, as he would have wished, honored and
respected by the Bench and Bar of the Nation, and by the people of
his home State, who took pride in the fact that Illinois had
furnished to the United States a Chief Justice for so long a period.

Chief Justice Fuller was succeeded by Hon. Edward D. White, of
Louisiana, with whom I served for three years in the Senate of the
United States. Justice White was an able Senator, and in the
disposition of some of the most important cases which have come
before the Supreme Court in recent years affecting corporations he
has shown great ability and is a worthy successor of his predecessors
in that high office.

Aside from the act to regulate commerce, an act providing for
the Presidential succession, and an act in reference to polygamy,
there was very little, if any, important legislation during the
first Cleveland Administration.

It was a very quiet administration. The country clearly comprehended
that the Senate stood in the way of any Democratic doctrine being
enacted into law, and generally, as I remember it now, the country
was fairly prosperous. This condition continued until President
Cleveland's famous Free Trade message of December 5, 1887, came as
a startling blow to the business and manufacturing interests of
the United States.

Why he should have sent such a message to Congress when his
administration was about to come to a close, and when he knew
perfectly well that no tariff legislation could be enacted with a
Democratic House and a Republican Senate, I do not know. He for
the first time stepped out boldly and asserted his Free Trade
doctrine, and made the issue squarely on tariff for protection as
against Free Trade, or tariff for revenue. This message naturally
precipitated a tariff discussion in both House and Senate, and the
Democratic majority of the House considered it incumbent on them
to make some attempt to carry out the President's policy. As a
result the so-called Mills Bill was reported, upon which debates
continued for many months. One member in closing this discussion
very aptly said:

"This debate will perhaps be known as the most remarkable that has
ever occurred in our parliamentary history. It has awakened an
interest not only throughout the length and breadth of our own
country, but throughout the civilized world, and henceforth, as
long as our government shall endure, it will be known as 'the great
tariff debate of 1888.'"

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