But they never wielded their party
strength in opposition to it. I said to one eminent Democratic
leader early in the year 1900: "There is one way in which
you can put an end to this whole business. If you can elect
a Democratic House it will have power under the Constitution
to determine the use to which the Army shall be put. In that
way you compelled President Hayes to refrain from further
support by military force of the Republican State Governments
in the South." He answered: "Mr. Hoar, we shall never do
anything as radical as that."
When Senator Bacon made the offer to the majority of the Senate
to agree to give them all the military power they desired
for the suppression of the resistance in the Philippines
for as long a time as they should think it necessary, the
entire Democratic Party in the Senate was in their seats,
and there was no expression of dissent.
I think the Democratic Party feared the fate of the Federalists
who opposed the War of 1812, and of the Democrats who opposed
the War for the Union in 1861. This of course in the nature
of things is but conjecture.
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