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1900 or The Last President - Ingersoll Lockwood · Rediscover the Classics - Fiction You’ll Love

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Speaker 1: Chapter one. That was a terrible night for the great
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Speaker 1: City of New York the night of Tuesday, November third,
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Speaker 1: eighteen ninety six. The city staggered under the blow, like
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Speaker 1: a huge ocean liner which plunges full speed with terrific
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Speaker 1: crash into a mighty iceberg, and recoil shattered and trembling
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Speaker 1: like an aspen. The people were gathered, light hearted and
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Speaker 1: confident at the evening meal. When the news burst upon them,
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Speaker 1: it was like a thunderbolt out of an azure sky.
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Speaker 1: Altgeld holds Illinois hard and fast in the Democratic line.
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Speaker 1: This alects Bryan, President of the United States. Strange to say,
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Speaker 1: the people in the upper portion of the city made
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Speaker 1: no movement to rush out of their houses and collect
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Speaker 1: in the public squares. Although the night was clear and beautiful.
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Speaker 1: They sat as if paralyzed with a nameless dread, and
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Speaker 1: when they conversed it was with bated breath and throbbing hearts.
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Speaker 1: In less than half an hour, mounted policemen dashed through
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Speaker 1: the streets, calling out, keep within your houses, close your doors,
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Speaker 1: and barricade them. The entire East side is in a
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Speaker 1: state of uproar. Mobs of vast size are organizing under
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Speaker 1: the lead of anarchists and socialists, and threaten to plunder
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Speaker 1: and despoil the houses of the rich who have wronged
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Speaker 1: and oppress them for so many years. Keep within doors,
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Speaker 1: extinguish all lights. Happily, Governor Morton was in town, and
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Speaker 1: although a deeper pallor overcame the ashen hue of age
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Speaker 1: as he spoke, yet there was no tremor in his voice.
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Speaker 1: Let the seventh, twenty second, and seventy first regiments be
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Speaker 1: ordered under arms. In a few moments, hundreds of messengers
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Speaker 1: could be heard racing through the silent streets, summoning the
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Speaker 1: members of these regiments to their armories. Slowly, but with
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Speaker 1: astonishing nerve and steadiness, the mobs pushed the police northward,
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Speaker 1: and although the force stood, the onslaught with magnificent cortage.
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Speaker 1: Yet beaten back, the dark masses of infuriated beings surged
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Speaker 1: up again with renewed fury and strength. Will the troops
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Speaker 1: be in time to save the city, was the whispered
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Speaker 1: inquiry among the knots of police officials who were directing
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Speaker 1: the movements of their men. About nine o'clock, with deafening outcries,
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Speaker 1: the mob like a foreheaded monster, breathing fire and flame
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Speaker 1: raced tore burst raged into Union Square. The police force
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Speaker 1: was exhausted, but their front was still like a wall
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Speaker 1: of stone, save that it was movable. The mob crowded
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Speaker 1: it steadily to the north, while the air quivered and
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Speaker 1: was rent with mad vociferations of the victors. Brian is elected,
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Speaker 1: Brian is elected. Our day has come at last, down
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Speaker 1: with our pressers. Death to the rich man, death to
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Speaker 1: the gold bugs, death to the capitalists. Give us back
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Speaker 1: the money you've ground out of us, Give us back
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Speaker 1: the morrow of our bones, which you've used to grease
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Speaker 1: the wheels of your chariots. The police force was now
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Speaker 1: almost helpless. The men still used their sticks, but the
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Speaker 1: blows were ineffectual and only served to increase the rage
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Speaker 1: of the vast hordes now advancing upon Madison Square. The
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Speaker 1: Fifth Avenue Hotel will be the first to feel the
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Speaker 1: fury of the mob. Would the troops be in time
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Speaker 1: to save it? A half cheer, a half cry of
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Speaker 1: joy goes up. It is inarticulate. Men draw long breath,
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Speaker 1: Women drop upon their knees and strain their eyes. They
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Speaker 1: can hear something, but they cannot see as yet, for
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Speaker 1: the gas houses in electric plants had been destroyed by
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Speaker 1: the mob earlier in the evening. They preferred to fight
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Speaker 1: in the dark or by the flames of rich men's abodes. Again,
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Speaker 1: a cheer goes up, louder and clearer, this time followed
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Speaker 1: by cries of they're coming, They're coming, Yes, they were coming.
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Speaker 1: The twenty second down Broadway, the seventh down Madison Avenue,
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Speaker 1: both on the double quick. In a moment or so,
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Speaker 1: there were a few bugle calls and a few spoken
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Speaker 1: commands rang out clear and sharp, and then the two
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Speaker 1: regiments stretched across the entire square, literally from wall to
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Speaker 1: wall in line of battle. The mob was upon them
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Speaker 1: with the slender line of troops. Could it hold such
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Speaker 1: a mighty mass of men in check? The answer was
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Speaker 1: a deafening discharge of firearms, a terrific crack, such as
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Speaker 1: some thunderbolts make when they explode. A wall of fire
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Speaker 1: blazed across the square again and again it blazed forth.
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Speaker 1: The mob halted, stood fast, wavered, fell back advanced again.
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Speaker 1: At that moment there came a rattle as of huge
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Speaker 1: knives in the distance. It was the Gallant seventy first,
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Speaker 1: charging up twenty third Street, and taking the mob on
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Speaker 1: the flank. They came on like a wall of iron,
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Speaker 1: bristling with blades of steel. There were no outcries, no
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Speaker 1: cheers from the regiment. It dealt out death in silence,
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Speaker 1: save when two bayonets crossed and clashed in bearing down
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Speaker 1: some doubly vigorous foe. As the bells rang out midnight,
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Speaker 1: the last remnants of the mob were driven to cover,
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Speaker 1: but the wheels of the dead wagons rattled till daybreak.
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Speaker 1: And then the aged governor, in response to the Mayor's
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Speaker 1: thank God, we've saved the city, made an answer, Aye,
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Speaker 1: but the Republic Chapter two. Great as has been the
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Speaker 1: world's wonder at the uprising of mister Bryan's struggling masses
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Speaker 1: in the city by the Sea, and the narrow escape
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Speaker 1: of its magnificent homes from fire and brand Yet greater
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Speaker 1: still was the wonderment when the news was flashed across
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Speaker 1: the land that Chicago did not stand in need of
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Speaker 1: a single federal soldier. Chicago is mad, but it is
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Speaker 1: the madness of joy. Chicago is in the hands of
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Speaker 1: a mob, but it is a mob made up of
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Speaker 1: their own people. Noisy rude and boisterous, the natural exultance
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Speaker 1: of a suddenly enfranchised class, but bent on no other
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Speaker 1: mischief than glorying over the villainous and self seeking souls
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Speaker 1: who have ground the faces of the poor and turned
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Speaker 1: the pitiless screw of social and political power into the
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Speaker 1: hearts of the common people, until its last thread had
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Speaker 1: been reached, and despair pressed its lupine visage hard against
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Speaker 1: the door of the laboring man. And yet at this moment,
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Speaker 1: when the night air quivered with the mad vociferations of
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Speaker 1: the common people, that the Lord had been good to them,
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Speaker 1: that the wicked money changers had been driven from the temple,
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Speaker 1: that the stony hearted usurers were beaten at last, that
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Speaker 1: the Pope William was at the helm, now that peace
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Speaker 1: and plenty would in a few moons come back to
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Speaker 1: the poor man's cottage, that Silver was King I King
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Speaker 1: at last. The world still went wondering why Red eyed anarchy,
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Speaker 1: as she stood in Haymarket Square with thin arms, along
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Speaker 1: with wild men in wilder gesticulation, drew no bomb of
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Speaker 1: dynamite from her bosom to hurl at the hated minions
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Speaker 1: of the law, who were silent spectators of this delirium
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Speaker 1: of popular joy. Why was it thus? Look and you
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Speaker 1: shall know why, white robed peace kept step with its
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Speaker 1: turbulent band and turned its thoughts from red handed pillage.
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Speaker 1: He was there, the master spirit to hold them in leash.
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Speaker 1: He and he alone, had lifted Brian to his great eminence.
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Speaker 1: Without these twenty four electoral votes, Brian had been doomed,
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Speaker 1: hopelessly doomed. He and he alone held the great commonwealth
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Speaker 1: of the West, hard and fast in the democratic line.
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Speaker 1: Hence he came as conqueror, as Kingmaker. And the very
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Speaker 1: walls of the sky, touching edifices, trembled as he was
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Speaker 1: dragged through the crowded streets by this orderly mob, and
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Speaker 1: ten times ten thousand of his crew creachs bellowed his
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Speaker 1: name and shook their hats aloft in mad exultation. You
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Speaker 1: are our savior. You've cleaned the temple of liberty of
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Speaker 1: its foul horde of usurers. We salute you, We call
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Speaker 1: you King Maker. Brian shall call you master too. You
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Speaker 1: shall have your reward. You shall stand behind the throne.
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Speaker 1: Your wisdom shall make us whole. You shall purge the
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Speaker 1: land of this unlawful crowd of money lenderers. You shall
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Speaker 1: save the Republic. You are greater than Washington. You are
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Speaker 1: a better friend of ours than Lincoln. You'll do more
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Speaker 1: for us than Grant. We are your slaves. We salute you,
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Speaker 1: we thank you, we bless you. Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah. But yet,
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Speaker 1: this vast throng of tamed monsters, this mighty mob of
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Speaker 1: momentarily good natured haters of established order, broke away from
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Speaker 1: the master's control for a few brief moments and dipped
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Speaker 1: their hands in the enemy's blood. The deed was swift
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Speaker 1: as it was terrible. There were but four of them,
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Speaker 1: unarmed on pleasure. Bent at sight of these men, a
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Speaker 1: thousand throats belched out a deep and awful growl of hatred.
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Speaker 1: They were brave men, and backed against the wall to
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Speaker 1: die like brave men, stricken down, beaten, torn, trampled, dragged.
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Speaker 1: It was quick work. They had faced howling savages in
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Speaker 1: the far west, painted monsters in human form, but never
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Speaker 1: had they heard such yells leave the throats of men.
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Speaker 1: And so they died, four brave men clad in blue
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Speaker 1: livery of the Republic, whose only crime was that, some
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Speaker 1: months back, against the solemn protest of the master, their
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Speaker 1: comrades had set foot on the soil of the Commonwealth,
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Speaker 1: and had saved the metropolis of the West from the
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Speaker 1: hands of this same mob. And so Chicago celebrated the
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Speaker 1: election of the new President, who was to free the
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Speaker 1: land from the grasp of the money lender and undo
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Speaker 1: the bad business of years of unholy union between barterers
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Speaker 1: and cellars of human toil and the lawmakers of the land.
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Speaker 1: Throughout the length and breadth of the South and beyond
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Speaker 1: the Great Divide, the news struck hamlet and village like
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Speaker 1: the glad tidings of a new evangel almost as potent
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Speaker 1: for human happiness as the heavenly message of two thousand
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Speaker 1: years ago. Bells rang out in joyful acclaim, and the
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Speaker 1: very stars trembled at the telling and the telling, over
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Speaker 1: and over of what had been done for the poor
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Speaker 1: man by his brethren of the North. And around the
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Speaker 1: blazing pine knots of the southern cabin and in front
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Speaker 1: of the mining camp fires of the far West, the
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Speaker 1: cry went up, Silver is King, Silver is King. Black
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Speaker 1: palms and white were clasped in this strange love feast,
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Speaker 1: and the dark skinned grandchild no longer felt the sting
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Speaker 1: of the lash on his sire's shoulder. All was peace
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Speaker 1: and good will, for the people were at last victorious
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Speaker 1: over their enemy, who had taxed and tied them into
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Speaker 1: a very living death. Now the laborer would not only
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Speaker 1: be worthy of his hire, but it would be paid
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Speaker 1: to him in a people's dollar for the people's good.
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Speaker 1: And now the rich man's coffers would be made to
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Speaker 1: yield up their ill gotten gain, and the sun would
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Speaker 1: look upon this broad and fair land and find no
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Speaker 1: man without a market for the product of his labors. Henceforth,
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Speaker 1: the rich man should, as was right and proper, pay
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Speaker 1: a royal sum for the privilege of his happiness, and
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Speaker 1: take the nation's taxes on his broad shoulders where they belong.
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Speaker 1: Chapter three. The pens of many writers would not suffice
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Speaker 1: to describe with anything like historical fullness and precision the
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Speaker 1: wild scenes of excitement which, on the morning after election
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Speaker 1: day burst forth on the floors of the various exchanges
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Speaker 1: throughout the Union. The larger and more important the money center,
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Speaker 1: the deeper, blacker and heavier despair which sank upon them,
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Speaker 1: after the violent abolitions of protest, defiance and execration had subsided.
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Speaker 1: With some it seemed that visions of their swift but
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Speaker 1: sure impoverishment only served to transform the dark and dismal
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Speaker 1: drama of revolution and disintegration into a side splitting farce,
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Speaker 1: and they greeted the perspective loss of their millions with
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Speaker 1: loud guffaws and indescribable antics of horseplay and unseemly mirth.
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Speaker 1: As the day were on, the news became worse and worse.
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Speaker 1: It was only too apparent that the House of Representatives
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Speaker 1: of the fifty fifth Congress would be controlled by the
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Speaker 1: combined vote of the populist and Free Silver men. While
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Speaker 1: the wild joy with which the entire South welcomed the
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Speaker 1: election of Brian and Sewell left little doubt in the
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Speaker 1: minds of the northern people that the Southern senators would,
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Speaker 1: to a man ranged themselves on the administration side of
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Speaker 1: the great conflict into which the Republic was soon to
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Speaker 1: be precipitated. Add to these the twenty senators of the
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Speaker 1: Free Silver States of the North, and the new President
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Speaker 1: would have the Congress of the Republic at his back.
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Speaker 1: There would be nothing to stand between him and the
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Speaker 1: realization of those schemes which an exuberant fancy, untamed by
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Speaker 1: the hand of experience, and scornful of the leading strings
13:30
Speaker 1: of wisdom, can conjure up? Did we say nothing? Nay,
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Speaker 1: not so, For the Supreme Court was still there, and
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Speaker 1: yet justice Field had come fully up to the eightieth
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Speaker 1: milestone in the journey of life and justice. Gray was
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Speaker 1: nearly seventy, while one or two other members of this
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Speaker 1: high Court of judicature held to their lives with feeble grasp,
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Speaker 1: even in due and orderly course of events. Why might
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Speaker 1: their convacancies? And then, in spite of the nameless dread
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Speaker 1: that rested upon so many of our people and chilled
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Speaker 1: the very blood of the country's industries, the new year
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Speaker 1: ninety seven came hopefully, serenely, almost defiantly in There was
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Speaker 1: an indescribable something in the air, a spirit of political
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Speaker 1: devil mey care, a feeling that the old order had
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Speaker 1: passed away, and that the Republic had entered into the
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Speaker 1: womb of time and been born again. This sentiment began
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Speaker 1: to give outward and visible signs of his existence and growth.
14:33
Speaker 1: In the remote agricultural districts of the south and far west.
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Speaker 1: They threw aside their working implements, loitered about, gathered in
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Speaker 1: groups and the words of Washington, the White House, Silver
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Speaker 1: Bryan offices two for one, the South's day, reign of
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Speaker 1: the common people, taxes incomes, year of Jubilee, free coinage,
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Speaker 1: wall Street, altigeld T, Tillman, Pefer Coxy were whispered in
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Speaker 1: a mysterious way, with head noddings and pursing up of mouths.
15:09
Speaker 1: As January woarway and February slipping by brought Bryan's inauguration
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Speaker 1: nearer and nearer, the groups melted into groups, and it
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Speaker 1: was only too apparent that from a dozen different points
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Speaker 1: in the South and Northwest, Coxy armies were forming for
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Speaker 1: an advance on Washington. In some instances they were well
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Speaker 1: clad and well provisioned. In others they were little better
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Speaker 1: than great bands of hungry and restless men, demoralized by
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Speaker 1: idleness and brought up to a strange degree of mental
15:43
Speaker 1: excitement by the extravagant terranes of their leaders, who were
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Speaker 1: animated with but one thought, namely to make use of
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Speaker 1: these vast crowds of silver pilgrims, as they called themselves,
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Speaker 1: to back up their claims for public office. These crowds
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Speaker 1: of diluted people were well named silver pilgrims, for hundreds
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Speaker 1: of them carried in hempen bags pieces of silverware, in
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Speaker 1: ninety nine cases of one hundred plated stuff of little value,
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Speaker 1: which unscrupulous dealers and peddlers had palmed off on them
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Speaker 1: as Stirling with the promise that once in Washington, the
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Speaker 1: United States Mint would coin their medal into Brian dollars,
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Speaker 1: giving two for one in payment for it. While these
16:29
Speaker 1: motley armies marched upon the capital of the Republic, the
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Speaker 1: railway trains night and day brought vast crowds of new men,
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Speaker 1: politicians of low degree, men out of employment, drunken and
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Speaker 1: disgruntled mechanics, farmers, sons to seek their fortune under the
16:45
Speaker 1: reign of the people, healers and hangers on, of ward bosses,
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Speaker 1: old men who had not tasted office for thirty years,
16:52
Speaker 1: and more, all inspired by mister Bryan's declaration that the
16:57
Speaker 1: American people are not in favor of life tenure in
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Speaker 1: the civil service, that a permanent office holding class is
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Speaker 1: not in harmony with our institutions, that a fixed term
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Speaker 1: in a point of offices would open up the public
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Speaker 1: service to a larger number of citizens without impairing its efficiency.
17:17
Speaker 1: All bearing new besoms in their hands or across their shoulders,
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Speaker 1: each and every one of them supremely confident that in
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Speaker 1: the distribution of the spoils, something would surely fall into
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Speaker 1: his share, since they were the common people who were
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Speaker 1: so dear to mister Bryan, and who had made him
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Speaker 1: president in the very face of the prodigious opposition of
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Speaker 1: the rich men, whose coffers had been thrown wide open,
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Speaker 1: all to no purpose, and in spite two of the
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Speaker 1: satanic and truly devilish power of the hell upon earth
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Speaker 1: known as Wall Street, which had sweated gold in vain
17:51
Speaker 1: in its desperate efforts to fasten the chains of trusts
17:55
Speaker 1: and the clause of soulless monsters known as corporations, upon
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Speaker 1: these very common people soon to march in triumph before
18:03
Speaker 1: the silver chariot of the young Conqueror. From the west
18:07
Speaker 1: and of section one, chapter four. There had been a
18:12
Speaker 1: strange prophecy put forth by someone, and it had made
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Speaker 1: its way into daily journals, and had been laughingly or
18:19
Speaker 1: seriously commented upon, according to the political tone of the
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Speaker 1: paper or the passing humor of the writer, that the
18:25
Speaker 1: fourth of March eighteen ninety seven would never dawn upon
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Speaker 1: the American people. There was something very curious and uncanny
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Speaker 1: about the prediction, and what actually happened was not qualified
18:37
Speaker 1: to loosen the fearful tension of public anxiety. For the
18:40
Speaker 1: day literally and truly never dawned upon the city of Washington,
18:44
Speaker 1: and well deserves its historical name, the Dawnless Day. At
18:49
Speaker 1: six o'clock, the hour of daybreak, such an impenetrable pall
18:52
Speaker 1: of clouds overhung the city that there came no signs
18:56
Speaker 1: of day. The gathering crowds could plainly hear the plaint
19:00
Speaker 1: of cries and lamentations put up in the Negro quarters
19:03
Speaker 1: of the city. Not until nearly nine o'clock did the
19:06
Speaker 1: light cease to shine in darkness, and the darkness begin
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Speaker 1: to comprehend it. But although it was a cheerless gray
19:14
Speaker 1: day even at high noon, its heaviness set no weight
19:18
Speaker 1: upon the spirits of the jubilant tens of thousands, which
19:21
Speaker 1: completely filled the city and its public parks, and ran
19:24
Speaker 1: over into camps and hastily improvised shelters outside the city limits.
19:29
Speaker 1: Not until the day previous had the President announced the
19:33
Speaker 1: names of those selected for his cabinet. The south and
19:36
Speaker 1: far west were fairly beside themselves with joy, for there
19:40
Speaker 1: had been, from their standpoint, ugly rumors abroad. For several days.
19:45
Speaker 1: It had been hinted that Brian had surrendered to the
19:47
Speaker 1: money changers, and that the selection of his constitutional advisers
19:53
Speaker 1: would prove him recreant to the glorious cause of popular government,
19:57
Speaker 1: and that the reign of the common people would remain
20:00
Speaker 1: but a dream of the struggling masses. But these apprehensions
20:04
Speaker 1: were short lived. The young President stood firm and fast
20:08
Speaker 1: on the platform of the parties which had raised him
20:10
Speaker 1: to his proud eminence. And what better proof of this
20:14
Speaker 1: thorough belief in himself and in his mission could he
20:17
Speaker 1: have given than the following Secretary of State, William M.
20:21
Speaker 1: Stewart of Nevada, Secretary of Treasury Richard P. Bland of Missouri,
20:27
Speaker 1: Secretary of War John P. Altigalde of Illinois, Attorney General
20:33
Speaker 1: Roger Q. Mills of Texas, Postmaster General Henry George of
20:38
Speaker 1: New York, Secretary Navy John Gary Evans of South Carolina,
20:43
Speaker 1: Secretary Interior, William A. Peffer of Kansas, Secretary Agriculture Life
20:49
Speaker 1: Pence of Colorado. The first thing that flashed across the
20:53
Speaker 1: minds of many upon glancing over this list of names,
20:57
Speaker 1: was the omission, therefrom of Tillmans. What did it mean?
21:02
Speaker 1: Could the young president have quarreled with his best friend
21:04
Speaker 1: and most powerful coadjutor. But the wiser ones only shook
21:08
Speaker 1: their heads and made answer that it was Tilman's hand
21:11
Speaker 1: that filled the blank for Secretary of the Navy, left
21:14
Speaker 1: there by the new ruler. After the people's own heart,
21:18
Speaker 1: Evans was but a creation of this great commander of
21:21
Speaker 1: the South, an image graven with his hands. The inaugural
21:26
Speaker 1: address was not a disappointment to those who had come
21:29
Speaker 1: to hear it. It was like the man who delivered it,
21:32
Speaker 1: bold outspoken, unmistakable in its terms, promising much, impatient of precedent,
21:39
Speaker 1: reckless of result, a double confirmation that this was to
21:43
Speaker 1: be the reign of the common people, that much should
21:46
Speaker 1: be unmade and much made over, And no matter how
21:50
Speaker 1: the rich man might cry out in anger or amazement,
21:53
Speaker 1: the nation must march on to the fulfillment of a
21:56
Speaker 1: higher and nobler mission than the impoverishment and degradation of
22:00
Speaker 1: the millions for the enrichment and evelation of the few.
22:04
Speaker 1: Scarcely had the young President his large eyes filled with
22:08
Speaker 1: a strange light, and his smooth, hairless visage radiant as
22:12
Speaker 1: a cloudless sky. His wife's arm twined around his, and
22:16
Speaker 1: their hands linked in those of their children. Passed within
22:19
Speaker 1: the lofty portal of the White House. Then he threw
22:22
Speaker 1: himself into a chair, and, seizing a sheet of official paper,
22:25
Speaker 1: penned the following order and directed its immediate promulgation. Executive Mansion, Washington,
22:32
Speaker 1: d C. March fourth, eighteen ninety seven, Executive Order Number one,
22:38
Speaker 1: in order that there may be immediate relief in the
22:40
Speaker 1: terrible financial depression now weighing upon our beloved country, consequent
22:45
Speaker 1: upon and resulting from the unlawful combination of capitalists and
22:49
Speaker 1: money lenders, both in this Republic and in England, and
22:52
Speaker 1: that the ruinous and inevitable progress toward a universal gold
22:56
Speaker 1: standard may be stayed. The President orders and direct the
23:00
Speaker 1: immediate abandonment of the so called gold Reserve, and that
23:04
Speaker 1: on and after the promulgation of this order, the gold
23:08
Speaker 1: and silver standard of the Constitution be resumed and strictly
23:12
Speaker 1: maintained in all the business transactions of the Government. It
23:16
Speaker 1: was two o'clock in the afternoon when news of this
23:18
Speaker 1: now world famous executive order was flashed into the great
23:22
Speaker 1: banking centers of the country. Its effects in Wall Street
23:26
Speaker 1: Beggar's description on the floor of the Stock Exchange, men
23:29
Speaker 1: yelled and shrieked like painted savages, and in their mad
23:33
Speaker 1: struggles tore and trampled each other. Many dropped in fainting fits,
23:38
Speaker 1: or fell exhausted from their wild and senseless efforts to
23:41
Speaker 1: say what none would listen to. Ashen pallor crept over
23:45
Speaker 1: the faces of some, while the blood threatened to burst,
23:48
Speaker 1: the swollen arteries that spread in purple network over the
23:51
Speaker 1: brows of others. When silence came at last, it was
23:55
Speaker 1: a silence broken by sobs and groans. Some wept, while
24:00
Speaker 1: others stood dumb stricken, as if it was all a
24:02
Speaker 1: bad dream, and they were awaiting the return of their poor,
24:05
Speaker 1: distraught senses to set them right again. Ambulances were hastily summoned,
24:10
Speaker 1: and fainting in exhausted forms were borne through hushed and
24:13
Speaker 1: whispering masses wedged into Wall Street to be whirled away
24:17
Speaker 1: uptown to their residences, there to come into full possession
24:21
Speaker 1: of their senses, only to cry out in their anguish
24:23
Speaker 1: that ruin black ruin, stared them in the face. If
24:27
Speaker 1: this news from Washington should prove true. Chapter five, By
24:32
Speaker 1: proclamation bearing date the fifth day of March eighteen ninety seven,
24:36
Speaker 1: the President summoned both Houses of Congress to convene in
24:40
Speaker 1: an extraordinary session for the consideration of the general welfare
24:44
Speaker 1: of the United States, and to take such action as
24:48
Speaker 1: might seem necessary and expedient to them on certain measures
24:52
Speaker 1: which he should recommend to their consideration, measures of vital
24:56
Speaker 1: importance to the welfare and happiness of the people, if
25:00
Speaker 1: not to the very existence of the Union and the
25:03
Speaker 1: continuance of their enjoyment of the liberties achieved by the
25:06
Speaker 1: fathers of the Republic. While awaiting the day set for
25:10
Speaker 1: the coming together of the Congress, the great friend of
25:13
Speaker 1: the common people came suddenly face to face with the
25:16
Speaker 1: first serious business of his administration. Fifty thousand people tramped
25:21
Speaker 1: the streets of Washington without bread or shelter. Many had
25:25
Speaker 1: come in quest of office, lured on by the solemn
25:28
Speaker 1: pronouncement of their candidate that there should be at once
25:31
Speaker 1: a clean sweep of these barnacles of the ship of state.
25:35
Speaker 1: And so complete had been their confidence in their glorious
25:38
Speaker 1: young captain that they had literally failed to provide themselves
25:41
Speaker 1: with either purse or script or shoes, and now stood
25:45
Speaker 1: hungary and footsore at his gate, begging for a crust
25:48
Speaker 1: of bread. But most of those making up this vast
25:51
Speaker 1: multitude were the unarmed warriors of peaceful armies, like the
25:56
Speaker 1: one once led by the redoubtable Cooksey, decoyed from farm
26:00
Speaker 1: and hamlet and plantation by some nameless longing to go
26:05
Speaker 1: forth to stand in the presence of this new savior
26:08
Speaker 1: of society, whose advent of power was to bring them
26:12
Speaker 1: double pay for all their toil. While on the march
26:16
Speaker 1: all had gone well, for their brethren had opened their
26:18
Speaker 1: hearts and their houses as these unarmed warriors had marched
26:22
Speaker 1: with flying banners and loud husahs through the various towns
26:26
Speaker 1: on the route. But now the holiday was over, they
26:29
Speaker 1: were far from their homes. They were in danger of
26:32
Speaker 1: perishing from hunger. What was to be done? They are
26:35
Speaker 1: our people, said the President. Their love of country has
26:38
Speaker 1: undone them. The nation must not let them suffer, for
26:42
Speaker 1: they are its hope and its shield in the honor
26:44
Speaker 1: of war, and its glory and its refuge in times
26:47
Speaker 1: of peace. They are the common people, for whose benefit
26:51
Speaker 1: this Republic was established. The kings of the earth may
26:55
Speaker 1: desert them, I never shall. The Secretary of War was
26:59
Speaker 1: directed to establish camps in the parks and suburbs of
27:02
Speaker 1: the city, and to issue rations and blankets to these
27:06
Speaker 1: luckless wanderers until the government could provide for their transportation
27:10
Speaker 1: back to their homes. On Monday, March fifteenth, the President
27:15
Speaker 1: received the usual notification from both Houses of Congress that
27:18
Speaker 1: they had organized and were ready for the consideration of
27:21
Speaker 1: such measures as he might choose to recommend for their action.
27:25
Speaker 1: The first act to pass both houses and receive the
27:28
Speaker 1: signature of the President was an Act repealing the Act
27:32
Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy three and opening the mints of the
27:35
Speaker 1: United States to the free coinage of silver at the
27:38
Speaker 1: ratio of sixteen to one with gold, and establishing branch
27:42
Speaker 1: mens in the cities of Denver, Omaha, Chicago, Kansas City, Spokane,
27:48
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, Charleston, and Mobile. The announcement that reparation had
27:54
Speaker 1: thus been made to the people for the crime of
27:56
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy three was received with loud cheering on the
28:00
Speaker 1: floors and in the galleries of both houses, and the
28:03
Speaker 1: Great North heard these cheers and trembled. The next measure
28:08
Speaker 1: of great public import brought before the House was an
28:11
Speaker 1: act to provide additional revenue by levying attacks upon the incomes,
28:15
Speaker 1: substantially on the lines laid down by the legislation of
28:18
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety four. The Republican senators strove to make some
28:22
Speaker 1: show of resistance to this measure, but so solid were
28:25
Speaker 1: the administration ranks that they only succeeded in delaying it
28:29
Speaker 1: for a few weeks. This first skirmish with the enemy, however,
28:33
Speaker 1: brought the President and his followers to a realizing sense
28:37
Speaker 1: that not only must the Senate be shorn of its
28:39
Speaker 1: power to block the new movement of regeneration and reform
28:43
Speaker 1: by the adoption of rules cutting off prolonged debate, but
28:46
Speaker 1: that the new dispensation must at once proceed to increase
28:50
Speaker 1: its senatorial representation, for who could tell what moment some
28:55
Speaker 1: one of the Northern Silver States might not slip away
28:59
Speaker 1: from its allegiance to the friend of the common people.
29:02
Speaker 1: The introduction of a bill repealing the various Civil Service
29:06
Speaker 1: Acts passed for the alleged purpose of regulating and improving
29:09
Speaker 1: the civil service of the United States and of another.
29:13
Speaker 1: Repealing the various acts establishing national banks and substituting United
29:18
Speaker 1: States notes for all national bank notes based upon interest
29:21
Speaker 1: bearing bonds opened the eyes of the Republican Opposition to
29:25
Speaker 1: the fact that the President and his party were possessed
29:28
Speaker 1: of the courage of their convictions, and were determined, come
29:32
Speaker 1: good report or evil report, to wipe all conflicting legislation
29:37
Speaker 1: from the statute books. The battle in the Senate now
29:41
Speaker 1: took on a spirit of extreme acrimony. Scenes not witnessed
29:45
Speaker 1: since the days of slavery were of daily occurrence on
29:48
Speaker 1: the floors of both the House and the Senate. Threats
29:51
Speaker 1: of secession came openly from the North, only to be
29:55
Speaker 1: met with jeers and laughter of the Silver and Populist members.
29:59
Speaker 1: We're in the s saddle at last, exclaimed a Southern member,
30:02
Speaker 1: and we intend to write on to victory the introduction
30:06
Speaker 1: of bills for the admission of New Mexico and Arizona,
30:09
Speaker 1: and for the division of Texas into two states to
30:12
Speaker 1: be called East Texas and West Texas. Although each of
30:16
Speaker 1: these measures was strictly within the letter of the Constitution,
30:19
Speaker 1: fell among the members of the Republican Opposition like a
30:22
Speaker 1: torch in a house of tinder. There was a fire
30:25
Speaker 1: at once, and the blaze of party spirit leaped to
30:28
Speaker 1: such dangerous heights that the whole nation looked on in consternation.
30:33
Speaker 1: Was the Union about to go up in a great
30:34
Speaker 1: conflagration and leave behind it but the ashes and charred
30:38
Speaker 1: pedestals of its greatness? We are the people, wrote the President,
30:43
Speaker 1: in lines of dignity and calmness. We are the people,
30:47
Speaker 1: and what we do we do under the holy sanction
30:50
Speaker 1: of law. And there is no one so powerful or
30:53
Speaker 1: so bold as to dare to say we do not
30:57
Speaker 1: do well in lifting off the nation's shoulders. The green
31:00
Speaker 1: leave us and unlawful burdens which preceding congresses have placed
31:03
Speaker 1: upon them. And so the long session of the fifty
31:08
Speaker 1: fifth Congress was entered upon, faded to last through the
31:11
Speaker 1: summer heat and autumn chill, and until winter came again,
31:15
Speaker 1: and the Constitution itself set limits to its lasting. And
31:19
Speaker 1: when that day came, and its speaker, amid a while
31:22
Speaker 1: tumult of cheers, arose to declare it ended not by
31:26
Speaker 1: their will, but by the law of the land. He said,
31:29
Speaker 1: the glorious Revolution is in its brightest bud since the
31:34
Speaker 1: President called upon us to convene in last March, we have,
31:38
Speaker 1: with the strong blade of public indignation, and with a
31:41
Speaker 1: full sense of our responsibility, erased from the statute books
31:45
Speaker 1: the marks of our country's shame and our people's subjugation.
31:50
Speaker 1: Liberty cannot die. There remains much to be done in
31:53
Speaker 1: the way of building up. Let us take heart and
31:56
Speaker 1: push on. On Monday, the regular session of this Congress
32:00
Speaker 1: will begin. We must greet our loved ones from the distance.
32:04
Speaker 1: We have no time to go home and embrace them.
32:07
Speaker 1: Chapter six. When a Republican member of the House arose
32:11
Speaker 1: to move the usual adjournment for the holidays, there was
32:14
Speaker 1: a storm of hisses and cries of no. No, said
32:18
Speaker 1: the Leader of the House, amid deafening pludits. We are
32:21
Speaker 1: the servants of the people. Our work is not yet complete.
32:25
Speaker 1: There must be no play for us. While coal barns
32:28
Speaker 1: stand with their feet on the ashes of the poor
32:30
Speaker 1: man's hearthstone, and weeds and thorns cumber the fields of
32:34
Speaker 1: the farmer for lack of money to buy seed and implements.
32:38
Speaker 1: There must be no play for us. While railway magnates
32:41
Speaker 1: press from the pockets of the laboring men six and
32:44
Speaker 1: eight percent return on thrice watered stalks, and rapacious landlords
32:49
Speaker 1: enriched by inheritance, grind the faces of the poor. There
32:53
Speaker 1: must be no play for us, while enemies of the
32:56
Speaker 1: human kind are, by means of trust and combination and
33:00
Speaker 1: corners engaged in drawing their unholy millions from the very
33:04
Speaker 1: lifeblood of the nation, paralyzing its best effort, and setting
33:08
Speaker 1: the blight of intemperance and indifference upon it, by making
33:12
Speaker 1: life but one long struggle for existence without a gleam
33:16
Speaker 1: of rest and comfort in old age, No, mister speaker,
33:20
Speaker 1: we must not adjourn, But by our efforts in these
33:23
Speaker 1: halls of legislation, let the nation know that we are
33:27
Speaker 1: at work for its emancipation. And by these means let
33:31
Speaker 1: the monopolists and money changers be brought to a realizing
33:34
Speaker 1: sense that the reign of the common people has really
33:37
Speaker 1: been entered upon. And then the bells will ring out
33:41
Speaker 1: a happier, gladder new year than has ever dawned upon
33:45
Speaker 1: this republic. The opposition fairly quailed before the vigor and
33:49
Speaker 1: earnestness of the new dispensation. There were soon before the House,
33:54
Speaker 1: and pressed well on toward final passage a number of
33:57
Speaker 1: important measures calculated to awaken an intense feeling of enthusiasm
34:03
Speaker 1: among the working classes. Among these was an Act establishing
34:07
Speaker 1: a Loan Commission for the loaning of certain monies of
34:10
Speaker 1: the United States to farmers and planters without interest. And
34:15
Speaker 1: Act for establishment of a permanent Department of Public Works,
34:19
Speaker 1: its head to be styled Secretary of Public Works rank
34:24
Speaker 1: is a cabinet officer, and supervise the expenditure of all
34:27
Speaker 1: public monies for the construction of public buildings and the
34:31
Speaker 1: improvement of rivers and harbors. An Act making it a
34:35
Speaker 1: felony punishable with imprisonment for life, for any citizen or
34:39
Speaker 1: combination of citizens, to enter into any trust or agreement
34:43
Speaker 1: to stifle, suppress, or in any way interfere with full,
34:47
Speaker 1: open and fair competition in trade and manufacture among the States,
34:52
Speaker 1: or to make use of any interstate railroads, waterways, or
34:57
Speaker 1: canals for the transportation of any food product, a goods, wares,
35:01
Speaker 1: or merchandise which may have been cornered, stored, or withheld,
35:06
Speaker 1: with a view to enhance the value thereof. And most
35:10
Speaker 1: important of all, a preliminary Act having for its object
35:14
Speaker 1: the appointment of Commissioners for the purchase by the Federal
35:17
Speaker 1: government of all interstate railway and telegraph lines, and in
35:22
Speaker 1: the meantime, the strict regulation of all fairs and charges
35:26
Speaker 1: by a government commission from whose established schedules there shall
35:30
Speaker 1: be no appeal. On Washington's birthday, the President issued an
35:34
Speaker 1: address of congratulation to the people of the United States,
35:37
Speaker 1: from which the following is extracted. The malicious prognostications of
35:42
Speaker 1: our political opponents have proven themselves to be but empty,
35:46
Speaker 1: sound and fury. Although not quite one year has elapsed
35:50
Speaker 1: since I, agreeable to your mandate, restored to you the
35:54
Speaker 1: money of the Constitution, yet from every section of our
35:57
Speaker 1: nation comes the glad tidings of renewed activity and prosperity.
36:02
Speaker 1: The workman no longer sits cold and hungry beside a
36:05
Speaker 1: cheerless hearthstone. The farmer has taken heart and resumed work.
36:10
Speaker 1: The wheels of the factory are in motion again. The
36:13
Speaker 1: shops and stores of the legitimate dealer and trader are
36:16
Speaker 1: full of bustle and action. There is content everywhere save
36:20
Speaker 1: in the counting room of the money changer, for which
36:23
Speaker 1: thank God and the common people of this Republic, the
36:26
Speaker 1: free coinage of that metal which the Creator, in his
36:29
Speaker 1: wisdom stored with so lavish a hand in the subterranean
36:33
Speaker 1: vaults of our glorious mountain ranges, has proven a rich
36:36
Speaker 1: and manifold blessing for our people. It is, in every
36:40
Speaker 1: sense of the word, the people's money, and already the
36:44
Speaker 1: envious world looks on in amazement that we have shown
36:48
Speaker 1: our ability to do without foreign co operation. The Congress
36:52
Speaker 1: of our Republic has been in almost continuous sessions since
36:56
Speaker 1: I took my oath of office, and the administration member
37:00
Speaker 1: deserve your deepest and most heartfelt gratitude. They are rearing
37:04
Speaker 1: for themselves a monument more lasting than chiseled bronze or
37:08
Speaker 1: polished monolith. They knew no rest, they ask for no
37:13
Speaker 1: respite from their labors, until at my earnest request, they
37:17
Speaker 1: adjourned over to join their fellow citizens in the observance
37:21
Speaker 1: of this sacred anniversary. Fellow citizens, remember the bonds which
37:26
Speaker 1: a wicked and selfish class of usurers and speculators fastened
37:30
Speaker 1: upon you, And on this anniversary of the birth of
37:33
Speaker 1: the father of our country, let us renew our pledges
37:36
Speaker 1: to undo completely and absolutely their infamous work. And in
37:41
Speaker 1: public assembly and family circle. Let us, by new vows
37:45
Speaker 1: confirm our love of right and justice, so that the
37:48
Speaker 1: great gain may not slip away from us, but go
37:50
Speaker 1: on increasing, so long as the statute books contain a
37:54
Speaker 1: single trace of the record of our enslavement. As for me,
37:58
Speaker 1: I have but one ambition, and that is to deserve
38:01
Speaker 1: so well of you, that when you come to write
38:03
Speaker 1: my epitaph, you sat beneath my name. The single line
38:07
Speaker 1: here lies a friend of the common people and of
38:11
Speaker 1: Section two, Chapter seven. This first year of the Silver
38:16
Speaker 1: administration was scarcely rounded up. Ere there began to be
38:21
Speaker 1: ugly rumors that the government was no longer able to
38:24
Speaker 1: hold the white metal at a parody with gold. It
38:28
Speaker 1: is the work of wall Street, cried the friends of
38:30
Speaker 1: the President. But wiser heads were shaken in contradiction, for
38:35
Speaker 1: they had watched the sowing of the wind of unreason,
38:38
Speaker 1: and knew only too well that the whirlwind of folly
38:41
Speaker 1: must be reaped in due season. The country had been
38:45
Speaker 1: literally submerged by a silver flood, which had poured its
38:48
Speaker 1: argent waves into every nook and cranny of the Republic,
38:52
Speaker 1: stimulating human endeavor to most unnatural and harmful vigor mad
38:58
Speaker 1: speculations stalked over the land. People sold what they should
39:01
Speaker 1: have clung to and bought what they did not need.
39:05
Speaker 1: Manufacturers heaped up goods for which there was no demand,
39:09
Speaker 1: and farmers plowed where they had not drained, and drained
39:12
Speaker 1: where they were never faded to plow. The small dealer
39:16
Speaker 1: enlarged his business with more haste than judgment, and the
39:20
Speaker 1: widow drew her might from the bank of savings to
39:22
Speaker 1: buy land on which she was destined never to set foot.
39:27
Speaker 1: The spirit of greed and gain lodged in every mind,
39:30
Speaker 1: and the common people, with a mad eagerness, loosened the
39:34
Speaker 1: strings of their leather purses to cast their hard earned
39:37
Speaker 1: savings into wild schemes of profit. Every scrap and bit
39:41
Speaker 1: of the white metal that they could lay their hands upon,
39:45
Speaker 1: spoons hallowed by the touch of lips long since closed
39:49
Speaker 1: in death, and cups and tankards from which grand sires
39:53
Speaker 1: had drunken were bundled away to the mints to be
39:55
Speaker 1: coined into people's dollars. At the very first rumor of
40:00
Speaker 1: the slipping away of the trusted coin from its parody
40:03
Speaker 1: with gold, there was a fearful awakening, like the start
40:07
Speaker 1: and the gasp of the miser who sees his hoarded
40:10
Speaker 1: treasure melting away from before his eyes, and he not
40:14
Speaker 1: able to reach out and stay its going protests and expostulation.
40:19
Speaker 1: First then came groans and prayers, from which there was
40:23
Speaker 1: an easy road to curses. The working man threw off
40:27
Speaker 1: his cap and apron to rush upon the public square
40:30
Speaker 1: and demand his rights. Mobs ran together, processions formed, deputations
40:36
Speaker 1: hurried off to Washington, not on foot like the Coxey army,
40:40
Speaker 1: but on the swift wings of the limited express. The
40:44
Speaker 1: common people were admitted to the bar of the house,
40:47
Speaker 1: their plants patiently listened to, and reparations promised. Bills for
40:52
Speaker 1: increased revenue were hurriedly introduced, and new taxes were loaded
40:57
Speaker 1: upon the broad shoulders of the millionaires of the nation.
41:00
Speaker 1: Taxes on checks, taxes on certificates of incorporation, Taxes on
41:05
Speaker 1: deeds and mortgages, Taxes on pleasure yachts, taxes on private
41:10
Speaker 1: parks and playasnts, Taxes on wills of all property above
41:15
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars in value, Taxes on all gifts of
41:19
Speaker 1: realty for and in consideration of natural love and affection.
41:24
Speaker 1: Taxes on all passage tickets to foreign lands, and double
41:28
Speaker 1: taxes on the estates of all absentees. On and after
41:32
Speaker 1: the lapse of six months, there was a doubling up
41:36
Speaker 1: two of the tariff on all important luxuries. For as
41:40
Speaker 1: we sat on the floor of the Congress, if the
41:42
Speaker 1: silks and satins of American looms, and the wines and
41:46
Speaker 1: tobacco of native growth are not good enough for my
41:49
Speaker 1: lord of Wall Street, let him pay the difference, and
41:53
Speaker 1: thank Heaven that he can get them at that price.
41:56
Speaker 1: To quiet murmurs of the good people of the land,
41:59
Speaker 1: additional millions were placed to the credit of the Department
42:02
Speaker 1: of Public Works, and harbors were dredged out in one month,
42:06
Speaker 1: only to fill up in the next, and new systems
42:10
Speaker 1: of improvement of interstate waterways were entered upon on a
42:13
Speaker 1: scale of magnitude hitherto undreamt of the commissioners for the
42:18
Speaker 1: distribution of public moneys to farmers so impoverished as to
42:22
Speaker 1: be unable to work their lands, were kept busy in
42:25
Speaker 1: placing peffer loans where the need of them seemed to
42:29
Speaker 1: be the greatest. And to put a stop to the
42:31
Speaker 1: nefarious doings of the money changers and traders, in the
42:34
Speaker 1: misfortunes of the people. A statute was enacted making it
42:39
Speaker 1: a felony punishable with imprisonment for life for any person
42:43
Speaker 1: or corporate body to buy and sell government bonds or
42:46
Speaker 1: public funds, or deal in them with a view to
42:49
Speaker 1: draw gain or profit from their rise and fall in value.
42:53
Speaker 1: But try never so hard. The government found itself powerless
42:57
Speaker 1: to check the slow but steady decline in the value
43:00
Speaker 1: of the people's dollar. By midsummer it had fallen to
43:03
Speaker 1: forty three cents, and ere the fair Northland had wrapped
43:07
Speaker 1: itself like a scornful beauty in its autumn mantle of gold.
43:12
Speaker 1: The fondly trusted coin had sunk to exactly one third
43:16
Speaker 1: of the value of a standard gold dollar. People carried
43:19
Speaker 1: baskets in their arms filled with the now discredited coin
43:23
Speaker 1: when they went abroad to pay a debt or make
43:26
Speaker 1: purchase of the necessaries of life. Huge sacks of the
43:30
Speaker 1: white metal were flung at the door of the mortgage
43:32
Speaker 1: when discharge was sought for a few thousand dollars. Men
43:37
Speaker 1: servants accompanied their mistresses upon shopping tours to carry the
43:41
Speaker 1: necessary funds, and leather pockets took the place of the
43:44
Speaker 1: old time muslin ones in male habiliments, least the weight
43:50
Speaker 1: of the fifteen coins required to make up a five
43:52
Speaker 1: dollar gold piece should tear the thin stuff and spill
43:56
Speaker 1: a dollar at every step. All day long. In the
43:59
Speaker 1: large cities, huge trucks loaded with sacks of the coin
44:03
Speaker 1: rolled and brumbled over the pavement. In the adjustment of
44:06
Speaker 1: the business balances of the day. The tradesman who called
44:10
Speaker 1: for his bill was met at the door with a
44:12
Speaker 1: coal scuttle or a nail keg filled with the needful amount,
44:16
Speaker 1: And on payday the working man took his eldest boy
44:20
Speaker 1: with him to tote the stuff home, while he carried
44:23
Speaker 1: the usual bundle of firewood. And strange to say, this dollar,
44:28
Speaker 1: once so beloved by the common people, parted with its
44:31
Speaker 1: very nature of riches, and lay in heaps, unnoticed and unheeded,
44:36
Speaker 1: on shel for table until occasion arose to pay it out,
44:39
Speaker 1: which was done with a careless and contemptuous toss, as
44:43
Speaker 1: if it were the iron money of the ancient Spartans.
44:46
Speaker 1: And holy writ for once, at least was disproven and discredited,
44:51
Speaker 1: for the thief showed not the slightest inclination to break
44:54
Speaker 1: in and steel, where these treasures had been laid up
44:57
Speaker 1: on earth, Although the disks of white metal might lie
45:00
Speaker 1: in full view on the table, like so many pewter
45:03
Speaker 1: platters or pieces of tinware, Men let debts run rather
45:08
Speaker 1: than call for them, and barter in exchange came into
45:11
Speaker 1: vogue again, the good housewife calling on her neighbor for
45:14
Speaker 1: a loan of flour or meal, promising to return the
45:18
Speaker 1: same in sugar or dried fruit whenever the need might arise.
45:22
Speaker 1: And still the once magic disks of silver slipped slowly
45:26
Speaker 1: and silently downward and ever downward in value and good name,
45:31
Speaker 1: until it almost seemed as if the people hated the
45:34
Speaker 1: very name of silver. Chapter eight. The Fateful Year of
45:39
Speaker 1: ninety nine, upon its coming in, found the Republic of
45:43
Speaker 1: Washington in dire and dangerous straits. The commercial and industrial
45:48
Speaker 1: boom had spent its force, and now the frightful evils
45:51
Speaker 1: of a debased currency, coupled with demoralizing effects of rampant paternalism,
45:57
Speaker 1: were gradually strangling the land to death. Capital, ever timid
46:02
Speaker 1: and distrustful in such times, hid itself in safe deposit vaults,
46:07
Speaker 1: or fled to Europe. Labor, although really hard pressed in
46:10
Speaker 1: lacking the very necessities of life, was loud mouthed and defiant.
46:15
Speaker 1: Socialism and anarchism found willing ears into which to pour
46:20
Speaker 1: their burning words of hatred and malevolence, And the consequence
46:25
Speaker 1: was that serious rioting broke out in the larger cities
46:27
Speaker 1: of the North, often taxing the capacities of the local
46:31
Speaker 1: authorities to the utmost. It was bruted abroad that violent
46:36
Speaker 1: dissensions had arisen in the cabinet, the young President giving
46:40
Speaker 1: signs of a marked change of mind, and like many
46:42
Speaker 1: a man who has appealed to the darker passions of
46:45
Speaker 1: the human heart, he seemed almost ready to exclaim, I
46:50
Speaker 1: stand alone. The spirits I have called up are no
46:53
Speaker 1: longer obedient to me? My country, O, my country. How
46:57
Speaker 1: willingly would I give my life for them? If by
47:01
Speaker 1: such a sacrifice I could restore thee to thy old
47:03
Speaker 1: time prosperity. For the first he began to realize what
47:08
Speaker 1: an intense spirit of sectionalism had entered into this revolutionary propaganda.
47:14
Speaker 1: He spoke of his fears to none save to his
47:17
Speaker 1: wise and prudent helpmate. I trust you, beloved, she whispered
47:22
Speaker 1: as she pressed the broad, strong hands that held her
47:24
Speaker 1: and clasped, Hey, dear one, but does my country came
47:29
Speaker 1: in almost a groan from the lips of the youthful ruler.
47:33
Speaker 1: Most evident was it that thus far the South had
47:36
Speaker 1: been the great gainer in this struggle for power. She
47:40
Speaker 1: had increased her strength in the Senate by six votes.
47:44
Speaker 1: She had regained her old time prestige in the House.
47:47
Speaker 1: One of her most trusted sons was in the Speaker's chair,
47:51
Speaker 1: while another brilliant Southern led the administration forces on the floor.
47:56
Speaker 1: Born as she was for the brilliant exercise of intellectual
48:00
Speaker 1: the South was of that strain of blood which knows
48:03
Speaker 1: how to wear the kingly graces of power so as
48:06
Speaker 1: best to impress the common people. Many of the men
48:10
Speaker 1: of the North had been charmed and fascinated by this
48:13
Speaker 1: natural pomp and inborn demeanor of greatness, and had yielded
48:17
Speaker 1: to it. Not a month had gone by that this
48:21
Speaker 1: now dominant section had not made some new demand upon
48:24
Speaker 1: the country at large early in the session, at its request.
48:28
Speaker 1: The Internal Revenue Tax, which had rested so long upon
48:31
Speaker 1: the tobacco crop of the South and poured so many
48:35
Speaker 1: millions of revenue into the national treasury was wiped from
48:38
Speaker 1: the statute books with but a feeble protest from the north.
48:42
Speaker 1: But now the country was thrown into a state bordering
48:45
Speaker 1: upon frenzy by a new demand, which, although couched in
48:50
Speaker 1: calm and decorous terms, nay almost in the guise of
48:53
Speaker 1: a petition for long delayed justice to hard pressed and
48:56
Speaker 1: suffering brethren, had about it a suppress yet unmistakable tone
49:01
Speaker 1: of conscious power and imperiousness, which well became the leader
49:06
Speaker 1: who spoke for that glorious Southland to which this union
49:10
Speaker 1: owes so much of its greatness and its prestige, said he,
49:15
Speaker 1: mister speaker. For nearly thirty years, our people, although left
49:19
Speaker 1: impoverished by the conflict of the states, have given of
49:23
Speaker 1: their substance to salve the wounds and make green the
49:27
Speaker 1: old age of the men who conquered us. We have
49:30
Speaker 1: paid this heavy tax, this fearful blood, money, unmurmuringly you
49:35
Speaker 1: have forgiven us for our bold strike for liberty that
49:39
Speaker 1: God willed should not succeed. You have given us back
49:42
Speaker 1: our rights, opened the doors of these sacred halls to us,
49:46
Speaker 1: called us your brothers. But unlike noble Germany, who was
49:50
Speaker 1: content to exact a lump sum from La balf France,
49:54
Speaker 1: and then bid her go in peace and freedom from
49:57
Speaker 1: all further exactions. You have, for nearly thirty years laid
50:01
Speaker 1: this humiliating war tax upon us, and thus forced us,
50:05
Speaker 1: year in and year out to kiss the very hand
50:08
Speaker 1: that smote us. Are we human that we now cry
50:12
Speaker 1: out against it? Are we men that we feel no
50:15
Speaker 1: tingle in our veins after these long years of punishment
50:19
Speaker 1: for no greater crime than we loved liberty better than
50:22
Speaker 1: the bonds of a confederation laid upon us by our fathers.
50:26
Speaker 1: We appeal to you, as our brothers and our countrymen,
50:30
Speaker 1: lift this infamous tax from our land than which your
50:34
Speaker 1: great North is ten thousand times richer. Do one of
50:37
Speaker 1: two things. Either take our aged and decrepit soldiers by
50:41
Speaker 1: the hand and bless their last days with pensions from
50:44
Speaker 1: the treasury of our common country, for they were only
50:48
Speaker 1: wrong in that their cause failed. Or remove this hated
50:52
Speaker 1: tax and make such restitution of this blood money as
50:56
Speaker 1: shall seem just and equitable to your soberer. And bade
51:00
Speaker 1: judgment to say that this speech of which the foregoing
51:04
Speaker 1: is but a brief extract through both Houses of Congress
51:07
Speaker 1: into most violent disorder, but faintly describes its effect. Cries
51:12
Speaker 1: of treason treason went up, Blows were exchanged, and hand
51:17
Speaker 1: to hand struggles took place in the galleries. Followed by
51:20
Speaker 1: the flash of the dread bowie and the crack of
51:23
Speaker 1: the ready pistol, the Republic was shaken to its very foundations.
51:28
Speaker 1: Throughout the North there was but a repetition of the
51:31
Speaker 1: scenes that followed the firing. Upon Sumter, public meetings were
51:35
Speaker 1: held and resolutions passed, calling upon the government to concentrate
51:39
Speaker 1: troops in and about Washington and prepare for the suppression
51:43
Speaker 1: of a second rebellion. But gradually this outbreak of popular
51:47
Speaker 1: indignation lost some of its strength and virulence, For it
51:51
Speaker 1: was easy to comprehend that nothing would be gained at
51:54
Speaker 1: this stage of the matter by meeting a violent and
51:57
Speaker 1: unlawful demand with violence and unwise councils. Besides, what was it, anyway,
52:03
Speaker 1: but the idle threat of a certain clique of unscrupulous politicians.
52:08
Speaker 1: The Republic stood upon too firm a foundation to be
52:11
Speaker 1: shaken by mere appeals to the passions of the hour.
52:15
Speaker 1: To commit treason against our country called for an overt act.
52:20
Speaker 1: What had it to dread from the mere oratorical flash
52:23
Speaker 1: of a passing storm of feeling. It is hard to
52:26
Speaker 1: say what the young President thought of these scenes in Congress.
52:30
Speaker 1: So pale had he grown of late, that a little
52:33
Speaker 1: more of pallor would pass unnoted. But those who were
52:37
Speaker 1: wont to look upon his face in these troublous times
52:40
Speaker 1: report that in the short space of a few days,
52:43
Speaker 1: the lines and his countenance deepened perceptibly, and that a
52:47
Speaker 1: firmer and stronger expression of will power lurked in the
52:50
Speaker 1: corners of his wide mouth, overhung his square and massive chin,
52:55
Speaker 1: and accentuated the vibrations of his wide open nostrils. He
52:59
Speaker 1: was under a terrible strain. When he had caught up
53:03
Speaker 1: the scepter of power, it seemed a mere bauble in
53:06
Speaker 1: his strong grasp, But now it had grown strangely heavy,
53:10
Speaker 1: and there was a mysterious pricking at his brow, as
53:13
Speaker 1: if that crown of thorns, which he had not willed
53:16
Speaker 1: should be set upon the heads of others were being
53:18
Speaker 1: pressed down with cruel hands upon his own. And of
53:23
Speaker 1: Section three, chapter nine, when the last embers of the
53:27
Speaker 1: great conflagration of the rebellion had been smothered out, with
53:31
Speaker 1: tears for the lost cause. A prophecy had gone up
53:34
Speaker 1: that the mighty North, rich with a hundred great cities,
53:38
Speaker 1: and strong in the conscious power of its wide empire,
53:41
Speaker 1: would be the next to raise the standard of rebellion
53:45
Speaker 1: against the Federal government. But that prophet was without honor
53:49
Speaker 1: in his own land, and none had paid heed to
53:51
Speaker 1: his seemingly wild words. Yet now this same Mighty North
53:56
Speaker 1: sat there in her grief and anxiety, with her face
53:59
Speaker 1: turned southward and her ear strained to catch the whispers
54:03
Speaker 1: that were in the air. Had not the scepter of
54:05
Speaker 1: power passed from her hand forever? Was not the revolution complete?
54:10
Speaker 1: Were not the populaces and their allies firmly seated in
54:13
Speaker 1: the halls of Congress. Had not the Supreme Court been
54:17
Speaker 1: rendered powerless for good by packing it with the most
54:20
Speaker 1: uncompromising adherents of the new political faith? Had not the
54:24
Speaker 1: very nature of the Federal government undergone? A change was
54:28
Speaker 1: not paternalism rampant, was not socialism on the increase. Were
54:33
Speaker 1: there not everywhere evidence as of an intense hatred of
54:36
Speaker 1: the North and a firm determination to throw the whole
54:39
Speaker 1: burden of taxation upon the shoulders of the rich Man,
54:43
Speaker 1: in order that the surplus revenues of the government might
54:46
Speaker 1: be distributed among those who constitute the common people. How
54:51
Speaker 1: could this section of the Union ever hope to make
54:54
Speaker 1: head against the South, united as it now was with
54:58
Speaker 1: the rapidly growing states of the Northwest. How could the
55:02
Speaker 1: magnificent cities of the North content themselves to march at
55:05
Speaker 1: the tale of Tillman's and Peffer's chariots. Had not the
55:09
Speaker 1: South a firm hold of the Senate? Where was there
55:13
Speaker 1: array of hope that the North could ever again regain
55:16
Speaker 1: its lost power? And could it for a single moment
55:19
Speaker 1: think of entrusting its vast interests to the hands of
55:23
Speaker 1: a people differing with them on every important question of statecraft,
55:27
Speaker 1: pledged to a policy that could not be otherwise than
55:31
Speaker 1: ruinous to the welfare of the grand commonwealths of the
55:34
Speaker 1: Middle and eastern sections of the Union and their sister
55:38
Speaker 1: states this side of the Mississippi. It were madness to
55:41
Speaker 1: think of it. The plunge must be taken, The declaration
55:45
Speaker 1: must be made. There was no other alternative save abjects
55:49
Speaker 1: submission to the chieftains of the new dispensation, and the
55:53
Speaker 1: complete transformation of that vast social and political system vaguely
55:57
Speaker 1: called the North. But this revel within a revolution would
56:02
Speaker 1: be a bloodless one, for there could be no thought
56:04
Speaker 1: of coercion, no serious notion of checking such a mighty movement.
56:09
Speaker 1: It would be, in reality, the true Republic purging itself
56:13
Speaker 1: of a dangerous malady, sloughing off a diseased and gain
56:17
Speaker 1: greened member, no more, no less. Already, this mighty movement
56:22
Speaker 1: of withdrawals from the wittimage amodes of the Union was
56:25
Speaker 1: in the air. People spoke of it in a whisper
56:28
Speaker 1: or with bated breath. But as they turned it over
56:31
Speaker 1: and over in their minds, it took on shape and
56:34
Speaker 1: form and force, till at last it burst into life
56:38
Speaker 1: and action, like Minerva from Jupiter's brain, full fledged, full armed,
56:43
Speaker 1: full voiced, and full hearted. Really, why would it not
56:47
Speaker 1: be all for the best that this mighty empire, rapidly
56:51
Speaker 1: growing so vast and unwieldly as to be only with
56:54
Speaker 1: the greatest difficulty governable from a single center, should be
56:59
Speaker 1: split into three arts, Eastern, Southern, and Western. Now that
57:03
Speaker 1: it may be done without dangerous jar or friction, the
57:06
Speaker 1: three republics could be federated, for purposes offensive and defensive.
57:11
Speaker 1: And until these great and radical changes could be brought about,
57:14
Speaker 1: there would be no difficulty in devising living terms, for
57:18
Speaker 1: immediately upon the declaration of dissolution, each state would become
57:22
Speaker 1: repossessed of the sovereign powers which it had delegated to
57:26
Speaker 1: the federal government. Meanwhile, the fateful year ninety nine went
57:32
Speaker 1: onward toward its close. The whole land seemed stricken with
57:36
Speaker 1: paralysis so far as the various industries were concerned. But
57:41
Speaker 1: as it is wont to be in such times, men's
57:45
Speaker 1: minds were supernaturally active. The days were passed in the
57:49
Speaker 1: reading of public prints or in passing in review the
57:53
Speaker 1: weighty events of the hour. The North was only waiting
57:56
Speaker 1: for an opportunity to act. But the question that perplexes
58:00
Speaker 1: the wisest heads was how and when shall the declaration
58:04
Speaker 1: of dissolution be made? And how soon thereafter shall the
58:08
Speaker 1: North and the States, in sympathy with her, withdraw from
58:12
Speaker 1: the Union and declare to the world their intention to
58:15
Speaker 1: set up a republic of their own, with the mighty
58:17
Speaker 1: metropolis of New York as its social, political, and commercial
58:22
Speaker 1: center and capital. As it came to pass, the North
58:25
Speaker 1: had not long to wait. The fifty sixth Congress, soon
58:29
Speaker 1: to convene in regular session in the city of Washington,
58:32
Speaker 1: was even more populistic and socialistic than its famous predecessor,
58:37
Speaker 1: which had wrought such wonderful changes in the law of
58:39
Speaker 1: the land, showing no respect for precedent, no reverence for
58:44
Speaker 1: the old order of things. Hence, all eyes were fixed
58:48
Speaker 1: upon the capital of the nation. All roads were untrodden
58:52
Speaker 1: save those which led to Washington. Chapter ten. Again, Congress
58:57
Speaker 1: had refused to adjourn over for the holidays. The leaders
59:01
Speaker 1: of the administration forces were unwilling to close their eyes
59:05
Speaker 1: even for needful sleep, and went about pale and haggard,
59:08
Speaker 1: startled at every word and gesture of the opposition, like
59:12
Speaker 1: true conspirators as they were. For the federal troops had been,
59:16
Speaker 1: almost to a man, quietly removed from the capital and
59:20
Speaker 1: its vicinage, lest the President, in a moment of weakness,
59:23
Speaker 1: might do, or suffer to be done, some act unfriendly
59:27
Speaker 1: to the reign of the common people. Strange as it
59:30
Speaker 1: may seem, there had been very little note taken by
59:33
Speaker 1: the country at large of the introduction at the opening
59:36
Speaker 1: of the session of an Act to extend the pension
59:39
Speaker 1: system of the United States, to the soldiers of the
59:42
Speaker 1: Confederate Armies, and for covering back into the various treasuries
59:46
Speaker 1: of certain states of the Union, such portions of internal
59:49
Speaker 1: revenue taxes collected since the readmission of said states to
59:54
Speaker 1: the Federal Congress, as may be determined by commissioners duly
59:58
Speaker 1: appointed under se Act. Was it the calm of despair,
1:00:03
Speaker 1: the stolidity of desperation, or the cool and restrained energy
1:00:08
Speaker 1: of a noble and refined courage. The introduction of the Act, however,
1:00:13
Speaker 1: had one effect. It set in motion toward the national
1:00:16
Speaker 1: capital mighty streams of humanity, not of wild eyed fanatics
1:00:21
Speaker 1: or unshaven and unkept politicasters and Bizonians, but of soberly
1:00:25
Speaker 1: clad citizens with a business like air about them, evidently
1:00:30
Speaker 1: men who knew how to earn more than enough for
1:00:32
Speaker 1: a living, men who paid their taxes, and had a
1:00:35
Speaker 1: right to take a look at the public servants if
1:00:37
Speaker 1: desire so moved them. But very plain was it that
1:00:41
Speaker 1: the mightier stream flowed in from the south, and those
1:00:44
Speaker 1: who remembered the capital in Antebellum days smiled at the
1:00:47
Speaker 1: old familiar sight, the clean shaven faces, the long hair
1:00:51
Speaker 1: thrown carelessly back under broad brim felts, the half unbuttoned
1:00:56
Speaker 1: waistcoats and turned down collars, the small feet and neatly
1:00:59
Speaker 1: fitting boots, the springy, loping pace, the soft nigeroise intonation,
1:01:05
Speaker 1: the long fragrant cherut. It was easy to pick out
1:01:08
Speaker 1: the man from the Northland, well clad and well groomed,
1:01:12
Speaker 1: as careful of as linen as a woman, prim and trim,
1:01:16
Speaker 1: disdainful of the picturesque felts, ever crowned with the ceremonious
1:01:21
Speaker 1: derby the man of affairs, taking a business like view
1:01:24
Speaker 1: of life, but wearing for the nonce a worried look,
1:01:28
Speaker 1: and drawing, ever and anon, a deep breath. The black man,
1:01:32
Speaker 1: ever at the heels of his white brother, set to
1:01:34
Speaker 1: rule over him by an inscrutable degree of nature, came
1:01:38
Speaker 1: forth too, in thousands, chatting and laughing gaily, careless of
1:01:43
Speaker 1: the why or wherefore of his white brother's deep concern,
1:01:47
Speaker 1: and powerless to comprehend it had he so desired. Every
1:01:51
Speaker 1: hour now added to the throng, the broad avenues were
1:01:55
Speaker 1: none too broad. The excitement increased, Men talked louder and louder,
1:02:00
Speaker 1: women and children disappeared almost completely from the streets. The
1:02:04
Speaker 1: southern element drew more and more apart in knots and
1:02:08
Speaker 1: groups by itself. Men threw themselves upon their bed to
1:02:12
Speaker 1: catch a few hours asleep, but without undressing, as if
1:02:15
Speaker 1: they were expecting the happening of some portentous event at
1:02:19
Speaker 1: any moment, the event of their lives, and dreaded the
1:02:22
Speaker 1: thought of being a moment late. If all went well,
1:02:26
Speaker 1: the bill would come up for final passage on Saturday,
1:02:29
Speaker 1: the thirtieth day of the month. But so fierce was
1:02:32
Speaker 1: the battle raged against it, and so frequent the interruptions
1:02:36
Speaker 1: by the contumacy, both of members and of the various cliques,
1:02:40
Speaker 1: crowding the galleries to suffocation, that little or no progress
1:02:44
Speaker 1: could be made. The leaders of the administration forces saw
1:02:48
Speaker 1: midnight drawing near, with no prospect of attaining their object
1:02:51
Speaker 1: before the coming in of Sunday, on which the House
1:02:54
Speaker 1: had never been known to sit. An adjournment over to
1:02:58
Speaker 1: Monday of the new year might be fatal, for who
1:03:01
Speaker 1: could tell what unforeseen force might not break up their
1:03:04
Speaker 1: solid ranks and throw them into confusion. They must rise
1:03:09
Speaker 1: equal to the occasion. A motion was made to suspend
1:03:12
Speaker 1: the rules and to remain in continuous session until the
1:03:16
Speaker 1: business before the House was completed. Cries of unprecedented, revolutionary
1:03:22
Speaker 1: monstrous came from the opposition, but all to no purpose.
1:03:27
Speaker 1: The House settled down to its work with such a
1:03:30
Speaker 1: grim determination to conquer that the Republican minority fairly quailed
1:03:34
Speaker 1: before it. Food and drink were brought to the members
1:03:37
Speaker 1: in their seats. They ate, drank, and slept at their
1:03:40
Speaker 1: posts like soldiers determined not to be ambushed or stampeded.
1:03:45
Speaker 1: It was a strange sight, and yet an impressive one,
1:03:48
Speaker 1: withal a great party struggling for long deferred rites, freemen
1:03:53
Speaker 1: jealous of their liberties, bound together with the steel hooks
1:03:57
Speaker 1: of determination that only death might break asunder. Sunday came
1:04:01
Speaker 1: in at last, and still the struggle went on. The
1:04:05
Speaker 1: people know no days when their liberties are at stake,
1:04:09
Speaker 1: cried the leader of the House. The Sabbath was made
1:04:11
Speaker 1: for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Many of
1:04:15
Speaker 1: the speeches delivered on that famous Sunday sounded more like
1:04:18
Speaker 1: the lamentations of a Jeremiah, the earnest and burning utterances
1:04:22
Speaker 1: of a pall or the scholarly and well rounded periods
1:04:25
Speaker 1: of an Apollus. The weary hours were lightened by the
1:04:28
Speaker 1: singing of hymns by the southern members, most of them
1:04:32
Speaker 1: good Methodists, in which their friends and sympathizers in the
1:04:35
Speaker 1: galleries joined full throated and fuller hearted, while at times clear,
1:04:41
Speaker 1: resonant and imperfect unison. The voices of the staunch men
1:04:44
Speaker 1: of the North broke in and drowned out the religious
1:04:47
Speaker 1: song with the majestic and soul stirring measures of John
1:04:51
Speaker 1: Brown's body, the Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, of which seemed to
1:04:55
Speaker 1: hush the tumult of the chamber, like a weird chant
1:04:59
Speaker 1: of some invisible chorus, breaking in upon the fierce rioting
1:05:03
Speaker 1: of a belshazzar's feast. Somewhat after eleven o'clock, an ominous
1:05:08
Speaker 1: silence sank upon the opposing camps. The Republican leaders could
1:05:12
Speaker 1: be seen conferring together nervously. It was a sacred hour
1:05:17
Speaker 1: of night thrice sacred for the Great Republic. Not only
1:05:21
Speaker 1: a new year, but a new century was about to
1:05:23
Speaker 1: break upon the world. A strange hush crept over the
1:05:27
Speaker 1: turbulent house and its still more turbulent galleries. The Republican
1:05:32
Speaker 1: leader rose to his feet his voice sounded cold and hollow.
1:05:36
Speaker 1: Strong men shivered as they listened. Mister Speaker, we have
1:05:41
Speaker 1: done our duty to our country. We have nothing more
1:05:44
Speaker 1: to say, no more blows to strike. We cannot stand
1:05:47
Speaker 1: here within the sacred precincts of this chamber and see
1:05:51
Speaker 1: our rights as free men trampled beneath the feet of
1:05:53
Speaker 1: the majority. We have striven to prevent the downfall of
1:05:57
Speaker 1: the republic, like men sworn to battle again against wrong
1:06:00
Speaker 1: and tyranny. But there comes a time when blank despair
1:06:03
Speaker 1: seizes upon the hearts of those who struggle against overwhelming odds.
1:06:08
Speaker 1: That hour has sounded for us. We believe our people,
1:06:12
Speaker 1: the great and generous people of the North, will cry
1:06:15
Speaker 1: unto us, well done, good and faithful servants. If we
1:06:19
Speaker 1: do wrong, let them condemn us. We, every man of us,
1:06:24
Speaker 1: mister Speaker, have but this moment sworn not to stand
1:06:27
Speaker 1: within this chamber and witness the passage of this act.
1:06:31
Speaker 1: Therefore we go not so, my countrymen, cried a clear, metallic,
1:06:36
Speaker 1: far reaching voice that sounded through the chamber with an
1:06:39
Speaker 1: almost supernatural ring in it. In an instant, every head
1:06:43
Speaker 1: was turned, and a thousand voices burst out with suppressed
1:06:46
Speaker 1: force the president. The president, in truth, it was he
1:06:53
Speaker 1: standing at the bar of the house, wearing the visage
1:06:56
Speaker 1: of death rather than of life. The next instant, the
1:06:59
Speaker 1: house and galleries burst into a deafening clamor, which rolled
1:07:03
Speaker 1: up and back in mighty waves that shook the very walls.
1:07:07
Speaker 1: There was no stilling it. Again and again it burst forth,
1:07:11
Speaker 1: the mingling of ten thousand words, howling, rumbling, and groaning,
1:07:15
Speaker 1: like the warring elements of nature. Several times the President
1:07:20
Speaker 1: stretched forth his great white hands, appealing for silence, while
1:07:24
Speaker 1: the dew of mingled, dread and anguish, beat it on
1:07:27
Speaker 1: his brow and trickled down his cheeks in liquid supplication
1:07:31
Speaker 1: that his people might either slay him or listen to him.
1:07:35
Speaker 1: The Tumult stilled its fury for a moment, and he
1:07:38
Speaker 1: could be heard saying brokenly, my countryman, Oh, my countryman.
1:07:44
Speaker 1: But the quick, sharp sound of the gavel cut him short.
1:07:47
Speaker 1: The President must withdraw, said the speaker, calmly and coldly.
1:07:52
Speaker 1: His presence here is a menace to our free deliberation. Again,
1:07:56
Speaker 1: the Tumults set up its deafening roar, while a look
1:08:00
Speaker 1: of almost horror overspread the countenance of the Chief magistrate.
1:08:04
Speaker 1: Once more, his great white hands went heavenward, pleading for silence,
1:08:09
Speaker 1: with such a mute majesty of supplication, that silence fell
1:08:13
Speaker 1: upon the immense assemblage, and his lips moved not in vain,
1:08:18
Speaker 1: Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, I stand here upon
1:08:21
Speaker 1: my just and lawful right, as President of the Republic,
1:08:25
Speaker 1: to give you information of the state of the Union.
1:08:28
Speaker 1: I have summoned the Honorable the Senate to meet me
1:08:32
Speaker 1: in this chamber. I call upon you to calm your
1:08:35
Speaker 1: passions and give ear to me, as your oath of
1:08:37
Speaker 1: office sets the sacred obligation upon you. There was a
1:08:41
Speaker 1: tone of godlike authority in these few words, almost divine
1:08:45
Speaker 1: enough to make the winds obey, and still the temptuous
1:08:48
Speaker 1: see in deepest silence, and with a certain show of
1:08:52
Speaker 1: rude and native grandeur of bearing. The senators made their
1:08:56
Speaker 1: entrance into the chamber, the members of the House rising,
1:08:59
Speaker 1: and this speaker advancing to meet the Vice President. The
1:09:03
Speaker 1: spectacle was grand and moving. Tears gathered in eyes long
1:09:07
Speaker 1: unused to them, and at an almost imperceptible nod of
1:09:11
Speaker 1: the President's head, the chaplain raised his voice in prayer.
1:09:15
Speaker 1: He prayed in accents that were so gentle and so persuasive,
1:09:19
Speaker 1: they must have turned the hardest heart to blessed thoughts
1:09:21
Speaker 1: of peace and love, and fraternity and union. And then
1:09:25
Speaker 1: again all eyes were fixed with the intensest strain upon
1:09:29
Speaker 1: the face of the President, Gentlemen of the House of Representatives.
1:09:34
Speaker 1: This with a sudden blow that startled every living soul
1:09:37
Speaker 1: within its hearing. The speaker's gavel fell. The President said
1:09:42
Speaker 1: he with a superb dignity that called down from the
1:09:45
Speaker 1: galleries a burst of deafening applause. Must not make reference
1:09:49
Speaker 1: to pending legislation. The Constitution guarantees him the right, from
1:09:54
Speaker 1: time to time to give to the Congress information of
1:09:57
Speaker 1: the Union. He must keep himself strictly within the lines
1:10:01
Speaker 1: of this constitutional limit, or withdraw from the bar of
1:10:05
Speaker 1: the House. A deadly pallor overspread the face of the
1:10:08
Speaker 1: Chief Magistrate, till it seemed he must sink then and
1:10:11
Speaker 1: there into that sleep which knows no awakening. But he gasped,
1:10:16
Speaker 1: he leaned forward, He raised his hand again imploringly, and
1:10:20
Speaker 1: as he did so, the bells of the city began
1:10:23
Speaker 1: to toll. The hour of midnight, the new year, the
1:10:27
Speaker 1: new century was born. But with the last stroke, a
1:10:31
Speaker 1: fearful and thunderous discharge, as of a thousand monster pieces
1:10:35
Speaker 1: of artillery shook the capital to its very foundations, making
1:10:39
Speaker 1: the stoutest hearts stand still and blanching cheeks that had
1:10:42
Speaker 1: never known the coward color. The dome of the capital
1:10:46
Speaker 1: had been destroyed by dynamite in a few moments. When
1:10:50
Speaker 1: it was seen that the Chamber had suffered no harm,
1:10:52
Speaker 1: the Leader of the House moved the final passage of
1:10:55
Speaker 1: the act. The President was led away, and the Republican
1:10:59
Speaker 1: senators and representatives passed slowly out of the disfigured capital.
1:11:04
Speaker 1: While the tellers prepared to take the vote of the House,
1:11:07
Speaker 1: the bells were ringing a glad welcome to the new century.
1:11:10
Speaker 1: But a solemn tolling would have been a fitter thing,
1:11:13
Speaker 1: for the Republic of Washington was no more. It had
1:11:17
Speaker 1: died so peacefully that the world could not believe the
1:11:20
Speaker 1: tidings of its passing away. As the dawn broke, cold
1:11:24
Speaker 1: and gray, and its first dim light fell upon that
1:11:27
Speaker 1: shattered dome, glorious even in its ruins, a single human eye,
1:11:32
Speaker 1: filled with a gleam of devilish joy, looked up at it,
1:11:36
Speaker 1: long and steadily, and then its owner was caught up
1:11:39
Speaker 1: and lost in the surging mass of humanity that held
1:11:42
Speaker 1: the capital girt round and round end of nineteen hundred
1:11:48
Speaker 1: or the last president