'-^^0^ ^*^°<* ^ t^ S'- ^vo 9^^ ^^ u A^ *y . . • % r r\ v^^ -^^v /-^ ^''X ^/^^.\ /.<;^-r\ /'"^^"•'^ ^-^ • 1)0 .o^ / "V^"'\/^ V^^*'/' X'*"^^^^/^ , %-?^\g^ \.*'o<^*\<^^ <^'^^TrK\G^^ \ 'o, vO'7'-, .V TYRANNY OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT Criticisms of President Roosevelt in His Attack on the Legislative and Judicial Departments of the Government HON. GEORGE WASHINGTON COOK Representative at Large from Colorado In the House Representatives, Washington, D. C. February 25, 1909 WASHINGTON, D. C. JUDD & DRTWKILKR, INC. 1909 j^ 76' LP C-"i SPEECH OF HON. GEORGE WASHINGTON COOK. The House being in Committee of tlie Whole House and having under consideration the Civil Suiidrv Appropriation Bill, February 25th, 1909— Mr. Cook, of Colorado, said: Mr. Speaker: As a Member of the United States Con- gress, and a coequal in power with the Executive Depart- ment, under the provisions of the Constitution, I claim and assert the right to defend my citizen constituents and myself from the encroachment* and abuse of the Executive power of the present National Administration. In the President's message of January 4, 1909, he uses the following language: '"In Colorado one of the Secret Service men was assassinated." This is positively an incorrect state- ment and not warranted by the facts. The truth is, Mr, Mason, superintendent, and Joseph A^anderweide, foreman, of the Porter Fuel Company, whose mines are situate 14 miles west of Durango, at Hesperus, advised .James R. AValker, .-special agent of the Government, and three other Government detectives, if they desired to examine the coal property, a competent guide and safety lamps Avould be fur- nished, but instead of this Mr. Walker took the three men and went to the property armed, and entered an abandoned coal shaft belonging to the Porter Fuel Company and low- ered the three men with a block and tackle, a distance of 70 feet into the mine, using naked lights — a foolish ancT crim- inal act, which might have caused an explosion, killing 60 miners employed therein. When Special Agent Walker saw Mason approaching, he fired one shot at ^Nlason and attempted to fire a second time, when Joseph A^anderweide, armed witli ;i ro tried in the district courts of Colorado, at Durango. and iic(|uitte(l. Special Agent Walker and his three associates had no war- rant of law or authdrity from the owners or olficers of the Porter Fuel C(im]>any to enter therein, but were tre-pa-ssers. 2 Mason and A'anderweide, after being acquitted in the State court at Durango, were taken before Judge Lewis, of the United States District Court at Denver, and were acquitted of the charge of murder. One of the three men let down into the mine by the block and tackle was a notorious horse thief and employed by the Secret Service of the Government. The date of the killing was November 3, 1907. In the President's message of January 4, 1909. in his de- fense of the Secret Service, reference was made to the Colo- rado cases still pending in the United States Supreme Court. On January 10. 1908, I addressed an open letter to the President of the United States, the Vice-President. Speaker Cannon, the honorable members of the Supreme Court, the members. of the Cabinet, and all of the members of the Sixtieth Congress. And I read from portions of that letter as follows : *'I most earnestly protest against the continued high- handed, pernicious political persecution made by certain of the Department bureaus of the Government in this city, branding many of our most honorable, upright, and law- abiding business men of Colorado as criminals. "Their only information and authority for such malicious statements are reports made to them by non-resident special agents and 'prosecutors' sent to Colorado, whose accusations against innocent men are for the sole purpose of securing personal promotion in Washington and the opportunity for the governmental l)ureaus here to disseminate among the press throughout the country misrepresentations as to timber land and coal thieves that do not exist in Colorado. 'Q^udge Robert E. Lewis, of the United States District Court, Denver, on December 24th, 26th. and 30th, 1907, quashed all of the indictments against some thirty of our most worthy and reputable citizens, some of whom had been engaged in business in Colorado for thirty years, on the grounds that the Government had failed to find any evidence against these men, a most stinging and severe rebuke by Judge Lewis, of the United States District Court, an appointee of the present Administration. "Active preparations were made by certain high officials in "Washington for the prosecution of these cases, and who condemn honorable men of unquestioned integrity before being found guilty of any violation of the law or even given an opportunity of defense. "Judge Lewis' decision gives universal satisfaction to all of our people in Colorado, regardless of their political affilia- tions, and is indorsed by a united press ; in fact, every news- paper in the State most heartily commends Judge Lewis' action. Thus the truth has been vindicated. "In this connection I beg to call attention to editorial hel'ow from The Denver Republican of December 26, 1907; also editorial of December 25, 1907, written by ex-Senator T. M. Patterson, owner and editor of the Rocky Mountain News, Denver:" Extract from "The Denver Republican," Thursday, Decem- ber 26, 1907. A Return to Sanity in Land Affairs. By his decision quashing indictments against a number of local lumbermen. Judge Lewis in the United States court struck a blow for justice and sanity where it has been needed for some time. His action was a rebuke to the idea that seems to prevail in some quarters at Washington, that special agents are alone able to ferret out, punish, and prevent viola- tions of the land laws. Incidentally, it comes as a defense of the Westerner from the imputation of departmental Wash- ington that every one w^ho seeks to avail himself of the laws regulating the disposal of Government lands is inherently and by practice a criminal. No doubt Uncle Sam of himself is just as generously dis- posed in the matter of giving his Western lands to men who would use them as he was when his laws were drawn to regu- late their disposal; but' of late there has grown in the minds of some officials in Washington the idea that every man who ever filed a claim did so with malicious intent to rob the Gov- ernment and thwart the Department in its duty. As a part of that suspicion comes the thought that every Western man is in the conspiracy, and that therefore the regular agents of the Government are not to be trusted in such matters. This leads to sending West to unearth gigantic frauds special agents who, having their spurs to win, proceed to find what they are sent after. In many cases the special agent is one whose knowledge of practical affairs is confined to holding a job in Washington. Coming West and discovering that certain individuals have made money by availing themselves of the Government's liberality in land affairs, such a man leaps promptly to the conclusion that there was fraud in acquiring the lands. His philosophy cannot cover the fact that the Westerner in tak- ing advantage of the land laws as they exist may make money and still be honest — that the laws are drawn to give him that very opportunity. To him the fact of having taken up lands and made money becomes ground enough for charging fraud, and he rushes to the courts and begins action. When the suits dismissed by Judge Lewis were brought against some of the most reputable business men of Colorado, most people understood that they were the outgrowth of this excess of zeal on the part of such special agents. Men of the highest character were forced for a time to stand under the imputation of conspiracy to defraud the Government. They courted the fullest investigation, but the cases brought were found to have so flimsy a base that the Judge refused to let them be tried. In, so deciding he took pains to point out to the land officials that they had failed to show wherein a single law had l)een violated, and reminded them that it is beyond their power to determine how the Government ought to dispose of its lands, and then charge the commission of crime on that theory. The existing land laws have stood the test of time and have been a large factor in making the West. None too liberal, they are yet calculated, and rightly so, to benefit the man who avails himself of them. Men prosper from seizing the opportunities presented, just as the framers of the laws in- tended they should. The attitude of the Government toward settlers has not changed ; the laws passed by Congress stand today as they have stood for years. This idea of call- ing a man a thief because he has made his money out of land given him to use exactly for that purpose comes not from the Government, not from Congress or the Administration, but from the overzealous special agent set to find that a fraud was committed or write himself unequal to the task. Usually the men he is sent to accuse have been suspected in Washing- ton departments before the agent has begun even to collect evidence for the courts and he dare not fail to make good. The decision of Judge Lewis will go a long way toward putting a stop to such practices and bring about a return to sanity in land affairs. Extract from "The Daily News," Denver, Deceimher 25, 1907. Good Men Cleared. One of the things that added to the Christma.s joy of this office was the action of Judge Lewis, of the Federal court, in quashing indictments against eleven citizens of Colorado. These men were charged with conspiracy to defraud the Gov- ernment, and Judge Lewis, assuredly a man not blind to his obligations to his country, has dismissed the charges in a decision which clears the indicted men of anything that could be called an offense. It is mightily satisfactory, for among these eleven were men like Charles D. McPhee and John J. McGinnity and Alex- ander T. Sullenberger. All of them are men past middle life, and their lives have been spent in upbuilding the com- munities which have been lucky enough to own them. All of them are men against whom no suspicion of dishonesty ever breathed. All of them have doubtless suffered more from this charge than a real criminal would have suffered from conviction and imprisonment. But at least they have the satisfaction of a ^^ndication as complete as the law can make it. And the News frankly rejoices. Up till last winter the Government had no right of appeal in cases like the present. Last winter a bill was passed con- ferring on the Government the right of appeal in criminal cases where indictments were quashed by a judge, not where the facts were passed on by a jury. But this does not mean that the indicted men will have to again stand trial. The law in question was passed simply for the puipose of getting an even, .^standardized construction of the law from the highest court in the land. Hitherto one judge has declared the law to be this and another one has declared with equal force that the law was that, and the Government agents have been orcatly puzzled by the conflicting interiirctations. The Government's new right of criminal appeal insui-es that the law will be uniformly constnied. But even if the Su- preme Court should reverse .Judge Lewis on this case, it will mean only a final statement of the meaning of the points of law involved. The old provision of the Constitution that no man shall twice be placed in jeopardy of life or limb for one offense still stands, and must .«tand forever. Our only regret is that the good and necessary work of running down the land frauds seems so likely to cause trouble and expense to honorable and worthy men. Per- haps this is one of those faults that cannot be helped, nnd 6 must even be endured with what grace one may summon- Anyway, Ave are glad that in this case the Avrong went na further, and that the decision of Judge Lewis was as sweep- ing as it is final. "Our citizens are willing and ready to meet the issue raised by the impulsive administration; but as to the purpose on the part of the latter I cannot comprehend, unless to con- tinue in the 'hmelight,' and therefore the country will be saved — from the Beaurocrats' point of view. ''The article in the Washington Star of December 31, 1907, quotes the Commissioner of the Land Office to say: 'They will call 60 to 80 violations of the land laws in Colo- rado to the attention of the grand jury, and some of these may involve a number of the very persons whom Judge LcAvis has discharged.' "This is a subterfuge bordering on the farcical, and is disseminated to the pre^s of the country for the purpose of misleading the public as to so-called land frauds that do not and have not existed in Colorado. "Our citizens in Colorado have submissively and with pa- tience undergone these persecutions for alleged offenses, and every fair-minded citizen should join in commendation that we have in our beloved country true judges, who have the courage of their convictions and believe in justice to every citizen and a real 'square deal emphasized.' " The President called a special meeting of the Cabinet on December 31, 1907, to take action as to Judge Lewis' decision in the Colorado cases. The President criticized the Judiciary, and authorized the Attorney General, in these words: "The Government will use every means in its power to bring about in the higher courts disapproval of the decision of Judge Lewis." The unprecedented and dictatorial encroachment of the Executive against the Legislative and Judicial Departments of the Government is almost a daily threat to the peace and prosperity of the Republic and should be knocked on the head by the constitutional decision of the Supreme Court, as I prophesied in my general letter hereinbefore referred to. I quote the gist of the decision delivered by Justice White, of the Supreme Court, on January 4, 1909, all of the Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court con- curring, as to the Colorado cases. He said : ■"This also serves to demonstrate that no error was com- mitted by the court below in holding that, under section 5440, acts charged in the indictment could not possibly have constituted a defrauding of the United States in any manner or for any purpose within the intendment of the section." Strange and miraculous to say, that same day, January 4, 1909, as to the Colorado cases, the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States knocked the Administration legally on the head, as I had predicted in my open letter of Januarv 10, 1908. By the dictation of the President, the ^Vttorney General at "Washington appealed these Colorado cases, with a great flourish, to the Supreme Court of the United States, and that grand body of just judges aihrmed, by unanimous decision substantially, the United States District Court of Colorado in dismissal of the cases. ^ It is unfortunate not only for President Roosevelt, but for the citizens of the Republic, that he has not a legal mind and no equipoise of executive reason, riding through and around the arena of political action on his broncho of arro- gant, egotistical impulse, pretending to throw his lariat of execution at the heels and broad horns of capital for the delectation of voting labor and ending the scene with the cunning catch of a prairie wolf or a gopher. In all of this fuss and feathers of the whole Administra- tion, he and his pliant Attorney General have not sent a single ''plutocrat'" to the penitentiary. Such a keen political speculator and political and financijil strenuosity has never been seen before in this Republic, and let us fervently hope that his like shall never be seen again I Look at the paragraphs of his rattled messages and you will be startled to see and read the insinuations and abusive phrases against the Legislative and Judicial Departments of the Government. "~~- The liberty of the people is gradually and secretly stolon bv sneaking Executive encroachments, and even judicial 8 deci.'>iuii.-. wlicre the frcecluni of speech and of the press are denied, is a most outrageous injustice to the toihng multi- tude. The voice of the people is over and above all constitutions, courts, and Congress! President Roosevelt seems to tliink that he alone is the Government, and that his ipse dixit must rule everybody, including the poor and friendless black soldiers of Browns- ville, who were insulted, dismissed, and degraded, without proof or trial, by Executive order, and without any war- rant of reason or law ! President Roosevelt runs the Government on the same principles that the Beef Trust runs its sausage factory, from a personal standpoint, using legislative and judicial pork as the crude material of his fantastic administration. While imitating Rienzi and Cromwell in fooling the peo- ple, he is practicing the hypocrisy and dictatorship of Cleon and Dionysius, and has built up a Roosevelt ring in the Army, Navy, and Civil Service, all for his personal and political glory, supreme in his impudence, vanity, arrogance, and imperial egotism. His veto messages are made from the impulsive and igno- rant information of his cabinet clerks, and the vacillating At- torney General is a weak legal reed of the Rough Rider's dependence, who even recently gave a false statement to the President upon the joint resolution passed by this Con- gress determining the question of the boundary hue between the States of Colorado and Oklahoma and the Territory of iNCw Mexico. At this point Mv. Cook was called to order for alleged cen- suring remarks against President Roosevelt, and subsequently a committee of five was appointed by Speaker Cannon to consider whether the speech should be expunged from the Congressional Record. The unanimous report of the committee is appended, and the House unanimously concurred, thus vindicating the truth of all the remarks of the Representative from Colorado, who was afterwards allowed under a question of personal privi- lege to finish his speech: Report of Commii'iki;. "The Select Committee appointed to consider the remarks of Honorable George W. Cook, delivered in the House on February twenty-fifth last and printed in the Congresnonal Record on pages 3203 and 3204, and alleged to be in viola- tion of the privileges of debate, beg leave to report that we have carefully and critically examined the speech of Mr. Cook referred to, and are of the opinion, and so report, that said speech does not, when treated as a whole, contain lan- guage in violation of the privileges of debate, and does not call for further action by the House; and your committee, therefore, respectfully requests to be discharged. '' James R. Mann. " James B. Perkins. '' David J. Foster. '' Henry D. Clayton. " William M. Howard." To a question of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker, in the AVashington Po'st of this morning, an article headed "Fun for President" is published. I desire, Mr. Speaker, to read a portion of the article given out at the White House, re- ferring to me as a Member of this House : "As had been arranged Thursday, the House yesterday morning referred to a select committee the speech of Repre- sentative Cook, in which he assailed the President. The resolution referring the speech to a committee was intro- duced by Chairman Tawney, of the Appropriations Com- mittee, after being suggested by Representative Hughes of W^est Virginia. The committee will report to the House on Monday what action it recommends. "The debate on the resolution was largely parliamentary, out Champ Clark opposed it on general grounds, declaring that he had opposed expunging Mr. Willett's remarks, l)e- cause it was a tendency toward throttling free speech, and he opposed expunging the remarks of Mr. Cook on the same ground. He did so, he declared, the more freely because Mr. Cook was a Republican, and no trace of partisanship could be seen in his action. 10 Suggested Cause of Attack. '•It Wcus said at the White House yesterday that Mr. Cook's recent outburst may have been inspired by the Presi- dent's opposition to a measure which he has been endeavor- ing to have become a law, deahng with a .question of the boundary of Colorado. It was pointed out to Mr. Cook that, under the Constitution, it was necessary to have affirmative action of the Colorado legislature before Congress could act in the matter, but that difficulty did not seem to appeal tO' him as of sufficient weight. ''This speech is the second time Mr. Cook has 'gone after' the President. About a year ago, soon after he came to Congress, and during the preliminary campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, he sent out a letter attacking Mr. Roosevelt savagely. Mr. Cook was elected Congressman-at-large from Colorado in 1908, succeeding Franklin E. Brooks, of Colorado Springs. He was not re- nominated last summer, and the man who did get the Re- publican nomination was defeated by a Democrat at the- November elections." Mr. Speaker, I positively deny the President of the United States pointed out to me that under the Constitution it was necessary to have affirmative action of the Colorado legislature before action could be taken in the matter. In the President's veto of the Colorado,. Oklahoma, and New Mexico boundary-line bill he gave as a reason for vetoing the boundary-line bill passed by the Sixtieth Congress that it would remove from the jurisdiction of Colorado and add to the Territory of New Mexico at lea.sit five post-offices and an appreciable number of inhabitants. This is also an incorrect statement, in proof of which I hold a letter signed personally by Mr. INIeyer, the Postmaster-General, dated Jan- uary 20, 1909, which I read : Office of the PosTMASTER-GE^•ERAL, Washington, D. C, January 20, 1909. My Dear Congressman : In answer to your letter of Janu- ary 19th, 1909. requesting the names of any post-offices that were taken from Colorado and re-established in the Ter- ritory of New Mexico, under what is known as the Car- penter Survey, I have to advise you that the only post-office rihown by the records of this Department to have been affected by that survey, is that of Edith, New Mexico, which in accordance with the survey, was changed from Colorado to New Mexico in 1904. Edith post-office is shown on the cur- rent post-foute map of the Territory of New Mexico." (Signed) Geo. v. L. Meyer. Hon. George W. Cook, House of Representatives. This transfer was made at the time the Interior Depart- ment approved and accepted the Carpenter Survey, establish- ing a thirty-seventh parallel and boundary line between Colo- rado, Oklahoma, and the Territory of New Mexico. The thirty-seventh parallel and boundary line was established by the act making Colorado a Territory, February 28, 1861 (12 Stat. L., 172), and by the enabling ast passed by Con- gress March 3, 1875, and accepted in the constitution of Colorado when admitted into the Union, in 1876. If the President had taken time to refer to his letter of January 10, 1905, addressed to the Senate and House of Representatives, inclosing a letter from Secretary Hitchcock, of the Depart- ment of the Interior, dated January 7, 1905, he would have seen that the Secretary of the Interior used the following language : ''The State of Colorado by act of General Assembly of April 11, 1901, authorized the appointment of a commis- sioner to act in conjunction with reprasentativcs of the Gen- eral Government and the adjacent Territories for the pur- pose of fixing and determining a part of said south boundarv line." In my letter to the President, dated December 31, 1908, and personal interview with the President I called his atten- tion to the act passed by the Colorado legislature, and to the fact that on July 1, 1902, Congress made an appropriation of $31,500. Under this authority the Department of the Interior made a contract July 7, 1902, with Howard B. Carpenter, surveyor and astronomer, for the execution of the re-astablishment. The work Avas commenced in September, 1902, and completed in October, 1903. 12 The Carpenter survey, establishing the boundary hne between Colorado, Oklahoma, and New Mexico was approved and accepted by the Secretary of the Interior February 25, 1904, which is corroborated by a letter addressed to myself under date of February 15, 1909, from the Land Office, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interiof and the Commissioner of the Land Office, which reads as follows: (Copy.) Office of the Commissioner. Department of the Interior, General Land Office, Washington, February 15, 1909. My Dear Sir: In accordance with your recent request over the telephone, I inclose herewith copies of office letter and approval of field notes, dated February 25, 1904, re- lating to the resurvey of the south boundary of Colorado. Very respectfully, (Signed) Fred Dennett, Co7ninissio,ner. Hon. G. W. Cook, House of Representatives. 2 inclosures. (Copy.) E. C. L. D. B. C. L. D. B. 34459-150758, 1903. 14079-16659, 1904. Department of the Interior, General Land Office, Washington, D. C, Febmary 25, 1904. Address only the Commissioner of the General Land Office. Subject: Acceptance of Resurvey. Mr. H. B. Carpenter, U. S. Surveyor, Cheyenne, Wyoming. Sir: I am in receipt of your letters of the 18th and 20th of January, 1904, transmitting returns of the resurvey of the south boundary of Colorado, consisting of three books of field notes and eleven diagrams in triplicate, numbered as plates 1 to 11, inclusive. 13 I am also in receipt of tlie report and astronomical notes of Arthur D. Kidder, examiner of surveys, detailed to inspect the astronomical work on this line, who accompanied As- tronomer MacConnel while the latter was enga.cjed under your direction in making the required observatioiis for lati- tude. I have also received the report of Frank M. Johnson, ex- aminer of surveys, who inspected various portions of the boundary line as to whether the re-establishment of the said line conformed to the requirements of the contract and the special instructions in respect to sufficiency of markings and accuracy of measurement and alinement. Examined Kidder concludes his report upon the astro- nomical features of the resurvey as follows : "I therefore believe that the determinations have been well made and in accordance with Mr. Carpenter's special instructions, and knowing that the observations were faith- fully and honestly executed, I respectfully recommend the acceptance of this part of the work." Examiner Johnson made a thorough and exhaustive in- spection of the field work of the resurvey. going over por- tions of every section of the line between astronomical monu- ments. In a preliminary report to this office he stated that in re- tracing the boundary line between three of the eight astronomical monuments (Nos. 4, 5, and 6) he found the line, as re-established, to diverge several minutes from a true east-and-west line, and, with a view to ascertaining whether an error existed in the astronomical work of locat- ing the stations to which you closed your line, I directed Mr. Kidder to proceed to the above-named stations, situated in the mountainous part of the line, and redetermine the latitude. He reported that he found, after a careful re- observation, that the locations were correctly determined, and that any divergence from a true east-and-west line must be due to the deviation of the plumb-line caused by- the proximity of large mountain ranges. It is found that an accurate ascertainment of the amount of error to allow for the attractive force of large masses of earth, when making observations upon celestial bodies for the purposes of ob- taining latitudes, involves elaborate experiments with the pendulum at the various points where observations are taken. These experiments, however, were not contenqilated in the establishment of this boundary and were not included in your special instructions; consequently the said deviation is not attributable to negligence on your ]inrl nr that of llic astronomer working for yon. 14 Examiner Johnson sums up his report with the following remark : ''Mr. Carpenter's instrumental work appears to be ex- cellent. The corner monuments are uniform in character and substantially set. The work taken as a whole is of the highest order." After a careful scrutiny of the field notes and diagrams and the reports of the examiners as above mentioned, I am of the opinion that the re-establishment of the south boun- dary of Colorado is in conformity with the terms of your contract and special instructions and is hereby accepted. Very respectfully, (Signed) W. A. Richards, Covimissioner. L. J. (Copy.) Resurvey of the Boundary Line behveen the State of Colorado and the Terntories of New Mexico and Oklahoma. Department op the Interior, General Land Office, February 25, 1904. The foregoing field notes of the resurvey of the boundary line between the State of Colorado and the Territories of New Mexico and Oklahoma, executed by Howard B. Carpenter, U. S. sui-veyor, under his contract with the Commissioner of the General Land Office dated July 7, 1902, having been ex- amined and found correct, are hereby approved. (Signed) W. A. Richards, Commissioner. I called the President's attention, as well as that of the Attorney General, to the misrepresentations that had been made to them, and very respectfully requested the veto be withdrawn for this reason ; but, notwithstanding the glaring injustice done, the President, for reasons best known to him- self, has not so far withdrawn his veto. I repeat here, and without the least reservation, what I said to the President, and quote from my letter to him dated December 31, 1908 : ''The only objection in Colorado made to the action of the Sixtieth Congress and the Interior Department is by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company to avoid the payment of taxes on thousands of acres of land underlied with coal, situate along the thirty-seventh parallel, and this company is now owned and controlled by the Standard Oil Company." Evidently the President, judging from his veto message, is 15 not ill this important matter antagonizing the interests of the Standard Oil Compan}-. As to the reference made at the A\'hite House that I was not renominated as a Member of the House, I desire to say, Mr. Speaker, that at no time was I ever a candidate for re- election to this House from my State. Mr. Speaker, as to a question of personal privilege, I will read a brief paragraph from an afternoon paper published in this city, which says : ''Cook's Speech Now May be Expunged. "In explanation of his resolution Mr. Tawney said that Representative Cook claimed time for the purpose of talking on the subject under consideration, but that as a matter of fact he had violated the privileges of debate by making an attack on the Chief Executive of ihe Nation, instead of talk- ing about the Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill." "]\Ir. Speaker. I made no statement of that kind to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Tawney). I am not com- pelled to consult the gentleman from Minnesota as to what I have said or what I shall say as a Member of this House." No citizen of the United States ever heard a President hrag about wielding the "big stick" over Congress and the court- until the present cracked egotist came into power by the bullet of an assassin. The imnudent presumption and tyrant boast of whirling a "big stick" over the Legislative Department of this great Eepublic is the most nutraeeous insult that has ever been given to Congress. And we sit here, peering vacantly like a lot of Eocky Mountain «heep, and allow thi« lawless Dougal Daloettv to call us spoilsmen withont a murmur. There can be no Nation without a State, and there is no State without the individual unit of citizenship. The Armv and Navy come from the plain people, and we are the supreme masters of the Republic. And the Execu- tive Administration of this Republic, now and in the future, must know that while it may indict, the jury acquits. We must see that government by Executive commission and court injunction shall cease, for these legal usurpations 16 undermine the personal and official liberty of the citizen and must be abrogated and extirpated in the interest of a govern- ment of the people, by the people, and for the people ! \ Roosevelt has set aside all precedents of custom and law, not because they were wrong, but for the vain and egotistical desire of attracting public attention to himself, preferring even to be censured rather than not be talked about ! He has continually kept employed a lot of fawning news- paper guerrillas, wdio enlarge the mole-hills of his morality into mountains of virtue, and by his continual moving and glinting, like the chameleon, attracts the eyas and attention of the thoughtless rabble, who gaze entranced at the parade of novelty and speculation ! He has been the Barnum in the political circus of the Republic since the Spanish war, and with his variety ex- hibition of fantastic snakes, wolves, tigers, lions, bears, trick mules, prize-ring pl'ugs, ajid skin-tight acrobats, has man- aged to fool the people and take their money through the yell of his employed "barkers" at the door of the "big tent" I During Roosevelt's presidential term he branded specifi- cally nineteen respectable and eminent citizens as "liars" and placed them in the Ananias Gallery of the White House among the mounted animals he never slaughtered ! Like the brazen fraud who dashes down Broadway, yell- ing "Stop thief," he plays the part of calling people "liars" when in fact he has been and is now one of the most fantastic and impudent political liars in America and will say or do anything for his personal and private gain ! He is as selfish as a sponge! He would not dare at his peril to call men "liars" were he not surrounded by the official glamour of the Presidency, but, like any other blustering bravado, takes advantage of his official station to insult better and braver men than himself ! But a jew more days and Roosevelt's glittering sands of official life will have passed forever through the hour-glass of time, and then in the Executive Mansion we will have a fine scholar, a great lawyer, a just and honorable judge, and an able and good President in the pure and lofty character of William- H. Taft. 54 V v/v (^^ 0^ ..^'.-^ /^o. ^^-^^ **' ^^. J^ '"* i^ ^^ o rwo *> V -• ^ % • ■ 0^ . t . o. .-^o^ i jp-'*. ': «-\ .^°^:^^'> .^<-^k>- co^c^.% • v 5^ ^