234 



CONGRESS. (DYNAMITE EXPLOSION IN LONDON.) 



fore in this Government that the man who 

 would honestly work could receive fair com- 

 pensation for his work, by which I -mean 

 enough so that he could do something more 

 than keep himself alive and keep his family 

 alive, ancl avoid the poor-house." 



In the Senate the vote- on the passage of the 

 bill was as follows : 



YEAS Aldrich, Allison, Blair, Bowen, Brown, 

 Call, Camden, Cameron of Wisconsin, Chace, Conger, 



McMillan, McPherson, Mahone, Miller of California, 

 Miller of New York, Mitchell, Mori-ill, Palmer, Pike, 

 Platt, Plumb, Pugh, Eansom, Sabin, Sawyer, Sewell, 

 Sherman, Van Wyck, Vest, Voorhees, Walker, Wil- 

 son 50. 



NAYS Butler, Groome, Hampton, Hawley, Maxey, 

 Morgan, Saulsbury, Vance, Williams 9. 



ABSENT Bayard, Beck, Cameron of Pennsylvania, 

 Cockrell, Coke, Colquitt, Edmunds, Farley, Garland, 

 Hill, Hoar, Jones of Florida, Logan, Manderson, Pen- 

 dleton, Eiddleberger, Slater 17. 



February 23, the House concurred in the 

 Senate's amendments, and March 2 the Presi- 

 dent approved of the measure. 



Dynamite Explosion in London. Jan. 24, on the 

 receipt of news of the dynamite explosion in 

 the British Parliament House, Mr. Bayard, of 

 Delaware, offered the following resolution in 

 the Senate : 



Resolved, That the Senate of the United States has 

 heard with indignation and profound sorrow of the 

 attempt to destroy the Houses of Parliament and oth- 

 er public buildings in London, and hereby ex-presses 

 its horror and detestation of such monstrous crimes 

 against civilization. 



Jan. 26, the resolution was amended by in- 

 serting the clause " and to imperil the lives of 

 innocent and unsuspecting persons " after the 

 word "London," and it was then passed as 

 amended, Mr. Riddleberger, of Virginia, alone 

 voting against it. In explanation of the resolu- 

 tion Mr. Bayard said : " Mr. President, I am bet- 

 ter satisfied after the lapse of a day to ask now 

 for the adoption by the Senate of the resolution 

 offered by me at the close of the last legisla- 

 tive session, because this body has now the op- 

 portunity to affirm deliberately what sponta- 

 neously and instinctively prompted expression 

 on the instant of information of the uncivilized, 

 cruel, and barbarous attempt to destroy in an- 

 other country human life, and with it public 

 buildings dedicated to a government of laws, 

 in the vain hope, possibly, to gain relief from 

 suffering by thus overthrowing law itself in its 

 very citadel, and at the cost of suffering and 

 death to innocent persons." 



Mr. Riddleberger, in opposition to the reso- 

 lution said : "It is a resolution expressive of 

 the indignation of the Senate of the United 

 States at the blowing up of certain buildings 

 in England, because forsooth it was destruc- 

 tive of buildings in which the laws of England 

 are made which guarantee liberty to the sub- 

 jects of Great Britain. That reason is not suf- 

 ficient to induce me to vote for the resolution. 

 We can not be expected to approve all the 



methods of the Irish people, but while we are 

 preparing and experimenting with dynamite to 

 blow vessels out of the water and to drown 

 people in the ocean, it scarcely becomes us to 

 say that a people who do not constitute a 

 government and can not make a proclamation 

 of war shall not use the same instruments of ! 

 war that we would use under the same cir- : 

 cumstances. Put any of us in a country where 

 we could not own land, where we could not 

 exercise the God-given right of owning a foot 

 of land, even though we earned it by the sweat 

 of our faces, and then see what kind of meth- 

 ods we would employ. 



" I do not mean to justify the method, but I 

 do mean to say that I shall not here vote for any 

 resolution that may be distorted into an expres- 

 sion of sympathy, or even of common fellowship, 

 with a country that knows nothing but tyran- 

 ny, that practices nothing but cruelty in her 

 wars, and gives none of her subjects the exer- 

 cise of that liberty which we say on this side 

 of the Atlantic belongs to every one. But a 

 short time ago both houses of the United States 

 Congress were somewhat disturbed by the ren- 

 dering of a judicial opinion in England, then 

 trying some Irishmen, in which the judge vio- 

 lated every principle of the common law (and 

 about all I like England for is her common 

 law), violated every principle of the Bill of 

 Rights, of Magna Charta, of the Constitution 

 of the United States, by determining a question 

 of fact for the jury itself. "Was there any ex- 

 pression of indignation here by the Senate 

 then? None that I heard of; none that the 

 country has heard of. If an English judge can 

 sit upon the bench there, with an Irishman be- 

 fore him on trial for his life, and can say to 

 the jury, * These are the facts,' and that elicits 

 no expression of indignation on the part of the 

 law-making power of the United States, then 

 I ask to be excused from expressing my sym- 

 pathy in a matter such as we now have under 

 consideration." 



Jan. 26, Mr. Findlay, of Maryland, presented 

 the following resolution in the House : 



fiesolved, That the Secretary of State report at as 

 early a date as practicable to tnis house whether any 

 citizens of the United States or persons domiciled or 

 residing within the same were concerned or partici- 

 pated directly or indirectly in bringing about the re- 

 cent explosions in London, provided the transmission 

 of such information is compatible with the public 

 service. 



On the same day, Mr. Hewitt, of New York, 

 presented the following resolution : 



Resolved, That the Secretary of State be requested 

 to inform this house, if it be not incompatible with the 

 public interest, whether the department is in posses- 

 sion of any information tending to connect any^person 

 or persons resident in this country, and enioying the 

 protection of its laws, with attempts to destroy life 

 and property within the dominion of any foreign 

 power with which we have treaties of peace and am- 

 itv; and to make such recommendations, by dnift 

 of bill or otherwise, as in his judgment may be de- 

 sirable or necessary to be enacted into law for the 

 punishment of such outrages. 



