in their poverty for their former pecuniary success. "To no one thing, however, do I attribute this une- qual division of property in this country so much as to the resort by the Government to the use of inconvert- ible legal-tender j^aper money, and I believe with Thomas Jefferson that ; "'The abuses of paper money are inveterate — hy breaking up the measure of value that it makes a lottery of all private property can not he denied.'' "It is from such results that communism is the out- growth, and to the distress caused by unwise financial management I attribute the dangerous projects, fallacious schemes, and attempts to array the force of numbers against property which we witness all over the country, and which afford such opportunities for demagogues to ply their arts and excite an unthinking and suffering people to the adoption of false remedies and destructive measures of sup]3osed relief. •T" ^ *T- 'T' '^ ^" "Mr. President, centralization of power in any gov- ernment is to be dreaded. Under it the 'individual withers,' and local self-government in which are grown the seeds of hardy, self-reliant virtues and capacities are destroyed. If this be true of other governments and peoples, how especially true of our own, where a terri- tory so vast, embracing populations so heterogeneous in race, pursuits and traditions are brought into a union under a single constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. The gradual absorption of jurisdiction by the Greneral Government in so many ways during the past 300 OUR GREAT MEN. fifteen years, its invasion of the domain of the States, its interference with subjects and matters so essentially proper for local cognizance and control, have justly alarmed those who have at heart the preservation of the Union under our Federal theory and constitutional gov- ernment. " I believe this recognition is wide-spread, and the necessity admitted of a rediffusion and redistribution of powers which in the emergencies and heat of civil war have been unduly absorbed by the National Government. Let us call to mind the legend of our National seal, ^JE ]ilurihus unmn^ — that the States form a Union 'out of many ' — not a unit. But let me ask : What act of cen- tralization is so potent or in any degree equals that which assumes to create values by the fiat of Congress, and compels such values to be accepted as an equivalent for any indebtedness? In my view, all other steps to centralization are as nothing compared to this. " The divine Master asked, near two thousand years ago, 'which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit ? ' " May it not be repeated now and here, when ' with taking thought' men seem to believe they can create values without limit and measures of values, and impress their will on printed slij)s of paper, and rely uj^on their being received as equivalents for the labors of a life-time. Is the present attemj^t anything else than a scheme to avert and avoid the law contained in the primeval curse: That by the sweat of his face shall man eat bread ? "Sir, there is a ^])\v\t of irreverence in these fiat, THOMAS F. BAYARD. 301 money plans of assumed omnipotence that ought to shock the minds and hearts of men. "Mr. President, I have not considered this great question from a party stand-point. It touches too closely the 'welfare of every human being in our society for me to dwarf it to the mere interests of a party. But if in the name of party I should speak, and I should call the long roll of distinguished statesmen and patriots who led the Democratic masses in the past, and taught them that the Constitution of the United States was the supreme law of the land, and that steady subordination to its provisions in time of peace as well as in war time, was the first and paramount duty of every citizen in or out of office, what name could there be found in all that illustrious band to approve or warrant the emis- sion at will of Treasury notes by Congress, and their endowment with legal-tender power — as * lawful money ' — to pay all debts, public and private; to control every contract and every obligation known to human affairs ? "Sir, this debate has begun, and it will close, and the name of no Democrat will be uttered who at any time approved, or in any way countenanced, so mon- strous an assertion of power. It is utterly beside the question to read here long extracts from Jefferson and Jackson denouncing abuses of j)ower by great Grovern- ment corporations. It is a profanation of their great names ; it is an insult to their honest fames to suggest, or even hint, that they or any of them ever counte- nanced or approved the emission of legal-tender paper money. 302 OUR GREAT MEN. "I could safely take the declarations of party faith and principles — of every national, of every State, and I believe I might truly say of every county convention, of the Democratic party, from the foundation of the Gov- ernment down to the present year, and find nothing but denunciation of legal-tender paper money — and, on the contrary, you will find the steady declaration, from gen- eration to generation, in war and in peace, that gold and silver coins are the only true and constitutional money of the United States — according to the doctrines of true Democracy. "In considering so grave and all-important a princi- ple as lies at the root of this discussion, I shall not turn aside to impale individuals upon their inconsistencies; such occujDation would be trivial and unworthy; but when this legal-tender power, eighteen years ago, was sought, for the first time in our history, to be exercised by Congress, there was not to be found a Democrat in either House who did not deny it. Look to the record; see how they voted, how they spoke. I am half tempted to recite here the fervent and true eloquence with which some even now members of this Senate denounced the assertion of so disastrous a power. But their action has passed into history, and can be revised by those who desire it. " I can only say that, if I sought for texts peculiarly condemnatory of such a power as I now seek to with- draw from the paper issues of the Government, I could find them abundantly in the speeches and writings of the most distinguished, trusted and authoritative leaders of the Democratic party. I am content to follow in their THOMAS F. BAYARD. 303 footsteps, and here to-day to plant myself more firmly in their principles, which time has proven to be founded upon truth and justice. And, intending no impeachment of others, I jnust say that I am unable to comprehend the logic and reasoning which, admitting such a law to be in violation of the Constitution, yet justifies a vote to perpetuate its presence on the statute-book. I confess- 1 am unable to construe the obligation I have taken to support and defend that Constitution, and bear true faith and allegiance to the same. "Mr, President, I do not propose on this occasion to consider the interesting and important questions of bank or Treasury issues of notes as currency, nor of the much- needed reforms in the tarifi" of duties on imports, nor the navigation laws, nor the parity between silver and gold, and the practicability of retaining both metals by their free coinage under present regulations of their respective values. The question I have endeavored to discuss and place upon its true and essential principles as exemplified by all human experience, is of such importance as to war- rant and demand a consideration by itself. "Of course it intimately affects and controls every department of human dealings, but it should be settled upon a principle and then applied in practice. When the other questions referred to shall come before the Senate I shall not leave any one in doubt as to my position in regard to them, but I do not include them in the present discussion. "The proposition embraced in the resolution before the Senate has made deep impression on the minds of all thinking men, and expressions of opinion in the form of 304 OUR GREAT MEN. petitions and memorials have been presented here from many States of the Union. "The commercial and manufacturing centers of popu- lation and industry have naturally expressed their opin- ions, and by abundant signatures have testified their great interest and decided conviction in favor of the pas- sage of the resolution. Thus from Boston and Massachu- setts have come memorials ; from Philadelphia, the great seat of manufactures ; from Baltimore, with her vast and growing domestic and shipping interest; from Wilming- ton, Delaware, and the fertile j^eninsula between the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays; and from the Empire State and her great city has come the same impressive request that the resolution now before us be adopted. "The citizens who append their signatures to these memorials include in their number men of all shades of political belief — merchants, manufacturers, judges, gov- ernors, bankers, lawyers, laborers, farmers, mechanics, and political economists. Among them are names held in the highest honor and esteem as private citizens and public servants. "Many of them have made the study of finance and political economy, of money and its laws, the occupation of their lives, and are looked up to by their fellow-citizens as i;)eculiarly fitted to give counsel on such topics. " When, lately, some of our communities in the South and West were scourged with pestilence, and a commis- sion from this body was sent to investigate and report upon the true condition of affairs in order to adopt plans of relief, upon whose advice and testimony did they most rely? Naturally upon those who had sj^ent their THOMAS F. BAYARD. 305 lives in the study of the laws of health and cure of disease. "Because medical men gave their testimony on such subjects, it did not seem that they were spoken of in the Senate in terms of disrespect and distrust; on the con- trary, their testimony was read with great respect. "Nor do I see the justice or wisdom (I say nothing of the propriety) of selecting the fifteen hundred and odd citizens of New York State and city for disrespectful com- ment, as has been done in this debate, because they have exercised in the usual and orderly manner the right to memorialize Congress on a matter deeply touching their interest in connection with a subject upon which their avocations, experience and studies have especially fitted them to speak. There is not a member of this Senate who would not feel himself benefited by the counsel and judgment of a great many of the wise, upright and excel- lent men who signed the memorial from New York, in any matter touching the pecuniary interests of himself or those dependent upon him. "But I beg to draw the attention of the Senate and the country to the Wisconsin memorial presented by a Senator from that State, because we have been assured that universal opinion in opposition to this resolution prevails in the Western States. "From Milwaukee a most respected delegation has come all the way to Washington to represent public opin- ion in that locality. "I trust they may be spared an attempt to create sectional prejudice against them, as was done in the case of the Eastern memorialists, but may be treated 19 306 OUR GREAT MEN. with the respect due to citizens of character and intel- ligence. "Ten years ago I endeavored in vain to im^^ress this Senate with the manifest and paramount duty of restoring and establishing a sound currency, a real money of daily measure of all contracts. "In a speech made by me, March 7, 1870, on the Funding Bill, I endeavored to show how much more pressing and important was the need of a sound founda- tion for all contracts than a prepayment and refunding of our bonds not due. " But my efforts were in vain, and the deplorable policy inaugurated by Mr. Boutwell in his administra- tion of the Treasury was continued. From 1869 to 1875 the sale of nearly $500,000,000 of gold coin received from custom duties, and its investment in United States bonds at high premiums, was continued, and all that time the currency was suffered to stand unredeemed, and no step taken to resume specie payment. Such a policy precluded resumption, and to it I attribute in a large degree the sufferings which followed in the crash of 1873. "What I have said to-day is little more than repeti- tion of what I have been moved to say more than once before, in regard to which I have been vindicated by events. " I wish to say a few words to explain why the reso- lution before the Senate does not allow the United States notes to be receieved ' for duties on imports or interests on the public debt.' " By the act of February 25, 1862, under which the THOMAS r. BAYAKD. 307 first issue of these notes was authorized, it was, in sec- tion 1, expressly provided that: " 'Notes herein authorized shall be receivable in pay- ment of all taxes, internal duties, excises, debts and demands of every kind due to the United States, exGe;pt duties on imports^ and of all claims and demands against the United States of every kind whatsoever, except for interest iipo7i bonds and notes, which shall he paid in coin, etc.'' " And by section 5 of the same act it was provided : " ' Sec. 5. Aiid he it further enacted, That all duties on imported goods shall be paid in coin, or in notes payable on demand heretofore authorized to be issued, and by law receivable in payment of public dues, and the coin so paid shall be set apart as a special fund, and shall be applied as follows : " ' First. To the payment in coin of the interest on the bonds and notes of the United States. ^''^ Second. To the purchase or payment of one per cent, of the entire debt of the United States, to be made within each fiscal year after the 1st day of July, 1862, which is to be set apart as a sinking fund, and the inter- est of which shall in like manner be applied to the pur- chase or payment of the public debt as the Secretary of the Treasury shall from time to time direct. " ' Third. The residue thereof shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States.' " I am unable to construe this law otherwise than a distinct restriction of the notes — that they should never be receivable for duties on imports — and coupled with it the distinct pledge that these duties should be paid hi coin, and be ' set apart as a special fund ' for the security 308 OUR GREAT MEN. of the interest on the public debt. It was, in my judg- ment, unwise and derogatory to a government like our own thus to ' 2^^^ ^^ pledge ' any one of its sources of revenue specially — it savored too much of pawnbroker- age — but it was nevertheless done, and the contract made by the authorized agents of the American j^eople. It may seem useless, now that credit is established and the bonds above par, when they have been called in and exchanged, that this law should be enforced; but the law of 1862 has never been repealed, but stood in full force as the utterance of the Government when the new bonds went out in place of old ones, and the inscription on the notes is the same as it originally was. I propose to be strict in the performance of public obligations, because we can not infuse the spirit of honor and good faith, nay, uberrima fides^ too much into our public acts. It was for the security of the holders of our public obli- gations that these pledges were made, and they alone can release us from them. "It may seem now a useless formality to pay at the custom-house to the Government the gold and silver coin we have drawn from its Treasury on its own notes, but it is a formality carried out in a spirit of exact per- formance of a contract, and that alone makes it dignified and proper. " Mr. President, at much greater length than I desired I have expressed my reasons for urging the adoption of this resolution, and in concluding I can only say how incompetently I feel I have dealt with a great subject profoundly affecting the happiness, the morals, the welfare of our country. But I have at least tried to THOMAS F. BAYARD. 309 treat the question in a worthy spirit, and do my best in the service of truth and justice. Whether the Senate will concur in my views I know not, for a subject like this has never been, and will never be, made by me a subject of party caucus or personal canvass for votes ; but I believe that good sense and right feeling are per- manent and enduring forces in American politics, and in that faith I shall rely upon these qualities vindicating themselves in the minds of my countrymen as time shall pass on. "The issue is nothing less than whether there shall be security to labor for its savings, to thrift and indus- try for their just results. The painful earnings of daily toil and the accumulated wealth of generations are alike involved; the creation of property by labor, and its transmission to posterity, are all alike affected by what I have proposed, and, not being a believer in Congres- sional alcliemy^ I ask that we now abandon any further attempt to make it successful." Hon. RICHARD P. BLAND, OF MISSOURI. ICHARD PARKS BLAND, of Lebanon, was born in Ohio County, Kentucky, August 19th, 1835. He is entirely a self- made man. His j^arents died when he, the eldest of four children, was but fourteen years old. The youngest died at an early age, and Richard and his brother Charles educated themselves and their sister, the youngest of the three. In 1855 he removed to Missouri, from there to Cali- fornia, and from California to that j^ortion of Utah Ter- ritory now the State of Nevada. He located in Virginia City, and there commenced the practice of law in 1861. He was Treasurer of Carson County, Utah Territory, from 1860 till the formation of the State government of Nevada. In 1865 he returned to Missouri, and, locating in Rolla, commenced jDracticing law in partnership with his brother, Charles C. Bland. He remained there four years, and then removed to Lebanon, his present home, and there continued the practice of his profession for three years, when he was elected to the Forty-third Congress as a Democrat, and he has been a member of 310 EICHARD P. BLAND. 311 the House from that time until now. Mr. Bland is a leader on the silver question, and has sometimes been called the ''Father of the remonetized silver dollar." On the bill to establish a new sub-treasury at Louis- ville, Kentucky, Mr. Bland said: "Under the act of last Congress providing for the deposit or transfer of silver coin and subsidiary coin from the mints to the sub-treasuries, it was intended to place the silver coinage, both the subsidiary and the standard, in a convenient position for circulation. And, inasmuch as these sub-treasuries are the only means by which these deposits can be made, it does seem to me a matter of convenience and a matter of importance in securing the circulation of this money to have it depos- ited near the populations who desire it. "Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, we have a bill pending now for the purpose of issuing certificates on silver, and I understand it is the will or the wish of the majority of this House at least, that a larger issue of these cer- tificates be made, l^ow, under the ruling of the Treas- urer, Mr. Jordan, these certificates can not be issued fully. The coin itself is first paid out, is first received by some holder, and then redeposited. Now, as to this coin that is all piled up in Washington and in New York, it is almost impossible, in the first place, to get it in cir- culation, and, in the second place, to deposit it anywhere and receive the certificate for it. ****** " If there was some law (and I think there ought to be) by which the Treasurer or the Secretary of the Treas- ury would be directed to issue certificates on the coin 312 OUR GREAT MEN. without its being paid out, there might be no great neces- sity for these sub-treasuries, because then the certificates coukl be issued and could go into circuhxtion; but under the ruling of Treasurer Jordan himself, no certificate can be used until the coin is first j)aid out and receired by the holder and redeposited. If that be so, we ought to have a sub-treasury in every city of fifty thousand people, in order to enable this coin to be deposited and go into circulation, and be redeposited and certificates taken if the jDcople desired them. If they did not so desire, then let the coin be deposited in the centers of population, where it can be issued and go into circulation. The coin- age of silver is peculiarly situated. The bullion is bought by the Government. " Holders of bullion have no right to go to the Mint and have it coined and put into circulation as they could w^ith g(5ld. The Government exercises a mono]3oly of the silver coinage by purchasing so much per month and coin- ing it. It is for the Government to put it into circulation or not, and heretofore it seems to have been the policy of the Treasury officials to keep it out of circulation, but it is the policy of the people to institute some means to put it in circulation. There is about eighty millions of money now, standard silver dollars, in the Treasury of the United States that ought to be in circulation. How are you to get it into circulation ? By simj^ly coining it and holding it in the Mint and in the Treasury and the sub-treasuries in Washington, New York, and the few others through- out the country? Is it not a matter of importance that this money, coined by the Government, shall be sent to the centers of population where it can be placed in circu- RICHAED P. BLAND. 313 lation, or wliere it can be returned and certificates taken if we are to adopt the policy of issuing certificates for silver coin? I would rather, however, see the policy adopted of issuing coin notes on the deposit of gold or silver coin without distinction. I would abolish the whole system of issuing silver and gold certificates sepa- rately, and let any holder of gold or silver coin deposit it, receiving a coin certificate, redeemable at the pleasure of the Government, in gold or silver. But when you sub- stitute a policy of that kind you must provide conveni- ences for holders of coin to deposit it in the sub-treasury, receive their certificates, and take the certificates back to the sub-treasury and receive the coin again whenever they desire. The national banks are not in favor of that sort of money, and they will not give it any particular circulation if they can avoid it. They are not the parties to charge with such transactions, and, as against national- bank deposits, I am in favor of sub-treasury deposits, so as to take that business away from the national banks." 1 Hon. JOHN A. LOGAN, OF ILLINOIS. |OHN A. LOGAN is one of the members of the United States Senate whose name will live in history. He is a prominent Repub- lican leader in the Senate, and he carries the honor well. It is a well-known fact that some men are born leaders, while it is the nature of others to be led. Mr. Logan is one of the leaders among men. He is a man of magnificent physique, and a brilliant orator. Senator Logan is of Irish descent, his father having come to this country some three years previous to the birth of the young statesman. He was born in Jackson County, Illinois, February 9th, 1826. He owes the foun- dation of his education to his father. Dr. John Logan, who M^as a man of culture and refinement. When war was declared between Mexico and the United States he enlisted as a private, and was chosen Lieutenant of the First Illinois Infantry, and for a time was Adjutant of this regiment, and became Quartermas- ter before the close of the war. When peace was restored he studied law, attending the Louisville University; he completed his law studies and was admitted to the Bar in 1852. The same year he was elected to the Illinois Leg- (314) JOHN A. LOGAN. 315 islature, and was re-elected in 1853, '56 and '57. In 1853 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the Third Judicial District of the State of Illinois, and held that position for four years. He was a member of the Electoral College in 1856, when Buchanan and Breckinridge were elected. He was a member of the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses, resigning to enter the Union Army. Enter- ing the Army as Colonel, he attained the rank of Major- General before the surrender. « President Johnson appointed him Minister to Mexico, but he declined. He was elected to the Fortieth and re-elected to the Forty-first Congresses as a Republican. During the Fortieth Congress he served on the impeach- ment trial of President Johnson. He was re-elected a Representative to the Forty-second Congress, but was elected to the United States Senate before the session convened. He served from March, 1871, to March, 1877, and then resumed his professional life in Chicago. He was again elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat in March of '79. In 1884 he received the nomination for Vice-Presi- dent on the Blaine ticket. Failing in the election to the "Vice-Presidency he was re-elected to the Senate. Mr. Logan's name will always be associated with the idea of executive sessions of the Senate with open doors. The following is a portion of his great speech on that subject. Mr. Logan said: " Oh, sir, I believe, and I think we all do, in honest and in fair dealing with the people that we represent. I am not afraid of any of my official acts being exposed to the people. I may not do what my constituents 316 OUR GREAT MEN. always desire; I may fail in many respects in reiDresent- ing their wishes; I may fail to know what their wishes are; yet I am not afraid to have them see my votes, and I vote about as often as any Senator. I am perfectly will- ing they shall see my votes on confirmations, and if I dared do it I would tell every day what my vote was in every secret session; but I can not; this great and important secret must be locked up for all time in my breast. " I have spoken about the inducement to have the truth always go before the country and the people unde- ceived. Sir, truth is a jewel, though not possessed by all men ; let us give encouragement to all men to adorn themselves with that jewel, by opening the doors and letting that truth that ought to go everywhere be sent out to the world, so that our course and our conduct may be open to insj^ection. " It was said long centuries ago, ' Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works.' If we are to let our light so shine before men that they are to see our good works, we should not cover those acts in darkness; we should not throw over them the shade and darkness of night through which the light of truth can not penetrate ; but, sir, we should let those acts of ours be such that the light should flow from them, and our constituents determine whether they are good or whether they are bad. "But, Mr. President, let me state one other proposi- tion. I intend to deal in general principles with refer- ence to this question, as I do not wish to trespass upon the ground over which the Senator from Connecticut JOHX A. LOGAN. 317 passed; but there is a great principle underlying this. There has never been a shackle that has fallen from men that has not been forced oif either by the strong arm or by public opinion. Liberty comes by degrees, and not like a flood of light thrown instantly upon the world. It comes by constant pressure, it comes not from the source of kings or monarchs, but it comes from the class that requires to be released, from the class that feels the oppressor's hand. It germinates there and grows there until finally it bursts the bonds that confine it, and then those that confined it are apt to shout the loudest for it. Everything grows in reference to power, to place, to government and all that there is connected with the aifairs of man, except that particular system or policy which is believed in by a certain class that never yields, never grows and never severs the bonds until by force of public opinion it is accomplished. " Look back for centuries ; take governments insti- tuted; the power in one head; his or her rule enforced upon the people, not through the people, enforced not by them but upon them. When the idea entered the minds of men that the modes, procedure and laws and adminis- tration of government were too strong, too powerful, the people who were oppressed broke the bonds and gave to themselves that measure of liberty which the times then demanded or would admit of. "So it is to-day, and so it is in all governments. Take the English government to-day, where the queen sits enthroned with but little power. That power once in the head of that government has been taken away, step by step, by that growth of liberty in the minds of 318 OUR GREAT MEN. the people, the knowledge which they have gained in reference to governmental affairs, and the intelligence they have acquired in regard to their own rights and the policy which is beneficial to them, until now that people have privileges unthought of by them a century ago. " Take the case of Ireland to-day, downtrodden and trampled under foot for centuries. Why is it that the grandest statesman whom England has produced for ages, perhaps, is to-day struggling in behalf of down- trodden Ireland? It is because of the growth of intelli- gence among the people ; it is because of the expansion of the great idea of liberty ; it is the light of intelligence breaking in upon the minds of the people, and they are demanding certain rights. "Ireland struggles for what? For a change, for more power to the people, in reference to government, more privileges, more independence. Why? Because the people have grow^n more intelligent and have now a better understanding of their rights. " So, in our own country, everything has grown with the growth of intelligence, except in the fact of the Sen- ate of the United States in reference to the right of the people to know what you and I are doing — the only part of the people to-day in this Government who have not advanced wdth the growth of the country, and who now stand back with a veil drawn between the people and themselves. "How have the privileges and rights of the people of this country grown? Step by step they have de- manded and obtained rights from Congress ; ste]) by step they have demanded and obtained greater privileges JOHN A. LOGAN. 319 and protection in the amendments of the Constitution of the United States, being fifteen amendments in all. Step by step this great Republic has moved forward; the demands of the country have enlarged the boundaries of your Constitution. Step by step you have enlarged and expanded your laws. They must have a growth along with the intelligence of the people; they must expand with the intelligence and necessities of the people. The only place where that growth has been stinted in its rules is in the Senate of the United States. "What was it that abolished slavery in this country? It was the immediate result of war, all people say; but it was the intelligence of the people, their growth and ad- vance in civilization, and the knowledge of the rights of man, Avhich caused that band which bound^ human beings to masters to be severed by war, and that made the slave to leap forward as a free man before the civilized world. "While speaking of the advance in civilization and intelligence in the world, we find here in our own midst another growth. While the idea of privileges to man has been in the advance, stimulated by the willingness of those in power in this Republic to yield to their demands ; on the other hand, we find there a growth in the power of money and corporations which has been unhealthy to the growth of republican ideas in our country. But whenever that growth becomes so over- towering, so colossal and powerful in its proportions that it becomes oppressive, then it is the duty of the repre- sentatives of the people to check and control that power. So it is with reference to everything else connected with the Government. 320 OUR GREAT MEN. "As we grow we must have our checks and our bal- ances, in order that the idea of liberty and of jorivileges to men shall go along together, and that one shall not be caused to shrink Avhile the other grows, and that all may move along harmoniously together. The way for us to do is to make wholesome laws and execute them to pro- tect all lawful rights of every citizen. You will then have peace, prosperity, happiness and fraternal feeling. "Let me go one step further: There are but two ways by which things are remedied when they become offensive and oj^pressive to the joeople. One is by revo- lution, which may, and probably would, destroy all gov- ernment as well as liberty ; the other is by reformation, which may amend all. So, when the people in any land, I care not where, become oj^pressed or are denied rights they are entitled to enjoy, they will have them, and the legislation of the country must comport with the rights of the people or else one of two results must follow, either reformation or revolution. Reformation is my idea — law and order — reform as we move forward, and right all the wrongs. That is the character of reformation which every man Avho is an honest man ought to desire instead of revolution. "Paul said: 'When I was a child I thought as a child, I spake as a child ; but when I became a man I put away childish things.' We in the Senate of the United States are not children — we ought not to be ; but when our Government was a child it dressed itself in a garb of secrecy. It was a child, and it thought as a child; but when this great Government, majestic in all its proportions, became a man, why should it try to be a JOHN A. LOGAN. 321 child any longer? Why should the Senate cling to the childish ways of the olden times, that our acts may be obscured from the sight of men who gave us the places that we occupy? Let us put away childish things; let us put on the garb of a man, and assert the rights of the American people in this Senate Chamber to which they are entitled, for they are entitled to know what you and I do. " There is a strong desire on the part of a great many Senators to have secret sessions every day. It seems to bring joy to their very soul to see the people rushed out of these galleries and the doors shut, as if some great, mysterious thing was going to transpire, as if some great calamity was going to befall the country, and therefore the doors must be closed. In other words, you drive the people out of these galleries, and why? To show^ our importance? Is that it? To show that the Senate of the United States is a body of men who must have secrets of State ? Is that it ? Who are we magicians ? Will we turn sticks into snakes in secret, or something equally mysterious ? Is there a Senator who does not know that it is a farce, an absolute farce ? Nothing has ever transpired in the Senate in executive session in reference to the confirmation of a man, to my knowledge, that ought not to have been made public. "I want to see a vote on the j)ending resolution; I want to see Senators who announce that the world ought to know everything that is going on voting in executive sessions the same way they talk on the floor when the doors are open. This mysterious thing of doing in secret what you will not do openly is not manly. It gives the 20 322 OUR GREAT MEN. chance for men to vote in secret one way and talk in open Senate another. * * * * "Why should the doors of committees not be open if the committees want them to be open ? Is there any objection to it? I never did anything in a committee I would not do in open day. It is a mere question for the committee themselves. If they do not want the public in to bother them they keep them out; but the public do not come into this Chamber to bother you. That is a very different proposition. You have no galleries in your committee rooms, and what you do there is made public, is published every day. That is a mere question of convenience ; but this is not a question of con- venience, it is a question of the right of the people. ****** "We are not discussing the question of committees, but we are discussing the question of executive sessions of the Senate of the United States, and committees have nothing whatever to do with this proposition. But there is this to be said in reference to it : A committee is raised for the purpose of transacting business that comes before the Senate. The nominations go before the committees, but here is the 2:>lace where they are acted ujDon, and that action ought to be opened up. It is here in the Senate Chamber that the business is transacted ; it is here in the Senate Chamber that the vote is taken ; it is here in the Senate Chamber that nominations are passed ujoon, and your final action determines the result. This is the place, and this is where the jDOople want the doors opened, that they may see and know what we do. "The people have not asked you to open your com- JOHN A. LOGAN. 323 mittees, and they have not thought of it, unless you desire to open them, but they do say these Chamber doors should be opened ; and not only that, but they will thunder at them until they are opened ; and, mark what I tell you, they will be opened. It will not be long- either. You gentlemen may revel in the dark for awhile over nominations, and delight yourselves to go out and know something that the people do not know. 'Oh, it charms me so ; I am filled with knowledge that I can not give to the world ; I have a great secret in my bosom that I can not give you.' A man comes up and asks, 'Did you confirm this little postmaster down at Athens, in Tennessee?' 'I can not inform you; I am bound to secrecy.' What an important secret that is, as to whether a postmaster to a little post-ofiice has been con- firmed, and whether I voted for his confirmation or not! Oh, what a great veil this is that is drawn between the Senator and the people in reference to a little post-ofiice! "In darker days, when the minds of men were not illumined as they are to-day by the common schools and by books which are found everywhere, you might fool somebody by talking about the secrets which you pos- sess ; but that time has passed. The people of this coun- try know as much as we do, and a great many of them who are in the humbler walks of life would make better Senators than many of us, doubtless. We find to-day in the Senate people difi'erent from those with which the Senate was filled once, when it was filled exclusively with lawyers, who supposed that they had all the wisdom of the world; that they controlled everything; that they wrote all the constitutions and drafted all the laws. 324 OUR GREAT MEN. These things were then done in order to keep up the mystery and shroud their course of conduct in darkness, and cause the people to stand off in awe of them, and have them imagine a greatness that they could not fathom. "To-day we find it difi*erent. To-day, in the Senate Chamber, we find lawyers, we find miners, merchants, bankers, lumbermen, and men in the diff'erent avocations of life. The people elect their men according to what they think is their business qualification for the purpose of legislating to advance their interests. No longer is this mystery thrown around the aristocracy of this coun- try which once assembled for the purpose of blinding and keeping from the people that knowledge which they were entitled to have. "No, sir, this Government is growing; it is growing in republican ideas, in republican feelings; it is growing in the interest of the people. "Growth in the wrong direction must cease, and it will cease. The growth in this country, which has been in the direction of depriving men of their rights at the polls or their rights anywhere else, will have to cease. The growth calculated to oppress will be checked. I warn my friends here that the people of this country will know what you do. They will open these doors and they will look in upon you. They are entitled to; and until these doors are opened the people of this coun- try can not say that all have an opportunity of ascer- taining a full knowledge of the workings of his Gov- ernment ; and the man who is deprived of the knowledge he ought to have in order to be well informed is de- JOHN A. LOGAN. 325 prived to that extent of the privileges he ought to be permitted to enjoy. "It is only by degrees that liberty comes. It is only by degrees that liberty is repressed, and the degree that you repress the intelligence of the people as to the action of their representatives, to that extent you repress their liberties and the privileges they should enjoy. "Let the Senate turn its eye to the House of Lords in England, where power comes not from the people, where they are born with certain rights and privileges, where they are made lords without the consent of the people. To-day they are trembling and tottering, and the time will soon come when the House of Lords ii? England will be made by the people of England. " Let the Senate not pattern longer after the House of Lords; let the Senate not pattern longer after thfe star-chamber proceedings ; but let it, as a free, independ- ent body of the representatives of a free and independent people, open the doors and let the light, if any can ema- nate from the Senate, flash across the continent, that every intelligence in the land may understand how the duty as performed by the Senator is performed, whether in the direction of patriotic devotion to the interests of the country or not. In all these things let the country understand and know what is being done. Let the peo- ple be no longer misled ; let them no longer be made to believe that there is some mystery about secret ses- sions; let them be made no longer to believe that there is something transpiring here which would not transpire with open doors ; let them be made no longer to believe that they are not our equals. When w« 326 OUR GREAT MEN. declare that the people of this country are our equals, that each and every man is the equal of each and every other man before the law, let not their representatives imagine that they are higher than the people, that they are better than the people, or that they have secrets of state which can not be imparted to the people who have trusted you. " You who are trusted by them can not trust them. Is that the rule, that the man trusted can not trust the men who trust him? Whenever I fail to trust the people of my State who have trusted me, who have given me their confidence as a legislator for them, whenever I shall come to the conclusion that I am so far above them that I can not trust them with what I do as a legislative or executive act, then I will come to the conclusion that I myself have become aristocratic, and that I am greater than those who made me what I am. Do not imagine yourselves greater than those who made you what you are ; you are not. Those who make Senators can unmake Senators; those who make Representatives can unmake Repre- sentatives. So, too, with the President and all power in this land ; the power that makes them can unmake them, and the power that makes them ought to unmake them if they have no confidence in that power. " Mr. President, open these doors, open these doors. Let the knowledge go out to the people. The people are outside ; they wish to see inside. Ah, Mr. President, we are on the inside now, but political life is short at best; we may soon be on the outside and have a desire to look inside. Take away this mystery ; stop this grand farce." Hon. HILERY a. HERBERT, OF ALABAMA. [ILERY A. HERBERT, of Montgomery, was born in Laurensville, South Carolina, the 10th of March, 1834. When twelve years of age he removed to Greenville, Butler County, Alabama. During 1853^54 he attended the University of Alabama, and in 1855-56 the Uni- versity of Virginia, after which he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar. He entered the Confederate Army as Captain, but was promoted to Colonel of the Eighth Alabama Volunteers. He was wounded at the battle of the Wilderness. For six years after the close of the war he practiced law at Greenville, Alabama; in 1872 removing to Montgomery, which has since been the field of his usefulness. He has been a member of the United States House of Representatives since the Forty-fifth Congress, to which he was elected as a Democrat. On the Navy Appropriation Bill Mr. Herbert said: "Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Maine has made a very round assertion here, that we Democrats are responsible for the policy of appropriating for repairs only, and not for the building of ships. He says we inaugurated that policy. Now, let us look at the facts. (327) 328 OUR GREAT MEN. I have turned very hastily to such of the appropriation bills for j^ast years as I have at hand ; and what is the result? I take the approj)riation for 1872, when the Republicans were in power, and I read the item for repairs, as follows: '"For preservation of vessels on the stocks and in ordinary; purchase of materials and stores of all kinds; labor in navy-yards and on foreign stations; j)reserva- tion of material ; purchase of tools ; wear, tear and rej^air of vessels afloat, and general maintenance of the navy; incidental expenses, advertising and foreign post- ages— $3, 500, 000., ''Turning to 1873 I find, under the same head, an appropriation of $3,500,000. In 1874 I find |3,270,000, and in 1875, |3, 300, 000. All these are appropriations for repairs. "Now, turning to 1876, which I believe was the first year the Democrats had control here, I find the appropriations for repairs cut down to |1, 750,000, and so it goes on from that time down to the present. I have the book here containing all the appropriations, so that any gentleman who desires may look at the figures, and he will find that the appropriations under the head of repairs have steadily decreased under Democratic control until in the present bill, reported by the Com- mittee on Naval Aifairs, and just agreed ujoon here, the amount is only $980,000. So much for the facts. "I did not make the point that the amendment was not germane. The point I made was this : The Naval Committee and every other committee of this House has jurisdiction only over the matters confided to it by the HILERY A. HERBERT. 329 rules. When the present rules were framed the Naval Committee was given jurisdiction over the ordinary appropriations for the naval service. That is to say, the regular annual appropriation bill for the Navy right- fully contains just exactly such matters as it has con- tained heretofore. There is no other way of construing the rule of the House which gives us jurisdiction over that matter, and leaves with the regular Appropriations Committee such jurisdiction as is not taken away from it. We must go to these bills as they existed hereto- fore and find out what they contained. The line between these different bills, as I have had occasion to say once before during the progress of this bill, is very arbitrary, and in many cases I can see no reason for it. Yet it exists; and when we undertake to decide what we have jurisdiction over, and what the Committee on Appropri- ations has jurisdiction over, there is no way of getting at it except by looking at the bills of past Congresses. When we look at these we find that appropriations for public buildings belong to the Sundry Civil Bill. ****** " I want to state further to my colleague that it was understood by the members of our committee — at least by those who were present when this question of the Naval Observatory was considered — that- the Observa- tory would be ruled out on a point of order if the point were made ; but, as we thought it ought to be erected, we put the provision into the bill to take its chances, and it seems to have run the gauntlet. That, however, does not show that the point of order might not have been made against it." JAMES L. PUGH, OF ALABAMA. AMES L. PUGH, of Eufaula, was born in Burke County, Greorgia, December 12th, 1820. When he was four years of age the family moved to Alabama, where he has since resided. He received an academic education partly in Georgia and partly in the State of his adoption. After devoting some time to his law studies he was admitted to the Bar in 1841, at the early age of twenty-one. Beautiful Eufaula, situated on the bluffs above the Chattahoochee, and just across the river from the south- western border of Georgia, was chosen as his future home, and where he has ever since practiced law when not engaged with public duties. He is regarded as one of Alabama's ablest men. In 1848 he was a member of the Electoral College when Taylor was elected, and in 1856, when Buchanan was elected to the Presidency. In 1876, again a State Elector, Mr. Pugh cast his vote for Tilden. Mr. Pugh was elected a member of the United States Congress in 1859; about a year later, when Alabama ordained to secede from the Union, he resigned his seat (330) fe' ■&•">'■ '■ ■ - ■^' ■»..'.;i!»,i»>.^,x*i5??> .■ "^_v^iS\Sg: JAMES L. PUGH. 333 in the Thirty-sixth Congress to follow the leadership of his State. He at once joined the Eufaula Rifles, in the First Alabama Regiment, as a private ; but left the bat- tle-field for legislative halls, when elected, that same year, to the Confederate Congress, where he served till the surrender, which closed the career of that body. After the war he resumed the practice of his pro- fession in Eufaula. The law firm of Pugh, Bullock & Buford is among the first of the State. He was Presi- dent of the State Democratic Convention in 1874, and was a prominent member of the State Constitutional Convention in 1875. In 1880 Mr. George S. Houston, United States Senator from Alabama, died, leaving an unexpired term of five years. Mr. Pugh was elected to fill the vacancy, and has since retained the position ; the people recognizing his fitness for the office he holds. One of Mr. Pugh's best efforts, we think, was made in answer to Mr. Edmunds' speech upon the resolutions condemning the Attorney-General for not furnishing papers in regard to the suspension of a certain officer, and was in defense of the Attorney-General and the Administration. Mr. Pugh said: "The question of the right of the Senate to call on the President for any information in his possession relating to the exercise of his power of removal is wholly irrelevant to the question now before the Senate on the resolution of the Senator from Louisiana, and I object to dragging before the Senate and the country a discus- sion of the right of the Senate to make such a call upon the President or any member of his Cabinet for informa- tion within his own knowledge, or contained in any of the T5*fl 334 OUR GREAT MEN. papers in his possession relating to the exercise of a power that belongs exclusively to him under the Consti- tution, and not to the Senate. " The right of the Senate to call upon the President, or any member of his Cabinet, for information to enable them to prosecute an inquiry, or to exercise a power that they do not possess under the Constitution, is one thing. The right of the Senate, as part of the law-making power of the country, to ask for information of the President, or of any member of his Cabinet, is conferred expressly by Section 248 of the Revised Statutes. In that section the right is given to either House to call on the Secretary of the Treasury for any documents or public records in his possession relating to matters in his Department of pub- lic concern, or relating to the discharge of his official duty. That statute draws clearly the distinction upon which I rely, in the resolution that I presented to the Senate, between a call by the Senate upon the President or any member of his Cabinet for information in the pos- session of either, or public records or public documents^ in the possession of either. The right of the Senate to make this call for the purpose of informing them, so that they can wisely and properly exercise their legislative powers, is conferred expressly by Section 248, and that statute upon its face shows that the power conferred there upon either House was a power to be exercised by either House for the purpose of enabling it to discharge its duties in reference to legislation. " But you can not construe that statute, or any other, or any public law, or the Constitution, so as to confer the right upon the Senate to call for information from I JAMES L. PUGH. 335 the pre^sideiit concerning matters belonging exclusively to him as the chief executive officer of the country. Such a right can not be found in any statute or in any public law, or in the Constitution of the country, and that statute, Section 248, clearly shows that the power conferred there is a power conferred upon either House to discharge its duties in the preparation qf public laws relating to the duties of any public officer, or to legislate to promote the public service of the country. "Allow me to add that the call you make upon the President, or the call that you make upon any officer of the Cabinet, is for public documents. You do not claim that the Senate can call upon him for any other than public documents or public papers. The character of those documents and records determines the right of the Senate to their possession. The character of those public documents decides whether the Senate has the right to call for them. The use that the Senate intends to make of them determines their right to make the call. Who is to be the judge of the character of those documents, whether they are public or private? Who is to be the judge of whether those documents or records, or the information in the possession of the President or any member of his Cabinet, is such as the Senate has the right to call for? Some one must have the power to determine that question, and there can not be any impro- priety in conferring the right upon the President or any member of the Cabinet to determine whether the docu- ments and the records are of the character that gives the Senate the right to make the call for them to use them in the exercise of their legislative power." V^A 33G OUR GREAT MEN. Some remarks by Mr. Pugh on the Educational bill are here given : " I desire to correct the statement of the Senator from Kansas, that it was my j^urpose to take the floor to make a speech. I stated distinctly that I had no speech to make, but I felt it my duty as a member of the com- mittee to make a statement to the Senate of the connec- tion I have with this bill. I voted for it on its passage by the Senate in the Forty-seventh Congress in obedience to the instruction of my Legislature, and I desire to state my connection with the j^reparation of the bill as a mem- ber of the Committee on Education and Labor. My colleague [Mr. Morgan] alluded to the fact that I claimed a part of the paternity of the bill with the chairman of the committee, and I want to make an explanation of what connection I had with the ^preparation of it. That is the sum and substance of the statement I wish to make. " I want to say to the Senate that the bill now before it, in its machinery, conforms in substance and in prin- ciple with the Morrill bill, and that the -psivt I took in the preparation of the bill now before the Senate was to make the machinery of it conform to the Morrill bill, which had passed the Senate by a vote of forty-one to six. Among the supporters of that bill were my col- league and the Senator from Texas [Mr. Maxey], who has just concluded his speech. I wish to call attention to two sections in the Morrill bill which will show that in its machinery it conforms strictly to the machinery of thfe bHl now before the Senate as reported by the Com- mittee on Education and Labor. VI* ^F ^F ^F ^r ^F JAMES L. rUGH. 337 " The difference between the Morrill bill and the bill now before the Senate, known as the Blair bill, is that in the Blair bill the report is made by the Governor of the State directly to the Secretary of the Interior, w^hile the Morrill bill required the subordinate officer, the school officer having charge of the school fund, to make the report to the Commissioner of Education, a subordi- nate officer in the Interior Department, the head of the Bureau of Education. The change in the Blair bill is that the Governor makes the report instead of his sub- ordinate, and he makes it to the Secretary of the Interior instead of to the Commissioner of Education, the chief of the Bureau of Education. ****** "I intended to notice the difference in the funds appropriated by the Morrill bill and the Blair bill. In reference to the statement of the Senator as to the action of the Committee on Education and Labor upon his bill, I desire to say that at the time his bill was rejDorted by me to the Senate it was the distinct understanding that it should not be considered before the Senate took action upon the Blair bill, for the reason that by running the two together it might interfere with the success of the Blair bill ; that the enemies of the bill might undertake to encumber its passage or embarrass it in some way by having those two bills running together in the Senate; and for that reason the Committee on Education and Labor instructed me to withhold that bill and not to press action upon it until after the final disposition of the Blair bill. That was in the last Congress. "It is true that the Morrill bill appropriated the 338 OUR GREAT MEN. proceeds of the sales of the public lands, and that is made the ground of a difference as to the power of Con- gress to make the appropriation. So far as I am con- cerned, I do not enter into a discussion of that question. I never could see, as a question of power, what right Congress had to dispose of money in the Treasury aris- ing from the sale of public lands different from its power to dispose of money in the Treasury collected there from taxation. It is a subtlety that my mind can not com- prehend; it is a difference that my mind is too dull to take in and see any substance in. President Pierce was unable to see it. He said there was no difference in substance between the power of Congress to appropriate money in the Treasury arising from taxation and to appropriate money in the Treasury arising from the sales of public lands. Senator Clay, of Alabama, while he was in the Senate, made one of the ablest speeches I ever read upon that subject, in which he demonstrates to my mind that there was, and could be, no difference in the power of Congress to appropriate the proceeds of the public lands to educational pur^^oses and the power of Congress to appropriate money arising from taxation. " But, Mr. President, the Morrill bill did not stop at an appropriation of the proceeds of the public lands. It appropriated the net proceeds arising from patents, which, according to my recollection, amount to some two mill- ions a year. "I do not remember what the amount is, but the prin- ciple for which I contend is the same on one hundred dol- lars or one hundred million dollars. The money arising JAMES L. PUGH. 339 from patents is not a trust fund like the public-land fund, upon which some of the opponents of this bill undertake to explain the difference between the bill known as the Morrill bill and the one now before the Senate. The Morrill bill appropriated whatever money there might be arising from patents to educational uses, and it is immaterial to the question of power whether the sum arising from patents is one amount or another. ****** " It is not my purpose to go into the use that has been made of the power of Congress to make appropri- ations for different subjects, the only source of power being the same as is exercised in the passage of this bill. My colleague a short time ago offered an amend- ment to an appropriation bill, by which he projDosed to have money appropriated to arrest the ravages of the caterpillar. Five thousand dollars was appropriated, and the use that was made of it was to investigate the devastations of the cotton-worm. I can not see that Congress can have the power to arrest the ravages of caterpillars in localities in certain States and not have the power to arrest the ravages of ignorance. One is a local evil: the other is a national peril." 31 ^: Hon. JOHN C. SPOONER, OF WISCONSIN. OHIS" C. SPOONER, of Hudson, is a native of Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, Indi- ana. In June of 1859 lie removed with his parents to Wisconsin, locating in Madison. He is a graduate of the State University, where he took his degree in 1864. He served during the war as private in Company D, Fortieth Regiment, and Captain of Com- pany A, Fiftieth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers, and at the close of the war had attained the rank of Major. He was private secretary of Grovernor Lucius Fair- child, of Wisconsin. In 1857 he was admitted to the Bar, and was Assistant Attorney-General of Wisconsin until 1870. Then removing to Hudson, he has since been actively engaged with his professional duties. In 1872 he was elected to the Assembly. He is an honored member of the Board of Regents of the Wisconsin University. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Re- publican, and took his seat the 4th of March, 1885. In his eulogy on Thomas A. Hendricks Mr. Spooner said : " He was a man of strong convictions, and he had (340) JOHN C. SPOONER. 341 little respect for those who were otherwise. He was in no sense or way a trimmer in politics, although the con- trary has been asserted of him. No public man ever lived to whom the favor and approval of the masses were sweeter than they were to Mr. Hendricks. Few public men ever lived whose course evoked bitterer criticisms from his opponents than did his at times. The fact that he preferred to stem the tide of popular sentiment rather than to walk the easy open way to popular favor is at least conclusive of the strength of his convictions. "It had not long before his death become fashionable in some quarters to speak of him as a 'spoilsman.' If by this was meant that he desired the bestowal of office as a mere reward for party service upon unfit men, or in violation of existing law, I believe, from conversation with him upon the subject, that the accusation was utterly groundless. "Mr. Hendricks was heart and soul a Democrat. He thoroughly believed in his party and in its principles. Indeed, I think if he might give direction to our words to-day he would bid us say of him that he was a partisan Democrat. He rightly thought that politics should be a matter of conviction, and that every man of firm political faith owed it to himself and to the country to be a parti- san, in this, at least, that he should labor earnestly, and in all fit ways best suited to his mental make-up and to his surroundings, to promote the success of the principles in which he believed. To him no political partisanship, honorable in its methods, was offensive. He fully real- ized the value of organization. He knew that no great charity ever could be administered without it, and that 342 OUR GREAT MEN. the command laid upon the apostles, ' Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gosj^el to every creature,' can not be efficiently obeyed without organized efforts and parti- san service. He recognized the plain necessity for party organization, and in the party he saw only the instrumen- tality through which, and through which alone, might be wrought out the triumj^h of his principles. * * * * * ♦ "As an orator he was persuasive and attractive. There was a quality in his voice and a charm in his manner which gave him command of his audience. "He was a genial, gracious, kindly gentleman, who treated all who came within the circle of his influence, rich or poor, exalted or lowly, with the same rare and exquisite courtesy. " To him life's sun has set. For him life's cares are ended. He is, in the words borne upon his dying breath, 'free at last.' "There is, Mr. President, a melancholy comfort in the manner of his death. He died as one might wish to die who was well prepared to die. In his own home, in the midst of the friends and neighbors of many years, at the capital of the State which loved him and which he loved, in the tender care of her who was nearest and dearest, without premonition or pain of parting, * God's finger touched him, and he slept.' " Hon. WILLIAM R. MORRISON, OF ILLINOIS. ILLIAM R. MORRISON, of Waterloo, Representative in Congress from the Eigh- teenth Congressional District of Illinois, was born in Monroe County, of that State, September 14th, 1825. He received his education in the common schools of the neighborhood, and at McKendree College, Illinois. He studied law, and in due time was admitted to practice. For a time he held the position of clerk of the Circuit Court. He was a member of the House of Representatives of Illinois four terms, during one of which he served as Speaker. He was elected to the Thirty-eighth, Forty-third, Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses, and re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Democrat. Mr. Morrison is the leader of the Democracy on the floor of the House. He is a strong tariif reformer, and the leader of that element in the Democratic party. Mr. Morrison said, on the Union Pacific Railroad bill : "The Union Pacific Railroad, or systems of railroads, owes the United States most of a hundred millions of dol- lars, counting in the sixty-four millions of bonds guaranteed, which, to all appearances, we shall be compelled to pay. (343) 344 OUR GREAT MEN. After one attemi^t by the Thurman Act to compel the road to keep its contract and save the Government harm- less, the amount of indebtedness to the Grovernment con- tinues to increase. In fact, we have a hard bargain with the railroad company, one in which the company, or com- panies, fall further short of their engagements each suc- ceeding year. "This bill is intended to fund, extend the time of pay- ment, and increase the security for the final payment of the debt guaranteed by the Government. Were I assured the bill would accomplish its purj^ose I would vote for it, and it may be my own fault that I do not have that assur- ance, for I have confidence in both the intelligence and the l^urpose of the committee from which the bill comes. " The corporation, or men composing it, availed them- selves of what turned out to be an enormous grant, built the road, squeezed all there was in it into their own pock- its ; in fact, left it something of a wreck in the hands of men for the most part in no way responsible for the mon- strous frauds practiced by their predecessors on the Gov- ernment and the people. Our duty is now to make the most we can out of what is left — to deal rightly with the situation as we find it. "In the discussion much has been said of the bad bar- gain and alleged bad faith of the legislation of 1864 on this subject. Well, sir, viewed from this stand-point, it was a bad or hard bargain. If my colleague and the gen- tleman from Iowa had been here then, and as wise as they are now, twenty-two years later, they probably would not have been parties to its ratification. They talk as if they believed we had given away a first-mortgage lien upon a WILLIAM E. MORRISOJ^. 345 railroad. Wliy, sir, in 1862, a grant had been made to cer- tain parties ; yes, to any parties or anybody who woukl build a railroad to California and tie it fast on to the Union. I^obody under that legislation put a spade in the ground or built any road. Two years afterward, and after we had tried in vain to obtain the building of the road under the first grant, it became apparent to all that the capital of the country would not take the risk of the enterprise. It substantially declared the capital of the country would not stand second; if you, the representatives of the j^eo- ple, want the railroad built the Government must take the second place and the first risk." The following is an argument by Mr. Morrison on the tariff: "Taxes by duties, excises, or in whatever form laid, are rightly laid and collected to pay the public debt and the expenses of good government. The encouragement or protection which manufacturers and all other industries receive from taxation they rightly receive as the result of taxes so laid and collected ; and the encouragement or pro- tection thus afforded is ample for the prosperity of all our industries, and will best provide for the general welfare of the United States. So it was substantially declared at Saint Louis in 1876, and Cincinnati in 1880, simply this: That our tariff policy must be governed more by a system of equations, and influenced less by cupidity. " When theMorrill tariff of 1861 was considered, Sen- ator Sherman, then a member of the House, said : "'I vote for the Senate amendments, and have voted for this bill as a revenue measure simply.' "Mr. Morrill said: 346 OUR GREAT MEN. '"The principles upon which the bill is founded do not necessarily raise the question of protection. * * * The highest duties fixed upon have been so fixed more with a view to revenue than jorotection, and would place our people on a level of fair competition with the rest of the world.' "It would j)lace them on this level because, under the revenue tariifs of 1846, 1857 and former tariifs, Mr. Morrill said : "'We have made more rapid strides in cheapening manufactures, and therefore lessening the necessity for incidental j^rotection, than ever England herself made in any equal period of time.' "Mr. Chairman, the duties fixed by the Morrill tariif have been increased and supj^lemented with others double in form and double in rate. Twenty years have been added in the process of cheapening manufactures, and therefore lessening the necessity for 'incidental protec- tion.' The friends of tariif reform now demand such reduction as will leave the average rates as high as those fixed by the Morrill tariif. What answer is made to this most reasonable demand? The answer is that we are revolutionists ; that we would at once destroy the manu- facturing interests of the country and undo the policy of its earlier and better statesmanship. The answer is a shallow pretense which can deceive no one. "The earlier statesmen of the country were not all of one opinion as to the best methods for diversifying its industry and increasing the productive power of its people. Impelled by patriotic duty to provide a national revenue, something was often yielded by them to that protective WILLIAM R. MORRISON. 347 selfishness which since then has obtained so much. But that they gave assent and support to the protective policy as now advocated and practiced is mere assertion, and finds no justification in history and none in fact. Those who shaped our institutions and made them republican in form were scarcely less mindful of the injustice and oppression of trade restrictions than of restraints on their liberties. In the first Congressional debate Mr. Madison said : "'I am myself the friend of a very free system of commerce, and hold it as a truth that commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive and impolitic. * * * All are benefited by exchange, and the less the exchange is cramped by Grovernment the greater are the proportions of benefit to each. The same argument holds good between nation and nation and between parts of the same nation.' "In his first message Mr. Jefi^erson said: "'Agriculture, manufactures, commerce and naviga- tion, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriv- ing when left most free to individual enter23rise. Protec- tion from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes be reasonably interposed.' " In his last annual message President Monroe said : " ' The principles upon which the commercial policy of the United States is founded are to be traced to an early period. This policy was free and equal reciprocity. That l^rinciple has pervaded all the acts of Congress and all negotiations of the Executive on the subject.' "And such, Mr. Chairman, were .the views of General Jackson, Mr. Benton and, at one time, of Mr. Webster. 348 OUR GREAT MEN. "The tariff convention of 1831, assembled in IS'ew York, was quite as able, and at least as honest in the exj)ression of its purposes, as similar conventions of more recent date. That convention said of the men who formed the Governnient that 'they offered free trade to all nations, but the nations with one accord rejected it.' "That convention conceded that all our laws up to that time restricting commerce were no part of an orig- inal policy, but countervailing measures to compensate for regulations and restrictions on our shij)s and products by nations which had rejected our offers of free commerce. " JSTow, sir, other nations have made some advance toward that freedom of commerce and exchange to which our first statesmen invited all nations a century ago. We stay a century behind, and are asked to retreat. "To show how the right to exchange products was valued in the early history of the country, I need do no more than point to the sacrifices made to secure it. To secure this, New England voted in the convention which framed the Constitution that persons might be imported for twenty years and sold into slavery. And yet, such was the hatred of New England for slavery that, before another twenty years expired, she began to hedge it about with a view to its ultimate extinction. Later on, to secure a profitable foreign traffic, she insisted upon a low revenue tariff only on Jamaica molasses as a raw material for making rum, and this, too, with an aversion to intemj)er- ance equal to her hatred of slavery. There is much in history which justifies the belief that rum was exchanged for the persons sold into slavery. "Mr. Clay, the credited father of the American sys- i\ WILLIAM K. MOEKISON. 349 tern, was the author of a bill as late as 1833, approved by General Jackson, reducing the highest duties to twenty per cent. The professed adherents of Mr. Clay's policy in this House will not permit a vote on a bill to reduce duties to fifty per cent. If the proposed commission reports a bill in which the highest duties do not more than double Mr. Clay's, it will find its Congressional cem- etery in the Ways and Means Committee, and never receive the consideration of this House. As late as 1842 Mr. Clay said : "' I am not advocating the revival of a high protective tariff. I am for giving the country a revenue which may provide for the economical wants of the Government and at the same time give an incidental protection.' " Thus it will be seen that this great tariff leader made revenue the paramount object of a tariff. "Mr. Hamilton is called in this debate 'after Burke, the profoundest statesman of his age.' His arguments favoring the protection of manufactures, it is said, were and remain unanswerable. Most of the duties proposed by Mr. Hamilton were below revenue-tariff rates, many times less than the present rates. These he proposed to supplement with bounties, to be paid from the public treasury. He knew what protection meant, and offered it in the simplest form. He knew it meant then what it means now: bounty to the manufacturer. His methods and most of his arguments have gone into disuse. His professed followers look in vain to anything he said or did in support of the argument which is to-day their chief reliance. He never advocated protection as a means of increasing the wages of labor. That is an invention not 350 OUR GREAT MEN. in use in his time. Whatever erroneous views he enter- tained, he practiced no indirection to make them accepta- ble to otliers. "The form of government proposed by Mr. Hamilton was not adopted, and is not the one under which we live. He said in the convention to form the Constitution : " 'All communities divide themselves into the few and the many; * * * the rich and well-born * * * and the mass of the people. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give, therefore, the first class — the rich and well-born — a distinct, permanent share in the Government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second — the mass of the people — and * * * will ever maintain good govern- ment. Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.' " Thus it will be seen that, great as Mr. Hamilton was, he believed none but the few he called the rich and well- born capable of governing and maintaining good govern- ment. His form of government was rejected; but are we not drifting to its substance ? How else are we to account for the growing popularity of his opinions ? No one knew better than he that laboring men are never legislated into his governing class, and that men do not attain riches from the labor of their own hands, but from the profits of the labor of other men. The hardship of this truth is not helped, but aggravated, by tariffs and by any and every system professedly in the interest of any class. The real friends of labor never attempt such legislation but from mistaken views. In every race for legislative bene- fits labor obtains less, capital more than its share. Indi- WILLIAM K. MORRISON, 351 vidual enterprise and the legitimate accumulation of cap- ital can not be interfered with ; but legislation which helps an unjust distribution of j)roperty or an unfair division of the jDroceeds of labor is a great public wrong. Aside from land, the value of which depends upon the use made of it, all the capital or the savings of labor in the richest State never exceeds three years' consumption, and as to food we are always nearer than a year to starvation. The earn- ings of both capital and labor must be paid from their joint j)roduct. When capital takes too much, labor receives too little. Ofiicial statistics show^ that, under this system, in many industries capital takes to itself four times the earnings of its ordinary employment, the rates of interest, and leaves to labor less than its legitimate earnings. "If Mr. Hamilton desired to foster and perj^etuate divisions in society and the fortunes of men, the protective policy was wisely selected for the purpose. That I do not misjudge the effect, if not the purpose, of the system now so strangely insisted upon, attention is called to the argu- ment upon which it is supported where laboring men have no votes: '"Sir Leonard Tilley, the Canadian Minister of Finance, argues that it is an excellent feature of the new tariff policy in the Dominion; that it helps a few men to build colossal fortunes, for those enjoying them will be sure to expend a large percentage of their incoming mill- ions in various forms of luxury, which will give employ- ment to many.' "How, sir, will the Canadian minister's high tariff help a few men to build up colossal fortunes to spend in 352 . OUR GEEAT MEN, luxury and to employ many, unless these few take more than they give back? If a few take more from than they return to the many by means of a j^rotective tariif, whom does it protect and benefit? These questions the nine wise men of the tariff commission will never answer. ♦ **»«»♦ "In 1857 the revenue was excessive and the tariif was reduced. Financial depression came in that year, and the revenues fell short of the average ordinary expenditure of the four previous years. And so under the present tariff, with financial depression in 1877 and 1878, the revenues fell below the average expenditure of the four previous years, exclusive of all payments on account of the public debt and pensions. Protectionists will never cease ex- plaining how low the tariff Avas, the cause of the financial embarrassment in 1857 to 1859, and how the high tariff was not the cause of that from 1873 to 1878. Neither nations nor men are in great danger of financial distress for want of being taxed, and exactly how low taxes and low duties brought financial embarrassment to both in the Democratic era, ending in 1860, has never been satisfac- torily explained. The most j^lausible theory would seem to be one advanced in this debate, that under a low tariff our markets are made a dumping-ground for England's surplus, and our j^eople buy themselves poor. This is good enough for theory, but has no fact to support it. In 1860, and previous years, the importations were fifteen per cent, (to the person) less than in 1880. This dumping- ground argument is a fallacy, but then it is as true as any other used for the same purpose. "In the conditions following the war, and which were WILLIAM E. MORRISON. 353 probably inevitable, our bonds went abroad, prices were inflated, importations were large. We went above our financial level, and came down in the crash of 1873. Having a country of endless resources and a people of matchless industrial energy and skill, we recovered in six years, in 1879. With less tariff and less taxes we could have recovered sooner. It may be stated uj)on the author- ity of the honorable Chairman that half the decade from 1870 to 1880 was a time of universal dej)ression and despondency, when failure upon failure of the most expe- rienced iron-masters was announced from day to day, with wages so low that workers in iron and their fam- ilies could scarcely escape destitution and starvation, and yet history will correctly transmit that as an era of sub- stantial and wonderful national progress. " The condition of the country from 1873 to 1879 was much the same as 1857 to 1859. Banking with no money to bank on, and the discovery and mining of gold were followed by increased prices and large importations, resultr ing in the same financial condition in 1857 which fol- lowed in 1873. The mischief was done in the former period, before the reduction of the tariff in 1857, as it was in the later period before 1873 — the effect came afterward. Congress could have done in 1857 as the gentleman from Iowa and the honorable Chairman did in 1873 — increased the tariff in the interest of their already protected friends, with loss of revenue to the Government and increased cost of living to the people. In 1857 Congress waited for that recovery which was sure to come, and did come in 1860. In growth of population, in the increase of wealth and in the wages of labor, in the abundance of harvests. 354 OUE GEEAT MEN. in the industry, contentment and happiness of the people, in all that attends the progress of a great country, the period from 1850 to 1860 may challenge comparison with any period in the history of this or any other country. These are enduring facts not to be changed by the want of candor to admit them. " California, Nevada, Arizona, ]N"ew Mexico, and part of Colorado, are but one of the rich treasures of the so-styled ' Democratic era of free trade.' Without its statesmanship their untold wealth of mine and field would be the product of a neighboring nation, with impassable wall of protective duties forbidding its exchange for our high-priced goods. Their annual yield of gold and silver far exceeds the wages of all our workers in iron and steel. Colorado's population added to those now in manufacturing industries would make all the goods the country can consume. In fact, it is now said by intelligent iron-masters that the iron and steel industry can supply the demand of the whole country ; and the same is true of the cotton and woolen industries ; and which way shall we now lay our course ? "Protesting, but four years ago, against modification of the taritf as it exists to-day, the honorable chairman [Judge Kelley] said : " ' The loom and si^indle stand still. * * * The fires are out in the forge, the captains of industry by thou- sands are passing into bankruptcy, and the laboring people into want, if not into absolute pauperism.' "Now himself and associates insist this tariff must be maintained to j^revent the fires going out in the forge and to save the laboring people from want. This they assert will be the result to the iron industry in Ohio and through- WILLIAM R. MORRISON, 355 out the country unless this tariff is continued ' to protect labor.' " In the Hocking Valley, the chief iron region of Ohio, iron is produced for twelve dollars per ton. My colleague on the committee, Mr. Carlisle, has already shown by the census report that the total amount paid for wages to make a ton of iron, including that paid for mining the ore, was less than eight dollars. Iron can not be carried from the furnace to and across the sea, and from the sea to Ohio, for eight dollars ; and this sum, which exceeds all the wages paid for making iron in Ohio, the imj)orter must pay if he pays no revenue duty before he comes in com- petition with Ohio iron. Hence it will be seen that it is not labor protectionists would protect. Manufacturers di- versify industry and greatly augment its productive power, but the argument on which the necessity for protection is based makes them helpless infants always. If iron can not be manufactured at a profit in Ohio, with a protecting sea giving it eight dollars over its competitors without any protecting duty, it can not be sold at a profit in a foreign market to reach which it must pay eight dollars. The cost of importation is always so considerable as to give our own manufacturers greatly the advantage in our own mar- kets, aside from the additional advantage necessarily re- sulting from a revenue tariff. And whatever can not be sold with profit in our own markets without a duty, either for revenue or protection, can not be profitably sold in any other country. If we must protect our manufactures against foreign competition in our own markets, they are forever excluded from foreign markets where they are un- protected. 22 356 OUR GREAT MEN. "If this be true, then, with all our superior intelli- gence and skill, with our gain from fertile soil, genial cli- mate, iron and coal all over the land and nearly on the surface, this 50,000,000 of people can not contribute one piece of handiwork to the wants of their fellow-men in any country but their own, and here we must have a tariff to prevent our being supplied cheaper than we can supply ourselves. "With what sincerity can it be said that the manufac- turing industries of the country will be either destroyed or injuriously affected if the present tariff is not main- tained, and especially if it is reduced to a revenue basis ? To pay the war debt, including pensions, will require ^,000,000,000, and the ordinary expenditures are and will continue to be greater in proportion to population than in the revenue-tariff period. Looking to the opportunity these vast sums afford for gathering taxes for revenue only, why should protectionists refuse to be comforted ? They admit in this debate for the first time that in all else but the cost of labor we can manufacture and compete with all the world, but still insist that we must protect to compensate for the difference in the wages of labor. "Under the revenue tariff of 1846 the duty on iron was thirty per cent. The tariff of 1857, for which Ste- phen A. Douglas, Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson voted, reduced it to twenty-four per cent. This tariff and the Morrill tariff of 1861 were approved by Mr. Buchanan, a protectionist, and it is this twenty-four per cent, tariff which is always produced as a witness that a revenue tariff will destroy the iron industry in Ohio and through- out the country. Yet it appears in the census statement WILLIAM R. MORRISON. 357 (1) that the total wages paid for labor in iron and steel mills and factories was less than nineteen per cent., or nineteen dollars for every one hundred dollars' worth of iron and steel made ; under a twenty-four per cent, tariff the importer must pay twenty-four dollars to import iron valued at one hundred dollars, or five dollars more than all the wages paid to produce the home-made iron. The total wages paid in all our iron mines and works in the census year was 165,000,000 ; the product was 4,000,000 tons. The freight on a like quantity from the works in Great Britain to the sea, thence to the United States, thence to the center of population, is at least eight dollars per ton, or $32,000,000. Suppose rates of wages in Great Britain are but half the rates here, this cost in freight alone compensates the difference. " The value of our whole iron and steel product in the census year was |296,557,685. Suppose a twenty-four per cent, revenue tariff, as low as that of 1857, when we had no war debt or pension list, was adopted. The twenty-four per cent, duty to be paid to import what we make would be $71,000,000. That is to say, the importer, under a twenty-four per cent, duty, before he comes into compe- tition with our iron and steel, must pay $71,000,000, or $6,000,000 more than all the wages paid for the whole iron and steel product in the United States. The people who consumed the iron and steel product of 1880 could have imported it, paid all the wages paid in iron works and mines, and saved $6,000,000, while the workers would have been left free to follow other pursuits. "Two years ago the manufacturers appeared before the committee to resist any reduction of the twenty-eight dol- 358 OUR GREAT MEN. lar duty on steel rails. One of the ablest of them, Mr. Wharton, who never understates anything which will help his interests, stated that the difference in the cost of making steel rails in this country and in England does not exceed twenty-five per cent. When it was proposed to fix the duty at fifteen dollars per ton, which was at least fifty i^er cent, on the foreign cost, it was resisted by Mr. Wharton, by the American Iron and Steel Association, and by the friends of protection here and everywhere, as an effort to destroy our industries. The bill introduced by me in the Forty-fourth Congress reduced duties on cotton goods to the average rate of thirty per cent. That was called a tariff for revenue only, and those who seek to continue the present tariff opposed it under the pretense that it did not sufficiently protect labor and would destroy the cotton industry. The census shows that all the wages paid in cotton mills in 1880 were less than twenty-three per cent., or less than twenty-three dollars for every one hundred dollars of cotton goods made. Raw cotton is the article of chief value in cotton goods ; in all the heavier and coarser goods it is more than half the value, but not near so much on finer and lighter goods. "The foreign manufacturer buys our cotton, two- thirds of all we grow, carries it to and over the sea, to the mill, and back again to our people when made into cloth, and l^ays, under a thirty j)er cent, duty, thirty dollars for every one hundred dollars' worth of cloth returned. And this we are asked to believe would destroy our cotton indus- tries. Not only does the foreign manufacturer come to us for cotton, but he must go to Iowa, the center of the grain- growing and provision-producing region, a thousand miles WILLIAM R. MORRISON. 359 from the sea, for food. While the chosen representatives of cotton industries were here protesting against a reduc- tion of duties, asserting that the present high tariff must be continued to protect them or they would be crushed out and perish in our own markets, our cotton goods were sell- ing unprotected in foreign markets in free competition with the rest of the world. Last year cotton goods of our make sold in China valued at $3,600,000. " In view of these facts the oft-re]Deated assertions that a reduction of the tariff to a revenue basis will destroy or injuriously affect the cotton industry are too absurd for belief, even by those who make them. A reduction of the tariff to a revenue basis will benefit the manufacturer to the extent it cheapens the cost of material and production, and benefit the laborer to the extent it cheapens the cost of the necessaries and comforts of life, while the importer must still pay more in- duty on imported goods than the manufacturer pays for wages in making domestic goods. It will increase rather than diminish the wages of labor, by extending and multiplying markets for the products of labor. As well manacle men for self-defense as to circum- scribe markets for the products of labor to increase wages. "Having now stated some of the hardships of this system in increased prices and cost of living, and the additional burden it entails upon the whole people, let us consider the census facts (1), indicating the more general results of the system and how it distributes its benefits to the few and its burdens to the many. These facts present results in the cotton, woolen, iron and steel, three of the oldest and best organized, and silk, one of the most pro- 360 OUR GREAT MEN. ductive, industries. Taken together, they will fairly pre- sent the results of the protective system. In these the real and personal capital invested is |624,002,630, and the hands employed are 524,726, or one laborer to $1,190 capital. Together they produce goods valued at $810,- 522,286. After deducting the cost of material used, the remainder is divided, |300.16 to each laboror and |300.16 to each $1,166 of capital, which leaves to capital twenty-five per cent., after deducting amounts paid for wages and ma- terials. It is answered that earnings are not all profits, that depreciation of capital and taxes must be deducted. This answer takes no account of the undervaluation of the product, which is all profit. There is not much profit in the $300 yearly wages to the operative after maintaining himself and family, and he is more taxed than his em- ployer. An impost or tariff tax is an income tax of the baser sort, for it taxes the whole income of the laboring poor, while it taxes only so much of the income of others as they expend in the necessaries, comforts and luxuries of life. The rates of wages in 1880 were less than in 1870, allowing for difference in currency. The number of establishments were 284 less than in 1870 ; a great num- ber of smaller establishments have been crushed out by the stronger. And with our help in developing industries the establishments have increased in the iron industry, largely increased in silk, a new industry. The number of cotton establishments decreased. The woolen estab- lishments are 770 less than in 1870. The tariff on woolen shuts out foreign competition and kills it at home. We must have a tarifi* that will give us both competition in price and competition in quality. The account of WILLIAM H. MORRISON. 361 materials used in woolen manufactures show that our woolen goods are not quite half shoddy and cotton. The aggregate results of the four industries are given. The tables will explain how they diifer each from the other. The average annual wages include the wages of laborers, skilled and unskilled, males and females, and, except as to the cotton industry, clerks, book-keepers and superin- tendents. Workers in iron and steel receive per day (300 days in the year) $1.31 ; in wool, 98 cents ; silk, 88 cents ; in cotton, 81 cents. Besides the 141,000 laborers in iron- works, there are 32,000 iron miners, who receive $1.00 per day, and the average wages for the 173,000 men work- ing from ten and a half to twelve hours per day in iron and iron mines, 32,000 of them under ground, was $1.25 per day. This was in the year of exceptional prosperity, 1880. There were at least five years between 1870 and 1880 when these men received less than ninety cents per day. Wages are higher in this than in any other protected industry. After ninety years of protection — sometimes by a protective tariff, sometimes by a revenue tariff — this system gives to the laborers this pittance of 90 cents to $1.25 per day. It appears from official statements that, since the period of low wages in 1878, in Massachusetts, the richest State in the Union, wages have increased but seven per cent., while the cost of living has increased twenty-one per cent. The most prosperous mills in that State have recently reduced wages from 90 cents to 68 cents per day. One of the honored representatives of that State asks legislation on another subject, among other reasons because of ' the daily accounts which come to us of strikes in various parts of the country.' 362 OUR GREAT MEN. ■"' " With these facts before us as a result of this system, the friends of this commission who profess so much con- cern for the rights and rewards of laboring men will surely add to it some provision which will give them some j)ortion of the bounties which it is the object of the Com- mission to continue. The average earnings of a laborer, $300.16, in the protected industries, are no more than equal to the wages paid in other industries. This bounty system adds nothing to the earnings of labor, but it gives to each $1,166 of capital $300.16. A fair business profit of ten per cent, would give it but $166.60. Is this the 'justice to air which the friends of this Commission bill are so anxious to continue? "Who, sir, are the favorites of this system and the beneficiaries of this tax on labor and the products and wages of labor? The manufacturers, who counted them- selves 42,000 in 1870, and to-day do not number 55,000, if so many, « * « « « * "The protectionists, who credit this tarifi^ with all they consider good, and see nothing but evil in every pro- j)osed reduction, present us with a long list of inventions, the alleged result of genius, insj^ired by a tariff which puts a tax on salt for cattle and hogs, and makes it free for fish, gives bounty to the manufacturer of the iron and steel in the plow, to be 23aid by him who holds it. Statis- tics are not so complete as to justify an estimate of the number of useful discoveries to be credited to the manu- facturer who receives bounties, and the number to be credited to those whom they pay sixty-eight cents for a day's labor. When that list is furnished I venture the WILLIAM R. MORRISON. 363 prediction that the useful inventions to be credited to highly protected manufacturers will be made up chiefly of ■ useful inventions and methods for producing Congressional legislation, so largely as to justly entitle our tarifl^ system to the dignity of a science, the science of winning ways. "This paternal policy now aifects great solicitude for new industries. It asks us to believe it would develop new industries, or old industries in new homes, and is especially concerned about the undeveloped resources of the new South. If the South needs protection from Old England, who will protect her from the New? Who fi'om Pennsylvania's one-hundred-year-old and long-estab- lished industries, and her capital accumulated from the bounties of a century? When caj)ital invested in manu- factures ceases to be j)ensioned on our people it will suc- cessfully contend for the world's commerce, depending, it may be, upon the difference in cost of one-eighth of a cent per yard, or one-twentieth of a cent per pound. Then capital will avoid waste, and must go to the cotton and the ore. The manufacturing industries of the country, chiefly in the older States, are nearly or quite equal to the production of what all our people can use. If it be true that manufacturers, to j^rosper or survive, must be pro- tected in our own markets, as protectionists assert, and they can not therefore compete in the world's markets, what is to become of our old ' infant industries ' in Mas- sachusetts and Pennsylvania when new ' infants ' are born in Georgia, Alabama, Illinois and Iowa? Who, then, will pay for Massachusetts' school-houses and the musical instruments upon which the honorable chairman has his laboring people playing whenever he does not have them 364 OUR GREAT MEN. starving? The anxiety of Pennsylvania and Massachu- setts to cut off their own markets in the interest of the new South is another evidence that protection quickens inventive genius and develops resources for securing Con- gressional legislation. *'In conclusion, sir, this question in its higher aspects is not a party, but a political question, affecting the distri- bution of property and the proceeds of labor, and going back to the foundation rocks of our political system. But it is also a business question. In this view, what we need is a business settlement of a business question — reason- able and practical treatment to avoid excessive changes ; and we must begin at once, for our surplus revenue is becoming the great corruption fund of the age. "Wages in shops and mills are the same as in other works of like kind, or less. Wages are not the criterion of cost ; it is the efficiency of labor that counts. Our wages are higher — they should be — and our cost is lower, because the labor is more effective. When the courage of our tex- tile manufacturers and our iron and steel makers is equal to their skill they will demand freedom from commercial shackles and bring the world's commerce to their feet." Hon. CLIFTON R. BRECKINRIDGE, OF AEKANSAS. IlIFTON K BRECKINRIDGE, of the famous family of Breckinridge, of Kentucky, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, Novem- ber 22d, 1846. He received a very thorough common-school education. During the war he served as private in the Confeder- ate Army. After peace was again restored he clerked for two years in a commercial house, and then attended Wash- ington College, of Virginia, for three years, thus completing his education. In 1870 he went to Arkansas and engaged in cotton- planting, and followed that, together with the commission business, till 1883. He was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Democrat. The following is a speech of Mr. Breckinridge's on pensions : "I will make only one or two brief observations in connection with this bill. There is no more friendly tri- bunal in the world to which a man ever made an appeal for the recognition of every just claim, and for the redress of any real wrong, than this Congress in its dealings with (365) 366 OUR GREAT MEN. the Union soldiers. But, sir, whenever a bill comes before this House that carries with it an appropriation of money, I hold the time has come for very careful scrutiny ; all dis- cussion bearing upon matters of taxation and the distress that exists among the people, is exceedingly pertinent and j)roi)er. If there has been an omission in dealing with the soldiers, if a wrong has been committed that ought to be righted, I do not believe there is a gentleman uj^on this floor from any section of the country who does not heartily wish to see the record made clean and correct. But, sir, we should remember one thing in our general policy — that we have now beneficiary legislation for the survivors of the late war that amounts to an annual expenditure that is not below what is spent for the standing armies of any except three or four of the leading nations of the earth. " We imagine that we are without the expenditures of a great military establishment ; but, while still burdened with a debt that results from that war, our annual expendi- tures of this character are, I repeat, as great as those of any nation on earth for its military establishment, except three or four of the principal monarchies of Europe. That is all right, and just, and j^roper. But, sir, when these rates and expenditures have been fixed at a time when the gratitude of the country was at its highest flood, when these rates and expenditures have been fixed at a time when the purchasing power of money was far less than it is to-day, or ever will be again, it behooves the people of this country to analyze the causes — I will not say the motives — which imj^el to additional legislation of this sort. I will not say they are demagogical, but I will say CLIFTOX R. BRECKIXRIDGE. 367 that they are very apt to be unwise and unpatriotic in view of the just claims of all classes of the people. "But in the face of all this bring up your claim, and if you will establish it by some other line of appeal than that which was made just now by the gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Laird], an appeal merely to the loyalty of the claimant and to the ancient rebelliousness of those who git in judgment upon the claim, you will have it allowed upon the establishment of such merit as would pass it before any dispassionate tribunal in the country. Before a single syllable had fallen from the lips of a Southern man the gentleman from Nebraska had to laud the loy- alty of the claimant without arguing the merits of the case, and had cast odium ujDon those who, whatever they are or whatever they have been, are here as free and unshackled American citizens, representing the tax-payers of this country. Sir, it is in that spirit, in the sj)irit of loyalty, taking up these obligations of gratitude, remem- bering that we are a people of a common Union, and that to-day we are not from North or from South, from East or from West, but from the different portions of one common country, and representing the tax-payers of that country — it is in that spirit that I say: establish your claim, establish its merits, and you shall have my vote for its allowance; but do not, for God's sake, come here with such appeals as the one we have just heard." Hon. henry g. turner, OF GEOKGIA. ENRY G. TURNER, of Quitman, who so ably represents the Second Congressional District of Georgia in the House of Repre- sentatives of the United States Congress, is a native of North Carolina. He was born the 20th of March, 1839. He was a member of the Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses, and re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Democrat. The following is an extract from his speech on the contested-election case of Hurd against Romeis: "In his great speech on the motion made to expel John Wilkes from the House of Commons, Mr. Grenville said that he proposed 'to execute an office higher than any that the king could bestow, the honorable and noble office of sj^eaking the truth and of doing impartial justice.' 1 trust, sir, that it will not be regarded as presumption in me if I, too, should endeavor to choose that better part to-day. Rut I can re-enforce my courage with a more appropriate example of independence, because it is both American and democratic. "During the last Congress there was pending in th© House the contested-election case of Wallace against C368) HENEY G. TURNER. 369 McKinley from the State of Ohio. The contestant in this case, then, in defiance of party clamor, exerted his best efforts and his great abilities to maintain on this floor a Republican colleague against a Democratic contestant from his own State, and, on that occasion, as now, he had the aid and co-operation of the gentleman from Ken- tucky. Those who vainly opposed the contestant in that case exhibited courage rather than judicial propriety. The chief adversary of that contestant was the great man who has just stamped his foot upon the same arena in his own behalf. Ex pede Herculum ! I give the phrase back to the gentleman from Kentucky. "Mr. Speaker, we are engaged in the performance of the highest function devolving upon the House under the Constitution. It is our constitutional duty to act as judges in the determination of election cases. What would gentlemen here think who sit in this high court as judges if a man should appeal to them to decide this case according to private beliefs or arbitrary opinions ? I pro- pose, Mr. Speaker, so far as in me lies, to lay down the higher and better rule, that these cases shall be tried upon the facts alleged and proven according to law and the course of our proceedings. "You know, Mr. Speaker, that when this Congress first assembled it was my wish to avoid the responsibility imposed by the rules upon the members of the Committee on Elections. For some reason, I trust not dishonorable to me, certainly not to the Speaker, I was again assigned to that committee. I feel, sir, that if I should fail to do my duty in this case I should dishonor both myself and the House. 370 OUR GREAT MEN. " How does this case stand ? The contestant himself, and those who support him in his contest, have put his case upon two jirecincts, Precinct B of Ward 8, in the citj of Toledo, and Kelly's Island. In considering these ques- tions I shall take it for granted that members have heard the statements of fact on both sides and have a fair con- ception of the testimony. "The gentleman from Kentucky, who so recently addressed the House in behalf of the contestant, ' after a most careful examination' of the case, admitted that if each fact forming a ground of contest be taken up by itself and isolated, 'it would not be sufficient to base a verdict upon.' And he ascribed the difference of opinion which exists between the majority and the minority of the committee to the fact that the majority looked at the facts in detail, while the minority looked at them as a whole. And he proceeded to state his conclusion based upon a reading of ' all the j^apers, taken as a whole and concatenated as a series.' But the contestant who fol- lowed the gentleman from Kentucky in this discussion did not rely on some of the matters on which that gen- tleman seemed to depend. Mr. Hurd did not even allude to the fact that one of the judges of election at Precinct B of the Eighth Ward of Toledo did not reside within the precinct; and yet the gentleman from Ken- tucky laid large stress upon that circumstance. The statute of Ohio did not then require that the judges of election in the city of Toledo should reside in the pre- cinct. We have no right to supplement that statute." M J^^mnilS IB» Bla^IMS •'Ije ^ • Hon. JAMES G. BLAINE, OF MAINE. AMES G. BLAINE was born at Indian Hill, Washington County, Pennsylvania, the 31st of January, 1830. His great grandfather. Colonel Ephraini Blaine, of Middlesex, Pennsylvania, was Commissary-General of the Continental Army, on the staff of General Washing- ton, from 1778 till the close of the Revolutionary War. Mr. Blaine is of Scotch descent, his ancestors forming part of a colony of Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyteri- ans who settled in the Cumberland Valley early in the seventeenth century. His father inherited some property in Western Pennsylvania, and in 1818 he removed to Washington County, Pennsylvania. There he became acquainted with the lady who afterward became his wife and the mother of young James. The education of the embryo statesman was superin- tended with great care by his father and his maternal grandfather. In 1841 he attended school in Lancaster, Ohio, and in 1844 he entered Washington College, in Pennsylvania, graduating there in 1847 with his share of the honors of the class. He then went to Kentucky, where he was employed 23 (373) 374 OUE GREAT MEN. as an instructor in the Western Military Institute, of Kentucky. It was here he became acquainted with Miss Harriet Sherwood, who became his wife. Mr. Blaine left Kentucky and lived in Philadelj)hia for three years, where he was employed as instructor in one of the public institutions. During this time he was also employed on the editorial staff of the Daily Inquirer. While in Phila- delphia he completed his law studies. He finally settled in Augusta, Maine, and purchased a half interest in the Kennebec Journal. The j)artner of Mr. Blaine was John L. Stevens, late United States Min- ister to Sweden. The memory of Mr. Blaine is extraor- dinary. He readily familiarized himself with Maine pol- itics by reading the bound files of the Kennebec Journal., which extended back to 1825. His paper became a great success and exercised a wide influence. Mr. Blaine became a leader in the Whig and Republican parties. In 1858 he edited the Portland Advertiser, still resid- ing in Augusta. He edited the Advertiser for three years. Upon the organization of the Republican party in 1854, Mr. Blaine became an active member, and was a delegate to its first JN'ational Convention, in 1856, helping to nominate Fremont for the Presidency. From 1859 to 1880 he was chairman of the Republican State Commit- tee. In 1859 he was elected to the State Legislature of Maine. For many years he has been known as one of the best political orators in the country. He was appointed by Governor Morrill to inspect the prisons and reformatories of other States, and suggest alterations and imjDrovements in those of his own State. JAMES G. BLAINE. 375 He discharged this duty faithfully and well, thereby improving those institutions in the State of Maine. During 1861 and 1862 he was Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Maine Legislature. In 1862 he was elected to Congress, where he served in the House of Representatives for fourteen years, when he left it only to accept a seat in the United States Senate, to which he was appointed by Governor Morrill, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. L. M. Morrill. He was subsequently elected to the United States Senate by the State Legislature. While a member of the National House of Representatives he served for six years as Speaker of that body. Mr. Blaine is a great parliamenta- rian and a ready debater. He was a member of the Committee on Post-Offices in the Thirty-eighth Congress. In the Thirty-ninth he was chairman of the Committee on War Debts of the Loyal States, and a member also of the Committee on Military Affairs. He served on the Committee on Appropriations. Mr. Blaine was a candidate for the Presidential nomi- nation in the Republican National Convention of 1876, in Cincinnati. On the first six ballots Mr. Blaine held the highest number, but on the seventh Mr. Hayes had a majority, and was nominated. He was again a candidate for the nomination in 1880. He received two hundred and eighty-four votes on the first ballot against three hun- dred and four for General Grant and ninety-three for Sen- ator Sherman. He held the most of this vote till the thirty-sixth ballot, when his forces were turned to Gar- field, who was nominated. When President Garfield was inaugurated, March 4th, 376 OUR GREAT MEN. 1881, he appointed Mr. Blaine Secretary of State. He was President Grarfield's best friend, and Avas with him when he was assassinated in the Baltimore and Ohio Depot, in Washington, the 2d of July, 1881. From that time until the death of President Grarfield, in September, he was in reality the head of the Government. He retired from the Cabinet of President Arthur in December of that year. In the latter part of December he was chosen by Congress to deliver the oration in the memorial services for the late President, to be held February 27th, 1882. The following extract is from this eloquent eulogy, which is considered one of the finest efforts of this emi- nent statesman : "On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, the President was a contented and happy man — not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, in cou' scions enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after four months of trial his admin- istration was strong in its grasp of aifairs, strong in pop' ular favor, and destined to grow stronger ; that grave diffi- culties confronting him at his inauguration had been safely passed ; that trouble lay behind him, and not before him ; that he was soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now recoA^ering from an illness which had but lately dis- quieted and at times almost unnerved him; that he was going to his Alma Mater, to renew the most cherished associations of his young manhood, and to exchange greet- ings with those whose deepening interest had followed JAMES G. BLAINE. 377 every step of his upward progress from the clay he entered U2:)on his college course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in the gift of his countrymen. "Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may well have been a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him; no slightest premo- nition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching peacefully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence and the grave. "Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wicked- ness, by the red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, its aspira- tions, its victories, into the visible presence of death — and he did not quail. N'ot alone for one short moment in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell — what brill- iant, broken plans, what baffled, high ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm manhood's friendships, what bitter rending of sweet household ties! Behind him a proud, expectant Nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears ; the wife of his youth, f 378 OUR GREAT MEN. whose whole life lay in his ; the little boys not yet emerged from childhood's day of frolic; the fair young daughter; the sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every day, and every day rewarding a father's love and care ; and in his heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him, desolation and great darkness! and his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound and uni- versal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the center of a nation's love, enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sym- pathy could not share with him his suifering. He trod the wine-press alone. With unfaltering front he faced death. With unfailing tenderness he took leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard the voice of Grod. With simple resignation he bowed to the divine decree. "As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned. The stately mansion of jDower had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wist- fully upon the ocean's changing wonders ; on its fair sails, whitening in the morning light; on its restless waves rolling shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday sun; on the red clouds of evening, arching low to the ^m^. JAMES G. BLAINE. 379 horizon ; on the serene and shining j)athway of the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning." In the National Republican Convention of 1884, in Chicago, Mr. Blaine was nominated for the Presidency on the fourth ballot. His chief competitors were Pres- ident Arthur and Senators Edmunds and Logan. Sen- ator John A. Logan was nominated for Yice-President. The following extracts from the letter of acceptance, published July 19th, 1884, will give some of its chief points : "Revenue laws are in their very nature subject to frequent revision, in order that they may be adapted to changes and modifications of trade. The Republican party is not contending for the permanency of any par- ticular statute. The issue between the two parties does not have reference to a specified law. It is far broader and far deeper. It involves a principle of wide applica- tion and beneficent influence, against a theory which we believe to be unsound in conception and inevitably hurt- ful in practice. In the many tariff revisions which have been necessary for the past twenty-three years, or which may hereafter become necessary, the Republican party has maintained, and will maintain, the policy of protec- tion to American industry, while our opponents insist upon a revision which practically destroys that policy. The issue is thus distinct, well defined and unavoidable. 'ViV' 380 OUR GREAT MEN. The pending election may determine the fate of protec- tion for a generation. The overthrow of the policy means a large and permanent reduction in the wages of the American laborer, besides involving the loss of vast amounts of American capital invested in manufacturing enterprises. " The agricultural interest is by far the largest in the Nation, and is entitled in every adjustment of revenue laws to the fullest consideration. Any policy hostile to the fullest development of agriculture in the United States must be abandoned. Realizing this fact, the oppo- nents of the present system of revenue have labored j very earnestly to persuade the farmers of the United States that they are robbed by a protective tariff, and the effort is thus made to consolidate their vast influence in favor of free trade. But, happily, the farmers of America are intelligent, and can not be misled by sophis- try when conclusive facts are before them. They see plainly that during the past twenty-four years wealth has not been acquired in one section or by one interest at the expense of another section or another interest. They see that the agricultural States have made even more rapid progress than the manufacturing States. The farmers see that in 1860 Massachusetts and Illinois had about the same wealth — between $800,000,000 and $900,000,000 each— and that in 1880 Massachusetts had advanced to $2,600,000,000, while Illinois had advanced to 13,200,000,000. They see that T^ew Jersey and Iowa were just equal in population in 1860, and that in twenty years the wealth of New Jersey was increased by the sum of $850,000,000, while the wealth of Iowa was JAMES G. BLAINE. 381 increased by the sum of $1,500,000,000. They see that the nine leading agricultural States of the West have grown so rapidly in prosperity that the aggregate addi- tion to their wealth since 1860 is almost as great as the wealth of the entire country in that year. In these extraordinary developments the farmers see the helpful impulse of a home market, and they see that the finan- cial and revenue system enacted since the Republican party came into power has established and constantly expanded the home market. "As a substitute for the industrial system which, under Republican administration, has developed such extraor- dinary prosperity, our opponents offer a policy which is but a series of experiments upon our system of revenue — a policy whose end must be harm to our manufactures and a greater harm to our labor. Experiment in the industrial and financial system is the country's greatest dread, as stability is its greatest boon. Even the uncer- tainty resulting from the recent tariff agitation in Con- gress has hurtfully affected the business of the entire country. " Any effort to unite the Southern States upon issues that grow out of the memories of the war will summon the JSTorthern States to combine in the assertion of that nationality which was their inspiration in the civil strug- gle, and thus great energies which should be united in a common industrial development will be wasted in hurtful strife. The Democratic party show^s itself a foe to South- ern prosperity by always invoking and urging Southern political consolidation. Such a policy quenches the rising instinct of patriotism in the heart of the Southern youth ; sv- 382 OUR GREAT MEN. it revives and stimulates prejudice; it substitutes the spirit of barbaric vengeance for the love of peace, prog- ress and harmony. "The growth of the country has continually and nec- essarily enlarged the civil service, until now it includes a vast body of officers. Rules and methods of appointment which prevailed when the number was smaller have been found insufficient and impracticable, and earnest effi^rts have been made to separate the great mass of ministerial officers from partisan influence and personal control. Impartiality in the mode of appointment to be based on qualification, and security of tenure to be based on faith- ful discharge of duty, are the two ends to be accomplished. The public business will be aided by separating the leg- islative branch of the Grovernment from all control of ap- j)ointments, and the Executive De23artment will be relieved by subjecting appointments to fixed rules, and thus remov- ing them from the caprice of favoritism. But [there should be rigid observance of the law which gives in all cases of equal competency the preference to the soldiers who risked their lives in defense of the Union. "The claim of the Mormons that they are divinely authorized to joractice polygamy should no more be admit- ted than the claim of heathen tribes, if they should come among us, to continue the right of human sacrifice. The law does not interfere with what a man believes, it takes cognizance only of what he does. As citizens the Mor- mons are entitled to the same civil rights as others, and to these they must be confined. Polygamy can never receive national sanction or toleration by the admission of the community that upholds it, as a State in the Union. JAMES G. BLAINE. 383 Like others, the Mormons must learn that the liberty of the individual ceases where the rights of society begin." During the latter part of the campaign Mr. Blaine addressed a great many mass-meetings in his own State, and many of the other Northern States, especially in New York, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. He made public addresses for forty-three days continuously, speaking over four hundred times in that period. But, in spite of his best efforts and the efforts of the party that stood behind him, he was beaten by thirty-seven majority in the Elec- toral College. In 1884 the first volume of a work by Mr. Blaine, enti- tled Twenty Years in Congress^ was issued. As a his- torian Mr. Blaine will rank among the first. Especially in his judgment of public men, he writes like a true his- torian. The second and last volume of the work was issued in 1886. m Hon. EDWARD S. BRAGG, OF WISCONSIN. DWARD S. BRAGG, of Fond du Lac, is a native of IS'ew York. He was born the 20th of February, 1827. He is a graduate of Geneva College. He studied law and was admitted to the Bar of 'New York in 1848. He removed to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1850, and has ever since resided there and practiced his profession. He was elected District Attorney in 1854. In 1861 he entered the Union Army as Captain, and served till the close of the war, when he had risen to the rank of Brigadier-General. He was appointed Postmaster of Fond du Lac by President Johnson in 1866. In 1868 and 1869 he was a member of the State Senate of Wisconsin. He was a member of the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh and Forty-ninth Congresses. He is a strong Democrat — always true to his colors. In a debate on revenues, Mr. Bragg said: "I am exceedingly indebted to the distinguished gen- tleman from Maine for his reference to the failure of this House to consent to the consideration of a revenue bill reported from the Committee on Ways and Means. I am; delighted at it, because it shows what sort of contempt- (384) EDWARD S. BRAGG. 385 the Republicans of this House feel toward those who have been recreant to their faith, to their pledges ; that, while they are received with open arms and approbation for the acts they have done, they are thoroughly despised for their political recreancy. "Mr. Speaker, when I came into this House, a few moments ago, the distinguished gentleman from Iowa had the floor, and I stopped for a moment to listen, for I thought that, by accident, I had strayed into a camp- meetinfi:. But in a few moments I saw it was the old hobby-horse, brought out to be ridden round again and pranced and posed in the presence of the American people for the benefit of the claim-agent newspapers, and to cir- culate them among that class of men whose votes they think can be bought by their pretending to be the ' sol- diers' friends.' [Cries of 'Oh!' 'Oh!'] Yes, 'Oh!' [Laughter.] I repeat, 'Oh!' [Many cries of 'Oh!' 'Oh!'] Who was it, when you had two-thirds majority in this House, when the war was still recent, when men were suifering from wounds everywhere — who was it that passed a limitation upon pensions, and provided that every claim not presented within five years should only com- mence to draw a pension from the date of the filing of the act? "^Tio was that? Will you answer me? 'Oh!' [Laughter.] It was the Republican party — 'Oh!' Who was it that repealed that limitation upon arrears, and gave the soldiers w^hose cases were pending their pen- sions from the date of their disability? It was the Dem- ocratic party. 'Oh!' "Who was it that, in their national convention in 1884, declared in favor of the repeal of the limitation on w 386 OUR GREAT MEN. the arrears, and one of their candidates, now presiding in one of the branches of this Grovernment, within thirty days afterward refused to follow the platform of his j)arty ? It was one of the great Republican financial leaders, who now occupies the position of President of the Senate. "IS'ow, why is it we hear all this talk? There is nothing in this resolution relating to the refusal of soldiers' pensions. This resolution provides for means of paying soldiers' j^ensions. It is not to refuse to grant them, but to provide for their payment, and when these men sj^ring to their feet and cry out, it is an attack on the soldiers, it is nothing but an attempt, under the guise of friendship to the soldier element of the country, to protect the bondholder, to protect the wealthy man, to protect those men who, during the war, favored by a Kepublican administration, fattened upon the blood of men in the field, and, as contractors, filled their purses. They have been protected and pay no tax, because they hold Grovernment bonds that were bought with currency worth fifty cents on a dollar. They have received their interest promptly, some of them semi-annually, year after year, without paying anything upon that capital. But when we proj)ose, in order to provide a method for pay- ing soldiers, to reach this fund that has refused to pay what it ought to the support of the Government, and when we say that that fund which was made out of the blood of the soldiers, that property which was protected by the blood of the soldiers, shall contribute to the pay- ment of i^ensions, then we find these men crying out simply because it is a method to reach their ducats. Hinc nice lachrymcey % Hon. JOHN T. MORGAN, OF ALABAMA. ^lOHN T. MORGAN, one of the most pop- ular men of Alabama, was born in Athens, Tennessee, the 20th of June, 1824. He received the most of his education in Ala- bama, for his people removed there when he was only nine years of age. Alabama has ever since been his home. He studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1845, and has followed his profession, except during the war, till he was elected to the United States Senate. In 1860 was a Presidential Elector for the State at large and cast his vote for Breckinridge and Lane. In 1861 he was a Delegate from Dallas County to the State Secession Con- vention, and early in 1861 he joined the Confederate Army. He enlisted as a private, but before the close of the war was appointed Brigadier-General. After the war he again took up the practice of his profession. In 1876 he was a Presidential Elector for the State at large and voted for Tilden and Hendricks. He took his seat in the United States Senate the 5th of March, 1877, having been elected as a Democrat; and was re-elected in 1882. (887) 388 OUR GREAT MEN. Mr. Morgan is one of the most active members of the Senate. The following is a portion of his celebrated speech on the Mormon question: "I am somewhat charry in endeavoring to array my opinion against the Senator from Vermont, who has studied this question very thoroughly, and I must say that I believe he has studied it in a spirit of justice and fairness, with a disposition to do what the American people require to be done and what should be done to remove this flagrant outrage from the American society, to say nothing of taking it out of the pale of the American Christianity. But I must differ with the Senator from Vermont as to the nature of the remedy he proposes. For one, I must say I do not consider that the measure which the Senator from Vermont brings forward is as heroic and as radical as it ought to be. He is not given to stopping on his center. When that Senator conceives that some- thing ought to be done for the public welfare, he is usually willing to take up the subject by its rough handle and carry it through to all of its logical consequences without turning back or looking back; but on this occasion I think the honorable Senator from Vermont has been alarmed by his own regard for what should be the pro- priety of action on the part of the Congress of the United States in dealing with a subject of natural delicacy, the subject of the establishment of religion. I might say for myself, but I would not say it as a lawyer, that in deal- ing with this corporation, or with its associated ecclesi- astical organization, I do not feel that I am dealing with a religious establishment. I feel that I am dealing with something that is entirely irreligious, that has no just JOHN T. MORGAN. 389 pretension at all to be called a religion in a Christian country. It would be a very fair religion in China or in any Mohammedan country ; it would do very well for the Congo Free State, perhaps; but in Christian America this can hardly be rated as an establishment of religion. It is an establishment of vice, which is controlled by an autocracy or a hierarchy which calls itself a church, and professes to be founded upon a revelation made to a human being in these latter days in the United States through books which were transmitted here and translated by himself, a revelation from the Almighty, which, in its essence and in its quality, and in every par- ticular, denies and reprobates and overturns what we understand to be the revelations upon which the Christian system is founded. "If the priests of the Mohammedan religion were here for the purpose of establishing themselves in any Territory of the United States, and for the purpose of propagating that well-known system (which includes some very virtuous elements, particularly that of tem- perance) in one of our Territories, and if they should call upon the Territorial Legislature, and through that Legislature in effect upon Congress, to grant a legal charter for their church, I do not suppose that in a case of that kind any lawyer in the United States would regard me as at all departing from the traditions of the profession, or as violating any known principle of consti- tutional law, if I should object that we had no poAver to confer a legal charter upon a Mohammedan church in a Territory in order to organize it as a religious establish- ment. I would deny the power in a case of that kind, 24 390 OUR GREAT MEN. because the exercise of that legislative power in the organization of that sect in this Christian country would be in eifect to overturn the spirit and substance and foundation of the whole of the Christianity which ^^er- vades this country, and which enters into our society, and through that into our laws. If I should find an act of a Territorial Legislature giving incorporation to a Mohammedan church, one of whose tenets is that a man shall have a plurality of wives if he chooses, I would not. hesitate to repeal that law, because it would violate the whole sentiment of the American people, and it would violate the spirit of the Constitution. "Now, when the Legislature of Utah organized this miserable pretension of a church, which was organized for the pur]30se of covering up and protecting by the sanctity of religion the allowance of low, flagrant crimes in the community to which the whole sentiment of the people of the United States is adverse; when they passed this act of legislation of this so-called church they violated, if not the letter, the spirit of the Consti- tution, for they legislated for the purpose of establishing a religion. They did not legalize action in reference to a religion which existed and was recognized by the American people. They did not legislate as we would legislate in respect to any of the great Catholic or Prot- estant denominations known to these Christian communi- ties, to give legal power and organization to them in order to hold property merely. That act of the Legis- lature of Utah was an act for the establishment of a religion which before that time had no foundation in public acceptance and no foundation in law. That act I JOHN T. MORGAN. 391 was the building up of the Mormon church. These men had been scouted from communities to the east of the Mississippi River and driven like public enemies abroad into the wilderness. They were routed from Illinois, Missouri and other States as nuisances to the community. Their temjoles were torn down or burned down about their heads, and their propagators and pre- tended priests and prophets were imprisoned and pun- ished by the populace. Taking refuge in the wilderness, at that time within the domain of Mexico, coming to us by an annexation of territory, when they got the power of a Territorial Legislature out there, the first thing they did with it was to use that power contrary to the Consti- tution of the United States to establish a religon. But for the exercise of that power of legislation in the Terri- tory the Mormon religion would never have been estab- lished in that country. It would have lingered along in a miserable way under the condemnation of public senti- ment abroad as well as of public sentiment that was rapidly forming and growing in the midst of those people, and it would have utterly perished and passed out of view, as the Oneida settlement has done in New York. " But the purpose of that act and its whole intention was to establish a religion, and well and wisely did they legislate. They formed their legal organization, but in forming it they enacted into the law some of the precepts of their pretended religion, and they gave to this church as a body corporate the power to do much else than merely to hold property in a legal way for the advantage of the institution. I read to the Senate this morning a long array of the powers that they have. 392 OUR GREAT MEX. " The corporation is formed under a law, and the uses and trusts and purposes of that corporation are in that law distinctly and clearly defined. What are they? When read even between the lines, when read according to the interpretation of the very men who enacted the laws, the}^ are for the propagation of polygamy; they are for the establishment of a church hierarchy there, having more power than any Legislature in the United States ; they are for the taxing of the people to one-tenth of the 2^roduct of their annual labor ; they are for giving power to the ruling authorities in that church, the priests and apostles and bishops and other men in authority, so that they may exercise upon individuals a degree of duress, not merely spiritual duress, but - personal and physical duress and control over their j^roperty, which shall compel them to bow in submission to any decree that the church may put forward. ''Here, then, are the uses and trusts and purposes of the act of incorporation declared in the act itself. When these tithes flow in and are converted into money, when the voluntary contributions which are made to this church go into the treasury, vfhcn the money that they receive from their stocks in railroad corporations comes in, who has the power to control it? Says the Senator from Vermont, not the trustees ; the}^ have only the power to hold it. That is true ; but in the act you have got the trustees and you have got the church, but with all the controlling power physically and morally that that church can exercise, and that church can exercise the control and direction of the fund so as to apply it to the uses specified in the act. JOHN T. MORGAN. 393 "What then are our fourteen trustees to do? They are to go there and receive the property — yes, the tithes received, all contributions, all donations that may be made, in pursuance of law. The law that is upon the statute-book of Utah holds them in their treasury account- able to whom for them? This bill does not make them accountable to the United States. The trustees are accountable to the church. Will you substitute trustees in the act, and say to those trustees you shall execute the trusts and uses and purposes for which the act was made ? Will the Congress of the United States under- take the task of running the Mormon church so as to collect its revenues from time to time, and apply them to the uses prescribed by law ? That is the question as I understand it. ••The honorable Senator from Vermont says that these funds, vv^hen received by the trustees, are to be put into a common-school fund. The act does not so pro- vide, except as to those corporations which have violated the provisions of the act of 1861, in which case an escheat takes place by a proceeding in some court, and the fund escheated is carried into the common treasury of the school fund — diverted from the church and carried to the school fund. That, sir, is a confiscation. That in another form is an escheat. You take the fund away from the church in that case, and you carry it into the com- mon-school fund. "But up to the $50,000 that they have a right to hold, and also in reference to the revenues that they derive fi'om the tithing, I can see nothing in this bill that will prevent these trustees from being compelled to execute 394 OUR GREAT MEN. the trusts of the original act. Here stands a church, call it a Baptist church, or a Methodist church, or a Pres- byterian church, in order to see how exactly what the l^owers of the trustees are. Here is a Presbyterian church in the Territory into whose government and into whose act of incorporation Congress has injected four- teen trustees to take and hold the j^roperty. The act of organization of that Presbyterian church requires that the moneys which shall fall into the treasury of that church, it shall make no difference how, shall be applied to certain religious uses, and instead of applying that money to the religious uses of this orthodox denomina- tion of Presbyterians, as is prescribed by the act of the Territory of Utah, you take that money and convey it into the treasury of the common-school system. " Why, sir, the whole United States would revolt at it. Yes, the Christian world would revolt at an act of that kind j^erpetrated in respect of the Presbyterian de- nomination. "Now we will change it, and we will call it the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and apply the very same provisions to it. •P ^^ ^F f" ^f ^ " Sir, I can not get my consent to leaving this statute in force to the effect and to the extent of enabling a court of justice to require these .trustees to execute the uses and purposes of that original trust. In doing it we uphold the spirit, intent and purpose with which the original act incorporating this church was enacted. I would, as I said, put the ax to the root of the tree." Hon. henry m. teller, OF COLOEADO. lENRY M. TELLER, of Central City, was born in Alleghany County, New York, May 23d, 1830. He studied law and was admit- ted to the Bar in New York. In 1858 he removed to Illinois, and on to Colorado in 1861. On the admission of Colorado as a State, in 1876, he was elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat December 4th, 1876. He was re-elected to the Senate, and served until March 4th, 1881. He was appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Arthur, April 17th, 1882, and served until March 3d, 1885. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Rej^ublican, and took his seat March 4th, 1885. Mr. Teller is a great worker in the Senate, and the fol- lowing is a portion of an able effort of his on the Mor- mon question: "Mr. President, polygamy is a crime; but it is not greater than murder, it is not greater than other crimes known in the catalogue of human vice. It is contrary to our ideas of civilization ; it is contrary to our judgment of what is to the best interest of a political organization ; it is contrary to our religious convictions, and therefore (395) 39G OUR GREAT MEN. we do not look at it with calm consideration, and we do not consider when we come to attempt to put our hand U23on it how we are best to do it. We want, as a Senator said to me to-day, to j^ut the knife in. So say I, but put the knife in under color of law ; put the knife in by a con- stitutional moA^ement. "I believe the act of 1862 was sufficient to have erad- icated this evil if it had been projierly administered. I believe it was a proper law. I have never criticised it; I have never criticised the action of the General Govern- ment; but I say its agencies sent there from time to time were of a character that was calculated to defeat the laud- able purpose of the law. I joined, as a member of the committee and as a member of the Senate, in the passage of the act of 1882. I believe that act is now capable of carrying out and completing the end which we all are so desirous to attain. I did not intend yesterday in my criticisms to criticise the past transactions under this law, but to criticise the actions under the old law. The honorable Senator says we all know that no effort was made to enforce it. That is what I complain of. For fifteen years the Government made practically no effort at all ; it sent men out there who professedly, for a time, attempted to enforce it in the most odious and most objectionable manner jwssible, and yet did nothing. "Whether these j^eople have been persecuted or not is a matter of judgment. I do not yield to any man on this floor in knowledge on this question. I know these people as well as anybody here does, and I know their history well; but I am no believer in their religion. I regard their chief prophet as an arrant knave. I do not HENRY M. TELLER. 397 believe anv revelation was ever made to Joe Smith or to Brigham Young, or to anybody else. I regard this as an oligarchy or a religious despotism that ought to be wiped out; but it must be done by law. If you can justify the transgression of fundamental principles of constitutional law in this case, you can do it in a hundred others. If the enormity of the crime that is to be stricken down is a justification for the transgression of law, then you may find it everywhere, and no rights are sacred. It becomes a question of prejudice, and of passion, and of hate. "I did say that this bill bristled with blood and with vengeance, and I repeat it, and I propose to show it. I propose to show here that there never was such a bill introduced in any legislative body in the world, and no such bill was ever enacted into a law, and that, too, when, by the report of the commission that we sent out there, it is evident that there is no necessity for this extreme and new legislation." Hon. CHARLES F. CRISP, OF GEORGIA. [HARLES FREDERICK CRISP, of Amer- icus, Georgia, is the Representative in the National House of Representatives from the Third Congressional District of that State. He is a native of Sheffield, England, where he was born the 29th of January, 1845 — his parents were then on a visit in that place. They returned to America the same year. He received a good education in the common schools of Macon and Savannah, Georgia. He entered the Confederate Army in May, 1861, as Lieutenant in Company K, Tenth Virginia Infantry. He served until May of 1864, when he was taken prisoner and confined in Fort Delaware. In June, 1865, when he was released, he returned to Ellaville, Schley County, Georgia. He read law and was admitted to the Bar in Americus one year later, and commenced j^racticing in Ellaville. He was appointed Solicitor-General of the South-western Judicial Circuit in 1872, and in 1873 was re-appointed for four years. He was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of the same Circuit in June, 1877, and was elected by the General Assembly to the same office in 1878. He was re-elected Judge for a term of four (398) I CHARLES F. CRISF. 3^9 years in 1880, but in September of 1883 he resigned the office to accept the nomination for Congress. In April, 1883, he was permanent President of the State Demo- cratic Convention which met in Atlanta to nominate a candidate for Governor. He was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and has since been a member of that body, to which he was elected as a Democrat. The following is an extract from a speech by Mr. Crisp on the "Missouri Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Lines:" "By the terms of the original charter the companies were permitted to dispose of their lands within three years, so as to defeat the right of individuals to enter upon and homestead thereon as they can on the rest of the public domain. In other words, unless the com- panies disposed of the lands within three years from the time of acquiring the right to them, then it was pro- vided that individuals might enter upon the lands and homestead there as they could upon other public lands, paying to the railroad companies instead of to the United States the cost of such proceedings. After the expiration of the three years mentioned in the charter, a question arose as to whether the companies had, within the mean- ing of the act, disposed of the land, or as to whether they were still open to settlement as the rest of the public domain. The companies, or one of them, within three years from the time it acquired the right to these lands, mortgaged them, I believe, for the sum of $10,000,000. The company claimed that the giving of the mortgage, or the exercise of the right of mortgage, was a disposal of the lands within the meaning of the 400 OUR GREAT MEN. act, and that hence they were no longer subject to entry as homestead, but were practically and substantially dis^ posed of. "That question went to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the decision of that court affirmed and established the views of the railroads; in other words, they had disposed of the land. " Now, Mr. Speaker, the States and Territories where this land is situated, understanding from that decision that the railroad companies were in all respects owners, of this land, as any individual or any corporation is the owner of that to which he or they have a complete equi- table title, undertook to tax these lands. They have them assessed as in the case of other real estate within their Territorial limits. They imposed upon them such taxes, such burdens, as all other property of like character are required to bear. The railway companies claimed that the States and Territories had no right to impose a tax because the legal title to the property is in the Govern- ment of the United States, and that the sovereignty of the State or Territory could not be exercised to impose a tax upon property the title to which was still in the United States Grovernment. * * * "Therefore, you see, Mr. S2:>eaker, as regards this vast domain, this great number of acres of land which have been given to these corj)orations, they hold it, they control it, they exercise all the rights of ownership over it; and yet, sir, they escape the burden that falls upon every other species of property owned by every other indi- vidual in this country." Hon. THOMAS B. NORWOOD, OF GEORGIA. IHOMAS B. IS^ORWOOD, a member of the Forty-ninth Congress of the United States of America from the First Congressional District of Georgia, is one of the humorists of the House of Representatives. The following is a sample of Mr. ;N"orwood's style. These remarks are taken from a reply he made to Mr. Henderson, of Iowa: "My honorable friend the other day — and have I not the right to call him friend when he fought for me? — declared he had said nothing for the purpose of ruffling the feelings of anybody, and it was certain nobody could say anything that would ruffle his. " But I was speaking of the gentleman's expansive patriotism, and after its exhibition here a few days ago, and I imagine if Ben Lomond could be separated from the Grampian range and transported over the sea, as the gentleman was, and were set down somewhere in the middle of this country, we will say about the State of Iowa, how natural it would be for Ben Lomond to want to lie down and spread himself all over the United States and the Territories thereof, with a sublime disregard of the extreme attenuation of his form. (401) 402 OUR GREAT MEN. ''But, Mr. Chairman, we can not receive Ben Lomond. Scotland can not bestow upon us her Bruce or her Wallace, for they made glorious history, and their names are embalmed in the leaves that record the history they made. But she has bestowed upon us one of her choicest thistles; and, though its flowers have fallen, its thorns are still strong and vigorous. He with his patriotism can cover the whole of the United States and a small majority of the Third Congressional District of Iowa, and a very considerable part of himself. His love has never been equaled since the time of Robin Roughhead, who declared if he could have his own way there would be no widows, for he would marry them all, and there would be no orphans, for he would father them all. " The literature of Scotland has furnished us with an example that is a prototype, to some extent, of the gen- tlemen from Iowa. The ' Wizard of the North ' exhausted his genius in producing the character of Captain Dal- getty, whose chief delight and labor were to fight first upon one side and then upon the other, with equal valor, fidelity and enthusiasm. " But, Mr. Chairman, truth is stranger than fiction, and the character produced by Walter Scott is more than realized in the character of the gentleman from Iowa, because he can do what no fox-hunter has ever been able to do, that is, to ride upon both sides of a sap- ling at the same time, and to draw his sword in defense of both sides of his country, as he avows he did in the late war. "More than that, the gentleman, like a genuin* -..^^ THOMAS B. NORWOOD. 403 'swash-buckler,' keeps up the fight after the enemy has disappeared ; and, like the bully described in Georgia Scenes, who was caught in the woods down upon his knees, swearing and rearing and gouging the earth with his thumbs, the gentleman from Iowa keeps up the fight and makes his solo performance here in order to demon- strate how he 'mout have fit.' "Mr. Chairman, it has been a rule of my life never to be outdone in courtesy or gratitude if it were possible, and as I feel under the profoundest obligation to the gen- tleman from Iowa for the declaration that he fought for me during the war, I shall now proceed to defend him against all comers. It has been insinuated here that the gentleman's speech the other day was made for a differ- ent purpose than for its eifect upon this House ; that he was speaking for the Third Congressional District of Iowa. Mr. Chairman, I repel the foul insinuation against the gentleman. It has been said even that he was speaking for the benefit of a successor w^ho is to fol- low him from that district. That, too, is a mistake, for how can any man possibly know who his successor is to be ? "Again, it was intimated that he was speaking upon the pension bill for votes, when we all know it was a widows' pension bill, and widows do not vote. These charges are all unjust, all false. The gentleman was actuated by pure patriotism, but it is of a very peculiar kind, in making that attack upon the South. His suc- cessor might be his political or his personal enemy, if, indeed, there be a miscreant in the State of Iowa who could be the enemy of a man who is as full of universal charity as a three-year-old doll is full of sawdust. 404 OUR GREAT MEN. " But, Mr. Chairman, there is another, a better and a sadder reason than all of these why the gentleman was not actuated by any selfish motive. I desire to state here that I have made a diagnosis of the case of the gentleman from Iowa, and the conclusion to which I have arrived is that he is afflicted with a disease very common but almost exclusively confined to public men, the name of which was never known until discovered in the State of Greorgia. This discovery was interesting. An old lady was sick, and her husband had called sev- eral physicians to see her, who treated her without suc- cess. Finally a young friend of mine who had just commenced to practice was called in, and, understand- ing the situation as soon as he examined the case, he told the husband that he understood it perfectly. He knew the character of the disease at sight, and told the husband that the vox jpopuli had got down on her dia- phragm. " The gentleman from Iowa has a very marked and a very extreme attack of the '■ vox popidi.^ But, in order that we may understand the case better, it should be borne in mind that man is composed of two parts, and all other elements entering into his composition may be resolved into those two. One of these is love of himself, the other a love of his country. In order to shorten the formula we will call one selfishness and the other patri- otism. As long as the two qualities are in equipoise the subject is i^erfectly healthy; but whenever self- ishness begins to get a little uppermost it draws vital- ity from the other side, and the patient becomes very weak, the head becomes very much enlarged, while THOMAS B. NORWOOD. 405 the thoracic region is very much emaciated. [Great laughter.] "That is the condition of the gentleman from Iowa. His case is one of the worst I have ever examined. He has what is called cerebro elephantiasis. [Loud laughter and applause.] And this disease has increased until the patient's brain is aifected. I have before me here a record that gives some of the symptoms of a patient suf' fering from that disease when it assumes the acute inflam- matory cerebro elephantiasis form. The difficulty with the patient laboring under the disease to the extent that the gentleman from Iowa has it is that when he attempts to say one thing that he means he says another, and here are some of the symptoms laid down in this record which show the character and extent of the disease. 'Tor instance, if the patient is very eager to per- form an act he will say, 'I approach it with reluctance and hesitation.' If he has no delicacy whatever about expressing himself on a subject he will approach you and say he approaches you with a great deal of delicacy. If he is ready to tight — and that gentleman is always ready to fight — he will approach you and say that the tendency of his mind is to fraternity. These symptoms, Mr. Chairman, are undoubted. That is the condition of the gentleman to-day. I am sorry for it. "And now I will say, in conclusion, if the Congress- man from the Third Congressional District of Iowa will require David B. Henderson to move out of his way so the Congressman can see his country, the Congressman will be cured of this disease, and he will no longer be troubled with the acute inflammatory vooi: populi^ 25 > J Hon. NATHAN GOFF, JR., OF WEST VIRGINIA. ATHAN GOFF, Jr., is a native of the city where he now resides, Clarksburg, West Viririnia. Here he was born the 9th of February, 1843. He received his educa- tion at the :N'orth-western Virginia Academy, George- town College, and the University of the City of New York. After the usual preparation he was admitted to the Bar in 1865, and two years later he was elected to the State Legislature of West Virginia. He was ap- pointed United States Attorney for the District of West Virginia in 1868, and was re-appointed in 1872, 1876 and 1880. In January, 1881, he resigned this position, when President Hayes appointed him Secretary of the Navy. He was afterward re-appointed District Attorney for West Virginia; he served but a short time, when he again resigned. He served in the Union Army during the late war- and attained the rank of Major. In 1870, and also in 1874, he was the Republican can- didate for Congress in the First District of West Vir- ginia, and was defeated by the Democratic candidate. In 1876 he was defeated for Governor of West Virginia on (406) NATHAN GOFF, JR. 407 the Republican ticket. He was elected to the Forty- eighth Congress and re-elected to the Forty-ninth Con- gress as a Republican. In a short sj^eech in the Forty-ninth Congress, on vet- eran bounties, Mr. Goif said: "Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that the gentleman from Wisconsin surrenders much of the good that is in this bill when he asks us to strike out these two provisos. He concedes in the argument that the veteran soldier of the country should have the bounty paid to him accord- ing to the order of the War Department. If that be true, can he suggest any reason why a private soldier who enlisted and served prior to 1863 should not have the benefit of the law as it was written previous to that time, and as it existed at the time he enlisted? That is just and equitable to the soldier who became a veteran, and it is just and fair to the soldier who enlisted before the President called for his three hundred thousand more. Show me the difference, Mr. Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. " Now, as to the second proviso, why is there any doubt about it to-day ? Why is it that the soldier who was hon- orably discharged did not, in fact, receive the bounty pro- vided for under the act of 1863? "When the accounting officers of the Department came to consider the original order of the Secretary of War, and construed it in connection with this act of Con- gress, they held that only those soldiers discharged by reason of wounds received in battle were entitled to the provision in the original order. 408 OUR GREAT MEN. "I am not going to discuss whether that is right or wrong. Congress in this fourth section limited the pro- visions to discharges because of wounds received in bat- tle. There was no such provision in the order of the Secretary of War which I read, and under which these thousands of men came up in the hour of their country's need and marched to the defense of their flag. If Con- gress afterward used this language which led the account- ing officers to make this mistake, we men to-day repre- senting the people of this country, and I care not where those i^eople be — North, South, East or West — the people of this country should dare to do the right thing and not count the cost." --^VJ^^^^i-H^ Hon. THOMAS B. REED, OF MAINE. HOMAS B. REED, of Portland, Repre- sentative from the First Congressional Dis- trict of Maine in the Congress of the United States, was born in Portland, Octo- ber 18th, 1839. He received a good common-school edu- cation in the schools of Portland, and then entered Bow- doin College, in Brunswick, Maine, where he graduated in 1860. From April, 1864, to JSTovember, 1865, he occupied the position of Acting Assistant Paymaster in the United States Navy. Then completing his interrupted law stud- THOMAS B. REED. 409 ies he was admitted to the Bar in 1865, and commenced, practicing in Portland. He was a member of the House of Representatives of the State Legislature in 1868-69, and of the State Senate in 1870. In 1870, 1871 and 1872 he was Attor- ney-General of Maine. He was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress as a Republican, since which time he has been re-elected each term, demonstrating how well he has served his constituents in York and Cumberland Counties, of which his district is composed. The following is a speech made by Mr. Reed on an appropriation bill appropriating $800 to purchase a yacht ; for Hon. S. S. Cox, our national representative in Turkey: "I have not forgotten the man nor the occasion. [Referring to Mr. Hewitt in a former debate.] His prop- osition was diplomacy on wheels. His idea was we should have one grand mogul who should travel from one end of Europe to the other, and, with that easy facility which he himself possesses for acquiring all sorts of information and misinformation, should get thoroughly acquainted with the habits of the people of different coun- tries on a flying trip, and do business with them all at one salary. "That was a charming debate, but it meant nothing. It meant simply the Democracy was in opposition, and they chose that particular^method of manifesting it. So all these speeches I have heard for the last eight years, when the Democracy came into power, have not been put to the slightest practical use. " I can remember when my friend from New York [Mr. Hewitt] was convulsing this country on the subject 410 OUR GEEAT MEN. , of free raw material. He never rose in his place, his mouth was never opened without free raw material issuing forth. But he has forgotten it all. The whole thing has passed from his mind. Now his particular point is tariff taxation. Why, sir, the other day he told us that the people of this country were reduced to such terrible straits by taxation that the limit had actually been reached, and that the good anarchists of this country could not stand it any longer; and yet for the honor of making the American flag steam ahead in that procession of representatives of the eifete monarchies of the Old World, he proposes to put on a people already burdened beyond the verge of human endurance what in my country is a large sum of money — the sum of $800. "Well, now, Mr. Chairman, do not let your mind be troubled by this thing; it will pass away like all the rest. Tariif taxation, free raw material, letters to Jay Gould in favor of protection, they all take their regular course like the old jingle, 'soldiers, sailors, tinkers, tailors.' It is the regular old song. That is what we have heard right along. And what the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Cannon] called the attention of the Democ- racy to was not, as the gentleman from Georgia supposed, by way of reproach. It was not for the purpose of reminding them of their old fame as economists. It was only to remind the Democratic party that they really never meant anything by it; and they all know it." M. 1E1I.I., Hon. DAVID B. HILL, OF NEW YORK. lAYID B. HILL was born in 1844, in the town of Havana, Chemung County, JSTew York. In 1864 he was admitted to the Bar in the city of Elmira. As a lawyer he was a success. In 1869, and again in 1871, he was elected to the State Assembly of 'New York. In 1881 he was elected an Alderman in Elmira, and the next year he was chosen Mayor of that city. In the fall of 1882 he was nominated for the Lieutenant-Governorship on the same ticket with Grover Cleveland, and was elected by an enormous majority. He served two years, and upon the resignation of Governor Cleveland, January 1st, 1885, he became Governor of New York. During his first year as Governor, by several vetoes of bills passed by the Legislature, and the reasons given therefor, his ideas came quite prominently before the people. This was especially the case on the census bill, which he vetoed; and as the Legislature refused to pass any other bill, and adjourned, he called an extra session. The extra session amounted to nothing; but the fall elections proved that the people were with Governor Hill. He was nominated by the Democratic State Con- (413) 414 OUR GREAT MEN. vention in September, 1885, as a candidate for Governor for the full term of three years. He was elected Gov- ernor by the people in November, 1885, by a majority of over 11,000. Governor Hill is very popular with the Democracy of his State. His name has already been mentioned as the national Democratic candidate for the Presidency. His executive ability no one can doubt. He was inaug- urated Governor of New York, the second time, January 1st, 1886. As a speaker, he has great power. And as a politician, the mantle of Samuel J. Tilden seems to have fallen upon his shoulders. His inaugural address of January 1st, 1886, which is here given, is characteristic of the man : " Fellow-citizens : The ceremonies which you are wit- nessing to-day mark the forty-seventh inauguration of a Governor of this State. Its first Executive — that gallant soldier and eminent statesman, George Clinton — took his official oath on July 30th, 1777, at Kingston, in the county of Ulster. Strange as it may seem, he had been elected both Governor and Lieutenant-Governor at the same election. The Constitution of the State which had prescribed the oath which he took was adopted at Kings- ton on April 20th, 1777, in their old historic building known as the 'Constitution House,' but the oath of office was administered to Governor Clinton in what was known as the 'Senate House,' from the fact that the Legislature first assembled in it. At this time this build- ing had stood over one hundred years, and here, after taking the oath of office, Governor Clinton, in the garb of a general officer in the Continental Army, delivered DAVID B. HILL. 415 the first executive inaugural address in the State of 'New York. The next day he returned to his command in the tented field. He was the only Governor of the State who has actually led its troops in time of war to battle for his country, and this he did in several important engagements, including those at and around Saratoga. He was then in fact, as well as in name, 'the Com- mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the State of New York.' After the surrender of Burgoyne he returned to the civil duties of his office. "The first Legislature which assembled after the Declaration of Independence in the State of New York convened in the 'Senate House,' at Kingston, September 1st, 1777. Here George Clinton delivered the first Gubernatorial message in the State. He had left his command long enough to discharge this duty, when he returned to the field, leaving the civil duties to be dis- charged by Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt, who had accepted that office. Governor Clinton wsls returned to the executive chair by repeated election from 1777 to 1795, when Governor Jay served for two terms, when Clinton was again elected for a single term, retir- ing in 1804. Distinguished, able and patriotic as was the career of George Clinton, all his successors down to 1884 have exhibited the same patriotic spirit, the same conscientious devotion to their duties, that characterized his administration, and in all the history of our State no blot defaces the fame of one of its executive officers through a period of over a century. Most, if not all, of them came to the Gubernatorial chair amid the sharp, often bitter, antagonisms of party strife; but with the 416 OUR GREAT MEN. close of the canvass in which each was elected the con- 1 tentions of party gave way to the sober judgment of the j^eople, and they each became not Governor of a party, but the chief magistrate of all the people. "During the one hundred and eight years which closed with the administration of my immediate prede- cessor, the State has emerged from a thinly-jDopulated province, much of which was a vast wilderness, into an empire of itself, in which commerce, manufactures, agri- culture, the arts and sciences, internal improvements, a great metropolis and large interior cities have come into existence, until to-day over five millions of inhabitants form that which is justly termed the 'Empire State.' "A glance at some of the incidents and circumstances under which some of my predecessors assumed the Exec- utive chair or marked their administration may not be inappropriate upon this occasion. It was during the| incumbency of the first Executive that the State was distracted by the contest over the adoption of the Fed- eral Constitution. He was an active and earnest mem- J ber and the President of the Convention which assem- bled at Poughkeepsie in 1788 for the purpose of consid- ering that instrument. With honest and outspoken con- victions he opposed its ratification by this State with all his energy and ability; but when it was adopted by the small majority of three he gave the Constitution his unqualified allegiance, and on retiring from the chair and closing the proceedings he made a memorable speech, loyally acquiescing in the result of the Conven- tion. John Jay, who succeeded him in 1795 — the bril- liant, large-minded jurist and first of American states- DAVID B. HILL. 417 men, the author of the State Constitution — entered upon the discharge of his executive duties amid the plaudits of the entire State. Yet, in less than three months, owing to the unpopularity of his recent treaty with England, the terms of which were unknown at the time he entered on his official career, he was burned in ef^gj in Philadelphia, New York and other cities in the State. But before his administration closed, by what Mr. Van Buren termed the 'sober second thought of the people,' he was restored in public confidence to more than his former popularity, and re-elected Governor of the State. "Six of the Governors of this State were what may be termed 'War Governors,' one of whom was George Clinton, who, as I have stated, led the troops of the State, of which he was commander-in-chief, in many battles of the Revolution. Daniel D. Tompkins, elected Governor in 1807, served continuously until 1816, when he was again elected, but, after a short service, he was elected Vice-President, and resigned the Governorship. While discharging his executive duties between the years 1812 and 1816 the War of 1812 began and closed. The patri- otic course of Governor Tompkins made him the great War Governor of the times, and raised him to the very zenith of popularity — a popularity so brilliant it paled that of DeWitt Clinton, casting him and his schemes of internal improvement into the shade, a shade which was dispelled when the pomp and display of war had disap- peared and peace was declared. During the administra- tion of Governor Young the Mexican War opened and virtually closed. His famous war message, containing the memorable words, ' The country is invaded, the rights 418 OUE GREAT MEN. of our citizens have been trampled upon, and I will sus- tain the country, right or wrong,' is a distinguishing fea- ture of his administration. " During the administration of Governor Morgan the War of the Rebellion opened. The history of that admin- istration is bright with the patriotism, zeal and ability with which, under his lead, the State of New York sus- tained an imperilled nation, and it closed in the darkest hour of the Rebellion. He was succeeded by that distin- guished citizen and j)ure patriot, whose name and fame are dear to all — floratio Seymour. Conscientiously opposed to the party in power, and to the administration of Mr. Lincoln, yet he upheld the cause of the Union in promptly forwarding troops to the front in compliance with the call of the President; in carrying out vigorous and practical war measures with such distinguished abil- ity and unselfish devotion that even the voice of party contention, at times bitter and unrelenting, was hushed, and the Legislature of the State, a large majority of the members of which were politically opposed to him, unan- imously adopted a vote of thanks, which was entered on its journals, where it stands as one of the marks of dis- tinction which embellished the administration of the ven- erated and beloved statesman now enjoying, in his declin- ing years, the repose and quiet of domestic life at his own hospitable home in Deerfield. Governor Fenton, his suc- cessor, during whose first administration the Rebellion closed by the triumph of the Union arms, was as distin- guished in his patriotic devotion to the cause of his coun- try as were his immediate predecessors. "The administration of several of the Governors of DAVID B. HILL. 419 New York was characterized by changes in the Constitu- tion of the State, which in one case amounted to a new Constitution. " George Clinton was Governor when the Constitutional Convention of 1801 changed the number of Senators and Assemblymen in the State, and made marked innova- tions in the appointing power of the Executive, and, among other things, giving a council of apj^ointment equal powers of nomination to office. "It was during the administration of DeWitt Clinton that the Convention of 1821 was held. It convened at this city, August 28th, 1821, and w^as by far the most important jDarliamentary body ever assembled in this State — perhaps it has been exceeded by few in the Nation. The great statesmen and jurists who occupied seats in it have adorned the history of the State with unprecedented splendor. Among these were Kent, Martin Van Buren, John Duer, Ambrose Spencer, Samuel Nelson, Elisha Williams, and many others. Governor Clinton's message, transmitted to the Legislature January 9th, 1821, recom- mending the Convention, is one of the ablest productions of that illustrious statesman's pen. This Convention changed some of the most important and fundamental principles of our Government. During John Young's administration the Convention of 1846 was held, and this, too, was an important Convention, characterized by the eminent men of which it was composed and the impor- tant outcome of its labors, resulting in a new Constitution, which was adopted by a large majority of the people of the State. It was during the second administration of Governor Fenton that the Constitutional Convention 420 OUR GREAT MEN. of 1867 was held, it beginning its session on June 4, 1867, and finally adjourning on February 28, 1868. Its pro- posed constitution, excepting the judiciary article, was rejected by the people at the election in 1869. "In Governor Dix's administration, the Constitutional Commission held its sittings in this city. The constitu- tion framed by the Convention of 1867 contained several provisions, the essential principles of which were felt to be desirable in the organic law, and among them was the clause forbidding the Legislature to audit claims, and the sections relative to public works and prisons. "Governor Hoffman, in his message to the Legisla- ture of 1872, had recommended that a commission of thirty-two prominent citizens, to be made up by selection of an equal number from each of the two great political parties, four from each judicial district, be created for the purpose of effecting a thorough revision of the Constitu- tion, and the Legislature accordingly authorized the appointment of such commission, which met at Albany December 4, 1872, and finally adjourned March 15, 1873. The work of this body, after some modification by the Legislature and considerable delay, was finally adopted by the people in 1876. " I have thus stated the principal changes made in the Constitution of the State and the administrations under which they were made. Three of the Governors of the State — George Clinton, Daniel D. Tompkins and Martin Van Buren — were elevated to the Vice-Presi- dency of the United States. Two of the Governors have been inaugurated Chief Magistrates of the Nation — Mar- tin Van Buren and my immediate predecessor, Grover i DAVID B. HILL. 421 Cleveland. The latter, elected to the office of Governor of the State by an immense majority, entered ujDon his executive duties, which he fulfilled for two-thirds of his term, discharging them with such dignity, sterling hon- esty and painstaking efficiency as merited and received public approbation, and elevated him to the office of Chief Magistrate of the Nation, where, thus far in his administration, he has exhibited a wisdom and statesman- like ability which has largely increased the confidence which the people reposed in him. Nine of the Govern- ors — De Witt Clinton, Martin Van Buren, William L. Marcy, Silas Wright, John A. Dix, William H. Seward, Hamilton Fish, Edwin D. Morgan and Reuben E. Fen- ton — have represented this State on the floor of the United States Senate, and it is no afi*ectation to say that, with their eloquence and their high ability as statesmen, they were ornaments to that august body. "Such, in brief, has been the career, such some of the events which have characterized the administrations of my predecessors. Standing here, as I do to-day, in the light of these events, with the memory of these illustri- ous men before us, it is eminently proper that I should pay this deserved tribute to their honor and greatness by a recital of their distinguished services in behalf of the State and the events with which their names are indissol- ubly associated, to the end that their lives and official careers may serve as an example to those who follow them in exalted public stations. This is, in many respects, a fitting occasion for such a retrospection. It serves to deepen the sense of responsibility which the acceptance of this high trust imposes at this time. 422 OUR GKEAT MEN. "Having spoken of the past, it may be expected that I should say something of the future. Upon the public questions of the day I have no sentiments to conceal, but the near approach of the legislative session, to which my annual message is to be presented, renders inappropriate their earlier expression. It is needless to add that I have no assurances to give or pledges to proclaim, ex- cept that the princij^les announced by me during the recent campaign are those which shall govern my official actions. "I assume this office untrammelled by a single prom- ise inconsistent with the welfare of the people. I have no other ambition except the faithful and conscientious discharge of its duties. Grateful to the people who have honored me with their suffrages, I enter upon the per- formance of the duties before me with a due sense of my great responsibility to the whole people, whose servant I am, and upon whose wisdom, virtue and forbearance I rely, with the hope that when my official term, this day begun, shall have ended, and I shall be permitted to lay down its burdens, I shall have done something to merit their confidence and approval. "My thoughts to-day turn to the great work of admin- istrative reform which lies before us. In this vineyard I am called by the people to labor. The cause is worthy of the highest ambition, the purest efforts and the most zealous advocacy of those who choose to serve it. To cor- rect existing abuses, to reduce the expenses of govern- ment, to abolish useless offices, to uproot official corrup- tion, to simplify the methods of administration, and to raise the standard of official integrity, are some of the DAVID B. HILL. 423 features of the patriotic work in which all good citizens should co-operate. " I reiterate the sentiment and join in the declaration to the people of the State, in behalf of administrative reform, similar to that which was expressed years ago by Samuel J. Tilden to the people of the city of New York in resjject to municij^al reform: 'In your cause I will follow where any shall dare to lead, or lead where any shall dare to follow.' "In conclusion, permit me to tender to you — Justice Learned — my sincere thanks for the flattering terms in which you have seen fit to allude to the manner in which I have heretofore j)erformed the duties of the high trusts confided to my care. In part through the well-discharged duties of the executive officers of the past, to whom I have referred, the State of New York has approached that unprecedented greatness which places it first among the States of the Republic. It shall be my aim to still further advance its prosperity, to promote its welfare and to guard its honor." 26 Hon. poindexter dunn, OF ARKANSAS. OINDEXTER DUNN, of Forest City, is a native of Wake County, North Carolina; here he was born November 3d, 1834. His parents removed to Limestone County, Ala- bama, in 1836, and he received his early education in the schools of the neighborhood. He spent four years at Jackson College, in Columbia, Tennessee ; graduated there in 1854. Two years later he removed to Saint Francis County, Arkansas, where he engaged in raising cotton until 1861. In 1858 he was elected to the House of Rep- resentatives of the State Legislature. During the war he served in the Confederate Army. In 1867 he commenced the practice of law. In 1872, and again in 1876, he was placed on the Democratic Elec- toral ticket for Arkansas. He has been a member of Congress since the Forty- sixth Congress. Mr. Dunn is thoroughly a Southern in political mat- ters, but above all he holds the welfare of his State and of the Nation. On the subject of free ships Mr. Dunn said: "The contest to-day is, who can give the most (424) POmDEXTER DUNX. 425 bounty? It is a game of national j)oker. France bids millions; Germany sees that and goes better; Italy, out of money, bad to go out of the game ; and we are asked to see Germany and France, and go better. There will be no end ; that contest will be fought as the original contest was fought to universal obstruction of commerce; This contest, if entered upon by all the nations, will be fought to universal bankruptcy of the tax-payers of the nations. We shall have a bounty-gatherer strapped upon the back of every tax-j^ayer upon this continent and the other continents of the world to be carried through life. That j)olicy must fail. The Secretary of State recognized the importance of the inauguration of this policy on the part of the continental governments of Europe, and called the attention of our consuls to it. Here is the report showing that it has produced, as I have before stated, an abnormal stimulus of production of ships and navigation until the world is overstocked, and we are becoming the chief beneficiaries of this com- petition, carried on at the expense of the tax-payers of those governments. ****** " If my voice can reach my countrymen, let me say to them that the days of protection have passed. You can not protect any longer. You are face to face, Amer- ican labor, with the laborers of the whole world. Your home market is insufficient. Destroy our commerce with other nations, strike down our exports by high tax- ation, making exports impossible, and perhaps one-fifth, at least more than ten per cent., probably twenty per cent., of the present employment for American labor 426 OUR GREAT MEX. ceases to exist. The surplus production falls like a blight upon that which is needed, reducing and destroy- ing its value, striking down enterprise, striking down industry, striking down commerce and all remunerative employment, and turning loose upon our country a mass of unemployed, dissatisfied, starving and desperate labor, Avhich will bear in one hand a torch and in the other a sword. That theory, that commercial policy, hangs over this country and over the labor of this country like a Damoclean sword. The wheat producer of the North- west is standing face to face with the wheat producer of India. England and the Indian Government have built already more than ten thousand miles of railway. They are building five hundred miles and more every year." Hon. abram s. Hewitt, OF NEW YORK. BRAM STEVENS HEWITT, of New York City, who represents the Tenth Con- gressional District of New York in the United States Congress, was born in Hav- erstraw. New York, the 31st of July, 1822. He was educated in the public schools of New York City and at Columbia College, where he graduated in 1842. In 1843 he was acting Professor of Mathematics. He then pre- pared himself for the legal profession, and was admitted to the Bar in 1845. Soon after this his eye-sight began to fail him, and he thought best to leave the close appli- cation essential to the practice of his profession, and engaged in the iron business, forming the firm of Cooper & Hewitt, and establishing extensive iron-works in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He was one of the ten United States Scientific Com- missioners who were appointed to visit the French "Exposition Universelle" in 1867. Mr. Hewitt made an extensive report on "Iron and Steel," which Congress had published, and which has also been translated into many of the foreign languages. Mr. Hewitt organized and has managed the "Cooper (427) 428 OUR GREAT MEN. Union for the Advancement of Science and Art," which has afforded many educational advantages to the working classes, for whom it was especially designed. He was a member of the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses, and was re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Democrat. In his remarks on the Pension Bill Mr. Hewitt said: "Mr. Chairman, I do admit I do not understand this bill. I have been reproached, on a previous occa- sion, with having voted against an increase of pensions to widows. I could not plead ignorance on that occasion ; I knew exactly what I was doing. I knew that bill pro- posed to take away the hard earnings of some widows and give it to other widows. To me all widows are alike. I I am like Tony Weller — rather inclined to beware of them. "I was told, during my absence from the House, that I was attacked by some gentleman on the other side, and consigned to a very bad place. I am not quite sure I was not invited to take a trip to regions which are not pojiular inside this House or out of it. "I do not know how these regions are tenanted, and I trust I never shall know ; but, so far as I am concerned, if I exj^ect to keep out of them it will be by trying to do my duty frankly and fearlessly in this House. **♦*♦♦ " I know that men from the South are placed, by these bills, in a most embarrassing situation. They can not discuss them without having imputations thrust upon their loyalty, as I heard them uttered to-day, if the remark of the gentleman from Nebraska had any mean- ing at all. I confess I was stirred — if I understood that ABRAM S. HEWITT. 429 remark — stirred with indignation that it should be made impossible for these gentlemen on this side to do their duty here and vote without having a reproach cast in their teeth. For that reason, Mr. Speaker, I have taken the floor. Xo man can reproach me with want of loyalty, or my people with want of disposition to make sacrifices for those who suffered or made jDersonal sacrifices in their country's defense. "But the burden has become intolerable. It is time somebody may speak out here. I care not what the con- sequences may be to me personally ; but I warn gentle- men that we must stop depleting the Treasury of the Government of its contents, on one pretense or another, for the benefit of those who are not laboring for an honest living, or, if they are laboring for it, do not need the bounty we are so ready to pour into their laps. I say it in justification of the men I believe to be as generous, as liberal, as honorable as any men I have ever known in the course of my life. I have seen them come up and vote for these bills, vote for every measure of justice to the Union soldier; and, what is to be regretted, I have seen them forced to give their assent to other measures which, in the better days of this Republic, when the Con- stitution" was better understood than it is now, would have had no place here. I have seen them come into this House and advocate and vote for these measures, on the ground that it was the only way in which they could get back into the South any portion of the money for which they are so relentlessly taxed." Hon. JOHN SHERMAN, OF OHIO. |OHN SHERMAN, the eighth child of Charles Robert Sherman, was born May 10th, 1823, in Lancaster, Ohio, His father dying when he was six years old, he was adopted by John Sherman, a cousin of his father, living in Mount Yernon, Ohio. He commenced the study of law in the latter part of 1839. Accepting the invitation of his brother Charles, he went to Mansfield, Ohio, to pre- pare for the Bar. He was a Whig, and lived in a section of country that gave him no hope for office. He can- vassed a portion of the State of Ohio for General Taylor in 1848. For some time following he devoted himself to the practice of law. He was elected to the Thirty-fourth Congress. He supported Fremont for the Presidency in 1856. He was re-elected to the Thirty-fifth Congress, and again re-elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress. In the Thirty-sixth Con- gress Mr. Sherman was candidate for Speaker of the House of Representatives, but finally withdrew. He was elected to the United States Senate March 23d, 1861, and has been a Senator from that time to this, with the exception of four years, in which he served as (430) JOHN SHERMAN. 431 Secretary of the Treasury, in the Cabinet of President Hayes. He is a brother of General W. T. Sherman, and what General Sherman is in military life, John Sherman is in political life. The speech of Mr. Sherman upon accepting the statue of President Garfield, from which extracts are here given, is only one of his many able efforts: "Mr. President, in selecting from among the illus- trious dead of the State of Ohio, the two most worthy to be represented by marble statues in the old hall of the House of Representatives, it seemed to the General Assembly of that State appropriate, first of all, to choose the statesman, soldier and President whose brilliant life and tragic death have made his name ' familiar as a house- hold word,' not only in every part of our country, but throughout the civilized world. His recent presence among us, his conspicuous services in the House of Rep- resentatives, the impressive ceremonies in this Capitol which within five brief years attended his inauguration as President of the United States, his long and patient suffering under a mortal Avound by an assassin, the elo- quent words of his nearest friend, uttered in the presence of nearly every member of this body, and within the Hall where both had gained their highest fame, make the duty assigned me seem superfluous. Still it may not be amiss to accompany the acceptance of the statue of James A. Garfield with a brief statement of the grounds for the affection and respect with which his memory is held by the people of Ohio. 432 OUR GREAT MEN. "In principle he was in every sense a patriot. No narrow limit confined his allegiance, but the whole country was the object of his love. He did not favor any section, b*it freely extended the bounties of Govern- ment to every part. He was a lover of liberty, of free- dom in its broadest sense, not only of the person, but of thought and of speech. Though a member of the Disciple Church, he was catholic in his charity for all Christian denominations. He was a strict guardian of the public faith, pledged either to a citizen, a soldier, or a creditor. When that faith seemed to be impaired by the long sus- pension of specie payments, he was as earnest as any in demanding the fulfillment of a national duty, and rejoiced as much as any in resumption. A striking example, himself, of the benefits of education, he favored every measure to extend and enlarge the scope of both State and national aid to education. JSe was a Republican, not in the narrow sense of personal advantage, but because he believed that party could best advance the honor and prosperity of our whole country, and of every part of it. " During his last term in Congress he was elected by the General Assembly of Ohio as a member of this body. No one can doubt that had he entered upon this service he would have greatly added to his reputation as an orator and a statesman, already established by eighteen years' experience in the House. This was his cherished hope and ambition, frankly expressed to his personal friends, justified by his physical and mental condition and training, in the prime of manhood, his early and later struggles behind him as obstacles safely overcome, JOHN SHERMAX. 433 with hope and health and strength all pointing to a long life of honor and usefulness. ^f •F *F ^F ^* ^ "The people of Ohio, among whom he .was born and bred, placed his image in enduring marble in the silent senate of the dead, among the worthies of every period of American history, not claiming for him to have been the greatest of all, but only as one of their fellow-citizens, whom, when living, they greatly loved and trusted, whose life was spent in the service of his whole country at the period of its greatest peril, and who, in the highest places of trust and power, did his full duty as a soldier, a patriot and a statesman." On the joint resolution directing payment of the sur- plus in the Treasury on the public debt, Mr. Sherman said: "Mr. President, I do not intend to detain the Senate long, and I wish to regard this question precisely as the Senator from Missouri does, as a purely business prop- osition. " The joint resolution undertakes to regulate the fund for the redemption of United States notes. Hitherto that has been left to the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury under certain limits defined by law. There are three reserves in the Treasury of the United States. These are not separated from each other, but still there are three independent reserves either j^rovided for by existing law or made necessary by the daily business of the Government. "First and chief is the fund for the redemption of United States notes and for the maintenance of sj^ecie 434 OUR GREAT MEN. imyments. By this measure as reported from the Senate Committee on Finance, that is fixed at |100,000,000. Hitherto it has not been defined by express terms. The resumption act of 1875 authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to provide for and maintain resumption, and the first step was to accumulate in the Treasury a fund that would be amply sufficient to maintain resumption. "When this matter was discussed before the Com- mittee on Banking and Currency in the House in March, 1878, the whole subject was considered with great par- ticularity. Mr. Buckner, a member from Missouri, was the chairman of the committee. That was at a time when the Department under the law was making prepa- rations for resumption, which was to accrue nine months later, and the question of the amount of reserve was the one mainly which was then considered. At that time the history of all the banking institutions of the United States and of the world was carefully and amply exj^lored and fully explained to the committee, and formed the subject of repeated interviews. It was shown that every successful system of banking which had been established, either by a government or by individuals, assumed that from thirty to forty per cent, in coin was the minimum reserve which should be maintained for the maintenance of specie payment. #*»♦** "At that time there were in the Treasury about seventy million dollars of gold coin, either the proceeds of bonds that had then been sold for the purpose of resumption, or surplus revenue which had accrued. The Secretary of the Treasury said to the Committee on JOHN SHERMAN. 435 Banking and Currency that in his judgment, in order to prepare for and to maintain resumption upon a sure basis, it would be necessary to borrow fifty million dol- lars more of gold coin by the sale of bonds, and he stated his purpose to go to N'ew York the next week, if he was not prevented by the action of Congress, and would then raise by the sale of bonds fifty million dollars in coin, which he could do by selling four and a half per-cent. bonds at a premium. "At that time no one pretended that the amount of reserve should be less than |100,000,000. On the other hand, General Ewing, Mr. Buckner and others insisted that this sum would not be a sufficient basis for the main- tenance of resumption, but that the Secretary was under- taking an impracticable task, and produced evidence from the records of the Bank of England, and from the Bank of Germany, and from the Bank of France, and other author- ities, to show that the amount of reserve that I proposed to establish was not sufficient. I contended, however, that it Was sufficient, and mainly because the United States had not to provide against deposits which were fully covered by cash in hand, but only had to provide for the redemption of $346,000,000 of notes, widely circulated and in active use throughout the United States. " Upon that statement members of the Committee on Banking and Currency tacitly declared that they would not interfere with the plan proposed by the Secretary, but that he might take the risk, as the discretion was by law left to him to fix the basis of resumption. At that time there was no distinction made between what is called a working balance for the ordinary operations of the Govern- 436 OUR GREAT MEN. ment and the reserve for resumption. At that time bonds were being called very largely, and continued to be called very largely, and it was known that there must be neces- sarily in the Treasury a reserve equal to the amount of calls to be made within a period of three months. At that time the law required, for a call of existing outstand- ing bonds, a notice of three months, and it was conceded that no Secretary could safely call for the payment of bonds until he had the money on hand to pay them. By existing law, however, under the three per cent, loan, the length of the call is reduced to thirty days. "So, upon the principles thus adopted and acquiesced in by all parties, a sum of money should be in the Treas- ury sufficient at the date of the call to pay the call when it matured, because, forsooth, no one can tell exactly what thirty days will bring forth. In addition to that there is absolutely necessary a working balance to carry on the ordinary operations of the Government. "Neither Congress, at that time,- nor the Secretary of the Treasury thought it wise to separate the various redemption funds, and it was concluded on the whole, and was announced as the j)olicy of the Administration, sub- ject to the ajDproval of Congress, that the aggregate reserve in the Treasury to include a working balance, a bond reserve, and the resumption fund, should be about ^140,000,000, which was between thirty and forty per cent, of the whole amount of greenbacks outstanding, and that this sum was the lowest that could safely be adopted. That was founded upon the experience of all nations, our own among the rest, and it is adopted and acted upon by all commercial nations now. JOHN SHERMAN. 437 "I was somewhat surprised when my friend from Mis- souri gave us figures awhile ago that startled me; but I happen to have before me the last number of the London Economist, which shows that to-day in the Bank of Ger- many, the Bank of England, and the Bank of France, which are really Government institutions, although they are owned to some extent by individual capital, their reserves are larger than that proposed by this measure. I find here in the Economist of July 17, 1886, the statement of the Bank of England. It appears that the circulation, excluding bank post-bills, of which there are not many, was £25,335,290— sterling, not dollars, but £25,335,290 sterling, or equivalent to over $126,000,000. * * * * * • ♦ "!N'ow let us go a little further. I will show you that this amendment is founded upon the experience not only of other countries, but that it is founded upon our own. As to this $100,000,000, it would be wrong to tamper with that reserve thus established by the consent of all the branches of the Government, and sanctioned by the cur- rency act of Congress of 1882. This declares that when the gold coin and bullion in the Treasury is less than $100,000,000 no further coin certificates shall be issued, thus stopping the issuing certificates ; so that the hundred million dollars should always remain intact. It has never been proposed by Congress seriously to tamper with that reserve. This Government insists upon issuing its own currency, and is subject to the same law of redemj)tion as other banking institutions, and must provide the same safeguards. It can only maintain the credit and converti- bility of its notes by the same rules applicable to other 438 OUR GREAT MEX. banks. Legal-tender laws and pains and penalties can not keep United States notes at par in coin, but this can only be done by redeeming them on demand with coin, and to make this sure the coin must be on hand. But the Sena^ tors from Kansas and Kentucky, and others, say that we do not want any such reserve as $100,000,000 — that |50,- 000,000 will be too much, that $25,000,000 is enough. Experience is a better guide and counselor than they are. The whole of our financial system rests upon that fulcrum of solid coin. Not only would confidence in the bank cir- culation be affected by it, and the stability of our green- back circulation, but the whole financial operations of the Government would be disturbed by any serious reduction of this redemption fund. "You may say that men who have devoted their lives to this kind of business are a little too timid, a little too conservative; but that is the merit and safety of all banking, and no government ought to enter into the business of banking until it adopts all the conservative habits of other successful bankers. Even the United States is not exempt from this duty. Otherwise a Black Friday, or some other unforeseen event, such as has hap- pened in my legislative experience, would topple our whole financial business into ruin. I remember that in 1857 we were here trying to distribute our surplus revenue just as you are doing now. We adjourned in March that year, and when we came back to Congress we had to borrow money to pay the salaries of members of Con- gress. These sudden changes may occur, and there- fore we ought always to be strong. "Now, let me go a little further to show that the JOHX SHEEMAN. 439 Government of the United States is subject to sudden fluctuations in its revenue and expenditures. After set- ting aside this hundred millions as provided by law to protect our currency from depreciation, we must provide ways and means to pay our bonds and current expendi- tures. You must accumulate money for the call of bonds. The amendment proposed by the Senator from Iowa sim- ply says that you can not make a call for bonds until you have the money in the Treasury in excess of the call. You shall call $10,000,000 a month, but you shall not make the call at any time unless you have money enough to pay that call thirty days hence without trenching on the reserve of $100,000,000. Is not that a wise provis- ion? Otherwise, in order to issue a call of $10,000,000 a month you might be compelled whenever your surplus rose above a hundred millions, according to one construc- tion — I think sen erroneous one — you might be compelled to call the $10,000,000. That is a doubt which is re- moved by the amendment. It is not to be presumed that the Secretary of the Treasury will call $10,000,000 at a time. Here he is required to call $10,000,000 in a month, but he ought to do it in calls ten days apart. He ought not to make a call the first of the month, for that is the pinching time when other liabilities accrue. He ought to call, say, on the fifth, the fifteenth and twenty- fifth three or four millions to make up the amount in the month; but when he makes the call he must have the three or the four million dollars on hand, because he can not anticipate and can not take any risks that when the time comes he will not have the money. "I was caught that way once. In ISTovember, 1877, 27 f J ♦■ / 440 ^ V OUR GREAT MEN. when .tJongress met, they were going to repeal the resui^ption act. There was passed through the House in ^t haste a bill repealing the resumption act. It stdr/ped at once as by a clamp the sale of bonds. In ord^' to save interest, which was a very desirable thing to do, I had made a call of 110,000,000 in anticipation of /^e sale of four per cent, bonds. The call then ran for ' i, CAinety days. The sudden action of the House stopped the f \operations of the Treasury Department, and we had to A"* pay that call out of the current revenues and some of it ^^ out of the reserve which had been accumulated by the sale of bonds for resumption purposes. "Certainly, Senators do not desire, I do not say want, to put this Democratic administration in any worse pre- dicament than Republican administrations have been put in. I want to give them the same degree of confi- dence, the same degree of reasonable latitude and dis- cretion that has been given to others. Therefore, when you provide that you shall not make a call under this proposed law until you have got the excess on hand, you only make a provision which any private citizen would, make to be certain to have the money on hand before he offered to pay it, for when the call is made it must be paid. That is the only explanation needed of that provision. "But what more? Under the operations of the reso- lution as it came to us from the House, without providing any working balance in the Treasury, the Treasury would be compelled at the beginning of every month, especially at the beginning of every quarter, to draw largely upon the reserve, from |10,000,000 to |20,000,000. Here is a sitatement going back to 1876, running up to this time, JOHN SHERMAN. 441 which shows that every provident Secretary would, in May, commence to provide for July. July 1st is the hard period of the year, because that is the time when a great many expenditures have to be made, new accounts and new appropriations have to be opened, and money dis- tributed to disbursing officers. The quarterly payment of pensions, amounting now to $18,000,000, has to be provided on the 1st of July, October, January and April. So with the interest of the debt and other expenditures that come due in monthly or quarterly payments. There has not been a period in a single year, by this statement, when the variations between June and July have not been as high as from $10,000,000 to $15,000,000. No one knows beforehand. When General Garfield died the shock and effect upon the public were so great that in a single month $30,000,000 was drawn from the Treasury, and the balance on hand was reduced to that sum. "Suppose you have no working balance over and above a reserve — nothing on hand but that. Under this proposed law, on the 15th of June, when a prudent Secretary, who had been accumulating $10,000,000 or $20,000,000 ahead to meet the payments to be made in July, whenever that amount went over $10,000,000 would be bound to call the whole excess. That occurred this year. It has occurred while we have been here. In June the amount ran up, and in July the Secretary of the Treasury was called upon to pay more than $20,000,000. So if such a law had been in operation in June when the balance ran up high he would have been compelled to call, under the operations of the law, not less than ,000,000, while on the 1st day of July following, a 442 OUR GREAT MEN. fact that he knew and had provided for, he would not have the money on hand to meet current j)ayments then due except by drawing on the gold redemption reserve in the Treasury. "So it is necessary to provide for a working balance. The great governments to which I have referred keep to their credit in bank thirty to fifty millions for this pur- pose. It always has been deemed necessary. It never has been denied to any administration, and unless you really intend to impinge upon and reduce this great balance-wheel of the Treasury, this $100,000,000 of coin, you have got to give the Secretary of the Treasury some leeway from month to month. This statement is shown by months. It shows that fluctuations and vibrations up and down, varying anywhere from $2,000,000 a month up to $30,000,000 a month ; so that under the operations of this joint resolution, taking it as it came to us, the Secretary could not accumulate money to meet the quarterly balances due on the first of each quarter. He would not be able to meet even the monthly variations that occur. The Treasury statements are made on the first day of each month, and on the 30th day of June the balances are the very highest in the whole year. The time when the Treasury statements, to which I shall refer in a moment, are made up, is when the amount on hand must necessarily be larger than at any other j^eriod of the year. They are made in view of what is to come on the next day. The interest on the public debt accrues on the 1st day of July, so that $9,000,000 is to be paid out at once for that, and about $17,000,000 for pensions, together with the various appropriations made by Congress from JOHN SHERMAN. 443 time to time. So it is impossible unless you give the Sec- retary of the Treasury some working balance that he could meet his necessary payments without drawing upon this great reserve. "Now, let us go a little further about this. What amount ought he to have? Some say $5,000,000. That would not pay one-third of the pensions due on a particu- lar day. Some say $10,000,000 ; some say $20,000,000 ; some say $25,000,000. For myself, I would have been willing to give him a discretionary power — not an absolute power, but a discretionary power. « « * * « « "What is a fair working balance, no man can say, but the Committee on Finance have placed it at $20,000,000, the very minimum which any Government of our popula- tion and wealth ever undertook to carry on its operations. The Senator himself showed that France has about forty millions, and Great Britain thirty odd millions of credit in the Bank of England. All I want to do is to give this Democratic Administration such a reasonable and fair balance as may enable them, with security and safety, to comply with the acts of Congress, made from time to time, aj)propriating the public money — no more and no less. Even the sum named, I believe, is rather less than, on the whole, it might be ; but there are other things that enable me to vote for this proposition. " One of the mistakes, I think, made by this Adminis- tration, was that the Secretary of the Treasury changed the familiar form of stating the public debt. In the new debt statement they count as accrued interest that which is only accruing ; that is, the interest accruing, but not due, 444 OUR GREAT MEN. is shown in the last debt statement as $9,000,000; but this is counted as having accrued, when, in fact, it will not accrue, or become due, until September, when ample reve- nues will come in to meet it; and, therefore, I think the Treasury has a margin that way ; but I suppose this change was made to excuse their policy of coin and currency accumulation — I would not say to cover up a balance — but at any rate to be sure to be on the safe side. "Another thing they have done which was never done before in Republican times, they have failed to count the fractional silver coin as a part of the money of the country. It is not available for the payment of debts, it is not avail- able for the payment of appropriations ; it is only available for paying small sums when demanded by the people, and experience shows that, when paid out, it soon returns. The amount has now so accumulated that it is $29,000,000. If you would authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to recoin all that minor coin into standard dollars he could use those, or issue certificates based upon them ; but it is not counted. In one sense it is not an available asset; but all his predecessors got along by counting it. It is true, when I was there the amount was not so large as it is now ; I think it was about $12,000,000 to $20,000,000, if I remem- ber right; but we counted it as so much money on hand, although we knew it was unavailable, because that seemed to be the proper thing to do. It is money in one sense, and it is not money in the general sense for broad national payments. "I believe that the amount reported by the Committee on Finance is the very lowest sum that, according to the experience of mankind, it would be safe to provide as a JOHN SHERMAN. 445 working balance; and I would be w^illing to give to the Secretary of the Treasury even more discretion. You need not be afraid he will abuse it. Great trusts like his are performed under the light, and are not likely to be abused. He has a public policy diifering entirely from that of my friend from Kansas about what is necessary in order to maintain the credit and power of the Government. It is an honest difference of opinion ; he does not conceal it. " Indeed, when Mr. Fairchild came before us, I could not but feel a kind of sympathy for him when he declined to give us his opinion of this measure, saying, at the same time, that heretofore this power had been left to the Secre- tary of the Treasury, and it seemed that Congress did not desire to confer this power on the present Administration, or words to that effect, and he thought it was indelicate for him to give any advice. It seem.ed a kind of an appeal that you should give at least the same opportunities to carry on the operations of the Government that you had given to the Republicans who had preceded him ; and I believe it was a proper appeal to be made under the cir- cumstances. "This statement shows the average balance. If the fractional silver coin had not been deducted on the second day of January, 1880, the balance in the Treasury would have been $139,000,000, but deducting the $18,000,000 the balance in the Treasury was $120,426,000. That is about the lowest. I certainly w^ould be willing to give this Administration that which Ave thought necessary at the time to give when the operations of the Government were even less than thev are now. Give him a mini- mum. First, there is the minimum of the redemption 446 OUR GREAT MEX. fund. Let that stand intact. It is said that nobody calls for it. I hope nobody ever will; but dissipate that ful- crum and then you will find plenty of people to call for it. It is the basis upon which the whole thing stands. Let that stand as long as the pyramids stand, as the basis of $346,000,000 of our promises to pay. Senators say that nobody doubts the integrity of the United States or its ability to redeem the greenbacks. ;N"obody does now, but yet it is only eight years since these notes were at a discount, and within twenty years they have been at a discount of forty, fifty and sixty per cent. "If Senators will have the kindness to turn to Mr. Jordan's statement before the Committee on Finance, they will find there the reasons given by Mr. Jordan why this unusual balance had been accumulated. I believe there was probably a little too much timidity in regard to this matter, but still he makes a very strong statement to show that at one time the gold reserve had been re- duced to $123,000,000, and he feared that the great bank- ers and men interested in our financial system would entertain the fear that at some not far distant day the dollar which they held in their hands as the trustee of great properties would, by some sudden change, by the' dissipation of this gold reserve, be j^^y^^^le in silver worth seventy-four to eighty cents on the dollar. That was a fear. "How is this silver coin maintained at par with gold. It is said that it goes as good as gold everywhere, but why? It is maintained at par with gold just like your paper money, because it is redeemed, it is received, it is used by the Government in exchange for gold; but JOHN SHERMAN. 447 if you once establish a fear in the minds of men engaged in large business interests that you will not maintain it at par with gold, then the silver dollar will fall to its market value. It will become the sole standard of value. If the Grovernment were to compel the people to take that which is intrinsically worth less than a dollar, then gold will disappear, and we will have contraction, hoarding, exportation and all the evils which I have some- times feared when they did not exist, just as people sometimes frighten themselves with imaginary dreams. Yet if you raise the impression that it is your delib- erate purpose to go on with this theory that the stand- ard of 412J grains of silver shall be the standard and purchasing power of the dollar, you must expect the men who not only represent great jorivate business interests of their oAvn, but re^Dresent the property of other j^eople, to take pains to protect themselves by securing gold coin or its representation. Whether you like it or not they will do it. It seems Mr. Tilden did it — I did not know that until it was mentioned by my friend from Kentucky — and other great bankers j^rotected themselves by buying foreign exchange. They will do that ; the self-interest of mankind will prompt them to do it. "But as long as you maintain your silver at par with gold, as you do now, and as France does with the utmost care and watchfulness, then there is no danger. I think our friends in 'New York have a little natural fear and a good deal of artificial fear in regard to that subject. I do not believe the people or Congress of the United States will ever bring us to a single silver standard. If they do, it will be a far greater calamity to the poor men of this 448 OUR GREAT MEN. country, the men whose wages will be measured by this inferior standard, than it will be to the rich men, who can protect themselves. " To show that the fear at that time was not unnatural, let me take the total net reserve, as stated by the Secre- tary of the Treasury, |179,689,862, including all forms of money, notes and coin, silver and gold certificates, and all other money except fractional silver coin ; the balance is 1179,000,000. At this time we have in the Treasury 82,980,559 silver dollars. We have in the Treasury silver certificates to the amount of |33,978,767. In all we have in silver, because the certificates are specifically payable in silver, $116,959,326. "Suppose we should now force the Secretary of the Treasury to pay out these silver dollars and these silver certificates, force them upon the people, whether they are willing to take them or not, refuse to pay gold, refuse to pay greenbacks, force out this $118,000,000, what effect would that have at once in bringing you to the silver standard ? I will allow every Senator to answer for him- self. Sir, we are only kept from meeting this possible calamity by redeeming and taking in this silver, and the very fact that the silver dollar is safely stored in the Treas- ury is the best protection to the value of silver. " I have thought all along — and that is another crit- icism of this administration which I would wish to make in all kindness — that they have not availed themselves of the legal power to use silver certificates in accumulating gold coin and bullion. I never could understand why that process was permanently stopped. There are four distinct JOHN SHERMAN. 449 provisions of law which authorize the use of any money in the Treasury for the purchase of gold and gold bullion. We have in the Treasury $32,000,000 of silver certificates. This fall, when the demand for cotton and wheat and the other productions of the country begins to be active, the gold will come from foreign countries, because there is no balance of trade against us to settle. But few of our securities are held abroad, or if they are held, they are held firmly. The demand will come here for our natural productions, and I do not see then why the Secretary of the Treasury does not do as his predecessors did, buy gold to fortify the gold reserve. If he has any fear of the dis- appearance of gold, instead of borrowing a ridiculous sum from the bankers in order to suj^port his reserve, it seems to me he might have got gold in the Treasury in exchange for certificates. His predecessors bought eighty odd mill- ions of gold by silver certificates ; and why ? This money is brought here in the form of bullion or foreign coin, not immediately convertible, and not in form for ready use. " He has in his hands $32,000,000 of silver certificates. There is no reason why these should not be converted into gold. It is true the silver certificates come back for cus- toms, duties and for all other operations of the Govern- ment. Still, to that measure it would be a relief. As they come back they are paid out, if the state of the market will justify it. Why, you ask, do the owners of gold coin and bullion take silver certificates ? Because coin in any form, especially as imported, is not in an available condi- tion for use. If there was a tightness in the money mar- ket, or rather a scarcity of currency, then the issue of these 450 OUR GREAT MEN. certificates for gold coin or bullion would supply an active currency, while the gold rarely is an active currency. It must be represented by some form of paper money, and the silver certificates will be received, sent down to New Orleans, sent West to the great plains, and there applied to the purchase of all the productions of the country for export abroad. In due time the silver certificate flows back into the Treasury, but the gold is there, and remains, while the certificate, in due course, may be again used to purchase more gold or to j)ay current expenditures, and in that way the reserve may be fortified. "As I said, this is not an administration of which I am any part or lot, but I want to be fair by it, treat it as I would our own. In proposing this amendment the Com- mittee on Finance, a majority of which is Rej^ublican, l^ropose to do by this administration what has been done by a Democratic Senate and by a Democratic House in a Republican administration, not to cripple the Secretary, not to compel him to do what his judgment condemns, but to allow him reasonable discretion. If there is any- thing clear, Mr. Jordan and Mr. Fairchild are firmly opposed to the House resolution. They said so to us. They gave us their reason for it. We thought, on the whole, that they were accumulating a greater reserve than was necessary to protect the public credit and the public interest, yet we did not feel justified in compelling them to go to the extent of dissipating the reserve as required by the House, which they regard as injurious to the j^ublic service, to the credit and public faith of our country. We therefore provided for this movable discretionary balance of $20,000,000. We put it lower than experience shows JOHN SHERMAN. 451 has been required every year for the last eight or ten years. The fluctuation, the ebb and flow of the currency, demand this sum of money. The table to which I have already referred shows that even in ordinary times, at S2:)ecial periods of the year, increased payments in a single day must be made and must be provided for by previous accumulations equal to this floating balance. To deny it is to open the resumption reserve for ordinary wants of the Treasury. " There is another probable efi'ect of this measure to be noticed. My friend from Kansas and also my friend from Kentucky talked about contracting currency. There never was a more severe, harsh contraction of currency than is proposed by this joint resolution. How will that happen ? You call bonds. You ought to call them and pay them oif. You call them at the rate of $10,000,000 a month. When you call |10,000,000 of bonds, |8,600,000 of these belong to the national banks, and are the basis of your banking system. * * * * * * " When you pay for the bonds the banks are deprived of their circulation. They are compelled to gather in the United States notes and bring them to the Treasury, which assumes the payment of the outstanding bank notes. But the law of Congress is so firm and strong that every note of the bank which comes into the Treasury has to be sent to Washington, and here retired and canceled. ****** " Still, all things considered, the Committee on Finance came to the conclusion that they would report an amend- ment which would require, according to the House pro vis- 452 OUR GREAT MEN. ion, about |50,000,000 to be retired. That is an enormous contraction. It seems to me that is far enough. I do not want to take the responsibility of going further. Indeed, I sometimes doubt whether, in interfering with the dis- cretion of the Secretary of the Treasury in regard to this matter, we have not gone too far. At all events, he ought to be left free to meet a possible emergency in the future." Hon. JOHN G. CARLISLE, OF KENTUCKY. |OHN GRIFFIIN' CARLISLE, of Covington, Kentucky, was born the 5tli of September, 1835, in Campbell (now Kenton) County, Kentucky. He received a thorough com- mon-school education, and applied it in teaching in his native county and also in Covington. He studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in March, 1858, and has since practiced his profession. In 1859-61 he was a member of the State House of Representatives. In 1864 he was nominated for Presidential Elector on the Demo- cratic ticket, but declined. In February, 1866, he was elected to the State Senate, and in August, 1869, he was re-elected. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in New York in July, 1868. In August, 1871, he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Kentucky, and served until September, 1875. He was alternate Presidential Elector for the State at large in 1876. He was a member of the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-sev- enth, Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses. He was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Forty-eighth Congress, and was re-elected Speaker of the Forty-ninth Congress. (455) 456 OUR GREAT MEN. Mr. Carlisle is a revenue reformer. This and the revival of American shipping, he looks upon as the most important questions before the people. In a speech made before he was elected Speaker, he said : "In the broad and sweeping sense which the use of the term generally implies, I am not a free-trader. Of course that is understood. At least it should be. I will add that, in my judgment, it will be years yet before any- thing in the nature of free trade would be wise or prac- ticable for the United States. When we speak of this subject we refer to approximate free trade, which has no idea of crippling the growth of home industries, but sim- ply of scaling down the iniquities of the tariif schedule where they are utterly out of proportion to the demands of that growth. After we have calmly stood by and allowed monopolies to grow fat, we should not be asked to make them bloated. Our enormous surplus revenues are illogical and oppressive. It is entirely undemocratic to continue these burdens on the people for years and years after the requirements of jDrotection have been met and the representatives of these industries have become incrusted with wealth. This is the general proposition on which I stand." In some remarks in the Forty-sixth Congress, on Internal Revenue, Mr. Carlisle said : "Mr. Chairman, for the information of the committee I will state briefly that this bill was prepared very care- fully after a full consultation with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in relation to its provisions as far as he saw fit to express himself in relation to them. There are some j^rovisions in the bill which affect, to some JOHN G. CARLISLE. 457 extent, the amount of money to be realized from internal revenue taxes, about which the Commissioner of Internal Revenue has expressed no opinion, preferring, as he said, to leave those matters solely to the determination of Congress. And I may say that, with the exception of two or three provisions which affect the amount to be col- lected from internal revenue taxes, there was no differ- ence of opinion, I believe, either in the sub-committee which prepared the bill, or in the main Committee on Ways and Means. There are, however, two, or perhaps three, sections of the bill which do affect the revenue, and about which there was some difference of opinion in the committee. One of them is a provision which, if adopted by the House, would exempt the distillers and owners of distilled spirits from the payment of interest at the rate of five per cent, per annum on the tax for spirits which remain in the warehouse or in the public custody for a period exceeding one year. "The whole amount collected from this source during the last fiscal year was less than $75,000. The entire amount of revenue from distillers, wholesale dealers, rec- tifiers, etc., was over $52,000,000 during the same period, so that the Committee will perceive at once that the amount of interest on the tax is comparatively a very insignificant matter. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue estimates that the amount to be collected from this interest during the current fiscal year will be about 1150,000, and that that will probably be about the average amount in the future. " Those who are engaged in this business do not, there- fore, complain of the amount of the interest on the tax, 2S 458 OUR GREAT MEN. because, as I have already stated, it is a very insignificant sum, but it is the trouble in reference to the matter arising from the difficulty in adjusting the interest account every time a package or a few packages of spirits shall be with- drawn from the warehouses. It is of that they complain rather than of the amount of the tax. "There is another section of the bill which proposes to exempt distillers, rectifiers and wholesale dealers from the payment of what is commonly known as ten-cent stamj^s. These are stamps which are placed uj)on pack- ages containing the distilled spirits when they are removed from the distillery to the warehouse, and when the pack- ages are refilled by the rectifier after rectification, and when the packages are changed by the wholesale dealers. The original proposed to exempt also from the payment of these stamps the exporters of distilled sjDirits and of alcohol. But the Committee, having considered that matter, came to the conclusion that inasmuch as the exporters pay no tax to the Government and the Govern- ment is at considerable expense for storekeepers, gangers, etc., it was not unjust to allow the law to remain as it now is with respect to them ; and, consequently, the Committee recommended an amendment of the original bill, which will leave the law in force so far as those parties are con- cerned in that respect. "The Commissioner of Internal Revenue states that the whole expense of printing all the stamps used in the operations of the Internal Revenue Bureau is about $350,000, and that he thinks $75,000 is about the amount which it costs the Government annually to print these particular stamps, including those used by exporters. JOHN G. CARLISLE. 459 The revenue derived from these stamps during the last fiscal year was about |290,000 or $292,000, according to my present recollection; so that this section of the bill will to that extent affect the revenue. "The next section, and the only remaining section which affects the revenue, is the seventeenth, which pro- poses to allow owners and distillers of spirits deposited in the warehouses certain maximum quantities on account of evaporation and leakage. The Commissioner estimates that this will affect the revenue to the amount of about 11,750,000. The whole purpose of that section is to place the distillers and owners of distilled spirits in precisely the same situation with reference to the payment of the tax which the manufacturers of fermented liquors, ale, beer and porter, the manufacturers of tobacco, snuff and cigars, the manufacturers of proprietary medicines, per- fumery, cosmetics, playing cards, and all other articles subject to internal-revenue tax, are occupying under the law; that is, that they shall pay the tax to the Govern- ment only on the quantity which is actually sold and goes into consumption or is withdrawn for sale or consumption in this country. "Without entering now into any discussion as to the propriety of that section, I make this general statement as to its purposes and effects. When we come to consider the bill under the five-minute rule for discussion and amend- ment, I will be ready to explain to any gentleman who desires it the reasons upon which the proposed legislation is recommended." Here are also a few remarks by Mr. Carlisle on cele- brating the centennial anniversary of the treaty of j)eace 460 OUR GREAT MEN. between Great Britain and the United States. The Inter- national Exhibition to be held in New York City in 1883: " I desire to call the attention of my friend from Isew York to the question of the power of Congress to incor- porate a purely local company in the State of JS'ew York. I dislike very much to make an argument against this bill, and will not attempt to do so, because I am not unfriendly to the object sought to be promoted by it; but it does seem to me that we ought to hesitate before we enter u^on a course of legislation which recognizes the constitutional power of the Congress of the United States to incorporate a company in a State, that company having no connection whatever with the oj^erations of the Government in any form. I do not understand that it has ever been con- tended that the power existed in Congress to create cor- porations, except in cases where the corporation itself was to become an instrument in the hands of the Government for the execution of some one of its delegated or implied pow- ers. I have never understood anybody to go beyond that, j "Certainly Mr. Webster, whose opinions upon consti- tutional law were supposed at one time to have some value in this country, always conceded that an attempt on the part of Congress to create a corj^oration having no connec- tion whatever with the execution of any of the j^owers of the Government would be unconstitutional and void. "The Su2:)reme Court of the United States, in an opin- ion delivered by Chief-Justice Marshall, who certainly was not disposed to restrict the powers of Congress, or of any department of the General Government, expressly held that Congress had the power to create the United States Bank, solely because that institution, when created, was JOHN G. CARLISLE. 461 one of the instruments by and through which the fiscal operations of the Government were to be conducted; in other words, that Congress had no j^ower to create a cor- poration merely as an end, but as a means toward the exe- cution of some other power which had been conferred upon it by the Constitution. " I have before me the argument of Mr. Webster in that case, and the decision of the court, which I will not take time to have read ; but I desire to call the attention of the House, and especially of my Democratic friend from the city of New York, to this proposition, and to ask him to explain to this House upon what principle it is that Congress can create a corporation in the State of New York for the purpose of transacting business in that State, and having no connection whatever with the Government or with the operations of any of its departments. "JSTow, the question which I want to proj)ound to my friend from New York is, what connection the corporation which this bill projDoses to create has with the execution of any of the powers or functions of Congress, or with the execution of any of the powers of the Federal Govern- ment? I say, with Mr. Webster, that unless you can show this, you are bound to admit that an attempt upon the part of Congress to create such a corporation is uncon- stitutional and a manifest usurpation." The following is the closing address of Mr. Carlisle to the House of Representatives at the close of the Forty- eighth Congress: " Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : The work of the Forty-eighth Congress is now completed, and 462 OUR GREAT MEN. the time has come for the performance of my last official act as the presiding officer of this House. I should do violence to my own feelings and be guilty of the grossest ingratitude if I should declare a final adjournment with- out returning to you, individually and collectively, my sin- cere thanks for the complimentary resolution passed this morning. I thank you also, gentlemen, with equal warmth and sincerity, not only for the confidence reposed in me at the beginning of our labors here, but for the respect and courtesy which have characterized all your personal and official intercourse with me since that time. " The membership of this House is so large, its busi- ness is so great, and the struggle on the floor for priority in the consideration of measures is so earnest, that with- out your cordial co-operation and support it would have been utterly impossible to conduct our proceedings in an orderly or regular manner. It is but simple justice to say that your support and co-operation have been promptly and cheerfully given in every emergency, and to that fact more than to anything else must be attributed whatever measure of success has attended my efforts to preserve order and facilitate the transaction of the public business. Yery few, even among those who are best acquainted with our legislative history, have an adequate conception of the increased labors and responsibilities devolved upon Congress by the events of the last quarter of a century, and none who have not had actual experience can fully apjireciate the difficulties attending the transaction of business in a body so large as this. "In the First Congress the House of Representatives consisted of only sixty-seven members — less than the pres- JOHN a. CARLISLE. 463 ent membersliip of the Senate. Now there are three hundred and twenty-five, besides the delegates from the Territories. From the organization of the Grovernment to the close of the Twenty-fifth Congress, a period of fifty years, there were introduced into the House, as shown by its records, 8,777 bills and joint resolutions, while during the two sessions of the present Congress 8,630 bills and joint resolutions have been introduced — almost as many as during that half century. At present each one of our principal general appropriation bills em- braces as much money as the whole amount of the net ordinary expenditures of the Government during the first nine or ten years of its existence, and the specific objects to be investigated and provided for in those bills have so increased that it has become a considerable task even to enumerate them, "Although this House has passed a larger number of bills than any of its predecessors, except, perhaps, one or two which sat for a longer time, it is not at all strange, gentlemen, in view of the facts just mentioned, that it should be compelled to leave unfinished a very large per- centage of the measures presented. It is evident that, unless some constitutional or legislative provision can be adopted which will relieve Congress from the considera- tion of all, or at least a large part, of the local and pri- vate measures which now occupy the time of the commit- tees, and fill the calendars of the two houses, the percentage of business left undisposed of at each adjournment must continue to increase from year to year. It is not reason- able to suppose that an alteration of the Constitution can be aifected, but it is worthy of serious consideration 464 OUR GREAT MEN. whether a general law might not be enacted which would authorize the several executive departments and the courts of justice to hear and determine these matters under such rules and regulations as would amply protect the interests of the Government, and at the same time secure to the citizens a more expeditious and appropriate remedy than is now afforded. If this shall be done, time and opportunity will be afforded here for the deliberate consideration of those great public questions which the Constitution has committed to the legislative department, and something might be done to promote the welfare of the whole people without neglecting the special interests of any. "I congratulate you, gentlemen, upon the spirit of harmony and good feeling which has prevailed through- out your deliberations. It is true that wide differences of opinion have been developed, and the largest liberty of debate has been exercised, but each member has hon- estly endeavored to respect and protect the rights and privileges of his associates, and I am sure that no per- sonal animosities have been engendered that will survive the close of your of&cial relations. We shall part to-day better friends than when we met, and hereafter, I trust, we will all recall with pleasure the fact that we were associated as members of the House in the Forty-eighth Congress. "For my 2">art I shall always consider myself indebted to you for the highest honor of my life, the honor of pre- siding over the deliberations of the American House of Representatives — a legislative body which, while it has always respected the just authority of the Government, DANIEL W. VOORHEES. 465 has never failed to assert the rights of the people. When it ceases to do either it will no longer be an honor to pro- side over it. " Gentlemen, renewing my profound thanks for your assistance, for your forbearance, and for the expressions of esteem and confidence which you have just placed upon your record, and assuring each one of you of my best wishes for his success in every honorable aspiration, I now declare this House adjourned sine die,'^ —■ *^=€*^- Hon. DANIEL W. VOORHEES, OF INDIANA. ^ lANIEL W. VOORHEES' native place is in Butler County, Ohio. Here Mr. Voor- hees was born September 26th, 1827. After completing a good common-school education he prepared himself for Indiana Ashbury University, where he graduated in 1849. Two years later, at the age of twenty-four, he was admitted to the Bar. He entered at once upon the practice of his profession, and has won the enviable reputation as an able orator. In 1858 he was appointed United States District Attorney for Indiana, and held the position for three years. He was a member of the Thirty-seventh, Thirty- eighth, Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses. In 1877 466 OUR GREAT MEN. he was appointed, as a Democrat, to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate caused by the death of Hon. Oliver P. Morton, taking his seat in November of that year; and was elected by the Legislature for the unexpired term and for the full term beginning March 4th, 1879. The Senator has been a very able and active member of Congress. The following are his views as expressed on the question of the Hot Springs of Arkansas. Mr. Yoorhees said: "Mr. President, I think this resolution ought not to pass, at this time at least. As I understand the situation in the Department, it is this: The Attorney-General of the United States has given it as his opinion that under the existing law the Secretary of the Interior may in his discretion extend these leases, or not. The present Attorney-G-eneral has given his opinion that the Secretary of the Interior may or may not, as he chooses, extend these leases. I am willing that that discretion should abide there, and I am not willing to take it away, for, after paying the closest possible attention to the remarks of the Senator from Arkansas, it seems to me his resolu- tion embraces the idea of confiscating all the bath-houses on the hotrwater reservation. I can conceive of nothing except an act of confiscation that would strike my mind as more unjust. There are bath-houses there with tens upon tens of thousands of dollars in them. I do not know but that some of them have cost their proprietors ^100,000. There is one bath-house where each tub has cost the proprietors |150 to put it in its place, made in Scotland and inlaid with porcelain, the finest bath-house to-day perhaps in the world, certainly in the United DANIEL W. VOORHEES. 467 States. If that man's lease is not to be renewed and his property is to be taken off that reservation, it strikes me as simply a sweeping act of confiscation. ^F ^V ^F ^P ^V ^s "I am perfectly ready and willing to consider care- fully any measure of legislation that the Senator from Arkansas or anybody else will bring forward on this sub- ject; but I am not willing to make proclamation in advance as to what we will do. I am not willing to bind myself by a joint resolution to destroy the present invest- ment without any knowledge of what is to take place. I sa}^, with all respect to the Senator from Arkansas, and with a good deal of knowledge and experience of that locality, that a proposition to take the bath-houses off the ground where they are now, where the hot springs in many instances bubble into them from the ground, and then pipe that water to distant parts of the reservation, is simply to destroy it in my judgment. That is the way it looks to me. "I think the better way would be, if the Senator from Arkansas will allow me to suggest it, that some measure of legislation embodying the ideas we are expected to act upon should be brought forward, rather than this notification of what we are going to do, without any par- ticulars. "So far as my participating in this matter is con- cerned, I desire to say, and call the attention of the Senate to the fact, that every Senator is as much interested in behalf of his constituents in this Government reserva- tion as the Senator from Arkansas. It is a Government reservation in Arkansas ; but it is Government property ; 468 OUR GREAT MEX. it is public property ; it is there for the public welfare, for the general good, and we are all interested in the subject, for I have met as many people from New England as I have from any portion of the United States there having the benefit of these magical hot waters. It is really, Mr. President, the greatest sanitarium on the globe. I have met gentlemen and ladies both who have sought health in all the famous resorts of Europe, who at last have come there and found what they have sought in vain everywhere else; and the utmost care and consideration should be extended to this great interest." -■ -^^ Hon. WILLIAM M. SPRINGER, OF ILLINOIS. ,ILLIAM M. SPRINGER, of Springfield, who rej^resents the Thirteenth Congres- sional District of Illinois in the Congress of the United States, was born in Sullivan County, Indiana, May 30th, 1836. He removed with his parents to Illinois in 1848. He entered Illinois College, but left there and went to the Indiana State University, where he graduated in 1858. The following year he was admitted to the Bar. In 1862 he was Secretary of the State Constitutional Convention of Illinois. During this time he was engaged in a lucrative practice in Springfield, Illinois. WILLIAM M, SPRINGER. 4G9 In 1868 he left for a two-years' tour througli Europe. On his return, in 1870, he was elected to the State Legis- lature, and during the years he served he did some efficient service in that body, which was then revising the statutes of Illinois. Mr. Springer was elected to the National House of Rep- resentatives in 1874, and his long term of public service is in itself an acknowledgment of his legislative ability. His voice is frequently heard on the Democratic side of the House. Speaking on the Union Pacific Bill Mr. Springer said : "Mr. Speaker, we are told that this bill is to be of great advantage to the Government. In the report sub- mitted by the honorable gentleman from Ohio it is shown that under this bill the railroad companies embraced within its provisions will pay to the Government $3,757,- 496 a year for seventy years, at the end of which time the principal and interest of the indebtedness due by the rail- road companies to the United States will be liquidated. Now, is this a good arrangement for the Government? That is the question before this House to-day. What is the present condition of things ? The railroad companies covered by this bill owe the Government to-day $109,000,- 000. Are they able to pay it ? Will they be able in the future to pay this sum ? Does the Government have to go about looking for new securities in order to make this indebtedness worth its par value? "Mr. Speaker, what will be the condition of this coun- try seventy years hence ? What will it be at the end of eleven years, when it is provided the first payment shall be made ? 470 OUR GREAT MEN. " I am speaking of payments under the law without any further legislation. I maintain, sir, this is a good investment for the Government. In eleven years from now the population of this country will have increased many millions, and that largely-increased population will be settled principally upon the lines of these several rail- roads. Seventy years from this time there will be, per- haps, 200,000,000 of people within the limits of the United States, and the vast plains of the West, which are now little better, in most places, than a 'howling wilderness,' will abound in wealth, and be seats of empire composed of many prosperous communities. " The Grovernment, therefore, to my mind, has a good investment in these roads, and ought to hold on to it. I desire to recur for a moment to the time when, in 1864, we held the first mortgage on these roads, and when Congress surrendered that first morgage, believing, in so doing, it was accomplishing a good thing in then helping these roads out of difficulty, thereby securing their rapid com- pletion. We gave them that great advantage then, but I hope gentlemen will pause before giving them now an advantage even greater than they had at that time. « « « Hi « « " In 1864, when the first lien of the Government was made a second lien, a great advantage was obtained by the railroad company. The action of Congress at that time has been severely condemned by the people of this coun- try. But if this bill passes, even a much greater advan- tage than ever attained heretofore will be obtained by the railroad companies. If we consider their indebtedness as worth its face and three per cent, interest, the advantage E. C. WALTHALL. 471 in the seventy years covered by this bill amounts, as I have already said, to 175,000,000. The representatives of the people should consider well what they are doing. There is no necessity for this haste. Let us postpone con- sideration of this bill until December next, and in the meantime secure the investigation of the affairs of the railroad companies, which is provided for in the resolution to which I have already referred. Are we prepared to say, by an act of Congress, that the Pacific roads are enti- tled to a further bounty of $75,000,000 from the Govern- ment?" Hon. E. C. WALTHALL, OF MISSISSIPPI. IENATOR E. C. WALTHALL is a son of the "Old Dominion," having been born in Richmond, Virginia, April 4th, 1831. When he was seven years old his parents removed to Holly Springs, Mississippi, where he was raised and educated, receiving an academic education. Here also he studied law. In 1852 he removed to Cof- feeville, Mississippi, where he was admitted to the Bar, and commenced the practice of law. In 1856 he was elected District Attorney for the Tenth Judicial District of the State, and was re-elected to this office in 1859. When Mississippi had seceded from the Union, and 472 OUK GEEAT MEN. joined the Confederacy, in the spring of 1861, he resigned that office and entered the Confederate service, serving as LieutenantrColonel, Colonel, Brigadier-General, and at the close of the war as Major-General. He resumed the practice of law at Coffeeville, Mis- sissippi, at the close of the war, and practiced there until 1870, when he removed to Grenada, Mississippi. He was a delegate at large to the National Demo- cratic Convention in 1868, at New York, which nom- inated Seymour and Blair, and was one of the Vice- Presidents of the Convention. He was also a delegate at large to the National Democratic Conventions of 1876, 1880 and 1884, and each time was Chairman of the Mis- sissippi delegation. He was appointed to the United States Senate as a Democrat by Governor Lowery to fill the vacancy occa- sioned by the resignation of Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, who was appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Cleveland. He took his seat March 12th, 1885. Gen- eral Walthall is a personal friend and law partner of Secretary Lamar. He was probably the Secretary's choice for a Cabinet 2:>osition from Mississippi. He stands at the head of the Bar of his State, is a brilliant orator, and will, no doubt, go to the front rank in the debates of the Senate. The Senator is a member of the Committees on Pub- lic Lands, Military Affairs, Manufactures, Education and Labor, and Civil Service and Retrenchments. In a speech delivered the 11th of May, 1886, on interstate commerce, Mr. Walthall said: "Mr. President, I have listened with much interest E. C. WALTHALL. 473 to the discussion of the pending measure, and have given the subject some independent consideration. My deter- mination is to vote for this bill unless it shall be so amended as to make it more objectionable than when it came from the hands of the committee, though it does not, in some of its important features, meet the approval of my judgment, I feel sure it is not presented as a per- fect measure by its distinguished author, who has exhib- ited such marked ability and fairness in his patient effort to solve one of the most perplexing problems of the age, for his experience has taught him that those who have considered the subject most maturely have found in it the greatest difficulties. "If it were proven here to-day that railroad com- panies are not now oppressing the people in their deal- ings with them, I would still support any reasonable Congressional measure looking to their supervision and control, because of the undesirable fact that such oppres- sion, in the absence of legal restraint, is possible, and no adequate protection can be afforded by State laws. If we but consider how immeasurable the railroad interest of this country has become, how vast is the wealth, and how immense the powers of these corporations, the neces- sity forces itself upon us to set, if we can, some bounds to what they may do in their business transactions with the people of the country. Their lines to-day stretch out 140,000 miles, and their ownership is estimated to equal one-sixth of the entire possession of all the people living under our Government. To this many millions are being added yearly by the construction of thousands of miles of new railroad. It has not been many years since all 29 474 OUB GREAT MEN. the railroad property in the Union was worth less than the amount of this yearly addition. " The people pay these companies over eight hundred millions a year for transportation, and the commodities transported run up to fifteen billions a year in value. It is estimated that eighteen hundred thousand men are employed in constructing and operating railroads. Some of these companies have more patronage to bestow than a Cabinet officer, and some of their presidents have been paid larger salaries than the President of the United States. Many of them receive and disburse vastly more money per annum than passes through the treasury of many of the States of the Union. The men at the head of some of them are among the ablest business men in the Nation. They have wealth to employ talent and power to command influence. They are organized for gain, and those who manage them, however just and lib- eral they may be as men, manage them for gain, and are influenced by the same considerations which control the managers of other purely business institutions. "Every interest in this country is dependent upon railroads; agriculture and commerce are especially at their mercy. With all this power in their hands no man can give a valid reason why these corporations should not be put under the wholesome restraints of the law, and the oppressive exercise of their power made impossi- ble. It is no answer to say that self-interest will prevent them from imposing undue burdens on traffic, lest their business may sufl"er by its falling off. If the burdens are possible, what objection can there be to the double guar- antee against them of both self-interest and the law? E. C. WALTHALL. 475 The very tendency of power, lodge it where you will, is toward abuse, and railroad power forms no exception to the rule. I have no word of denunciation for the railroad managers of the country as a class. They are as worthy as the men of any other class ; they are just like other men, and it is because they are so and are influenced by the same motives that influence other men that I want their power placed under control. "The contest between the people and the railroad companies originated in, and is kept alive and stimulated by, the same motive in both the parties, and that the motive of self-interest. One wants the service for the lowest price, and the other demands the highest price, just as other men in other callings buy for the lowest and sell for the highest price they can. The instinct of gain is strong as it is natural, and we expect to see, and do see, the evidence of it in every line of trade, in every department of business, in every place of human indus- try, and in all the business dealings of men with each other. The merchant does not sell a barrel of flour for eight dollars if he can get nine dollars for it. JNTo more does the cotton-planter sell his produce for eight cents per pound if he can get nine cents. No tradesman, no pro- fessional man nor laboring man puts a lower price on his wares or his work when he can get a higher one as readily. " But in dealing with each other we have the advan- tage of dealing at arm's length, which is our protection. When the merchant charges a given price for his goods we are not bound to buy from him, as there are other merchants and other markets. Nor is he bound to pur- 476 OUR GREAT MEN. chase our produce at the price we name. Nor is one man bound to employ or be employed by any particular man for service at a price named, there being other men ready to serve or to be served. But when we deal with rail- road companies we have not this liberty, though it may be true that we are not literally bound to ship our produce by a railroad if the price does not suit us. Practically, we are bound to do it or lose the jorivilege of marketing our produce, and thus we really have no choice. There is no other railroad in reach, or if there be, competition is destroyed by an agreement that the charges on both roads shall be the same. We have no voice in the con- tract; the terms are dictated by one of the contracting parties, and the other must accej^t or do worse. "Railroad terms, it is fair to say, are not always exorbitant; often they are not only reasonable, but ex- tremely low. For instance, during the New Orleans Exposition passengers were carried from the town I live in to New Orleans and back, about six hundred miles the round trip, for about six dollars, and at the same rate from other points, one cent a mile, when the regular price — itself quite reasonable — was three cents. "If the people had all the power, and the railroad companies none — if they could dictate the terms on which the companies should serve them — the necessity would be no less in that case than now to curb the tendencies of self-interest. "Is a corporation likely to be more liberal and con- siderate than an individual would be in like circumstances? I will not say that no man can be found so just that he CHARLES H. GIBSON. 477 would work for us or sell to us as cheap if he knew we were compelled to have his labor or his property, as if he knew we could supply ourselves elsewhere entirely inde- pendent of him. Such men may have lived, and possibly do now, but it is not for such as these that laws are needed or are made." Hon. CHARLES H. GIBSON, OF MARYLAND. IHARLES HOPPER GIBSON, of Easton, Representative to the Congress of the United States from the First District of Maryland, was born the 19th of January, 1842, in Queen Anne County, Maryland. He received his education at Centerville Academy, Washington College, in Chesterton, and at the Archer School, in Harford County. He was in the insurance office of an uncle in Baltimore for two years. In 1862 he commenced the study of law, and was admitted to practice in 1864, commencing to practice at Easton. In 1869 he was appointed Auditor and Com- missioner in Chancery, resigning the following year to accept the appointment of United States Attorney for Talbot County, which position he held for three consecu- tive terms. He was elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Democrat. 478 OUR GREAT MEN. Mr. Gibson has his opinions on civil-service reform, as he declared himself in the following speech : " Mr. Chairman, I shall not, in the few remarks which I have to submit upon this important provision, at this important juncture of our national affairs, inflict upon this House any dissertation upon the local politics of the State which I have the honor in part to represent, save to suggest that my colleagues have effectually settled the question of the Baltimore post-office in connection with the carrying out of the civil-service law in Maryland, and settled it, I hope, to their mutual satisfaction ; or, if not to the satisfaction of my colleague upon my left, set- tled at least to the satisfaction of those colleagues of mine who, shoulder to shoulder with me in November last, fought the battles of the Democracy; settled to the satisfaction, Mr. Chairman, of that element of the Demo- cratic party in Maryland which in November last put the stamp and seal of its condemnation by thirty thou- sand majority upon the 'spurious Democracy' of which my friend upon the left was then the ally and is now the champion. "Mr. Chairman, to another view do I now address myself, and that is to the suggestion which I have just made. Sir, if this Government of ours is a representa- tive goA^ernment, a government such as its fathers de- signed it to be, a government in which its powers are distributed among the people — if, in short, it be a gov- ernment of the people, for the people and by the people, then, sir, this interpolation and irrelevancy of civil-service reform can find no part nor lot in this administration. "And, sir, if, as I hold, the Democratic party typifies CHARLES H. GIBSON. 479 and illustrates the very genius and essence of a repub- lican government — nay, more, sir, if the very pabulum and instinct of a representative government originated in the Democratic party— then, sir, that party to-day needs no light upon its pathway from such a squinting device as civil-service reform. Ah, no, Mr. Speaker ; the Dem- ocratic party needs no reform. It is to-day the embodl ment of reform. "Laugh, my friends on the other side, laugh! Let him laugh who loses ; he who wins is bound to laugh. I repeat, and I here throw down the gage, and I challenge the successful contradiction of the proposition that the Democratic party is to-day the embodiment of reform in all that conduces to the best interests of this great Amer^ ican nation. And that gage and challenge I maintain with my voice and my vote, and defend with all the best energies of my soul and body. "While I am radically opposed to the especial features under consideration of the civil-service act, I regard them as but features of an act which is unconstitutional and vicious throughout; an act which seeks to supplant the provisions of our very organic law ; an act whose tendency is to mar and to mutilate American manhood ! "It lays restrictions where no restrictions were in- tended! It applies tests which abridge the prerogative of every American citizen ! "I wish to be definitely and distinctly understood, Mr. Chairman, as making no arraignment of the Admin- istration. I stand by this Administration ! My section and my State stand by the President. We stand by him to cheer him with our voice and to uphold him with our hands. 480 OUR GREAT MEN. ''The Republican party, in mellifluous utterances, are to-day praising the President for his civil-service views. ' The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.' I believe the President in good faith is acting up to the measure of his sense of duty and responsibility upon the platform of his nomination. "But the President of the United States is handi- capped by this measure. I want to see these shackles stricken off this Administration. I want to see the Dem-- ocratic party unhand itself of these alien influences by which it is shorn of its normal and legitimate strength. I want to see it relieve itself of a dubious and mistaken alliance with an exotic importation, indigenous and ger- mane to a monarchy beyond the sea! The civil-service plank has not fitness in the Democratic platform. I want to see that plank disjoined from the structure as marring and sapping its integrity." Hon. bichard w. townsend, OP ILLINOIS. llCHARD W. TOWNSEND'S early home was in Prince George County, Maryland. Here he was born April 30th, 1840. He went to Washington City when ten years old, and was educated in both public and private schools. During 1856, '57 and '58 he was employed as page in the House of Representatives, where, lad as he was, he received valuable training in matters relating to the welfare of the country. It was during this time he formed the friendship of Hon. S. S. Marshall, from Illinois. Following Mr. Marshall's advice, in 1858 he went "West and located in Illinois. During the first few years he was there he studied law; teaching school in the winter to pay his expenses. He was admitted to the Bar in 1862, and soon won a lucrative practice. He was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court of Hamil- ton County in 1864, and held the position for four years, when he was chosen Prosecuting Attorney for the Twelfth Judicial District of Illinois for a term of four years. In 1873 he removed from McLeansboro' to Shawneetown, his present home. Here he divided his (481) 482 OUB GREAT MEN. time between the business of national banking and the practice of his profession. In 1864, '65, '74 and '75 he was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee of Illinois. In 1872 he was a Delegate to the National Democratic Conven- tion at Baltimore. He was elected to the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses as a Democrat. Mr. Townsend ably represents the Nineteenth Con- gressional District of the State of his adoption. On the Legislative, etc.. Appropriation Bill, Mr. Townsend said: "Now, I wish to speak for a few moments of the present administration of some of the bureaus of the Departments. Why gentlemen on the other side are so anxious to criticise the administration of the Commis- sioner of Pensions is to many a mystery. There are many members of this House who wonder why it is that whenever a pension appropriation bill or an ordinary appropriation bill relating to the Pension Office is under discussion an assault is made, if there is the slightest excuse for it, upon the administration of the Pension Office by Commissioner Black. Many are mystified with this; I am not. I fully understand the motive which prompts gentlemen on the other side to make these assaults. Some inquire, 'Why is it so?' A gallant soldier has been elevated to the head of the Pension Office — as gallant a soldier as ever faced a foe upon the battle-field ; he has demonstrated his loyalty and love of his flag by the wounds which to-day he carries, wounds which have never yet healed, although inflicted over KICHAED W. TOWNSEND. 483 twenty years ago ; a soldier as faithful as any who ever fought under the flag, one who has been horribly mangled in both arms, one still painfully suffering from these wounds. "Why are these assaults made upon him? I know well the motive. Gentlemen who make these assaults feel deeply grieved because Mr. Cleveland did not appoint as Commissioner of Pensions some one who had served in the Confederate Army, in order that they might go before the people this fall and insist that their prophesies in a measure have been verified. These gen- tlemen know well that the stump orators of the Repub- lican party, and doubtless some of these gentlemen them- selves, have deluded and misled many a soldier from his allegiance to the Democratic party by asserting that if a Democratic President should be elected the Confed- erates would capture the Capitol ; that the Union soldiers would be in danger of losing their pensions; that the Confederate debt would be paid, and the negro would be enslaved. " Such demagogy, based on statements which those who make them know in their hearts to be false, has prevented the Democratic party in the North from carry- ing the elections in many Congressional districts. T^ow, because Mr. Cleveland, as soon as he came into power, appointed as Commissioner of Pensions a crippled Union soldier, a soldier beloved for his gallantry by all Union soldiers who love gallant conduct whether it comes from a Democrat or a Republican, these gentlemen are sadly disappointed in their selfish hopes, are angered, and are unable to avoid manifesting their disappointment and 484 OUR GREAT MEN. anger by assaults on Greneral Black. By this appoint- ment the President has deprived them of campaign argu- | ments which they no doubt hoped would influence the votes of soldiers at the coming election." Hon. ARTHUR P. GORMAN, OF MARYLAND. jRTHUR P. GORMAN", one of the young- est members of the United States Senate, was born in Howard County, Maryland, March 11th, 1839. His advantages for a fundamental education were none of the best, but he was appointed a page in the United States Senate when only thirteen years of age, and there had am^^le opportunity for acquiring an education in matters relating to every portion of our Nation. His adaptability, his readiness and his amiability made him a great favorite with all. He was retained in the service of the Senate from 1852 to 1866, at which time he was Postmaster. In Septem- ber of 1866 he was removed for having offended the then Republican Senate by actively opposing the en- deavor to impeach President Johnson. He was at once appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fifth District of Maryland, holding the office till in 1869. In June of 1869 he received the appointment of Director in ARTHUR P. GORMAN. 485 the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, and in Novem- ber of that year he was elected to the Legislature of Maryland as a Democrat. In 1871 he was re-elected, and elected Speaker of the House at the ensuing- session. He was elected President of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company in 1872, and has been re-elected each year. He was elected to represent Howard County in the State Senate in 1875, and in November, 1879, was re-elected for a term of four years. In January, 1880, he was elected to the United States Senate as a Demo- crat, taking his seat in March, 1881. On the question of silver deposits, Mr. Gorman said: "The Senator from Louisiana, then, confines his remarks to the Treasurer of the United States, and yet he knows, and the country knows, that the Treasurer of the United States would not have ventured to take action on an important question like this, being a sub- ordinate officer, without the sanction and by the direction of his superior. The Senator from Colorado comes squarely up to the question, and he denounces the Secre- tary of the Treasury. If there is anything Avrong in this transaction he is the responsible officer, and the Sen- ator from Colorado was quite right in naming the proper officer of this Government. He denounced him as one who has not been trained in financial matters — one who has not been accustomed to conduct the affairs of this great Department. * ^ # * « jK "Mr. President, I am not opposed to silver; but I say 486 OUR GREAT MEN. to my friend, who represents a great silver-producing State, that the certain way to destroy that interest is to be constantly attacking gentlemen in high position who desire to be fair not only to the silver but to the gold interest — to be constantly bringing the matter up, trying to force the Government to discriminate in favor of one kind of money. I am not opposed to silver ; I believe in silver, and I believe in an honest silver dollar. " Why attack the Treasury officers for doing what you, sir, as a high officer in this Grovernment, sitting around the council board, knowing, as you must have known, the laws of the land, allowed to be done by the party to which you belong? You knew that your party, and the party to which I belong, in Congress, had not furnished sufficient clerical force at New Orleans to handle silver in large quantities. Then, why hold the new Adminis- tration which has just come into power responsible for the deficiency that existed when they assumed control? " The Secretary of the Treasury may not have the knowledge of the Senator from Colorado ; for, Mr. Presi- dent, the Democratic party has been out of power for twenty-four years. We have but few men in that party who have been trained in the Departments of the Govern- ment. That is a misfortune to the party, but I have no doubt it is good for the country that once at least in twenty-four years we may have some men brought to these great Departments without training in official posi- tion, fresh from the people, earnest in their advocacy of the best interests of the country, as they understand them, who will go on, regardless of these attacks, coming from both sides of the Chamber ; and, I am sorry to say, the ALBERT S. WILLIS. 487 greater number of them coming from the side upon which I stand. Time will show that at least the Secretary of the Treasury is an honest man, who intends to look at the welfare of his country — a gentleman who came here with no desire for place. I think he is the peer of my friend from Colorado, or any other gentleman on this floor." Hon. albert S. WILLIS, OF KENTUCKY. LBERT S. WILLIS, of Louisville, Repre- sentative from the Fifth Congressional Dis- trict of Kentucky in the Congress of the United States, was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, January 22d, 1843. He received his early education in the common schools of the neighborhood, and graduated at the Louisville High School in 1860. He taught school for four years, and then attended the Louisville Law School, graduating there in 1866. At once commencing the practice of law, he has since been actively engaged with his legal duties. In 1872 he was engaged in the canvass of the State on the Democratic Electoral ticket. He was elected Attorney for Jefferson County in 1870, and held that posi- tion till he was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress. He was also a member of the Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, 488 OUR GREAT MEN. Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses, to which he was elected as a Democrat. On the Labor Arbitration Bill Mr. Willis said: "Mr. Chairman, I give due weight to the argmnents which have been presented as to the propriety of this legislation. I am not fully persuaded that the interfer- ence of the Federal Government will helj) those whose weakness most aj^peals for help. I share to some extent the fear that the power now invoked with hope of relief and safety may hereafter become an instrument of danger and further oppression. But putting these doubts and fears aside, I shall vote for this bill. I vote for it, not as a panacea for the evils complained of, not as a solution of the problem of labor and capital, but as a step — it may be a short one — in the right direction. " INTor do I understand the fierce opposition which the opponents of this measure have manifested. Their bit- ter denunciations and declarations as to its character do not harmonize. "They all assert it is a very 'harmless' thing; and in order to demonstrate their assertion they proceed to pour out the vials of their wrath upon it. They ridicule it. They epithet it. They call it, as the gentleman from Ohio called it to-day, a ' Trojan horse.' They call it a 'fraud,' a 'trick,' a 'sham.' And my friend from Georgia, climaxing the whole matter, has even denounced it as a 'milk poultice.' " Now, I believe a bill which has called forth all this denunciation has some meat in it. I believe that it means more than those gentlemen claim. It is not because it is harmless, but because it looks toward I ALBERT S. WILLIS. 489 the settling of the grandest problem of this or of any age, that it meets the opposition it does from some sources. "That problem is the problem of ages; a problem, as we know, on which was founded the French Revolution; a problem that has disturbed England, Germany, Bel- gium and every country of the world. But we need not look to other countries, or appeal to history, to illustrate the contest between labor and capital. Only the other day we saw the business of three great States paralyzed by a strike upon the railroad system of the South-w^est. Only a few years ago we found the military called out to suppress what was called a ' riot.' Thousands of work- ingmen out of employment — millions of property lost. These are the results which demand of the Committee on Labor attention. Answering that demand they bring in a bill, a bill that is now before the American Con- gress. If it be wrong, if it be inadequate, if it be a 'stone' and not 'bread,' if it needs amendment, let the wisdom of this Congress amend it. If it accomplishes nothing, if it be simply 'harmless,' still let it be passed as at least a sentimental declaration that we feel for the woes of these men, and are willing, if we can, to remove them. "Sir, this hall has been called the audience chamber of the Nation. During the brief time I have been here I have seen standing at that bar all the great monopolies of this land. We have heard from the railroad monop- olies ; we have heard from the telegraph monopolies ; we have heard from the bank monopolies; we have heard from the land monopolies ; and to-day, in one of the com- 30 490 OUE GREAT MEN. mittee rooms of this House, you are hearing from one of the great telephone monopolies of the land. "All these, sir, have had their day in court; they have been not only heard, but heeded ; and now when this new organization, the Knights of Labor, called forth by these monopolies, comes, although their voice be but in a whisper, as this bill is, yet, for one, I shall listen and shall heed it, and shall hope that from it will come in the future better and more effective legislation." ->H4^>^fH«- HON. GEORGE G. VEST. OF MISSOURI. EORGE O. VEST, one of the leaders of the Democratic side of the Senate, was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, the 6th of December, 1830. He received a classical education, graduating at Centre College, in Danville, Kentucky, in 1848 ; and in 1853 he graduated in the Law Department of the University at Lexington, Kentucky. He then went to Missouri and commenced the practice of law. He was a member of the Electoral College in 1860, and a member of the State Legislature of Missouri in 1860-61. For two years he was a member of the Confederate House of Representatives, and one year served in the Confederate Senate. I GEORGE G. VEST. 491 March 18th, 1879, he took his seat in the United States Senate, to which he had been elected as a Democrat. Early in President Cleveland's administration there arose a controversy concerning the appointment of a cer- tain man as Minister to Austria. Upon this subject is given a few of Mr. Vest's remarks : "In reply to the assertion of Mr. Bayard that this Government would not permit the Government of Aus- tria-Hungary to make this objection — because, as a matter of course, it was simply a protest — Baron Von Scliaeffer informed Mr. Bayard that he was instructed by his Gov- ernment to enter into no discussion on the subject of religious toleration, that the Government of Austria- Hungary permitted entire liberty of conscience ; and then for the 'first time appears the allegation, to which the Senator from Connecticut has referred, that the meaning of the Government of Austria-Hungary was that the position of an American Minister who was wedded to a Jewess by civil marriage would be such as to deprive him of all social influence and diplomatic consideration at the court of Austria-Hungary. " Mr. President, it is very obvious that, with the in- direction of diplomatic correspondence and assertion, the Government of Austria-Hungary simply means to say that any gentleman who has married a Jewess can not obtain the position to which he is entitled in the court of Austria-Hungary or the society of Vienna, which is precisely the same thing, by reason of that marriage; that position has never been abandoned from the begin- ning to the end of the correspondence ; it is the salient 492 OUR GREAT MEN. point throughout the whole ; and subsequently, acting upon that reason, the court of Austria-Hungary rejected Mr. Keiley. These are substantially the facts as they appear from the correspondence. ''I do not propose to detain the Senate by elabora- ting the questions of international law which are involved in this matter. They are very plain and very simple. If the Government of Austria-Hungary had simply con- tented itself with saying that it had personal objections, as did the Government of Italy, to Mr. Keiley, then the Government of the United States, acting as it did in the case of Italy, would have recognized the right of Austria- Hungary to have made the objection, and Mr. Keiley would have resigned, as he subsequently did resign, and as he had before resigned the Italian mission. But when the Government of Austria-Hungary put its rejection of Mr. Keiley on the ground that his wife entertained cer- tain religious opinions, this Government was bound, in my judgment, by its constitutional provisions, by its tra^ ditions, and by the opinions of its people, to assert respect- fully but firmly to that foreign government that we can not for one instant admit the justice of any such objection to an American citizen. " I speak frankly and perhaps earnestly because the great political leader in whose doctrines I believe, in whose public life I feel an especial pride, is peculiarly the author of the doctrine of religious toleration in the United States. It is a singular fact, but nevertheless a fact, that, out of the thirteen colonies which achieved independence from the British Crown, prior to the Rev- olution there were but three that admitted liberty of GEORGE G. VEST, 493 conscience to its fullest extent, and those three colonies were Rhode Island, Maryland and Pennsylvania. In the others there were statutes, for a number of years, of a stringent — I was about to say barbarous — character, including Virginia and some of the Southern States, against the right of any citizen to worship God accord- ing to the dictates of his own conscience, but he was compelled to abide by the dictates of the Established Church. Mr. Jefferson, in his autobiography, written when he was seventy-seven years old, gives a graphic account of the condition of affairs in Virginia when he returned after writing the Declaration of Independence. He found the Established Church with a licentious clergy, who were simply adjuncts of the great houses where high play and old Madeira rewarded complaisant ministry. " The first act of Mr. Jefferson when he left the Con- tinental Congress and became a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses was to attack the doctrine of the union of church and state, and assert the fullest right of freedom of conscience and religious opinion. In his autobiography, written when he was seventy-seven years old, as I have stated, he says this was the most terrible struggle of his long and eventful career. Against him were united all the great families of Virginia, almost without exception, and, more than all, the Established Church, with its ministers and laity, who resented his attack upon church and state as a sacrilege and as a per- sonal outrage upon themselves. So terrible was the struggle that the enmities which it engendered pursued Mr. Jefferson through life and assailed his memory after 494 OUR GREAT MEN. death. Jefferson had been a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, of the Continental Congress, Grov- ernor of Virginia, Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice-President and President of the United States, but in the epitaph, written by his own hands, to be placed upon the stone that marked his grave, were only the words: 'Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence and of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia; ' and if there be one of these great achievements greater than the other, it was that which gave to every freeman upon this continent the right to bend his knee to the God of his own adoration in his own way. This principle, attacked now in this cor- respondence, is, as Mr. Bayard has properly said, sacred to every American citizen and the corner-stone of our institutions. I am glad that the Department of State has assumed this position, and I sincerely hope that it may receive the indorsement of both Houses of our National Congress." Hon. RICHARD COKE, OF TEXAS. llCHARD COKE, of Waco, is a native of Williamsburg, Virginia, where he was born March 13th, 1829. He received his col- legiate education at William and Mary's College. After graduating he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar when only twenty-one years of age ; and when not engaged with public duties he is energet- ically engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1850 he removed to Waco, Lennan County, Texas, which has ever since been his home. When the civil war broke out and a call for troops was made, Mr. Coke enlisted as a private. He was afterward promoted to Captain, and served till the close of those long, dark years of conflict. When the war ended he returned to his home and to the practice of his profession. In June, 1865, he was appointed District Judge, and the following year was nominated by the Democratic party for Judge of the Supreme Court. He was elected and served one year, when he was removed by General Sheridan, who consid- ered him " an impediment to reconstruction." He re-com- menced the practice of law the latter part of 1867. In (497) ■■V 498 OUR GREAT MEN. 1873 he was elected Governor of Texas by a sweeping majority, and in 1876 was re-elected by a majority of 102,000, one of the largest majorities a Governor has ever received. He resigned early in December of 1877 to go to the United States Senate, having been elected to that position the previous April, and was re-elected in 1883. He has ever been prompt in serving the interests of his State. The following is a speech of Mr. Coke on ''Relations Between the Senate and Executive Departments:" "Mr. President, a discussion of the issue between the Senate and the President would be very incomplete with- out some reference to the constitutional power of the Pres- ident over the subject of removals from office. An affirmation in the most solemn form of the existence of the power in the President to remove officers without the advice and consent of the Senate was made in 1798, in the First Congress, after a debate the most noted for exhaustiveness and ability in the history of the Govern- ment. 'No man has been able since to say anything new or original on the question, the great minds engaged in that discussion having left nothing more to be said. If it had not already been done so copiously in the report of the minority of the Judiciary Committee, and in the speeches of those who have preceded me in this debate, I would quote from the great arguments of 1798 in defense of the power of the President as then settled; but this having been done so fully, I shall content myself on this point with a brief statement of my views without elaboration. "In order to a consideration of the proposition that RICHARD COKE. ,499 the tenure-of-office law is repugnant to the Constitution and ought to be treated as a nullity, I invite attention to the partition of the j)owers of the Government among three great departments, the legislative, executive and judicial, in the following provisions of the Constitution: "'All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.' (Article I, Section 1.) " ' The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.' (Article II, Sec- tion 1.) '"The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.' (Article III, Section 1.) "Thus are divided all the powers possessed by this Government between three great independent and co-ordinate departments, which check and balance each other. The independence of these departments each of the other is a distinguishing feature of the Government established by the Constitution. One department makes laws, another expounds them, and the third executes them. A union of all three of these powers in the same hands, or of any two of them, would fill the definition of a despotism; hence their distinctness and independence from and of each other has been severely guarded in the Constitution. "The only mixing or commingling of powers in the Constitution is when the Executive may check the legis- lative power with the veto and require two-thirds of each 500 OUR GREAT MEN. House to overcome it, and when a check is placed upon the power of the Executive in making treaties and appointing officers by requiring the advice and consent of the Senate. Subject to these exceptions, there is no commingling of j)owers except in the appointment of inferior officers, which may be vested elsewhere by Con- gress than in the President, but each great department is separate from, independent of, and co-ordinate with, the other; that is to say, all executive j)ower is in the Pres- ident, all legislative power is in the Congress, and all judicial power is in the courts. "The underlying question in the contest now pending between the President and the Senate is v/hether the power to remove officers is vested by the Constitution solely in the President, or in the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. "I here read the clauses of the Constitution bearing • upon this question: '"The executive power shall he vested in a President of the United States of America.' (Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 1.) " ' He shall take care that the laws be faithfully exe- cuted, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.' {Idem, Article II, Section 3, at end.) "'He shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint embassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as RICHARD COKE. 501 they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.' {Idem, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2.) "That the power to remove officers as well as to appoint them is an executive power, nobody questions or doubts. That it is absolutely necessary that the power to remove shall reside somewhere, and shall be exercised so that incompetent, inefficient, dishonest and corrupt officials shall be displaced, and good and efficient men j)ut in office, is equally unquestionable. No government can be administered without the exercise of this power. Yet the Constitution nowhere mentions it — indeed, is abso- lutely silent on the subject. It can not be assumed that the great masters of the science of government who framed the Constitution overlooked or omitted this abso- lutely necessary power. They provided for filling the offices, vesting in the President the power to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. " This mingling of the executive with the power of one of the branches of the legislative department of the Gov- erment is a notable exception to the well-guarded sep- aration and distinctness preserved, with but one other exception, to wit: the treaty-making power between the executive and legislative departments. By all the rules of construction this exception must be strictly construed, must be restricted to the plain and reasonable meaning of its terms, and must not be extended to embrace more than those terms imply. The President's power to appoint is subject to the * advice and consent of the Senate,' because the Constitution so provides; but the Constitution does not provide for the advice and consent of the Senate to 502 OUR GREAT MEN. removals from office. Without this provision in the Con- stitution nobody would doubt the power of the President, at will, to appoint and to remove all officers (except judges), because the power of apj^ointment and of removal of offi- cers is purely an executive power, and all executive power is expressly, by the Constitution, vested in the President. " The advice and consent of the Senate to the exercise of the 230wer of appointment by the President is a check upon, a restriction and qualification of, the general execu- tive power vested in the President. It can readily be seen that this was deemed necessary, because it would be impossible for the President, from his personal knowledge, to select officers, throughout the broad expanse of this country, for the execution of the laws; and the Senate, composed of men of high character, coming from every State in the Union, could properly be presumed to pos- sess the knowledge necessarily wanting in the President in this regard. It may, too, have been thought that a check upon the power of appointment was necessary to curb the power of an ambitious man in the office of Presi- dent. But no such check has been placed in the Consti- tution upon the power of removal, confessedly in the absence of any qualifying provision, embraced in the grant of all executive power to the President. It would seem that the familiar maxim, ''Expressio unis exclusio alter ms est,'' is eminently applicable here. When we look for the reason of the failure of the Constitution to qualify the power of removal vested in the President in the general grant of all executive power, as it qualifies the Presi- dent's power of apj)ointment, we find it strong, clear and abundant. EICHARD COKE. 503 " The President ' shall take care that the laws be faith- fully executed.' How can he correct mistakes in making appointments without the power of removal? How can he exercise supervision and control over his official agents, appointed for the enforcement of the laws, without the power of removal of dishonest, incompetent and inefficient officers ? How can he carry out the policies which have received the indorsement and approval of the people in his election without agents in harmony with his purposes, and how can he have these without the power of removal ? Ought the President to be held responsible, as he is, by the express terms of the Constitution, for the faithful exe< cution of the laws unless invested with the power to remove faithless official agents? ''Is the Senate responsible for the enforcement of the laws ? Not at all ; that responsibility is placed on the President, and on him alone. Can he execute the injunc- tion of the Constitution, that he shall 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed,' with a hostile Senate sus- taining the official instrumentalities furnished him by the Constitution to carry out its injunction, in opposition to him, and to his purposes and policies ? Most clearly he can not. With the power of removal vested in the Pres- ident, he can justly be held responsible for a faithful execution of the laws, while if in the President and Senate nobody is responsible, because when the respon- sibility is divided out between the Senators and Presi- dent, as has been truly said, the share of each is so small as to amount to no responsibility at all. A knowledge of the faithlessness or inefficiency of officers, requiring their removal, is peculiarly within the province of the 504 OUR GREAT MEN. President, whose duty it is to supervise and superintend them in the discharge of their respective functions, and outside of the province or cognizance of the Senate. Every consideration of reason sustains that construction of the Constitution suggested by its terms and the nec- essary implications from them. " I will here read some passages from the opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in the noted case of Marhury vs. Madison, reported in 1 Cranch, which throws much light on this subject, and which by common consent, from the day of its delivery to this hour, expresses the proper view of the questions discussed. In that case Chief Justice Marshall said: " ' These are the clauses of the Constitution and laws of the United States which affect this part of the case. They seem to contemplate three distinct operations : (1) The nomination. This is the sole act of the Presi- dent, and is completely voluntary. (2) The appoint- ment. This is also the act of the President, and is also a voluntary act, though it can only be performed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. (3) The commission. * * * This is an appointment made by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and is evidenced by no act but the com- mission itself. In such a case, therefore, the commission and the appointment seem inseparable; it being almost impossible to show an appointment otherwise than by proving the existence of a commission. Still, the com- mission is not necessarily the appointment, though con- clusive evidence of it. * * * The appointment being the sole act of the President, must be completely evi- RICHARD COKE. 505 denced when he has shown that he has done everything to be performed by him. « * * * * # * . '"The last act to be done by the President is the signing of the commission. He has then acted on the advice and consent of the Senate to his own nomination. The time for deliberation has then passed. He has decided. His judgment on the advice and consent of the Senate concurring with his nomination has been made, and the officer is appointed. This appointment is evi- denced by an open, unequivocal act. * * * That point of time must be when the constitutional power of appointment has been exercised; and this power has been exercised when the last act required from the person possessing the power has been performed. This last act is the signing of the commission. * * * The trans- mission of the commission is a practice directed by con- venience, but not by law. It can not, therefore, be nec- essary to constitute the appointment which must precede it, and which is the mere act of the President. * * * The appointment is the sole act of the President; the acceptance is the sole act of the officer, and is, in plain common sense, posterior to the appointment.' "The President nominates; the Senate consents to the nomination or refuses to assent to it. If the latter, the President may nominate the same person again and again, as often as he is rejected, as was repeatedly done by General Jackson. The President alone can suggest a person for appointment. The sole power and office of the Senate is to consent or refuse its assent to the ap- pointment of the person named by the President. If 506 OUR GREAT MEN. the Senate consents to a nomination, or, in common par- lance, confirms it, it still rests in the discretion of the President to appoint the person thus confirmed or not. He may refuse to appoint, notwithstanding the consent of the Senate, and nominate another and difi'erent person for the 2)lace. It will be noted that this power, this dis- cretion, of the President, to appoint or not, as he chooses, remains in him after the Senate has exhausted all its power over the subject, and has nothing further to do with it, because it has confirmed the nomination, and that is the end of the power of the Senate over it. " The other act to be performed is purely executive, and is the voluntary act of the President, to be jierformed or not as he determines, and that is the issuance of the commission, the only evidence of the appointment. If, after the Senate has confirmed the nomination, and has exhausted its power over the subject, the President dis- covers that he has made a mistake in nominating the man, or for any other reason deems it his duty not to commission him, he has the admitted right to refuse to do so. Having this right before the issuance of the commission, how can that ^^urely voluntary act, with which the Senate has nothing to do, dej^rive the President of the j^ower possessed before it was per- formed, of correcting his mistake in making the nomina- tion without consultation with or the consent of the Senate ? " I confess, Mr. President, that I am unable to per- ceive, when the whole matter rests in the discretion of the President, after the Senate has exhausted its power over the subject, how a purely voluntary executive act, RICHARD COKE. 507 such as the issuance of a commission, can have the effect of reviving the exhausted jurisdiction of the Senate, and reattaching it to the subject, so as to compel the Presi- dent to ask the Senate's consent to a removal. I can imagine no reason why the discretion to appoint or not to appoint, as he may determine, which remains, after the Senate has acted, in the President, does not survive to him in the power of removal after the commission is issued. To hold that it does so survive is simply to con- tinue in the President the power confessedly in him up to the time when he issues the commission, and is as necessary for the public good after as before that act. "The experience of the country under the operation of the tenure-of-office law of 1867, which led to its prac- tical repeal by the amendment of 1869, demonstrating, as it did, that it is impossible for a body organized as the Senate is to participate with the President in the exer- cise of the power of removal without fatally obstructing the proper exercise of the functions both of the legislative and executive departments, and bringing the executive, a great co-ordinate department of the Government, into contempt and disparagement, while aggrandizing out of all proportion the powers of the Senate, which is the far- thest removed from the people of all the branches of the Government, and the least responsible, converting it into an executive directory, and making of it what Mr. Jefferson says all * executive directories become, mere sinks of cor- ruption and faction,' is a powerful — indeed, unanswer- able — argument in favor of that construction of the Constitution so consonant with its theory, so logically consistent with its terms, and so convenient of execution, 31 508 OUR GREAT MEN. which vests the power of removal exclusively in the President. For it must be admitted that the framers of the Constitution did not mean to confer a power upon the Senate from the execution of which the evil results so graphically depicted by President Grant, Senators Morton and Sherman, and Mr. Blaine, the great leaders of the Republican party, would ensue legitimately and necessarily from it." Mr. Coke. then read extracts from one of President Grant's messages to Congress, and also from speeches of Senators Morton and Sherman, with a short extract from Hon. James G. Blaine's Twenty Years in Congress^ and, continuing, said: "Who, Mr. President, can doubt the dangerous and obstructive influence upon the Government and the cor- rupting influence upon the Senate to flow from an exer- cise of the power sought to be wrested from the Execu- tive and appropriated by the Senate by the resolutions now before this body? And who, sir, can doubt, after reading what these distinguished party leaders have said is the result of an efi^ort by the Senate to exercise the power claimed, the utter impossibility and impractica- bility of its exercise by this body? "When to these considerations is added the legislative construction of the Constitution given on this subject by the First Congress assembled under it in 1789, before adverted to, composed in large part of the framers of the Constitution, in the enactment of laws for the estab- lishment of the Department of Foreign Afl'airs (now of State), and of the War Department, and of the Treasury Department, in which the power of removal was expressly RICHARD COKE. 509 held, after a debate led by Mr. Madison, regarded as the greatest in the history of Congress, to be a constitu- tional prerogative of the Executive, and vested solely and exclusively in the President, and that this construction — advocated with matchless power by Mr. Madison, who has been called the Father of the Constitution, and approved by George Washington, the Father of his Country, who, as President, signed the bills containing it — stood unbroken and unchallenged for seventy-eight years, approved over and over again in repeated and most solemn decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, and by every President from Washington to Andrew Jackson, by every Attorney-General of the United States, and by every statesman and public man of any political party who figured in or out of Con- gress during the same period, it would seem that the argument has been exhausted, and that the precedent established ought to be immovable and beyond the reach of innovation. "But, Mr. President, nothing is impossible or sacred with blind, unreasoning partisanship. In 1835, for the first and only time in their great careers. Clay, Calhoun and Webster, moved by a common hatred for Andrew Jackson, forgot their own differences, and, for the pur- pose of curbing his power, made a combined assault upon the great precedent established by Washington and Madison, and this although each one of them had repeat- edly in official and public utterances approved it. The precedent remained unmoved and unharmed by their attack, mighty as was their combined power, while they never recovered from the crushing defeat. In 1867, olO OUR GREAT MEN. under circumstances on which I will not dwell, because they are fresh in the memory of the country, an over- w^helming Republican majority in the two Houses of Congress confessedly, as the debates on the tenure-of office law of 1867 and 1869 abundantly and conclusively show, passed the law of 1867 for the sole purpose of obstructing Andrew Johnson's administration in dispos- ing of the offices of the Government, and of securing to the Republican Senate a controlling power over them. It was for this purpose, when the country had just emerged from a long and bloody civil war, and was in a condition bordering closely on revolution, when passion and excitement ran high and reason and judgment were unsettled, that the law of 1867, overthrowing the con- struction of the Constitution which had been established and observed for eighty years, was enacted; an act regarded as a blunder, and spoken of publicly with ex- pressions of regret since by the broadest-minded, ablest and most honored leaders of the Republican party — an act which the same Republican majority that passed it made haste, in 1869, upon the recommendation of Pres- ident G-rant, to practically repeal by the law of that date. "It is under the act of 1869, thus expounded by the ablest men and greatest leaders of the Republican party, negativing every point they make, that the Senator from Vermont and the majority of the Committee on the Judiciary find their authority for the extraordinary demand made upon the President, and for the still more extraordinary resolutions pending before the Senate. The demand upon the Executive Department is made in the following resolution : RICHARD COKE. 511 " ^Resolved, That the Attorney-General of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed to transmit to the Senate copies of all documents and papers that have been filed in the Department of Justice since the 1st day of January, A. D. 1885, in relation to the management and conduct of the office of District Attorney of the United States of the Southern District of Alabama.' "Why, in executive session, in connection with the consideration of the suspension of the District Attorney of the Southern District of Alabama, and the appoint- ment of his successor, is a demand made for copies of all documents and papers filed in the Department of Justice since the 1st day of January, 1885, in relation to the management and conduct of the office of said District Attorney? Under the law as it now stands, null and void though it is claimed to be, for unconstitutionality, if admitted to be valid and constitutional, it is confessed on all hands that the President is free and unfettered, and can suspend officers in vacation of the Senate, within his discretion, without accountability to anybody. "That portion of the act of 1867 which required his reasons and evidence for making suspensions reported to the Senate was expressly repealed by the act of 1869, and since that time there has been no power under this Gov- erment authorized to revise or question his conduct or motives in making suspensions. The commissions issued by the President during the recess of the Senate, both under the law of 1869 and Article II of the Constitution, which authorizes the President to ' fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of the next 512 OUR GREAT MEN. session,' are beyond the reach of the Senate, and the action of the President in making suspensions is equally so. Having no jurisdiction over the subject, and no jDower to do anything with it, the demand for the President's rea- sons for his action is an impertinent intermeddling by the Senate with a matter with which it has nothing to do, and has been properly treated by the President as such. "The right of the Senate to copies of all papers on file relating to the fitness of Burnett, who was nominated to fill the place of the officer j^roposed to be removed, is admitted, because the appointment can only be made by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and its fitness to be made is a proper subject-matter of inquiry by the Senate. All such papers have been promj^tly fur- nished in this and all other cases. The answer of Attor- ney-General Garland to the Senate resolution, the mate- rial portion of which I now read, shows this: '"In resj)onse to the said resolution the President of the United States directs me to say that the papers which were in this Department relating to the fitness of John D. Burnett, recently nominated to said office, having been already sent to the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, and the papers and documents which are mentioned in said resolution, and still remaining in the custody of this Department, having exclusive reference to the suspension by the President of George M. Duskin, the late incum- bent of the office of District Attorney of the United States for the Southern District of Alabama, it is not consid- ered that the 2:)ublic interest will be promoted by a com- pliance with said resolution and the transmission of the RICHARD COKE. 513 papers and documents therein mentioned to the Senate in executive session. " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, "A. H. Garland, ^'' Attorney -GeneraV " Mr. Coke then read extracts from President Cleve- land's message to the Senate, and said: "The public press of the country and the speeches of Republican Senators on this floor proclaim and avow what is matter of common and public notoriety, and known to everybody, that the object and purpose of this extraordinary proceeding by Republican Senators, while admitting that they have no right to demand the Presi- dent's reasons for suspending officers, is, by indirection and through a mere pretext, to extort these reasons from him, hoping to make a little political capital by distort- ing them, and to justify themselves in obstructing the President in carrying on the Government; and, last and greatest of all, to enable them to hold on to the offices of the Government, notwithstanding the popular verdict which placed a Democratic majority of forty in the House of Representatives and a Democratic President in the White House at the last election, and through them demands a change of men, as well as of measures, wher- ever, in the judgment of the President, a change may be necessary. "The Senator from Vermont commenced his argu- ment in support of the pending resolution by saying that he rose to speak in behalf of a 'calm and orderly and constitutional exercise of the functions of Government.' I shall not question the sincerity of the honorable Sena- 514 j'J OUR GREAT MEN. tor, but claim to be myself sincere in believing that this \ whole , proceeding is intended to embarrass the adminis- tration of the Grovernment and defeat the will of the peo- I rpi& as expressed in the last election. "'y "It seems that the majority of the Senate is forgetful " ' of the fact that the President of the United States is the great executive head of the Government, and that as such he has powers and prerogatives as clearly defined and as fully guarded in the Constitution as are those of the other Departments. They seem to forget that the President, when he responds to the demand of the Senate, and fur- nishes promptly all the 23ublic and official papers asked for, and says courteously to the Senate that the other papers not furnished are not official papers, but his own private papers, some of them confidential communica- tions, is backed by fifty-five millions of people, who indorse him as truthful, honest, wise, just, patriotic, loyal, and conse- quently as one who ought to be believed when he makes an official statement under the sanction of his official oath. "The President has made that statement in solemn form in his message to the Senate ; and coming as it does from one great department of the Government to a part of another co-ordinate department, it should, by all the rules which govern or should govern these departments of Government in their intercourse with each other, be held to import absolute verity. A due regard for the ' calm and orderly ' administration of the Government should have prompted the honorable Chairman of the Ju- diciary Committee to have withdrawn the pending resolu- tions upon the incoming of that message. The monstrous proposition that the President can have no private or RICHARD COKE. 615 personal or confidential papers, documents or letters, in the Departments is asserted in the report of the majority of the Judiciary Committee. I interpose, as a conclusive answer to this, the solemn statement of the President to the Senate that he has such papers and documents in all the Departments — his own private papers, handed over by him to the several members of his Cabinet for safe custody. The President, it does seem, ought to be be- lieved when he says that these papers are of no interest to the public. " Andrew Jackson more than once maintained the pre- rogatives of the Presidential office by refusing to comply with demands of the same character, and John Tyler and President Grant, and even Mr. Hayes, all in notable instances, the records of all of which have been read in this debate by the Senator from West Virginia, have done just what Mr. Cleveland has done so well in this case. Mr. Cleveland has illustrious company and an unbroken line of precedent to support him. The Chair- man of the Judiciary Committee, with all his ability and research, and although challenged by the Senator from Alabama to produce an instance in which a demand like this upon President Cleveland has been acceded to by a President of the United States, has failed to find one. He has not shown a single one. All such demands have, from the beginning of this Government, the time of Wash- ington, been repelled as invasions of the executive domain, without a single exception. Whenever the question has been made it has been decided as Mr. Cleveland has determined it. " Mr. President, since I have been a member of this 516 OUR GREAT MEN. Senate, and it was during the administration of ^h\ Hayes, the Senate was for two years under Democratic control. We could have hatched up plausible but dishonest pretexts for rejecting every nomination sent to the Senate by the Republican President. We could have embarrassed the administration of the Grovernment by factious oppo- sition, while protesting to the country that we favored a 'calm and orderly' administration of the Government; but the Democratic majority pursued no such methods. They aided the Republican President by a prompt con- firmation of his nominations, all Republican, and I remem- ber no instance of a contest over a nomination involving any heat or feeling that did not originate between Repub- licans. Let the country make the contrast now that the positions of parties are reversed. A Republican Senate absolutely refuses to act upon the nominations of the President, except upon conditions which require him to depart from all precedents of his office, to sacrifice his convictions of constitutional duty and his own self- respect." Hon. WILLIAM M. EVARTS, OF NEW YORK. ILLIAM M. EYARTS, of IS'ew York City, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, Febru- ary 6th, 1818. He received a classical education ; graduated at Yale College in 1837, and then attended the Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the Bar in New York in 1841, and has practiced law there ever since. In the National Repub- lican Convention of 1860 he was Chairman of the Xew York delegation. Union College gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1857, Yale College in I860, and Harvard University in 1870. He was counsel for President Johnson in his impeach- ment trial in 1868. At the conclusion of the impeach- ment trial President Johnson appointed him a member of his Cabinet, Attorney-General of the United States. He served until the close of Johnson's term. In 1872 he was counsel for the United States before the tribunal of arbitration on the Alabama claims at Geneva, Switzerland. During the winter of 1876 and 1877 he was counsel for President Hayes in behalf of the Republican party before the Electoral Commission. He (517) 518 OUR GREAT MEN. was Secretary of State in Hayes' Cabinet. March 4tli, 1885, he took his seat in the United States Senate ; and, though but a comparatively new member of the Senate, he has had a long career of public life. He is one of the most brilliant lawyers in the United States. As an orator he is rarely excelled. The following is a speech made by Mr. Evarts on the bill to provide for the performance of the duties of the office of President in case of the removal, death, resigna- tion or inability both of the President and Vice-Pres- ident. Mr, Evarts said: "Mr. President, I should not venture to take any part in this debate at this stage of its consideration by the Senate, when the subject has been so fully debated at previous sessions in the years 1881 and 1882, if my inter- est in, and my investigations into, the subject had com- menced with my acquaintance with the action and pro- ceedings of the Senate. But having had occasion, pro- fessionally, heretofore to give a very thorough examina- tion into the constitutional provisions and to the natural and necessary workings of the provisions, one way and the other, that should be adopted by Congress to meet the exigency which is now presented for its action, I have thought that it was on my part at least reasonable that I should j^resent the views thus formed. It is quite true that they concur in result, and the means by which the results of reasoning on the subject are reached, with those that have been presented on one side and the other of this Chamber which apparently are to receive the assent of the majority of this body ; and that, if it were the only consideration that should guide me, would lead WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 519 me to interpose no interruption, even of a half hour's consideration, of the action upon the bill. "The amendment before the Senate relates exclu- sively, as I understand it, to that portion of the present bill which provides for the continuance in the discharge of the duties of the Presidency of the officers designated under this law in its preceding part who are to assume and execute those duties ; and I should confine myself entirely to the latter branch of the subject were it not for the general considerations that in my mind have made it a necessary conclusion to me upon the text of the Constitution itself that the succession provided by this measure is not only entirely constitutional, which is admitted, I believe, on all sides, but it is the only possi- ble constitutional exercise of the very limited power that is accorded by the Constitution to Congress. "There are two general propositions, I think, which all students of the Constitution will admit without ques- tion. One is, that in the frame of the office of President and its origin of authority from the direct action of the people, in a channel marked out by the Constitution, the purpose plainly expressed and written all over the action of the Constitution in this very matter was that Congress shall not participate, either substantially or circumstan- tially, in the election of the President of the United States. I then think it will be found generally impressed upon the Constitution, I would say imbedded in the Con- stitution, that periodicity, and accommodated and adjusted periodicity, in all the action of the great departments of the Grovernment except the judicial, is not to be treated as circumstantial or only of convenience and propriety, 520 OUR GREAT MEN. but that it enters into the very scheme by which the election of President by the people without the aid and without the control and without the regulation by Con- gress possible was provided, and it carries with it that the President is to come upon the scheme of the election and this arrangement of periodicity with a concurrent and attendant action of the people on the other branches of election. I believe it is essential in the contemplation of the framers of the Constitution, I believe it is embraced in the firm provisions of the Constitution, that a newly- elected President, as he is fixed upon a periodicity of four years, is to come into power and assume the reins of gov- ernment with a concurrence of periodicity in the election of the lower House of Congress. "I believe, therefore, that the inference from the mere nomination of the period of duration is not the essential idea for the Presidency or for the lower House of Congress. It is that when this whole frame of gov- ernment was launched into action and became the oper- ative government of the people of the United States, it was understood by the framers, and is written in the provisions of the Constitution, that after the initial date of this periodicity was fixed it was predetermined that it was not to be disturbed, and that this synchronism of the action of the electors of President and the voters for the House of Representatives was not to be disturbed. " But it is said that while all that is so in purpose and intent, and while the gravity and importance of that adjustment can not be disparaged, and has not been dis- paraged, yet there is no connection impressed in the Constitution in terms upon the actual calendar as estab- WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 521 lished by our working system. It is true that the Con- stitution of the United States as originally framed, and under which the Government was set in motion, does not refer to the 4th of March, or any stated period, as the initial step in the periodical rotation ; but ever since the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution the 4th of March appears as one of the dates fixed in the Constitution that can not be changed in the matter to which that relates, however much you may certify the period of election otherwise. The Twelfth Amendment provides that the time and opportunity of the House of Representatives to intervene in the juncture prescribed for the election of a President is limited and determined by the succeeding 4th of March. The alternative pre- sented by a failure of the electoral colleges to present a President is devolved then, as we all know, upon a par- ticular frame and adoption of the action of that body upon the House of Representatives ; and if that function is not observed and executed within a certain limit of time in electing a President of the United States, then an alternative arises for the action of the Senate, which then, but not before that period, can elect a Vice-Presi- dent, and thus provide a successor for the term that is thus left vacant. '"And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the 4th day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disa- bility of the President.' "Under this periodicity that we have spoken of, this 522 OUR GREAT MEN. firm line of demarkation between the liberty and power secured to the House of Representatives and the line upon which the Senate shall succeed with its authority, the 4th of March is fixed; and if the calendar be disturbed by this new election of President, then there may be an interval when the House will have a much longer period than was contemplated by the arrangement of this Gov- ernment as fixed in the Constitution for exercising its option of choosing or not choosing a President, and the Senate will be left expectant in an intermediate form for a very considerable time, for the Senate can not proceed to furnish a Vice-President who can take the place until the period within which the action of the House of Rep- resentatives is possible shall have expired. "It is true that an inconvenience of this nature in the actual provisions of the law of 1792 regulating the period for election has not actually arisen in practice; but the argument is that the Constitution meant to fix it, and did not leave it to Congress to determine whether there should be an accommodation to this circumstantial consideration; nay, it did not leave it to Congress to determine in the face of an exigency that they would provide, pro re nata, for the occasion, whether there should be an election or not. That would be by Con- gress an open breach in the main fortress of the Presi- dency, that the people should maintain it entirely out of the intervention of Congress. That is broken down by the proposition that the Constitution left it open to Con- gress to determine whether or not an election should be ' held; and, if so, when and under what circumstances of date^ under what circumstances of haste or of protraction, WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 523 this election should be ordered. In other words, whatever general and wise law might be adopted that should ame- liorate the interruption of succession in the disturbance of the working of the Government as little as possible was fastened in the hands of Congress, and was open to repeal or modification, and repeal or modification in close proximity to and in the near actual contemplation of the political situation of the country as between parties that should incline it to have an election or not have an election, as an election would be favorable or not favor- able to one or the other party of the country. I need not say that in these suggestions concerning political methods, and political action of political men and polit- ical bodies, I am not casting an aspersion upon either men or the constitution of the bodies. The bodies are political, the men are political, and the Constitution recognized both these facts, and determined that the lines of the Presidency should be drawn free from, not open to, any circumstantial invasion of the method for the establishment of the Presidency. "Now, with these propositions, which, I think, must be recognized, let us see by recurring to the few clauses in the Constitution which have the least reference either to the original election of President or to the provision for the catastrophe by which the source of authority and the proceedings of election have been frustrated by the intervention of death or disaster or removal of the Pres- ident or the Yice-President acting as President and being President — let us see whether there is anything in the actual provisions that interferes with or reduces in the least the proposition that Congress is not intended by 32 524 OUR GREAT MEN. the Constitution to meddle at all in tlie Presidential elec- tion. It will be found that so far from carrying such an impression as that the power was meant to be given, they show that it was carefully guarded against ex indus- tria. So it is on every proper construction, legal and constitutional, of the narrowest and the best defined power accorded to Congress, when any exigency was sup- posed by irregular and undesired and unexpected derange- ments, Congress should need to be appealed to. "In the first place, in regard to the election itself, as we all know, the President came independent of Congress, and as there might be some pretension and some neces- sity that circumstantial authority might be claimed by Congress, and the claim might be enlarged by constitu- tional construction, the language is firm that : '"The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same throughout all the United States.' "In other words, the Constitution determines that the votes shall be cast on the same day. That the Constitu- tion protects ; and what does it say about it? Merely that the time of choosing electors and the day of electors' vot- ing may be regulated by Congress. There is the sole intervention possible to Congress in the election, and that firmly excludes every argument in favor of circumstantial arrangement or modification. "There is but one other clause as to any 2:)ower of Congress respecting the subject of the Presidency in its Constitution, and that is for the concurrent misfortune that shall attend the constitutionally-elected President WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 525 and Vice-President. Now, notice here the equal appor- tionment and reservation in the Constitution, by which it was fixed in advance what could be accorded and what should not be in the power of Congress, even in the special contingency suggested. If, instead of doubting whether this or that conclusion may be inferred in clauses of the Constitution by its expression or by its limit of expression, constitutional lawyers and those charged with legislative action in obedience to the Constitution would submissively and carefully weigh what the wise, sagacious, circumspect, patriotic framers of the Constitution had in their minds and in their language had definitely expressed, thereby we should have much less of loose discussion about whether this or that might be found in the Constitution or in the acts of Congress. This body was filled with the purpose that Congress should not meddle with the original constitution of the Presidency. They had thrown every guard about that. They had precluded on all sides by insurmountable barriers that this protection of the Presi- dential source of authority should not be interrupted by Congress. They saw that their contrivance against the contingencies of life and health and of political disturbance leading to the action of Congress by imjieachment and conviction might not always be eifectual; and, with all that in their minds, they undertook to leave Congress to provide for this one emergency. They shaped it in every way they could shape it. leaving open only what they could not provide for — that is, an elective successor to fill a vacancy in a term. ''In the case of disability that should afi"ect both of the officers elected, Congress may do what ? It might be 526 OUR GREAT MEN. said that they might elect. It might be said that they might provide for an election. It might be said that the first officer of State should be authorized by Congress to assume the power. What did the Con- stitution say ? ' Congress may by law provide ' — provide what? Provide 'declaring what officer shall then act as President,' and these words that I have read are the be- all and the end-all of what the Constitution has intrusted to Congress. 'By law' it may 'provide.' It can not wait to provide as a mere emergency for the occasion, treating it as they may desire, but ' by law ' it must be provided for, in which law the President of the United States must concur. It limits it by exclusive words in our language and in our law. There is the distinction between announcing and enacting, between the power of selection and the power of declaring; and that was, to carry out the purpose of the framers of the Constitution, that Congress should have by settled law (changeable, of course), which had received the concurrence of the Presi- dent of the United States, power to declare 'what officer shall then act as President,' and then on that designation Congress exhausted the power ; and the Constitution itself what the consequences shall be of that declaration, which is all that is open to Congress. "Now the Constitution resumes its authority: 'And such officer shall act accordingly ' — that is, discharge the duties of President — 'until the disability be removed,' which is one of the occasions for the action of Congress, and the other occasion, the alternative occasion, when the office is vacant, ' or ' in that case ' a President shall be elected.' And when the Constitution stops there, and WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 527 does not provide for Congress the right to determine whether there shall be an election or when there shall be an election, and the power of the Constitution asserts itself as disposing of the whole question, when Congress has made its declaration of the officer, and the Constitu- tion has prescribed what shall ensue, it is then fastened upon the power of the officer; that is, if he takes the place to perform the duties by reason of disability, the Constitution says he shall hold it for the disability. Does any one pretend that Congress could order an election during a temporary disability, during a constitutional dis- ability, whatever that may be ? By no means. Here, then, is an exhausted power. It comes then to the alter- native, the vacancy, however it may have occurred. There it provides that the duties of the Presidency shall be executed until the election of a President; and what does that mean? It means an election that the Constitu- tion provides for ; it means what the framers of the Con- stitution knew and recognized as a condition that was to follow. That is, the whole frame of the periodicity of the Constitution, and that frame which protects the office against innovation from Congress, is maintained in all respects and always. And you will find that all the mis- chiefs which have threatened and all the difficulties which have given rise to debate among eminent statesmen and em- inent lawyers as to there being any doubts, and therefore dif- ficulty, come from not reading the Constitution as meaning what the framers meant — meant by them intelligently — and what they were undertaking to provide for, what, at least, they meant to maintain, that whatever, in the un- foreseen vicissitudes that should attend the life of a great 528 OUR GREAT MEN. nation, might occur, they meant this principle at least should last, that Congress should not say whether or not there should be an election, or when there should be one, but should do what ? Exactly what the framers of the Constitution did not undertake to do, and did not feel themselves competent to do. "They had made a reasonable provision for the vicis- situdes of life; they had made reasonable provision for the emergencies of political excitement by impeachment and removal. Unless there was a designated succession by persons that were to proceed from the electoral col- lege, unless there was to be, so to speak, a provision of a large number of Vice-Presidents who would take the place in the failure of succession (which was not reason- able and was not suitable), they had no choice but to leave in that emergency the situation to be provided for by Congress in the second, the third, the fourth or the fifth vacancy that might take place. But the moment you have acted in that direction then the certainty is fenced in the frame of the Constitution, and the officer designated is intrusted with the execution of the powers that would have devolved on the constitutionally-elected Vice-President if he had succeeded to the Presidency. " So, then, in my humble judgment, fortified by the views expressed by colleagues on this side and on the other side of the Chamber, fortified by commentary, forti- fied by the action and the argument of eminent suc- cessors to the framers in all the divisions of political parties on this question, I find at least that we simply wander into difficulties that our fathers had left open to us, as they thought, when by understanding the purpose WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 529 of the Constitution we should have seen that no expatia- tion and no argument to meet these difficulties was imposed upon the wisdom or the discretion of Congress. "In case the Vice-President fails, under the vicissi- tudes named, to take his place, then the Constitution says what the consequence is to be. Here there are to be considered two subjects ; first, whether it is desirable that the succession should be placed where since 1792 it has been lodged, but where it has never been exercised, in the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House. I will not repeat any of the views of expe- diency, both of the higher and of the lesser weight, in this matter when the vacation of office is created by a power higher than human will ; but I must submit that when one of the alternatives of vacating the office depends upon the will of Congress in its two branches, then to say that the framers of this Constitution, who meant to keep hands off by Congress from the election and determination of the Presidency, in that event actually opened it to them to substitute a successor, one that was to emerge from their own body by their own election, and was to take and fill the vacancy that had been created by the will of the two Houses of Congress — what say you of the wisdom of providing for one of these officers to succeed in the Presidency when the place was to be made for him by the impeachment of the House and the sentence of the Senate? Is that according to the circumspection and the precaution of the framers of the Constitution? I apprehend that I can satisfy you, as I have myself, that on the plan of the Constitution they left it not possible to either of the two 530 OUR GREAT MEN. Houses of Congress to allow the successor in the Presi- dential office named by Congress to take the place where Congress itself had been the accuser and judge to vacate it. "Now, was it not a very precise way used by the framers of the Constitution when they said that all Con- gress could do was to declare what officer should fill the place? Did they not mean an officer of the United States ? They certainly could not name an officer of a State, much less an officer of a foreign state. An officer of the United States unquestionably w^as meant; and then, having in their minds that Congress should not meddle with the constitution of the Presidency, they saw when they limited it to an officer of the United States that they excluded a Senator and a Representative, because in the same Constitution, using the same phrase, not pointed to any particular circumstance of this kind, there was this provision touching the question who could by possibility, and who could not by possibility, be an officer of the United States : '"And no i^erson holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office.' "You have not only shut out the two Houses from meddling with the Presidency, but you have shut out the members of the two Houses from any possible suc- cession, because they can not ever be officers of the United States. Can it be supposed that the framers of this Constitution, so circumspect and so sagacious, left this loop-hole for the Presidency that you could vacate it yourselves and fill it yourselves ? WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 531 "I need not refer to the other clauses of the Consti- tution that have been insisted upon, and usefully and wisely, in the argument. I think when I read this Con- stitution in these clauses I have a right to feel that the great men who framed it knew how to write it as well as I know how to read it. "Now, look at the difficulties. Let me suggest one: that the President's office being vacated, and the Vice- Presidencv beiuf? vacant, then the President of the Sen- ate or the Speaker of the House, as the present arrange- ment is, becomes the person to discharge the duties. It is an annexation to this old and important position, no doubt, of President of the Senate or Speaker of the House, as the case may be; but if either of them stays here the Constitution has said he shall have no office, and can not be chosen an officer. Then, is the discharge [of the duties of President a new office? That seems to be settled in the general judgment. What, then, does ;the present arrangement do with the decision, and I ■think the sound constitutional decision, that a Senator [or a member of the House of Representatives is not pvithin the impeachment clause of the Constitution? "The President is named; the Vice-President is named. Both of them are officers; and, ex industria, and :to guard against the notion that their dignity is such that they should not be included in the list of impeacha- :ble officers, they are specially named. The only persons 'who are open to impeachment under the Constitution are the President, the Vice-President and all civil officers. Military officers are not under it. No one who does not come within the designation of a civil officer is impeach- 532 OUR GREAT MEN. able. The Senate having decided in Blount's case, in 1798, that he was not open to impeachment, what is your constitutional position when you have got a Senator who is discharging as an annex to his office the duties of Pres- ident? Is he open to impeachment? If so, how do you expose him to impeachment? He is not named as Pres- ident; he is not named as Vice-President; but the duties are annexed to the place he fills in the Senate as a mem- ber, or in the House as a member. He is not open to impeachment in that capacity. Thus, by this, which I must regard as a sedulous scheme departing from the precise line of the Constitution, you are actually involved in the condition of making a man not subject by the Constitution to impeachment execute all the offices and duties and powers of the President. "I have said all that I need to say on the subject of the line of succession. To my mind no one can support, under this Constitution and the construction of it, the deposit of this power in an officer only of the Senate, and not of the United States; an officer only of the House of Representatives, and not an officer of the United States, within the meaning of the Constitution. " Now, in regard to what happens in case of a desig- nation by Congress, by law, declaring the successor, then as to the question whether Congress can proceed any further and say he shall discharge it only so long — he shall discharge it only till this or that event or circum- stance; he shall discharge it until an election that the Constitution has named or defined — let us look at that a moment. Let us see whether this is a technical con- struction of the language of the clause that I refer to. WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 533 There are two conditions in regard to the situation of the Presidency where Congress may be called upon and has been empowered by the Constitution to act. " I need not enumerate or further repeat the three conditions under which the office may be vacant — removal, resignation, death. That is a vacancy in the Presidency ; that is one situation, and the circumstances under which it arises need no further attention from me. But there remains another condition for the Presidency in which the office shall be full, constitutionally full, not to be touched at all. There is a President of the United States, but by the infirmities that attend all, great and small, an interruption of health, mental or physical incapacity occurs, creating a situation incompatible with the exercise of the duty the Constitution has reposed in him. Then, is the naming of a successor exposed to any judgment or any rapacity to be exercised by the two Houses ? No. They can only name the officer to fulfill the duties during that disability (which is the antithesis of ability), to provide for that case, which is an ordinary condition, not of depo- sition, not of possible impeachment, not of possible con- demnation in the height of party excitement, but a disability from providential interference, recognized and submitted to; but Providence has not vacated the Presi- dency, and there must then be a substituted execution of the duties just as long as that disability shall last, never possibly to be interrupted by an election. "Why, then, should we be so eager to understand that when there was a vacancy the framers of the Con- stitution were not satisfied to have the Congress name a man who was fit, an officer, to take what was left of the 534 OUR GREAT MEN. term of the Presidency to be filled out ? I do not under- stand why it can be supposed that the framers of the Con- stitution, having two alternatives laid before them, and undertaking to provide by a disjunctive for the one and for the other, and neither of them has anything to do with Congress, Providence having struck its blow upon the President, he still filling the office, allowed Congress to take charge of the vacancy by death or removal, and make it possible to derange the synchronism of our whole scheme of government. "Nay, more than that, sacred duty requires that it should not be construed to have been left at the option of Congress to say whether the office was vacant or not. They did not leave it for Congress declaring the officer, so that where they were satisfied with him they would repeal the law, and not order a re-election or otherwise resort to an old law for an election and a successor; or, you please, that the two Houses of Congress, or the people of the United States, if they should find out what did please them, could then order a re-election, No; let us understand that this business of filling, at the will of Con- gress, the Presidency, or omitting to fill it for this or that length of time, is not circumstantial, but is at the very bottom of the propositions of the Constitution. "Mr. President, I think I have, however little they may be entitled to consideration, presented my views to the members of the Senate. For myself, I find here a stat- ute to put on the book, if this bill is enacted, that in both respects of succession and term of office the successor is conformed to the absolute language of the Constitution and the necessary purpose and scheme of its provisions." :H^&p Hon. JOHN H. MITCHELL, OF OREGON. lOHN H. MITCHELL, of Portland, is a native of Washington County, Pennsyl- vania, where he was born June 22cl, 1835. He was educated in the public schools and received instructions from a private tutor. He was admitted to the Bar, and has made law his profession. He removed to California, and located first in San Luis Obispo, where he practiced law for a time; then he removed to San Francisco, where he resumed his legal pursuits. In 1860 he removed to Portland, Oregon, and there continued his profession. In 1861 he was elected Corporation Attorney of Port- land, and served for one year, when he was elected to the State Senate, and served four years, the last two as President of the Senate. In 1865 the Governor of Oregon gave him the com- mission of Lieutenant-Colonel in the State militia. In 1866 he was a candidate for United States Senator, but was defeated in the caucus by one vote. He was Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in Will- iamette University, in Salem, Oregon, from 1867 to 1871. He was elected to the United States Senate and served (535) 536 OUR GREAT MEN. from 1873 to 1879. He was again elected to the United States Senate as a Republican, taking his seat in Decem- ber, 1885. The following is an extract from a speech by Mr. Mitchell on the Chinese question: "Whatever may be the sentiment on this subject east of the Rocky Mountains, where the shadows of this great scourge have as yet comparatively so lightly fallen, there is among the people west of the Rocky Mountains but one sentiment, but one mind, but one judgment, on this great and all-absorbing question, if we may except an occasional mercenary journal whose venal proprietors attach more value to the patronage of the Chinese six companies than they do to the rights of the masses of the people or the best interests of the State, or an occasional corporation whose interest is to degrade labor, cheapen the price of honest toil, and obtain the services of the laboring man at the lowest possible price. "As bearing upon this question of unanimity of opinion on the Pacific coast in opposition to Chinese immigration, it may be well to remember that six years ago, through the action of the Legislature of the State of California, the question was submitted to a vote of the people of the State. The whole vote cast was 155,521 — a full vote. Of these, 154,638 were cast in opposition to Chinese immigration, while only 883 votes were cast in favor of it. And it is an unquestionable fact that public opinion on this question in the infected districts has ever since been becoming more solidified, more robust, more aggressive, and is now more determined and more emphatic, than ever before." ..tH' ^MUIlilL J, M^M^^ILIL. Hon. SAMUEL J. RANDALL, OF PENNSYLVANIA. [aMUEL J. RANDALL, of Philadelphia, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the 10th day of October, 1828. He is the son of Josiah Randall, an eminent lawyer of that city. His mother was Ann Worrall, daughter of General Joseph Worrall, of the days of Jefferson. He received an academic education, and then engaged in mer- cantile life. For four years he was a member of the City Councils of Philadelphia, and was for one term a member of the State Senate of Pennsylvania. Mr. Randall served during the late war as a member of the "First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry," a vol- unteer military company organized in 1774. After the fall of Fort Sumter the troop offered its services, and was mustered into the service of the United States in May, 1861, for ninety days. The troop was with General Robert Patterson, in the valley of the Shenandoah, in 1861. It was in the advance at the battle of Falling Waters, where, as General Patterson says, for the first and only time, that gallant soldier, "Stonewall" Jackson, was de- feated and driven back. Mr. Randall at this time acted (539) 540 OUR GREAT MEN. as Quartermaster to the company ; he was afterward pro- moted to the rank of Cornet, which corresponds to that of Captain in the regular army. In June, 1863, when there was an intimation of an advance of Confederate troops north of the Potomac, this troop again tendered its services to the country, and was accepted without taking the oath. They rendered some important services during that trying time, and received the thanks of the Grovernor of Pennsylvania and of the "War Department. Mr. Randall has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1863, when he took his seat at the convening of the Thirty-eighth Congress. He was elected Speaker in 1876 ; he was re-elected Speaker in 1877, and again in 1879. He represents the protective element of the Democratic party. During the Forty-seventh Con- gress there was a Republican majority. Since Mr. Car- lisle has been Speaker, Mr. Randall has been Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. In one of his great speeches, Mr. Randall, speaking on the tariff commission, said: "In the matter of taxation we are acting under a written Constitution. ' Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and welfare of the United States.' I need not enlarge upon our tra- ditional history in this regard, and it will be accepted as true that only at periods of great necessity and urgency have excise or internal taxes been resorted to. Our j^res- ent internal revenue system grew up out of the necessities of the war, and when these necessities cease that taxation SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 541 should disappear. When the framers of the Constitution granted the power to impose excise duties it was a point of serious dispute, and was agreed to finally only as a resort in case the Government should be involved in war, and not to be used as a permanent mode of raising revenue. " I will not enlarge upon this ; I believe it to be incon- trovertible, however men may change sides because of other considerations aifecting other questions; and I do not forget that Thomas Jeiferson, the author of the Dec- laration of Independence and the founder of the Demo- cratic party, brought about the rej)eal of internal or excise taxes as one of the very first acts of his administration as President of the United States. "I favor, therefore, as speedily as possible, a total abolition of our internal revenue system, and I am ready to join hands with any and all in this House in favor of an equalization of our duties on imports. 'No one who understands the existing tariff laws will deny the justice and necessity of revision. The present duties were, for the most part, levied during w^ar, and for the purpose of raising a large war revenue. It will suffice, in this con- nection, to quote the Industrial League as unanswerable in this regard, as it is an admission on the part of those who favor the highest protective duties : "'They consider such revision desirable for the inter- ests both of the industries affected and those of consumers, partly on account of some original imperfections in the present tariff and partly on account of the modifications which are demanded by the changes which have occurred in conditions of production and commerce.' 33 542 GUR GBEAT MEN. " There should be, however, no vicious assault on these laws. Changes should have a firm foundation in reason, and especially should we avoid mere experimental and purely speculative efforts on this vital subject. Our excess of revenue now approaches in amount the annual receipts from internal or excise taxes. If proper economy be exer- cised in expenditures, they can be made to be within the limits of our ordinary sources of taxation, enabling us, with- out jar or friction, to repeal internal tax laws, which are inquisitorial and offensive in the highest degree. These taxes reach vexatiously every citizen in his business, in his household, and in the affairs of every-day life, until they became unendurable. There is no longer an excuse, in my opinion, for their continuance. " The objection to direct taxes is equally strong to internal taxes, and either or both are justified only by stern necessity. They are irritating and dangerous, and internal revenue taxes entail ujoon us the keeping up, as at present, somewhere near five thousand officers engaged in their collection, distributed in every county of every State, tainting, as we know, the source of all power in this Republic — the elections of the people. Who favors direct tax ? No one ; and if the internal taxes were not imposed by law, is there a man who would risk his polit- ical future by asking that the system should be put into operation ? I sincerely believe there is not a man. " I did hope, when this Congress assembled, that before the adjournment of this session a very large reduction of internal revenue would have resulted from our labors. The Committee on Ways and Means seemed to favor a reduction of 170,000,000, but the fiat of a Republican SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 543 Congressional caucus overruled that good intent. Thus the majority of the Representatives in this House of one political party, and of a party representing a doubtful majority of the people, even at the time of its election, regulates the current of remedial legislation, and in this instance on a subject which should be non-j^artisan. Thus the opportunity of relieving our tax-annoyed and tax-bur- dened constituents may be lost. " The reduction as now recommended by the Commit- tee on Ways and Means reaches in great part those most able to pay, leaving the great body of consumers without relief. How long the latter will permit this state of things to continue will probably be determined at our next Congressional elections. With the repeal of internal or excise taxes will come a resort exclusively to duties on imports as the main supply of our resources, and I main- tain, if our expenditures be kejDt within just and reasona- ble bounds, we can from this source derive adequate reve- nue for the administration of the Government in all its constitutional and legitimate functions. " The estimates for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1883, of the amount to be raised from duties on imports is 1217,000,000, and from all other sources, leaving out internal taxes, |30, 000,000 ; so that the total abolition of excise taxes would still leave to the Government in the neighborhood of |250,000,000. " It must be recollected, however, that while our cur- rent annual payment of interest on the public debt has been reduced to |61,000,000 (which will continue to decrease), yet there will be a greater increase in liabilities on account of pensions. Taking the years ending June 544 OUK GREAT MEN. 30th, 1877 and 1878, as a criterion, this amount of receipts would still, with prudence and frugality, leave a sufficient revenue. Let me recapitulate : The net ordinary expendi- tures for the year ending June 30th, 1877, $144,209,- 963.28 ; the net ordinary expenditures for the year ending June 30th, 1878, |134,463,452.15. In the latter year no appropriations were made for rivers and harbors. The amount of appropriations for these objects for the former year was about $5,000,000, so that a fair average of the net ordinary expenses based on these two years would be $142,000,000. Let us to this amount add on account of interest $61,000,000, and for sinking fund about $45,000,- 000, per annum, a sum which I deem sufficient in amount each year toward liquidation of the aggregate amount of the debt, and we have a gross sum of expenditure of $248,000,000. "There will equitably stand to the credit of the sink- ing fund for the year ending June 30th, 1883, taking the bonds already called for payment up to July 1, 1882, $40,423,700. The sinking fund for the current fiscal year and arrearages for prior years were fully j^rovided for by calls which matured March 13th last (1882) and prior to that date. The bonds in calls maturing from that date to June 30th next are not applied to the sink- ing fund, because it is full. While the bonds included in calls maturing from March 13th to June 30th, being calls 108 to 112 and part of the one hundred and sev- enth, amounting to $40,423,700, are not applied to the sinking fund, yet as arrearages have been in the years past continued to be counted on book accounts, there is no reason why the payment of our bonds in excess of SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 545 the legal requirement of the sinking fund should not equitably be credited, thus protecting us against a defi- ciency in the event that the internal taxes are largely reduced or altogether abolished. "In my opinion, $75,000,000 of payment on account of current pensions and arrears is as much each year as can be safely made with due protection against frauds. TJntil the arrears are all paid— say $45,000,000 per year in addition to appropriations of years 1877-78 — we might be required to continue the tax on whisky, say at fifty cents per gallon, or we could encroach upon and reduce our now excessive unemployed balance in the Treasury. Admitting there might be a moderate deficiency, we have — to meet such deficiency — now in the Treasury 1136,000,000 above and beyond every claim on the Gov- ernment, dollar for dollar. "It is thus made plain that, with economical expendi- tures and reduced appropriations for the year, we are fully provided. "As I have already said, a heavy reduction or the abolition of internal taxes would compel immediate revis- ion of our tariff laws. How that can be done with most expedition is the question which most directly concerns us. " I do not favor a tariff enacted upon the ground of protection simply for the sake of protection, because I doubt the existence of any constitutional warrant for any such construction or the grant of any such power. It would manifestly be in the nature of class legislation, and to such legislation, favoring one class at the expense of any other, I have always been opposed. " In my judgment this question of free trade will not 546 OUR GREAT MEX. arise practically in this country during our lives, if ever, so long as we continue to raise revenue by duties on imports, and therefore the discussion of that principle is an absolute waste of time. After our public debt is paid in full, our expenditures can hardly be much below $200,- 000,000 ; and if this is levied in a business-like and intelli- gent manner, it will afford adequate protection to every industrial interest in the United States. The assertion that the Constitution permits the levying of duties in favor of protection ' for the sake of protection ' is equally uncalled for and unnecessary. Both are alike delusory, and not involved in any practical administrative policy. If brought to the test, I believe neither would stand for a day. Protection for the sake of protection is prohibition, pure and simple, of importation ; and if there be no impor- tation there will be no duties collected, and consequently no revenue, leaving the necessary expenses of the Govern- ment to be collected by direct taxes — for internal taxes would interfere with the protection principle, and when the people were generally asked to bear the burden of heavy taxation to sustain class legislation and the interests of a portion of our people at the expense of the great bulk of our population there would be an emphatic and con- clusive negative. So, too, with free trade ; there is hardly a man in public life who advocates it pure and simple. Nobody wants direct taxation, although it would bring taxation so near and so constantly before the people that Congress would hesitate long before it voted the sums of money it now does, if not for improper at least for ques- tionable purposes. SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 647 "I favor what Mr. Jefferson declared to be 'discrimi- nating duties,' what General Jackson described as *a judicious tariff,' and what Silas Wright designated as , 'incidental protection.' To accomplish these ends wisely and well requires the greatest circumspection and the exer- cise of the most careful judgment. " I favor a commission 'to take into consideration and to thoroughly investigate all the various questions relating to the agricultural, commercial, mercantile, manufactur- ing, mining and industrial interests of the United States, so far as the same may be necessary to the establishment of a judicious tariff.' " It will, in my judgment, bring about a revision, abso- lutely essential, at an earlier day than in any other way now feasible. If I did not sincerely entertain this convic- tion, no member on this floor would be more opposed to the pending proposition than myself. I believe that the arrangement of our system of tariff duties should not rest upon any partisan policy regulated by existing parties, but that, on the contrary, it should, in a measure, be divorced from politics, and not be a bone of periodical contention in and out of Congress. It should occupy the higher level and command the best efforts of statesmanship of every party. Menschikoff, one of the ablest as well as one of the most successful ministers of modern times, said : ' States- manship is a practical knowledge of a State's resources.' "A judicious and properly laid tariff is the measure of those resources. It should be framed so as to give stability to our business at home and our trade abroad. Unnecessary and causeless changes are injurious both to the revenues and to the industries and commerce of the 548 OUR GREAT MEN. people. Remedial measures to cure defects and equalize burdens and benefits are of the greatest advantage when promptly and properly enacted. It would be a blessing of incalculable value if we could so arrange our legislation as to readjust in the main duties on imports only once in every ten years, and then have them based upon the statistics and widest information of our census tables. In this way business men in every branch of production and commerce would know how safely and judiciously to conduct their transactions, great and small. * * * « « « "The Senate has shown at this session an indis- position to respond to any effort which might have been made in this House, for it has anticipated the House in the creation of a tariff commission by an overwhelming vote. It has been frequently charged in this debate that the object of this bill was to delay. There is no justifi- cation, in my opinion, for such an assertion. Its inev- itable tendency and effect must be in the nature of things to hasten a thorough and speedy final adjustment of all questions in dispute as to tariff amendment and reform. When the ground of action is uncertain and the elements of the problem are not fully known, or are vaguely and imperfectly understood, legislation is generally injurious. Indeed, it may be said in such cases that when it escapes doing serious injustice to the industries of the people or to the revenues of the Government, it has the result always to be avoided by wise and prudent legislators, oi irritation and excitement, disturbance of values, and often- times individual ruin. " Self-interest controls the world, however much men SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 649 may turn fine periods and grow eloquent in swelling sen- tences about abstractions; and while men will suffer patiently and yield willingly to stern necessity, they will not submit quietly to what is causelessly and idly to their loss and annoyance. "When every element which can enter into tariff revision is known; when every interest, large and small, is scanned and measured; when proper objects of taxation are reached and adjusted in their proper relations ; when those items are eliminated which only embarrass and pro- duce confusion, then indeed tariff legislation is made easy and sure of happiest consequences. " The charge that we are improperly parting with our constitutional functions in the passage of this bill is invalid, and should have no influence upon our deliber- ations and action. "The duties delegated to the commission do not extend beyond the power of recommendation. Yet I hope and believe their review when presented will be of so broad, comprehensive and catholic a character as to command, as a basis of action in reform of taxation, the approval of thinking men and of all parties. " The fourth section of the bill provides that the com- mission shall make its final report of the results of its investigation and the testimony taken in the course of the same not later than the first Monday of December, 1882, and it shall cause the testimony taken to be printed from time to time and distributed to members of Con- gress by the Public Printer, and it shall also cause to be printed for the use of Congress two thousand copies of its final report, too^etJier with the testimony. 550 OUK GREAT MEN. " Can language be more explicit to prevent delay ? It means tariff revision, intelligent and just, at the earliest practical moment. I trust that after the passage of this act — of which at present there seems but little doubt — authority will be given to the Committee on Ways and Means by this House to enable it to assemble about the 10th day of November next and proceed immediately to formulate a bill based upon the testimony taken, and which they will have, with all other members, received from time to time. Then, at the opening of the session in December, that committee will be ready to report forth- with its measure of relief to the House for action before the Committee on Aj^propriations will require the time for general appropriation bills. " I have given notice of a purpose to offer an amend- ment providing that this commission shall be composed of two members of the Senate and three members of the House, with four civilian experts, the latter to be ap- pointed by the President, by and with the advice and con- sent of the Senate. My purpose in favoring a mixed commission is that there may be upon the floor of each House some responsible sponsors for the report, who will feel it incumbent upon them to see that it does not go for naught, but is supported and pushed to practical results. "Now, I might add that, while I have no direct assur- ance of the fact, yet I am led to believe that the President will, in the composition of this commission, whether exclu- sively of civilians or only partially, select men who have given a life-time to the study of the history and philoso- phy of tariff taxation. •* SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 551 "We are no longer a few scattered, isolated colonies of three millions of people, hugging the coast from Massa- chusetts to Georgia. In 1880 we were a united nation of fifty millions of inhabitants, with industries of the great- est diversity, and grown to such size and power as to con- test the markets of the world, and with a military pres- tige that has surprised and kept in awe the most warlike nations. " In the year 1903 we are told that, according to the ordinary rate of increase, we will have one hundred mill- ions of people. Is there any human mind that can fore- see all the possibilities of a free republic of such vast pro- portions leading the coming century in wise legislation? Is there one so foolhardy who will stand up and say he knows all about it, and that the wondrous ways of God shall bend to his peremptory dictation ? If there be, he can vote against this bill." The following is a short speech by Mr. Randall on civil service: " Mr. Chairman, I really did have hope that this prop- osition from the Committee on Appropriations would be discussed entirely from a public standpoint. I do not need to tax my memory or to refresh the recollection of this House in regard to the utterances of gentlemen a few years ago, when they were attempting (to use a familiar phrase) to starve to death the Civil Service Commission, or to compare it with their language and conduct within the last twenty-four hours as to this proposed amendment. If they can reconcile their speeches at that time with the language that they have used on yesterday and to-day, it is not incumbent on me to run any line of comparison, or 652 OUR GREAT MEN. to call attention to their inconsistency and duplicity. I leave them to reconcile their conduct and their voices with their own self-respect. " It has been alleged that these amendments are for the purpose of destroying the civil-service law. I main- tain that the two propositions which the amendment con- tains have no such object, and that when they come to be inserted in the law, or to be made a part of the regula- tions in any other way, they will operate upon both parties alike, without any partisanship whatever. First, as to age limitation, that is not a part of the law which gentle- men are here boasting they voted for, and I venture the assertion that if there had been a clause in the act of the 16th of January, 1883, which proposed to proscribe the American citizen, after he had reached the age of thirty- five or forty-five, from being eligible to public station, there is not a man here who will say that he would have voted for such a provision. How did that get in ? It got in at the will of a single individual, and no man has had the courage to utter here, either yesterday or to-day, a sentiment in favor of that part of the regulations, or against the committee's amendment which applies to it. "How does this matter operate? We may safely draw the conclusion that the language to which I have referred was inserted in the regulations for the purpose of excluding from examination members of one political party. Let me illustrate this : There is not a man who was connected with the administration of this Govern- ment in 1861, and removed because of his politics, or for other reasons, who is not by this regulation debarred at -.J SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 553 this time from examination, notwithstanding the fact that his experience in previous years, and his subsequent cult- ure and development, might capacitate him for being a more efficient officer than any of those now in service. Nay, more ; the very effect of this regulation is to exclude more than half of the people who vote for us as Repre- sentatives from the possibility of securing any position within the classified service of this Government. " Do you tell me we should not assail that rule? I say that now and in the future, here and everywhere, I will agitate the repeal of so monstrous, so unjust, so indefensi- ble, a proposition. "I say that this civil-service law was made by Con- gress; that the power of legislation rests here; that the one man to whom I have referred has undertaken to legis- late and to deprive Congress of that power which should be lodged only here. I speak with deliberation, and I want the Chief Executive of this Government to hear what I have to say on this subject. What I say in regard to this is no assault upon the President; but I affirm to-day that the representatives of the people, by the enactment of these regulations, have been deceived and cheated, have been deprived of their rights, which, standing here, they ought to have defended in behalf of the people who sent them here as their representatives. "Mr. Cleveland is not responsible for these regula- tions. More than that, it is but a brief time since Mr. Cleveland could possibly have had any influence upon this commission; and, following the gentleman from North Carolina, I will say that I hope a change will soon be made, and that he will give an administration of this civil- 554 OUR GREAT MEN. service act that will do justice in respect to the matters I complain of. ♦ ****♦ "We do not, by the committee's amendment, interfere in any degree with the law itself; it is the undue regula- tions we seek to alter. We have only sought to say to those who should be the servants of this House and the Senate, with the Executive approval, that they must not attempt to exclude from participation in the offices of the Government any American citizens who are mentally and physically capable of discharging, with honor and efii- ciency, the duties of official station. "A word as to the other amendment proposed. I say, as I have said of the first part of the amendment, that this also operates on both parties alike, for the clause with ref- erence to age affects members of the Republican party as much as it does those of the Democratic party— a discrimi- nation against all men alike. " While we do not desire any abridgment of the right of the Executive and those under him, with reference to appointments, yet we do not think it proper to permit these three members of the Civil Service Commission to exercise the prerogative of sending to the appointing power only four names from which selections must be made. Remember that this regulation is no part of the law. We propose to say that every man who, under the law, is eligible, who, upon examination, secures an aver- age above sixty-five, may be selected for appointment, if the appointing power, in its wisdom, after such examina- tion, shall discover him to possess the mental and physical qualifications for the particular office which he seeks. SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 555 "My colleague from Pennsylvania said to-day, with great candor, that he would prefer this selection should be confined to three or two, or even one. That was my understanding of his declaration; and it was a strange sound from the 'machine' politics of Pennsylvania, in view of the history of his party in my State. "Before I forget it, I wish to correct the gentleman from North Carolina as to Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson never possessed the i)ower to be a spoilsman, for no sooner had he become President than the Republi- can party tied his hands in reference to the power of official appointments and removals by the tenure- of-office act. That was the act of the Republican party. Sir, I ask a comparison of the past course of that party with the self-righteousness of the Republican orators on this floor within the past twenty-four hours, and let that com- parison show where 'the cloven foot' is. "Mr. Chairman, I have not, nor has my honorable colleague on the committee, the gentleman from Indiana, whom, perhaps, the public press has deprived of some of the credit incident to this proposition, ever designed to interfere with the civil-service act. That act was the result of a universal condemnation of the methods of the Republican party, and the united voice of the country cried out in behalf of the enactment of such a law as would stay these abuses of public trust. They were then trembling in apprehension that they would be deprived of the administration of this Government at the following fall election of 1884, and that I believe was as much the reason for their support of the measure, which they had in every shape and form theretofore condemned when it Oo6 OUR GREAT MEN. » was likely to interfere with patronage of their administra- tion, and which they had tried to starve to death." In some remarks on the use of the surplus in the Treasury to pay the National debt, Mr. Randall said : " Mr. Chairman, I listened with great respect and close attention throughout the remarks of the gentleman from JN'ew York for the purpose of discovering whether there was apparent cause for the dark cloud of prophecy which he has pictured heretofore and again in connection with the proposed legislation, and whether his apprehen- sion had any substantial basis. I say to that gentleman that I do not find, according to the mode of financial figuring which I secured from the common arithmetic rather than from experience in the management of public affairs, anything that justifies the dangers and disasters he prophesies from the passage of this resolution. " This is not a silver question. It is a question as to whether we have the money in the Treasury undisposed of, and against which there are no legitimate claims, to the extent of seventy millions of dollars, so that that amount of money can be used in the manner suggested in the resolution in liquidation of that much of the inter- est-bearing debt of the Government. We propose in this resolution to do just what has been done in the past, when, in pursuance of substantially the same princij^le and practice, we reduced the public debt |1, 200, 000, 000. Nay, more: we say as the forty-four and one-half millions of dollars added to the sinking fund during the last fiscal year was managed, so shall this seventy millions be man- aged ; and I suggest that in the liquidation of the forty- four and one-half millions of bonds carried to the sinking SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 557 fund during that period there never was a dollar of gold employed, and there was only about thirteen millions of United States notes used in the liquidation of that amount of debt. " I do not hesitate, Mr. Chairman, to say to-day that if this proposition prevails, the amount of United States notes' now in the Treasury is entirely adequate for the liquidation of the entire amount as authorized to be paid by the proposition of the gentleman from Illinois. " I will tell you what their figures show : That there are $57,000,000 of gold there in excess of the ^100,000,000 held there for the redemption of the United States notes outstanding. There are $22,000,000 there of United States notes, and $14,000,000 of other money in public depositories belonging to the Grovernment of the United States, making in the aggregate about ninety-three mill- ions of money in the possession of the Government, against which there is in fact no claim. I do not want any gentleman to confuse this question with the apjDre- hension which prevails in the mind of the gentleman from New York. This is a mere matter of business man- agement. We have unemployed in the Treasury of the United States, as I have shown, approaching ninety-three millions of money, and we say that to the extent of $70,000,000 it ought to be used in the liquidation of the public debt just as we have liquidated $1,200,000,000 of the public debt heretofore, which has commanded the wonder and admiration of every civilized nation. "I assert, without questioning anybody's motives, that if these bonds that are due and payable at the option of the Government, to wit, about one hundred and 34 558 OUR GREAT MEN. thirty-five millions, one hundred millions of which are held by the Government as security for the national bank circulation, were held by individual capitalists, we would not hear any complaint against the proposition. It is because it bears upon the national banks to the extent of one hundred millions of three per cents, that we hear this outcry, which is the mainspring of the hostility to the measure. " I say also that I know of no better way for a gov- ernment to strengthen its credit than by paying its inter- est-bearing bonds. That is the way we have done in the past. If you want to strengthen still further the public credit I do not object; nor do I find in this proposition introduced by the gentleman from Illinois objection that the one hundred millions shall be held as a redeeming fund toward the three hundred and forty-six millions of United States notes in circulation. If the Treasury officials should have an apprehension in connection with the large amount that we propose to liquidate by this proposition of the public indebtednes in addition to the forty-odd millions due during the current year as a pay- ment to the sinking fund, then attach a limitation to the amount to be had. " There is that amount of money. The statement of the gentleman from Ohio immediately in front of me to that efi'ect has not been controverted, nor can it be. It can not be claimed that the money is not there, for the Treasury reports shows that it is there ; and all we ask is that that amount of money shall be used in the liquida- tion of the public indebtedness. That is what any busi- ness man would do. That is like to what the Govern- ^5 SAMUEL J. RANDALL. V>. 659 ment has this done. And why all scare at thJ^'^.time (after having paid more than a thousand millions ol.the public debt just as is proposed in this joint resolution)^ when we suggest the propriety of paying seventy millions more ? There is nothing in it, gentlemen. The truth is, ^;' the Government of the United States has the money and can pay this amount as provided for, with the use of less than the amount of United States notes that are to-day in the Treasury of the United States, because experience has shown in the case of the forty-four and a half mill- ions paid to the sinking fund that it only required some thirteen millions to handle that amount of payment. "A like amount of United States notes, as I am informed, find their way back into the Treasury gen- erally within ten days. The silver certificates come back, as I am advised, in large quantities within six days. I feel assured that within thirty days there would be returned to the Treasury of the United States, through the receipts for customs, which are paid to-day to the extent of about eighty-two and one-half per cent, in United States notes, a sufiicient sum to enable the Grovernment to handle every payment of ten millions a month, just as they had han- dled the prior ten million payment." Hon. JOHN V. L. FINDLAY, OF MARYLAND. [OHN y. L. FINDLAY, of Baltimore, wlio represents the Fourth Congressional Dis- trict of Maryland in the National House of Representatives, was born the 12th of December, 1839. He received a classical education at Princeton, New Jersey; then studied law, and was admitted to practice. He was for a time State and City Director of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. He has been a member of the Maryland Legislature. He was also Collector of Internal Revenue for one of the Baltimore districts, and City Solicitor for Baltimore. He was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress and re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Democrat. In his speech on "Labor Arbitration" in the House of Representatives, in March, 1886, Mr. Findlay said : "Suppose this bill had been a law when the trouble in the West, which has been the immediate occasion of it, occurred. On one side you would have had the corpora- tion, on the other its employes, behind them the masses of the people whose commerce and business were impeded by the strike, and on the statute-books of the United States a law which afforded an easy mode of escape out of the (660) JOHN V. L. FINDLAT. 661 difficulty. Will any man say that the whole force of public opinion would not have been brought to bear in favor of settling this difficulty by arbitration as provided by that law? Can it be reasonably concluded that either of the parties to the controversy would have been willing to protract it in the face of this public opinion? I think not; and, therefore, believe that the very existence of the law will of itself promote voluntary arbitration by cre- ating a public opinion in favor of it which it will be diffi- cult, if not impossible, to resist. The strongest argument made against the bill has gone to the point that as far as such mission was concerned the bill conferred no rights which did not already exist at common law. " But that argument does not strike me as sound. To point out to litigants a common-law method of settling differences by arbitrament and consent is one thing. To show the suffering public that a statute has made it easy to have these differences settled in this way, without cost to either party, is, in my judgment, quite a different thing. It puts an argument in every man's mouth, simple to make and difficult to answer — an argument which says in effect to both corporations and employes : We, the pub- lic, have some right ; you are not the only sufferers by this disagreement; we outnumber you ten to one; our business, our livelihood, our very existence, depends upon a prompt and reasonable settlement of the difficulty ; the law has provided the means for such a settlement, and we demand that you adopt these means and permit the wheels of commerce to again revolve on their accustomed racks. "But in the absence of such a law, what would the argument be? Simply that it was a duty to arbitrate, 562 OUR GREAT MEN. without answering the objections as to expense and the difficulty of enforcing attendance of witnesses, obtaining testimony and executing the award. In the other case I have put, it is a duty made easy, and a duty besides that has the sanction of positive enactment by the National Legislature. I think, then, that the bill will promote arbitration. Will it eifectuate it ? Great stress has been laid upon this part of the argument against the bill. It has been insisted that the mere suggestion of a decree without compulsory provision for its enforcement is an idle form of words without force or virtue. It has been denounced as a sham and a trick, an innocent poultice, a harmless application on the outside for what is a deep- seated internal malady, and much other denunciation more or less pointed. " I have listened to these arguments with all the respect due to their authors, but I can not bring my mind to the conclusion that the same public opinion which has hushed this clamor and reduced the enemies of the bill into a pitiful minority of 29 as against 199 in favor will not be potent enough to give eifect to the bill after it becomes a law. I do not believe there is a railroad cor- poration in the country that would dare to resist for twenty-four hours the solemn judgment of our authorized board of arbitration, in which it af)pears voluntarily, by its chosen representatives, holding its sessions, performing its work and certifying its conclusions under the sanction of the law-making power of the United States. Such cor- porations, beside being exposed to the criticism of the press, are amenable to j)ublic ojDinion, not only as the source of legislation in the States, but of those efficient, GEORGE C. CABELL. 563 although indirect, disciplinary methods of which juries, quite aside from the merits of the particular case, are sometimes made the beneficent agents." —^^^ — Hon. GEORGE 0. CABELL, OF VIRGINIA. |E0RGE C. CABELL, of Danville, who rep- resents the Fifth Congressional District of Virginia in the National House of Represent- atives, was born in Danville, Virginia, Jan- uary 23d, 1837. His early education he received from his father, who kept him under his personal instruction until he was twelve years of age. He then attended the Dan- ville Academy for some six years, after which he taught school and studied law in his leisure hours. He attended the Law Department of the University of Virginia in 1857, and commenced practicing law in Danville in 1858. He was for a time editor of The Bepuhlican and then of The Democratic Ajppeal, both of them papers published in Danville. In September, 1858, he was elected Commonwealth's Attorney for Danville, and held the position until April, 1861, when he volunteered as a private in the Confederate Army. He served throughout the war, and at the close of hostilities held the rank of Colonel. After the war he resumed the practice of his profes- 564 OUR GREAT MEN. sion. He was a member of the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses, to which he was elected as a Democrat. The following remarks were made by Mr. Cabell in answering Mr. Butterworth concerning the South : " I now desire to refer to what was said by the gentle- man from Ohio. That gentleman has gone out of the legitimate range of debate to tell the Southern people how wicked they are, what bad methods they pursue, and with propriety they could amend their ways. We may be obliged to gentlemen who give this kindly advice to us, but when we know their motives, and that they talk of things of which they know nothing, we feel a reasonable degree of incredulity, for which I am satisfied we will be excused. Gentlemen assume to talk of affairs in the South, gathering their information, I suppose, from irre- sponsible parties, and especially from that miserable set of vamj^ires and vermin who were sent down among us after the war, and who fell upon us with more blighting effect than the locusts and lice of Egypt. You get your coloring from creatures of that character, and the gentle- man from Ohio, as if he had heard nothing but gospel truth, proceeds to lecture this side of the House, especially the members from the South, upon the wickedness, rapine, bloodshed and ballot-box stuffing which he is pleased to assign to the Southern section of the country. " Now, it is true, Mr. Chairman, that we have had our troubles down South. We have had many difficulties to overcome and many hard problems to solve. These were incident, perhaps, to the changed condition of affairs in the country. GEORGE C. CABELL. 565 ''But I can say, and say it truly, I know nothing of any occurrences as the gentleman and. others like him have laid to our charge. Such things have not taken place in my country, and I speak for that ; I speak within my knowledge, and I say all this talk, or a great deal of it, and the stuff you hear from intermeddlers, is simply stuff indeed. Many of these harrowing stories from the South have been brought you by creatures that were so miserable that you spewed them out of your own country, and, to our great grief, they fell down upon us. I have often wondered why they had been made at all, and I could never solve the problem except upon the principle that God Almighty, in His infinite wisdom, made these creatures to show what sort of a thing He could make, in all its horrors and meanness, when He made the carpet- bagger and dropped him down into the Southern States. "The gentleman from Ohio dwells with great persist- ency upon the lessons learned from his faithful allies, the 'carpet-baggers,' in regard to 'ballot-box stuffing,' riots and disturbances at elections down South. Now, I will simply say to friend Butterworth that I knew he was writhing in the 'gall of bitterness,' but never, before his speech, realized that he was so closely bound in the ' bonds of iniquity.' I never, before his speech, so fully under- stood the difficulties that compassed him about, and the election troubles that had overtaken that goodly and godly people from whom he came. " But is it not a pretty state of affairs, and a beauti- ful spectacle exhibited to this side of the House, when with one side of his mouth the gentleman pitches into the Southern people and abuses them for their conduct, and 566 OUR GREAT MEN. from the other pours out a horrid volume on his own peo- ple, which, if true — and I have no right to doubt it — shows beyond all question that if there is meanness and eorruj^tion and villainy displayed in elections in any coun- try on God's green earth, it is in the State of Ohio, and especially in the city of Cincinnati, of which that gentle- man seems so proud? I say to the gentleman, first cast the beams out of the eyes of your own people before you look after the motes in ours. Go sweep around your own door; you will find ample employment. Mend the bad methods of your own country before you undertake to lect- ure other people upon political morality." --^^'^^^ — Hon. WILLIAM R. cox, OF NORTH CAROLINA. IlLLIAM R. cox, of Raleigh, was born in Halifax County, North Carolina. He removed to Tennessee, where he was edu- cated, graduating at Franklin College, near Xushville, and also at the Lebanon Law School. For a time he practiced law in Nashville, but returned to North Carolina previous to the breaking out of the war. After his return to North Carolina he chose the life of a planter, and still continues it in connection with his legal pursuits. He left his business and his home to follow the god WILLIAM R. COX. 567 of war. He entered the Confederate Army as Major, and was promoted to Brigadier-General. He was with Lee at the smTender at Appomattox. At the close of the war he resumed the practice of his profession. He was elected Solicitor of the Metropolitan District, and held the office for six years. He was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of the Metropolitan District, and resigned near the close of his term to enter the field for a nomina- tion to Congress. He is a Trustee of the University of the South. He was a Delegate to the National Democratic Con- vention in 1868, and for several years served as Chairman of the State Democratic Committee of North Carolina. He was elected to the Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses as a Democrat. The following is a portion of a speech by Mr. Cox on the classification and compensation of public officers : "The bill provides that the compensation of those employed in the Departments, as far as practicable, shall be uniform for persons doing the same kind of work. The classification shall not extend to officers confirmed by the Senate, nor to laborers employed in the Departments. The commission shall report the practice as to substitutes, furloughs and leaves of absence in the service, and in what respect, if any, such practice may be improved, and whether with advantage, and upon what conditions, a cler- ical force may be provided, the members of which shall serve from time to time in the diff'erent Departments or offices as the exigencies of the public service may require. The compensation of the members of the commission taken from civil life is to be fixed by the President, and 568 OUR GREAT MEN. the sum proposed to be appropriated for this service is $8,000. It is believed that less than this amount will secure the services of first-class men for this work, as it is not expected they will be engaged in their labors exceeding six months. The surplus, if any, of course, will be converted into the Treasury. " The selection of a mixed commission is believed to be most judicious. Those taken from private life will represent the great non-official, bread-winning classes of the country, while the two detailed from the Departments will bring to the consideration of the subject the prac- tical, ripened experience obtained through their famil- iarity with the departmental work. "From the President's evident desire to see this Government conducted on business principles, from his oft-exjDressed wish to see the civil service elevated and purified, it is believed that the greatest wisdom would be exercised in the selection of able and competent men for the duties they are expected to perform, and that they would shed an amount of light upon the subject com- mitted to their care which would be most beneficial to the country and stimulate Congress to institute such changes in the administration of the executive departments as would be not only more just to its faithful, honest and industrious employes, but save annually hundreds of thousands of dollars to the tax-payers; for the working bees would be separated from the drones, who would be expelled from the hive. "The proj^er classification and arrangement of the employes in the Departments would be of incalculable advantage to the members of the House in making WILLIAM R. COX. 669 appropriations. It is well known that with the exception of the Committees on Appropriations their reports are sealed books to the members of the House. The amounts annually appropriated are so large and so com- plex to the average Congressman as to preclude an under- standing of their details, except by the better informed, who have had the advantage of hearing the discussions preparatory to presenting the bills for consideration. And the overworked Appropriations Committees find it almost impossible to master the details. "The question may be asked, Why can not these changes be made by the chiefs of the Departments? A sufficient reply might be to answer the question by ask- ing another: Why have they not heretofore been made? It is sufficient to know that it has not been done, and that the service has grown so cumbrous and the abuses been of such long standing that, however disposed the chief of a Department may be to make proper changes, it would be nearly imj^ossible for him to do so alone and unaided. He would naturally be resisted by those around him, his daily associates, who oppose any changes calcu- lated to increase their burdens and responsibilities. He would be carped at as an innovator by the more slothful ; and, however good his intentions, he would be discour- aged and rendered unhappy by the opposition he would encounter. Further, in many of the larger bureaus the chiefs but seldom see all their employes, and only know them by the names on their books. **♦♦♦• "We are reminded of the perversions which may 570 OUR GREAT MEN. exist in the executive departments without correction by what occurs in this and the other end of the Capitol, in the gradual increasing of the number of employes and incidental expenses, and can readily see how difficult it is to amend them. Within the last ten years the employes of this House have increased over one hun- dred, and at the other end of the Capitol in a greater proportion, while our expenses continue to augment with no unequal stride." Hon. WILKINSON CALL, OF FLORIDA. IlLKIXSON CALL, of Jacksonville, is by birth a Kentuckian. He was born in Rus- sellville, Logan County, Kentucky, the 9th of January, 1834. He availed himself of all the educational advantages that came within his reach, concluding with the study of law, and after due prepara- tion he was admitted to the Bar. With his growth j)hys- ically and intellectually there grew an intense yearning for a broader and deeper life, a wider sphere of usefulness, than it was possible to have in the staid town of his nativ- ity. So, emigrating to Florida, he settled in Jacksonville, then a town of some two thousand inhabitants ; and during his residence there has watched the development of that lovely village on the magnificent St. John's into a city of twelve thousand inhabitants, and the most imjDortant com- WILKINSON CALL. 571 mercial center of the State. And the success of Mr. Call in his profession and business has been as phenomenal as the growth of the city in which he has chosen to make his home. Immediately after the close of the civil war Mr. Call was elected United States Senator, but on account of the unsettled condition of atfairs politic at that time he was not allowed to take his seat. In 1879, however, he suc- ceeded the then Re]3ublican Senator, and has been an active member of that body ever since. He is an ardent Democrat, and always acts with decision where his State and party are concerned. Mr. Call has always stood for the people as against cor^^orations and monopolies, as his speeches prove. The following is a portion of his s^^eech on a j)etition asking Congress to extend a railroad grant which expired in 1866, and to re-enact it. Mr. Call said : "This action by Congress would, in my opinion, sub- stantially be to recognize and give its approval to about $15,000,000 or $16,000,000 of fictitious securities in the shape of watered stock and fictitious bonded indebtedness placed on this railroad property above either its original cost or the price paid for it by the persons now holding it. " It would be for Congress to give its approval to the methods and practices by which $3,000,000,000 of fraudu- lent and fictitious securities have been put upon this coun- try in defiance of law and without the consent of the taxing power, and by which an annual tax of between two and four hundred millions of dollars is imposed on the labor and industries of the country without the authority of law, but in the forms of law, and with a certainty and a relentless 572 OUR GREAT MEN. power which will require the greatest efforts on the part of the people to prevent and overcome — a tax on locomo- tion and transportation paid by every man, woman and child, a tax equal in amount and more oppressive than the entire taxation required for the support of the Federal Government, with its great army of pensioners, all to pay the interest on fraudulent and unreal securities, issued without consideration and made operative through the connivance and permission of the tribunals charged by the people with the protection of the public and the just enforcement of the law. " It asks an imposition of between five and eight hun- dred thousand dollars of annual taxation upon the people of Florida, in the shape of transportation, to pay the inter- est upon these securities; and it further, in effect, asks that it be put in the power of this railroad company, or of those who hold the fictitious securities, to take from the settlers upon the public lands in the State of Florida between a million and a half and two million dollars as a contribution to the great property which they have already accumulated by gratuities from the United States and State. "We are therefore confronted with the question on which the Senate lately acted in the interstate commerce bill, which the Senate passed by a vote of forty-four in favor of the bill and four against — the question which of all others now menaces the country and oppresses the people, increasing the cost of living and depressing the business of the country, which has deprived a million of men of employment and made hundreds of thousands of starving women and children." Hon. JOHN H. ROGERS, OF ARKANSAS. |OH]S' H. ROGERS, of Fort Smith, who represents the Fourth Congressional Dis- trict of Arkansas in the National Congress, is a native of Bertie County, North Caro- lina. Here he was born October 9th, 1845. When he was seven years old his parents removed to Mississippi. He volunteered in the Confederate Army when but a mere boy, and served till the close of the war. He received his education at Centre College, in Danville, Kentucky, and at the University of Mississippi, in Oxford, Mississippi, graduating at the University in 1868, and the same year he was admitted to the Bar. In 1869 he located in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and com- menced the practice of his profession. He was elected Circuit Judge in 1877, and was re-elected in 1878, but resigned in May, 1882. He was elected to the Forty- eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses as a Democrat. In his speech on the pensions appropriation bill Mr. Rogers said : *'Mr. Chairman, the Democratic party now in power may learn a valuable lesson from this testimony. In every Department of this Government to-day nearly every 35 (573) 574 OUR GREAT MEN. chief of a division and some of the heads of bureaus have been retained. But few changes, comparatively speaking, have been made ; and yet the Democratic party, charged with the responsibility of government, must and will be held responsible by the country for the correct administra- tion of affairs. " If this imj)roper correspondence, in violation of the rules of the Pension Office, could be secretly and success- fully carried on under a Republican administration, to the detriment of the public service and to the demoraliza- tion of that bureau, without detection by its chief until it was brought to light by an examining committee of the House of Representatives, what may we expect when these same people are retained in office under an admin- istration to which they are unfriendly? I invite the attention of the country to the candid consideration of the question presented. This very man Jacobs, of whom I have spoken, and Welty, also, are still in the Pension Office ; and many other persons whose names have been mentioned in this evidence are still in the public service, some of them in important places. " There are other branches of the 2:)ublic service sub- jected to the same abuses that sprung up in the Pension Office. The railway mail service, for instance, ramifies the entire country, and is out from under the immediate supervision of the heads of the Departments. I may at some future day have occasion to refer, in this connection, to that branch of the j^ublic service. "Mr. Chairman, I may be pardoned for this brief digression. I now return to the subject under considera- tion that I may point out one other abuse in the Pension JOHN H. ROGERS. 575 Office developed by that investigation. During the investigation referred to, the committee required Mr. Brock, a clerk in the Pension Office, whose duty it was to keep an account of the leaves of absence of the various employes of that office, to prepare a statement. He pre- pared a partial statement, and it is found on pages 228, 229 and 230 of the published report. It shows that thirty-nine employes in that bureau were absent with pay, in excess of their annual leave, for various periods of time during that year. In almost every instance this leave was granted during the fall elections, and granted by the • Acting Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Joslyn, and without the recommendation of the Acting Commissioner of Pen- sions, Mr. Clarke. "Now, Mr. Chairman, these abuses were all developed by that investigation. The attention of Mr. Dudley was called to them. He had every opportunity of reading the testimony, and I believe that in no instance has he been able to explain, upon any reasonable hypothesis, why these abuses were permitted. In many instances he asserted his ignorance of these things ; but he could not hope to be otherwise when his own time was being devoted to the Ohio and Indiana campaigns to the neglect of the duties of the Pension Office." Hon. GEORGE F. EDMUNDS, OF VEEMONT. EORGE F. EDMUJN'DS, of Burlington, is> of Puritanic-Quaker descent. He was born in Richmond, Vermont, February 1st, 1828. He received a good public-school education, and instruction from a private tutor. He studied law and was admitted to the Bar at Burlington, Vermont, and early earned the reputation of being one of the leading barristers of the State. During the years 1854, '55, '57, '58 and '59 he was a member of the State Legislature of Vermont; three of those years he served as Speaker. He was elected to the State Senate in 1861, and, for the two years he was then, was its presiding officer pro tempore. In 1866 the Legis lature elected him to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate caused by the death of Hon. Solomon Foot. He has repeatedly been re-elected to the Senate, where he has served long and well. On all questions of parliamentary discipline he is an authority, and is prompt and decided in his opposition to all irregularities. He is powerful in argument, and is one of the prominent leaders of the Republican side of the Senate. (67«) I /"■ I ^m^ i**^ Z^ GEOKGE F. EDMUNDS. 579 We submit some remarks by Mr. Edmunds upon the Mormon question. Mr. Edmunds said: "I wish to say, in reply to the Senator from Massa- chusetts, that Section 7 of this bill is proposed without regard to what his opinions or mine may be on the pro- priety of extending the suffrage to women ; and, so far as I am concerned, whenever the women of the United States, or of any one of the States, a majority of them, desire to have the suffrage, they will get my vote to have it, either in the State of Vermont or wherever else I may be located. I think it depends, as it ought to depend, upon the gen- eral sense that our wives and sisters and sweethearts have of what their political duty is, and how they can best fill up their duty toward society ; and when they come to the opinion that society will get on better, and that they will get on better, by entering into the political field, instead of confining themselves to the field in which they are now employed, they will have my aid in obtaining that result. " Now, I do not think this provision violates any prin- ciple such as the Senator from Massachusetts seems to suppose. The women of Utah have not now the lawful right of suffrage in the sense of a final and complete law, for the suffrage law of Utah, like every other law of Utah, by the very organic act that creates it, only continues to exist until Congress choose to say no. The Territorial laws of Utah are passed subject to the disapproval of Con- gress. This is one of these laws. Therefore, we are not invading any vested right, if you call a political right a vested one, in resorting to this legislation. Of course, that is quite a different question from the intrinsic propriety; but as it regards the violation of any principle in respect 580 OUR GREAT MEN. to taking away an existing right, we do not violate the principle at all, because we could take away the whole government of the Territory ; and, as to every Territorial law, it is expressly provided in the organic act that it shall hold until disapproved by Congress. Now, it is proposed that Congress shall disapprove of this Territorial law. The ground upon which it goes, as a matter of propriety, aside from the principle I have stated, is simj)ly this : It is set forth in very few words, but I believe very truly, in the memorial which was presented to Congress in 1883, on the subject of Mormonism, as it is called, in Utah — the union of church and state, the absolute autocratic hierarchy that controls the whole aifairs of that Territory as distin- guished entirely from anybody's religious belief.' In the course of this memorial, which was sent up to us by the Territorial central committee of the liberal party of Utah, representing all the opponents of this system that exists there — I am not now speaking about religious beliefs, but the practical system — on this topic they say this, speaking of this hierarchy : "'It confers on woman the suffrage, and then forces her to use it under the lash of its priesthood to perpetuate their power and her own degradation.' " It is to relieve the Mormon woman of Utah from the slavehood of being obliged to exercise a political function which is to keep her in a state of degradation, it is to diminish the voting power of this hierarchy ; and, so far as I know and have heard — and I may say with modesty that I know a good deal and have heard a great deal more concerning the state of things in Utah — there has been no instance in which any anti-polygamy woman in Utah GEOEGE F. EDMUNDS. 581 has raised her voice against this provision, which has now been j^roposed, for nearly two years. I believe it is safe to say, therefore, that what are called the Gentile women in Utah, and that part of the Mormon women who do not believe in polygamy and do not practice it, are willing and desirous that Congress should assist in reducing the voting power of this hierarchy by depriving all the women in that Territory of the right to vote for the time being, until yve can get society restored to its proper and normal condition ; and then, if the people of Utah desire to have women vote, certainly they will not receive any opposition from me. "Mr. President, my friend from Massachusetts in- quires why I do not come out frankly and say that I want to deprive a Mormon of the right of voting because he believes in certain things that I believe to be criminal. I do come out frankly and say that I am not in favor of anything of the kind. This bill and the bill that pre- ceded it, and other bills that very likely will follow this until the practice of polygamy is extirpated, and it is admitted to be a dead and gone thing, are not based upon the idea of in any manner interfering with the opinions or beliefs of anybody. This bill deals with the conduct and states of fact, not opinions, faiths or beliefs ; and, as to woman's suffrage, it deals not with opinions of priests or people in the sense in which that term is usually understood. "The situation there is unique. These plural wives and the persons under the control of that hierarchy are under an entirelv different influence and control from that which affects the females or the males in the Roman ■'y. -^^ 582 OUR GREAT MEN. Catholic Church, or in the Episcopal Church, or in the Methodist Church, or in any other church. It comes nearer to a state of serfdom, as these gentlemen, from every one of the counties in Utah, composing this central committee of the whole body of the people there opposed to polygamy, including Mormons among those who are opposed to it, state; and, therefore, because the case is unique, we deal with the fact, and we will try to get the political power into the hands of those who are opposed to the practice of polygamy by diminishing the voting powers of that hierarchy. That is all there is to it, and it is entirely different from the nature of a vested right of property. My friend says that under the laws of Utah a property right acquired under a statute of that Territory which had not been a2:>i)roved by Congress would be just as much the subject of being destroyed by an annulment by Congress of that Territorial act. I quite disagree with my learned friend. A property right acquired under a statute has then gone beyond the reach of that statute, and has separated itself from it. A political right or a civil right which depends upon conventional arrange- ments is a continuing one. We do not propose to annul the voting that the women of Utah have done hitherto. We only propose to say that for the time being they shall not vote any more. It does not disturb any vested right, unless it is a vested right in a Territory to vote according to the Territorial law when Congress has not yet approved that law, but now proposes to disapprove it." Following are a few remarks by Mr. Edmunds on the education bill: "Mr. President, the Senator from Massachusetts, in GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. 583 opposing the idea of equality in this distribution between the colored and white children in States where the State law makes a discrimination as it regards the methods and places of education, says that if you have a family, which is his case, of a father and mother and seven children, it is no part of our mission in giving some money to help them keep from starving to inquire into the respective conditions of the children of that family, and we must assume that the father and mother will treat all the children alike. That is very fair and very right; but when the father and mother come to us for this donation and say to us, 'We have a law in our family which says that out of our seven children four of them, who are colored (and three of them are white), shall be fed in a separate room and shall sleep in separate beds and live in a separate house,' then I think it would be fair for the giver of all good and perfect gifts out of the Treasury to say, ' If you have got a law of that kind in your family, as we want to help all your children, we will provide that this bread and butter and beef, etc., to the extent of twenty-five per cent, that is necessary, shall be divided according to your law of separation of your family; and that the four colored children of yours, who live in a separate house and sleep in a separate bed and are taught in a separate school, shall have the four-sevenths of this money that we give, and your white children shall have the three-sevenths.' "That is the argument, and that is my answer to it; and that is exactly this case. The Congress of the United States does not propose, at least so far as I am con- cerned, to create any distinctions between races; but in 584 OUR GREAT MEN. making this donation of money it proposes to recognize distinctions and separations that the respective States have chosen in their own wisdom to make. I make no quarrel with that distinction. I am inclined to believe, differing from the Senator from Massachusetts, that under existing conditions of affairs it is better for the children of both races and for the ultimate good of those respective States that they should at present be edu- cated separately. I think it is better for them all, as it strikes me. "Therefore, the proposition of the Senator from Iowa, instead of creating distinctions, assumes and takes up the very distinction that the laws of these States make them- selves, and creates no new one. It says simply that wherever that rule of separation and inclusion and exclusion exists, there and then, and so far and no farther, shall the application of this money be made to the two respective classes in proportion to the numbers of those classes and the numbers of those schools. Is that interfering with the rights of the States? Is that making race distinctions, or color distinctions, or any other distinctions? It takes the case as it finds it. It applies this gift in exactly the way the State has chosen to apply its own gifts and donations and contributions and taxations of public money for the suj^port of these schools. Is not that right? That is all there is to it. " ISTow, the Senator from Massachusetts has seemed to think, differing from his friend from New Hampshire, that this bill does not do that thing. But the bill does say, in Section 3, that this provision in regard to educa- tion, without any discrimination of race and color, shall 1 GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. 585 not be construed to interfere with the separation of the races that the States may make in their schools, as follows : ' Provided^ That separate schools for white and colored children shall not be considered a violation of this condition' — the condition being that there shall be education out of this fund without distinction of race or color. " Then the bill provides that it recognizes, and admits and submits to, in the giving of this gift, the right of each State to do what many of the States have done, to institute separate schools for their white and their colored children. When such a State makes such a distinction by its laws, and it turns out that in that State there are three colored children needing education to one white, it is not right that this gift, if it is to be devoted to the purpose we all say it is, of helping them all alike, should be applied in the same proportion, in accordance with the State law which makes that distinction, and therefore place this bread of life, as it is, of political and moral and social life, and I might almost say of spiritual life, on the plates and tables of the people Avho need it, according to the State separations and institutions that each State has made for itself. That is the proposition. "Take the State of Vermont for illustration, where, to be sure, there is no such thing as separate education between the white and colored children. There are very few colored people there, but they all go to the schools with their little white friends, there being no objection anywhere among children that ever I have seen to play- ing marbles or playing ball or anything in the streets between white and colored ; and therefore, in our State, 586 OUR GREAT MEN. there is no objection to their receiving the same bounties and being taught in the same way. I am not criticising other States where there are greater numbers of these people, if that were to make any difference ; I am saying nothing about that. The proposition is not to allow the State of Vermont to take this fund upon the theory of general illiteracy and then authorize her to give one-half of it to one race and one-half of it to the other, when of one race there are nine to ten that need it to one in the other. " If the State of Vermont chooses to say that her white and colored children shall be educated separately, and when the statistics show that in the State of Vermont there are four colored children to one white that are illit- erate, or four colored persons on the basis of this bill, then apply the money according to that need, in conform- ity with the institution of the State itself, in order that all may fare alike out of this gift, and not leave it to the discretion and temptation of any State to unjustly and unduly distribute this money as the political or other social bias may be in one State or another, according as one race or the other may have the preponderance of political power. That is my proposition." On an amendment to the education bill Mr. Edmunds said: " Mr. President, I do not think there is any constitu- tional difficulty in this bill. The Constitution of the United States gave to Congress the power to impose taxes, without any other limitation in the tax clause than that of paying the debts and providing for the common defense and general welfare of the Union. It left Con- GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. 5S7 gress apparently, therefore, just where the Legislatures of all States were left by their Constitutions at that time and since, except as there may be in some States special qualifications and exceptions about legislative power to impose taxes. There never was a tax laid in the United States that I remember, passed either by Congress or by a State Legislature, that undertook to state the purpose for which that tax should be expended. That was left to such political discretion as the people who paid the tax, acting through their representatives, should think fit to exercise. "Then there is the other provision, that no money shall be drawn from the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law. There is no other limitation, except as you derive it by argument from gen- eral considerations. In that clause there is no limitation over the power of appropriation. It recognizes the power of appropriating money in the Treasury, having provided how, without limitation, except for paying debts and pro- viding for the general welfare, that money should be got into the Treasury. "The only security, therefore, that the Constitution makers thought fit to impose upon the public treasure when it had been gathered together in the Treasury was that of the people acting through their immediate repre- sentatives and acting through the Senators elected by the States, so that the political discretion and action of those two bodies should be exerted in drawing money from the Treasury. It did not say — no Constitution ever had said or could say — that no money should be drawn from the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made 588 OUR GREAT MEN. by law for a sj^ecific 2:>urpose named in some other part of the Constitution. It would have been impossible, impracticable, unphilosophical and unpatriotic, and so they left it in that way. "In addition to that we have had a hundred years of existence, and among the very earliest acts of the earlier Congresses, if practice and precedent amount to anything in construing constitutions, and I think they do, and in every Congress since, you will find a greater or smaller number of bills passed and approved by the Presidents appropriating money out of the Treasury in one form or another for objects that are not specifically named in any of the special clauses of the Constitution, and for objects that have no possible relation to any of those specific powers of affirmative action imposed upon Congress as to what it may do as the expression of the public will, carrying on an executive ^performance by affirmative and positive force of law, as distinguished from 2)aying money out of the Treasury. "So, then, without going at large into such a discus- sion, it is perfectly plain to my mind, with great respect to those who think otherwise, that the constitutional power of Congress to devote money in the Treasury to whatever extent Congress chooses to do so, to this object or any other beneA'olence, foreign or domestic, is entirely clear, and I fully agree to what the eloquent Senator from Massachusetts []Mr. Hoar] has said as it regards the promotion of the general welfare by the universality of education as one of the three fundamental elements with- out which, in the long run, no government of the people, by the people, and for the people, can exist. Agreeing to GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. 589 that, it is unnecessary for me to fortify, as I could not by anything I should say, the case as he has so well stated it. " We then come to the question as to what we ought to do. "VVe do find, and all agree as a fact, that in a great many of the States of this Union there is an undue and excessive proportion of people who are ignorant, and of children who are ignorant, and in those States it appears to be a fact that at this present time there are not sufficient resources available from the taxable prop- erty of the inhabitants of those States to provide for this emergency. It is, therefore, as it seems to me, a case in which the common treasure of all the people may be fairly devoted in aid of this great and necessary object, for the preservation of real republican government. "That being so, we want to do it fairly; we want to do it under such safeguards that we shall be sure that the money will be devoted and applied to the very uses for which it is intended. To do less would be merely to waste the treasure of the people and to defeat the very ends that we have in view. " Now, it must be said with all candor and frankness that the previous experience of the United States in devoting public treasure, whether of lands or money or whatever, to the purposes of education in several of the States — I do not say all, because it would not be true — has not been fortunate.' I believe it to be true that in several of the States the donations that Congress has from time to time provided have been diverted from the objects to which they were designed, and applied to others to which Congress would never have consented if the 590 OUR GREAT MEN. proposition had been in the first place to do that thing and in that way. Nobody, therefore, ought to object to our taking the utmost care that the purpose we have in view shall be accomplished under every safeguard of due application and due report that it is possible to devise. "When I have looked at the laws of the States in which there are large populations of white and colored people and white and colored children, of course of the people, I have found, diifering from the laws of the States with which I am more familiar, that the management and adjustment of school operations is confided to a very few hands, and that in many of those States — and I dare say in all, but I have not looked them through enough to satisfy me — it is left to one man or one small board of men to determine how many school districts there shall be in a county or in a State, and to determine how many schools there shall be in each district, and of which determination the particular people who live in that par- ticular locality have no immediate power of correction or improvement. I find in those States that the positive and affirmative statute regulation is that the white children and the colored children shall not be educated in the same school. " That being the state of the case applied to this bill, a& I understand it, as it now stands, it would be within the competence of the school authority in any State to deter- mine under the law of that State in a given county how many white schools and how many colored schools there should be, and in the exercise of that discretion which the law imputes to him he is responsible to nobody except to the power that in the end may turn him out of office and put GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. 591 somebody else in. In the exercise of that discretion in a county where there are ten thousand colored children and five thousand white children, he may set up ten white schools and two colored schools, and yet on this bill, as it now stands, in equality between child and child as child, or man and man as man, the law of the State conforms to the requisition of the law of the United States; and while as between each colored child and each white child that is able to get to school there is equality of education, the practical outcome is that for the great body of the col- ored children no provision of school-houses and school districts, convenient and accommodating, established and set up, is made, while for the white children all is made that the State thinks necessary and can bear ; and it can be reversed, of course, just the same. If the colcred people of South Carolina, for instance, who are said to be in the majority there, should act together, as I sometimes have been told that the white race does, and should ha^ e their votes counted at the polls, and should elect col ored governors and legislators and school superintends ents, and the whole autonomy of that State, under this bill, as it now stands, it would be within their competence to set up ten colored schools to one white school, and while in each school there would be equality as between each of the children who went to the two, yet taken in the mass the colored population of South Carolina would be provided for and educated, while the white population would not be. " I can not agree to a proposition of that kind. I can not agree to leave the public money of the United States in the power of any State or any State authority which 36 592 OUR GREAT MEN. can effectuate a discrimination in masses, not trying to do it as between individuals, which will work either way in the method that I have described. That is the way it looks to me. *' If, then, this money is first given to these States in proportion to illiteracy, without regard to the illiteracy of people who can gain any immediate and direct benefit by education from it, as the bill now stands, it goes up to one hundred years, or whatever the age of everybody may be ; the money being given to these States, it ought to be appropriated to the education of both races alike by fair means, so that the children of both races, as near as we can get at it, according to the ages where they could be properly taught, should have equal advantages and fair play, and not equal advantages and fair play as between child and child merely as persons, but equal advantages and fair play as it regards the institution of a school sys- tem that makes the proper number of districts and sets up the proper number of schools according to the neces- sities of each race, as the law of the State requires, but those necessities are to be separately considered and sep- arately treated. That seems to me to be fair. "Now, this amendment that I offer proposes that thing ; that the money being taken to the State, it ■ shall be divided between the white and colored schools, where the State makes that distinction, in proportion to the num- ber of illiterate people between the ages of ten and twenty- one, which is as near as we can get at it by the census. There would be a way, as the Commissioner of Education has shown in his report, to educe fr-om *-he census the school age of each State, but it would not be tha consu-s ; GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. 593 it would be something else, although it might be true, and that would be more philosophical. But when I turn to the laws of the State of Kentucky in force in the year 1880 — and this census date is taken for all the States alike — I find that Kentucky had in force in that year (I believe she has changed it since, but that would not help this measure, w^hich is based on the census of 1880) a law furnishing two separate ranges of age for school children between the white and the colored, the eifect of which plainly is to give the white children a much larger share of the income of that State for their schools than the colored children could get upon the same basis, be- cause it makes the school age of the colored children in narrower compass than the school age of the white chil- dren. As, for instance, it may say — I have forgotten the figures, but it illustrates just as well — that the school age of white children shall be between five and eighteen, and that the school age of the colored children shall be between five and twelve ; and the consequence would be, if you distribute this upon the theory of the school age of the children by the laws of the several States as they stood at the time of the census of 1880, the State of Ken- tucky would get a larger proportion for its white children than it did for its colored children, and the white children would get it. That would not do. It is, therefore, nec- essary, as it appears to me, to take the census statement, which shows us the number of the white and colored per^ sons in these States between ten and twenty-one, by com- plete and exact tables, as the basis of this division between white and colored children. "With this amendment, as far as I now understand 594 OUR GREAT MEN. it, I shall most cheerfully and gladly vote for this bill; but in the state of the laws in these various States, in the state of the power that those laws give, and, as shown by the reports, have been executed, the result of which is that the number of colored children in propor- tion to the poj)ulation in many of these States — I do not say all; I have not looked it through — who are able to attend school, and get the benefit of whatever the State provides for them, is much smaller than of the white children ; and it is smaller because it is within the auto- cratic power of the managers of the school system to whom the discretion as to the number of districts and the number of schools is left ; from the cause that thev estab- lish more' white schools in more convenient localities than they do colored schools, and under their laws they have a right to do it — I mean a legal right; I do not mean a moral right — and they do it. Having done it, the money of the United States, without this amendment, would go to aid and encourage the exercise of that dis- crimination wherein they set up their separate arrange- ment for white and colored children, these two methods of education, two forms of education, and enable them- selves to ajDpropriate this money, if they might, in a given county, in a given State, almost entirely to the whites and not to the colored. In that state of things I think this amendment is absolutely necessary." Hon. NATHANIEL J. HAMMOND, OF GEORGIA. ATHANIEL J. HAMMOND, of Atlanta, the Democratic member of Congress from the Fifth Congressional District of Georgia, was born in Elbert County, Georgia, December 26th, 1833. He was given a liberal education, graduating at the University of Georgia, in Athens, in 1852. The following year he was admitted to the Bar, and has prac- ticed law ever since, when not engaged with public duties. From 1861 to 1865 he was Solicitor-General, and Reporter of the Supreme Court from 1867 to 1872. He then served as Attorney-General for five years. He was a prominent member of the Constitutional Conventions of the State of Georgia of 1865 and 1877. He has been an active mem- ber of the United States Congress since the Forty-sixth Congress. During the session of the Forty-ninth Congress there arose quite a discussion on a bill to regulate the manu- facture and sale of oleomargarine. Mr. Hammond made an able speech on this subject, from which extracts are here given: " Mr. Chairman, the farmers of this country are much more interested in preserving our American system of (595) 596 OUR GREAT MEN. government in its purity than in suppressing the manu- facture and sale of oleomargarine. " This report gives two reasons for the passage of this bill — one that Congress has the power to do it, and the other that it ought to do it because oleomargarine pro- duces dyspepsia. Neither of these is a good reason for this Congress doing anything. Congress has the power to do many things which it ought not to do. Congress is nobody's doctor. [Laughter.] When the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Scott] was asked to put it upon any constitutional basis, he sought to rest it upon the 'general-welfare' clause of the Constitution. There is no such clause in the Constitution as allows Congress to do whatever it may think for the general welfare. He called selling oleomargarine piracy. Did he rest it upon the piracy clause ? "There is such a clause, but the making of oleomar- garine is not piracy 'on the high seas.' The gentleman from Illinois who just took his seat [Mr. Hopkins] says that oleomargarine produces Bright's kidney disease, and he wishes Congress to become a doctor. Let us look at the matter seriously. Just what the Congress can do it ought to do to take care of the farmers and everybody else, provided it does it honestly and in accordance with the Constitution of the country. ****** "Now, I tell every man in this House that can con- scientiously say that his vote for this bill is only to raise a tax that he may honestly vote for it under the taxing power of the Constitution. But if his reason is to help one Yankee to fight another Yankee in his industry, and NATHANIEL J. HAMMOND. 697 he votes for this bill, he will have abused the powers of the Constitution which he swore to support. The gentle- man from Pennsylvania said that the State was powerless, and therefore the General Government should act. In 1883, with a very large establishment in my own city making oleomargarine, Georgia passed an act declaring that every particle of butterine should be so marked, and that every man who carried it into his boarding-house, restaurant or hotel for eating should put up a placard that 'his house uses oleomargarine' — that he should put it on his bills of fare, and publish it in every room, or be guilty of a crime. And the manufacture died in Georgia. According to the protectionists' logic, j^os^ hoc jpro]ptor hoc, the law killed the factory. It can be done everywhere where the people desire to kill it. And then you keep the constitutional system intact. "I have before me, but will not stop to read from it in my limited time, Cooley's Constitutional Limita- tions. It declares that the States, and the States only, may make laws to protect the health and morals of the people, or make laws to keep people from drinking liquors in the States. The Government of the United States can not do it. The Government of the United States can tax liquors. But the honorable gentleman from Pennsylva- nia was mistaken when he said that those taxes were levied on tobacco and liquor because they were supposed to be injurious. They are levied because those things are classed as the non-necessaries, and by some as luxuries. Xo government ever yet taxed" either for the purpose of excluding bad things from the stomachs of its people. "Any State now may so far interfere with the taxing 698 OUR GREAT MEN. powers of the Federal Government as to declare that no gallon of liquor shall be made or sold within that State. The Siq^reme Court has so held from ' the license cases ' in 5 HowarcVs Reports down; because the State, under State police power, has the authority, and the exclusive authority. Cooley also declares that the Government of the United States has a police power, but that that police power is only to enable it to carry out the powers dele- gated in the Constitution, those surrendered by the peo- ple to that Government and not to the States. Now, if what I have said is true, this bill, as a bill to suppress the manufacture of oleomargarine, is unconstitutional. "Again, it is protection run mad when we say, 'Pro- tect my industry against that other fellow's here at home.' This bill is not framed to prevent cheating people. The ■^ery first section protects colored butter. It says ' butter* viall include ' butter made with or without coloring mat- ter.' You may swindle me as much as you please by making white butter look yellow. It is only the thing which comes in competition with that colored butter that must be excluded, because it is not genuine butter. "I have other objections to this bill, which I will state in the few minutes I have. It is a bill to popular- ize, and therefore perpetuate and extend, the internal revenue system. Who else will come here next week and say: 'Add a few offices in the Internal Revenue De- partment to protect me, who am selling my Pennsylvania tobacco against that man who sells Sumatra covered up and calls it Pennsylvania; I want you to add on to your law that that shall be a crime — cheating in cigars?' Another man will say he is selling pure woolen goods, JOHN W. DANIEL. 599 but that others put cotton in their goods and tell lies about them, and ask for another set of men to watch him. And the whole time of the Congress will be taken up in trying to catch up with American rascality — a thing that is impossible." [Laughter.] Hon. JOHN W. DANIEL. OF VIRGINIA. ,^^^?;|OHX ^y. DANIEL is a native of the place where he now resides, Lynchburg, Campbell County, Virginia. Here he was born Sep- tember 5th, 1842. He was educated at Lynchburg College and at Harrison's University School. In May, 1861, he volunteered in the Confederate Army, and served until the close of the war, when he held the rank of Major and Adjutant-General, Early's Division, of the Army of Northern Virginia. In 1865-66 he attended the Law Department of the University of Vir- ginia, and has ever since practiced his profession. He is the author of two books, Daniel on Attachments and Daniel on Negotiahle Instruments. In 1869 he was a member of the Virginia House of Representatives, and in 1875 and 1879 of the Virginia Senate. He was a member of the Electoral College in 1876, casting his vote for Tilden and Hendricks. He resicjned his seat in the State Senate in 1881, when he 600 OUR GREAT MEN. received the nomination for Governor, but was defeated in the election. He was elected to represent the Sixth Congressional District of Virginia in the Forty-ninth Congress, but had barely taken his seat when he was elected by the Legisla- ture of Virginia to the United States Senate, his term commencing with the Fiftieth Congress. Mr. Daniel is an able speaker, and always a leader. His speech on the tax on oleomargarine was short but unique. Mr. Daniel said: "The Republican party has jumped the wall of all its previous enunciations upon economic questions. But, sir, astounded as I am at the nimbleness with which our Republican finends jump everything which they have hitherto pronounced to be walls of American defense, still more am I astounded when I see Democrats on this floor, who have pledged themselves to abolish war taxes, and who have put uj^on their banner the motto of Thomas Jefferson, 'Equal and exact justice for all men,' take a wild leap over the walls of the Constitution and through the roof, turn a double somersault in the air, land far away from every landmark of their creeds, and run ten leagues farther than ever the wildest radicalism of Repub- licanism gone to seed has ever gone. [Laughter.] Sir, there is a new song in the mouth of my Democratic friend from Pennsylvania to-day that does not sound much like the resolutions which the Legislature of Pennsylvania adopted in 1791, when, uttering the free spirit of that State, which had not yet died out after the Revolution, they protested against the ingrafting into America of the excise system. It will ever remain one of the proudest JOHN W. DANIEL. 601 features of the first administration of Thomas Jefferson that, in conjunction with Albert Gallatin, he led the way io get rid of that system. "And, sir, it seems to be indicated upon this floor that under the first administration of Grover Cleveland, predestined, as was hoped by a great many of the Amer- ican people, to resume the mantle which had so long been laid aside, that the champions and leaders of the Democracy have come to stand here and preach a doc- trine which will raise every powerful hand against every weak one. Disguise it as you will, salt it with rhetoric as you will, paint it with the extract of colored butter as you will, perfume it with clover blossoms as you will, and sing the song of the milkmaid about it as you will, the substantial fact remains that in this bill is the doc- trine that Congress may create monopoly, and may help monopoly to crush out and destroy every wholesome industry that comes 'between the wind and its nobility.' "Murder has its rights; arson has its rights; every crime in the decalogue has its rights, when represented in the criminal, to have its fair hearing in a court of justice before it is condemned. But, sir, according to the doc- trines that have been enunciated upon this floor and embodied in this bill— not to protect the citizen against fraud, not to ear-mark that which may be noxious or counterfeit — we are called on to authorize one industry to use the vast powers of sixty millions of people abso- lutely to destroy and crush out another industry which has no jury to try it, no charge to defend against, but must be condemned without a hearing in the House which should be the house of its friends." Hon. JAMES H. BERRY, OF ARKANSAS. IaMES H. berry was elected in 1884 as a Democrat to succeed Hon. A. H. Garland, Democrat, in the United States Senate, and appointed Attorney-General, taking his seat March 25th, 1885. The home of the Senator is in Ben- tonville, Arkansas. He is a native of Alabama, where he was born in Jackson County, May 15th, 1841. His parents removed Jo Arkansas when he was but seven years of age. He was educated in a private school at Berryville, Arkansas ; then, studying law, he was admitted to j)ractice in 1866. In 1861 he entered the Confederate Army as Second Lieutenant, Sixteenth Arkansas Infantry. At the battle of Corinth, Mississippi, October 4th, 1862, he was wounded in the leg so severely that amputation became necessary. He was elected to the Legislature of Arkansas in 1866, and since that time has been in public service con- tinuously. He was re-elected to the State Legislature in 1872, and was elected Speaker of the House at the ex- traordinary session of 1874. In 1876 he was President of the Democratic State Convention ; in 1878 was elected (602) JAMES H. BERRY. 603 Judge of the Circuit Court, and in 1882 was elected Gov- ernor of Arkansas. Following are some remarks by Mr. Berry on the Arkansas Hot Springs: '' By an act of Congress, approved in December, 1878, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to lease to the owners certain bath-houses located upon the perma- nent reservation at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and also to lease bath-house sites for a period of five years. The same act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to lease the Arlington Hotel to the proprietors for a period of ten years. The leases made under this act, so far as they relate to the bath-houses, expired in December, 1883. The Secretary of the Interior at that time, the present Senator from Colorado [Mr. Teller], decided that he had no power to renew those leases. He, however, permitted the parties who held under the former leases to retain possession as tenants at will upon the same terms as those that were provided for in the former leases. In October, 1885, the Attorney-General gave an opinion that the Sec- retary of the Interior did have the power under the act of 1878 to renew these leases. This opinion, however, did not commit the Attorney-General to the policy of renewal. *«**«♦« "I shall not attempt, Mr. President, at this time to state at any length the reasons why I think that the whole system should be changed of controlling the reser- vation and disposing of the hot waters at Hot Springs. I will state, however, that under the present system it would be utterly impossible to ever improve and beautify 604 OUK GREAT MEJ^. that reservation in order to make it a desirable resort for the invalids and visitors who may go to that watering- place. I believe that so long as those bath-houses remain iq^on that reservation, and are occupied by those in charge of them, with their families, it is utterly impossi- ble to keep the place in that sanitary condition necessary for the health and comfort of the people. To-day that reservation is made a general dumping-ground for all those articles which good taste requires should be kept from public view. "Another reason why I am opposed to the renewal of these leases is this : Under the present lease system there are a few individuals, the owners of the Arling- ton Hotel, the owners of those bath-houses, who have a complete monopoly over the hot water that is used and flows from the springs. In addition to that, under the l^resent system, more than one-half, some say four-fifths, of that hot water escapes into the channel of the creek and is forever lost. I was going to remark, however, that so complete is this monopoly that Captain Jacobs, of the United States Army, who had in charge the building of the Army and Navy hospital there, was com- pelled last summer to buy water for the United States Government for the construction of that building. I say, while this hot water is allowed to escape, not one of the citizens residing in the southern part of the city of Hot Springs, the most populous part of that city, is enabled to obtain a bath-house or a single gallon of hot water. "In addition to these reasons, Mr. President, the indi- viduals who own these bath-house leases and this Arling- ton Hotel are not liable to pay any taxes for that prop- MATT W. EANSOM. (305 erty. They are practically the owners. They pay the Government a mere nominal rent. The Arlington Hotel cost perhaps |60,000; the bath-houses cost perhaps $100,000 each, or more ; and the owners of this property are entitled to the benefit of the free schools, and they are entitled to protection from the State and municipal authorities, and yet upon this property they pay not one dollar of tax. So long as this monopoly is continued, so long will there be strife and contention at the Hot Springs; and so long as strife and contention continue there, so long will visitors and invalids be deterred from seeking that greatest health resort on the American continent." Hon. matt w. ransom, OF NORTH CAROLINA. ATT W. RANSOM, of JN'orthampton County, North Carolina, was born in Warren County, of that State, in 1826. He received a thor- ough academic education, and in 1847 grad- uated from the University of North Carolina. He was admitted to the Bar in 1847. In 1852 he was elected Attorney-General of North Carolina, but resigned some three years later. He was elected to the State Legisla- ture for the sessions of 1858, '59 and '60. In 1861 he was Peace Commissioner to the Confederate Congress which 606 OUE GREAT MEN. convened in Montgomery, Alabama. He entered the Confederate Army, and served as Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel, Brigadier-General and Major-General. He was with Lee at the surrender at Appomattox. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1872 as a Demo- crat, and has been an efficient member of that body of legislators ever since. In his tribute to the memory of Thomas A. Hendricks he said: "The whole truth is, sir, that he was the earnest, faithful, devoted champion and defender of the people's rights. The sincerity of his devotion was the charm of his success. He was prudent, sagacious, laborious, wise. He consulted the people's interest just as he would have consulted his own interest. He never undertook to mis- lead, to deceive or to inflame them. He never trifled with their liberties, their property or their honor. He never attempted to dazzle them with false and glittering hopes, or to madden their prejudices and precipitate them into desperate perils. He was a brave, cautious, vigilant pilot, never departing from his chart or neglecting his compass. His j^ositions were thoughtfully taken, securely fortified and boldly defended. He was never surprised or deluded. He was misled by no false lights. He was so thoroughly prepared and equipped by labor, study and attainment that he was always ready for and equal to the occasion. He was a sentinel who never left the post of duty. " He was not like noble Hector, towering over all the Trojans, but betrayed by proud hopes into fatal indiscre- tion. He was not like Achilles, superior alike to Greeks MATT W. RANSOM. 607 and Trojans, but cursed with passions stronger than him- self, and driven by mad revenge from the field of honor and duty to his sullen tents. But he was like Diomede and Ulysses, those pillars of the cause of Greece, ever' sagacious, faithful and prepared. Like them, he bore reverses with dignity and composure, and was equally modest and reserved in victory. Like them, he was 'equal to either fortune.' He loved law and order and abhorred chaos. Like Socrates, he obeyed if he did not respect the law, and, like that greatest of Athenian patriots, would, with his last breath, have sacrificed to the law as to the majesty of his country, even if it de- stroyed himself. He was never eccentric or meteoric or convulsive ; and though he never shone with the magni- tude and intense splendor of Aldebaran, yet he constantly exhibited the virtue and energy of the paler and serener star whose truth never varies. If he was not a Moses, leading his people from Egyptian darkness through the wilderness, striking water from the rock and invoking bread from the skies, he was the ever faithful Joshua, 'strong and very courageous, observing all the law as it was commanded unto him, and turning not from it to the right or to the left, and prospering wheresoever he went.' "He did not stand among men like some majestic mountain, with its proud head in the clouds wrapt in snow, an object of wonder and astonishment to all who beheld it ; but his life resembled the beautiful plain be- neath, studded with cities, villages and happy homes, refreshed by cooling streams, abounding in fruitful fields, and bearing on its bosom the comforts and the blessings 87 608 OUK GBEAT MEN. of men. He was always practical, useful and efficient. He seems to me to have taken color and character from that great line of English statesmen who for eight hun- dred years have steadily maintained and advanced the growth of liberty and law, and wisely avoided the con- vulsions and upheavals and collapses of the neighboring nations. His life and character were complete and rounded as a circle, and resembled the writings of Addi- son, of which it may be truly said that they are so simple, so pure, so strong, so full of grace, and so free from gross- ness, so clear with light, and so consistent with reason, that nothing can be added to them without marring their beauty, and nothing can be detracted from them without impairing their force." ■^^^^ Hon. JAMES B. EUSTIS, OF LOUISIANA. AMES B. EUSTIS, of New Orleans, is a native of the "Crescent City." He was born August 27th, 1834. He received a collegiate education, and attended Harvard Law School in 1853 and 1854. In 1856 he was admitted to the Bar, and commenced practicing at New Orleans. At the commencement of the civil war he entered the Confederate service as Judge-Advocate on the staff of General Magruder. He served in that capacity for one JAMES B. EUSTIS. 609 year, and was then transferred to the staff of General Johnston, with whom he served until the surrender. After the war he again entered upon the practice of his profession at New Orleans. He was a member of the committee sent to Washington to consult with Pres- ident Johnson on Louisiana aifairs. In 1872 he was a member of the Louisiana House of Kepresentatives, and in 1874 he was elected a member of the State Senate for four years. From December 10th, 1877, to March 3d, 1879, he was a member of the United States Senate ; and he was Professor of Civil Law in the University of Louisiana when he was elected to the United States Senate in 1884. He was elected as a Democrat, and took his seat March 4th, 1885. In his remarks on the question of silver deposits Mr. Eustis said: " Mr. President, it is not my purpose or intention to do any injustice to any official of the Government. I am very frank to state that the Assistant Treasurer at New Orleans places his denial to receive this silver dollar so shipped upon two grounds: first, that the sub-treasury should not be made an intermediary between banks; and, second, that he has not clerical force sufficient to handle the amount of silver which might be brought in for deposit. «*♦*** "What I say is that it has been the custom for banks in the interior to ship silver dollars to the sub-treasury, the money being received subject to count, and receipts being issued to the correspondents in New Orleans; and 610 OUR GREAT MEN. that custom has been suddenly changed and abandoned, and this cashier says in this letter that he has informa- tion from the banks which made the shipments that that custom still i^revails at the sub-treasury in New York. Now, inasmuch as that custom has prevailed, and it is not violative of law, and inasmuch as the Government of the United States, so far as we know, has never lost a single dollar or incurred any greater responsibility by reason of that custom, and if that custom does j)revail at the sub-treasury in New York, why has it been changed with reference to the sub-treasury in the city of New Orleans ? " It was only on the 2d of January, 1886, so far as I know, that any one has ever heard of the Assistant Treasurer at New Orleans refusing to recognize this mode of doing business, refusing to receive these ship- ments of silver dollars, as he did on that day a shipment of 125,000 from the Memphis (Tennessee) Bank of Com- merce, and the Waco State Bank, of Waco, Texas; and it is that point to which I wish to direct the attention of the Committee on Finance ; for if that statement should be substantiated by the evidence, if it should be proved that that custom had prevailed, if it should be proved that that custom does yet prevail, with reference to the sub-treasuries in New York and other places, then I say that that official who has approved of the change of that custom in the city of New Orleans exposes him- self to very grave suspicions, to say the least, with ref- erence to his hostility and his secret warfare against the silver dollar. "We know that the Treasury of the United States JAMES B. EUSTIS. 611 has great power ; we know that its officials have great power ; we know that in many cases, merely by interpre- tation and construction of the law, they can practically repeal or nullify a law of Congress. We know that by evasion and by indirection and by simulation of fultilling the requirements of the law, even in reference to this financial question, they have the power to impede and obstruct and destroy and defeat the purpose of the law itself. And while I do not intend to make any accusa- tion or charge in advance of the proof, while I am will- ing to give this official, the Treasurer of the United States, the benefit of the doubt, yet I must say that if the evidence should disclose that he has approved this official act of the Assistant Treasurer at New Orleans, and has not given such instructions to the Assistant Treasurers in other cities, then he would expose himself to the just charge and accusation that in those Southern States which have dealings with the sub-treasury at New Orleans the only purpose and the only design was to create a prejudice against the silver dollar among the people." Hon. ISHAM G. HARRIS. OF TENNESSEE. |SHAM G. HARRIS, of Memphis, is a na- tive of Franklin County, Tennessee, where he was born in 1818. He was educated at Winchester Academy. He studied law, and after gaining admission to the Bar, in 1841, he com- menced practicing law at Paris, Henry County, Tennessee. Mr. Harris is, in every sense of the word, a self-made man. His father was a man of very moderate means, and, much as he would have liked to do so, could not assist young Isham in obtaining his education. But as he was a young man of remarkable energy and a strong, determined will, he early commenced a career for himself, and would allow nothing to stand in his way that energy and perseverance could remove. He commenced with a clerkship at a very moderate salary, and won his way step by step up the ladder of fame. In 1847 the counties of Henry, Weakley and Obion elected him to the State Legislature. The following year he was a candidate for Presidential Elector in the Mnth Congressional District of Tennessee, on the Democratic ticket. In 1849 he was elected Representative to Con- gress from the Mnth Congressional District, and re- (612) imiM^i e, ML^iiMii ISHAM G. HARRIS. C15 elected in 1851. In 1853 he was renominated by the Democratic party, but refusing the nomination he re- moved to Memphis, which has since been his home. He was a Presidential Elector for the State at large in 1856, and in 1857 was elected Governor of Tennessee, re-elected in 1859, and again in 1861. Later he volunteered upon the staif of General Albert S. Johnston, the Command- ing General of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, but not until it was evident that the capitol of Tennessee was lost, and Governor Harris felt that his duty was with tho army. He continued in the service till the close of th« war, serving three years. In 1867 he returned to the practice of law, at Mem- phis, and in March of 1877 he took his seat in the United States Senate. Mr. Harris is not what may be termed a "noisy" member of the Senate, but his views are gen- erally concise and direct. Here are some remarks by Mr. Harris on the educational bill : "In view of the full and exhaustive discussion of this bill, I have no wish to delay the action of the Senate by prolonging the debate, and will therefore content myself by putting upon record, without argument or elaboration, some of the reasons which will control my vote. "Believing, as I do, and as I think has been clearly shown by the arguments and authorities cited by the Sen- ator from Alabama [Mr. Morgan] and the two Senators from Texas, that Congress has no power under the Con- stitution to levy and collect taxes, and appropriate the money so collected to this purely State purpose of main- taining a system of common schools, I shall record my vote against the passage of the bill. 616 OUE GKEAT MEN. "But if it was free from all constitutional objection I should still oppose it, for the reason that the money to be appropriated for this purpose, whether taken from the treasury of the several States or from the Federal Treas- ury, is drawn by taxation from the pockets of the people of the several States and Territories. And as the people have to pay these $77,000,000, it becomes a matter of interest to them to ascertain the method by which it can be paid with the least inconvenience and injury to themselves. " If collected under the direct-tax system of the States, every dollar drawn from their earnings would go into the Treasury, less the small commission for collection. And they would get the benefit of all that they were compelled to pay — each citizen having contributed in proportion to his wealth and his ability to pay. Not so, however, under the Federal system of taxation — about two-thirds of our Federal revenues being collected under our tariff laws, in the practical operations of which, to get one dollar into the Treasury, they are compelled to pay many dollars in the way of bounty to the protected home manufacturers, and the poorest man often compelled to pay as much as the most wealthy. "Therefore, on the score of economy, as well as of right, I would leave the matter of common-school educa- tion to the States, where it properly, legitimately and exclusively belongs. "I will not consent that the people of Tennessee shall be taxed to educate the children of Massachusetts or Louisiana ; nor would I consent to tax the people of Massachusetts or Louisiana to educate the children of ISHAM G. HAKRIS. 617 Tennessee. Nor do I wish to consult either the repre- sentatives or people of other States as to how much the people of Tennessee shall be taxed to support their own domestic institutions, educational or others. Nor do I wish to be consulted or in any manner interfere with the administration of the domestic affairs of any State other than my own. Nor would I ever consent to see the strong hand of Federal power extended into any State for the purpose of controlling or in any manner inter- fering with its domestic affairs. "Each State is the best judge of its own educational necessities, and the extent to which it is able to meet them, and should be left free to determine for itself, and to provide for these necessities in its own way. And even though it may not be able to provide for them as fully as it may desire, is it for that reason to assume the role of mendicant and ask alms at the hands of its more fortunate neighbors ? If so, let it begin in the ordinary way, and not through the coercive power of the revenue laws of the United States. " Those of us who oppose this bill can well afford to rest the case upon the arguments and authorities already referred to. That it will pass the Senate, however, is a foregone conclusion. I see in it seventy-seven millions of reasons why it will pass." Here are a few remarks by Mr. Harris on the postal appropriation bill: "Mr. President, I find in the Revised Statutes a gen- eral law. Section 4007, authorizing the -Postmaster-Gen- eral, after advertisement for proposals, to enter into con- tracts for the transportation of the mail between the 018 OUR GREAT MEN. United States and any foreign country whenever the public interest will thereby be promoted. This section is a general authority to contract, after advertising, with- out limitation as to time. It may be for a trip, for a month, for a year, or for four years or more, but it is a broad authority to contract. I find that Section 4009 provides : '"For transporting the mail between the United States and any foreign port, or between the ports of the United States, touching at a foreign port, the Postmaster- General may allow as compensation, if by United States steamship, any sum not exceeding the sea and United States inland postage ; and if by a foreign steamship or by a sailing vessel, any sum not exceeding the sea postage on the mails so transported.' "This fixes the limits within which the Postmaster- General may allow compensation for the transportation of these mails. If this amendment shall be agreed to and become a law, it affects the general law on the subject by limiting the power and authority of the Postmaster-Gen- eral to a given class of ships, to a fixed period not less than which he shall contract, and to a totally difi*erent rule of compensation. "If this amendment simply contained an appropria- tion for carrying the mails named in it, then the Post- master-General, under this general law as found in the Revised Statutes, could advertise for proposals, and under the limitations of the Revised Statutes could enter into contracts for carrying these mails; but this amend- ment goes much further than a simple matter of appro- priation for the carrying of the mails. It establishes a ISHAM a. HARRIS. 619 new rule as to compensation, and fixes limitations upon the power of the Postmaster-General that do not exist under the general law. Therefore, I raise the question of order that this amendment is general legislation upon a general appropriation bill ; and the first two lines of Clause 3 of Rule 16 provide that ' No amendment which proposes general legislation shall be received to any general appropriation bill.' I raise that question of order. • «♦««« "First, it will not be denied that this is a general appropriation bill; the second and only remaining ques- tion for the Chair to determine is, Is this general legisla- tion? If the Chair will scrutinize the law as it is laid down in the Revised Statutes, and scrutinize this amend- ment, the Chair is bound to perceive that it does limit and change the extent of the powers of the Postmaster- General as now prescribed under the Revised Statutes, and establishes a totally difi'erent rule in respect to the amount of compensation. It modifies, it changes, the general law, and therefore it is unmistakably general legislation. " My point is precisely this, that under Section 4006 the Postmaster-General is authorized and has the right to make a contract with any vessel, whether American or foreign, to carry mails to foreign countries, and that contract, if made under the Revised Statutes, may be for one trip, for one month, for one year, or for a number of years ; but if this amendment is agreed to, then that pro- vision of the Revised Statutes is changed, so that the Postmaster-General has no authority to make a contract for less than five years ; therefore, he would make a con- 620 OUR GREAT MEN. tract which would bind future Congresses, whether within or without their discretion — they would be compelled to make an appropriation to carry out the contract so made or repudiate it. * * * " This is changing the general law as to the authority of the Postmaster-General to make a contract. Then Sec- tion 4009 jDrescribes the maximum limit of compensation that may be allowed American steamers or foreign steam- ers for carrying our mails to foreign ports. A totally different rule of compensation is fixed by this amend- ment ; and again the general law is modified, if this shall be agreed to and become a law. That this is general leg- islation is as clear to my mind as that anything in the Revised Statutes is general legislation." The following is a, short speech by Mr. Harris on the interstate commerce bill : *' In order that the Senate may comprehend the pre- cise effect of that amendment I will say a single word. Under the provisions of the bill as it now stands com- mon carriers are j^rohibited from charging more in the aggregate for the short than the long haul over the same line of road going in the same direction and from the same point of departure. To illustrate: From the city of Chicago to New York, from the point of departure, Chicago, the through rate being to New York say ten cents a hundred pounds of grain, all shipments from Chicago to any point on that line could not exceed ten cents a hundred pounds from Chicago to the point of des- tination. But leaving Chicago and taking up freight ten miles or fifty miles or five hundred miles away from Chicago, on the line to New York, under the provisions ISHAM G. HARRIS. 621 of the bill as it stands, the transportation company would have a right to charge as much or thrice as much from this midway point to New York as from Chicago to New York. "By adopting the amendment and striking out this language, my understanding is that it will mean, no mat- ter whether you make your shipment from Chicago to some point in the direction of New York or to New York, you shall not charge more in the aggregate for the short haul than for the long haul ; that if you make your ship- ment from any point between Chicago and New York to New York, you shall not charge more for that shorter distance than you charge for the transportation over the whole line of road. "I think that explanation shows precisely what the amendment means, and the effect it is intended to have ; and believing that effect to be just and desirable, I shall vote for the amendment as proposed by the Senator from West Virginia. « • « « « * " Now, I should like to say a word upon that particu- lar point with respect to the railroad wars, because they induce that condition of carrying freights at less than cost. While a railroad company knows that it may carry through passengers at any rate, to illustrate, from Chi- cago to the city of New York for one dollar, yet when it takes up a passenger five or six miles out of Chicago it can charge him fifteen, or twenty, or twenty-five dollars, to recoup for the loss in carrying through passengers, and the same rule applies to freights from Chicago to New York. 622 ©IJR GREAT MEN. "If the Senator will consent to strike out this lan- guage, and assert by the law that the transportation com- pany shall not charge more in the aggregate for the short than for the long haul, he will do a great deal in the line of preventing these cut-throat railroad wars and freight wars that reduce freight rates and passenger rates below the cost of transporting freight and passengers. "With this language in the bill, that is the exact eifect of it. Take Washington City as the initial starting point, and you are shipping to the city of New York. Under the provisions of the bill as it stands to-day you can not charge any more from Washington to Philadelphia than you do to New York. You may charge as much. You can not charge any more from "Washington to Jersey City than you can to New York. But, suppose you want to ship from Baltimore to New York. Under the provisions of the fourth section as it now stands you may charge twice as much — you may charge ten times as much to ship exactly the same character and the same quantity of freight from the city of Baltimore to New York as you charge from the city of "Washington to New York. "The short-haul law was a question which engaged the attention of the committee for some months. A majority of the committee was not willing to go quite so far in that direction as I desired to go myself, but the extent to which I was willing to go has been reached by the adoption of the amendment which was agreed to yesterday. "When we have provided by law that the common carriers shall not charge more for the short haul than for THOMAS M. BAYNE. 623 the long haul, I am satisfied, from the investigation I have been able to give the question, that we have gone quite as far as we may safely go, from the standpoint of the information that we have up to this time. "I think the section as it stands is quite safe, and quite as far as we ought to go in that direction at this time of legislation, giving to the commission the discretionary power that the section lodges in the commission as it stands." Hon. THOMAS M. BAYNE, OF PENNSYLVANIA. IHOMAS M. BAYNE, of Alleghany, was born the 14th of June, 1836, in Alleghany, Pennsylvania. He was educated at West- minster College. In July, 1862, he entered the Union Army as Colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infan- try. He took part in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. In 1865 he resumed his interrupted law studies, and was admitted to the Bar in 1866. In 1870 he was elected District Attorney for Alleghany County, and held the position for nearly four years. He was the Republican nominee for the Forty-fourth Congress, but was defeated by the Democratic candidate. He was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress, however, and has been returned to each successive Congress. 624 OUK GREAT MEN. In the Forty-ninth Congress quite a discussion arose over the number of vetoes by President Cleveland. We quote the following remarks from a speech by Mr. Bayne at that time : "What are the functions of a President in vetoing bills? His primary function is to question the constitu- tionality of the law. Were any of these S2:)ecial bills unconstitutional? Not one of them. He made no sug- gestion in any one of these messages that they were unconstitutional. Has he the poAver to intervene and prevent the enactment of rash or immature legislation ? That was an old theory that was discussed when our Con- stitution was framed, and when it was believed, having patterned our affairs after the old English Government, that the king could do no wrong ; that he exercised a sort of paternal control and supervision over all the affairs of the nation, and did nothing that would not commend itself to the public. " But that is an antiquated idea, and especially so in a great country like this, under our form of government, where all the people are educated, and where every man knows just about as much as any other man knows. Could he attribute to Congress in the formation of these pension bills rashness, immaturity, want of consideration, partisan purposes, political prejudices, or anything of that sort? Not at all. There is no partisanship. A large majority of the men who fought against these men now applying for pensions vote for these bills. Demo- crats and Republicans alike vote for these bills ; and there is substantially no opposition to their passage." v.\--^ Hon. STANLEY MATTHEWS, OF OHIO. ITANLEY MATTHEWS, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, early in life chose the profession of law; and he commenced the practice of law at Cincinnati. He was soon recognized as a man of great ability, and as one of the most promising young lawyers in the State. In 1861 he entered the United States Army. He was commissioned Lieutenant of the Twenty- third Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, with which he served until the autumn of 1861, when he was chosen Colonel of the Fifty-first Regiment of Ohio Infantry. He com- manded a brigade at Stone River, Murfreesboro, Chicka- mauga and at Lookout Mountain. In 1863 he resigned his commission and resumed the practice of law. Mr. Matthews supported Horace Greeley for the Pres- idency in 1872. Afterward he returned to the Repub- lican party, and was a candidate for Congress from his district. Later, he was elected United States Senator to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Sherman, who had been appointed a member of the Cabinet of President Hayes. Mr. Matthews served nearly two years in the Senate, from which he returned to the practice of law. He was appointed Associate Justice by President Garfield in 1881. C\ Hon. MORRISON R. WAITE, OF OHIO. ORRISON R. WAITE, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, is well worthy of the position which he holds. He was born in Lyme, Connecticut, November 29th, 1816. He graduated from Yale College in 1837. He commenced the study of law at his native home, but went West and finished the study' of law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1839, in Maumee City, Ohio. He entered into partnership with S. M. Young. The firm soon afterward removed to Toledo, Ohio. Mr. Waite made a very successful lawyer. His great ability, his studious habits and his conciliatory manners all con- tributed to his popularity. Politically, Mr. Waite was a- Whig, until the formation of the Republican party. In 1819 Mr. Waite was elected to the Ohio Legislature as a Whio-. lie was afterward defeated as a candidate for the State Constitutional Convention in 1850, and in 1862 he was defeated as a candidate for Congress. In 1873 he was elected a Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, and was chosen its President. On the 20th of January, 1874, President Grant nom- inated him for the Chief Justiceship of the United (626) JAMES B. WEAVER. 627 States, and was confirmed by the Senate. Chief Justice "Waite took the oath of office March 4th, 1874, and ever since that time his rejDutation as Chief Justice has been increasing; and he worthily fills the place occupied by the great men that have preceded him. Hon. JAMES B. WEAVER, OF IOWA. |aMES B. weaver, of Bloomfield, was born the 12th of June, 1833, in Dayton, Ohio. He graduated in the Law Department of the Ohio University, in Cincinnati, in 1854. He is a lawyer, and also a member of the editorial staff of the Iowa Tribune, published in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1866 he was elected District Attorney of the Second Judicial District of Iowa, and served four years. Pres- ident Johnson appointed him Assessor of Internal Reve- nue for the First District of Iowa in 1867, which position he held six years. He was a member of the Forty-sixth Congress. In 1880 the National party, in a Convention at Chicago, nominated Mr. Weaver as their candidate for President of the United States, and he received about three hundred and fifty thousand votes. He was elected to the Forty-ninth Congress by both Nationals and Dem- ocrats, both parties having nominated and supported him. 628 OUE GREAT MEN. Some remarks by Mr. Weaver on the labor question, from which we quote the following extract, are worthy of mention : "The remedy must come from a different class of legislation. This Congress can in a single week, if they so desire, cause the whole IN'ation to shout for joy. We can drive darkness, and distrust, and business gloom and despair from every hamlet in America. The remedy must come from a proper law passed here to regulate interstate commerce. Secondly, it must come from a law which shall create conditions under which the employer can afford to pay the laboring man a reasonable price for his toil, and under which a laborer can afford to work for the wages which the employer is thus enabled to pay. These are the only conditions under which prosperity will ever return to this country. Any other expedient is simply an attempt to put salve on a cancer. "There is no desire on the j^art of the laboring men of this country to violate law. Nor is there any desire on their part to lead a life of vagabondage. Such insin- uations are a libel upon the laboring people of this country. "I believe there is a desire in the breasts of nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand of them to earn their living in the sweat of their faces. But the trouble is they can not get the opportunity to work at reasonable wages, and thousands of them not at all. "The only hope of tranquility in this country, the only hope of harmony and peace between employers and employe's, is to give this country a sufficient volume of currency. Ah ! laugh if you please ; but * he laughs best WILLIAM m'kinley, je. 629 who laughs last.' Divide, if you please, these suffering, penniless people, many of whom are working for ninety, and I see by the papers as low as fifty -five, cents per day. Laugh at them if you have the heart to do it." Hon. WILLIAM Mckinley, jr., OF OHIO. jlLLIAM McKINLEY, Jr., of Canton, was born in Niles, Ohio, the 26th of February, 1844. He entered the United States Army early in May, 1861, as a private soldier in the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and at the close of his services on the field of battle he had won the ranks of Captain and Brevet Major. From 1869 to 1871 he was Prosecuting Attorney of Stark County, Ohio. He was a member of the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses. He received the certificate of election to the Forty-eighth Congress, but the House gave his opponent the seat. He was re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Republican. We give an extract from a speech by Mr. McKinley on taxation : "We have witnessed here within the last six days an effort on the part of a majority of the leading committee of this House to reduce the receipts of this Government 630 OUR GREAT MEN. from customs about $26,000,000 — a proposition coming from the Committee of Ways and Means to so adjust the tariff as to diminish the annual income of the Govern- ment $26,000,000; and now, immediately after the fail- ure of that committee to have accorded to it even the courtesy of a consideration by the House of that measure for the reduction of the revenues, immediately following that, we have this proposition from a member of the Com- mittee on Rules, himself the Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House which reported that tariff measure — we have a proposition from that distin- guished gentleman which amounts to a confession that we have not, and will not have within the next twelve months, revenue enough in the Treasury to meet the hon- est and just demands of the soldiers of the Republic. What strange inconsistency ! What is the matter ? What can account for these contradictory positions within a week? "Now, Mr. Speaker, if we have not revenue to meet these demands to-day, then why, in the nanie of heaven, did you want to reduce revenues $26,000,000 last Thurs- day ? What has been done with that surplus since then? " If it is necessary that we should resort to an income tax in order to give to the soldiers of this country what we pledged them they should have when they went forth to fight and suffer, then I am in favor of an income tax. But it would not seem necessary to resort to any extraor- dinary taxation so long as the Ways and Means Commit- tee of the House report a surplus of thirty millions in the Treasury, which they feel called upon to diminish by a revision of the tariff." Hon. EZRA B. TAYLOR, OF OHIO. |ZRA B. TAYLOR, of Warren, was born in Nelson, Portage County, Ohio, the 9th of July, 1823. His father was a farmer, and he lived on the farm, attending the com- mon schools of the neighborhood until he was seventeen years old ; then for three years he attended select schools and academies. In 1843, when twenty years of age, he commenced the study of law, and two years later he com- menced practicing his profession in Portage County. One year later he was elected Prosecuting Attorney ; he was nominated for a re-election, but declined. He removed to Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, his present home, in 1861. In 1877 Governor Young appointed him Common Pleas Judge of the Ninth Judicial District of Ohio, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Servis. He was appointed in the spring, and in October of that year he was elected for a full term. He resigned this position in September, 1880, when he was nominated as a candi- date from the Nineteenth Congressional District for the Forty-seventh Congress. He was elected the followmg October. Hon. James A. Garfield, having been elected President, resigned his seat in the Forty-sixth Congress ' ° (631) 632 OUR GREAT MEN. on the Stli of November, 1877, and on the 30th of that month Mr. Taylor was elected to fill the vacancy. He has been re-elected each successive term. In some re- marks in the Forty-ninth Congress on a civil appropria- tion bill Mr. Taylor said : " Mr. Chairman, I had supposed that nothing would induce me to express one single sentiment or occupy a moment's time in this discussion; but I have heard it stated here as a sound principle over and over, without aj)parent contradiction, that to the victor belongs the spoils, and I challenge and deny that piratical sentiment. It was not even the sentiment of the older and better Democracy. It was born of corruption ; it begets cor- ruption; it is itself corrupt. No citizen of this Union has a right to demand an appointment to office because he is a Democrat. No citizen of this Union has a right to demand an office because he is a Republican. He only has a right to demand it because he is an American citizen, and because he is honest and competent. There is no other test." Hon. JAMES D. CAMERON, OF PENNSYLVANIA. JAMES DONALD CAMEI10:N', or, as he ia more commonly known, "Don" Cameron, is a member of one of the most noted fam- ilies of Pennsylvania. His father, Hon. Simon Cameron, began life as a poor man, but, possess- ing talent and an abundant amount of energy, he has won a place among those who rank highest in his State, both as a financier and a statesman. James Donald was born in Middleton, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in 1833. He was educated at Princeton College, in New Jersey, where he graduated when only nineteen years of age. After leaving college lie entered the Middleton Bank, now the National Bank of Middleton, as clerk, and by degrees rose until he became its President, and still holds that position. From 1863 to 1874 he was President of the Northern Central Railway. He was Secretary of War in President Grant's Cabinet from 1876 to 1877, the close of Grant's adminis- tration. He was a Delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago in 1868, and also at Cincinnati in 1876. He was Chairman of the Republican National Committee and Delegate to the Republican National Con- vention at Chicago in 1880. ° (633) 634 OUE GREAT MEN. When his father, Hon. Simon Cameron, resigned his seat in the United States Senate in 1877, "Don" Cam- eron was elected to fill the vacancy. He was re-elected in 1879, and again in 1885. In this instance the son quite worthily fills the father's cfiair. *H-^=^-«* Hon. benjamin butterworth. OF OHIO. IeNJAMIN butterworth, of Cincin- nati, was born the 22d of October, 1839, in Warren County, Ohio. He is a lawyer by profession. In 1873-74 Warren and Butler Counties sent him to the State Senate. He was a member of the Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh and Forty- ninth Congresses, to which he was elected as a Republi- can. We quote the following from a speech by Mr. But- terworth on labor: " Grentlemen, you can not elevate labor. It is beyond your reach. God blessed labor in the beginning. We may and should do that which tends to ennoble and ele- vate the laborer, but we can not elevate labor. God blessed that in the beginning, when by His holy ordinance He commanded that in the sweat of our faces we should eat bread. Labor is not only noble, but ennobling. I have no symj^athy with that demagogism which seeks to BENJAMIN BUTTERWORTH. 636 catch votes, not by asking what is best for the hearth- stones of this land and those who assemble thereat, but what can we do to induce the struggling masses that we are devoted to securing their happiness without crossing any plan, purpose or inclination they cherish. " Mr. Speaker, I submit that this is a nation of labor- ers ; that it is not of consequence where or how we labor to honorably fill life's mission, but do we live and labor worthily and well? We recognize no idlers save the gamblers, the loafers, and those who subsist by lawless- ness, and they are few. We all get our bread in the sweat of our faces, whether our efforts are bestowed in one capacity or another. And this creates one great bond of sympathy between all our people. I am in favor of all those organizations which call together men of kin- dred sympathies, who, recognizing the universal brother- hood of mankind, and the equal rights of all, seek to do that which will lift men up, make them better, and which gives them to understand that in this country, to those who practice industry, economy and sobriety, the road to competence and excellence is open. ****** "Mr. Speaker, the organization of labor was founded by the fathers of this Republic. Every child born be- neath the flag is a member of that organization, and can only forfeit his right to sit in its councils and share the blessings its efforts secure by idleness or crime, one or both. Any organization, no matter what its name, which excludes from its ranks any worthy citizen for any other cause must come to grief, or else by its efforts render unstable, if it does not overthrow, this Government." Hon. orvill h. platt, OF COXNECTICUT. I^^^^IRYILL H. PLATT, one of the n^f^st popu- lar men of Connecticut, was born at AVash- ington, Connecticut, July 19tli, 1827. After receiving an academic education he studied law at Litchfield. He was admitted to the Bar in 1849, and immediately commenced practicing at Meriden, where he now resides. In 1855 and 1856 he was Clerk of the State Senate of Connecticut, and in 1857 he was Secretary of State of Connecticut. He was a member of the State Senate in 1861 and 1862, and a member of the lower house of the Legislature in 1864 and 1869, the last year serving as Speaker. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican, and took his seat in March, 1879. He has since been re-elected. In a speech on the bill for the admission of Wash- ington Territory into the Union as a State, Mr. Platt said: "Why should Xew England be thought to fear or regret the admission of new States? Cast your eye along the parallels of latitude which stretch from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific shore. Study the character- istics of that marvelous civilization which has redeemed (636) ORVILL H. PLATT. 637 the land and subjugated the forces of nature along those parallels. Take note of the people who along those lengthened lines have builded cities, developed agricult- ure, penetrated the deep recesses of the earth, created a highway, yes, highways, for the nation, established the institutions of education and religion, elevated and glori- fied mankind ; who are they ? Are they not bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh? The blood of New England courses along every artery of national life. Put your finger on the pulse of enterprise as it beats in Walla Walla, or Seattle, or Tacoma, or Port Townsend, and you will feel the heart-throb of New England. Who are these men who to-day are asking of the Senate permis- sion to enjoy the full privileges of American citizenship in the new State of Washington? True, they have gathered from many States; they have come even from foreign lands, from lands beyond the sea; a new people indeed, but how many of them can trace back their vigor and force to the ancestral cottage which stood on the New England hillside, their patriotism to the village green, and their virtue to the New England church? The voice which I bring to them to-day from their ancestral State is, ' Come in, and welcome.' " Hon. HORACE GRAY, OF MASSACHUSETTS. GRACE GRAY, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was born in Boston, March 4th, 1828. He graduated from Harvard University in 1845, at the age of seventeen. After graduating he traveled extensively in EurojDe. Upon returning he took the regular course at the Harvard Law School, and continued the study of law in the office of William Sohier and John Lowell. He was admitted to the Bar February 14th, 1851. From 1857 to 1860 Mr. Gray was in partnership with Hon. E. R. Hoar in the practice of his profession. His first official position was that of Reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, March 3d, 1854. He performed the duties of this office with great ability until he resigned, in 1861. Sixteen volumes of the standard law-library size constitute Gray^s Bejjorts. August 24th, 1864, he was appointed, by Governor Andrews, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. In 1873 he was appointed Chief Justice of the same court by Governor Washburn. In December, 1881, he was appointed, by President (638) JOSEPH G. CANNON. 639 Arthur, and confirmed by the Senate, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice Gray's past record as a lawyer and judge has borne full fruit in his record on the Supreme Bench, and proves that the appointment was well bestowed. Hon. JOSEPH G. GANNON. OF ILLINOIS. I HE Fifteenth Congressional District of Illi- nois is represented in the Congress of the United States by Joseph G. Cannon, of Dan- ville, who was born in Guilford, North Car- olina, May 7th, 1836. He received a good education, and supplemented that with the study of law. He was admitted to the Bar, and commenced practicing his profession. He became the State Attorney of Hlinois in 1861, and served till 1868. He was elected to the Forty-third, Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses, and re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress, as a Republican. On the deficiency appropriation bill Mr. Cannon said: "Mr. Chairman, in reply I have this to say: I am for enforcing the law as we have it. The proper way, the honest way, is to walk up and provide adequately for the public service. When you fail to provide for the service, 640 OUR GREAT MEN. who suffers ? Take it in this matter of witness fees alone. You subpoena a man and take him hundreds of miles from his home to appear in court as a witness. Being subpoe- naed in a criminal case he must go, without reference to whether he gets his fees or not. After having left his business, after having spent his time, after having spent his money for his subsistence, he is informed at the end of his service that there is no money to pay him. He goes back to his home without his money, and if, per- chance, under the spur of necessity, he sells that claim against the Government for less than its face, or for any other sum, there comes in your statute which prohibits such a sale, and the assignee can not get a cent. "There are claims here to-day, in this estimate, which have been refused to be provided for by the Committee on Appropriations because they have been assigned. Now, I say that is not an honest enforcement of the law, and I say that when we go out of our way to make some cheap clap- trap reputation about making small appropriations, and oppress the hundreds of poor men in this country who are dragged from their homes to testify in cases in United States courts, by refusing them the poor pittance which is their due, the money being in the Treasury to pay them — when we do that, it is an outrage and a fraud upon a class of our own citizens who are poorly able to bear it. I did not feel, Mr. Chairman, that my mind would be fi'eed unless I bore this testimony, and now I have borne it, and you can go on in this bill and other bills to follow the precedents that you have set heretofore, if you choose." Hon. THOMAS M. BROWNE, OT INDIANA. jHOMAS M. BROWNE, of Winchester, the Representative in the Congress of the United States from the Sixth Congressional District of Indiana, was born at New Paris, Ohio, April 19th, 1829. In 1844 he removed to Indiana. He studied law at Winchester, and in 1849 was admitted to the Bar. In 1855 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Indiana ; he was re- elected in 1857, and again in 1859. In 1861 he was Sec- retary of the State Senate, and in 1863 he represented Randolph County in that body. He helped to organize the Seventh Volunteer Cavalry, and was its LieutenantrColonel. He was promoted to Colonel, and before the close of the war he won the rank of Brevet Brigadier-General. He was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Indiana in April, 1869, and resigned in August, 1872, to accept the nomination for Governor of Indiana. He was defeated by Thomas A. Hendricks, the Democratic candidate. He has been a member of Congress since the Forty- fifth Congress, to which he was elected as a Repubhcan. In a speech on labor Mr. Browne said: 39 (^^'^ 642 OUR GREAT ME'S. "I think it has been settled by the constitutional law- yers that this bill is strictly within the constitutional power of the legislative branch of the Government. I do not, therefore, propose to discuss it. "The fifth section provides that the expense of this arbitration, including the presence or attendance of wit- nesses, shall be paid by the United States. The amend- ment that I propose is simply this, that in the event either of the parties submitting to the arbitrament refuse to abide it, the award shall be reported to the District or Circuit Court for the district where it has been made, or where the controversy arose, and that with it shall be also a statement of the costs and expenses incurred therein, and that judgment shall be given by that court against the party failing or refusing to abide by the result. And, as the fees are paid in all instances out of the Treasury of the United States, the amendment provides that the sum recovered shall be j)aid into the Treasury. "It seems to me this amendment should be adopted. It will give some vitality to this measure, and will aiford some reason, some controlling influence, that may secure the acquiescen^^e of the parties who have submitted to the arbitration. In order to give the bill this efficiency, or so little as may be g'ven by the proposed amendment, I have offered it/' Hon. JOHN H. BUCK, OF CONNECTICUT. OHN H. BUCK, of Hartford, was born the ^-dl 6tli day of December, 1836, in Glastonbury, Connecticut. He received his education at the Select School in East Glastonbury, at Wilbraham Academy, in Massachusetts, and spent one year at Wesleyan University. He studied law, and in 1862 was admitted to the Bar, when he commenced 2)rac- ticing at Hartford. In 1864 he was Assistant Clerk of the State House of Representatives ; in 1865 he was Clerk, and in 1866 he was Clerk of the Senate. In 1868 he was President of the Common Council of the citv of Hartford, and was City Attorney in 1871 and 1873. He was Treas- urer of the county of Hartford in 1863-81. He was a member of the State Senate of Connecticut in 1880-81. He was a member of the Forty-seventh Congress, and also of the Forty-ninth Congress, to which he was elected as a Bepublican. On an amendment to the navy appropriation bill in the Forty-ninth Congress Mr. Buck said: "I hope my colleagues on the committee and my friends on the other side will not insist that we shall, in this summary way, blot out an institution which seems 644 OUE GREAT MEN. to promise to do so much good. If we destroy this insti- tution, why not destroy the torpedo station, which was established for a similar purpose in connection with the Ordnance Department? Why not take the torpedo sta- tion and all other auxiliary institutions of the Navy Department, as well as the naval war college, and put them in one place at Annapolis? " It seems to me, Mr. Chairman, that the mere state- ment of the case is enough to convince any gentleman who will give any attention to the subject that it would be most unwise and injudicious for us now, without proper consideration or thought, to omit to appropriate for this institution, which is calculated to be so useful. I hope gentlemen here will not insist upon destroying this insti- tution so early in its life. Nothing can be said against it. It has been successful up to this time. Nothing can be said against the locality where the school is estab- lished. It seems to me that if gentlemen will look into this matter with any sort of care, they will agree with me that it is altogether too early to condemn this school before it has had a fair chance to demonstrate its utility. " I will say in passing that almost all the officers and others connected with the Navy who take advantage of this school are men who have been for many years in the service. They are not boys or young men, but for the most part middle-aged men, who have grown up in the service, and desire, from natural taste or inclination, to pursue some particular course of study. It is true that without any college a great many men having a natural taste for a particular branch of study will pursue it alone and unaided, and in this way often develop great J. C. S. BLACKBURN. 645 capacity and efficiency. But who does not know that a school where such persons may go and have the aid of lectures and experiments is of the greatest benefit? I hope, therefore, that this amendment will be favorably considered by the committee." Hon. J. C. S. BLACKBURN, OF KENTUCKY. loSEPH C. S. BLACKBURIN', of Versailles, Kentucky, was born in Woodford County, of that State, October 1st, 1838. He re- ceived his education at Sayre Institute, Frankfort, Kentucky, and at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, graduating at Centre College when only nine- teen years of age. He studied law at Lexington, and was admitted to practice in 1858, paying close attention to his profession till 1861, when he left the quiet round of professional duties for the active life on the battle-field. Entering the Confederate Army, he served till the close of the war. He then resumed the practice of law, and in 1871 was elected to the Kentucky Legislature, and re-elected in 1873. He was elected a Representative m the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat, taking his seat March 4th, 1885. 646 OUR GREAT MEN. In his remarks on the admission of Washington Ter- ritory into the Union Mr. Blackburn said: "I simply meant to stand upon this proposition: That the bill now pending before the Senate, in my judg- ment, should not commit us to a policy that is without precedent, and, in my best judgment, without logic to support it. If the people of this Territory desire female suffrage, it is within their power, within twenty-four hours after their admission, if their Legislature be in session, to confer that right ; and I will not undertake to abridge or deny it. " If the people of Washington Territory, when that Territory shall be admitted as a State, confer the right of suffrage upon its women, I will not be the man to 0})en my mouth or utter one word of protest. But I do insist that it is not the legitimate business of this Con- gress to do that. I do insist that if you pass this bill in its present shape it is an abandonment of the j^olicy that you have adopted, because in the Territorial organization act you did not give the right which this bill now pro- poses to confer. It is variant from former legislation; it is a clear departure from all precedent and from all practice. What the Senator from Louisiana j^i'oposes is no infringement of the rights of the people of this new State, because we all agree that the very instant the State is admitted its power is absolute to determine this ques- tion for itself. "It took a special act of Congress to confer upon that Territorial people the right to do what they did when by their Legislature they conferred suffrage upon females. It will not take an act of Congress to confer that power J. C. S. BLACKBURN. 647 upon those same people when the Territory is admitted as a State. It then holds that right because of its own State sovereignty. And the only question submitted here, in my judgment, is as to whether you will leave the people of the new State of Washington to determine this question and confer this right if they please, or whether, in the face of the precedents and against all reason, the Congress of the United States will undertake to confer it. "I have no objection to the admission of this new Territory into the sisterhood of States, but I can not gain my own consent, and I never will agree to vote for any bill that looks to the admission of any Territory as a State in this Union that commits the Federal Congress to a usurpation of power that does not belong to it, and deprives to that extent the people of this new-fledged State of their own right of sovereignty." HON. BYRON M. CUTCHEON, OF MICHIGAN. |YR0N M. CUTCHEOJN-, of Manistee, is a native of Xew Plampshire. He was born in Pembroke, Merrimac County, in that State, the 11th of May, 1836. He received his early education at Pembroke, and continued his studies in Ypsilanti, Michigan, to which 23lace he removed in 1855. He is an alumnus of the University of Michi- gan, where he graduated in 1861. He was then Principal of the Ypsilanti High School for one year, at the end of which time he entered the Union Army, and served with marked distinction till the close of the war. He com- menced the study of law in 1865, and in 1866 graduated from the Michigan University Law School. In 1867 he commenced practicing law in Manistee, where he still resides. In 1866 he was elected a member of the Board of Control of Railroads of Michigan, and held the posi- tion for many years. He was a member of the Electoral College in 1868. In 1870 and 1871 he was City Attorney, and in 1873 and 1874 he was County Attorney. In 1875-1883 he was Regent of the Michigan University. Prom 1877 to 1883 he was Postmaster at Manistee City. He was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress as a Re- publican, and was re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress. (648) BYHON M. CUTCHEON. 649 In a speech on "Education in the Territory of Alaska" Mr. Cutcheon said: "We have made an appropriation for the industrial school, but not for common-school purposes. * * ♦ About one thousand Indian children are already in these industrial schools, and making good progress. But outside these schools there must be at least four thou- sand children, partly native and partly white, for whom no educational provision whatever is made. "In the organic act of 1884 we provided |25,000 'for the education of the children of school age in the Terri- tory of Alaska without reference to race,' and the same year a further appropriation of |15,000 is made 'for the support and education of Indian children of both sexes at industrial schools in Alaska.' "These Esquimaux, as I have said, are not Indians. They are a different race of people, more allied to the Asiatic races than they are to the American Indians. "Mr. Chairman, Alaska is a part of the United States, and its people are in a broad sense a part of the American people. It is not an Indian reservation; it is a part of our great domain; and, for one, I object to leaving any part of our wide territory given over to bar- barism without providing for its people common-school education, so they may in time come out into the light of civilization and be fitted to become citizens of our great Republic." Hon. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, OF PENNSYLVANIA. lILLIAM D. KELLEY is a native of Phila- delphia, the city which is still his home. Here he was born the 12th of April, 1814. He received a thorough English education. For a time he was reader in a printing office, and then was an apprentice in a jewelry establishment. He then went to Boston, where he worked as a journeyman jew- eler for five years. He returned to Philadelphia and studied law. He was admitted to the Bar, and has deyoted his time to the practice of his profession and to literary pursuits. Twice he has held the office of Prose- cuting Attorney for the county and city of Philadelphia; and he was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia for ten years. In 1860 he was elected a Delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago. He has been a member of the House of Rep- resentatives since the Thirty-seventh Congress, to which he was elected as a Republican. Mr. Kelley's long term of public service is in itself a declaration as to how efficient he has proved himself to be in the legislative department of the Government. Mr. Kelley is a strong protectionist, and holds a commanding place in his party. (650) WILLIAM D. KELLEY. 651 The following remarks are from a speech by Mr. Kelley on an internal revenue tax : " We do not want any additional revenue, and I agree with Thomas Jefferson, who earnestl}' and continuously protested that internal taxes were an infernal system, and incompatible with a republican policy. Thus believing, T. have, from the day the war closed, steadily demanded the repeal of internal taxes, and I will not now vote to estab- lish one. Were I a member of a State Legislature whose treasury was empty, I would vote for ar^y law to ascertain the purity and regulate the sale of any of these new grades of butter. The subject belongs to State Legislatures, and not to Congress. If, as the friends of this legislation insist, dairy butter and that article can not be distin- guished by science or the human sense, the people should have access to the cheaper article, and the State should see to it that adulteration is prevented; but it is not for the General Government to do it. " If we enter this field of regulation, where will the end come? Can Congress prohibit men of science from making new discoveries? Can it prohibit ingenuity from making new inventions? Can it deliberately assume, as a duty, reHistance W w^^ntal and material prosperity?" Hon. frank hiscock, OF NEW YORK. [RANK HISCOCK, of Syracuse, was born in PomjDey, New York, September 6th, 1834. He received an academic education; and, supplementing that with the study of law, he was admitted to the Bar in 1855. He located in Tully, Onondaga County, New York, and there commenced the practice of his profession. He was District Attorney of Onondaga County in 1860-63. In 1867 he was a member of the State Constitutional Convention. He was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress as a Republican, and has been re-elected each successive term. The following is from a few remarks by Mr. Hiscock on the surj^lus in the Treasury : " But let us look a moment into some of the immedi- ate effects of this action, assuming that this resolution will prevail. I suppose, sir — and I invite the closest attention of the House to what I am about to say — I sup- jDose that obligations of this country — Government, State and municipal, and other corporations — amounting to 11,250,000,000 at least are held abroad. Where not spe- cifically payable in gold, they will be returned to us. The foreign capitalist will no longer hold them to take the (652) FRANK HISCOCK. 653 chance of the further depreciation of the metal in which they are to be paid; and the further sale of securities abroad will cease. To illustrate the risk, I invite the attention of my friends to the fact that we have coined 233,723,286 silver dollars, which cost the Government for the bullion and its coinage into dollars the sum of only 1208,687,039— a saving, it has been said, of $25,000,000 to the Government. But that silver to-day, at its market value in the pockets of the people or in the vaults of the Treasury, is only worth |1 7 7, 718,000. There has been a loss of $56,000,000 upon it. You have forced out, or would force out, upon the people a currency which has depreciated upon their hands, and is now worth $56,000,- 000 less than was paid for it. "While I am making up the amount of the loss due to this legislation, I will call attention to the further fact that the interest at four per cent, upon the average sums driven into the Treasury by the issue of standard silver dollars and the fractional coin amounts to $26,500,000. Silver is now worth 44| pence per pound. The silver dollar is worth 75.22 cents. If, as seems most likely, silver should fall to 40 pence per pound, the value of the silver dollar would be 67.82 cents. And one peculiarity of the present condition of things is that the lower silver goes the greater is the amount which must be purchased; and assuming that 40 pence per pound is to be the price, we must buy 2,280,889 ounces monthly, which will coin nearly 3,000,000 standard dollars. To state this propo- sition is to demonstrate the absurdity of the policy. If the price should fall to 20 pence per pound, we should issue on that basis 6,820,304 silver dollars per month. I 654 OUR GREAT MEN^. make these statements as well to prove that the imme- diate effect will be an instant change of values, as the return of our securities and the stopping of further sales of them abroad." -•^^^^^^H^^ Hon. bishop W. PERKINS, OF KAXSAS. |ISH0P W. PERKIXS, who represents the Third Congressional District of Kansas in the Congress of the United States, was born in Rochester, Lorain County, Ohio, the 18th of October, 1841. He was educated in the common schools and at Knox Academy, in Galesburg, Illinois. He read law at Ottawa, Illinois, and in 1867 was admitted to the Bar and commenced to practice. He served in the Union Army during the late war, serving four years. In 1869 he was County Attorney of Labette County. In 1870 he was elected Probate Judge of that county, and re-elected in 1872. He was appointed Judge of the Elev- enth Judicial District of Kansas, and held the office for nearly ten years. He is President of the Board of Trustees of the Oswego College for Young Ladies, which is located in Oswego, the town where he resides. He has been a Representative in Congress since the Forty-eighth Con- gress, to which he was elected as a Republican. BISHOP W. PEEKINS. 655 We quote the following from a speech by Mr. Perkins on the silver question : "In our boyhood days we read the story of Atahu- alpa, the captured Inca of Peru, and we remember how our hearts went out to him in sympathy and our breasts choked with indignation as we contemplated the conditions of his ransom. Long and loud were the anathemas we expressed against his captors as we condemned them to proper punishment for their cruelty and their wrong. As the condition of his discharge from captivity, he was com- pelled to fill a room twenty-two feet long, seventeen feet wide and nine feet high with gold. But in this more modern day the proposition is made to us that to secure our ransom from the captivity of debt we shall, for the gratification of our creditors, fill eleven hundred and forty- five rooms, twenty-two feet long, seventeen feet wide and nine feet high, with glittering gold ; and we see the Pres- ident of the United States standing by, clapping his hands and contemplating the task with pleasurable emo- tion, and asking Congress to see that the burden is imposed upon us without unnecessary delay." . «/ Hon. JAMES T. JOHNSTON, or INDIANA. i|AMES T. JOHNSTOT^, of Rockville, was born January 19th, 1839, in Putnam County, Indiana. He received a thorough common- school education, and in 1861 commenced the study of law, but left his studies to serve his country. He enlisted as a private in Company C, Sixth Indiana Cavalry, in 1862, and in 1863 was transferred to Company A, Eighth Tennessee Cavalry, receiving the commission of Second Lieutenant, and served till the forepart of 1864, when he was obliged to resign on account of disability. He afterward served with other regiments, and in 1865 was mustered out as Lieutenant and Assistant Quartermas- ter of the One Hundred and Forty-ninth Indiana Infantry. After the war he resumed his studies, and was admit- ted to the Bar in 1866. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney, and served for two years. In 1868 Parke County sent him to the lower house of the State Legisla- ture, and in 1874 he was elected to the State Senate of Indiana, and served four years. He was elected as a Republican to represent the Eighth Congressional Dis- trict of Indiana in the Forty-ninth Congress, and in a speech on rank Mr. Johnston said : (656) JAMES T. JOHNSTON. 657 " I^ow let me say you are driving on, as I said before, to create an aristocracy in this country by force of legis- lation. We have had it in years past, and we have it now, between ladies at this capital, as to who shall be considered the first lady in the land. Because she hap- pens to be the wife of this or that Cabinet officer she is to outrank every other woman in this land. We not only have it here, but we are to have it understood by means of the law. It must ultimately become ingrafted in the law of the land that the wife of a Senator is bet- ter than the wife of an humble Representative, and the latter must call first upon the wife of a Senator, and the latter can return that call by means of a card, simply because she is the wife of a United States Senator. It is all going in the line of rank — all going in the line there can be such a thing in this country, because in position one person outranks another. It is obnoxious to the common people of the country and to the spirit of our free institutions. It is an imitation of the rank in society of the Old World, and is wholly obnoxious to our principles of government. It is law only so far as we consent to agree to it, but it will ultimately become law in this country unless we refuse to recognize it in every shape and form." 40 Hon. WILLIAM W. RICE, OF MASSACHUSETTS. ILLIAM W. RICE, of Worcester, was born March 7th, 1826, in Deerfield, Massa- chusetts. He attended Gorham Academy, Maine, where he prepared for college, and graduated at Bowdoin College in 1846. He was Pre> ceptor in Leicester Academy, Massachusetts, four years. He read law at Worcester, was admitted to the Bar and has since practiced there. In 1858 he was appointed Judge of Insolvency for the county of Worcester. In 1860 he was Mayor of the city of Worcester, and in 1869-74 he was District Attorney for the Midland Dis- trict of Massachusetts. He was a member of the House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1875. He was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress as a Republican, and has been a member ever since. Mr. Rice is a very eloquent speaker. We quote a few remarks from a speech by him on the Chinese question : "But some say, 'Let us avoid the treaty.' Says my friend from Kentucky, 'Congress can repeal a treaty.' I say, yes; it can. The king does no wrong. The king can set at naught a contract. The king can avoid pay- (658) WILLIAM W. RICE. 659 ment of his just debts to his subjects. Congress can repeal a treaty. But when this great Nation has sought to make a treaty, when it has been deriving from that treaty benefits to itself, and when it has derived from it protection to its merchants and its missionaries in China, and when there is no necessity, no crying wrong and evil arising to our own country from the continuance of the treaty, then it does not sound well, coming from the lips of a gentleman who is seeking to educate our people in lessons of morality and Christian intelligence, to say that this Government should repeal that treaty which itself sought, and of which it has thus far been the beneficiary. "But when the question of a repeal of the treaty comes up we will consider that question. In the mean- time we have done all that we can. We have done it efficiently ; we have done it to the very best advantage ; and the only authentic report which comes to us says that the law has been operative to an extreme degree — to such a degree that California is suff'ering to-day from the reduction of this labor element within its borders. " Of course, Mr. Chairman, I can not 23roperly discuss this question in five or ten minutes. But I desired that in addition to the expression from the chairman of our committee, who has given this subject most attentive and careful consideration, there should be one other voice in defense of the unanimous action of that committee, which I believe to be justified by the circumstances of the case." Hon. JULIUS C. BURROWS, OF MICHIGAN. |ULIUS C. BURROWS, of Kalamazoo, was born in ]N"orth East, Erie County, Pennsylvania, January 9th, 1837. He received an academic education, and after the usual preparation he was admitted to the Bar. He served in the Union ilrmy, 1862-1864. In 1865 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Kalamazoo County, and served two years. In 1867 he declined the aj^pointment of Supervisor of Internal Revenue for the States of Michigan and Missouri. He was elected a member of the House of Representatives in the Forty-third, Forty- sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses. In 1884 he was appointed by President Arthur Solicitor of the United States Treasury Department, but he declined the office. He was a Delegate at large from Michigan to the T^a- tional Republican Convention at Chicago in 1884. He was elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Repub- lican. We submit an extract from Mr. Burrows' sjoeech on the improvement of the Mississippi River: "The committee find that, even where the bank is revetted, in flood-time, when the water overflows the bank (660) JULIUS C. BUREOWS. 661 and settles on the country beyond, that revetted bank will not stand unless they make another improvement, to wit : unless they dig a canal below that revetted bank to take off the waters that are in the country. If you do not do that the pressure of the waters against the bank, which is made up of alluvial soil, is so strong that it will cave the bank in, and take your revetments down the river. So in every case of that kind it is necessary to construct canals or channels to save the revetted bank. " I repeat, every friend of the Mississippi River — and it has no stronger friend than myself— ought to stand by this amendment, and open, if need be, the Treasury of the United States, and say to this commission : ' Apply your genius, your money, all your skill, to these two reaches. Plum Point and Lake Providence reaches, these two, and see if the plan determined upon by the commis- sion is the correct plan ; and if it is, if you narrow the channel, and if you protect the banks, and if you improve the navigation at these two reaches in the river, and that is demonstrated, that will be an end of the discussion upon the improvement of the Mississippi River.' " The people North and South, and everywhere, will pay out with prodigal hand whatever is required for the improvement of that stream. But they do protest against scattering this work all the way from Cairo to the Gulf, at this point and at that point, on a plan which is at least an experiment." Hon. ALEXANDER M. DOCKERY, OF MISSOURI. [LEXANDER M. DOCKERY, of Gallatin, was born in Livingston County, Missouri, the llth of February, 1845. He received an academical education, and then studied med- icine, graduating at the St. Louis Medical College in the spring of 1865. During the winter of 1865-66 he attended lectures at Belleview College, I^ew York City, and also at Jefferson Medical College, in Philadelphia. He located in Chillicothe, and practiced medicine until early in 1874, when he gave up the jjractice of the medical profession and removed to Gallatin, Missouri, his present home. There he assisted in organizing the Farmers' Exchange Bank, and was made its cashier, in which capacity he served until elected to Congress. He was one of the Curators of the University of Missouri for ten years, and during his residence in Chillicothe he was for three years President of the Board of Education of Chillicothe. In 1878 he was elected a member of the City Council of Gal- latin, and served five years in that body, and then two years as Mayor of Gallatin. He was a member of the Forty-eighth Congress, and was re-elected to the Forty- ninth Congress as a Democrat. (662) ALEXANDER M. BOCKERY. 663 From a speech on the special postal delivery by Mr. Dockery we give the following extract : " The proposed step would go far to justify a still more important enlargement of the system, the extension of the privileges of special delivery, within the discretion of the Postmaster-General, to all the post-offices in the country. Though letters bearing special-delivery stamps may be mailed at any post-office, they may be specially delivered only when addressed to one of the limited num- ber of places embraced within the present list of special- delivery offices. At the great mass of the offices the people are denied a facility in the receipt of mail matter that they are given in dispatching it ; and it so happens that the people from whom the privilege of immediate delivery is withheld are those who would be likely to appreciate it the most highly. "At the large offices where the free-delivery system is in use the difference in time between delivery by regular carrier and by s^^ecial messenger is at most a question of a few hours only; while at the smaller towns and in the country, where mail matter must be called for, it might lie undelivered for days or even weeks. The certainty of prompt delivery at such places, in cases of urgency, would undoubtedly contribute greatly to the use of the mails." Hon. ANDREW J. CALDWELL, OF TENNESSEE. |]^DREW J. CALDWELL, of Nashville, is a native of Montevallo, Alabama. He was educated at Washington Institute and Franklin College, Tennessee, being an alum- nus of Franklin College. He served in the Confederate Army till the close of the war. He then studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1867. In 1870 he was elected Attorney-General for the District of Davidson and Ruth- erford Counties, Tennessee, and served for eight years. He was a member of the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses, to which he was elected as a Democrat. The following is an extract from an extensive speech by Mr. Caldwell on the Yellow-Fever Commission : "The doctors of the world are not deaf, and the tongue of Mexico is not dumb. She will proclaim her victory, and the world will hear and heed. We do not need a commission to act as a messenger to transmit the news ; and if we do, we have already in commission men who can do for us all that this commission could do. " They talk about expeditions to the north pole as prec- edents for this. The attempt of ill-judged enthusiasm for science to wring from the obdurate and frozen death of the (664) ANDEEW J. CALDWELL. 665 arctic circle some answer to the problems of science may have been as necessary, as it has been non-productive of good results. If the inhabitants, who drink oil, eat tallow candles, and are clothed in furs under the lunem boreale, had been capable of establishing the corner-stone, the sci- entific frontier under the north star, and the world had heard of it, it is imagined no commissions would have been sent to verify results, and the snows would not have drunk the blood of Franklin and his successors in search for a north-weat passage, or for the last fraction of a degree of the flattening of the earth at the poles, or any curiosity in geography, meteorology or astronomy. There is, per- haps, a true analogy between an expedition to find Symmes' Hole and a commission to hunt up scientific or medical ignes-fatui in the tropics. Both may be true, for aught we know, and both have sponsors who vouch their existence and compurgators who stand with them at the bar of public opinion. So, also, as to the precedent to appropriate money to test the telegraph. That was a tan- gible, practical experiment, vouched for by the probabili- ties of physical science. If Morse had had the money himself to have built the line between Washington and Baltimore, and had transmitted three hundred messages over it (as Carmona has), where would have been the necessity of appropriating the money for a commission to have gone d^ ^ypsying to Baltimore to realize the dream?" Hon. GEORGE D. TILLMAN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. lEORGE D. TILLMAN, of Clark's Hill, was born August 21st, 1826, near Curryton, in Edgefield County, South Carolina. He attended the Penfield and Greenwood schools, of South Carolina, and for a time attended Har- vard University, but did not graduate. He studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1848. Until the war broke out he practiced law at Edgefield Court House. In 1862 he volunteered in the Confederate Army, and served until the close of the war. Since then he has been a cotton planter. He was elected a member of the House of Repre- sentatives of the South Carolina Legislature in 1854, and again in 1864. In 1865 he was a member of the State Constitutional Convention which was held under the reconstruction j^roclamation of President Johnson. In 1865 he was elected to the State Senate under the constitution then framed. He was a member of the Democratic State Executive Committee in 1876. He was Democratic candidate for the Forty-fifth Congress from the Fifth District of South Carolina, but was defeated in the election, though he unsuccessfully con- (666) JAMES W. REID. 667 tested the election of the Republican candidate. He was elected to the Forty-sixth Congress, and has since then retained his seat in the House of Representatives, at each successive term securing almost a unanimous re-election. — ^'€*^- HON. JAMES W. REID, OF NORTH CAROLINA. AMES WESLEY REID, of Wentworth, was "born June 11th, 1849, in Wentworth, Rockingham County, North Carolina. He graduated from Emory and Henry College in 1869. He studied law, and in 1873 he was admitted to the Bar. The following year he was elected County Treasurer of Rockingham County, which position he held for ten years, resigning in 1884. He was elected, at a special election in January, 1885, to serve out the unexpired term of Hon. A. M. Scales, resigned, in the Forty-eighth Congress. He was re-elected to the Forty- ninth Congress as a Democrat. The following is a short speech by Mr. Reid on the Government Printing Office: "In reply to the remarks of the gentleman from Kentucky as to the abuses creeping into the Grovernment offices, I wish to say that, instead of the measure now proposed being liable to lead to abuse, we seek to relieve the employes of the Government Printing Office from an 668 OUR GREAT MEN. evident injustice and oppression. In that office there are employed about eight hundred females and fifteen hun- dred males. The work which these employes perform is more onerous, the time occupied is longer, the pay is smaller, than in other Departments of the Government, where the employes are allowed a leave of absence of thirty days with pay. This bill, as we propose to amend it, provides simply that persons employed for one year in the Grovernment Printing Office may, under such regulations as the Public Printer shall pre- scribe, be entitled to a leave of absence of fifteen days with pay. This proj^osition being the first that has been introduced in Congress for the relief of this class of people who work for wages, and carrying on its face so much evident justice and right, we had hope the bill would be passed without further debate. I trust that by unanimous consent the general debate may terminate, that the amendment may be adopted, and the bill passed." Hon. JAMES D. RICHARDSON, OF TENNESSEE. AMES D. RICHARDSON, of Murfreesboro', ^1 was born in the County of Rutherford, and State of Tennessee, the 10th of March, 1843. He received his education in the schools of the neighborhood and at Franklin College, Tennessee. He left college before graduating to enter the Confederate Army, where he served nearly four years. After the war he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar, and in January, 1867, commenced practicing in Murfreesboro'. He was elected to the House of Representatives of the Legislature of Tennessee, and took his seat in October, 1871, and served as Speaker of the House, then at the early age of twenty-eight. In 1873-1874 he was a mem- ber of the State Senate. In 1876 he was a Delegate to the National Democratic Convention in St. Louis. He was elected Representative from the Fifth Congressional Dis- trict of Tennessee to the Forty-ninth Congress. The following is a portion of a speech by Mr. Rich- ardson upon the subject of claims: " The late Senator from Massachusetts, Hon. Charles Sumner, speaking of the dealings of this Government with her creditors, and these claimants are simple credit- (669) 670 OUR GREAT MEN. ors, on one occasion said, 'We have the meanest and most dishonest government in the world.' I shall not, sir, agree Mr. Sumner was right; on the other hand, I think we are the best government the world ever saw. But I do say here and now that if an individual, having the power to do so, were to treat his creditors as the poor claimants in this bill have been treated, and as scores and hundreds of similar claimants are now being treated, such individual would not only be properly characterized as mean but as dishonest also. If States were to deal with their creditors in the same way, they would at once have the charge made against them that they were guilty of repudiation. " If the Government, sir, displayed one-half the alac- rity to do justice in its dealings with these poor people for whom I speak to-day, and whose property it took and consumed a quarter of a century ago, that it manifests in dealing with its rich bonded creditors in unjustly con- verting their demands into gold obligations, and in extorting gold or its equivalent from a tax-ridden people to increase the fortunes of that class of creditors, there would be no just cause for the criticism made by the late Senator from Massachusetts! " I ask, Mr. Chairman, the prompt and immediate consideration and passage of this bill, that the partial justice it affords them, so long deferred, may at last be meted out without further delay to the claimants men- tioned therein." Hon. WHARTON J. GREEN, OF NORTH CAROLINA. HARTON J. GREEN, of Fayetteville, is a native of Florida. He was born near St. Mark's, in that State, his father having recently moved there from North Carolina. His mother died when Wharton was only four years old, and he was placed with an uncle, and his father entered the struggle for the independence of Texas. He was soon sent to his grandmother in Warren County, North Carolina. He was educated at Greorgetown College, Love- joy's Academy (in Raleigh), West Point, and the Univer- sity of Virginia. He studied law at the University of Virginia and at Cumberland University. After he was admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, he gave up law as a profession and engaged in farming. He now owns an extensive vineyard. He was among the first to enter the Confederate Army when the war broke out. He was a Delegate in 1868 to the Democratic National Convention in New York, and also in 1876 to the Democratic National Convention held in St. Louis. He was State Alternate to the National Democratic Convention in Cincinnati in 1880. He was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress. (671) Hon. BENTON McMILLIN, OF TENNESSEE. lENTON McMILLIN, of Carthage, is a native of Kentucky. He was born in Mon- roe County, that State, Sej^tember 11th, 1845. He received his education at Phylo- math Academy, Tennessee, and Kentucky University, in Lexington. After due preparation he was admitted to the Bar, and in 1871 he commenced practicing law in Celina, Tennessee. In 1874 he was elected to the Legis- lature of Tennessee. In 1875 the Governor of Tennessee commissioned him to treat with Kentucky for the pur- chase of territory. He was a member of the Electoral College in 1876, casting his vote for Tilden and Hendricks. In 1877 the Governor commissioned him Special Judge of the Circuit Court. He was elected to the Forty-sixth Congress as a Democrat, and has been re-elected to each successive Congress from the Fourth Congressional Dis- trict of Tennessee. In a speech in the House of Representatives during the Forty-ninth Congress, on the Illinois and Mississippi River Canal, Mr. McMillin said: ''What is the condition of the Treasury and of the country to-day? There are a number of your harbors (672) BENTON m'millin. 673 all round this country that can not be entered because of the sands that have washed into them from the rivers of the continent. The amount that could be appropriated for river and harbor and canal purposes is limited ; and hence if you increase the number of canals that are to share in this appropriation, you to that extent destroy the legitimate work and the necessary work of cleaning out the harbors by which the country is approached. Are gentlemen ready to do it? " We have all seen the different appropriation bills for the purpose of constructing water-ways come before Con- gress, and we have seen one Congress die, and the party which went out a majority return a minority, as much because of appropriating 118,000,000 for that purpose as anything else. I am in favor of legitimate river and harbor improvements. I have favored them all along the line. I oj^pose this because I do not believe it is wise policy to abandon the channels that the Great Archi- tect of the universe made, and go out to make channels that He did not see fit to make for commerce." 41 Hon. ethelbert barksdale, OF MISSISSIPPI. ITHELBERT BARKSDALE, of Jackson, was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee. lie removed to Mississippi when quite young. In his twenty-first year he adopted journalism as a profession. He conducted the official journal of Mississippi from 1854 to 1861, and from 1876 to 1883. During the war he w^as a member of the Con- federate Congress. In the National Democratic Conven- tions of 1860, 1868, 1872 and 1880 he served on the Plat- form Committees. In 1876 he was Chairman of the State Electoral College. From 1877 to 1879 he was Chairman of the State Executive Committee. He was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress as a Democrat, and re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress. In a speech on State claims, from which we quote the following, Mr. Barksdale said : "Mr. Speaker, it has been ascertained and officially stated that there are moneys due by the United States to certain States which have been withheld in consequence of balances alleged to be due from those States to the Gen- eral Government for direct taxes under the act of August 2d, 1861. Mississippi is one of the States to which there (674) ETHELBERT BARKSDALE. 675 is acknowledged indebtedness by the United States, and she, in common with the rest, is seeking the relief which the pending bill will afford. The amount which is shown to be due her by the report of First Comptroller Durham is $41,453.91. This sum is due the State by virtue of acts of Congress passed March 1st, 1817, and September 4th, 1841, providing that two and five per cent, on the net proceeds of lands sold within the State shall be paid to the State for internal improvement purposes. ^^ ^^ ^p *F ^T* ^P" "In further support of the position which I have taken in favor of the bill to authorize the settlement of these claims, and the removal of obstacles which only the weak- est quibbling could have suggested, I will cite the able and unanswerable reasoning of First Comptroller A. G. Porter in his decision upon the case of Georgia, precisely analogous to that of Mississippi, which leads up to the conclusion that it was his 'dutv to direct that the sum appropriated (under the direct tax law) to the State of Greorgia shall not be credited as upon a debt owing by that State to the United States, but shall be paid at once to the State.' (Decision of the First Comptroller, May 24th, 1879, Executive Document 24, Forty-sixth Congress.) "And finally, Mr. Speaker, the United States cre- ated the obligation to the State of Mississippi for the specific purpose nominated in the bond, and can not divert the sums due her wi^out violating its plighted faith. It would be far greater honor to moderate its own demands than to incur the hazard of trenching upon the rights of others. Can this Government, illimitable in its resources, and as powerful to maintain its pledges invio- e/'G OUR GREAT MEN. li te as to enforce its authority, afford to plant itself upon tlie Rob Roy doctrine — "'The shnple plan That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can ' ? " "^^^^'^^'^^ HON. JOHN J. HEMPHILL, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. Tf-5-|s^felOHN J. HEMPHILL was born at Chester, South Carolina, his present home, the 25th of August, 1849. He was educated in the schools of Chester, and attended the South Carolina University for three years, graduating there in 1 ^69. He then studied law, and was admitted to practice hi 1870. The 1st of January, 1871, he commenced prac- t cing law in Chester. He was the Democratic nominee f )r the Legislature in 1874, but was defeated. In 1876 1 e was elected to the State Legislature, and served for 1 hree consecutive terms. He was a member of the Forty- (iighth and Forty-ninth Congresses. On the subject of book-making and pool-selling in the District of Columbia Mr. Hemphill said : "The merits of the bill are so plain they do not need any explanation. The object is to prohibit book-making and pool-selling upon horse-races and elections or any other contest. This law is simply in conformity to the JOHN J. HEMPHILL. 677 laws which prevail in a majority of the States of the Union, and it is merely a question whether the people who live in the District of Columbia shall be subjected to more temptation than the people who live in the States of the Union. We here must legislate for this people. We are the only body they have to look to for encouragement in morality, and we should do for them what the Legisla- tures of the States do for the people in those States. " We submitted the bill to the District Commission- ers, who are in a measure protectors of the public welfare, and, in a limited sense, of the morals of this place. They approved it unanimously, with the suggestion, how- ever, that there should be twice a year, of one week's duration each, a time when the jockey club, which has a track not far removed from the city, should have the privilege of selling pools on horse-races there. "The committee, however, thought that if it was to be of any benefit at all there should not be any special priv- ileges granted to any one particular class or association ; and therefore they did not accept the suggestion of the commissioners, and reported the bill as it is. " They believe the bill will commend itself to the good sense of the House, and that morality which distinguishes members of Congress they will endeavor to inculcate by suitable legislation. I think that the bill has merits and should pass, and I do not know that we will ever have a better time to do this than in the absence of everybody who is supposed to be opposed to it." Hon. henry S. van EATON, OF MISSISSIPPI. lENRY S. VAN EATOX was born in Ham- ilton County, Ohio, the 14tli of September, 1826. When he was six years old his parents moved to Jacksonville, Illinois, where Henry was educated. He graduated at Illinois College in 1848, and then went to Woodville, Mississippi. He studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in Missis- sippi. He was elected State's Attorney for the Southern Mississippi District in 1867, and two years later he was elected to the State Legislature. During the war he served in the Confederate Army, and when peace was restored he again resumed the practice of his profession. He was appointed Chancellor of the Tenth Mississippi District in 1880. He was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress, as a Democrat. The following is an extract from a short speech by Mr. Van Eaton on the Kansas land grants : "That brings me to one of the remarkable features of this bill. It provides, in case certain settlers are on land which shall turn out in the readjustment did not belong to the railroad company when it sold it to the settler, (678) HENRY S. VAN EATON. 679 what shall be done. To my mind it is a most remarkable provision. It says: 'We will give you the land, but make the railroad company pay the price.' The trouble, to my mind, is just this : If the railroad sold that to which it had no title, as a matter of course the vendee has recourse on the warranty ; but this bill attempts to make the railroad resj)onsible to the United States. That is to say, if they sold the land and gave no title, they are not to account to the purchaser, they are not to account to the vendee, but the United States accounts to them or guar- antees the title, and then turns upon the road and says : ' You pay us. You do not pay the man whose title you guaranteed, but we will step in and fix that title, and then you will pay us.' To my mind, it is a novel proposition of law. As a matter of course, if the railroad sold without guarantee, the purchasers in that case would be helpless." Hon. OLIN wellborn, OF TEXAS. ILIN WELLBORN represents the Sixth Congressional District of Texas in the House of Representatives of the United States Con- gress. His present home is in Dallas, Texas. He has been a member of Congress since the Forty-sixth Congress, to which he was elected as a Democrat. In a speech on the bill for the relief of the Cheyenne Indians Mr. Wellborn said: " So urgently does the situation of these Indians appeal for assistance that the President of the United States deemed the matter of sufficient importance in the early days of the present session of Congress to make it the subject of a special message. Subsequently thereto, the Chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs received a communication from the Secretary of the Inte- rior earnestly asking speedy action and early legislation on the subject. "In response to these executive calls the House, a few days ago, on motion of the gentleman from Minnesota, passed the legislation recommended by the President, in the form of a joint resolution. The Senate, in its digni- fied conservatism, I suppose, or perhaps its superior par- (680) BARCLAY HENLEY. 681 liamentary wisdom, has returned the joint resolution to the House with an amendment changing the proposed legislation from the form of a joint resolution into that of a bill ; or, to be more specific, an amendment striking out the words 'Be it resolved,' etc., and substituting the words 'Be it enacted.' Now, sir, while I shall ask the House, for reasons to be stated before taking my seat, to concur in this amendment of the Senate, yet I do it being fully aware of the fact that if the House were to adhere strictly to its practice in former years it would reject the amend- ment, because I am advised that there is but one instance on record where the House has accepted a Senate amendment changing a joint resolution into the form of a bill, and that in the closing hours of a dying Congress, when contest over the matter would be fruitless." — *^#^— Hon. BARCLAY HENLEY, OF CALIFORNIA. [aRCLAY HENLEY, of Santa Rosa, who represents the First Congressional Dis- trict of California in the National House of Representatives, was born in Clark County, Indiana, March 17th, 1843. He is the son of Thomas J. Henley, who was a Representative in Congress from Indiana from 1842 to 1849. He went to California in 1853, and returned to Indiana to attend Hanover College. 682 OUR GREAT MEN. He studied law in San Francisco, and in 1864 was admit- ted to the Bar. For a time he was District Attorney o| Sonoma County. He was also a member of the State Assembly. He was nominated Presidential Elector on the Democratic ticket in 1876, and nominated for that posi- tion in 1880, and that time elected. He has been a member of the National House of Rep- resentatives since 1882, when he was elected to the Forty- eighth Congress. In some remarks on the settlers on lands in Nebraska and Kansas Mr. Henley said: "Mr. Speaker, I think this Government is big enough to do precisely what is right, without regard to legal tech- nicalities. When appealed to by the gentleman from Illinois, my friend from Georgia seemed to shrink from the inequity and injustice of the position he would have the House assume with reference to this bill, namely, to limit this belief to exactly what a court would award were the matter between private individuals. "The gentleman from Illinois asked, 'Is this right?' repeating the measure of relief insisted upon by my friend from Georgia. The gentleman would not answer that specifically, but went on to state what was the strict letter of the law. But the fact is, sir, the Government told these people to go onto the lands, paying a certain sum of money, and make their homes thereon. They did it under that authority from the Government, and under the sanction of repeated decisions of the Land Department, which the people of this country have a right to regard as sufiiciently reliable to act upon. With this under- standing they went to work and made their homes. Some BAECLAY HENLEY. 683 doubtless expended the fruits of years of toil in improving what they thought was their own, and to which many of them had obtained United States patents, and all had paid for in good faith. Then here comes this decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, by which it is held that these patents that purported to convey title to this property by the Government are invalid, and that the Government had no title to convey. "The position, then, is this: They have made large expenditures— all they could afford— thinking and being told by the Government that they had title to the land. They did not calculate on being called upon to pay an additional sum to a railroad company to validate the title which they supposed they had from the Government, or which had been, therefore, conveyed by the Government; and the Public Lands Committee thought it a hardship to hold them to the strict letter of the law, and to limit the amount of money to be paid them simply to the sum paid by them to the Government." ^j^m Hon. FRANCIS M. COCKRELL, OF MISSOURI. J^^^JRANCIS MAKIOX COCKRELL, of War- reiisburg, was born the 1st of October, 1834, ill Johnson County, Missouri. He received the foundation uf his education in the com- mon schools of the neighborhood, and then attended Chapel Hill College, Lafayette County, Missouri, where he graduated in July, 1853. He then jDrepared for admis- sion to the Bar; and since his admission he has been engaged in the practice of his profession, never holding any public office till he was elected to the United States Senate, where he took his seat March 4th, 1875. Mr. Cockrell is a strong Democrat. In a speech on the Army efficiency Mr. Cockrell said: "Suppose we should come in contact with the British lion upon the coast of Maine, are not the brave, chival- rous militiamen of Maine, the ^^atriotic citizens of that State, able and organized to come forth as militia under their State officers and repel all the foreign foes that can land upon Maine's soil in the next twelve months? Remember, Mr. President, neither the regular army nor the militia can go upon the waters and meet the enemy even in armed vessels. We have had some foreign wars. (684) FRANCIS M. COCKRELL. 685 Who did the main fighting ? The militia, the volunteer soldiers of the United States. We had the greatest civil war the world has ever beheld. When Americans met Americans upon the ensanguined field, then came the tug of war. It was the volunteer soldiers who fought the war and made a character superior to that enjoyed by the soldiers of any country on earth to-day. "Our great people, isolated as we are, knowing the right from the wrong, and daring always to do the right, conscious of the purity and justness of all our national aspirations, content upon our own public domain, under our own vine and fig-tree, coveting nothing which belongs to our neighbors, and on terms of peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, with no national ani- mosities or fancied grievances or wrongs to avenge, abso- lutely bearing, as a nation, ^charity to all and malice toward none,' need no standing army to oppose foreign foes or aggressions. There is no possible danger to this great country from any foreign nation. The true, noble, brave and patriotic people of all our indestructible States, composing our indissoluble Union, the people of the United States of America, can successfully resist the com- bined nations of the earth. There is no need for an increase of the Army on account of foreign foes." Hon. JOHN R. TUCKER, OF VIRGINIA. |OHN RANDOLPH TUCKER, of Lexing- ton, was born at Winchester, the 24th of December, 1823. He was educated at the University of Virginia. His profession is that of a lawyer. From 1857 to 1865 he was Attorney- General of Virginia. He was Professor of Equity and Public Law at Lee University, in Lexington. He has been a member of the National House of Representatives since the Forty-fourth Congress, to which he was elected as a Democrat. The following is an extract from^a short speech by Mr. Tucker on an internal revenue tax: "Now, Mr. Chairman, is this a revenue bill or is it something else ? I put the question to every man's own conscience here, as I put it to my own: Do I vote for this bill, if I vote for it at all, for the purpose of raising revenue to support the Government ; and if I do not for the purpose of raising revenue, but for the purpose of raising none, in order to destroy an industry of the coun- try, then I ask the question. If I use the taxing power to destroy an industry which I may not do directly, what right have I, by an evasion of constitutional obligations, (686) JOHN R. TUCKER. 687 to attempt to do through the taxing power what I admit I can not do by any direct action of the Government ? "Do we need the revenue? Why, sir, during the last six months of the year the imports of this country have been forty millions more than for the corresponding six months in the last year, and that would be eighty millions increase in one year. At forty per cent, it would raise an increased revenue in this country amounting to 132,000,000. There arc two hundred millions of oleomar- garine made in this country, by the report of my friend from Missouri; ten cents on that is |20,000,000 more. With an overwhelming Treasury, why put twenty mill- ions more into it? "Ah, the gentleman from Xew York said this morn- ing, the tax will not add to the revenue of the Grovern- ment, but will destroy the production of an article ; fur- thermore, we do not need the revenue. Very well, sir; then if you do not want the revenue for building fortifica- tions, as the gentleman said, what do you want it for? "You want it for the purpose of destroying the pro- duction. "Now I put it again to the gentlemen, could you by law pass an act preventing the production of oleomarga- rine in any State of this Union ? A man in the city of Boston makes oleomargarine and sells it to a citizen of Boston who consumes it in Boston ; and I want to know if there is any power in the Congress of the United States to prevent that from being done in Massachusetts." Hon. JOSEPH WHEELER, OF ALABAMA. J^^j^?|OSEPII WHEELER, of Wheeler, was born the 10th of September, 1836, in Augusta, Georgia. He graduated at West Point, and received the commission of Lieutenant of Dragoons in the United States Army. He resigned when Ahibama seceded, and was appointed Lieutenant of Artil- lery in the Confederate Army. At the battle of Shiloh he commanded an infantry brigade, and at the close of the war he commanded the Army Corps of Cavalry of the Western Army, having engaged in nearly all of the military operations of the South-west. He received a joint resolution of thanks from the Confederate Con- gress for skill and bravery; and also from the State of South Carolina for his defense of Aiken, in that State. In 1866 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy in Louisiana State Seminary, but declined the position. He followed the practice of law and cotton planting for several years. In 1880 he received the nomination for Congress, but his election was contested, and in June of 1882 he was deprived of his seat, though he claimed a large legal majority. He was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and also to the Forty-ninth Congress, as a Dem- (688) EAXDALL L. GIBSON. 689 ocrat. As a speaker Mr. Wheeler is most eloquent. Alabama is proud of him, as she may well be. In the debates of Congress he has taken an active part, serving on the Committee on Militarv Affairs. Hon. RANDALL L GIBSON, OF LOUISIANA. l^^^bCJAXDALL LEE GIBSON, of m^y Orleans, :^MlM ^yjjg \)QYn the lOth of September, 1832, at Spring Hill, Kentucky. He received his education in Lexington, Kentucky, in Terre Bonne Parish, Louisiana, and at Yale College, finally graduating in the L!iw Department of the Tulane Univer- sity of Louisiana. In 1855 he refused the Secretaryship of Legation to Spain. During the early days of the civil war he was aid to the Governor of Louisiana; then enter- ing the Confederate Army, he served till peace was restored. He is both lawyer and planter, and a man who is liked best where known best. Mr. Gibson holds the honored position of President of the Board of Administrators of the Tulane Univer- sity of Louisiana. The Second Congressional District of Louisiana elected him to the Forty-third Congress, but he was refused admission. He was a member of the House of Representatives in the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses, and was elected 42 690 OUR GREAT MEN. to the United States Senate as a Democrat. He took his seat in that body the 4th of March, 1883. He succeeded the celebrated William Pitt Kellogg, with whose record the country is familiar. Mr. Gribson has made a fine record in the Senate in the few years he has been there, fully keeping up his rep- utation as an efficient statesman which he had established in the House of Representatives. He is a man of strong convictions, and stands up for the right. -►»^>^ Hon. JOHN J. O'NEILL, OF MISSOURI. JOHN J. O'NEILL, of St. Louis, was born the 25th of June, 1846. He was in the Government civil service during the war, and then engaged in manufacturing. He was a member of the State Legislature of Missouri from 1872 to 1878. In 1878 he was nominated for Congress by the Workingmen's party, but withdrew from the canvass. In 1879 he was elected a member of the Municipal As- sembly of St. Louis, and re-elected in 1881. He was elected to the Forty-eighth and re-elected to the Forty- ninth Congress as a Democrat. The following is a short speech by Mr. O'Neill on the Labor Commission: " Mr. Speaker, I want only to say, in so far as the JOHN J. NEILL. 691 question of education is concerned, that it was considered fully by the Committee on Labor, and 1 differ as widely from my friend from Michigan in this respect as any two men can differ on any subject. The gentleman speaks of these questions as being essentially different. I can sec blending together the two questions of education and labor. Where you improve the condition of the laboring classes that benefit is felt all the way through every walk of society, from the lowest to the highest. But this is not the place to discuss that question. When the educational bill comes up we may consider it fairly upon its merits ; but for the present the only question for our determina- tion is whether this House will give to the cause of labor a day or not; and I want you gentlemen to keep your pledges made to the people, and recollect that it is but a few months now before you will go back to them again. You can not stand before any intelligent constituency and give a reasonable excuse why you would not give to the cause of labor, to the reports from the Committee on Labor, a day in this House. That is all we ask." Hon. LELAND STANFORD. OF CALIFORNIA. lELAND STANFORD, a member of the United States Senate from California, was born in Albany County, New York, March 9th, 1824. He received an academical edu- cation and then studied law in Albany, New York, and after three years' study he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in 1849. He then went to the North-west, and located in Port Washington, Wisconsin, where he practiced his profession for four years. He lost his property, including all of his law library, in a fire in the spring of 1852, and he then went to California, where three of his brothers were already located. He at first commenced business in Michigan Blufi^s, and in 1856 removed to San Francisco and engaged in the mercantile business on a large scale. In 1860 he was a Delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago. He was Governor of California from 1861 to 1863. He superintended the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad over the mountains, and as President of that railroad company he received great credit for the work, building 530 miles of railroad requiring great engi- (692) LELAND STANFORD. 693 neering skill in 293 days. He is also interested in other railroads in the Far West, in manufactures and agricult- ure, and all that tends to advance the State of his adop- tion. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican, taking his seat the 4th of March, 1885. On the subject of railroads Mr. Stanford said: "It is pertinent for us to inquire into the wisdom of this kind of legislation, assuming that the authority for it exists. The right of association is a natural one, and it is the duty of the National and State Legislatures to aid that natural right ; and that I contend is what legislation by the various States providing for the incorporation of railroad companies has done. The incorporation is made by individual incorporators as much so as a partnership between individuals is established by the partners them- selves. The character of railroad investment as com- pared with others is set forth by the fact that States can and do exercise the right of eminent domain in order that railroads may be constructed. " The State can not exercise this right for the benefit of the railroads. It only exercises it because the invest- ment is of that peculiarly beneficial character to the pub- lic that it may be said to be a public good. The rule is, moreover, that the railroad companies must pay individ- uals deprived of the control of their property under the right of eminent domain whatever may be the value of that property. The State pays nothing." Hon. JAMES H. BLOUNT, OF GEORGIA. AMES H. BLOUNT, who represents the Sixth Congressional District of Georgia in the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, was born in Georgia, Sep- tember 12th, 1837. His present home is in Macon, Georgia. Mr. Blount is a staunch Democrat, and as such has been a member of the Forty-third, Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses. In the Forty-ninth Congress he was Chairman of the Committee on Post-Offices. The following is an extract from a sj^eech by Mr. Blount on an appropriation bill to improve the Poto- mac flats : "Why shall we recklessly go forward, blind to the interests of the Government, and expend money as we have been doing for the benefit of private persons ? Gen- tlemen ask, would we stop the work? Wlij is there such a great passion in this House to go on with this work that we can not take care of the interests of the Government, that we can not stop to inquire about mat- ters of which the most dignified and authoritative notice comes from the Attorney-General? (694) JAMES H. BLOUNT. 695 O "Sir, I do trust that this House will not consent to the expenditure of another dollar until it shall be fully ascertained who are the claimants and what are the rights of the Government. If we should, without inquiry, go on with this work, and afterward, when the public treasure has been expended, it should turn out that there are not only Kidwell claims, but canal claims and various others, what can we do but hang our heads in shame that wo have deliberately gone forward and brought this scandal upon the House and upon the Government ? I trust that this House, in the interest of its own integrity, will not incur the possibility of having this scandal come upon it, even though it may be suggested that by taking proper precautions we may necessitate the stoppage of the work. Is it possible that, with such a wrong threatening us, we can not stay the contractors — can not take time to inquire into this matter? I trust not." & m Hon. SAMUEL DIBBLE, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. JAMUEL DIBBLE, of Orangeburg, was born the 16th of September, 1837, at Charleston, South Carolina. He was edu- cated in the schools of Charleston, in Bethel, Connecticut, in the College of Charleston, and finally entered Wofford College, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he graduated in 1856. He then taught school and studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1859. He located in Orangeburg, and commenced prac- ticing law. The war interrupted his legal pursuits, for he volunteered among the first and served till the close of the war. In 1877 he was elected a member of the State House of Representatives. In 1878 he was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina. He was elected to the Forty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. M. P. O'Connor, but Mr. O'Connor's claim to the election was successfully contested, and consequently Mr. Dibble lost his seat in that Congress. He was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress, as a Democrat. The following is a short speech by Mr. Dibble on the Signal Service: (696) SAMUEL DIBBLE. 697 "The Signal Service is necessary, not only in time of war but in time of peace, and it is essential that its efficiency should be preserved for the benefit of the agri- cultural interests of this country. I find that this appro- priation bill makes a substantial reduction. Last year the appropriation was based on our estimate of a dollar a day for commutation of rations at some of the stations, and seventy-five cents at others. The book of esti- mates submitted has this remark: " 'One dollar per man seems to be the minimum price at which board can be obtained, and the Chief Signal Officer desires to urge this, as he considers the allowance of one dollar per day per man to be absolutely necessary.' "The amount that is asked in the estimate is |167,000. The amount appropriated in the bill is $145,000. The amount in this amendment is |155,000, and, as I am informed, and I would like to be corrected by the gentle- man if I am in error, the amendment proposed by the gentleman from Maryland is exactly based upon the rate and number of men who are now receiving commutation in the Signal Service; two hundred and twenty are receiving commutation at one dollar a day, and two hun- dred and forty are receiving it at seventy-five cents per day. It is exactly maintaining the present status. Now, Mr. Chairman, I want to say a word more in relation to this matter. This is skilled service. I have here the circular which is sent out to every applicant. Every man who enters the service is required to contract with the Government for five years, and it is desertion if he abandons that contract. He is told that he will be required to stand an examination fully as strict as the 698 OUR GREAT MEN. civil-service examination for positions in the depart- mental service. In addition to that he has to be instructed in technical and scientific information ; he has to become a scientific expert. At the time of entering the service a man is told he will receive a certain rate of pay during this period of five years. The law authorizes this commutation of rations and of quarters to be fixed by the Department, and they have fixed it, and told the man what he is to receive." ~*^=#^ Hon. LOUIS St. MARTIN, OF LOUISIANA. loUIS St. martin, of New Orleans, was born in the Parish of St. Charles, in the State of Louisiana, in 1820. He received his education at St. Mary's College, Mis- souri, and at Jefferson College, Louisiana. He entered the office of a notary with the intention of studying law, and remained there till he received the appointment to a vacancy in the postroffice in Xew Orleans. He was elected to the State Legislature of Louisiana in 1846, and the same year President Polk appointed him Register of the United States Land Office for the South-eastern District of Louisiana. In 1848 he was again elected to the Legis- lature, and in 1850 he was elected to the Thirty-second Congress bv the First Congressional District of Louisiana. JOHN E. KENNA. 699 At the close of his term in Congress he engaged in the mercantile business. He was for a time Register of Voters for the city of New Orleans. The Democratic party nom- inated and elected him, in 1866, to the Thirty-ninth Con- gress, and the House of Representatives denied him admission, as it claimed that Louisiana was not a State in the Union. He was elected to the Forty-first Congress, but the election was contested and referred back to the people. He was a Delegate to the National Democratic Conventions of 1856, 1868, 1876 and 1880. He was a member of the Electoral College in 1876 on the Tilden ticket. He has for some time occupied a prominent posi- tion in the city government of New Orleans. He was elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Democrat. — ^=#^^*— Hon. JOHN E. KENNA, OF WEST VIEGINIA. |Tp^^^§||0HN E. KENNA, of Charleston, was born '^ the 10th of April, 1848, in Yalcoulon, Vir- ginia (now West Virginia). He lived on a farm until the breaking out of the late civil war, when he entered the Confederate Army as a private, serving till the close of the war, when he surrendered at Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1865. After the war he attended St. Vincent's College, in Wheeling, West Virginia ; then read law in Charleston, and in June, 1870, he was admit- 700 OUR GREAT MEN. ted to the Bar. He has since then practiced law in Charleston. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Kanawha County in 1872, and served in that capacity four years. In 1875 he was chosen by the Bar in the respective counties under statutory j^rovision to hold the Circuit Courts of Lincoln and Wayne Counties. He was a member of the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth and Forty-sev- enth Congresses, and had been elected to the Forty-eighth Congress when he was elected to the United States Senate, as a Democrat. In a speech in the Senate on the subject of interstate commerce Mr. Kenna said : "The proposition of the Senator fi'om Minnesota, like the proposition of every Senator on this floor who urges opposition to the amendment, that the railroad should not only be allowed, but should be required, to charge reason- able rates, involves us in the old geometrical question as to the size of a lump of chalk. What constitutes a reason- able rate is precisely the thing which the people of this country are unwilling to leave to the arbitrary discretion of the railroad commission. "I do not want to interrupt my friend, the Senator from IN'orth Carolina, in his speech, but I do want to reiterate the fact that in the amendment of my colleague which was adopted yesterday, and Avhich seems to be the bone of contention here, the simple principle is announced that without interfering with railroad rates — I dislike to hear the term ' rates ' mentioned in the line of this dis- cussion, because there is no question of rates involved in it — without reference to any kind or character whatever to interference with the traffic of railroads or their freights, JOHN S. BAEBOUK. 701 it has been deemed by the friends of this measure a reason- able limitation that they should not be allowed to charge more in gross, more for a shorter haul, even if that shorter haul be ten miles, than for a longer haul, even if that longer haul be a thousand miles. It is an equalization which is essential to restoring to Congress a prerogative which has heretofore been usurped by the railroad com- panies of this country to control its interstate commerce, and to give to the West or any other section the great markets of the East, giving to the one to the exclusion of the other. That is the real principle involved in it after all." Hon. JOHN S. BARBOUR, OF VIEGINIA. |OHN S. BARBOUR, who comes from Wash- ington's old home, Alexandria, represents well in the United States Congress the Eighth Congressional District of Virginia. He was born in Culpepper County, Virginia, December 29th, 1820. He received a classical education at the Uni- versity of Virginia, and is also a graduate of the Law Department of that University. He commenced the prac- tice of his profession in his native county. In 1847 he was elected to the State Legislature from Culpepper County, serving four consecutive sessions. He was elected President of the railroad company then known as the 702 OUR GREAT MEN. Orange and Alexandria Railroad Company, holding the position till it was changed to the Virginia Midland Rail« road Company, of which he was President for nearly thirty years. He was a member of the Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses, to which he was elected as a Democrat. On the bill for the construction of a bridge over the Potomac Mr. Barbour said : "So far as the county of Alexandria is concerned it is very small and comparatively poor. The population of the county is not at all numerous, and they do not see why they should tax themselves to build a bridge for Washington and for the Grovernment of the United States. As I have said, the county is a very small one, with com- paratively poor population; and in that county, on the other side of the river, the Government itself owns a large tract of land — eleven hundred acres of the Arlington estate — which it uses as a National cemetery, and where it has a signal station. Under these circumstances, is it reasonable to expect the people of that little county to come up and tax themselves for the construction of a bridge to connect that Grovernment property with the city of AYashington ? And I want to say, in this connection, that the State of Virginia has very little interest in this bridge. It would accommodate only a small amount of travel from a portion of two or three counties of that State, and the construction of the bridge is a matter of little or no consequence to Virginia. The great demand for this bridge, as I understand, is a jN'ational one. The bridge is demanded because the people of this city of Washing- SAMUEL B. AfAXEV. ton want it. The demand comes nLso bcvauso tl.c peoph- of Georgetown are knocking at the door all the time, . ing for this accommodation, and the peoi)le of (Je..rgetowi, and Washington are under tlie exclusive jurisdiction -.f Congress. Tliey have no other body to represent thcni .. to act for them; and if Congress does not ext(>nd it.^ .stron- and protecting arm over this community, who will?" ■»H§<:-^<-H- Hon. SAMUEL B. MAXEY, OF TEXAS. JAMUEL BELL MAXEY, of l>aris, was born the 30th of March, 1825, in Monnn- County, Kentucky, and received his early education there. In 1842 he entered West Point Military Academy, graduating there in 184<). He joined the Seventh Infantry, United States Army, at Monterey, Mexico, and served through the ^lexican ^^'a^. In 1849 he returned to Kentucky and studied law. He was admitted to the Bar in 1850, and seven years later he / removed to Texas and ^^racticed law there. In ISOI Kr. was elected State Senator but declined, to enter the ('