New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-06-18
NEW ORLEANS REPUBLICAN, TUESDAY, JUNE is, 1872


that wickedness which is nature with its
companion The fool that strikes in igno-
rance Is always entitled to our sympathy
before the counsel who hires to make the
worse appear the better cause
The bayonet bill was rejected by Con-
gress as being wholly unnecessary, i'm
polite and anti-republican Its friends
were seriously in need of the law and they
resorted to trick to obtain its passage,
which vas by inserting it in the sundry
appropriation bill They accomplished
this measure in the Senate by repeating a
rule of thirty years standing; to the effect
that no amendment shall be attached to a
bill that is not german to the subject.
The independent Senators voted against
suspending the rule, and they also voted
against the amendment, but the Grant
force was strong enough to carry it. In
the House Of Representatives the opposi-
ton was too strong and the Grant minor
ity resorted to another trick. They said to
the opponents Of the measure that if the
sundry appropriation bill, which was
necessary measure, was referred to a com
mittee Of conference, the Objectionable
amendment would be stricken out They
promised that it should be dropped from
the bill With this understanding the
bill was referred and in the committee the
amendment vas adhered to, which was an
act Of bad faith. but it was remodeled and
its worst features stricken out. When the
measure was reported back to the House
the opposition still insisted upon defeating
the entire BILL appropriations and all, but
after long debate the enemies Of the
measure consen' ed to vote for the amend
ment in order to allow of the passage Of
the appropriation bill.
This relation of facts reveals to the
country how Congress was tricked into the
passage Of a bad law, first by the suppress
sion of very old and salutary rule, and
secondly by the annexing of it to a neces-
sary bill How this fraud was considered
in the House of Representatives by the in
telligent and honest Republicans is very
forcibly stated by Judge Kelley, of Penn
sylvania, the same member who was
mobbed in Mobile a few years ago.
say, Mr.. Speaker, that gentlemen who
are as Radical as | am went with or in adj
vance Of me, to gentleman on the other
side of the House, and said, 1.-THE circum-
afa mo- rTCl ~, y
dFawal OF this amendment TO which YOU OBJ
ject; you can not be deceived should you
let the bill go to a conference" But they |
knew the impregnabl6 strength of their DO |
sitiOn, and not yet did they yield. They |
hesitated and inquired, and did not yield |
until from the Speakers chair they received |
assurance that the report of a conference |
committee was subject to all the dilatory |
motions to which any other measure would |
be. In my conversations with them had /
given them assurance that if by any perad-
venture they lost position or power, would |
cooperate with them in resisting the pas
sage Of the bill embodying the amendment |
in question, and / make this motion in re-
demptiOn, not alone of my word, but of the
pledges of others If this action bring upon
me condemnation, shall not heed it,
could not 60 through the world maintain
ing my selt-respect if failed to make every
effort in my power to have this report 20
back to the committee of conference.
If b1r. Kelley, an honest and independent
could not indorse the way in
which this measure was tricked through
Congress by being attached to a bill with
which it had no connection whatever, it is
passing strange that the Picaya,ae can in.
lorse it as a proper and wholesome piece
If legislation.
The Citizens Guard is obliged to defend
he bayonet bill, and we sympathize with
t in its labor Of necessity; but thata paper
to be independent and capable
hOuld indorse a measure which the entire
strength of the country has
condemned as not only wicked and i'm
polite in its terms, but of a fraudulent
,rigin, can only be accounted for on the
that it is bound by secret
reaty to be the friend of whatever offers
n opportunity to the friends Of General
4rant.
Our reflection is that this bad law will
,rove a calamity to its originators, for,
history being our instructor, no party ever
nacted an evil measure but it returned
n some way to plague its inventors. If
General Grants supporters have to bear
he blame of this wicked enactment and
re beaten out Of its fruits, they will only
uffer as other mistaken men have suffered
efore them.