No, Sir, let us guard it as one of the best possessions of our common country,--guard it loyally, so that it shall continue without diminution or spot.

Not Backward, but Forward, must be our watchword in the march of civilization.

Having known your father and sons for many years, having lived within a stone-throw, so to say, of your house for a number of years, and being one of the Senators of your State, I cannot hesitate to give you my testimony relative to the…

As to what concerns personal situation, importance of affairs, success, solvency, wealth, and fidelity to the Government of the United States, your house has for a long time occupied a front rank, not only in the State of New York, but…

The allegation that you lack experience as a manufacturer of arms, or in anything that can, as a man of business, entitle you to respect, is, I can affirm in all sincerity, destitute of foundation, and must proceed from ignorance or…

It is impossible to read these repeated allusions to “the Government” and “the Chief of Ordnance” without feeling that the witness was dealing directly in this quarter.

On this cumulative and concurring testimony from six different sources is it not plain that there must be inquiry?

The resolution of the committee of the French Assembly alone would be enough; but reinforced as it is from so many different quarters, the case is irresistible.

Not to inquire is to set at defiance all rules of decency and common-sense.

The Senator from Missouri has already exposed this apparent dereliction of duty, which in its excess ended in actually disarming the country, so as to impair its defensive capacity.

It is important to consider whether, in the strange greed for money or in the misfeasance of subordinates, something similar was not done when good arms were sold to France.

Unquestionably there are enormous discrepancies between the sums paid by France for arms actually identified as coming from our arsenals and the sums received by our Ordnance Bureau.

I do not believe that any inquiry by any committee can give back to France any of the enormous sums she has lost.

Not for the sake of France or of any French claimant do I propose inquiry, but for our sake, for the sake of our own country.

We read of that vast Serbonian bog “where armies whole have sunk.” It is important to know if there is any such bog anywhere about our Ordnance Office, where millions whole have sunk.

The Chamber, in consigning this matter to its pigeonholes, refused satisfaction to an awakened public morality.

There is, then, in France an awakened public morality, as we hope there is also in the United States, which demands investigation where there is suspicion of corrupt practices.

President, as a Republic, we are bound to the most strenuous care, so that our example may not in any way suffer.

If we fail, then does Republican Government everywhere feel the shock.

For the sake of others as well as of ourselves must we guard our conduct.

How often do I insist that we cannot at any moment, or in any transaction, forget these great responsibilities!

As no man “liveth to himself,” so no nation “liveth” to itself; especially is this the condition of the Great Republic.

By the very name it bears, and by its lofty dedication to the rights of human nature, is it vowed to all those things which contribute most to civilization, keeping its example always above suspicion.

For myself I have but one desire, which is, that this effort, begun in the discharge of a patriotic duty, may redound to the good of our country, and especially to the purity of the public service.

The act is wrong in itself, and the penalty results from his violation of moral duty as well as of law.