The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-09-03

asking that commission might be appoint
ed once more to make treaty with Canada.
ant and owastinn wndia was intended with win
rocity provisions Of former treaties.
Then 1t was that the fishing interests Of
Massachusetts, and the fishermen of the
whole country began TO be alarmed. The
American Fishery Union and the National
Fishery Association were formed, who i'm
mediately sent representatives to Washing
ton to plead their cause, and to give TO the
government the facts in the case. The re-
suit was that Mr.. Bayard and President
Cleveland persisted in their purpose. had
foreign relations, and, after spreading the
maps upon the wall and showing the facts, |
was pleased to see Mr.. Morgan, Of Alabama,
rise and say that he was convinced that the
American fishermen were right in asking
equal protection for themselves and their
business in the markets of this country, with
every other industry In it. [Applause.l
The proposition to constitute that commits
sion was rejected by vote OF 36 to 10 think
it was, and felt at that time that our Ameri-
can interests had some power with some OF
our Southern representatives and Southern
Senators. l realized there was national
principle, and l stand here tonight to say
that In this advocacy Of the fishery cause we
have never claimed on party grounds any
thing. We have claimed it as O principle
owed to the marine militia, the men that go
upon the sea,as much at least as to the militia
that march upon the land; that the govern
ment owes to them the same provisions and
the same protection that every other nation
which has ever arrived at anything like COM
mercial greatness has always given to its
fisheries. 1t was upon the question of ma
tiOnal interest in the fisheries alone that we
argued, and that was the ground upon which
we attempted to carry our cause. We after
wards found that 1t was necessary that there
should be some report made, some evidence
adduced from witnesses under oath by which
the country could be informed as to the ex-
act status of the facts in relation to the mat
ter. At last, at the suggestion of the rep
resentatiyes Of these associations, q. commits
sion was formed by the Senate, which went
through Massachusetts and Maine, and other
parts Of the country where the ocean fisher
les were pursued, and took the evidence that
was brought to them by practical men en-
gagged in the business, and returned with
ough in every detail, and asked the Congress
of the United States to pass retaliation act
which would be equal in its operation
upon tire Canadian fishery interest
They passed retaliation act, which was
deemed sufficient at that time, and / believe,
as / stand here before you tonight, not in a
partisan sense, but as an American, that It is
sufficient for the purpose. That retaliation
act passed with but one dissenting vote.
Then again we had an American endorse
ment of our cause as a national issue. We
then had the retaliation act and we suppos-
ed that the President would enforce it; we
supposed that, when he had the power in his
hands, given to him so unanimously, and af-
ter he had himself signed the BILL he would
enforce 1t, and that we should realize from 1t
the relief which we asked and demanded
President Cleveland allowed that law to lie
upon the statute book, and made no effort
whatever to enforce il, and Mr.. Bayard once
more commenced his operations to get up an
other treaty. He began work, the Demo-
Gratis, Of course. being in sympathy. with
him. and commissioners were appointed, one
Of them being a distinguished citizen of
your own State, whO went to Washington
for the purpose OF making a treaty that
would be acceptable, as they thought, to the
people Of the United States and TO the Sem
the President.
Well. gentlemen, they made treaty which
every man engaged IN the fisheries of the
United States pronounces to be a complete
surrender OF our cause, complete giving up
of all we had claimed, and belittlfng Of the
whole matter to such a degree as to make us
feel. really and actually, that the whole
American element had dropped out of the
government The result was that we have
had another fight upon the rejection of that
treaty. l was in Washington for seven
weeks last winter. We established there a
headquarters, and with pamphlets and papers
endeavored to illustrate what the facts were
in this matter, and the first thing we knew
we found that this treaty, instead of being
treated upon the basis of their former action,
had to be treated by party fealty and parti-
san action. That was the trouble, and Mr..
Morgan. whom / had thought so grandly
American at the time he opposed the treaty,
we found suppoE Ag that treaty, and every
other Democrat the floor of the Senate.
Now do noff 6h to say that they were
unpatriotic, in the sense in which they view
patriotism perhaps, but do say that they
were inconsistent. The vote came upon the
ratification Of that treaty, and it was defeat
ed by strict party vote, and we now find
the President of the United States, after do
ing all he could through his administration
against us, after we had spent thousands of
dollars TO make our cause successful, ON the
eve Of an election, pr0claiming to the people
that he wishes to defend the cause Of the
American fshermenl l believe In CONVEX
sion, gentlemen; l believe in a man,
seeing that he is in the wrong, turning
about, going back and then proceeding in
the right direction, but | am unwilling that
the power should longer rest In the hands Of
men who have shown so much inconsistency.
who have opposed us; who have voted
for us, and opposed us again. l am unwil-
ling that the policy of Thos. +. Bayard and
Grover Cleveland should usurp the peoples
administration of the rights of the fisher
men; that administration supported by VIM.
and Harrison and Morton who lead the
Republican cohorts in this fight and will
lead them to victory. [Applause.l Then we
shall be assured of our rights, and not till
then.
| have no word Of harshness for Mr..
Cleveland, but do say that no man who
hauls line, net, a trawl or a seine, or who
goes to the banks, can support the nomin-
ations of class of men who have shown
themselves, up to the very moment Of al
most certain defeat, opposed to us in every
manner and form in which we have ad-
yocated this question. The only safety for
the mon in this country today who labor
with their hands, the men who toll upon the
sea, is to support that party and that policy
which gives them the greatest opportunities
for their industry and the best homes. There
is where we stand upon this question.
We have had an opportunity to test reci-
proeity with the Provinces. You will re-
member the Fortune Bay case. must say
here. and am not eg0tistical in stating it,
that had the honor of stating that case and
Of arranging the evidence in regard to it.
We had the right to go in upon those shores
and take fish, and we found Mr.. Salisbury,
true Englishman that he is, opposing and
claiming that the treaty rights Of the United
States should always be exercised under the
local laws of the colonies Of Great Britain
when exercised in their territory. 1t was
upon this ground that he stood when Mr..
Evarts made that brave fight against him
and showed that we had the right to take fish
there. l was. for month, in the frigate Ke-
arsarge, investigating this whole matter
along their coast, and found this to be the
fact that those poor fishermen who live
along that coast, feeling perhaps as we would
feel, were opposed to our taking bait free
there, because their sole dependence rests
upon the fish they take for bait and sell to
American fishermen. After Mr.. Evarts got
through with his argument with Mr.. Sails
bury, Mr. Garfield having been elected, we
had the pleasure of witnessing England con-
Tossing herself wrong in that cause, ac-
knowledging herself criminally wrong, and
paying to James G. Blaine, the Secretary of
State, $4,000 as indemnity for that wrong.
[Applause.I
Now, gentlemen, l desire to say single
word in regard to my own locality. We have
lately had at that point congressional COM
mittee, which came there to ascertain who
the American fishermen are. They have had
before them gentleman, who, having been
absent twenty-seven years from the United
States, now comes before that commission,
not under oath-but who comes before that
commission and simply states what has been
told him, as he says, by others, that % per
cent of the American fishermen are aliens.
Well, gentlemen, that is not true. 1t Is as
false rs anything can be. In Massachusetts
alone, in 1885, under the direction Of Carroll
not only erroneous but misleading; the man
who Is at the head of the statistical depart
ments of the United States,-a census of
that State was taken by the bestenumerators
that could be procured in the State, and we
find that in Massachusetts,, although
some men who have become naturalized