The President's position was that he was
not accountable to the Senate in such matters. In his message of
the 1st of March he said: "The pledges I have made were made to
the people, and to them I am responsible for the manner in which
they have been redeemed. I am not responsible to the Senate, and
I am unwilling to submit my actions and official conduct to them
for judgement."
While this contest was still going on, President Cleveland had to
encounter another attempt of the Senate to take his authority out
of his hands. The history of American diplomacy during this
period belongs to another volume in this series,* but a
diplomatic question was drawn into the struggle between the
President and the Senate in such a way that it requires mention
here. Shortly after President Cleveland took office, the fishery
articles of the Treaty of Washington had terminated. In his first
annual message to Congress, on December 8, 1885, he recommended
the appointment of a commission to settle with a similar
commission from Great Britain "the entire question of the fishery
rights of the two governments and their respective citizens on
the coasts of the United States and British North America." But
this sensible advice was denounced as weak and cowardly. Oratory
of the kind known as "twisting the lion's tail" resounded in
Congress. Claims were made of natural right to the use of
Canadian waters which would not have been indulged for a moment
in respect of the territorial waters of the United States.
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