Part 4 (2/2)
One incident is related by butterworth of a judge in his State who, becousted with the ease hich naturalization papers were obtained, determined upon a radical refor this as other lines--was by no means one of floill appear froe, with great earnestness of manner, announced from the bench that thereafter no applicant could receive fro hie of citizenshi+p, unless he was able to read the Constitution of the United States A few s later, Michael O'Connor, a well-known partisan of the Seventh Ward, appeared in court acco countrye that his friend Dennis Flynn had already taken out his first papers, and the legal tirant hie inquired whether Mr Flynn had ever read the Constitution of the United States
Soatory, Mr O'Connor looked inquiringly at Mr Flynn, at which the latter, wholly unconscious of the purport of the inquiry, looked appealingly to Mr O'Connor
The latter then replied that he presu the applicant a copy of the revised statutes containing the Constitution, ad the volume in his arms, and followed by his patron, sadly left the court-rooht minutes elapsed, the door suddenly opened and both reappeared, Mr O'Connor in front, bearing the book aloft, and exclai, ”Dinnie couldn't rade it, Your Honor, but I rid it over to hientlemen, each of whom at a later day reached the Speakershi+p, had served but a single terress: Mr Keifer of Ohio, Mr Carlisle of Kentucky, and Mr Reed of Maine Mr Keifer was a gentlely courteous manners He took a prominent part in debate, and was the immediate successor of Mr Randall in the chair After an absence of twenty years he has again been returned to his seat in the House
Few abler men than Mr Carlisle have been in the public service
He was a recognized leader of his party from his first appearance in the House, and an authority upon all questions pertaining to tariff or finance During his long service as Speaker he established an enduring reputation as an able presiding officer; as possessing in the highest degree ”the cold neutrality of the ie”
While a Senator, he was appointed by President Cleveland to the important position of Secretary of the Treasury The duties of that great office have never been discharged with nal ability
Mr Reed stood alone He was unlike other ret Self-reliant, aggressive, of will indo his entire public career His friends were devoted to hiotten by his eneht into close contact with him, usually carried away an impression by which to remember him Upon one occasion, in the House, when in sharp debate with Mr Springer, the latter quoted the faht than be President” Mr Reed, in a tone far froentleman from Illinois _will never be either!”_
The retort courteous, however, was not always fro at one time repeatedly atteth denition The Speaker intiative of the Chair To which Springer replied:
”Oh, it is excellent To have a giant strength; but 't is tyrannous To use it like a giant”
Of i above his felloith voice by no means melodious, a manner far from conciliatory, a capacity for sarcastic utterance that vividly recalled the days of John Randolph and Tristraeneration, Mr Reed was in very truth a picturesque figure in the House of Representatives He apparently acted upon the supposition of the philosopher Hobbes that war is the natural state of man The kindly admonition,
”Mend your ways a little Lest they iven him, was unheeded In very truth,
”He stood, As if a man were author of himself, And knew no other kin”
No man in his day was more talked of or written about At one time his star was in the ascendent, and he seereat ambition, however, was thwarted by those of his own political household At the close of a turbulent session, while he was in the Chair, the usual resolution of thanks to the Speaker ”for the able, fair, and courteous onized, and finally adopted only by a strictly party vote It was an event with a single antecedent in our history, that of seventy-odd years ago, when the Whig minority in the House opposed the usual vote of thanks to Speaker Polk upon his retirement from the Chair In the latter case, the cry of persecution that was instantly raised had much to do with Mr Polk's almost immediate election to the Governorshi+p of his State, and his subsequent elevation to the Presidency The parallel incident in Mr Reed's career, however, failed to prove ”the prologue to the swelling act”
The Hon Williaress
He was one of the htful of associates, and reeable character One of his earliest official acts as President was my appointment as a member of the Bimetallic Commission to Europe
Mr McKinley was in very truth one of Fortune's favorites: five times elected a member of the House of Representatives, three times Governor of his State, and twice elevated to the Presidency He was the third of our Presidents to fall by the hand of an assassin
His tragic death is yet fresh in our memories
The last time I met President McKinley was at the Peace Jubilee Banquet at the Auditoriu of October 19, 1898 On this occasion, following the toast to the President of the United States, I spoke as follows:
”The incued title the most exalted station known to h place only by force of arms The elevation of a citizen to the Presidency of the United States is the deliberate act, under the forn people As an aspirant, he may have been the choice only of a political party; as the incureat office, he is the representative of all the people--the President of all the people It augurs well for the future of the Republic when the Anify this office; when the honor, as now, the President who has so ably upheld its dignity, so worthily ed its exacting and ioverning people is unique It had no place in ancient or overnment, whether despotic, federative, or in nast the nations of hest degree, represents the majesty of the law It stands for the unified authority and power of seventy-five millions of free men It typifies what is overnment and protection to liberty and life The President is the great officer to whoovernment entrusted the delicate and responsible function of treating with foreign States; in as vested in time of peace and of war, chief command of the army and of the navy
”An eminent writer has well said: 'The ancient land reigns but does not govern; the President of France neither reigns nor governs; the President of the United States does not reign, but governs!'
”Experience has dereat federal compact which for more than a century, in peace and amid the stress of war, has held States and people in indissoluble bond of union In no part of their matchless handiwork has it been more clearly manifested than in the creation of a responsible executive To secure in the largest overnment, responsibility must attach to the executive office; and of necessity, with responsibility, _power_ The sooner France learns from the Aoverner Her statesht well recall the words of Lord Bacon: 'What reat innovator, will alter for the worse'
”The splendid commonwealth in which we are assereater than did the entire country at the first inauguration of President Washi+ngton The one hundred and nine years which have passed since that masterful hour in history have witnessed the addition of thirty-two States to our federal Union, and of seventy millions to our population And yet, with but few aanic law as fullypeople to-day as when it came from the hands of its framers The builders of the Constitution wisely ordained the Presidential office a co-ordinate depart in its own clearly defined orbit, without usurpation or lessening of prerogative, the great executive office, at the close as at the beginning of the century, is the recognized constitutional syated functions and prerogatives that pertained in our infancy and weakness have proved areatness as a nation
”It is well that to the people was entrusted the sovereign power of choosing their chief lory, in the retrospect of more than a century, that none other than patriots --statese of its timeless duties --have ever been chosen to the Presidency May we not believe that the past is the earnest of the future, and that during the rolling years and centuries the incureat office--the chosen successors of Washi+ngton and of Lincoln--in the near and in the reuardians and defenders of the Constitution, the guardians and defenders of the rights of all the people?
”Lues the story of our recent conflict, of its causes and of its results
In brilliancy of achievement, the one hundred days ith Spain is the