olitical, in the making of appropriations.
This committee, chiefly, too, by the labor of a very few of its
members, each annual session prepared bills for the appropriation
of hundreds of millions of dollars, which (with the rarest exception)
passed the House without question (and ultimately became laws),
the members generally knowing little or nothing as to the honesty
or special necessity, if even the purpose, of the appropriations
made. In the preparation of these bills the expenditures and
estimates in detail of all the departments of the government
including all branches of the public service and all special matters
of expense, liability, and obligation, were examined and scrutinized,
to avoid errors, injustice to the government or individuals,
extravagance, or fraud. I have, covering as many as five of the
last days of a session, remained with Mr. Randall in the committee
rooms at the Capitol, working, almost uninterruptedly, night and
day, to complete the bills necessary to be passed before adjournment.
This committee work brought no immunity from attendance in the
House.

My service in Congress ended March 4, 1885, since which time I have
participated in public and political affairs as a private citizen,
and assiduously pursued the practice of the law and attended to my
personal affairs; writing this volume, mainly, in the winter nights
of 1896 and 1897, incident to an otherwise busy life.

III
SERVICE IN SPANISH WAR

After the foregoing was written, a war arose between the United
States and Spain, growing out of the latter's bad government of
Cuba, which Spain had held (except for a brief time) since its
discovery in 1492.

Spain was only partially successful in putting down the ten years'
(1868-1877) struggle of the Cubans for independence, and was forced
to agree (1876) to give the inhabitants of Cuba all the rights,
representation in the Cortes included, of Spanish citizens. This
agreement was not kept, and in February, 1895, a new insurrection
broke out, supported by the mass of the Cuban population, especially
by those residing outside of the principal coast cities.
Notwithstanding Spain employed in Cuba her best regular troops as
well as volunteers, she failed to put down this insurrection.
Governor-General Weyler inaugurated fire and slaughter wherever
the Spanish armies could not penetrate, not sparing non-combatants,
and, February 16, 1896, he adopted the inhuman policy of forcing
the rural