 | The Newspaper Writings of Susette La Flesche -- A Selected Edition |  |
Overloaded With Cold Tea
American Nonconformist, November 16, 1893
There is a paragraph going the rounds about a senator who was drunk during the closing hours of the silver struggle just as the vote was about to be taken. The paragraph gives no name, which is not fair to the other senators.
The man who so disgraced himself was Senator Harris, of Tennessee, one of the silver democrats who deserted the Populists at the most critical moment of the struggle by suddenly dropping the fight for free coinage.[1] It is to the credit of the mass that people in the galleries knew so little of the evidences of intoxication that they did not know or realize the exhibition that was going on before their eyes. The only thing that startled some a little was, when, he said: "Put down every word I say, Mr. Reporter." He had just made a most unexpected motion to adjourn till the next day, when the intention was to end the fight that night. Looking down at him as he stood with his finger pointed at the stenographer, I saw that Hill,[2] whose seat was in the back part of the chamber, had come to the front row where Harris sits and had taken the seat next to him as close as possible. I turned to my companion and said: "Why, it actually looks as if Hill was trying to hold him down." And I said that not dreaming or realizing that there could be any necessity for it. Almost while I was speaking Cockrell[3] came up and took Hill's seat, which Hill got up to relinquish to him, which in itself was something unusual as when one senator occupies another senator's seat, the latter out of courtesy usually refrains from even approaching his seat till it is relinquished.
After Harris had adjured the reporter to take down every word he said (by the way, this remark was left out of the Record entirely) he sat down. The other thing that struck me was that some of the senators, particularly on the republican side of the chamber, were laughing in a shame-faced sort of way while Harris was speaking, but events followed so rapidly on each other, the whole attention of the people being concentrated on the coming vote, that in two or three minutes I forgot the whole matter, much less trying to account for the things that puzzled me, till the next day all Washington was talking of the exhibition that Harris had made of himself the night before. The matter was kept out of the Record and out of the papers, with the exception of brief allusions in some of them, but giving no name.
The whole matter is sickening to one who tries to believe the best one can of human nature, and what hurts one the most is the laughter of senators over a drunken old man, and that one of their own number as if it could ever be amusing to witness the degradation of a human soul. And these were men occupying the most exalted station into which their fellow-beings could place and representing the most enlightened and powerful people on the face of the earth. It sickens one to think of it, and tempts one to say: "Is this senate the best that this nation can produce as an epitome of its civilization?" Perhaps the blame after all rests primarily with the people themselves. I do believe the mass of the people are good and intend to do what is right, and if they would only take the trouble to know who they are placing in such exalted stations as the law-making departments of our country it would be better for us all and for coming generations.
This has not been a pleasant matter to write about, but the insinuations that are going the rounds without naming the central figure of the scene are not fair. If it as necessary to speak of the matter at all, the name should have been given, and if an evil is to be remedied, it should be given all the publicity possible so that the people will know how to apply the remedy. The personal character of the lawmakers of our country concerns the welfare of the nation vitally. As for having any sympathy with the culprit in question, how can one have any sympathy with a human being who deliberately chooses to make a beast of himself when it lies within his power to be man with all the noblest qualities that the word man implies.
Notes
Grover Cleveland sought to alleviate the panic of 1893 by fighting inflation. To do that he wanted to reduce the amount of currency issued, establish a gold standard for government debts, balance the federal budget and reduce tariffs to encourage foreign trade. When he took his fiscal plan to the first session of the Fifty-third Congress in August 1893, he succeeded in obtaining repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890. Senator Isham Green Harris, who had previously supported the inflationary policy of free coinage of silver and gold deserted the ranks and joined other Democrats and Eastern Republicans in obtaining repeal. Repeal of the Sherman Act angered other Southern Democrats and the Western senators, setting the stage for bitter debate in the next session of Congress.
| The Newspaper Writings of Susette La Flesche -- A Selected Edition | |