The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1871-03-17
THE REPUBLICAN BLUNDER.

There is scarcely prominent Repnb-
lican journal in the country but has ex-
pressed deep regret over the causeless
degradation of Senator Sumner at the
hands of Republican Senators. Had
Mr.. Sumner been unfaithful or
incompetent in the discharge Of
his grave duties as Chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, or
had he become estranged from the Re-
publican party, and had ceased to act in
harmony with its spirit and principles,
then there would have been good
ground for the removal but even then
it should never have been done at the
instance or for the purpose of pleasing
the President. The members of the
different Congressional Committees do
not receive their places at the hands
of the Chief Magistrate, and he has no
more right to say that such a man shall
not, but that such another man shall,
be chairman of this or that committee
than he has TO say that Horace Greedy
shall cease to be editor of the n. Y.
Tribune.
No one, however much he has disa-
greed with Mr.. Sumner upon questions
of public moment, has ever dared to say
that he has not discharged his duties as
Chairman of the important committee,
from which he has just been removed,
with signal fidelity and ability. We
doubt if the President himself would
contend for a moment that the Senator
has been wanting in these respects.
Nor would any sane person seriously
claim that Mr.. Sumner had proved
false to his party. No good ground
can, therefore, be discovered from
which to plead in extenuation of this I'M
fortunate act of the Senatorial caucus
which, for Mr.. Sumner, is an unjust deg
radiation, and, for the Republican party,
an irreparable blunder. There has been
but one precedent for it in the history
of our government, and that was an act
equally infamous and disastrous to the
party, whose Senators were responsible
for it. This was the removal of Stephen
A. Douglas from the head of the Com
mittee on territories at the instance of
James Buchanan, because that eminent
Senator was. hostile to the admission of
Kansas with bogus constitution which
her people had never ratified and
which Mr.. Buchanan was determined
| should be forced upon her.
This attempt to degrade the Massa-
chusetts Senator will only elevate him
in the peoples esteem and sympathy,
while it will lower our President hun
bred fold. AS for those Senators who
consented to become Grants servile
and cowardly tools in order to humor
his dislike of Mr.. Sumner, no debase-
ment, of whatever magnitude, could be
too great for them.
Great as is the cOwardice, and Ia
mentable as the servility is with which
these Senators have acted, more dis
graceful still to them, and more in
insulting to the Republican party, was
the elevation of Simon Cameron to the
Craftsmanship left vacant by Mr.. Sum-
ner's removal. Mr.. Cameron is the
soul of all political chicanery and I'M
cleanness. Mr.. Lincoln reluctantly
yielded to party pressure, in 1861, and
gave him seat in his cabinet, but he
soon yielded to the moral pressure
which demanded his removal. He hur-
ried him off to foreign court in order
that the party might be spared the dis
grace which knowledge of his thiev-
ings would have made it feel. Morally,
the worst public man in the party; he
is, intellectually, wholly incompetent
for the discharge of those grave duties
Mr.. Sumner has, with such matchless
ability, performed. At such time as
this, especially, when joint high COM
mission appointed by England and this
Government for the settlement of inn
portant questions in dispute, is this APP
pointment an unfortunate one? 1t is
substituting, at this trying moment, in
capacity for ability, ignorance for
knowledge, villaiuy for uprightness,
and cowardice for manly courage
and firmness. This act has disgraced
the party, weakened the administration
and Inundated the whole country.