Bayard during Mr. Cleveland's
first Administration. The argument against it was too strong
not to have prevailed without any one man's contribution to
it; and the Senate was not so strongly inclined to support
President Cleveland as to give a two-thirds majority to a
measure, unless it seemed clearly for the public interest.
He had his Republican opponents to reckon with, and the Democrats
in the Senate disliked him very much, and gave him a feeble
and half-hearted support.
The question of our New England fisheries has interested
the people of the country, especially of New England, from
our very early history. Burke spoke of them before the Revolutionary
War, as exciting even then the envy of England. One of the
best known and most eloquent passages in all literature is
his description of the enterprise of our fathers. Burke adds
to that description:
"When I reflect upon the effects, when I see how profitable
they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power sink,
and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt
and die away within me. My rigor relents.
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