In Congress he was a Populist, known for his oratory. Declaring himself to be a "friend to all humanity and a champion of liberty", he supported the Cuban rebels during their War of Independence, and during the Second Boer War introduced a resolution supporting the Boer Republics and banning the sale of military supplies and munitions to the British Empire. Repeatedly he called for resolutions condemning Czarist Russia over the issue of pogroms. In the Sixty-second United States Congress he chaired the Committee on Foreign Affairs, from which he proposed a resolution praising the Revolution of 1911. He also opposed United States intervention in the Mexican Revolution, and proposed a unanimously supported bill to annul the Treaty of 1832 with Russia due to a Russian refusal to recognize the passports of Jewish-Americans.