New-York tribune., 1868-03-04
THE MOST SOLEMN DEMOCRATIC Pro

III this was the opinion the queen IN HamIeJ
had of the player Queen, what would she have
said had she had the happiness TO read the
protest of the Democratic members of the
House7 These gentlemen, in q long and not
too fascinating document, protest and protest
more times than we have time to count They
may be the more easily excused for doing so,
as under the circumstances they could do little
else. In Bunyan's fable is described the par
alytic giant Pope, who sat at the door OF his
cave, mumbling a bone and shaking useless
club and vainly protesting against the passage
Of the pilgrims to the Celestial City. 1t is
fortunate that the forty-fve gentlemen are as
powerless as the dilapidated giant, and that
the worst they can do is to curse, with ninety
nine separate curses, the loyal representatives
of the people.
According to their remarkable statement,
these forty-fve innocents have been horribly
mangled 10y the one hundred and forty-three
villains who constitute the Republican party in
the House. First they were gagged, then they
were knocked down, then crippled, then
silenced, then compelled, then stripped, then
degraded, Then broken down, then gagged
again, and generally cruciied and tOmented
ment, without a copy Of The Globe as an anti
dote, might form very singular opinions.
Future generations would be hOrrOr-struck,
believing that Speaker Colfax had bunged Mr..
Brookss eve, and that Gen. Butler had coun-
tered on John Morrissey's conk. They would
see the infuriate Boutwell, manglng the pros
trate body of the mild Fernando Wood; the
tigerish Garfield stamping on the neck OF the
lamblike Eldridge; and the fiend BrOomall OF
Pennsylvania impaling the childlikc and unre-
sistng Ross The hiSorian would write of the
fearful massacre of the forty-iye Democratic
saints, and the painter would exhaust his
crimson in depicting on canvas the blood
stained floor Of the House.
Surely, from this protest no one would gather
the modest truth that the one hundred and
forty-three Republican Neros had been guilty
of no other crime than gently, but firmly,
obliging these forty-fve unlucky Demo
crats to shut their unfortunate mouths and
hold their ill-fated tongues. Nor would 1t be
supposed, from the fury of this protest, that
the Republican Caligulas had themselves sub
mitted to the same crucltics which they ON
posed upon the Democratic Melancthons No
one would infer that while forty-five Democratic
Demosthcncses were holding their reluctant
Jaws double that number Of Republican Ciceros
were compelled to restrain their eloquent gaOs.
Yet so it was. The rules were made for the
whole House, and by all the members alike
were they endured. The executiOner laid his
head upon the block, side by side with the
head of the victim, and the Ak fell, as the rain
does, upon the just and the unjust together.
The forty-fve outraged and sneezed-at Demo
cratic martyrs entitle this document their
"most solemn protest" and every one of the
numerous times they so entitled il they must
have singled and suickered prodigiously. We
have no doubt that even the most solemn
Brooks snickcred audibly, and that the most
melancholy Wood giggled so much that no
could hardly do his duty, rs good Democrat,
and CRY. Gagged! Lord bless us! we should
like to see any gag that would shut the mouth
of Democratic orator Tramped upon! Why,
who does not know, and has not admired, the
high-stepping fandangos which these Demo
cratic statesmen have been performing On the
floor of Congress for two years? Every man of
them is an acrobat, capable of standing SIX
hours at time poised on one toe on the point
of point of order. Read the debates in the
House, and wonder till wonder is exhausted at
the sprightly way in which these fOrty-fve
Crushed Victims OF the Radical Juggenaut
turn their defiant somersaults under the
Speakers nose. Put down one, and up pops
another. Knock Niblack's hat over his eyes,
and behold Chanler precipitates himself at the
Reporters gallery Make Robinson take his feet
of his desk, and behold Pruyn is keeping half
q dozen law books, like juggler's balls, up in
q, 10 iQylt n
try to keep down forty five devils in band
boxes as these forty-fve experienced guerrllas,
who skirmish with points of order, these Be-
douins who fight flying, these oratorical pos
sums who sleep with one eye and watch with
the other. Rules for these gentlemen We
should think so; and let whoever makes the
rules make them good and strong. A mllzzle
that would settle Siberian wolf, any one of
these bleating lambs would tear to pieces in
second. SO, Mr.. Rulemaker, do your work
well; for let us whisper one word, magic
word, dear to Democratic ears as the name of
Freedom to the slave FILiBUsTER! You
know what that means, Mr. Eldridgo. You
know, Mr.. Brooks. You have faint
recollection of it, Mr.. Kerr Don't it recall to oil
of you the happy days, not long ago. when you
rallied under the black banner with "Filibuster"
for its legend, and planted it in the Radical
campi For nights and days you kept that
noble flag in the citadel of tho enemy. You
fought under it, slept under it, had oysters
and ale for supper under it, smoked cigars
under it, and snapped your innocent fingers
under it, in the face Of your blOodthirsty
tyrants. That was the way you badgered the
Republican usurpers,-and contested every inch
of the ground you knew you would have to
abandon in the end. You delayed, though you
could not prevent the passage Of bill after bill,
and I'm thnse days there was great fnn in Com