nternational or interstate commerce; and that
it had got through by a system of log-rolling, the friends
of bad schemes in one State joining with the friends of bad
schemes in another, making common cause to support the bill.
He added that in that way, the more objectionable the measure,
the more support it would get. The press of the country,
almost without exception, supported the President. The reasons
which applied to each improvement were not well understood
by the public. So the conductors of the newspapers naturally
supposed the President to be in the right in his facts. The
Democratic newspapers were eager to attack Republican measures.
Where there were factions in the Republican Party, the Republican
papers of one faction were ready to attack the men who belonged
to the other. The independent newspapers welcomed any opportunity
to support their theory that American public life was rotten
and corrupt. So when the question came up whether the bill
should pass notwithstanding the objections of the President,
there was a storm of indignation throughout the country against
the men who supported it.

But the committees who had supported it and who had reported
it, and who knew its merits, and the men who had voted for
it in either House of Congress, could not well stultify themselves
by changing their votes, although some of them did. I was
situated very fortunately in that respect. I had been absent
on a visit to Massachusetts when the bill passed. So I was
not on record for it. I had given it no great attention.
The special duties which had been assigned to me related to
other subjects. So when the measure came up in the Senate
I had only an opinion founded on my general knowledge of the
needs of the country and the public policy, that it was all
right. My reelection was coming on. I was to have a serious
contest, if I were a candidate, with the supporters of General
Butler, then very powerful in the State. He, in fact, was
elected Governor in the election then approaching. My first
thoughts were that I was fortunate to have escaped this rock.
But when the vote came on I said to myself: "This measure
is right. Is my father's son to sneak home to Massachusetts,
having voted against a bill that is clearly righteous and
just, because he is afraid of public sentiment?" Senator McMillan,
the Chairman of the Committee who had charge of the bill,
just before my name was called, asked me how I meant to