drawn into
the struggle between the President and the Senate in such a way that it
requires mention here. Shortly after President Cleveland took office,
the fishery articles of the Treaty of Washington had terminated. In his
first annual message to Congress, on December 8, 1885, he recommended
the appointment of a commission to settle with a similar commission
from Great Britain "the entire question of the fishery rights of the two
governments and their respective citizens on the coasts of the United
States and British North America." But this sensible advice was
denounced as weak and cowardly. Oratory of the kind known as "twisting
the lion's tail" resounded in Congress. Claims were made of natural
right to the use of Canadian waters which would not have been indulged
for a moment in respect of the territorial waters of the United States.
For instance, it was held that a bay over six miles between headlands
gave free ingress so long as vessels kept three miles from shore--a
doctrine which, if applied to Long Island Sound, Delaware Bay, or
Chesapeake Bay, would have impaired our national jurisdiction over those
waters. Senator Frye of Maine took the lead in a rub-a-dub agitation in
the presence of which some Democratic Senators showed marked timidity.
The administration of public services by congressional committees has
the incurable defect that it reflects the particular interests and
attachments of the committeemen. Presidential administration is
so circumstanced that it tends to be nationally minded; committee
administration, just as naturally, tends to be locally minded. Hence,
Senator Frye was able to report from the committee on foreign relations
a resolution declaring that a commission "charged with the consideration
and settlement of the fishery rights... ought not to be provided for by
Congress." Such was the attitude of the Senate towards the President
on this question, that on April 13, 1886, this arrogant resolution was
adopted by thirty-five ayes to 10 nays. A group of Eastern Democrats who
were in a position to be affected by the longshore vote, joined with the
Republicans in voting for the resolution, and among them Senator Gorman
of Maryland, national chairman of the Democratic party.

* See "The Path of Empire," by Carl Russell Fish (in "The
Chronicles of America").

President Cleveland was no more affected by this Senate resolution than
he had been by their other resolutions attacking his au