The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-12

In another part of this paper we publish a
list of the acts passed and appropriations
made at the late session of Congress 1t will
be seen from this reorganization that though
it was a session remarkable for its never
ending but still beginning windy speeches
and proftless partisan Debates it was still
session with an eye to business Leaving the
reader to digest the acts passed at his leisure,
we propose a brief consideration of this late
experiments and results, administration and
anti-administration.
In all cases and on all sides in Congress
the debates, the projects and measures OF leg
islation Immediately preceding Presidential
contest are closely, nay, exclusively consid-
cred in reference to their Presidential bear
ings Never was this rule more conspicuously
made manifest than in the daily proceedings
in both houses of the long session which has
just terminated. 1t was apparent from the
beginning that while the paramount object of
the administration republicans, the response
BILE majority of the two houses, was budget
Of Legislative measures which would commend
the administration and the party in power to
the approval of the people for another Presi-
Dental term, the leading objects of the demo-
Gratis, and particularly of the anti-Gnnt repub-
ican reformers, were to uncover and expose to
the people all the mistakes and weak points Of
the administration, to create a general agita-
ton upon them, to defeat oil legislative meas
ures calculated to serve the Presidential pur-
poses Of the dominant party, and in every
thing and in every possible way to weaken
General Grant as a candidate for the Presiden-
tial succession.
These facts, we say, were apparent from the
opening to the close Of this late long session
of Congress, as the animating purposes Of the
administration party and the opposition ele-
ments in both houses. And still another
important fact is established in this view of
the late session, and it is this that Senatorial
junta on each side, from December last down
to the late closing adjournment, assumed the
direction Of the party programme or plan Of
operations. Mr. Chandler OF Michigan Grant
republican,, has emphatically declared from
his place in the Senate that in November last,
ut New York hotel, there was a conference
between certain anti-Grant republicans and
certain leading democrats including two or
three Senators, at which an arrange
ment was made whereby a vigorous war
upon the administration was to be
opened and conducted by the anti-Grant
republicans, the democrats meanwhile to keep
quiet All this is positively affirmed by Sen
ator Chandler rs within his personal knowl-
edge even to the names of the parties con-
cerned in said November conference. For
our present purpose it will suffice that during
the late session the ti-Grant republicans did
open and prosecute vigorous war upon the
administration that the democrats did not
interfere in the battle, and that in the develop
ment Of the plan of the anti-G republicans
investigating committees were demanded and
conceded one after another, clearly showing
OF least on the part of Messrs. Sumner, Schurz
and other disaffected republicans-a deliberate
design to compass if possible, the overthrow
of the administration through the exposure Of
its alleged misdemeanors crimes and manifold
corr uptions.
So far, however, as this was the scheme of
the opposition elements for the defeat of Cen
eral Grant, it may be pronounced, from the
results Of these aforesaid investigating COM
mittees, a complete failure. There was next an
administration junta in the Senate, which,
from the outset, in the interests Of the domi-
nant party, assumed the direction Of its legis-
lative programme of the late session, and
notably upon the tariff and the Ku Klux and
To vUa hor
also to announce that this Senatorial junta in
assuming too much was properly rebuked by
the inconvenience and indignant protests of
the House Of Representatives; and if General
Grant is not thankful for these interventions
of the House, especially against the proposed
amendments of the Senate on the Ku Klux
and Congressional Election laws, he ought to
be. The House, jealous of its constitutional
rights, has very properly, in several instances,
put wholesome check upon the assumptions
Of the Senate, and through its good sense has
secured legislative reward for submission to
the Judgment much better than we had
expected in behalf Of the administration and
the republican party.
What is the legislative record Of the late
session? 1t is tax and tariff bill which
promises reduction of our internal and exter-
nal taxations to the extent of fifty three mil
lions of dollars. The bill, however, is not
free from artful lodges and unjust discrimina-
tons but as a compromise between ultra pro-
tectionists, ultra free traders and all varieties
of revenue reformers, '1et us Qike honest
Sanchez be thankful, bid God bless the
giver, nor look the gift horse in the mouth.
In the next place. on that notorious Wisconsin
Railway land stealing bill the issue was joined
between the reformers of all parties and the
land grabbers, and the result was and is re-
form victory, which means that there is an end
at last to these remorseless railroad land
grants. We wish we could say the same of the
steamship subsidy system but, nevertheless,
the war against this erroneous policy