Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/314

 and stump speeches often wound up with the description of the pathos with which a born American in far-away oppressed China beheld the Stars and Stripes, the Flag of the Free. He had not gone very far in his address on this occasion before he referred to the insolence of the legislature. I stopped him at once and said:

“They may be mistaken, but cannot be insolent, because they are vested with authority. Therefore, nothing that they do can be insolence. Beside, they are, like myself, a branch of the government and it would not become me to listen to any offensive terms applied to them. We must all treat them with respect. I think, therefore, Mr. Smith, you had better confine your remarks to arguments upon the merits or demerits of the bill.”

I had done the same kind of thing many a time in court, but doubtless it was an unusual experience for Smith. In all probability he had committed to memory an oration in which there was much denunciation intended for wide distribution. My interruption had disturbed his mental processes. He was unfitted for extemporaneous discussion, was very much overweighted by his opponents and, even in the opinion of his newspaper friends who were present, he made a failure. Smith had given those friends to understand, as I was told, that his influence with me was such as to prevent the bill from becoming a law. His oration was printed, not as it was delivered, but as it was intended to have been delivered. A cunning man, looking to what he thought to be his own interest, would have gratified him, and, vetoing the bill would have earned the praise, if not the approval, of a set of men whose voices extend far and are to some extent potent. A timid man, signing it, would have said nothing and left the legislature and the party leaders to share with him the buffets. I made the bill a law and gave my reasons, published with the statute, taking the full responsibility and thereby drew upon myself all of the javelins that could be hurled. No more was I a persona 298