And State Papers 123 



that was just about the condition that Congress had 

 reached at the time when Thomas B. Reed was 

 elected Speaker. We had all the machinery, but it 

 didn't work, that was the trouble, and you had 

 to find some one powerful man who would disregard 

 the storm of obloquy sure to be raised by what he 

 did in order to get it to work. Such a man was 

 found when Reed was made Speaker. We may differ 

 among ourselves as to policy. We may differ among 

 ourselves as to what course government should fol 

 low; but if we possess any intelligence we must be 

 a unit that it shall be able to follow some course. 

 If government can not go on it is not government. 

 If the legislative body can not enact laws, then there 

 is no use of misnaming it a legislative body ; and if 

 the majority is to rule some method by which it can 

 rule must be provided. Government by the majority 

 in Congress had practically come to a stop when 

 Mr. Reed became Speaker. Mr. Reed, at the cost 

 of infinite labor, at the cost of the fiercest attacks, 

 succeeded in restoring that old principle; and now 

 through Congress we can do well or ill, accordingly 

 as the people demand, but at any rate, we can do 

 something and we owe it more than to any other 

 one man to your fellow-citizen, Mr. Reed. It is a 

 great thing for any man to be able to feel that in 

 some one crisis he left his mark deeply scored for 

 good in the history of his country, and Tom Reed 

 has the right to that feeling. 



