Part 4 (1/2)

III AGAIN IN CONGRESS

CHANGES IN THE PERSONNEL OF THE HOUSE CONTRASTED WITH THOSE IN THE BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS--LEVI P MORTON--MR COVERT AND MR ShellEY --GEN JOSEPH E JOHNSTON--TWO NOTABLE SPEECHES BY JAMES A McKENZIE --JOHN E KENNA--BENJAMIN buttERWORTH--MR KEIFER OF OHIO--MR

CARLISLE OF KENTUCKY--SPEAKER REED--PRESIDENT McKINLEY--THE WRITER'S SPEECH AT THE PEACE JUBILEE BANQUET, 1898

After an absence of two years I was returned to the forty-sixth Congress Circu a seat in the intervening Congress,the Hon Thos, ”the whirligig of ties,” and I was in turn the successful competitor of my late opponent in his candidacy for re-election

Meanwhile, es had occurred in the personnel of the House

Many familiar names had been dropped from its roll Of these, nine had been transferred to that of the Senate, a former member was now in the Cabinet, and Mr Wheeler of New York was Vice-President

A significant fact in this connection, and one illustrating the uncertainty of the tenure by which place is held in that body, was that more than one-third of those hom I had so recently served were now in private life Possibly no feature of our governners than thein the membershi+p of the House of Representatives There is marked difference between the British House of Coress

A seat lost in the latter--it le unfortunate utterance, or unpopular vote--is usually a seat lost forever; while in the former, membershi+p may continue for an almost indefinite period, and until an ”appeal to the country” by the Ministry upon a new and vital issue If defeated by one constituency, the member of Parliament may soon be returned by another, the question of residence having no significance In fact if possessing superior talents, the member is liable to be chosen by two or more constituencies at the sa with himself as to which he will represent Such has been the experience of the most eminent of British statesmen The names of Burke, Peel, Gladstone, and Balfour, quite recently, will readily be recalled in this connection

In the little island the aspirant to legislative honors has several hundred constituencies froer America his political fortunes are usually bound up in his own residence district

Upon the roll of the House in the new Congress, called in special session in March, 1879, in addition to some heretofore mentioned, were names well known to the country Of these none is more worthy of honorable mention than that of the Hon Levi P

Morton of New York In the business world his na house, he was almost as well known in the principal cities of Europe as in the great city of his residence At the tiress Mr Morton was, by appointment of the President, an honorary coislative career he held successively the honored positions of Ambassador to France, Vice-President of the United States, and Governor of New York In Congress, Mr Morton was the able representative of a great constituency; as chief executive of his State his name is worthy of mention with the most eminent of those who have been called to that exalted station; as an court the honor of his country was ever in safe keeping; as Vice-President, he was the reatest deliberative body known to ation was the Hon Jaether he served ten years in the House, and beca htful associate, and an able and ready debater

That he was gifted with a touch of the hu through the agony of an all-night session Confusion reigned supre it all, Mr Shelley, from one of the Gulf States, stood at his desk and repeatedly er, Kenna, McKenzie, and others, as they successively addressed the Chair, that ”The gentle from his desk” The point of order was as repeatedly sustained by the Speaker, the rules requiring members to address the Chair only froreat that erness to be heard, pressed to the front The voice of Mr Shelley, however, was heard above the din still calling for the enforcement of the rule; to which the Speaker, his patience exhausted, now turned a deaf ear Desperate beyond th _left his own desk,_ and taking his position immediately in front of the clerk's desk fiercely demanded, ”Mr Speaker, I call for the enforcement of the rule”

At which Covert immediately exclaimed, ”Mr Speaker, I call for the enforcement of _the rule in Shelley's case!”_

Alentle, ”The silent man,”

”whose voice was in his sword,” General Joseph E Johnston of Virginia Until this, his first election to Congress from the Capital District of the Old Dominion, he had known none other than military public service He was a born soldier No one who saw hi Napoleon did not raduate of West Point, his first service was in the Black Hawk War, and later in Mexico For gallant conduct at the battle of Cerro Gordo, he was brevetted colonel in the regular army His last service hen, as Lieutenant-General of the Confederate Arreat Civil War He had already reached the allotted threescore years and ten when he entered Congress, and its ordinary details apparently interested hiood feeling between the North and South, and upon his motion the House duly adjourned in honor of the day set apart for the decoration of the graves of Union soldiers

No member of this House attracted more attention than did the Hon

James A McKenzie of Kentucky, the representative from what in local parlance was known as ”the pennyryle district” He was the youngest member of the body, tall, erect, and handsome Mr

McKenzie rendered a valuable service to his constituents and the country during this Congress, by securing the passage of a bill placing quinine upon the free list His district was seriously afflicted with the old-tiue, and the reduction by his bill to a noh upon the list of benefactors

Two of his kinsmen, one from Illinois, the other fro thee, indeed, that we three cousins--one from Illinois, one froether in Congress”; and then added, with apparent gravity, ”and _ours not an office-seeking family either!”_

As the session drew near its close, he made repeated efforts to obtain unanimous consent for the consideration of a bill for the erection of a Govern in the principal city of his district The interposition of the stereotyped ”I object” had, however, in each instance, proved fatal During a night session, near the close of the Congress, requests for recognition came to the Speaker from all parts of the chamber In thethe Chair, stated with great solemnity of e This at once arrested the attention of the Speaker, and he requested the gentlee ”I rise, Mr Speaker,” said McKenzie, ”to a question of the _highest_ privilege, one pertaining to the right of a ress_ If I don't get that post-office bill through now,the House for unanimous consent for its immediate consideration”

The House was convulsed; no objection was interposed, the bill was considered and passed, and McKenzie's seat was safe fortwo-minutes' speech, than that of McKenzie in the National Convention of 1892, when he arose to second the noht of intense excitement, the convention was still in session at three o'clock in thewithout, while within, thousands in the great hall were i an immediate vote More than one of the chief orators of the party,--men well known to the country--had in vain atteain at the crucialupon his chair in the centre of the vast enclosure, began: ”If I speak longer than two minutes, I hope that some honest half-drowned Democrat will suspend hly artistic, but terribly leaky auditorium Cleveland needs no nomination from this convention He has already been no the line--all the way from hell Gate to Yuba Dam!”

The bedlaone before

The uproar drowned the voice of the orator within, and even, for the ti eleht have been the closing words of McKenzie's speech, with such a beginning, can never be known

The effect of his opening, however, was instantaneous It was the i nomination of his candidate

The Hon John E Kenna, of West Virginia, was just at the beginning of a ree when he first entered Congress At the close of his third term in the House, he was elected to the United States Senate, and held his seat in that body by successive elections until his death at the early age of forty-four He possessed rare gifts as a speaker, and was an active participant inthat eventful period Senator Kenna was the beloved of his State, and his early death brought sorrow to , and he was co incident that occurred in the convention that first noate from the Crossroads in one of thespeech: ”Mr President, I rise to present to this convention, as a candidate for Congress, the name of John E Kenna--the peer, sir, _of nothe new ress was the Hon Benjamin butterworth of Ohio His ability as a lawyer and his readiness in debate soon gave hiood-nature and inexhaustible fund of anecdotes eneral favorite in the House One of his stories was of a Western member whose daily walk and conversation at the national Capital was by no means up to the orthodox hoth becaatory to their me Congressional convention was even threatened, and altogether serious trouble was brewing The demand was imperative upon the part of his closest friends that he at once coth turned his footsteps, and was e concourse of his friends and constituents Hurriedly alighting fro countenance and heart an:

”Fellow-citizens, my heart is deeply touched as e of athered here before and around ress my friends have spoken in my vindication I am here now to speak for ainsta defaulter; I have been accused of being a drunkard; I have been accused of being a gambler; but, thank God, fellow-citizens, _no ood moral character!”_