Proceedings & Collections - NSHS - Vol. IV

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SENATOR A. S. PADDOCK.

March 5th, 1875-81 and 1887-93.

   The oath of office as a senator of the United States was administered to Mr. Paddock in a special session of the senate March 5th, 1875.
   Mr. Morton, of Indiana, a prime factor in the Republican party, almost amounting to a political dictator, moved the admission of P. B. S. Pinchback as senator from the state of Louisiana, on an election two years previous, and from one of two rival legislatures. The case having gone over to the first regular session of December, 1875, Mr. Paddock made it the subject of his maiden speech, having only previously occupied the attention of the senate with a few incidental remarks relative to the expenses of the admission of Colorado as a state.
   Having promised that if the contest were purely political, or reduced to a choice of the "lesser of two evils" he would sustain the present applicant, he then set forth in most unequivocal terms his view of party duty in the existing emergency.

Mr. President--As it is mainly an issue between Mr. Pinchback and the law, I shall vote for the law as I understand it. Albeit, I have not arisen to make a legal argument. That indeed, sir, would be a work of supererogation on my part after the weary years of very able discussion that have already been given to this question. I shall not so consume the time nor so abuse the patience of the senate. I desire only to say a few brief words in a spirit of the utmost kindness, sincerity and candor to my republican brethren in the senate and out of it as well. In my opinion, sir, the republican party will not be strengthened by the admission of Mr. Pinchback under the election upon which he bases his claim. A suspicion, almost a conviction, sir, pervades the public mind everywhere that this selection was altogether a farce. Indeed, sir, very many republicans, some of them in this chamber, more of them outside, who have carefully examined all the law and all the evidence, anxious to discover therein the proper warrant of authority for Mr. Pinchback's admission to a seat in this body, have been forced to the conclusion that it cannot be found.

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Moreover, sir, the whole case is so closely related extrinsically to a condition of political affairs in Louisiana which is admitted on all hands to be so deplorable, while in and of itself, it has so few of the elements which the people are sure to require before they give to it their approval, and it is withal immediately environed by complications so unrepublican in character, that in my humble judgment we had better let it alone entirely. I say this, sir, with the utmost deference for the opinions of the very able patriotic senators here who think otherwise. And, sir, I wish it to be distinctly understood that, in what I may say upon this question, I disclaim utterly any intention to impugn the motives or to criticise (sic) the action of any senator upon this floor. I accord to all what I claim for myself: a conscientious desire to discharge faithfully an important public duty.

In further uttering a note of warning, he said:

The people admire genuine manhood in the individual; they demand its fullest aggregation and development in a political party. The republican party learned this long ago. By its own acts alone will it be judged at the bar of public opinion and receive the approval or condemnation of the public as it may deserve.

As the blood of the emancipated race flowed in the veins of the Louisiana senator elect, Mr. Paddock declared he did not believe the admission of that officer would advantage the negro population.

They can make no greater mistake, sir, than to insist that the republican party, their natural ally and friend, shall take part with them in aggressive political movements which may be attended by many irregularities and surrounded by illegal complications.
The supremacy of the republican party, sir, must depend altogether upon the acceptability of its policies to the intelligent and the law abiding people of the great North. They, sir, will give much to the colored people of the South for defensive, but nothing for offensive warfare.

This initial effort of the new senator from Nebraska "drew the fire" of several distinguished political marksmen, who indulged in the phrase--"our lecturer," and evoked from General Logan, of Illinois, the declaration "I do not feel like sitting

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here and being lectured by a republican on account of the vote I shall cast." The resolution of admission was never adopted.
Having entered into a defense of his party it was an easy and natural transition to the defense of emigrants and of his own constituents in the vicinity of Indian reservations.

PIONEERS VINDICATED.    MR. PADDOCK: There ought not to be a single day's delay in considering this question. It seems to me, that the senate ought to take up the matter to-day and conclude it. The fact is patent to all that these people are already there in large numbers, and that there is bloodshed, carnage, and destruction of life and property by this savage tribe which contests the advance of civilization.
   Action ought to be, and must be, had at once, and while I am up I must be permitted to say that it has been a very fashionable thing here to reflect upon the brave and enterprising people on the frontier who have sometimes pushed forward into the so-called Indian country; but it should be remembered by our friends in the East that our friends on the frontier are only following the illustrious examples that have been set long before. They are only doing that which was done by the Pilgrim Fathers when they landed on Plymouth Rock, and by those who afterwards, following their example, went into Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and other sections, repeating the history that had been made before.
   It is utterly impossible to restrain the American people when opportunities are presented to advance their fortunes. The same spirit of enterprise impresses all, whether they reside in New England or Nebraska. IMPEACHMENT OF BELKNAP.

   During the 44th Congress Senator Paddock was called upon to sit as a member of a High Court of Impeachment, for the trial of W. W. Belknap, who as Secretary of War during General Grant's administration, in 1876, was charged by the house of representatives with having corruptly received large sums of money for appointing a post trader at Fort Sill.
   The case finally turned upon the plea, that before the case was filed in the court of impeachment (the senate) Secretary Belknap tendered his resignation, which was accepted by Gen-
   20

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eral Grant, and therefore became a private citizen, and not amenable to removal from office.
When the name of Senator Paddock was called he responded:

Believing that neither the written words of the constitution nor the spirit of our republican institutions warrant the impeachment of a private citizen when impeached, and further believing that the questions of fact go hand in hand, always inseparable, to final judgment, without reference to the facts as charged in this article, I vote "not guilty."

With the opening of the 45th congress it was evident, from his committee assignments, that Senator Paddock would have ample opportunity for a vast amount of work, being made chairman of the committee on Agriculture, and second upon that of Public Lands and Enrolled Bills, and third upon that of Post Offices and Post Roads.
Early, therefore, he is found in an animated contest with the senators of Colorado and the greatly distinguished Judge Thurman, of Ohio, relative to. the Union Pacific Railroad and branches.

AGRICULTURE.

But by far his most elaborate and critical effort was his speech upon agriculture, as the foundation of national wealth as to the number of our population employed by it, and its reasonable demands for government aid. In a single year, when our total exports amounted to $739,971,739, the amount resulting from agricultural products equaled $536,038,951. This discussion involved the protection of crops and fruit from destroying insects, domestic animals from such diseases as cholera, pleuro-pneumonia and rinderpest; and their cheaper transportation to market and the opening up of numerous friendly ports for their reception.
The establishment of forestry as an aid and an agricultural education, and liberal enactments relative to the introduction of raw materials all came in for incidental prominence. On the latter point he said:

Now, I, myself, was educated in the political school of Henry Clay, and while I yet think that in some cases and in

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some circumstances protection through high revenue tariff may answer a good purpose, I am forced to believe that for the states that are exclusively agricultural it may be on the whole an injurious policy. I speak now only of and to those states. Undoubtedly we would be immensely benefited if all raw materials used by the skilled labor of the country in the manufacture of articles absolutely necessary to the wardrobe of the farmer, the laboring man, and their families; and all articles of food, not luxuries, could be admitted free of duty.

In his opinion the exigencies of the case demanded more intelligent farmers in congress.

I say this, Mr. President, with all due respect for the 300 lawyers, more or less, who to-day occupy seats in the two Houses of Congress. All things that are possible for any one are possible for him, and yet his class rarely has direct personal representation in the great executive and legislative offices of the government. The answer is easy. It is because farmers are satisfied with giving to their children only inferior education when it is apparent that of all the youths of the land they should secure the most careful training, the most thorough, the most general instruction.

In this congress there occurred an occasion away from the dryness of statistical statement, and bitterness of political contention, in which sentiment deposited its treasures, genius wove garlands, and rhetoric twined them about the monumental shaft. The event was the memorial services in memory of Senator Morton, renowned "War Governor" of Indiana.
In Mr. Paddock's contribution of affection occurs the following:

TRIBUTE TO MORTON. MR. PADDOCK: Mr. President--I never saw Senator Morton arise to address the senate during our brief service together here when I was not oppressed with the fear that it might be his last effort in this chamber. Indeed he appeared to be as one standing ever in the very shadow of the uplifted hand of the Angel of Death, ready and waiting for the always impending, the always expected blow. He rose from his chair with great difficulty and often undoubtedly with much pain. Frequently while speaking he was compelled, from sheer physical exhaustion, to resume his seat; and some of the greatest efforts of his life were made while

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sitting in yonder chair, A less determined spirit would have succumbed to so serious a physical derangement; but his great intellect seemed to become clearer, brighter, more vigorous, his iron will to strengthen, his moral courage to increase, as his physical organism became weaker from the attacks of the insidious disease that was slowly but surely undermining it.
I have seen the mighty oak, with its great bole, symmetrical and strong, with its wealth of graceful limbs, with its glory of leaf and shade forming, all in all, one of the highest types of blended power and beauty, in nature a very monarch among his fellows, to whom they seemed to mutely bow as with acknowledgment of primacy. Afterwards I have seen this wonder of the forest--which nature had so lavishly expended her forces to upbuild, and which had during many generations withstood the assaults of the angry tempests, gaining in each struggle increased development and strength suddenly rent and riven, a deepened wound upon its noble trunk pointing out the lightning's track; and yet its umbrageous canopy of limb and leaf appeared, if possible, more perfect, more beautiful than ever. I cannot tell, perhaps no one but the Great Creator Himself will ever know--whether there may not have been specially imparted to it, through some Dryad medium, something of that force of will from the source of all power which gave to that charred and broken and wounded trunk the needed strength to draw from the fruitful soil the sustaining elements necessary to the continuance of its great life. A few years later I have found this stupendous growth of nature a blasted, withered thing. A second bolt from Jove's awful hand had descended and robbed it forever of life, and strength, and beauty; for the very last time it had "Rung down its green glories to battle with the wind and storm."
In respect of its inherent strength, its remarkable development, its superlative power and endurance at the maturity of its growth entitling it to superior rank among its fellows, as well as its final blight and decay, this wonderful creation of nature was aptly illustrative of the great life of the deceased senator before whose open grave we mourn. To him there was given a mental and physical organism with each faculty, each force so carefully, so perfectly adjusted to every other, the whole constituting a manhood of such symmetry and strength and power that in any sphere of life must have commanded for him superior station among his fellows. Endowments so rare were his, that of their own force, by their own momentum, they impelled him to the fore-front, to intellectual primacy, to

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leadership; and this position once secured was easily held through that instinctive concession of prudence which the masses of men always make to the possessor of such faculties.
As the oak grew broader and stronger from its tempest conflicts so did this noble manhood broaden and strengthen in the encounters incident to a life of leadership among men.

TRIBUTE TO FRANK WELCH.

On a similar occasion Mr. Paddock paid a graceful and tender tribute to the memory of Hon. Frank Welch, of Nebraska, furnishing in the conception and style a counterpart to the beautiful simile so successfully amplified in the word portrait of Senator Morton.

Mr. President--It is with no "hollow circumstance of woe," but as one sorrows for a brother lost, as a family in sackcloth mourns when the insatiate archer, entering its charmed circle, selects for his victim the favorite of the flock, that we, each and all, in The State he loved so well, and served so faithfully did say peace and farewell to his ashes. At length they bore him from as, and now his ashes mingle with the soil of Massachusetts. To us, sir, who loved Frank Welch--and we all did love him; to as who labored with him from the smallest beginnings in the territorial times to the days of stalwart statehood for Nebraska; there is indeed left the record of his honorable citizenship; the proud monuments of his public services, the sweet memory of his personal graces, and of his frank and generous nature, the valued example of his earnest life; and these, sir, shall be ours evermore. Remembering this, sir, with such cheerfulness and resignation as we could command we responded to the appeal of maternal affection and returned to Massachusetts the mortal casket--broken and useless to be sure which once had held this priceless jewel. On behalf of the young State whose institutions Frank Welch helped to mould I sent greetings and grateful acknowledgments to Massachusetts for the valued services of this her son in our up-building. But remember, senators of that grand old commonwealth, his ashes are ours as well as yours. Yon received them from us with our love and our tears; you gave them honored sepulture. Now guard them well, we pray you; for when the last trump shall sound, and they who died for liberty on Bunker Hill and the other patriots buried there shall then, in glad obedience, come forth, no nobler spirit will appear than his whose life, commencing

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in that historic place, was mainly given to the work of development and civilization which resulted in the establismentment (sic) of a free and prosperous commonwealth in the distant West where only a little time before the Indian, undisturbed, "pursued the panting deer," and "the wild fox dug his hole unscared," in a land where no white man had ever dwelt and the arts of peace were unknown.

All that can be said of him in connection with the 46th congress commencing in 1879 must necessarily be compressed within the smallest possible space.
Offering an amendment to make more efficient the United States army in the suppression of Indian hostilities and the protection of life and property on the frontier, the field of discussion embraced numerous topics of general interest.

NEBRASKA.

A state scarcely twelve years old, with a population of 400,000 distributed sparsely over seventy-five thousand square miles of territory, seven-eighths of whom are engaged in agricultural pursuits, possessing six hundred churches, three thousand or more district schools, with more than two millions invested in common school houses and school property; a state in which the sentiment of temperance is so strong that a bill to prohibit the sale of all spirituous liquors lacked only one vote of its passage in the last legislature; a state that gives anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 republican majority, is not the natural abiding place of lawbreakers and desperadoes.

SOLDIERS.

We have no fear of the soldier in our state. We respect and love and give our fullest confidence to the army of the United States. A nobler, a more gallant set of men, does not live, in or out of uniform, anywhere on God's green earth.
We can never forget the great service they have rendered us in defense of our exposed border. We know the hardships they have endured, the sacrifices they have made, the dangers they have braved, in that most trying, most laborious, most important service. I do well remember, sir, that every house in our state was a house of mourning a few years since when the sad intelligence reached us that five or six companies of cavalry, the very flower of the army of the United States, commanded by the gallant Custer, had

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been utterly annihilated in an encounter with the fierce and barbarous Sioux. SOLDIERS NEAR THE POLLS. Mr. President, there have been soldiers near the polls at the city of Omaha and at other points in our state at every election for ten or fifteen years. No one ever heard of a voter being intimidated there. But, sir, if our native-born citizens, or if. the Germans or Irish or Scandinavians, should either of them take up arms to prevent either of the other nationalities from voting at an election for members of congress, or if either or all of them combined should turn out to intimidate the three or four hundred negro voters from casting their honest ballots at such an election, there is not a citizen of that state of any party who would not thank God for the presence of the United States troops and for a law governing their movement that would permit their use in protecting the weaker against the stronger class of voters, when no other force could be commanded to perform such duty; and no man of any sense in that state would be afraid of the abuse of such a law. SERIOUS COMPLICATION. This western section of Nebraska is one of the finest pasture fields on the face of the earth. It is within bounds to say that not less than a quarter of a million head of cattle are to-day grazing upon the nutritious natural grasses of that vast region. The pioneer tiller of the soil, the homesteader is also there.
Unfortunately these two interests conflict and therefrom bitter antagonisms have sprung which have helped to increase the complications. It is true there are two or three small military posts along the western line of the State, but these are almost of no account in preserving the peace between the "homesteader and the. cowboys," who dispute with each other for the occupancy of that fertile country; between the Indian and white outlaw who steal from each other; between all these and the capitalists who have millions of dollars in herds of cattle and horses scattered widely over that country upon which the Indian, whose ponies have been stolen by the white outlaw, makes reprisals, upon which the outlaw, disguised perhaps as an Indian, makes raids, or for the general protection of these great interests which are otherwise imperiled through the antagonisms between the classes to which I have referred, our army cannot, as the law now stands, give aid to a sheriff or other civil officer, anywhere, for any purpose whatever.

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CONCLUSION. In the interest of peace, for the enforcement of the laws, for the protection of life and property, for the purpose of insuring to every citizen of every nationality, whatever may be his religious faith, whatever his political opinions, whatever the color of his skin, whatever his occupation, whether he be rich or poor, high or low, citizen or stranger, although he may be found in the remotest corner of our state, the same privileges and immunities that may be enjoyed by any other citizen anywhere in this broad land of ours, we ask you to remove these restrictions so far as they may operate to render the army employed upon the frontier useless.

In the session of 1880, when urging a claim for all addition to the school fund of the State, demanding that lands located by warrants and those included in Indian reservations should pay five per cent to that fund, as lands sold did, the senator found an opportunity to exalt Nebraska at the expense of imperious Vermont.

NEBRASKA AND VERMONT CONTRASTED. Mr. President--From nothing whatever in 1854 Nebraska has grown to a population of 500,000 with all assessed valuation of fully $100,000,000, and that, too, without assessing the vast estate of the Federal Government therein. With six hundred churches, three thousand schoolhouses, with a surplus of the agriculture of the past year over the requirements for home consumption of at least 500,000,000 bushels of wheat and corn, more than 500,000 hogs and 300,000 beeves, to say nothing of other products of lesser importance sent out for distribution to the consumers of states less favored in these respects. Moreover while Vermont paid for the fiscal year ending, June 30, 1879, only in internal revenue taxes for the support of the Federal government, Nebraska paid for the same year $876,309, more than seventeen times as much as Vermont, in a single year. Since Nebraska was admitted as a state in 1866-67 it has paid more than $4,000,000 internal revenue taxies. And while Vermont, during the last five years, has paid less than $300,000, Nebraska has paid during the same period about $3,000,000.

When the 46th congress closed his first term of six years, the record showed that including incidental remarks and prepared

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speeches, he had addressed the senate 164 times, independent of twenty written reports and of the presentation of one hundred and twenty-nine bills, nine of which passed the senate. Being succeeded by C. H. Van Wyck, in 1881, whose term expired in 1887, Mr. Paddock devoted the interim as an active member of a commission established for the suppression of polygamy in Utah.
On his return to the senate in December, 1887, at. the commencement of his second term of six years, Mr. Paddock made a vigorous attack upon the Post Office Department, claiming that the interests of the West had been overlooked in behalf of the South and East.
From a long, compact, and statistical speech we have a description in terse language of the "Average American:"

Mr. President--The average American citizen is a man of broad views, strong in purpose, intensely patriotic, aggressive and enterprising. He is proud of his country and its institutions, he demands of the governing power that it shall be the aggregate personification of what he himself is, and the party having the responsibility of administration which refuses great opportunities, when properly presented, to increase the wealth and prosperity, the power and the glory of the Republic. and spends its time in trying to save a dollar in the purchase of tape and tabs and wrapping paper, will surely come to grief when the people who are the sovereigns can reach it through the ballot box. I beg to warn our democratic friends that the deluge is at hand. and there will have to be some very lively swimming on their part or they will go down beneath the waves of popular disfavor and distrust, which their own administration has set in motion by its incompetency and its blunders.

On a bill for a bureau of Animal Industry, and to facilitate the transportation of live stock and to extirpate contagious pleuro-pneumonia, he delivered an able speech, covering the constitutional power and national necessity.
In it he said:

Mr. President, it would be impossible to estimate the importance of this subject. In a comparatively few years pleuro-pneumonia has cost the country directly and in-

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directly $10,000,000. Within ten years the losses from hog cholera have been estimated at the enormous sum of $300,000,000 or more. We have today 125,000,000 farm animals at the mercy of infectious diseases which commonly affect herds and flocks. In western Europe a single epidemic of the rinderpest swept away 30,000,000 head of cattle, of the estimated value of $1,500,000,000. France alone during the last century lost 10,000,000 head of cattle from malignant diseases. In the years from 1856 to 1862 lung fever and epizootic cost Great Britain over one million head of cattle worth $50,000,000; and eighteen months in 1865-66, from rinderpest $10,000,000 more were added to the cattle losses of the same country. The national government must deal with this matter; congress cannot shift the matter to the States. One method in one state, another system in another, and none of any kind in many, with non-co-operation between all, will not do.

At the end of this congress he had addressed the senate sixteen times--introduced forty-five bills of which twenty passed the senate and twelve became laws, and while active on the committees on Agriculture, Lands and Pensions presided over that of Mississippi River improvements.
With the opening of the 51st congress, having had eight years of experience in national legislation, Mr. Paddock was so well equipped for greater works and more extended discussion, that the merest reference, by fragmentary quotations, is all that can be given of numerous valuable speeches.

WESTERN MORTGAGES.

On the subject of western mortgages we have:

Mr. President--I want to record the statement here, that not to exceed 1 per cent. of the mortgage indebtedness, if so much as that, of my State, represents actual losses in the prosecution of agricultural industry. Indeed, I believe that seven-eighths of the mortgage indebtedness of that State represents purchases made through deferred payments among those engaged in agriculture, who have found it advantageous to themselves to acquire additional tracts of land, or to increase their flocks and herds. I wish to say that the representations which have been made, published and spread broadcast over the country in newspapers and in public speeches during the past year by certain pessimists

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and demagogues respecting the indebtedness of the agricultural class in my State, were cruel in their character at least, a libel upon my State and its farmers, and in all respects villainously false. UTAH.

Having been a member of the Utah commission, the senator took great interest in everything relating to the material interest of the Territory. Advocating an appropriation for a public building he said:

It is well known, I suppose, by the senator from Kansas, it is certainly by Western people generally, that Salt Lake is at the present time one of the most prosperous and one of the most rapidly growing cities in the West, and that it has a population today of fully 50,000. It is the great leader among the cities of the West, second only to Denver and Omaha of the cities between Chicago and San Francisco. It is a city which undoubtedly within five years will have a hundred, or more, thousand people. INDIANS IN REPOSE.

A senator having dwelt upon hunger as the cause of Indian outbreaks, was answered as follows:

While I am up I should like to say a single word with reference to this theory of the hunger of the Indians. It is well known on the frontier by those who know something of the Indian character, and particularly the. Indian appetite, that the Indian is always hungry until he is filled to repletion, which means to be filled up to his chin. Whenever there is a depression or settling down of this inside lining he immediately becomes hungry, and so whenever he appears anywhere or anybody interviews him in respect to the condition of his appetite, he is ready to state that he is hungry, if be is not full to overflowing from a very recent filling. TARIFF.

In the tariff discussion of 1890, of which came the celebrated McKinley bill, Mr. Paddock sketched the rise of the Republican party, its enactment of that measure, the reign of peace demanding its modification, benign results of protection to general interests, and its vindication in the sudden and astounding growth of the western agricultural region. Yet he frankly admitted:

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That the people of the West begin to think that if a number of the most protected of these industries are ever to learn to stand alone, their hands should soon be forcibly released from the skirts of high protection, to which they so persistently cling.

In accordance with legislative instructions be voted for "free lumber," and for free machinery for the sugar beet manufacturers, during their infancy. The bill as passed in the senate, having been modified in a committee of conference, received his condemnation:

As I would have voted as a republican for the bill is it passed the senate, so I shall vote now against it as a republican. I must do this regardless of consequences to myself, and in honest compliance with what I believe to be representative duty.

In the closing hours of the 51st congress, three days before adjournment, having for three years assisted in perfecting a bill for the suppression of all manner of adulterated food, drugs and drinks, the Senator is found delivering a two hours' speech, being a comprehensive analysis of congressional and parliamentary reports, sustained by chemical research and the local laws of numerous states, with memorials of trade associations and dairy commissioners, Farmers' Alliance appeals and pure food associations all over the land. Although the motion to attach the Pure Food Bill to in appropriation bill failed, yet a very valuable contribution was made to the literature of the senate and the way opened up for future triumph.

CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS. Mr. President, this measure is to uphold and enforce commercial honesty, the pride of respected and respectable merchants; commercial confidence, which is the foundation of trade; business integrity, the prime basis of commerce. The demand comes finally from the great, agricultural class of the country, whose products are depreciated in value by hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, while, they are robbed of millions through the sophistication of the articles of food consumed by themselves and their children. I assure the senate that the men for whom my associates and myself speak will not be satisfied with hair-splitting techni-

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calities of constitutional interpretation, applied to bolster up and support the swindlers and the cheats whom this measure, will expose and bring to justice.

   This congress of 304 days, next to the longest ever held, found Mr. Paddock at the head of the agricultural committee and eclipsing all previous records of bills, reports and speeches, presented and delivered.
   The length of the session was not disproportioned to the value of the themes acted upon, nor were those which were enacted into law superior to many that remained in committee or went over on the files of the House.
   During the last hours of the 1st session of the 52d congress, Senator Paddock was found again contesting with Senators Coke, of Texas, Bate, of Tennessee, and Vest, of Missouri, for the passage of his specialty, the Pure Food Bill.
   He denied utterly the charges of the two former "that thousands and tens of thousands of officials would be required" in the enforcement of the law, whereas only such articles as are the subject of interstate commerce were to be analyzed. He thought his opponents were "more troubled about cotton-seed oil than about the constitution."
   He repelled the assumption "that the people themselves, who had almost universally demanded it, had been moved chiefly by the desire to have inaugurated a cheap, nasty, political scheme for corrupt partisan uses." After an argument as to the constitutional power, and numerous citations from eminent authors and demands from the manufacturers for the passage of the bill he closed with a cogent appeal:

   Mr. President, in conclusion I appeal to senators to help, so far as they may be able, in this particular sphere of their legislative activities, to enact this law.
   In the name and in the interest of public morality, I appeal to you to set legislative bounds beyond which the wicked may not go with impunity in this corrupt and corrupting work.
   Let us help by our action here to protect and sustain in his honorable vocation the honorable producer, manufacturer, merchant and trader. In the interest of the great consuming public, particularly the poor, I beg of you to make an honest, earnest effort to secure this legislation.

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These, Mr. President, are the men and these the women and children for whom, before all others, I make this appeal. If you could save to these the possible one-third of the nutrition element of their food supplies which is extracted to be replaced by that which is only bulk, only the form and semblance of which they are robbed by the dishonest manipulator and trader, you would go a long way toward solving the great problem of the laboring masses whether for them it is "better to live or not to live," whether it is "better to endure the ills they have, rather than flee to those they know not of," that lie beyond in the realm of governmental and social upheaval and chaos. There is a good deal in the way of comic "asides" as the momentous social drama which holds the boards at this time, and whose dramatis personae are the so called common people, rapidly advances to the epilogue. Be not deceived, the storm doth not abate. It is ever rising. Its violence is ever increasing. Take heed when the people demand bread that you continue not to give them a stone, lest the angry waves of discontent may some time, perhaps in the near future, rise so high as to overwhelm and engulf for ever all that we most greatly value--our free institutions, and of the glories and hopes of our great Republic--which are not ours alone, but which belong, and, if they are preserved and shall permanently endure, will be an ever continuing blessing to all mankind. OPTIONS AND FUTURES.

March 24th, 1892, Mr. Paddock affirmed that there was "a universal demand in the West for some legislation on the bill to regulate speculation in fictitious farm products," and hoped the committee in charge of the same would make verbal report thereof. Again on the 16th of June following he congratulated the senate that the committee of the Judiciary was giving attention to the constitutional aspect of the question.
Once more, he appears on the succeeding 20th of July injecting questions into a very searching speech of Senator Vest of Missouri; and finally just before the conclusion of the 1st session of the 52d congress. holds the attention of the senate with a speech upon "Options and Futures," in which he charged that gambling in grains "made impossible the direct, free, and safe distribution to, and the storage and holding of the same at points of consumption in non-producing sections, remote from

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the fields of the producer;" and that the system neutralized the conditions of "supply and demand, filling the coffers of speculators and brokers at the expense of the farmers and honest purchasers."
We have in conclusion:

   "Mr. President, it will not do to trifle with this matter. This bill must not be set aside because the people who are carrying on this business demand to be let alone. This is always the prayer behind which men profiting by evil methods seek to intrench themselves.
   This fiction trading is the most prolific source of dissatisfaction, disgust and apprehension that has ever existed in this country. The bases of many colossal fortunes which have been the marvel of the present generation are believed by the masses of the people to be traceable directly to this system, and the ruin of thousands of men all over the country is known to have the same origin.
   The system is universally reprobated. And certainly such a system, which all mankind believe to be hurtful to legitimate commerce, to public morals, and generally prejudicial to the general welfare, ought to receive the attention of congress to the end that at least it may receive the seal of its condemnation.

   Though the bill passed the senate, it met the most energetic opposition of those who believed there was no warrant for it in the constitution of the United States, inasmuch as it proposed to prohibit the business by excessive taxation, while the only province of national taxation should be "for revenue only."
   And again that these contracts for future consummation were simply between citizens of the same state and in no respect of an interstate character, subject to that clause of the constitution regulating commerce between states; and that if an evil it fell under the jurisdiction of local state legislation.
   They denied utterly, that the price of grain or cotton could be affected by the guessing or betting upon their prices at any future time; but that the price would be governed by the "demand and supply," going up when the demand was great and the supply small and down with reversed conditions.
   As the end of his second term was approaching in 1892 his

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admonition to the Democratic party in 1877 became painfully applicable to his political allies in Nebraska.

I beg to warn our friends that the deluge is at hand, and there will have to be some very lively swimming on their part or they will go down beneath the waves of popular disfavor and distrust, which their own administration has set in motion by its incompetency and its blunders.

And after the Populist ark had found its Ararat, and the senatorial succession became the prize in conflict, how expressive his words in the 52d congress:

Be not deceived, the storm doth not abate. It is ever rising. Its violence is ever increasing. Take heed when the people demand bread, that you continue not to give them a. stone.

After twelve years of faithful Service, on the 4th of March, 1893, his Populist successor, Judge W. V. Allen, assumed the duties of Senator.