to enact
legislation as they had been before.

Senators Evarts, of New York; Spooner, of Wisconsin; Teller, of
Colorado; Stanford, of California; Gray, of Delaware; Brown, of
Georgia; Blackburn, of Kentucky; and Walthall, of Mississippi, were
a few of the prominent men who entered the Senate at the beginning
of the Cleveland Administration.

Senator Evarts was recognized for many years as the leader of the
American Bar. He was not only a profound lawyer, but one of the
greatest public speakers of the day. I remember him as a good
natured, agreeable man, who was pre-eminently capable of filling
the highest places in public life. He was Attorney-General under
President Johnson, Secretary of State under President Hayes, and
counsel representing the United States before many great international
tribunals. He defended President Johnson in his impeachment
proceedings, and I remember yet his lofty eloquence on that memorable
occasion. He did not accomplish much as a Senator, but he did take
an active part where a legal or constitutional question came before
the Senate.

Illustrating how great lawyers are as apt to be wrong on a legal
question as the lesser legal lights, Senator Evarts expressed the
opinion that Congress did not possess the constitutional power to
pass the Act of 1887 to regulate commerce. He contended in the
debate that the act was a restriction and not a regulation of
commerce, and consequently was beyond the power of Congress. The
Supreme Court of the United States very soon afterwards sustained
the constitutionality of the act.

Before his term expired he became partially blind, and the story
is told by the late Senator Hoar that Senator Evarts and he had
delivered speeches in the Senate on some great legal, constitutional
question, Senator Hoar on one side, Senator Evarts on the other.
The latter asked Senator Hoar to look over the proof of his speech
and correct it, and in reading over the proof Senator Hoar told me
that he became convinced that his position was wrong and that Evarts
was right.

I do not know of a Democrat with whom I have served in the Senate
for whom I have greater respect than George Gray, of Delaware. We
became quite intimate and were paired all during his service. He
was one of the few Senators that every Senator on both sides believed
in and was willing to trust. Indeed, our country would not suffer
if he were elected President of the United States. He has held
m