Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-05-20
THE MILLS BILL
Laid Aside for a Week OF
Ten Days.
END OF THE GREAT DEBATE
Baker and Breckenridge Have &
Tilt-Speaker Carlisle Closes
The Discussion.
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatches to the HERALD


WASHINGTON, May 19.-Long before
the House met every seat in the CALLER
les except few reserved for the Presi-
dent and family was occupied. After
the reading Of the journal, Baker, OF Illi-
nois was recognized. He said that yes
terday at a moment when he was out Of
the hall, words were spoken by the gem
tleman from Kentucky Breckenridge
refiecting on his honor, rejecting upon
the honor OF his constit uents.
He then had read the remarks oI
Breckenridge rejecting upon the man
ner in which the defeat OF w. r. Morri-
son, Of the Eighteenth Illinois district,
had been accomplished. 'In my own
name" continued Baker, s'and in the
name Of the Eighteenth Congressional
district Of Illinois, which he has dared to
defame, hurl the words back to the
gentleman from Kentucky and denounce
their imputation as grossly untrue.
hurl the words back into the face and
teeth Of the gentleman from Kentucky
with absolute and unmitigated defiance.
[Applause and laughter.I No gen
tleman from Kentucky shall swing
his blacksnake whip over my
shoulders and over the shoulders OF my
constituents with impunity. He would
at least run the risk Of having it
wrenched from his hand and feeling the
hot end of it,
If there be distinction in the adjec-
tive Kentuckian, then I am Kentuck-
ian. first saw the light OF day hard by
the shades of Ashland, the home of that
important Kentuckian, Henry Clay, un-
swerving as adamant in his great hearted
patriotism, and whose old-time seat of
peerless honor and glory in this hall is
now, alas worse than empty. [Applause
and laughter.l That seat is filed by a
gentleman whose speeches are garlands
Of flowers without leaves or fruit; totally
unsuited to public affairs and well
adapted to the ladies' bQudoir
[laughterl, but for their habitual
touches OF something approaching
domineering arrogance. That old-time
seat, as say, is worse than empty. 1t
is occupied by gentleman who hissed,
through his TRADE with uninformed rea-
son, the grand idea of the grand old
statesman whom he succeeded. The
colossal shade of that great man hovers
over the Republic. 1t wakes the north
land and the southland, aud will at all
times be an inspiration of his mighty
contest on this ground and will lift Presi-
dent Cleveland from the White House,
and very probably lit the gentleman
from the seat of the honored Clay. ZAP
plause on the Republican side. The
words OF the gentleman from Ken
lucky challenge comparison between his
district and mine The Congressional
directory shows that 30,339 votes were
cast for Congress in my district, while in
his but A, 791 were cast (applause), about
one eighth of the voting population and
all voting on one side. Whatever reason
for this curious arrangement there may
have been, the gentleman from Kentucky
represents one-sixth Of the votes repre-
sent 1t will be seen that the gentleman
does not occupy the ground that makes it
prudent for him to indulge in reckless
da natory statements reviling the honor
of an election in another State of which
he actually knows nothing, even if the
law of fair and honest manly dealing was
not sufficient to restrain him.
"The gentleman from Kentucky is as
unfortunate IN his historical relation to
his own great father, as in the seat he
occupies. Robert j. Breckenridge is a
name that belongs to the whole Repub-
lie. He was great as thinker, as a
scholar, as writer, as an orator, and
tianscendently great as a patricia
patriot whose intellect, whose heart,
whose soul, embraced the entire country,
instead of a fragment of it. 1t is
narrated of him that on meeting
young man who was about to
join the Confederate army in the war OF
secession, he remarked to him Il under
stand you are going to join the Rebel
army. Your father brought you to me
in his arms, struggling infant, and
asked that might baptize you and dedi-
cate you to the service Of the Almighty
God, but had known at that hour that
you would ha7 7e ever betrayed your
country and entered the ranks of those
seeking to destroy it, would have found
it in my heart to have strangled you at
the baptisma! foAt.' There was Ken
tuckian that was Kentuckian." At the
conclusion of his remarks Mr.. Baker was
greeted with loud applause.
Breckenridge arose to reply, and said
he had made no charge against the ven-
erable gentleman from Illinois. He was
the simple usufruct of what others made.
"He got the benefit of what other par
ties did, and have no doubt from what
l have heard of him, that he was in the
main ignorant of what was done; in the
innocence of his simple way he thought
it was his intellect and great popularity
that accounted for the defeat of Morri-
son, and am sorry if the facts should
dispel that pleasing conceit of the vener-
able gentleman from Illinois," APP
plause on Democratic side
Mr.. Breckenridge then had read some
extracts from John Jarrett and the
American Tin Plate Association and
other documents, the nature of which
was made public soor after the defeat oil
Mr.. Morrison two years ago. After refer
ring at some length to these, Brecken-
ridge said in regard to Bakers remarks
about his (Breckenridge's father,
that Baker did not know no one
into whose family the plowshare
Of that terrific war did not run--knew
the awful dilemma in which son with
the dictates of conscience on one side,
and with inconceivable veneration for
his father on the other, was placed. His
father was Kentuckian, who never
gave utterance to the miserable deceit
that gentleman had put into his mouth,
He would say to the venerable gentleman
that he forgave him for hiding behind
the grave of a dead father to wound the
living son. [Great applause on Demo
cratic side.]
Baker said the Kentucky mountain had
labored very hard and had brought forth
a mouse. While the gentleman was
looking after the purity of the ballot he