, 1870-05-16
TIE FoRTY-FIRST CONGRESS,

Congress is drifting sereaely into the
warm days Of early summer. with a record
of hnying done nothing worth doing, and
with a strong probability that it will do
nothing. It has done nothing, did We say?
It has admitted the State of Mississippi,
because its Senator's name was Revels. It
has excluded Georgia, because its Senator'S
namo WIS not Bullock. It has matured,
with great Labor, IN the House, and Killed,
With small consideration, in the Senate,
most excellent Census bill, which would
have redeemed the census OF 1870 from the
nany absurdities and shortcomings Of TINT
Of 1SGO. Both houses Laya Einoe been pass
ing patchwork and dpiecemeal bills torenedy
the bl1nder committed BY the Senate
in. killing the carefully elaborated
Census bill which was SO much needed
Our next census, therefore, like cur last,
VIII give crude and often deceptive and
false returns relative to the number Of per-
sons sustained and the amount Of capital
employed in agriculture, manufactures and
mining, and few or none whatever relative
to the capital and labor employed, and
annual earning Of industry in Transports
ton, trade, mercantile pursuits, and con1-
merce, domestic and foreign. Whether
such bill will be passed as Will give the
Western States now the increased repre-
sentation in Congress to which their popu-
lation entities them, OF whether this JUS
tice viii be deferred I'LL after the next Con-
gress she'll be elected, We do not know But
We expect that this measure, being one Of
simple Justice, viii be deferred.
Three months having been spent upon q
Tariff bill without reach1ng the middle of
it, it mny confidently be predicted that this
question must go before the people for 1n-
s1uctions before = Congress will be assem-
bled capable Of handling il. We had hoped
that the simple, uneuba11assed policy of re-
duction of taxation to The amount of from
fifty to a hundred millions might, ut least. be
embodied into Law during this session, but
we see no prospect Of il, nor has a single
step been taken, nor Will there be, toward Il
resumption Of specie payments
We may be thankful. however, that Con
g1ess has escaped some very grave blum
ders, which it has zealously been
urged TO fall into. It has not yet
consented to send q press gang
into the banks to compel them to lend
money at per cent, thing it was thought
eminently wise, in some quarsets, to do. 1t
Il has not bought San Domingo, nor Cuba,
nor St Thomas, nor the Sandwich Islands,
nor New Zealand, though terms might have
been made for all of them, and it has made
fewer foolish and wicked appropriations oi
public money and public lands than its pred
ecessor- Still, its whole session has beer
un1eie7ed by the prospect Of single I'M
portant measure, by solitary debate thai
rosa above the commonplace, and, with ont
or two exceptions, by even really able
speech. It has discovered that thret
or four Of its own members, al
of whom happened to be carpet-baggeza
were vena1 and corrupt, and has expelled
portion Of them. How many more deserve
expulsion is left in painful Doubt In short
the present Congress has been Transition
Congress On the issue OF recon
st1uctiou, and called to act upon question
economical and financial on which it ha
been ad1ift, with not the first elementar
principle of economy or hnance defined
ngreed upon. A discussion IN the Ucu
menical Council on the best modes OF II
ducing the ores OF the precious metai
would erince not more happy 'snorane
Of the question than debate on the lA'
Of taxation and its effects upon commers
aud production when undertaken by 3 Coz