"How can a question of bribery ever be raised or ever be investigated if the argu ments against this investigation prevail ? You do not suppose that the men who bribe or the men who are bribed will volunteer to furnish evidence against themselves ? You do not expect that impartial and unimpeachable witnesses will be present at the transaction ? Ordinarily, of course, if a claim like this be brought to the attention of the Senate from a respectable quarter that a title to a seat here was obtained by corrupt means, the Senator concerned will hasten to demand an investigation. But that is wholly within his own discretion and does not affect the due mode of procedure by the Senate. From the nature of the case, the process of the Senate must compel the persons who conducted the canvass and the persons who made the election to appear and disclose what they know; and until that process issue, you must act upon such information only as is enough to cause inquiry in the ordinary affairs of life.
"The question now is not whether the case is proved; it is only whether it shall be inquired into. That has never yet been done. It cannot be done until the Senate issues its process. No unwilling witness has ever yet been compelled to testify; no process has gone out which could cross state lines. The Senate is now to determine, as the law of the present case and as the precedent for all future cases, as to the great crime of bribery—a crime which poisons the waters of republican liberty in the foun tain—that the circumstances which here appear are not enough to demand its atten tion." For three oppressive July days the Senate gave almost all of its time to a bitter debate on the report. The name of the Standard was freely used. "The Senate of the United States," said Senator Frye, "when the question comes before it as this has been presented, whether or not the great Standard Oil Company, the greatest monopoly to-day in the United States of America, a power which makes itself felt in every inch of territory in this whole republic, a power which controls business, railroads, men and things, shall also control here; whether that great body has put its hands upon a legislative body and undertaken to control, has controlled, and has elected a member of the United States Senate, that Senate, I say, cannot afford to sit silent and let not its voice be heard in an inquiry as to the truth of the allegation." The majority report was adopted, however, by a vote of forty-four to seven teen. "The most unfortunate fact in the history of the Senate," said Senator Hoar.* For the time the matter rested, but only for the time. The failure to investigate rather intensified the convictions that Payne's seat was bought by the Standard Oil Company. In 1887 Mr. Payne voted against the Interstate Commerce Bill. "That is why he was put in the Senate," people said bitterly. The feeling became still more intense in r888. The question of trusts was before Congress. The Republicans had come out with an anti-trust plank in their platform; the Demo crats, in response to Mr. Cleveland's message, were declar ing the tariff the greatest trust-builder in existence, and call ing on their opponents for reform there if they were sincere in their anti-trust attitude. In this agitation the Standard Oil Company undoubtedly exerted its influence against all trust investigation and legislation. The charge became general that they were helping the Democrats. This is why they wanted a Democratic Senate. In September, 1888, when a phase of the question was before the Senate, Mr. Hoar, with his genius for asking far-reaching questions, said one day: "Is there a Standard Oil Trust in this country or not? . . . If there be such a trust, is it represented in the Cabinet at this moment? Is it represented in the Senate? Is it repre sented in the councils of any important political party in the country?" It was the first time that Mr. Payne had been sufficiently aroused to reply. "There is nothing whatever to sustain the insinuation which the honourable Senator conveys. I make
the declaration now for the first time, and it will be the last time I shall ever take notice of it. The Standard Oil Com pany is a very remarkable and wonderful institution. It has accomplished within the last twenty years of commercial en terprise what no other company or association of modern times has accomplished, but, Mr. President, I never had a dollar's interest in that company. I never owned a dollar of its stock; I never rendered it any service, and that company never ren dered me any service. On the contrary, when a candidate for the other House in 1871, no institution, no association, no combination in my district did more to bring about my defeat and went to so large an expense in money to accomplish it as the Standard Oil Company. . . .
"As a matter of fact, nine-tenths of the stockholders of the Standard Oil Company are now and always have been Republicans. Within my knowledge there are but two Demo crats who have ever been stockholders in that company." Farther on Mr. Payne interpolated this irrelevant remark: "Not only are the majority Republicans, but they are very liberal in their philanthropic contributions to charities and benevolent works, and I venture the assertion that two gen tlemen in that company have donated more money for philan thropic and for benevolent purposes than all the Republican members of the Senate put together." Mr. Payne's denial was not sufficient to silence Senator Hoar. He returned to the attack. It was a "general public belief," he declared, that the Standard Oil Company was represented in the Cabinet and Senate. He called attention to the newspapers' charge to that effect, and declared that he had received many personal letters charging that the Stand ard was helping the Democrats. He asked for information when he asked his question; he made no charges. Mr. Whit ney was the member of Mr. Cleveland's Cabinet to whom Senator Hoar referred, and he promptly, in a public letter, disclaimed all connection with the Standard Oil Company. Mr. Hoar said he "cheerfully accepted" the denial. As for Mr. Payne, he was not satisfied, and when Mr. Payne in heat replied to him, Senator Hoar closed his lips forever in a burst of biting sarcasm: "A Senator who, when the Governor of his state, when both branches of the Legis lature of his state complained to us that a seat in the United States Senate had been bought, when the other Senator from the state rose and told us that that was the belief of a very large majority of the people of Ohio without distinction of party, failed to rise in his place and ask for the investigation which would have put an end to those charges if they had been unfounded, sheltering himself behind the technicalities which were found by some gentlemen on both sides of this chamber, that the investigation ought not to be made, but who could have had it by the slightest request on his own part and then remained dumb, I think should forever after hold his peace. . . . I think few men ever sat in the Senate who would refrain from demanding an inves tigation under such circumstances, even if it were not required by the Senate itself. . . . There were Senators who thought that the admission of that Senator, the continuance of that Senator in his seat without investigation, indicated the low-water mark of the Senate of the United States itself." * And there the Payne case rested. It was never proved that the Standard Oil Company had contributed a cent to his election. It was never proved that his seat was bought, but the fact that, in the face of such serious charges, rehearsed constantly for four years, neither Mr. Payne nor the Standard Oil Company had done aught but keep quiet, convinced a large part of the country that the suspicion under which they rested was less damaging than the truth would be. In the minds of great numbers this silence was a confession of guilt. The Payne case certainly aggravated greatly the popular feeling that the Standard Oil Company was using the legis lative bodies of the country in its own interest.