The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-04
The Close OF tho Forty-third Com

end to-day. The termination of the labors OF
as important body as national Congress is
an event worthy of note in the history of re-
publican government. Although we may
find much in the official life of our Represen-
tatives and Senators to criticise, and many
features of party legislation exceedingly OBJ
jectionable, in the higher aspect of democracy
the uses of Congress are best understood
when we look back upon what it has done
during its whole career and the influence of
its work on the future of our country. Every
nation where the will of the people finds ex-
preston by the suffrage is subject to change.
But we question if, in our history, there has
been any transformation more marked than
the political feeling which controls the nation
to-day compared with the political feeling
which brought the Forty-third Congress into
being The gentlemen, so many of whom
will retire to private life to-day, came into
power on the extraordinary food-tide of pop
ular favor which swept General Grant for the
second time into the Presidency. Only two
years have passed since then, and yet how big
they are with events Two years ago the re.
publican party seemed to lay itself down at the
feet Of triumphant and popular General
President Grant first four years of admins
tration had shown him to be what the poet
calls Erich in saving common sense" There
had been wisdom, moderation, hesitation
about extreme measures, anxious solicitude
for the hes. interests of the country, yielding
of favored measures when they were found
not to be in accordance with the will of the
people. There was prosperity in the Treasury,
especially in the funding of our debt, apparent
success in reconstruction, the establishment
Of general peace, the restoration of the
Union and--as if to crown ala victory of
diplomacy which Castelar, afterward described
as 1.-The sublime humiliation of Geneva" All
these circumstances contributed to strengthen
the President and the party which summoned
him to power. To-day that party falls dis
honored, discrowned, overwhelmed with dis
comfture.
The reasons for this may not be apparent.
Yet, when we look closely into the events of
the last two years, it is difficult not to see
them. Success turned the heads of the Presi-
dent and his followers. They waxed proud,
and instead of regarding themselves as the
servants of theAcountry and the party which
elected them to Office, they felt that they were
our accepted masters. We can only comprehend
the course OF the President and the majority in
Congress during the last two years upon the
theory that he and they believed they were
necessary to the salvation of the country. It
hat IL Ill.
himself to be necessary to Rome, and Ma
poleon that his Empire was the only govern
ment that could perpetuate the greatness of
France. Consequently, the whole aim Of the
administration during the last two years has
been to consolidate the power of the Execu-
tive at the expense of the other departments
of the government This has given birth to
the spirit of Casarism which fell like an evil
influence upon our institutions. Grant, in
his power and might and his victorious sup
port by the people, no longer modestly aimed
at the fame of Washington double term
and quiet retirement into private life
but believed that the country was actually
willing to bestow upon him an honor
that Washington put away-the honor of
third term And although the
traditions of our constitution and of our po-
ltical lite revolted at this violation of ga
born President, with his complying fol-
lowers, drove on and on, determined to
win, by the sheer force of Executive
power this unusual and dangerous recog-
milton. It was against this principle that
the people in the elections of last fall
a man as Lincoln, for instance-w have
accepted the expression of the popular will in
its true sense. He would have instantly
changed the administration to meet the
wishes of the people; for we contend that
the elections of last fall were not necessarily
the destruction of the republican party, but a
warning to it. That party was told that it
could not follow the wishes of ambitious and
extreme leaders in defiance of the will
of the people. A change in the
Cabinet, generosity in dealing with the
South, the removal of certain officials whose
course had been offensive to public morals and
good discipline, conciliatory policy on the
part of the President toward all those indie
pendent republicans who had preferred the
right to the expedient, a general purgpg of
the party Of its baser elements, might have
reconstructed it and taught the democrats
republicanism was by no means dead, and
that their advent to power was not victory,
but an experiment.
In all this tho administration failed, and
the Congress which passes out of power to-day
takes with it the republican party. We can
understand many contingencies which may
bring the republicans again to power
They rest only upon the probable
mismanagement of the democratic leaders
If the new men are wise they will re-
new themselves with the victory of last
on and cntatin11a To a x-;a