National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-12-18
THE HORRILL Bill.

III III OLALt4LL DILL
The plan of the joint select committee
appointed by Congress last spring to de-
wise form of government for the District
of Columbia, which is embodied in the
Morrill, bill, cannot, ii is very evident be-
come law in the brief time that remains
of the present Congress. And in the next
Congress there is not much prospect that it
will be ever heard of or seen. We do not
regret the fate which is so rapidly over
taking it; the bill ought to be killed. pri-
mariIy because it is, as Mr.. Morton charac-
terized it in the Senate yesterday, anti-Re-
publican in the spirit and the letter. indie
pendently of this, it is clumsy and intricate
in its details, and would bring us no i'm
provement whatever in the management of
our affairs. Again, it is unjust inasmuch
as it provides a rate of taxation which is
onerous in the extreme. In a word,
the general criticism may be passed
upon the bill that it does not satisfy
anybody except the gentlemen who have
drawn it. Mr.. Morrill, and the gentlemen
associated with him have undoubtedly
given the subject good deal of considera-
ton, and he is entitled to the thanks of our
citizens for the labor and pains bestowed
upon his 'little hook, ," as Mr.. Thurman
calls it, but he and his co-laborers started
out upon a wrong and false theory, and he
must not be surprised or angered if his
production is so amended that it will be
impossible for him TO recognize it; or if,
which is more probable, it is consigned
to the oblivion of the file-rooms and the
calendar that will never be called.
In the Senate yesterday the lines were
pretty fairly and unmistakably drawn
upon the bill, or rather upon what an
evening contemporary is occasionally so
facetious over, the principle" involved in
it. Nj. Morton and Mr.. Thurman came
to the front upon opposing sides, the one a
Republican and the other Democrat, the
former against restriction of the suffrage
hcle and the latter in favor of its total abo-
1ition. That Mr.. Morton should take the
ground he did is not surprising. In the
body Of which he is a member he is in the
foremost rank of its leaders and statesmen,
with a record of proud achievement and
VII " q 81 IL Z NChOA4OA " AAGpuBllSdI lJllLl-
ciples and ideas. To be consistent he
could not have done anything else. But
how about Mr. Thurman? A Democrat
he has lost all faith in Democracy, while
in the literal, and not the partisan, mean
ing of the word implies a govern
ment by the people and of the
people. He wants a government
of the aristocracy, of the select few. Mr.
Thurman would not dare to present the
ideas he presented in the Senate yesterday
TO the meanest and most insignificant con-
StituenCy in his own State. If he dared TO
do so they would ride him out of town,
tarTed and feathered, within the hour
Why can he not be consistent, as Mr.. Nor
ton is? Why does he not stand by his
principles and the principles of his party?
Why, it is only month since he addressed
a serenading party in this city, cOngratu-
lating them upon the great victory they
had won. Then, on the night of Novem-
Der s.. he told the men gathered around
lis house with music and banners that he
had unalterable faith in them-''the peo-
pie that they lad been always right,
were right then, and he knew they would
be right in the future. He was willing to
trust the Government to them, &c. But
Mr.. Thurman yesterday forgot all this,
and announced from his seat in the SEN
ate, announced TO the same people who
serenaded him only six weeks ago, that he
could not trust them with the management
Of their own local affairs. There he
stands, relCcontradicted, Substituted.
In this whole matter we contend for the
'principlc, " the principle that in this coun-
try there can be no taxation without repre-
sentatiOn; that over every single inch of this
Republic the people shall have the right to
manage their own affairs in their own way.
Last night and the night before our citi-
zens crowded the Capitol to renew the
pledges their fathers gave one hundred
years before at the risk of their lives and
fortunes TO the principle of local govern
ment Next morning the same walls, the
same Capitol re-eOched the sonOrous SEN
fences Of Mr.. Thurman repudiatingal all that
il heard the night before What farce
and fraud and a sham the whole thing is;
what tTicksteTs and timC-servers and dema-
gogues we have as the product of the cen
tuTy. We rejoice that the lines were
drawn yesterday as they were in the Senate.
On the one hand we have the Democratic
leader false to his principles, and on the
other the Republican leader, true and firm,
and fair and square upon the record. Dur
ing the last two or three years the Repub-
ican party in Congress has done many
foolish and unwise things, but we have the
faith that in this matter it will not be insane
enough TO follow the leadership of Mr..
Thurman. In this District the experiment
was first made of giving the black man the
suffrage. Has it come to this, that the Re-
publican party admits and acknowledges
its failure? And is it ready to try the fur
thCr experiment Of taking the suffrage away
from white and black alike?