THOMAS B. REED, OF MAINE.
THE MAN AND HIS HOME.
By Robert P. Porter.
It was at a dinner in Washington that I had the good fortune to find myself seated next to Thomas B. Reed, of Maine. It was a brilliant occasion, for around the table sat well-known statesmen, scientists, jurists, economists, and literary men, besides two or three who had gained eminence in the medical profession. Mr. Reed was at his best, “better than the best champagne.” His conversation, sparkling with good-nature, was not only exhilarating to his immediate neighbors, but at times to the entire table. Being among friends, among the sort of men he really liked, he let himself out as it were.
Before the conversation had gone beyond the serious point I remember asking the ex-Speaker how he felt at the time when the entire Democratic press of the country had pounced upon him; when he was being held up as “The Czar”—a man whose iron heels were crushing out American popular government. “Oh,” he promptly replied, “you mean what were my feelings while the uproar about the rules of the Fifty-first Congress was going on, and while the question was in doubt? Well, I had no feeling except that of entire serenity, and the reason was simple. I knew just what I was going to do if the House did not sustain me;” and raising his eyes, with a typical twist of his mouth which those who have seen it don’t easily forget, he added, “when a man has decided upon a plan of action for either contingency there is no need for him to be disturbed, you know.”
“And may I ask what you determined to do if the House decided adversely?”
“I should simply have left the Chair, resigning the Speakership, and left the House, resigning my seat in Congress. There were things that could be done, you know, outside of political life, and for my own part I had made up my mind that if political life consisted in sitting helplessly in the Speaker’s chair, and seeing the majority powerless to pass legislation, I had had enough of it, and was ready to step down and out.”
After a moment’s pause he turned, and, looking me full in the face with a half smile, continued: “Did it ever occur to you that it is a very soothing thing to know exactly what you are going to do, if things do not go your way? You have then made yourself equal to the worst, and have only to wait and find out what was ordained before the foundation of the world.”
“You never had a doubt in your own mind that the position taken was 376 in perfect accordance with justice and common sense?” I ventured.
“Never for a moment. Men, you see, being creatures of use and wont, are naturally bound up in old traditions. While every court which had ever considered the question had decided one way, we had been used to the other. Fortunately for the country, there was no wavering in our ranks.”