The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-25

| down his 1901. ne goes ucituoi " VIC IASAt
nor left of the subject but plainly puts it on
record that he will not sign any bill which he
regards as ga departure from the true princi-
pies of finance, national interest and national
obligation to creditors. He holds, therefore,
that the first financial legislation In order is
some measure framed to fulfil the pledges of
the 'act to sustain the public credit" some
measure in which practical step shall be
taken toward resumption, and it is fairly to
be inferred from the line Of his argument that
he will not sign any financial bill without
some provision Of this nature.
Such is the position of the Executive; and
how does Congress stand with regard to it I?
gress will meet the President as he requires it
shall meet him in order that they may act to-
gether for the settlement of the financial issue
which now looms vaguely before us in pro-
portions likely to fill the whole future, to the
exclusion of the vast majority of topics now
on foot? In no part of the recent course of
Congress is this possibility apparent Not
only was the recently vetoed bill perfected in
the Senate by the exclusion of every word
that had even the appearance Of prepara-
ton for resumption, but the gen.
eral propositions presented by different
Senators in the hope to compel the recog-
milton OF the necessity and propriety of such
steps were rejected with contemptuous in
difference to their claims In one view we
might regard the recent bill as q trap prepared
by the willy Southern democrats to catch re-
publicans animated by the impulses that seem
to have taken possession of the majority Of
leaders in that party, and as trap it has
served very well certain purposes that the
democrats may be supposed to have always at
heart. 1t has tempted them into a false po-
sition, where they are compelled to stand at
issue with the head of their party or to admit
their own incapacity and unftness as ex-
ponents of party principles. But it would be
altogether too amiable view to take of the
conduct Of leaders like Logan and Morton to
regard them as merely persons led away by
democratic will-o -the-wisp. They went into
the initiation campaign not, perhaps, as men
seeing all the possible political consequences
of the step, but yet with definite resolution,
and distinctly impelled by the instincts of
Western war against Eastern capital and cred
itors. And they are still under the influence
OF those impulses. In the same way the South
ern republicans are as firm now in their ''con-
victions'' as they were before the veto. No
doubt if the vote were to be taken again in the
House as well as in the Senate it would be
found that the veto had affected some. It
would also be found that enough still stand by
the measure to carry it again or another like
it. The agreement prompted by interest that
has bound these Western and Southern repub
licans temporarily to the democrats who vote
with them is stronger than those principles
that hold them in their own party.
1t seems to us, therefore, utterly unlikely
that Congress will meet the President on the
ground he indicates in financial legislation.
Discipline in the republican party is not what
it was in the days when Thaddeus Stevens
held up his finger and drove In his scores of
voters, as though they were scores Of sheep, to
vote yea or nay, as party said, on any con-
ceivable subject On the contrary, the lines
are SO loosely drawn that it is far from easy to
say always just where they lie, and the cohe-
sive power of the public plumber is of less i'm
portance than it was in the days before Con-
gressmen had discovered that by the ring prin-
ciple of combination with political opponents
they can vote into their pockets by corrupt
jobbery in any session ten times the plumber
that legitimate party patronage could ever put
in their way. There is no likelihood that
party fealty can be stimulated sufficiently to
overcome the opposition of Western and
Southern republicans. Now that the Pres
ident has come out plainly no one who has
followed his history can believe that he will
recede from the ground he has taken.
Between the President and Congress, there
FORE there seems to be deadlock on the fnan-
cial issue and so in its political aspects the
case must stand practically as it is now made
up for an appeal to the people. Congress can
do nothing with it; the President and the
Secretary of the Treasury have no such
power over the finances as will enable them
to exercise the rising spirit. Without legisla-
ton no such disposition can be made Of our
currency difficulties as will enable the politi-
clans to smother or cover up the question of
finance or reduce it to secondary importance,
or in any other conceivable manner get it out
of the way before the next appeal to the coun-
try that necessary legislation cannot be had
in view of the present respective relations of
Congress and the Executive to the great issue,
and there is no likelihood that these relations
will change. If the republican majority could
be rallied to carry through bill framed on
the indications of the message the spectre of
financial issue could still be laid and the
great topic of the day be settled inside the
republican party but that dim likelihood is
the only one apparent Of settlement of this
subject with party divisions as they now stand
Assuming that the financial differences are
beyond the capacity of the republican party