Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-08-19
yIcc.Presldent COlrax on the Situation.

next HOUSE of Representatives with more
confidently expressed hopes of victory
than for many years past; and II is timely
at this moment to examine into the
grounds of these sanguine expectations.
They can be summed up as follows:
They have dwarfed, If not ignored,
the differences existing In their own
ranks on funding the debt and how. u
should be paid, It's taxation, etc, on which
go many prominent Eastern Democrats
disagree 30 radically, with their brethren
in the West. They have hopes that, re-
constrictive legislation having been vir-
tuallv completed the new issues as to the
finances, the tariff, internal taxation, and
foreign policy may tend to disintegrate,
and thus render powerless, the hitherto
compact and invincible Republican pha-
lanx. They draw encouragement, too, |
from disaffections as TO patronage and |
the fact that victory for ten consecutive |
years, embracing three Presidential con-
tests, tends 70 weaken O party 80 long in |
power, giving Its opponents more oppor- |
tunities for attack. but their highest |
hope Is In thesevere and sweeping criti- |
cisms OF Congress, during the recent ses-
sion, BY prominent and Influential Repub-
lican papers, editors, and correspondents,
permanently alternating tens of thousands,
as they trust, and thus, If their theory is
correct, converting the Republican ma
iority Of the past into minority, ready to
be overthroWn by the united forces Of the
Democracy, energized now by their long
exile from power, and animated by the
zeal and confidence with which they are
preparing for the contest.
1t needs, however, only thorough unity,
and energy worthy of their principles,
and zeal hkin to that which has given
them 30 meny brilliant victories, to enable
ha lfy,,, 1fSts,,u M haf1Ia oil fhpce homes
as they have, baffled them before, and to
place their nag again in triumph on the
Capitol. tCoDtests in which our oppo-
neats opt1ied more hopefully than now
have resulted in their defaat. Even the
CongreseiOnal contest of 1869, when the
Democracy carried every Northern State
from therAtlantict to the Mississippi, was
saved FOR the right by unexpected victo-
Ties in the Border States OF the South
And the 6reater contest of 1864, when,
after the denomination of President Lin.
coin, disaffections in our ranks led to
rival national convention and nomina-
tions, and up to August defeat seemed
possible, was, by the energy and unity of
the Succeeding months, converted at last
into tho most magnificent political and
national victory ever won in this country.
1t iSeGY to criticise Congress-nay, it
is popular to do so. The dangers to the
was President, caused these criticisms to
be suspended, after the issue was clearly
manifest to the people; for they realized
then, as never before, the value and the
powef1of that Congress. But, with that
danger removed, it became uneasy again,
with the tendency to criticism so marked
among our independent thinkers, ard
never to be deprecated except when car
ried 10 excess, TO review sharply and com
LIT, q n
these in power. Let us look calmly at
some OF these complaints.
All through the session there was fault
finding at the differences in Congress as
TO financial plans, and their failure to
agree till near the period of adjournment.
But in these differences, be it remember
ed, the Republican majority exactly repre-
sentedatheA people behind them. Take
one hundred oftthe leading Republican
papers of the nation, from Maine to Cali
iornia, last winter and spring, aud you
will find precisely the same conflict CT
opinions. Nay, more, assemble at that
tlmGone hundred of the leading Repub
licans of any State, and insist that they
should agree on o specific financial plan,
and you would have found the same di-
vergeLce in their views. What was final
ly agreed on, after months of debate and
comparison Of plans, will briefly allude
TO hereafter.
While the appropriation bills were
passing through the two branches Of Con-
gress, the people were almost led to be-
heve that the Senate especially were load
ing them down with almost innumerable
andindefensible, it not profligate, amend
ments. The 25G amendments of that body
to the Legislative, Executive and Judicial
Appropriation bill were specially and
severely criticised, as sll will remember
What were they? A half dozen, on
which there were no party divisions in
the Senate, and which were finally aban.
doned atgthe demand OF the House, en-
braced such items as the extension of the
Capitol grounds; new State Depart
ment which is now occupying a former
orphan asylum, not fire.prooI and the
increase OF, the salaries OF United States
Judges-the Supreme judges receiving
now S2,0 900 per year less than the Cabinet
and "a 600 per year less than the Pol ce
Justiecs of New York city. Nearly all
the remainder of these multitudinoua
amendments, about Z" the piling on OF
whieh5by the Senate" 80 much was said
related to the clerical force of the depart.
ments, the sub.treasuries, custom houses
etc. The House had retrenched in all oi
them severely. The Senate preferred to
follow the estimates of the Administers
ton And, as nearly every paragraph in
the bill contained one or more items oi
thislkind, the number of Senate amend.
ments needed to bring up the curtailed
House bill TO the official estimates seemed
extraordinary. may add that in the
Conference Committee an average of the
views of the two Houses was settled on
perhaps more wisely than the extreme
vieWsOf either. Many similar charges
couldsbe as easily explained.
From these critinIsms alaO vast mum.
bers OF the people doubtless inferred that
lobbyists tor subsidies, etc, were trium-
phant as never before. When Congress
adjourned, however, it was found that
neither the Senate nor the House had voted
a single dollar out of the Treasury for
Subsidies to steamboat lines, to Mississippi
levees, to railroads, or to private or public
companies of any character. With river
and lake commerce estimated at $11 ,500
100000 per yesr, River and Harbor I'm.
proVement bill of 100000 Qess than
one-third of one per cent? had passed; but
this had been usual under all administra
tlona And land grant bills which had
passed the Senate all failed in the House
except two-the Supplemental North Pa
citic, and one through country noun
famous and mainly unsettled, from Port
land, OREGON 10 Astoria, at the mouth Of
the Oolumbia River.
Let usturn from this brief review oI
the structures to which have alluded, to
an equally abbreviated statement of what
has been done by the Republican Admin
istratioR and Congress for which it de
serves well OF the country.
1.Rseoaslructfon. When Congress con.
vened, last December, four of the insur.
rectionary States were still unrestored so
theirspractical relations to the Govern,
ment" When it adjourned, in July, they
were all restored, and every star ON ouI
banner symbolztd State.
2. TIE F'ytee1lh amendment. Not only
was this. irreyersible guarantee of equal
rights and selfprotection enshrined in our
National Constitution, but Congress en-.
actedlegislation, against The bitterest op