"I commend to the wise care and thoughtful attention of Congress the needs, the welfare, and the aspirations of an intelligent and generous nation. To subordinate these to the narrow advantages of partisanship, or the accomplishment of selfish aims, is to violate the people's trust and betray the people's interests. But an individual sense of responsibility on the part of each of us, and a stern determination to perform our duty well, must give us place among those who have added, in their day and generation, to the glory and prosperity of our beloved land."
The Secretary of the Treasury, David Manning, in his report to Congress, amplified the statement made of the receipts and expenditures of the government and gave estimates for the then current and the next fiscal year. He was much more explicit than the President in his statement of reform in taxation. He expressed more at length than the President the objections to the further coinage of the silver dollars. He stated the superior convenience of paper money to coins of either gold or silver, but that it should be understood that a sufficient quantity of actual coin should be honestly and safely stored in the treasury to pay the paper when presented. He entered into an extended and interesting history of the two metals as coined in this country and the necessity of a monetary unit as the standard of value. His history of the coinage of the United States is as clear, explicit and accurate as any I have read.
On the 12th of December, 1885, I received from Governor Hoadley an official letter notifying me, as president of the Senate, that a marble statue of General Garfield had been placed in the hall of the old House of Representatives, in pursuance of the law inviting each state to contribute statues of two of its eminent citizens, and saying:
"It is hoped that it may be found worthy of acceptance and approval as a fit contribution from this state to the United States, in whose service President Garfield passed so much of his life and whose chief executive officer he was at the time of his death."
On the 5th of January, 1886, I submitted to the Senate, in connection with Governor Hoadley's letter, concurrent resolutions returning the thanks of Congress to the Governor, and through him to the people of Ohio, for the statue, and accepting it in the name of the nation. In presenting these resolutions I expressed at considerable length the estimate of the people of Ohio of the character and public services of Garfield, and closed as follows:
"The people of Ohio, among whom he was born and bred, placed his image in enduring marble in the silent senate of the dead, among the worthies of every period of American history, not claiming for him to have been the greatest of all, but only as one of their fellow-citizens, whom, when living, they greatly loved and trusted, whose life was spent in the service of his whole country at the period of its greatest peril, and who, in the highest places of trust and power, did his full duty as a soldier, a patriot, and a statesman."
The resolutions were then adopted.
The legislature of Ohio that convened on the 3rd of January, 1886, was required to elect a Senator, as my successor, to serve for six years following the expiration of my term on the 4th of March, 1887. The Republican members of the legislature held an open joint caucus on the 7th of January, and nominated me for re-election, to be voted for at the joint convention of the two houses on the following Tuesday. The vote in the caucus was unanimous, there being no other name suggested. The legislature was required to meet an unexampled fraud at the recent election, practiced in Hamilton county, where, four Republican senators and eleven Republican members had been chosen. A lawless and desperate band of men got possession of the ballot boxes in two or three wards of the city of Cincinnati, broke open the boxes and changed the ballots and returns so as to reverse the result of the election of members of the legislature. These facts were ascertained by the finding and judgment of the circuit and supreme courts, but the supreme court held that the power to eliminate such frauds and forgeries did not reside in the courts but only in the senate and house of representatives of the state, respectively. Each house was the judge of the election of its members. This palpable and conceded fraud had to be acted upon promptly. The house of representatives, upon convening, appointed a committee to examine the returns, and on the fifth day of the session reported that the returns were permeated with fraud and forgeries, and that the persons elected and named by the committee were entitled to seats instead of those who held the fraudulent certificates of election. Without these changes the Republican majority was three on joint ballot. The report was adopted after a full and ample hearing, and the Republican members were seated.
In the senate a committee was also appointed and came to the same conclusion. The senators holding the fraudulent certificates claimed the right to vote on their own cases, which was denied by Lieutenant Governor Kennedy, the presiding officer, and the Republican senators were awarded their seats, but this did not occur until some months after the election of United States Senator, which took place on the 13th of January, when I was duly elected, receiving in the senate 17 votes and Thurman 20, and in the house 67 votes and Thurman 42, making a majority of 22 for me on joint ballot.
I was notified at Washington of my election and was invited to visit the legislature, members of the senate and house of both parties concurring. It so happened that at this time I had accepted an invitation from President Cleveland to attend a diplomatic dinner at the White House. I called upon him to withdraw my acceptance, and, on explaining the cause, he congratulated me on my election.