Tribute of Representative Robert Hale [on bust dedication] to Thomas Brackett Reed in 1943
"We all know too sadly well that oblivion begins to devour the mightiest when dead, and has in all ages been so greedy as to overtake some men yet living. Human fame, even of those who are at pains to preserve their memories, is as evanescent as the cloud of a summer sky."
The words which I have just spoken were first uttered by Thomas Brackett Reed, of Maine, when 65 years ago almost to the day he presented to the Nation the statue of William King which stands in Statuary Hall.
It would be most unfitting if oblivion were ever permitted to devour the memory of Tom Reed, the Speaker of this House in the Fifty- first, Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-fifth Congresses. He would also have been its Speaker in the Fifty-sixth Congress, but he disbelieved in the Spanish War and in the policy of annexation and imperialism which succeeded it. So he announced his intention to retire." "I have tried," he said to his secretary, Asher Hinds, "perhaps not always successfully, to make the acts of my public life accord with my conscience, and I cannot now do this thing." To his constituency he said with perfect justice, "No sail has been trimmed for any breeze nor any doubtful flag ever flown."
The record of the public life which was the public manifestation of his conscience is a remarkable one, for Tom Reed served in this House from 1876 until 1898 and almost from the beginning of his service was one of its leaders. Standing 6 feet 2 inches, weighing 300 pounds, with a bald head, beardless face, brilliant hazel eyes under great arches of brow, and a gentle drawling voice, he was physically an unforgettable man. His intellectual attainments were as remarkable as his physique.
Indeed a critic no less experienced than Henry Cabot Lodge, who was certainly not blind to the defects of his contemporaries, said of Reed, "There never has been a greater or more perfectly equipped leader in any parliamentary body at any period." And John Sharp Williams, who had been the Democratic leader of this House in Reed's day, described Reed as "that ever-memorable genius, the ablest running debater the American people ever saw."Even today we can feel the sting of Reed's retort to the pompous Springer, who, quoting Henry Clay, had declaimed that he had "rather be right than President." "The gentleman," drawled Reed, "will never be either."
Yet brilliant as was Reed's record as a debater and as a party and parliamentary leader, he is best and most justly recalled as the Speaker who by giving a bold and courageous interpretation to the rules of this House rescued its procedure from discredit and enabled it to transact the Nation's business.
Prior to his time a minority of the House could frustrate its activities by refusing to attend an answer to a roll call, thus preventing the presence of a quorum. In his day 166 Members made a quorum. This was Reed's precise vote on his first election to the speakership. If his party had the responsibility of maintaining a quorum, every one of its members had to be on the floor all the time - a practical impossibility. The Democrats, when they wished to prevent action by the House of which they disapproved, adopted the simple expedient of attending and sitting silent when their names were called. Previous Speakers had uniformly ruled that the presence of a quorum was to be determined solely by the calling of the roll. To depart from this precedent was a bold course. But Reed determined to depart from it and, if not sustained, to resign from the speakership and retire from the House.
On January 29, 1890, Dalzell reported from the Committee on Elections, giving a disputed seat in West Virginia to the Republicans. The Democrats raised the question of a quorum, only 163 Members having responded to the roll call. Instead of ordering the roll to be called again, Reed looked down from the Speaker's chair and, in what must have been one of the most dramatic moments in the history of this body, said: "The Chair directs the Clerk to record the following names of Members present and refusing to vote." The House was instantly in uproar. Reed alone remained calm, and when the House for a moment subsided he persisted in his count of Democrats present and not answering to the roll call.
McCreary, of Kentucky, rose with a book in his hand and said: "I deny your right. Mr. Speaker, to count me as present, and I desire to read from the parliamentary law on the subject."
"The Chair," Reed replied, "is making a statement of the fact that the gentleman from Kentucky is present. Does he deny it?"Reed then stated at length the legal and constitutional reasons for his ruling with the precedents from other bodies in its support. For 3 days the House was a bedlam. Reed's decision was denounced as corrupt. Men spoke all manner of evil against him. Reed admitted that he had broken all the precedents of the House, including those of Speaker Blaine, described by the opposition as "the most eminent of living Republicans." But Reed boldly said that the precedents were wrong, pointing out that the word quorum, as used in the Constitution, meant a quorum of Members present and not merely a quorum of Members answering to the roll call. After prolonged debate, his ruling was sustained on appeal.
Thus was established the most important landmark in the whole parliamentary practice of the House. The Supreme Court subsequently sustained the constitutionality of the ruling (U. S. v. Ballin, 144 U.S. 1). Though in the two succeeding Congresses the Democrats reverted to the old rule, they later found themselves helpless and were forced by Reed to ratify Reed's precedent.Since that time. Reed's precedent has become section 3, rule XV, of the House. The good name of the House has been saved. The transaction of its business has been facilitated. Party responsibility has been strengthened. Reed's achievement stands as an enduring triumph for his vision, his courage, and his self-control.
More than half a century has passed and we have come to a day when millions of armed men are challenging not only the methods of democracy, but its capacity as an institution to survive under the laws of political biology. It is, therefore, peculiarly appropriate to commemorate today the man whose interpretation of a great democratic process preserved this House from paralysis and frustration. Unless the legislative branch of the Government can and will function efficiently, it is hardly in a position to exact efficiency from the administrative branch. On the other hand, an efficient legislature can exercise a powerful influence in the direction of orderly and competent administration which is superlatively necessary in time of war. When the machinery of military destruction is so mercilessly efficient, the people expect an analogous efficiency from the machinery of government. And there is some evidence of their doubt as to whether such efficiency exists.
The House has accordingly done well to commission Mr. Gutzon Borglum to do honor at this time to Reed's memory by the bust.
"Whatever may happen," Reed wrote in his farewell message to his constituents, "I am sure the first Maine district will always be true to the principles of liberty, self- government, and the rights of man." It is because the district has been true to these principles, that I take delight in acclaiming the example left us by this great man.
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