For
instance, it was held that a bay over six miles between headlands
gave free ingress so long as vessels kept three miles from shore
--a doctrine which, if applied to Long Island Sound, Delaware
Bay, or Chesapeake Bay, would have impaired our national
jurisdiction over those waters. Senator Frye of Maine took the
lead in a rub-a-dub agitation in the presence of which some
Democratic Senators showed marked timidity. The administration of
public services by congressional committees has the incurable
defect that it reflects the particular interests and attachments
of the committeemen. Presidential administration is so
circumstanced that it tends to be nationally minded; committee
administration, just as naturally, tends to be locally minded.
Hence, Senator Frye was able to report from the committee on
foreign relations a resolution declaring that a commission
"charged with the consideration and settlement of the fishery
rights... ought not to be provided for by Congress." Such was the
attitude of the Senate towards the President on this question,
that on April 13, 1886, this arrogant resolution was adopted by
thirty-five ayes to 10 nays. A group of Eastern Democrats who
were in a position to be affected by the longshore vote, joined
with the Republicans in voting for the resolution, and among them
Senator Gorman of Maryland, national chairman of the Democratic
party.
* See "The Path of Empire," by Carl Russell Fish (in "The
Chronicles of America").
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