New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-05-17
EFFORTS At KU-KLUX LEGISLATION.


Gen. Butler yesterday threw off the trans
parent mask of the day before, and avowed
that his object in urging prolongation OF the
session of Congress by the subterfuge of
recess. was to effect by this trick the extern
sion of the Ku-Klux law over the time OF .the
Presidential election. His plan thus disclosed did
not appear to commend itself to the majority
of his colleagues in Congress. With his usual
insensibility to the impression he Is crea'ins'
he went ON insisting upon his motion III the
face of the repeated calls to order Oh the
Sneaker and the evident disapprobation OF the
House. Even when the previous question had
been decidedly refused him he continued TO
clamor for his position, and only after MIR.
Dawes's proposition for adjournment on the
3D. of June had been adopted by the enor-
mons majority of 142 to 81, did the General
seem to discover that his leadership OF the
House was not generally recognized.
This is the end of this Objectionable maneu-
yer in the House Of Representatives. But an
effort will be made to-day in the Senate to
push through bill for the extension of the
Ku-Klux act for period covering the cleo
tons in November. 1t is certainly to be hoped
that this measure will meet with the same
fate in the Senate as in the House.
We have been accustomed TO consider
the less numerous Chamber. as less liable than
the more popular one to hasty judgments
or corrupt action. But every one must have
observed with regret In recent years that
there was certainly no greater indepeEd-
cnce among Senators than among Representa-
tives, il indeed the difference were not IN
favor of the latter. 1t would have been scarcely
possible for the President to effect the removal OF
prominent representative from the head OF
his Committee with that ease with which he
displaced Mr.. Sumner. A Senate which num-
bers among its leading members such unques-
toning adherents of power as Messrs. Morton,
and Conkling, and Carpenter, can scarcely be
relied upon in q contest where the wishes OF
the Administration are arayed upon one side,
and nothing but law, and justice, and
common decency on the other. So that the
result of the effort in the Senate to force
through some further legislation depTiving the
Southern States of self-government, on the
pretext of an alleged reign of anarchy and
violence which has ceased to exist, will still
be looked for with some interest and no GER
tainty.
Whatever the Senate may do, it is not prob
able that any DISTINGUISHING policy can receive
at this time the sanction Of both Houses. For
the credit and lingering prestige OF the Sen
ate, it is still to be hoped that they will do
nothing so discredtable as to inflict upon the
now quiet South the unprovOked insult and
injury of continued military rule. There Is
an impropriety too manifest for discussion
in the proposal to put the sword for
the canvass into the hands of a candidate for
the Presidency. This was recognized in the
House of Representatives yesterday, as, Of
course, many of those who voted against Gen.
Buffers immodest proposition were friends
and partisans of Gen. Grant who do
not wish to see him elected under any
such stain as would be fastened upon
him by such legislation at this moment.
The whole movement was marked by
a lack of tone, which was not remarkable
when We consider where it originated, and
for whose service it was designed. But the
fact of its prompt failure in the House was
one of the many encouraging signs, of which
the horizon is now full, of the apparent be-
ginning of emancipation from the shackles of
mere party expediency. When a partisan
leader finds there is no magic in the cry of
party interests when it is uttered for the
support of political immortality, he is well
on the way to reformation. A few more ex-
periences like those of to-day would go far to
prove even to Mr.. Butler that pennyworth
of conscience would be as valuable to him as
great deal of his incOntestable stiffness.