XI.SECOND TERM IN CONGRESS.
M
MR. BLAINE reached home weary in body, but fresh in spirit, from the great political war in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, just in time to cast his ballot the last time for Abraham Lincoln. He had stumped his own state from “Kittery to Houlton,†which are the extreme points in Maine, and had put in about fifty speeches in the other states,—between one and two hundred in all. He had confidence in the result, for he had been near the people and got their temper and knew the purpose of their sovereign will in the matter, and so it came, but with it the reflection that they were only about five years off from the Dred Scott decision, and every free state but one voting solid in the electoral college for the great abolition president, Abraham Lincoln.
How dark and infamous, and mysterious, too, looked the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; the war with Mexico; the Kansas and Nebraskabill; the proposition to purchase Cuba for purposes of slavery, and all the political paltroonery and truckling of honored public men, the trimmers and time-servers!
But what ruin strewed the pathway to such triumph! There was not a slave in all the land now, according to the proclamation, emphatically endorsed, and the rebellion well-nigh crushed. The effort had been, it is thought, for the South to hold out until after the presidential election, and hope for the defeat of Mr. Lincoln. The war was over six months after his re-election.
In less than a month after election day, Mr. Blaine was in his seat in congress (December 5th), and there, also, with a knowledge of the fact that not only had Mr. Lincoln been re-elected president, but he himself, also, had been re-elected to congress, for the election took place a year before each term expired. How could he be otherwise than happy regarding the political outlook of either himself or the nation. He need have little thought for himself; he had surely caught at the flood that tide which leads on to greatness. He was not a coming man, but one who had already come. His record of the former session had made him more widely known, and known in a larger sense. Indeed, he was every way a larger man; beloved at home, respected and admired abroad in otherstates, and where his great life-work had so auspiciously begun—in congress.
The principle of evolution was at work upon him in its only true sense, just as it operates in tree and flower, where heaven and earth in all their vital forces are made tributary to Nature’s laws of unfolding in the deep processes of growth upward to perfection.
There had been a wondrous involution from centuries of great history, according to subtle, silent laws of hereditary inheritance, in very blood and life, of tone, and quality, and temper, and now there is evolved, evoked, just that of power which tells of kinship with those who have gone before.
It should not cause surprise that Nature keeps her treasures, or that the right, the good, the true, live to confront the wrong, the false, the bad, with just those elements of a nobler life that no power can resist.
The people everywhere were singing,—
“Our God is marching on.â€
And so he was, in all of truth and right maintained, in all of good performed.
Never were the good and true remembered in such hosts as when the nation struggled with her foes. What mighty ones stepped out of the chaos of a dismal past into splendid life withher! Their name is legion; grand in every sphere of greatness, and great in every realm of grandeur. They thought out the nation first; fought out and forged it in battle-heat, and hurled it like a thing of life, upon its great career. It never loses its power to go, to be, and conquer, bringing ever to the birth, and upward into strong, armed life those whose great abilities are her own; her own for defense; her own for war, living in their lives, powerful in their strong right arms,—one with them in destiny. Among that number now, though reckoned with a multitude, was James G. Blaine.
He surveyed the field for but a single day after the second session of his first congress opened,—the thirty-eighth,—and then undid the mischief of another. It was called the “Gold bill†in the House, and had simply been offered and referred to the committee of Ways and Means, by a Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania.
Its substance was, that a dollar note issued by the Government, declared lawful money and legal tender, is declared of equal value for all purposes as gold and silver coin of like denominations. A contract made payable in coin may be payable in legal tender, and anyone should be imprisoned who received a greenback for less than gold coin was worth, and fined as well.
Gold went up in Wall Street within twenty-fourhours after the bill was presented, twelve per cent. Mr. Blaine saw it and moved a reconsideration of it, sections two, three, five, and six being the objectional features of the bill. His speech in support of his motion did not occupy ten minutes. The author of the bill, Mr. Stevens, said,—
“My friend from Maine (Mr. Blaine) has an intuitive way of getting at a great national question, one that has exercised the thoughts of statesmen of several countries for many years.†This in opening; and in closing his speech, he said,—
“How the gentleman from Maine, by his intuitive knowledge of these things comes to understand at once what the ablest statesmen of England took months to mature, I cannot very well understand. It is a happy inspiration.â€
Had he a knowledge of his long years of study, that it was then twenty-five years since he finished reciting Plutarch, and but little less than twenty since his graduation, had he a knowledge of the strong, determined spirit of mastery which characterized him in all his work, could he have read over at that moment the long list of volumes over which he had poured, had he known these things, he would not have felt that a genius of intuition who got at things by inspiration merely, sat before him, but one with a genius for the hardest kind of a student’s work,with intuitions born of high intelligence and inspiration that comes from conscious strength. No wonder he was an enigma, a man beyond his years and place, yet master of the situation.
Mr. Stevens’ motion to table the motion of Mr. Blaine, failed, fifty-one to sixty-eight, and then the motion of Mr. Blaine regarding the bill of Mr. Stevens, carried, seventy-three to fifty-two. It is interesting to notice, that though the gentleman did not call up his bill for a solid month,—not until after the holidays,—and then came in with an elaborate argument showing the financial course of England in her war with France in 1793, and then in her war finally with the whole of continental Europe, though he seemed to have made a careful study of his subject, and of England’s financial policy, he closed with this sentence:—
“I feel that England never had so absurd a law as to pay one part of her war-debt in gold and another part in Bank of England notes.†He said “I feel,†he did not know. But Mr. Blaine knew, and so he asked him whether the bonds negotiated by England upon the continent were not payable in gold.
“I do not know,†was the answer.
Then Mr. Blaine stated, “Every one of them negotiated upon the continent was payable in gold, both principal and interest. Every one negotiatedat the Hague, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and elsewhere upon the continent, was negotiated upon the gold basis exclusively.â€
This was no contest to win, but simply to bring out financial intelligence in a semi-official way, for the benefit of the country. It was a most sensitive subject. Gold was up to two hundred and fifty, that is, a hundred dollars in gold cost two hundred and fifty dollars in greenbacks, and Mr. Stevens had endeavored in a wrong way, as Mr. Brooks showed, to correct gambling in gold, but Mr. Blaine could furnish him with deficiencies of knowledge, and manifest the acumen of a statesman upon a subject so great.
Mr. Blaine had his magnetic power then, and Mr. Stevens refers to it, and his great power over the House in securing so promptly the passage of his motion. He said,
“The House, partaking of the magnetic manner of my friend from Maine, became alarmed, and immediately laid the bill on the table.â€
It was his power of quick, thrilling action; of feeling strongly, and making others feel as he did; of casting upon them the glow of his own brilliancy; of charming them with the rhapsody of his own genius; of piercing them with the energy of his own thinking, and so shutting them up to his conclusions by the force of hisown arguments; it was thus by methods the fairest and most honorable to his abilities, that he carried all before him. And one can but see in his repeated control of the House, the power of his friendships.
Cox, Pendleton, Brooks, and others of the opposition would show him the greatest courtesies in debate. Randall, even, in his first session, gave him time out of his own hour for an entire speech, and Cox encouraged him in the midst of his Gold bill speech, by saying he was with him on it.
When the Naval Academy bill was before the House, he moved to repeal a section relating to cadets “found deficient.†If they had a hundred demerit marks in six months they would be expelled. Mr. Blaine had visited the academy in 1861, as a member of the “Board of Visitors,†and while there a young man was dismissed, not for any fault of scholarship, for he was among the brightest and best in his class.
Becoming deeply interested in the cause of the young man, he went to Washington and successfully interceded with the secretary of war, and he was restored. He subsequently graduated very high in class-rank, and since his entrance upon active service has distinguished himself as an officer of great merit, serving with efficiency and distinction as ordnance-officer on GeneralSheridan’s staff in that splendid, victorious campaign in the valley of the Shenandoah.
The demerits were given for singularly small offences, as: “floor out of order near wash-stand, four demerits,†etc., etc.
Mr. Blaine insisted that to the secretary of war and the president be restored the power that was taken from them at the last session,—to pardon any cadet discharged for any of these offences.
General Schenck joined him, and the amendment was adopted.
There is a little section of his speech on the Military Academy bill which shows his admiration for the telling power of manhood, and his utter scorn of sacrificing great ability, for which the nation was so loudly calling then, to little, simple things, good in themselves, but not of first importance, that we cannot forbear to give it. Here it is, verbatim, as he delivered it in congress:—
“Many of the cadets, sir, who have been very precise and decorous in their conduct in matters of petty discipline at the academy, and manage to pass through smoothly, often graduating with high rank obtained by very strict attention to ‘folding beds by 10A. M.,’ and ‘drawing curtains by at precisely 6.45A. M.’ (academy rules), are unfortunately never heard from afterwards. Theirnames do not always figure in the record of our bloody battles, and they have achieved no distinction in this war, with all its thousand opportunities, while on the other hand not a few of the graduates at the academy who at the Point had the ‘odor of tobacco in their rooms,’ and whose ‘floors were out of order near the wash-stand,’ have blazoned their names high on the roll of fame for conduct as gallant and skill as great as ever graced the battle-fields of any age country.â€
Efficiency has ever been the test with him in his own work, and this he applies to others; as one has said, “We measure others in our own half-bushel; of course we do, we have no other.â€
Early in the session he had a running debate which tried his metal, with Thayer, of Pennsylvania; Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont; James S. Wilson, of Iowa; General Schenck, of Ohio, and S. S. Cox, of Ohio yielding the floor for the purpose.
It was not only a proof of his knowledge, but also of his ability to use it on demand, and he showed himself equal to the exigency, and showed that he was generally found away on the lead in his discussion of constitutional measures and application of principles.
It is possible for a man to go over, in along-winded speech, a vast amount of ground, which has been tramped as bare as the camp-ground of a brigade of soldiers, by a multitude of debaters; ground which has been surveyed, and staked out, and pre-empted, and owned for a century or more, and concerning which, as concerning the constitution there is no question. Such speeches as these wearied the progressive spirit of advanced ones, and made them restless when the fate of great interests hung on the decision of a few hours’ discussion. No one watched more closely the utterances of men upon the floor, or held them to a stricter account.
In presenting a minority report on amendment of rules for the government of the House, Mr. Morrill had placed some undue restriction upon the powers of congress, and courteously waiting until he had finished a long speech of ten or eleven columns, Mr. Blaine asked him whether the power of impeachment would not extend to cabinet officers, and so their attendance upon the sittings of the House be compelled, a point Mr. Morrill had denied.
There had been little demand for this power slumbering in the constitution,—power which was used upon a president shortly afterward,—but brought prominently to the attention of the House, and much light thrown on it by theanswers tersely given to near a score of questions, members were pleased to ask Mr. Blaine, and while he was ready with abundant answers; clear and strong, and packed with knowledge of the highest legal type, he was ready as well if there was hint of an assailant in manner or tone, to thrust out a sharp, rising question which would almost take the breath of the man who might be after him. When General Schenck asked him if the secretary of war was a civil officer, his quick reply was, “I do not think that a ‘civil’ question.†Neither was it, for as member of the cabinet of course he was a civil officer, as much so as the president himself, who was by virtue of his office “Commander-in-chief of the armies of the Union.â€
But Mr. Blaine had great respect for age and learning, and allowed no opportunity to show it to pass by unimproved. His early intercourse with his Grandfather Gillespie had developed largely veneration both for gray hairs and scholarly attainments, a veneration which had matured by associations with his teachers and great men of the nation whom he had met in his youthful days, and those whom he had since come to know and honor.
When Mr. Henry Winter Davis came on with his great naval speech, Mr. Blaine heard him with special pleasure, and had some very complimentarythings to say of “the caustic, scathing, truthful, and deserved criticism of the naval department in building,†as Mr. Blaine said, “twenty iron-clad vessels, at a cost of ten millions of dollars, that will not stay on top of water.â€
Mr. Pike had just taken him to task for this last statement, when the “hammer fell,†and Mr. Davis, showing his appreciation of the courtesies of Mr. Blaine, arose and said, “I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Maine may be permitted to proceed.†This was indeed a consideration which young members seldom received from the veterans of the House, and especially from one with a national reputation for scholarly attainments. But as “the debate in Committee of the Whole was closed by order of the House,†the Chair could not grant the request, and just here Mr. Blaine’s shrewdness and intimate knowledge of parliamentary rules showed itself. “I move,†he said, “to amend the amendment, by striking out the first line; that will entitle me to the floor for a few minutes longer.â€
Then he went on to give an official fact, as he called it, and he knew well the value of such things; there was nothing “fine-spun†about them, but strong and stubborn, and full of power to convince. “Out of ninety British steamers,†he said, “caught within a given period in attemptingto run the blockade, only twelve were caught by vessels built by the present administration of the navy department; while seventy-eight were caught either by purchased vessels, or vessels inherited from the old navy. I submit, sir, that this fact bears with crushing force on the practical question of the speed and efficiency of vessels of the new navy.†It is bad enough to swindle the government at any time, and in any thing, but in times of war to swindle her in the construction of iron-clad vessels that will not float, yet needed at once for active service, and produce twenty of them at half a million dollars apiece, was enough to arouse the indignation not only of the older member, Mr. Davis, but also of the younger man, Mr. Blaine.
And this now gave him a new, fresh start, untrammeled by crutch or cane, casting him wholly upon his own resources, and placing him where he must put forth all the power in him, or utterly fail.
“When the Jeannette went down, crushed and sunken by the ice,†writes Lieutenant Danenhouser, “we started with our boats southward, dragging them over the ice, broken and piled in every conceivable shape. We accomplished seven miles the first week, only to find, by taking observations, that the ice-floe had drifted us back to the northward twenty-seven miles, andso placing us twenty miles to the rear of the spot where we had started, and our ship had sunk.†They had intrepid spirits, but no firm ground; he had both the intrepid spirit and the firm ground on which to stand, and his victory was swift and certain.
Mr. Blaine never lost an opportunity to do a favor, or make a friend. Doing duty was his delight; getting hold of strong, plain, practical facts, and presenting them in a way that showed a constant, abiding interest in his constituency, that he was living and toiling for them, and had their best interest, and those of the entire state of Maine, and the whole country at heart.
Here is one of his plain, practical statements, showing his loyalty to home interests, as well as the business interests of the country. A vessel from his district had been chartered to government to carry a cargo of four hundred and fifty tons of coal from Philadelphia to New Orleans, for six thousand dollars. Upon her return her disbursements had been six thousand, two hundred and thirty-eight dollars and five cents. She received six thousand dollars in certificates of indebtedness from the government, then selling them at ninety-four, which made but five thousand six hundred and forty dollars in cash, showing a net cash loss of five hundred and ninety-eight dollars and five cents, besides theinterest on advance, about two hundred dollars more.
“And now, sir,†said Mr. Blaine, “after this melancholy experience the tax-collector came forward and demanded of the owner of the vessel, two and one-half per cent. on the six thousand dollars which the government paid, as above, and on top of all losses already incurred actually compelled him to pay one hundred and fifty dollars under that section of the internal-revenue law, which we are seeking to amend.
“A man’s profit in business,†he goes on to say, “affords a fair basis of taxation, but it is a cruel mockery of one’s misfortune to assess a tax upon losses.â€
He further plead that “as commercial men of the country, who do so much to sustain our finances and our honor, they should be relieved from its oppressive exactions.â€
There were no mists or fogs about him to conceal him or his methods, and what he said stood out in the clear light of day. In this case he was able to catch up from memory, a better argument for the repeal of the oppressive section of the law than had come to the House in a lengthy written memorial from a company doing business on the Schuylkill Canal in Pennsylvania, and who could make sitings net them four hundred and ten dollars, while in the casecited by Mr. Blaine, one trip was made at a loss of nine hundred and forty-eight dollars and five cents.
Seldom did he cite his own opinion. It was the bludgeon of hard, solid facts with which he did his best execution. Others might theorize, and imagine, and conceive, and spin web after web of sophistry, like the spider, out of themselves, to be full as flimsy when the storm of debate beat upon it, but not he. He evidently kept up a living acquaintance with those to whom he was responsible, and this, with an ever vigilant correspondence, enabled him to know, and not simply think and feel, but actually to know their adverse experiences where the operations of the machinery of government affected them, and with reasonable and apparent facts in hand he could easily procure the remedy. This lively interest, so practical and so potent as well, was with him a constant element of power.
He lost no opportunity to familiarize himself with business enterprises, great and small, and get the best authority on all questions of finance and trade, and as a result he could speak with pertinency, and from a mind prolific of the freshest data on the practical questions as they were constantly coming before the House, and especially in the old war-days, when the vexed questionsof internal revenue, with all its myriad details regarding the nature and value of taxable articles, were being adjusted.
At one time when he first entered congress, nearly every article that entered into the construction of a ship was taxed, and then upon her tonnage, and then, beside, upon the gross receipts for carrying the cargo. He saw to it at once that those matters were attended to.
But a fresh call was out for troops, and it was a final call. They were getting ready for the great opening of the spring campaign which was to speedily end in crushing the Rebellion, and annihilating the Confederacy. There was a flaw in the enrollment law passed the last session, which Mr. Blaine had discovered, and sought to remedy. It permitted recruiting in the rebel states, and credits for previous naval enlistments. “From these two sources have arisen the gigantic and wide-spread evil of filling quotas of towns without adding troops to the army.†He had offered an amendment which was designed to bring back recruiting to “an honest, meritorious, and patriotic effort to fill the ranks of our gallant army with men, and not with shadowy fictions which pass under the name of ‘paper credits.’†The quotas of entire cities, districts, and possibly states, had been thus filled “without adding a single man or musketto the effective military force of the nation. There was fraud, and he would so change the law that it could not be perpetuated.â€
There were substitute-brokers, who, in some mysterious way, would get hold of these “credits,†as they were called, and sell them, much as torn scrip is sold.
“We can deal just by the government,†he said, “in its struggle for existence. It calls for men, and it is worse than madness to answer this call with anything else than men.
“In conclusion,†and his words reveal a genuine patriotism and zeal of affection for the soldier, “nothing so discourages the brave men at the front as the belief that proper measures are not adopted at home for re-enforcing and sustaining them.
“After four years of such patriotic and heroic effort for national unity as the world has never witnessed before, we cannot now afford to have the great cause injured, or its fair fame darkened by a single unworthy incident connected with it. The improper practices of individuals cannot disgrace and degrade the nation, but after these practices are brought to the attention of congress, we shall assuredly be disgraced and degraded if we fail to apply the remedy. Let us, then, in this hour of the national need, do our duty here, our duty to the troops in thefield, our duty to our constituents at home, and our country; above all, to our country, whose existence has been in such peril in the past, but whose future of greatness and glory seems now so assured, and so radiant.â€
Few utterances of those long, dark years, breathed a spirit of more devoted loyalty than is found even in these few sentences, and they were uttered when they would do the most good, and secure just those re-enforcements that would gladden the hearts of veterans, and hasten the end of the struggle.
Mr. Blaine had a keen eye for fraud, and made it his business to detect it; and he was just fearless enough to hold it up to the light of day. Wherever he unearthed it he would point out the individual, and point his finger at him and say, with a boldness known only to invective and scorn, “Thou art the man!â€
He never seemed to take care of his popularity, but of his constituents and of his country. Enemies abounded, and evil, and wrong; and to these he paid effective attention, rightly judging that no course is safer, or accords with fuller satisfaction, than the right course. With him, character was the citadel of strength and influence; and so we find him knowing and trusting himself, reaching for wrong in all of its strongholds.
And there was much to encourage now Sherman had reached the sea; Columbia, S. C., was captured; Charleston was evacuated; the old flag was again flying over Fort Sumter, and Washington’s Birthday was to be celebrated, by order of the secretary of war, E. M. Stanton, by a “national salute at West Point, and at every fort, arsenal, and army head-quarters of the United States, in honor of the event.†This twenty-second day of February was a long, busy day in congress. It was a quarter past five before the House adjourned. Mr. Blaine was in his seat all day long, voting steadily for the right and against the wrong. The conquered states, cut off from the Rebellion and rescued to liberty and lawful authority, were left without government, and must be provided, as Tennessee had been in the person of Andrew Johnson, now vice-president, with provisional governors. Much legislation was requisite. Every man in congress who had ever had any pro-slavery proclivities, was in his place contesting every step of progress with men who had never breathed aught but the air of freedom and known only loyal heart-beats.
One bill granted citizenship to all colored men who had served in the army and navy.
Right royal work, this, for such a man to be doing on a day so sacred; helpinginto citizenship the colored man, ever loyal, ever true.
This seemed to be the great feature of all the great bills before the House that day. It came up in the bill to encourage enlistments, and the worth and dignity of being an American citizen was held up before the negro as a prize for him to win; as something in store for him in the future; and so as giving to the colored troops, and all who united with them, this personal interest in relation to the government. But it takes time to get such thoughts adjusted to minds struggling with the fact of Emancipation, and so little is done but give the bills a hearing and pass them to another reading. Coming events had cast their shadows before them. It was, however, but the shadow of a passing cloud, and told of a great, bright sun shining in the heavens yonder, which would soon dissipate all clouds and shadows, and the long night of bondage ended, give a glorious day, in which the world might see in the poorest black man of the South an American citizen, possessed of certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
To the happy consummation of a task so grand, whose inspiration comes from that free and holy place where “all are one,†Mr. Blaine had set his hand, only to remove it when thechaplet of America’s proudest, noblest glory was on the black man’s brow.
That life is most divine which is most in line with Providence, and has the most of uplifting power in it, which stands the highest up, and can reach the farthest down, is many-handed in its helpfulness, and strong-handed as well, to unshackle humanity in body, in soul, and in spirit, and tell the fallen or sunken ones how to get upward toward God and heaven.
Opening the gates of heaven means unlocking the gates of earth, and to this latter task the statesmen of the nation stood pledged from that day, since numbered among the nation’s holidays. A close student of Mr. Blaine’s congressional career will be impressed with the fact that it seems planned and determined before-hand. There are no surprises in it. He seems to have determined upon his course before entering it, and gives his strength to certain measures, and does not fritter it away upon every resolve, or amendment, or motion, that happens to be before the House, affecting some far away interest of a day-dreamer.
He recognizes the fact fully that he is one of a great body of men, each one of whom is charged with interests of an important character to their state or district, and many heavily weighted with special and peculiar measures ofnational importance. These must all have their opportunity. Less than ninety working-days usually comprise the session, and there are but four of these in a congress,—from March to adjournment, and from December to March, and then repeated, constitutes a congressional term, with eight of them in a presidential term, or two a year for the four years. Beside, it takes so long a time to get measures through congress that the successful man finds it necessary to devote himself with great carefulness to the few measures of importance he would have adopted, and become law organic or otherwise.
Very soon after Mr. Blaine entered congress he presented a resolution instructing the Committee on Judiciary to inquire into the expediency of amending the constitution so as to allow congress to levy an export tax. But the session closed, and it is not reported, and now his second session is closing, and still it is not forthcoming. Why not? He will know the reason why! And so there comes a day near the session’s close, only the day before Mr. Lincoln’s second inauguration, when he arises and states “a little grievance.†He states the resolution, its being offered at the last session, and now again at the present session. It had been to the Ways and Means Committee, to which it had been transferred. Evidently he had been readyto grapple with the subject for some time, and proceeded to do so. It involved an amendment to the constitution, and one “essential to the financial success of the government, and to the agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing prosperity of the country in all future time.â€
It was stated that the measure would have been presented by the committee, if they had supposed time would have permitted of its consideration. It presented a subject that was discussed at length in the Convention of 1787. The “Madison Papers†give a synopsis of the constitutional debates of that convention, and show that many of the strongest men of that body, the really far-sighted ones, opposed the insertion of the clause prohibiting a tax on exports. The vote was not a very decisive one, nor did its advocacy come from the Southern or “staple states,†and opposition from Northern states.
He proceeds to deliver what is his great speech, if not the great speech of the session. It was probably not over an hour long, but he had not proceeded far before it became apparent that he had thoroughly studied the subject, and was investing it with a new interest.
A great debt of more than two billion eight hundred million was on the nation. Mr. Blaine’s amendment was looking towards its liquidation.It was the wise, strong look far ahead. He saw in it several hundred millions of revenue in the export of cotton, tobacco, and naval stores, without affecting the demand for them, and also in petroleum, and numberless articles, still more of revenue. France was taxing her wines and brandies, and countries having peculiar commodities taxed them.
Cotton which sold in Liverpool at eleven and three-quarters pence per pound in December, 1861, sold for twenty-four and one-half pence per pound in just one year from that date. The three million two hundred thousand bales of five hundred pounds each, this country had exported, were missed there.
“Whoever as secretary of the treasury shall undertake and succeed in paying the debt,†he argues in closing, “must have open to him the three great avenues of taxation, namely, the tariff, the excise system, and the duties on exports, and must be empowered to use each in its appropriate place, by congressional legislation.â€
And so he closed the first half of his second congressional year, with the same policy of questions with which he began, aiming still at thoroughness and mastery, still the guiding stars of his history, the moulding powers and the prominent features of his great career.