Part 4 (1/2)

General Benjamin F Butler had a seat back of me, and frequently, when he desired to speak, askednearer to the Speaker of the House and a fine place wherein to stand and from which to be distinctly heard On one occasion it was announced that Butler would deliver a speech on the financial question

I offered him my seat for the purpose The House was full Butler was cross-eyed and near-sighted He co from a manuscript Every eye was turned towards him He always commanded the attention of the House when he spoke In the delivery of his speech he had to keep his ht and to the left on account of his being cross-eyed He did not often speak from manuscript This was his first atteress The spectacle was so novel thathim questions He threw the manuscript on the desk, stepped out into a space nearly in front of the Speaker, and gave the points of his speech without the aid of his manuscript He was frequently interrupted, especially by the Deested toat his opponents with caustic wit and scathing repartee On another occasion, a gentlee and portly n Affairs, arose to introduce and briefly to explain the provisions of a bill reported froentleman was quite deaf, and like all deaf persons spoke in a very low tone of voice; in fact, he could not be heard six feet away froestures were the levers of eloquence; and his arht and to the left, and his eyes sometimes rolled upward and then doard to the floor Someone cried out: ”Is this a pantoathered around hi the performance The Speaker finally compelled the Members to take their seats; whereupon the Member ceased his entlereat reputation as an orator

Probably he had been such in former years, but his deafness had destroyed his powers in that regard

I was in the House at the time that James G Blaine, then a prominent candidate for the Republican nomination for President, annihilated J

Proctor Knott, as Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary A report had been made by that Committee on a matter referred to it; it seriously reflected on Blaine's honor and integrity as a man and as a member of the House of Representatives It seems to have been the intent of the majority of the Committee who joined in the report, and ere all De, but to let it stand as daainst Mr Blaine, in order to prevent his nomination, or to defeat his election, if nominated Blaine and his friends determined to expose its animus and falsity on the floor of the House, so that the refutation would go with the charge To make this vindication, however, it was necessary for Blaine to obtain the floor; this would be opposed and was opposed In the parliamentary conflict for the floor which ensued, Blaine's superior knowledge and tact succeeded, and he was recognized by the Speaker I never saw a nation, than that manifested in the countenances of entleman from Maine was entitled to the floor Blaine was pale, and all aflah at first a little tre His sentences were coreat Co a report for political purposes He further accused them of the deliberate suppression of evidence that completely exonerated him, he drew from his pocket a certified copy of such suppressed evidence, read it to the House, and waved it in triuues, and of many Democrats He spoke in this vein for about thirty minutes When he closed, his friends were joyous, and his eneratulate hiuished ress

A ludicrous scene occurred in the House, when the billof the various edifices fore, in the State of Virginia, cas were alternately in the possession of the Union and Confederate forces during the war, and were destroyed by fire while the Union forces were in possession of the ground upon which they stood Most of the members of the Democratic party favored this bill A few opposed it The Republican enerally opposed the appropriation, but there were some who favored it It was understood that when the bill cae, but one speech would be , of Massachusetts, a Republican Mr Loring had a national reputation for finished and eloquent orations When the ti arose and partly read froreat oration He stated in a clear and comprehensive manner what the laws of war forenerous principles of Christianity and of civilization He stated that now as recognized by every Christian and civilized nation, churches, hospitals, institutions of learning and other eleees of war He spoke in eloquent terms of the sacred walls within which poets, philosophers, statesreat divines and warriors, if not born, received their inspiration and were qualified for their grand hout, with breathless attention When he closed, at the expiration of a little over an hour, he was greatly applauded I thought it the finest oration I had ever had the pleasure of hearing The Republicans were anxious to break the et a little tiht, of the an, had the ability to crowd th of time than any other member of the House, and he was chosen by the Republicans to break the reat speech He arose, and after coentlereat effort, stated that soe, while in the possession of the Rebel forces, were used as stables for their horses, that their floors were covered with excres were used as hospitals for the sick and wounded, and that their walls were besly remarked, that these were the sacred walls that so inspired the eloquence of the honorable gentle in other bitter declarations of the sa spoken for about thirty inia members were very much excited One of their nuer Good possessed the ability to open hiseffort or preparation, to pour forth a volu philippics He denounced the honorable gentleeance, which had heretofore well-nigh wrecked this glorious Government, which if persisted in, would keep open the wounds and sores that under a ed in more of this kind of denunciation, and finally, in a supreentle walls, where he could be fanned by the da of owls, forever Conger, who had not resuentle voice, ”I hear thehter, joined in by Democrats as well as Republicans Mr Good tried to proceed; but when he did so, soain,”

and poor Good resuent remark, or sarcastic repartee is often more effective than a set speech All remember Butler's reply to ”Sunset” cox, when the for him With a motion of his hand over his bald head, he exclaimed to cox: ”Shoo, Fly!

don't bother s of the day

It hurt cox's prestige and lessened to some extent his power cox was physically a small man, and the application carried with it an expression of contempt Holman, of Indiana, on account of his objections to all bills”the watchdog of the Treasury” Towards the end of his term an amendment was offered in which a near relative was much interested The fah with his support; whereupon anear exclai's honest bark Bay deep-mouth'd welcoentleentleman from Illinois, called the Illinois e, and the Indiana gentleentleman from Illinois arose and said he did not knoas the matter with hientleentleman from Indiana replied: ”If you will inquire of soeon, he can probably tell what is the matter with you” This was perfectly parliamentary and a coress to be an assereat mistake In point of ability its uished in their particular line of business, profession or thought Most of the set speeches are delivered from manuscript The matter is well considered and in most cases clearly stated; but the delivery is often dull, listless and without animation

This is particularly true of speeches founded on a dreary array of facts and statistics While the logic of such facts or figures , yet in the hands ofFewthat class of th on financial questions in which he not only presented a formidable array of statistics, but held his auditors spell-bound to its conclusion It reat advocates, they are not constructive statesood to show the reason for a provision and skillful in their defense of it fro, one of the h a uished body for islation The career of such a man will be brilliant, but it will be brief It is the constructive statesislative history of his country Most of the legislation benefiting the people, or putting their rights on deeper or broader foundations, has originated with the silent workers in either House of Congress

To show the listless and inaniic and in their facts, are delivered in the House, let entleress with an established reputation as a public man, arose to address the House on the necessity of a more liberal and reciprocal trade-treaty and tariff, with the Dominion of Canada In the expectation that he would address the House on the evening that was set for general debate, the House was full when he arose, and every eye was turned towards him He read his address from manuscript His voice was indistinct and it lacked in volues from the manuscript before hi been reduced to writing by his clerk He halted, stumbled and misread portions of it, and then re-read it to correct his mistakes The members commenced quietly to leave their seats and to retire to the cloak-rooms

As he was a member of the Committee on Commerce, and had shown me many favors, I took a vacant seat near him When the chairman announced that his time had expired, I arose and moved the chairman for the extension of his time for twenty minutes The chairman said he heard no objection, and he extended the tientleman from New York for twenty minutes more While on htat their desks, and that the chair the speech appeared in the Congressional Record, and every one spoke of it as a very fine argument in favor of the policy advocated by him

My judicial career may be briefly stated My district was the Third It was bounded on the south by the southern boundary of Pierce and Kitsap Counties; on the east by the dividing ridge of the Cascade Mountains; on the north by the northern line of the Territory, which was the International boundary line; and on the west by the Pacific Ocean I held two terms of Court annually at Seattle, Port Townsend, and Steilacoom There was quite a volume of admiralty business This was attended to whenever it arose, in term-time and out of term-time, in order to meet the convenience of suitors No appeal was ever taken from my decrees in this class of business I made it a point to clear the docket of all accumulated cases at each term Homicides were quite frequent in the district, and I rarely held a ter soree There were frequent convictions for ree, and sentences were imposed by me in accordance therewith There were four convictions for ree, and three executions The facts and circu the fourth case deserve a more extensive statement Before I make such a statement let s in criainst me in a period of between six and seven years on the Territorial Bench I hope no one will detract by implication from the honor of that record, by the insinuation that I was Chief Justice of the appellate tribunal for most of that tiht,” had soton, entered into between the United States of America and Great Britain, adopted and extended the line of division between the Doree of North Latitude to the waters of the Pacific Ocean, as the northern land boundary of the United States; thence west by the principal channel or ay to the center of the Strait of Juan de Fuca; thence along said center line to the Pacific Ocean Now, it was found that there were two principal channels or ays froree to the Strait of Juan de Fuca These ere the Canal de Haro and the Rosario Straits The Canal de Haro was the most western and northern ay; the Rosario Strait was the most eastern and southern ay San Juan Island and other smaller islands were situated between the two If the Rosario Straits were adopted as the true line, these intervening islands belonged to Great Britain; if, on the other hand, the Canal de Haro was the true line, the islands belonged to the United States By agree parties, the German Emperor was chosen as arbitrator to determine the location of the true line mentioned in the Treaty

In 1859 an infor parties by which the laws and civil officers of both nations were excluded from the territory in dispute; the islands in the meantime were to remain in the joint military occupation of the two nations Hence, there was a British military post, and also an Aarrisoned This infornity or force of a treaty, and was therefore binding on the courts only as aonly in the court of honor Such being the facts, a man by the name of Charles Watts, an American citizen, foully murdered another American citizen near the military post of the United States

Watts was arrested by the Federal ood deal of feeling and excitement over the matter When I went to Port Townsend to hold Court, I issued a warrant, directed to the United States Marshal, to arrest said Watts and to bring him to Port Townsend for indictment and trial He was readily delivered by the United States ht to Port Townsend He was indicted by the grand jury for ree, and tried and convicted at that tered until he was dead An appeal was taken froment in the case to the Supre, a es Greene and Kennedy, reversed the judground that the Federal side of the Court had no jurisdiction To the general reader, it may be well to state that the Territorial Court had all the jurisdiction of the District and Circuit Courts of the United States, and such jurisdiction constituted as called, the Federal side of the Court It also had all the jurisdiction arising under the Territorial laws, and the common law suited to the conditions; and this constituted the Territorial side

Watts was indicted and tried on the Federal side of the Court, and the Supreht to have been indicted and tried on the Territorial side of the Court--hence the reversal I delivered a dissenting opinion which, as the case assuive in full:

OPINION

”As I cannot assent to the conclusion reached by the majority of the Court in this case, I will state as briefly as possible the conclusion of my own mind upon the question of jurisdiction involved in the case, with my reasons therefor

”I have come to the conclusion that the United States side of the Court had jurisdiction, and for the following reasons:--

”1 We all agree that the phrase 'sole and exclusive jurisdiction,' as used in the Crime Act of A D 1790, 1 Stat

113, has no reference to a clain power, but to State and Federal jurisdiction, or, as we are situated, to Federal, as contra-distinguished froree that it is the duty of the judiciary to extend the jurisdiction of the laws of the United States as far as the political departovernment it is the duty of the courts to construe all such conventions as that entered into between the government of the United States and Great Britain, with reference to the Island of San Juan, so as to avert the evil apprehended, and sought to be prevented

”When the convention was entered into there was ier arose from two causes--the action of the military commanders of this departton Territory over the disputed doe of commanders The second, by the exclusion of the laws of the Territory, and that exclusion has been enforced by the overnment ever since

”3 Was it the intention then of the high-contracting parties, to exclude all law from San Juan Island, and to make it a secure asyluht be sonition of the distinction between acts _malum in se_ and _malum prohibitum_, acts which under every law, human and divine, are criminal, and those acts which are only cri them such I infer that two civilized nations would not directly or indirectly, concur to create any such asylun, then, that some laws should exist and be enforced on that island That it was the design of the government to exclude the laws of the Territory is s of the convention and the action of the government from the date of the convention down to the present time It was so understood by the military departovernnized as a fact by the courts of the Territory, and by the legislature, as is evidenced by the release of the county of Whatcom, within whose liislature, from the pay criht have been claimed by the Territory prior to the last-cited act, was virtually abandoned by it