Slavery and Four Years of War Part 70

"Mr. Reed. I move to lay the appeal on the table.

"The Speaker. The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Randall) appeals from the decision of the Chair, and the gentleman from Maine (Mr.

Reed) moves that the appeal be laid upon the table.

"The question was taken; and there were--yeas 150, nays 0, not voting 141.

"So the appeal was laid on the table."(19)

There was much clamor and undue excitement over this decision of the Speaker cutting off the, always to me, foolish and unjustifiable, though time-honored, practice of allowing a turbulent minority to stop business indefinitely, by purely dilatory, though in form, privileged motions. This holding, however, received the commendation of sober, learned men of this country, and in Europe it was quoted approvingly by Gladstone in the House of Commons of England, and was followed, in principle, by its Speaker in upholding the rule of _cloture_ against violent filibustering of the Irish party.

Such dilatory methods have been little resorted to since.

At the end of this Congress a resolution was adopted, on the motion of Mr. Randall, thanking "the Speaker for the ability and courtesy with which he has presided over the deliberations of the House during the Forty-seventh Congress."

My valedictory as Speaker was as follows:

"Gentlemen, the time has come when our official relations as Representatives in the Forty-seventh Congress are to be dissolved.

In a moment more this House of Representatives will be known only in history. Its acts will stand, many of them, it is believed, through the future history of the Republic.

"On the opening day of this Congress, I ventured the suggestion and the expression of a hope that it would be marked 'as peculiarly a business Congress.'

"It has successfully grappled with more of the vital, material, and moral questions of the country than its predecessors. Many of these have been settled wisely and well by appropriate legislation.

It would be quite impossible at this time to enumerate the many important laws which have been enacted to foster and promote the substantial interests of the whole country.

"This Congress enacted into a law the first 3 per cent. funding bill known to this country, and under it a considerable portion of the government debt has been refunded at lower rates than ever before.

"It did not hesitate to take hold of the question of polygamy, and it is believed it has struck the first effective blow in the direction of destroying that greatest remaining public crime of the age.

"Laws have been pa.s.sed to protect the immigrant on his way across the sea and upon his arrival in the ports of this country.

"Laws have also been pa.s.sed to extend the charters of the banking inst.i.tutions so that financial disorder cannot take place, which would otherwise have come at the expiration of the old bank charters.

"Many public acts will be found relating to the Indian policy and the land policy of this country which will prove to be wise.

"The post-office laws have been so changed as to reduce letter postage from three to two cents, the lowest rate ever known in the United States.

"No legislation of this Congress will be found upon the statute books, revolutionary in character or which will oppress any section or individual in the land. All legislation has been in the direction of relief.

"Pension laws have been enacted which are deemed wise, and liberal appropriations have been made to pay the deserving and unfortunate pensioner.

"Internal-revenue taxes have been taken off, and the tariff laws have been revised.

"Sectionalism has been unknown in the enactment of laws.

"In the main a fraternal spirit has prevailed among the members from all portions of the Union. What has been said in the heat of debate and under excitement and sometimes with provocation is not to be regarded in determining the genuine feeling of concord existing between members. The high office I have filled through the session of this Congress has enabled me to judge better of the true spirit of the members that compose it than I could otherwise have done.

"It is common to say that the House of Representatives is a very turbulent and disorderly body of men. This is true more in appearance than in reality. Those who look on and do not partic.i.p.ate see more apparent confusion than exists in reality. The disorder that often appears on the floor of the House grows out of an earnest, active spirit possessed by members coming from all sections of the United States, and indicates in high degree their strong individuality and their great zeal in trying to secure recognition in the prompt discharge of their duty. No more conscientious body of men than compose this House of Representatives, in my opinion, ever met.

Partisan zeal has in some instances led to fierce word-contests on the floor, but when the occasion which gave rise to it pa.s.sed by, party spirit went with it.

"I am very thankful for the considerate manner in which I have been treated by the House in its collective capacity. I am also very thankful to each individual member of this body for his personal treatment of me. I shall lay down the gavel and the high office you clothed me with filled with good feeling towards each member of this House. I have been at times impatient and sometimes severe with members, but I have never purposely harshly treated any member.

I have become warmly attached to and possessed of a high admiration, not only for the high character of this House as a parliamentary body, but for all its individual members. I heartily thank the House for its vote of thanks.

"The duties of a Speaker are of the most delicate and critical kind. His decisions are in the main made without time for deliberation and are often very far-reaching and controlling in the legislation of the country on important matters, and they call out the severest criticism.

"The rules of this House, which leave to the Speaker the onerous duty and delicate task of recognizing individuals to present their matters for legislation, render the office in that respect as exceedingly unpleasant one. No member should have the legislation he desires depend upon the individual recognition of the Speaker, and no Speaker should be compelled to decide between members having matters of possibly equal importance or of equal right to his recognition.

"I suggest here that the time will soon come when another mode will have to be adopted which will relieve both the Speaker and individual members from this exceedingly embarra.s.sing if not dangerous power.

"During my administration in the chair very many important questions have been decided by me, and I do not flatter myself that I have, in the hurry of these decisions, made no mistakes. But I do take great pride in being able to say that no parliamentary decision of mine has been overruled by the judgment of this almost evenly politically balanced House, although many appeals have been taken.

"I congratulate each member of this House upon what has been accomplished by him in the discharge of the important duties of a Representative, and with the sincerest hope that all may return safely to their homes, and wishing each a successful and happy future during life, I now exercise my last official duty as presiding officer of this House by declaring the term of this House under the Const.i.tution of the United States at an end, and that it shall stand adjourned _sine die_. (Hearty and continued applause.)"-- _Con. Record_, Vol. xiv., Part IV., p. 3776.

I was the caucus nominee and voted for by my party friends for Speaker of the Forty-eighth Congress, but Mr. Carlisle was elected, the Democrats being in the majority. I served on the Committees on Appropriations and Rules of the Forty-eighth Congress, and performed much hard work. I partic.i.p.ated actively in much of the general business of this House, and in the debates. On January 24, 1884, I made an extended speech against a bill for the relief of Fitz-John Porter, by which it was proposed to make him "Colonel in the Army," and thus to exonerate him from the odium of his conduct while under General Pope, August 29, 1862, at the Second Bull Run, as found by a general court-martial. I advocated (January 5, 1885) pensioning Mexican soldiers. I spoke on various other subjects, and especially advocated (February 20, 1885) the increase of the naval strength of the government so that it might protect our commerce on the high seas in peace, guard our boundary coast line (in length, excluding Alaska, one and two thirds times the distance around the earth at the equator), and successfully cope, should war come, with any naval power of the world.

My princ.i.p.al work in this Congress was in the rooms of the Committee on Appropriations in the preparation of bills. Hon. Samuel J.

Randall (Democrat) of Pennsylvania was Chairman of this committee.

He was conscientious, industrious, and honest, absolutely without favorites, personal and political, in the making of appropriations.

This committee, chiefly, too, by the labor of a very few of its members, each annual session prepared bills for the appropriation of hundreds of millions of dollars, which (with the rarest exception) pa.s.sed the House without question (and ultimately became laws), the members generally knowing little or nothing as to the honesty or special necessity, if even the purpose, of the appropriations made. In the preparation of these bills the expenditures and estimates in detail of all the departments of the government including all branches of the public service and all special matters of expense, liability, and obligation, were examined and scrutinized, to avoid errors, injustice to the government or individuals, extravagance, or fraud. I have, covering as many as five of the last days of a session, remained with Mr. Randall in the committee rooms at the Capitol, working, almost uninterruptedly, night and day, to complete the bills necessary to be pa.s.sed before adjournment.

This committee work brought no immunity from attendance in the House.

My service in Congress ended March 4, 1885, since which time I have partic.i.p.ated in public and political affairs as a private citizen, and a.s.siduously pursued the practice of the law and attended to my personal affairs; writing this volume, mainly, in the winter nights of 1896 and 1897, incident to an otherwise busy life.

III SERVICE IN SPANISH WAR

After the foregoing was written, a war arose between the United States and Spain, growing out of the latter's bad government of Cuba, which Spain had held (except for a brief time) since its discovery in 1492.

Spain was only partially successful in putting down the ten years'

(1868-1877) struggle of the Cubans for independence, and was forced to agree (1876) to give the inhabitants of Cuba all the rights, representation in the Cortes included, of Spanish citizens. This agreement was not kept, and in February, 1895, a new insurrection broke out, supported by the ma.s.s of the Cuban population, especially by those residing outside of the princ.i.p.al coast cities.

Notwithstanding Spain employed in Cuba her best regular troops as well as volunteers, she failed to put down this insurrection.

Governor-General Weyler inaugurated fire and slaughter wherever the Spanish armies could not penetrate, not sparing non-combatants, and, February 16, 1896, he adopted the inhuman policy of forcing the rural inhabitants from their homes into closely circ.u.mscribed so-called military zones, where they were left unprovided with food, and hence to die. Under Weyler's cruel methods and policy about one third (600,000) of the non-combatant inhabitants of the island were killed or died of starvation and incident disease before the end of the Spanish-American War. Yet a war was maintained by the insurgents under the leadership of able men, inspired with a patriotic desire for freedom and independence. The barbarity of the reconcentrado policy excited, throughout the civilized world, deep sympathy for the Cubans, and, April 6, 1896, a resolution pa.s.sed Congress, expressing the opinion that a "state of war existed in Cuba," and declaring that the United States should maintain a strict neutrality, but accord to each of the contending powers "the rights of belligerents in the ports and territory of the United States," and proposing that the friendly offices of the United States "be offered by the President to the Spanish government for the recognition of the independence of Cuba." This resolution and the proffered friendly offices bore no fruit. To meet a possible attack upon our citizens in Havana, the battle-ship _Maine_, commanded by Captain C. D. Sigsbee, was sent there in January, 1898. It was peacefully anch.o.r.ed in the harbor, where, February 15th, it was destroyed by what was generally believed to have been a sub-marine mine, designedly exploded by unauthorized Spaniards.

Of its officers and crew 266 perished, and the splendid war-ship was totally destroyed.

Preparations for war commenced at once in our country. Congress appropriated $50,000,000 "for the national defence."

It also, April 18, 1898, pa.s.sed joint resolutions, declaring:

"That the people of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent"; demanding of Spain that it "at once relinquish its authority and government in the island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters"; authorizing the President "to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States ... and the militia of the several States, to such an extent as may be necessary to carry these resolutions into effect," but disclaiming that the United States had "any intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island, except for the pacification thereof," and a.s.serting its determination that when that was completed to "leave the government and control of the island to its people." The resolutions were approved by the President April 20th, and in themselves had the effect of a declaration of war. The Spanish Minister at once demanded his pa.s.sports and departed from Washington. The American Minister at Madrid was handed his pa.s.sports on the morning of April 21, 1898, without being permitted to present the resolutions to the Spanish authorities. Congress, April 25th, by law, declared that war existed between the United States and Spain since and including April 21, 1898.

Thus, after a long peace of thirty-three years, our country was again to engage in war, and with and old and once powerful and war- like nation, which must be waged both by sea and land.

I do not intend to write a history of the one hundred and fourteen days' war that ensued. I merely summarize the conditions which caused me to turn from civil pursuits and a quiet home to again take up the activities of a military life in war.

The President called for volunteers (125,000 April 23d, and 75,000 May 25th), and, June 9th, I was, by him, appointed, and, June 14th, 1898, unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, a Major- General of Volunteers. I was the only person in civil life from a northern State, or who had served in the Union Army in the Civil War but never in the regular Army, on whom was originally conferred that high rank in the Spanish-American War.

This rank was conferred on Fitzhugh Lee of Virginia, Joseph Wheeler of Alabama, and Matthew C. Butler of South Carolina, each of whom had served as a general officer in the Confederate Army; and on James H. Wilson of Delaware, who had served as a Major-General in the Union Army in the Civil War. These four were from civil life, but, save Butler, each was a graduate of West Point and had served in the United States Army.

Hon. William J. Sewell of New Jersey declined an appointment to that rank, and Francis V. Greene of New York was appointed after the protocol was signed. He was a graduate of West Point, and had served in the United States Army. No other Major-General was appointed from civil life before the treaty of peace.

A feature of the Spanish War was the alacrity with which ex- Confederates and Southern men tendered their services to sustain it. It was worth the cost of the war, to demonstrate the patriotism of the whole people, and their readiness to unite under one flag and fight in a common cause.