Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-06-27
ResuIt. Of the First Session Of the Thirty
sixth Congress. Isf


sixth Congross. r
Congress has adjourned, with rather more
than the usual di9order and hasty Legislation
at the close. The confusion is not yet suf-
ficiently cleared up TO reveal all that il has
done and left undone, but enough is apparent
to show. that the session has been failure.
The same ruinous financial course that has
condemned Mr.. Buchanan's administration,
has been continued under Republican plu-
rality. The course Of the opposition would
seem TO have been so plain that he that ran
might read; either to limit appropriations
to the income, or to insist that addi-
tiond means should precede additional
appropriations The first would have
been preferable. The expenditures of
this government can be reduced to its present
revenue. The natural position of the OPP
position in any government is against increas-
ing the expenditures and in favor Of cutting
down appropriations in every possible way.
But the opposition in Congress helped to add
about twenty millions TO the requirements of
the Secretary, without waiting to see whether
their revenue measure would be passed.
Their tariff-bill broke down from its pro-
tective enormities; at the last moment they
were compelled to submit To a twenty-million
loan-bill, which only transfers the same
amount Of treasury-notes into permanent
debt aud leaves the government unpro-
vided with means to meet the extra appro-
priations, unless the Administration can
lind some loop-hole by which it can reissue
the treasury-notes. The result is the same,
debt of twenty or thirty millions for the
year, whether it is carried along in defcien-
cies or in treasury-notes. 1t could hardly
have been worse with clear Democratic ma
lority in the House. The failure is worse
than the previous Democratic 6nanCiering OF
of the same kind, because il indicates that Re-
publican ascendency will bring no relief and
because it grows out Of the recklessness OF
expenditure which is the consequence OF
protective theories. No expenditure can
be regarded extravagant when tax
alton is held to be a blessing; and
the rapid accumulation of public debt
only makes ultimate high duties inevitable,
and high duties are protection to American
industry: in the language OF the Chicago
Platform, they secure to the working man
liberal wages, to agriculture remunerative
prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an
adequate reward for their skill, labor and en-
terprise, and to the nation commercial pros
perity and independence What pleasing
picture and all within our reach, by onl.
increasing the expenditures and adding th'
amount to the taxes He who advocates
economy in government expenditures, is thu
worst enemy of his country He wants Il
deprive the working man of his wages. ant
the country of its prosperity .+
None of the great measures of the session
have been carried. The Homestead Bill wa
compromised to meet the opposition of th
Senate, and changed SO as to give apre-emp
ton to heads of families on every alternat
section of the public lands, at twenty-fv
cents an acre, and then was vetoed by MI
Buchanan. The attitude of the Democrat
party in Congress and the veto show tina
however much Ohio Democratic Convention
may resolve in favor of a Homestead Law,
is not Democratic measure, and can neve
pass except against almost united Soutl
It is plain enough that every additional il
ducement offered to settlers in the Territorie
decreases the chances of the South in con
peting for their possession. Laboring em
grants and small farms are hostile to slavery
and as the South seem, enormously, we thinl
10 regard extension as necessary to th
preservation of slavery, opposition to-
Homestead law is to them nothing but tn
instinct of self-preservation.
Kansas was refused admission into Ii
Union for no other reason than because sh
presented herselfwit Constitution prohibi
ing slavery. 1t is said that madness is fort
runner of destruction. There could not hay
been much hope for the future of the DemC
cratic party, when it deliberately determine
TO keep this fatal issue before the the peop
through another canvass, and to place itse
in the position of refusing admission to
State which has now a greater populatio
than two States of the Union, for no 9th,
reason than because it has exercised the rigl
which all Democratic platforms concede,
regulating its own domestic institutions.
Inefficient as the Republican plurality
the House has been, the Democratic party
- both Houses have shown nothing but rec
lessness as to the condition of the countr
seeming TO regard themselves as reliev
from responsibility, and the ruinous state
public affairs as only increasing the burde
to be transferred to a. Republican Admi
istration. The Republicans have been
judicious enough to aid them in this work
benevolence, and between the two stools I
country has been allowed to come to
ground. sr.l'