as our honour goes, the passing of such a resolution would affect us
as deeply as if it were to become a law. We should stand before the
world as willing and ready to violate the national honour, ignore our
pledges and recklessly impair our credit. I don't think the resolution
will pass the House, the Republican majority is too strong there, but
I am afraid it will pass the Senate; although we are in the majority,
a good many Republicans are Western men and Silverites. A certain
number on both sides of the Chamber are voting merely to please their
constituents, feeling reasonably sure that the resolution will fail in
the House. They appear to care little for the honour of the Senate;
they certainly have not the backbone to defy their constituents if
they do care for it. To the outside world the Senate is a unit; every
resolution that passes it might come out of one gigantic skull at
peace with itself. This one will be passed by a small majority who
have not imagination enough to read the works of future historians,
nor even to grasp public opinion as unexpressed by their constituents.

"There is one fact that the second-rate politician never grasps," he
said, walking impatiently up and down; Betty had never seen him so
restless. "That is, that the true American respects convictions; no
matter how many fads he may conceive nor how loud he may clamour for
their indulgence, when his mind begins to balance methodically again,
he respects the man who told him he was wrong and imperilled his own
re-election rather than vote against his convictions. Many a Senator
has lost re-election through yielding to pressure, for elections do
not always occur at the height of a popular agitation; and when men
have had time to cool off and think, they despise and distrust the
waverer. If you will read the biographies in the Congressional
Directory, you will see that with a very few exceptions the New
Englanders are the only men who come back here--to both Houses--term