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.
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...