GILES B. STEBBINS.
CHAPTER X.
SERVICES TO NORTHWESTERN COMMERCIAL INTERESTS AND THE CAUSE OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
Upon the day following that on which Mr. Chandler first took his seat in the Senate Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana offered a resolution, from a special committee in regard to the formation of committees, amending the thirty-fourth rule of the Senate by providing that thereafter the standing committees of that body (their members are selected by the Senate itself and not by its presiding officer) should be appointed at the commencement of each session of Congress. The Committee on Commerce then, and from that time until the special session in the spring of 1875, consisted of seven members. Mr. Benjamin's resolution was adopted, and on March 9th the standing committees for the special session were, on motion of Mr. Seward of New York, announced. The Committee on Commerce was composed of Messrs. Clay of Alabama, chairman, Benjamin of Louisiana, Bigler of Pennsylvania, Toombs of Georgia, Reid of North Carolina, Bright of Indiana, and Hamlin of Maine. Mr. Chandler was assigned to the Committee on the District of Columbia, of which Mr. Brown of Mississippi was chairman. Mr. Hamlin of Maine was also appointed on this inferior committee, giving it two Republican members, while the Committee on Commerce had but one. The general assignment of places to the minority was so inadequate and unfair that a Republican caucus (the first Mr. Chandler attended) had been called to consider the matter. Mr. Chandler, although a new member, was one of its speakers and gave strong expression to his sense of the injustice with which both his party and the Northwest had been treated. It was decided to make a formal protest against the constitution of the committees, and, as a result of this consultation, when Mr. Seward's motion was made, Mr. Fessenden of Maine, as the spokesman of the Republicans, denounced the unfairness of the majority with force and vigor. In his remarks he said "that there was not an individual member of the Republican party in the Senate who deemed that a just and fair division had been made in the appointment of the committees, especially two or three of them." He also declared that there was not a just and fair division with reference to questions coming before the committees, and then gave this illustration: "Take, for instance, the Committee on Commerce. On that committee the Republican party, numbering twenty out of the sixty-one members of the Senate, is assigned, of the whole number of seven, one member.... The interests of the whole lake region, the interests of New England and of New York, involving, as those large portions of the country do, such an infinite superiority of all its commerce, are found with only two members out of the seven." Mr. Hamlin here corrected Mr. Fessenden's statement, by saying, "My colleague is mistaken.... The interests of which he speaks have only one member on that committee, not two." Mr. Hamlin was right; there was but one member of the Committee on Commerce to represent the immense interests of the country of the Great Lakes of the Northwest and of the whole of New England and New York, and that single member was himself. But the Republican protest, well-grounded as it was, proved then unavailing.
At the first regular session of the Thirty-fifth Congress, beginning in December, 1857, Mr. Allen, of Rhode Island, presented under the rule a new list of the standing committees of the Senate for adoption. That on Commerce was only changed by the substitution of Mr. Allen for Mr. Bright of Indiana, increasing its New England but diminishing its Western membership. Messrs. Hamlin, Chandler and Wilson again made vigorous remonstrances against the unjust formation of the standing committees as a whole. This was Mr. Chandler's first speech in the Senate, and it was as follows:
I find in the "Globe" of yesterday the following announcement: "The caucus of all parties in the Senate has agreed to constitute the committees as follows." And then follows a list in detail. This announcement, as I understand it, is incorrect. I believe that no such caucus has been held. I am informed that a Democratic caucus was held, and the committees made up, leaving certain blanks to be submitted to the Republicans for them to fill. They saw fit to fill these blanks, under protest. No such caucus as is announced in the statement which I have read was ever held. No assent has ever been given by the Republicans of this Senate to any such formation of committees as is there announced.
I rise, sir, to protest against this list of committees as presented here. Never before, in the whole course of my observation, have I seen a large minority virtually ignored in a legislative body upon important committees. This is the first time that I have ever witnessed such a total, or almost total, ignoring of a large and influential minority. But, sir, whom and what does this minority represent? It represents—I believe I am correct in saying—more than half—certainly nearly one-half—of all the free white inhabitants of these United States; it represents two-thirds of all the commerce of the United States; and more than two-thirds of the revenues of the United States; and yet this minority, representing the commerce and revenues of the nation, is expected to be satisfied with one place upon the tail end of a committee of seven on Commerce. I may almost say that that committee is of more importance to the Northwest than all the other committees of this body, but the great Northwest is totally ignored upon a committee in which it takes so deep an interest. Not a solitary member of this body from that portion of the country is honored with a position on that committee, and yet you have been told of the hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of commerce which is there looking for protection to this body.
Sir, we are not satisfied, and we desire to enter our protest against any such formation of committees as is here presented. But we would say to the gentlemen on the other side of the chamber; You have the power to-day; you can elect your committees as you see fit; you can give us one representative on a committee of five, or one on a committee of seven, or none on any of the committees, if you think proper. Exercise that power in your own discretion; but, gentlemen, beware! for the time is not far distant when the measure you mete out to us to-day shall be meted to you again.
Senators Pugh, Bayard, Gwin and Brown, from the Democratic side, defended the list as presented by Mr. Allen, and his resolution for its appointment was adopted by a strict party vote of thirty to nineteen. The Republican protests were again unheeded by the Senate, but in less than four years Mr. Chandler's prediction, that the situation would be reversed, was fulfilled.