St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-25
KENNEDY'S COURAGE,
It Is Given Another Test in
the House Of Repre-
sentativeS.
He Insists That the People of
the Country Approve His
Course.
An Impassioned Grafton on
His Devotion to the Poor
and Weak.
The HouSn EYnunoes His
The House Expunges His
Speech by the Decisive
Vote of $50 to SO.

vote OF lou 10 80.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24.-When the
resolution came up in the house to. eX-
punge the famous Kennedy speech
from the Congressional Record Mr..
Kennedy requested to be heard in his
own behalf. At first there was dis
position shown to refuse him this re-
quest, but, after Mr.. Oates, of Ala
bama, said that. while he concurred in
the report, he thought that the gentle
man should be heard, and after Mr..
Boutelle, of Maine, declared that it
would be an outrage to deny him the re-
quest, Mr.. Kennedy was accorded the
floor for twenty minutes. Mr.. Kennedy
said that he had asked the commit
tee on the judiciary either to
let his speech appear in the
record entire or to strike it
out entire. He was willing
to stand before the people of America
on that speech, believing that the peo-
pie of this country in their first judg-
ment, and in their sober second judg-
ment, would approve the words he had
uttered. Referring to the portion of the
speech delivered in Philadelphia last
night by Speaker Reed in which the
speaker spoke of the house as being the
representative body of the people. he
said that he knew of no parliamentary
body in the land that
Represented the People
of the United States so fully. so COM
pletely and so entirely as the body to
which he belonged. If the people of
the United States were not to be heard
on this floor, on what floor could they
be heard. He had heard from the coun-
try. 1t had been charged by few per-
sons that he had given aid and comfort
to the Democratic party. What were the
indications that he had done SO? He held
in his hand clippings from newspapers
throughout all America, and in all that
list there was not one single Democratic
paper which had approved his speech.
But there were hundreds and hundreds
of clippings from Republican papers,
and with one OF two exceptions they ap-
proved his words, He also held in his
hand letters from every section of the
land, from Maine to California, and
from the lakes to the gulf, indorsing
the word, letter and spirit of his speech.
He was willing to stand before the peo-
pie of the country and wait for their in
dcrsement. The party to which he be-
longed had pledged itself in its platform
and campaign to perform certain duties
and fulfill certain promises. One of
those pledges, he said, the first and
greatest pledge, was that the Republic
an party would put on the statute books
of the land law for the protection of
every citizen, high OF low.
Rich and Poor,
white or black, so that he could go to
the ballot box, deposit his vote and have
it counted. 1t was because his party
had failed to do that that he had stood
upon this floor and spoke of broken
pledges and broken promises This
house had performed its pledges, and,
as the speaker said in Maine the other
day, it had redeemed every promise to
the people. 1t was not the fault of the
house that the pledges had not been re-
deemed, and he had right to say this
here and elsewhere. If for that he
was to be judged, then he was ready to
to be judged by this assembly and by
the people of the country. He had
made speeches on this floor which
had sunk into the record as rain
drops sank into the ocean, and
least made one speech on this floor that
the people had heard. The house might
blot it from the record and sweep it
from existence, but it could not blot it
from the quickened cOnSciences of Co.,
100000 people Of America. He then
quoted from speech delivered by Abra-
ham Lincoln in 1889, in a joint debate
between him, Josiah Lamborn and
Stephen A. Douglas, in which he eX-
pressed his devotion to the cause of the
people. He could not, he said, rival the
words of the great emancipator; but,
with the single talent God had given
him. he would stand on this floor, or
anywhere, defending the rights Of the
poor, down-trodden and oppressed.
Applause in the galleries.] He had
stood for five years on
Fifty Battle Fields
TO testify his devotion to the cause of
liberty and unity; and for twenty-five
years since. whenever opportunity pre-
sented itself, he had stood in behalf OF
lib erty. justice, equality, a free ballot
and fair count. The other day, when
he concluded his speech, he went down
the steps of the capitol, and colored
man, whose head was bowed with years,
whose hair was gray and grlzZled, with
tears in his eyes. and with quivering
lids, had taken his hand and blessed
him because he had spoken in behalf of
the people of his race. Others might
seek the plaudits of the powerful and
great; but as for him kennedy he
WAnl6 hn nantQnf tn cf0n6 fhC
side of the plain people whom
Abraham Lincoln had loved. Others
might seek for the acclaim of the high
born, the titled and the rich, but as for
him, he would be content with the tears
and the gratitude and the blessing of
the poor, the lowly and the oppressed.
Applause on the floor and in the gal.
leries] Mr.. Allen, of Mississippi, jocu.
larly fuggested that he be given twenty
minutes to speak for the senate. Mr.
Stewart said that he was much en-.
man from Ohio. But the gentleman
had not uttered one word touching the
real question. Nobody questioned the
geHtleman's fidelity to the principle Of
liberty, and nobody challenged the rec
ord he had made in defense of that
principle. The question was not as tt
the accuracy of what that gentleman
had said-not as to whetherit was
True or False.
The question was whether th'
speech, which was in spirit and sub
stance bitter and savage arraignmeD
of the coordinate branch, was viola
ton of parliamentary law and OF th'
privileges of the house. That was tn
only question. If, as the gentlemel