The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-06-14
AND IyP9rESr coNCI.U.

JOSEPH aPRIG6, vi ny.
OKEY JOHNSON. Of Wood.
ALAME AND I sI.,Si 'oSoi''
The annals CT Congress record no
more disgraceful termination Of SEES
sion than that which has just ended.
The psrtisaus Of GRANT displayed a
reckless contempt of truth, honor, and
propriety, that is enough to discredit
their cause with all decent men. Their
aim was to get new powers vested in
their candidate, to elect himself by
force. The Ku-Klux law, which en-
sbled him to drive in all the hsbitants
of county like sheep, and hold them
without accusation or trial, for as long
as be pleased, was to expire with this
session. All the vast net work OF lies
that had been spun to cover the enact
ment ofthe law had been brushed away
like cobwebs. Investigating Committees
bad found no combination for over.
throwing State or Federal power. They
could only hear Of such common crimes
az occur in any community. The law
was without excuse for its enactment,
much less for its continuance. In this
state Of things the partisans of GRANT
determine to get through Congress a
renewal Of this law, and an extension
of the enforcement law for the control
of elections. Thus they would hold
the country subject TO the two great
weapons OF Radcalism-force and
fraud.
The Ku-Klux law by its own pro-
visions, expired with the recent session.
The first proposal by B. F. BUTLER, for
which the GRANT partisans struggled
hard, was to evade the terms OF the law
by calling the adjournment recess"
and then claim that the session had not
come to an end. This dirty piece Of
mendacity which covers its authors
with disgrace, failed in the House
Then the Senate was made the scene of
the most infamous violation of decency
and usage, with view Of fraudulently
foisting into the appropriation bill the
enactments that the military candidate
needed. There stood in the way a rule
Of the Senate made at this very session,
as follows:
Resolped, That during the present ses-
sion it shall be in order at any time to
move a recess, and pending an appro-
priation bill to move to confne debate
Oh amendments thereto to FIVE minutes
by any Senator, on the pending motion
and such motion shall be decided with
out debate. And no amendment to any
such bill making Legislative provisions
other than euch as directly relate 10 the
appropriations contained in the bill
shall be received.
Not only was this rule violated, but
it was prostituted to serve fraudulent
purpose. The first part of the rule
was enforced; debate was limited to
five minutes, and then in defiance of
the second part Of the rule, the Enforce
ment bill was thrust into the Civil APP
preparation bill as an amendment. We
doubt if there ever was perpetrated a
greater outrage upon parliamentary
propriety. The shame of it attaches to
the cause in which this wrong was com.
mitted. 1t is for the fraudulent cleo
ton of their candidate that the parti-
sans Of GIANT have been laboring.
The Ku.Klux bill they failed to pass;
they got through a part of their En-
forcement bill; but in their efforts to do
30 resorted to means which the Hon.
WILLIAM D. KELLEY, Of Philadelphia,
denounced as deserving of the peniten-
tiary. He said that, as Pennsylvania
Judge, he had sentenced men to hard
labor for less crimes.
Such was the end Of the last session
Of Congress, disgraced by scandalous
violations of every pledge of reform
that has emansted from our military
candidate.
What, indeed, is the most common
engine Of fraud in every State Legisls-
ture? What is the device by which
every rascally end is accomplished
1t is by means Of eleventh hour
amendments, foreign to the subject of
the bill before the House.
This practice has now received the
sanction of the Senate of the United
States, in contempt of its own rule; and
the object was to get for the military
candidate the means Of re-electing him.
self by fraud and violence. lie and his
partisans share the shame of the foul
est transaction that ever disgrsced an
American Congress.
FOLLOWING the notices of meetings
held 10 the South to rstify the action of