"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 sessions 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 participate see more apparent confusion than exists in reality. The disorder that often appears upon 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 a 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 passed 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 an 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 embarrassing 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 Constitution 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 Fortyeighth Congress, and performed much hard work. I participated actively in much of the general business of this House, and in the debates. On January 25, 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 principal 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) passed 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 passed 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 participated in public and political affairs as a private citizen, and assiduously 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 short 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 mass of the Cuban population, especially by those residing outside of the principal 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 penetrate, not sparing non-combatants, and, February 16, 1896, he adopted the inhuman policy of forcing the rural inhabitants from their homes into closely circumscribed socalled 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 passed Congress, expressing the opinion that a "state of war existed in Cuba," and declaring that the United States should maintain a strict