Bryan's personal interposition
in its behalf. It would have been defeated, in my judgment,
if Speaker Reed, a man second in influence and in power in
this country to President McKinley alone, had seen it to be
his duty to remain in public life, and lead the fight against
it.
So I think it is rarely safe for a man who is in political
life for public, and not for personal ends, and who values
the political principles which he professes, to decline any
position of power, either from modesty, doubt of his own
ability, or from a desire to be generous to other men.
My twenty years' service on the Committee on the Judiciary,
so far as it is worth narrating, will appear in the account
of the various legal and Constitutional questions which it
affected.
CHAPTER VIII
THE RIVER AND HARBOR BILL
I have throughout my whole public political life acted upon
my own judgment. I have done what I thought for the public
interest without much troubling myself about public opinion.
I always took a good deal of pride in a saying of Roger Sherman's.
He was asked if he did not think some vote of his would be
very much disapproved in Connecticut, to which he replied
that he knew but one way to ascertain the public opinion of
Connecticut; that was to ascertain what was right.
Pages:
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957