These leaders were men, almost all
of them, of great faults. They were not free from ambition.
Some of them were quite capable of revenge, and of using
the powers of the Government to further their ambition or
revenge. But they maintained the dignity and the authority
of the Senatorial office. Each of these stars kept his own
orbit and shone in his sphere, within which he tolerated no
intrusion from the President, or from anybody else.
The reform of the civil service has doubtless shorn the office
of Senator of a good deal of its power. I think President
McKinley, doubtless with the best and purest intentions,
did still more to curtail the dignity and authority of the
office. I dare say the increase in the number of Senators has
had also much to do with it. President McKinley, with his
great wisdom and tact and his delightful individual quality,
succeeded in establishing an influence over the members of
the Senate not, I think, equalled from the beginning of the
Government, except possibly by Andrew Jackson. And while
the strong will of Jackson subjugated Senators, in many cases,
as it did other men, yet it roused an antagonism not only
in his political opponents, but in many important men of his
own party, which would have overthrown him but for his very
great popularity with the common people.
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