The Portland daily press., 1894-11-12
THE NEXT SPEAKER.
And the Foremost Man in the Republican
Party.
IKenneheo Journal. ]

preside over its deli berations. No man
who has ever occupied this responsible
position has made a better record in the
discharge of its duties than did the emf
nent Maine STATESMAN. MIR. Reeds repu-
tation was already fully esta blished as
the leading Republican debater in the
National House of Represen tatives before
he was selected as it's presiding officer.
He was recongnized from one end of the
country to the other Jas man of COM
mandiug ability. AS speaker of the
HOUSE however, the country saw him in
new lights. 1t recognized in him one of
the most accomplished parliamentarians
of the age, resolutely defending, within
the limits of law, the right of the ma
icrity of the House to control in the
transaction of the nations business.
He commended that members of the
House present and not voting should,
nevertheless, be counted in declaring d
quorum. The Democrats asserted that
members were not legally present unless
they answered to the roll call. They
protested that the speaker, in declaring
a quorum. had no right to use the evil
dence of his physical senses, and that
mem bers of the House could be both
time. Mr.. Reed asserted that this posi-
ton was untenable; that it was neither
sound law nor sound sense It was
illogical and absurd.
The Constitution of the United States
provides that a majority of each branch
of Congress shall constitute quorum to
do business, but it does not state how
the presence Of this quorum is to be de-
termined. The Democratic members as
serted that it could only be done by
call of the House and that members re-
fusing to answer to their names could
not be counted, although they were
bodily present in the hall. Mr.. Reed
asserted that the presence of quorum
of members i'll the hall was all that was
necessary to the transaction of business.
and that in declaring the fact the speak
er had the right to use his own eyesight
and count for quorum all members
who were present whether they answered
to the roll call or not.
Amid an unprecedented storm OF per-
sonal abuse from the Democratic mem
bers of that body, who had boosted that
they would by resort to filibustering
tauti ca, permit the passage of no legis-
lation to which they were opposed, he
steadfastly pursued the policy which he
believed to De right and for the best in
terests of the whole country. He was
mors than a match for his wou,a-be de-
tractors at every phase and turn of the
contest which they wsged against him.
BE was not distur bed by their epithets
nor caught by their stratagenl. His
wonderful self-poise at every point of the
vindictive contest waged- aaginst him,
under the Leadership of Southern Demo-
Gratis, excited the admiration of the whole
country. Never for a moment did he
trip or falter; not once did he show the
slightest irritation. He was cool and
calm from first to last. and at all times
master of the situation.
Never has any American statesman
achieved more signal triumph than has
been accorded Mr.. Reed. Not only has
the Supreme Court of the United States
in test case, affirmed the right of the
Speaker to count all the mem bers who
are prese Mt in declaring quorum; but
a House with over one hundred Demo-
Garlic majority, presided over by the
Southern man who was most active in
leading the bitter and vituperative op-
position to this assertion of right by
Speaker Reed, has been forced to adopt
this very method of determining the
presence of quorum. The Reed rules"
could not possibly have had more COM
plete and gratifying vindication. AS
David B. Hill told his Democratic asso-
ciates, in a speech in the United States
Senate, the members of his party had
been forced to adopt, "amid the derisive
laughter OF the whole country" the
Reed rules" they had so vociferously
denounced. In another Senate speech
tOct. II, 1889 he bore the following tes-
timony to the correctness of Mr.. Reeds
decision on the counting of quoruns.
At he Speaker of the House of Repre-
cretion, assumed to count the presence of
members by observing and noting those
he saw before him. Having requested
them to vote their bodily presence being
known, sitting right in front of him,
it required merely the ascertainment of
a physical fact, he counted them. I
believe, and have always believed, that
that decision was a correct one Why
correct? Because the House has met
in the absence of rules on the subject
and must he governed by the ordinary
rules prevailing in the gathering of a
assem- blages, the ordinary parliamentary
law. That ruling has been criticised.
criticised in the main by men I think
who have not studied the question ac-
curately."
For time the Democratic and Mug
wump press were full of denunciation of
the Reed rules" and of Mr.. Reed.
whom they delighted in calling Carr
and "Despot;" but after his method
of counting quorum had been sustained
by the United States Supreme Court
and adopted by the Democratic party.
great silence fell upon them, as regards
this subject, which has remained I'M 4