The Portland daily press., 1875-03-09
Our New York Letter.
Congress and IFS Doings-Things Done
and left Undone- The Civil Rights Bill


and Left Undone- The Civil Rights Bill.
NEW YORK, Mar. 8, 1875
"Teo later' is the portentous commentary
applicable to pretty much everything that was
done by the last Congress. 1t died as it
lived, with unfinished work on its hands,
which might just as we'll have been completed
a month before the session ended. If the
finance and tariff bills had been passed year
earlier we should have had prosperous coun-
try by this time. As for the civil rights bill
it should have followed Immediately upon the
ratification of the fifteenth amendment, and
then there would have been no fuss about it.
The force bill contained no provisions that
orderly and wsll-disposed people need enter
tain any alarm about, and as for turbulent and
disloyal citizens the stricter restraint they are
placed under the better for the tranquility OF
the country. But the measure failed because
it was initiated at go late day; and since it
could not pass it is pity it was ever intro
duced. 1t is an exposure of weakness to at
tempt legislation of that kind and not to sue
ceed in communicating it.
There are TWO patent causes OF the short
comings OF the XLIIID. Congress. First, the
Republican majority was SO large as to be un-
wieldy, and second there was no recognized
leader in either branch In the House the
deficiency in respect OF leadership was strik
ingy noticeable, and accounts for the dilly-
dallying, shlly-shallyiny, shiltless way in
which its proceedings were conducted from
beginning to end. In every well-regulated
no. a. 10 rs ohiaf
and makes him the exponent Of its will. The
Englishmen, with the experience of centuries
to guide them, adopt this plan, the minority as
well as the majority having its acknowledged
head, who is followed with soldierly obedience,
BY the members Of the party. But the virtual
abandonment OF the field by the opposition in
1872, gave the Republicans an inordnate pre-
ponderance of numbers in this popular branch
of Congress, and that had a tendency to relax
the discipline to such an extent that it shortly
grew to be rather clever, high-minded, manly
sort of thing to break through the trammels OF
party aud be independent And by way OF
stimulus to the egotism which too often
prompted this disposition 10 exercise the ex-
treme right Of private judgment, there was al
ways a corps of psnny-a-liners in and around
the capitol, ready to watt to the breeze extrava-
CANT puffs of all such high-sprited fellows, set
off with disparagng criticisms upon their more
subservient brethren who were not courageous
enough to spurn the dictaton of party. OF all
possible forms of temptation the most insid-
ious Is that which appeals to human vanity
Many congressman who has been praised
for betrayng his party and his cause, has mis-
taken this deceitful and hollow adulation for
a sincere tribute to his frmness, and has been
| deluded thereby into the idea that he was on
the whole good deal more of man than he
had previously supposed himself. And all the
while he was the laughing stock of the very
| men who beslavered him with their fulsome
panegyrics. Every such dupe will find out
sooner or later that In his eagerness to avert
the suspicion OF undue surbordination to his
own party, he is really acting as the abject
tool of the other. The Democratic congress
men, during the last two sessions, have been
deriving amusement and advantage In about
equal proportions, from the performances OF
that small class of Republican statesmen who
have been constantly alternating between
apology for and denunciation of their party.
accepting the grossest fatsery from the enemy
| hS IL ~ Hcb6 ihOSo AAoShohe Va AhNShSN
| and playing tie guerrilas as if that were in
their minds the highest style of political war
| fare. OF course all such indirect contributions
| to the general cause are welcome, but the con-
| tributors are none the less despised on that
account, and the sweet praise they get to their
| faces becomes very keen ridicule as soon as
their backs are turned.
1t is a strange code of morals which makes a
| merit of apostacy. A man who accepts the
| representation of q constituency on party
| platform, is bound by every dictate of honor to
| abide the will of the majority in all matters
where conscience does not impel dissent. The
caucus is a necessary and proper mode of inter
| changing opinions and reaching conclusions,
| and whenever a member declines to join this
| council, he assumes that he is wiser than his
| peers All the patting on the back that he car
| get from fellow members who profit by his con
| ceit, and all the aduatory paragraphs the indie
| pendent and Democratic newspapers may EN-
balm him in won't save him from gravitatinG
Into the forlorn condition of political Ishma
elite
The craze for sensation has done great dea
to retard the progress of the public business
|
quarter of the time to the preparation of 6
tariff bill that they have given to investiga
tions, we shouldn't have been reduced to the
pitiable alternative of going without revenue OF
taking crude, ill-digested, hastily concocteo
and altogether wretched bill, which VIII neeo
tinkeripg before the new House assemblies
That bantling is the crowning disgrace Of the
| committee which had the responsibility of 1T
birth. Haunted by the shadows of Irwin ant
King abetting, whether innocenty or knowing
ly-it matters little-the stock-jobbing opera
tions of Jay uld,-darkening counsel will
much irrelevant and inconsequent testimony
pursuing the inquiry SO clumsily that the opin
ion is widely prevalent that their constant eff
fort was to conceal, not to elicit the truth, ant
all the while neglecting concerns which vital.
affected the labor and productiveness of tn
country, this ill-starred convocation has set of
from first to last in startling characters, the fee
bleness and incapacity of the body to the pro