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CONGRESS. (THE VENEZUELAN BOUNDARY CONTROVERSY.) 



the interests of his party ? I do not believe there 

 is ; and if the President^ whether he be himself a 

 candidate for re-election next year or whether some 

 other distinguished member of his party shall be a 

 candidate for election as President next year, has 

 done his utmost in the sight of the whole world to 

 remove this question of foreign affairs from the 

 disputes of American politics, shall not the people 

 all over the country, without distinction of party, 

 respond to his efforts and sustain his hands in every 

 direction and in every particular ? 



- Mr. President, I am told that stocks have gone 

 down that Wall Street is agitated and State Street 

 is agitated because a Democratic President, sus- 

 tained by a Republican Congress, proposes to de- 

 fend the national honor. If stocks have gone down 

 materially, I undertake to say that they are stocks 

 which ought to go down, irrespective of national 

 complications. No stock of any real value in the 

 American or English markets will be seriously af- 

 fected because the American honor is to be pre- 

 served in this crisis of our fortunes. For one I do 

 not propose, and I do not believe any member of 

 the Senate or of the House or any American citi- 

 zen proposes to be intimidated in this emergency 

 by the declarations of foreign capitalists, by any 

 conspiracy of foreign bankers, to destroy the credit 

 of this country or the value of American stocks in 

 the markets of the world in order to prevent the 

 Congress of the United States from appropriating 

 money to enable President Cleveland to do exactly 

 what he thinks he ought to do in this decisive hour 

 in our affairs. 



" I read a cable dispatch to the New York ' Sun ' 

 of to-day : 



" ' LONDON, Dec. 19. 



'"A grave but inevitable consequence of Presi- 

 dent Cleveland's message upon the British- Vene- 

 zuelan dispute has arisen perhaps sooner than 

 might have been expected. A meeting of promi- 

 nent financial leaders who have important interests 

 in the United States was held in a London banking 

 office to-day for the purpose of considering the ad- 

 visability of united action in calling in their Ameri- 

 can credits. It is undoubtedly within the power of 

 English capitalists by such a combined movement 

 to deal America a blow which would temporarily 

 be terribly embarrassing and disastrous. It would, 

 however, prove, to a certain extent, a boomerang, 

 and this view had its influence upon the majority 

 of those who attended to-day's meeting. The con- 

 ference was private, and it was not intended even 

 that the fact that it took place should be allowed 

 to be made public. I am permitted to cable only 

 the general trend of the discussion and the result.' 



" The article proceeds : 



" ' A strong sentiment of resentment against Presi- 

 dent Cleveland, and a spirit of retaliation were ex- 

 pressed at the outset of the consultation by several 

 gentlemen. In fact, personal feeling, instead of 

 financial astuteness, seemed to control two. or three 

 of those present until cooler counsels prevailed. 

 The point chiefly debated was the question how far 

 the exigencies of domestic politics influenced the 

 President's action, and to what extent his position 

 was supported by the real public sentiment of the 

 country.' 



" Mr. President, I hope a voice may go out from 

 the Senate to-day which will pronounce the opinion 

 of the American Senate that the exigencies of do- 

 mestic politics did not influence the President or 

 the Secretary of State in the action which they 

 have taken, but that they were guided in this in- 

 stance, at least, solely by a regard for the public 

 interest and the public welfare. 



' There were no defenders of the President among 

 those present.' 



" Alas, Mr. President, has it come to this! I ask 

 the Senators upon the other side of the Chamber to 

 contemplate the fact that their President, who has 

 done more for England than any President that 

 ever sat in the White House, has now fallen so low 

 that there are none to do him reverence, and that 

 when the great financiers of Great Britain assem- 

 bled and made a determination and quietly allowed 

 what they had done to leak out so that it might go 

 to Wall Street and to State Street, ' there were no 

 defenders of the President among those present.' 



" ' On the contrary, he was denounced unspar- 

 ingly, and his conduct was described by several as 

 insane.' 



" Mr. President, what is to be your answer to 

 that assault upon your President I What is to be 

 the answer of Senators upon the other side to that 

 attack upon their Chief Magistrate I What is to be 

 the answer of Republicans upon this side of the 

 Chamber? Do we propose to sit here when the 

 President has adopted a course and announced a 

 policy that is approved by every one of us and hear 

 him called insane upon the other side of the ocean, 

 while we debate the petty question whether we 

 should or not insist upon our right to confirm or 

 reject the commissioners whom he may appoint?" 



Senator Allen, of Nebraska, asked whether Roths- 

 child was at the meeting in London. 



Senator Chandler answered : 



" Mr. President, the Senator's inquiry is appro- 

 priate. It is the old game that is being practiced 

 upon us. There are no names mentioned. It was 

 a conference purely for effect on this side of the 

 water. They pretended that it was a private affair, 

 but they intended that it should be public, and it 

 has had its influence to-day in Wall Street and 

 State Street, and telegrams are being sent in here 

 now by the score, warning the Senate not to protect 

 the honor of the United States for fear stocks may go 

 down a little." 



Senator Allen then said : 



" I should like to ask the Senator whether he does 

 not think there is more danger from that source 

 than from any other source, and whether it would 

 not be wise to pursue such a policy as would cause 

 the withdrawal of English capital from this coun- 

 try and the transaction of business upon our own 

 money. Then there would never be occasion 

 for any Englishman or any congregation of Eng- 

 lishmen to say that they believe the President of 

 the United States is insane." 



Senator Chandler answered : 



" I am willing, with the Senator from Nebraska, 

 to try to accomplish American financial independ- 

 ence of England and our industrial and commercial 

 independence of England. But let us take one 

 thing at a time. I dislike very much the disposi- 

 tion of the Senator from Nebraska and the Senator 

 from Nevada, if he will allow me to refer to him, 

 to mix together different questions. 



" Now, we are dealing with only one thing, the 

 question of national honor in reference to the Vene- 

 zuelan controversy. I say this is a deliberately 

 concocted scheme of English financiers to frighten 

 the United States. They believe the pocket nerve 

 is sensitive ; that the conservative property-holding 

 and bond-holding people of the United States will 

 check those insane persons who are trying to precipi- 

 tate war between the two countries, one of whom 

 our own country ought to remain perpetually 

 in commercial and financial dependence upon the 

 other. 



" So, Mr. President, not only was I called insane 

 when a few weeks ago I calmly announced that I 

 thought the grave questions between us and Eng- 

 land would have to be settled by war some time 

 within twenty years, but now behold President 



