The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1875-02-11
Senator Shepherd and the Ca
nal Ri,l-A Good Joke on
The Democracy.

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The Democracy.
The Columbus correspondent O.
the Cincinnati Commercial tells 6
good story, in which our State Sen
ator, Mr.. Shepherd, gets the credit
of extricating the Democratic majori
ty in the Senate from the very alb
surd position in which they had in
advertently placed themselves ''or
the record, as in favor of Republi
can Congress eco 'rcing' a sovereign
State, and a Democratic State al
that! It seems that Senator Shep
herd was the only Democratic Sena
tor who saw the absurdity of the
the thing from the first, and voted
against the resolutions-a fact as
creditable to his shrewdness as his
solitary vote in opposition to his par
ty is to his independence. But let
the Commercials correspondent tell
his own story in his own way:
There was a funny backdown in
the Senate this morning. and new
illustration of the amount of fun to
be extracted from Senator Haag' S
Canal Bill. Impartial observers ex
pressed pardonable surprise when
a day or two since, the entire Demo
cratic majority in the Senate, except
ing the Senator from Highland Mr.
Shepherd voted for the adoption of
the resolution, coercion and ala
vote in which they were joined by all
of the Republican Senators Here
were resolutions introduced by the
Democratic Chairman of the Judi
ciary Committee of a Democratic
House of Representatives, adopted
by the nearly unanimous vote of the
House, and concurred in by the Demo
cratic Senate, by which they call up
on a Republican Congress to coerce
the sovereign Democratic State of In
diana into fulfllment of its obliga-
tons to the sovereign Democratic
State of Ohio. It certainly looked
like getting into deep water ontside
of the canal. Haag had obtained in
definite leave of absence, after ap-
proving of the photograph of his in
vading canal boat, the eliza Jane"
taken by a Democratic officer of the
House, and gone off armed with
the joint resolution aforesaid. There
were certain bad omens attending
the expedition from the start, owing
to a disagreement between the mas
ter of the expedition and his com
as to the relative amount of
bread and whisky to be taken along.
This morning when Haag was sup
posed to be silently vending his wa
terry way with the Liza Jane to
the heart of the Democratic enemy's
country, an unexpected fire was
opened in the rear by the very Sen
ators who had voted for the resolu-
ton. I don't know who started If,
but somehow the story seems to have
got agoing that Hoag and his reso-
lutions would be met at the Indiana
line by detachment from Governor
Hendricks, bearing the resolutions
of '9S in lieu of arms. The result
was to the Democratic Senators like
the shock of a Union victory in the
late war. In haste a message was
sent to the House for the return of
the Haag resolution, happily not yet
enrolled, and, therefore, easily
brought again into possession, which
once obtained, every Democratic Sen
ator voted to reconsider it's adoption.
Shepherd, who alone had detected
the detestable doctrine of coercion in
the resolution at the time of its ad-
option and had voted nay, now look
ed on and enjoyed the scene with a
smile that was child-like and bland.