Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-12-25
Thos. B. Reed Feared and Res
pected By Democracy.
He WAS THE GEAR, OF THE HOUSE
Many are the Stories of His Success
In Parliamentary Bouts With the
Opposition During His Long Time
In Congress.

ASoSheoIANSo, WIZ diCu w
of uraemia, was during the three ses-
sions of the forty-sixth congress a
thorn in the side of the democracy.
Ile was as able MS The nblest and mis-
scorpion tongue made him as much
feared as Thad Stevens or John Ran
doiph. He never defended. never PER.
suaded. He was the man for attack
and for command. Perhaps the only
compliment he ever uttered were trib-
ates to two dead men-one, Oliver
Cromwell, whom he resembles, and
the other, William l.. Wilson, whose
speech on General Parliamentary
Law" he confessed nearly penetrated
his cuticle. All eyes were fixed on
him in the forty-sixth congress. 1t
was known that he would go far.
The forty-seventh congress was re-
publican by narrow majority, and
Reed was candidate for speaker; but
Horace Page, of California, and George
c. Hazleton, of Wisconsin, played a
game of practical politics, and Gen.
Keifer defeated him. Reed became
chairman of the judiciary committee,
and had for colleagues at that council
board George d. Robinson, Ezra B.
Taylor, J. Proctor Knott, John Ran
dolph Tucker and David B. Culberson,
and he was second to none of even
these giants of the bar.
No legal battle on the floors of the
two houses of the American congress
has ever surpassed in forensic elo-
quence and learning the debates on
the measure providing for the distri-
button of the fund arising out of the
Geneva award. In the senate it was
discussed by Blaine, Edmunds, Hoar,
Conkling, Sherman, Thurman, Melon
aid, David Davis, Carpenter, Lamar,
Ben Hill and others, and lawyers
scarcely their interiors discussed it in
the house. Mr.. Reed made speech
| upon it in the forty-seventh congress,
and it is only justice to him to say
that no argument in either house sur
passed his.
| The forty-eigth, forty-ninth and fir
| tieth congresses were democratic.
Tariff reform was more or less para
mount, and Sam Randall killed all the
Morrison bills the ways and means
committee incubated. While William
d. Kelley was the nominal leader OF
the minority Reed and Mckinley were
the actual leaders. Everybody knew
that one or the other of these two able
men would one day be speaker OF con-
gress, and many were the confident
predictions that they would go higher.
| Men admired Reed; they loved Nc
Kinley. Men feared Reed; they re-
spected Mckinley. Reed commanded;
| Mckinley persuaded. Reed was the
strong man; Mckinley the good man.
| Democratic majorities in congress
steadily decreased and in 1888, when
| the fifty-first congress convened, the
republicans had majority, but the
slenderest of majorities. Reed and
Mckinley were the leading candidates
for speaker, and Reed was chosen
Perhaps that victory cost him the
presidency. Mckinley became chair
man of ways and means and the tariff
measure enacted by that congress
married his name to the then para
4 mount political issue, fact that Sc
cured his nomination for president siA
years later
| Becomes Gar of House.
Congress was just 100 years old
and for century voting quorum
had been recognized as the constitu
tional quorum. But the house nov
consisted Of above 800 members anG
/ the dominant party had a majority
of less than half score. If the rule
of century maintained, it was physi
cally impossible to transact public
4 BUSINESS except by unanimous cen
sent. Reed was not a man to bt
bound by precedent and enslaved b.
tradition. He was there to do bust
ness, and we'll he knew that to d.
business visible quorum must be re
cognized as the constitutional quorum
Perhaps he was the only man WHIT
ever sat in that chair who had tn,
strength to impose his will on tn,
representative of the freest peopl
on earth. 1t is questionable il the in
novation he accomplished was reform
certainly it was revolution.
The story of that day has been toll,
thousand times. A quorum wa
counted; visible quorum was mad
constitutional enough for all practi
cal purposes. There was an uproal
! and a riot was imminent. A majorit,
of the American people felt outrage,
and believed they were undone. Il
remotest hamlets men thought Amer
can liberty had been dealt fna
blow. John @. Adams, federalis
and an dDOllLlOnlSI, was invoked D.
democratic orators on 10000 stumps
The democratic leaders in tn
struggle Of January 20, was Charles T
Crisp, and that days work made hir
speaker of the two succeeding cong
resses, and, oh, political mankind MI
Crisp himself was reduced to tn
humiliating necessity of invoking tn
{. visible quorum in house with
democratic majority of over 100.
One day a prominent citize
called on the Gear" and asked hir
!. how he accomplished the revolution G
!, January 20.
do you understand the game @
whist?" drawled the speaker.
Eyes, play whist" was the answer
well, they never took a trick"
} That was the all sufficient explain;
{ ton.
The fifty-fourth was republican. Ii
. novation had become precedent. N
!. name but Reeds was thought of fo
3 speaker. 1t was no idle epigram tha
l he was the house of representative!
0 His will dominated everything. H
, sat in judgment on every measm'
3 and the republican majority We're fo
4 / Il;