The Portland daily press., 1875-03-02
Our New York Letter.
congregational Procrastinailon nnd It's
resuits-Thc Force and Civil Rights
Bills.
NEW YORK. Mar. L 1S7

half of the short session, there Is danger that
it will come to an end before it's business can
possibly be completed. 1t is strange that a
body containing SO many experienced parlia-
mentarians-men who must have memories of
the hurry skurry incident to the closing hours,
even when there is no motive for fillibuster-
ing-could allow itself to get caught In such
trap at this critical juncture. II might easily
have been foreseen, and effectively remedied.
The fault is with the leading few whose posi-
tions In committees impose upon them the duty
OF directing legislation. have had occasion
before TO aDimadvert upon the conduct of the
Ways and Means Committee, in doing the
things it ought not to have done, and leaving
undone the things 1t ought to have done, to An
extent which places 1t quite within the pale of
the confession of the ritual Looking back
upon the wasted hours Of the expiring winter,
one marvels what those gentlemen could possi-
bly, have been thinking of while they were
scooting about the corridors Of the hotels of
the capital, hunting up evidence in the matter
of the Pacific Mail subsidy, or cooling their
heels in the halls Of the Arlington, while the
puissant Irwin was making up his mind wheth-
er he would giant them audience. If it were
merely question of maintaining their own
self-respect, they might be at liberty to settle
1t for themselves, but unfortunately at the very
moment they were undergoing the voluntary
humiliation of illustrating the spy system, the
great question of revenue was lying neglected
and forgotten Now we are paying the penalty
of that undignfed puerility. A hasty. ILL
considered and isadequaie tariff bill has been
laid before and passed by the House, and SO
little time remains that the alternative is forced
upon the Senate OF concurring in 1t, despite Its
imperfections and inequalities or risking the
failure of any measure whatever for repenish-
ing the exchequer.
The Democrats in the House are chargeable
with hindering business by frivolous pretexts.
That was nothing more than everybody had
reason to anticipate. 1t is a part of their sys-
tenn. But the Republican chairmen of COM
mttees especially. and the chief financial COM
mittee most of all, are responsible for the un-
warrantable delay In forwarding legislation
which has resulted In leaving so many bills in
suspense when but three working days remain
to finish the work of the XLIIID Congress. IL
an extra session has to be called it will be their
fault. AS things stand now, the bill to preserve
order in the South ought to take precedence Of
| ill Tuesday, but then nothing whatever should
be suffered to supersede it. The bill as finally
amended by the House is not obnoxious to CEN
sure. The limitation of the suspension OF the
habeas corpus to the four states of Louisiana,
Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi, eliminates
the only seriously Objectionable feature it con-
tanned. In its present form 1t is salutary and
a necessary measure. If all possibility of fed
eral interposition in the states named were re-
moved there would be brutality and anarchy
in every one of them. Hundreds Of the most
reliable citizens Of New Orleans confidentally
| informed the members of the Congressional
Committee of the terrorism and intimidation
which prevailed throughout the state but re-
| fused to testify publicly on the ground that
| their lives would thereby be endangered. Pri-
| vate advices from non.poltical sources concur
in representing the situation there deplorable.
| The suffering people of Louisiana have small
concern with the dispute as to whether Kellogg
or McEnery shall be governor. A much more
vital consideration interests them. Shall they
walk the streets in safety? Can they exercise
| the plainest rights of citizenship without dan
ger of bullet or bludgeon? When Sheridan,
| wrote his famous 'banditti" despatch the ho-
II
looking men, muttering curses loud and deep
| against him and his government, and women
| with sullen brows and upturned noses gratified
| there amnosity against the flag by Kissing out
sneeriug CALCULATIONS against federal hirelings,
| within his hearing. Occasionally come swsg-
| sering bravo with revolver in his bslt and CO.
pious libations of whiskey under his jacket
would amuse the listening bystanders by tell
ing them what short work he could make OF
any military satrap, if he didn't stand within
| the safe protection of government cannon.
Now Sheridan is human, and would II be at all
singular if, remembering how much time. mon
ey and bleod it had lately cost the country to
put down this sort of people, he should have
given expression to his feelings in a sentence or
two of vigorous English? His oft quoted dis
patch was designed for the New Orleans
market and was in type in that city before its
publication In Washington. 1t produced q SAL
utary effect there and greatly abated annoy
ances of hotel life to peacably disposed guests
whe CHANGED to be sojourning in the Crescent
city. 1t gave nervous shock to several we'll
disposed paralytics northward, but that was
because they didn't understand what they were
bout. and took their cue from designing poll
ate in, sensational meetings convened on the
strength of q telegraphc dispatch, it isn't
worth while to look for much wisdom or efica-
cy from the proceedings of such assemblages.
What is true of Louisiana, is scarcely less so
of Alabama The reign of violence has been
| established there. Every Democratic victory
in the country increases its chances of impunity
| and intensities its despotism. A man who
| avows Republican principles there must do 30
| at the peril of his life. Freedom of speech and
| Of suffrage are practically denied there to half
| the citizens. Let the men who are so sensitive
| in respect of the ssnctity of human rights that
| they cannot consent to the suspension of habe-
as corpus in certain turbulent localities and for
/ limited period think of the wrong that may
| be inflicted on masses of their countrymen,
| through failure to invest the Chief Msgis-
| trate of the Republic with plenary powers to
protect them in the exercise of their privileges
| as freemen. A spirit of humanity as well as .
desire for domestic tranquility ought to induce
a ready acquiescence of the ordsr loving peo-
| pie of the country In an enactment which will
prove a safeguard against possible evils, and Of
the abuse of which there isn't the smallest par
ticle of hazard.
| VI the advantages WINCH arc Preuictsu W
the party which has assumed the responsibility
| of this law am by no means so sure. On the
| contrary entertain the belief that the best
way of curing the people of any growing par
TALLY for Democracy is by letting them have
their fill of it. Suppose we were to surrender
these four states to unrestricted Democratic
control for year? In.spite of all the warning
and expostulat.ng of the northern leaders 10
keep quiet till the Presidential bat
tie was won, these fellows could no more
forego the luxury of killing "niggers
than pack of hungry wolves could abstain
from eating flock of fat sheep They are not
capable of any such sublime self-denlal. SO
that viewed as a mere matter of party policy,
the best way possible would be to open that
region as a grand theatre on whose boards tho
Democratic leaders could exhibit their prof-
cheney in the art of government We should
soon find that the Louisiana method of reduc-