The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1877-04-01

NnlN INC VnlllNl Nl tlle TWO fhNftN
of "opPress WHO h'l ignores 't"'
ral pury Nu 10 .ops cultrol otnr
.ir Blrct ~ iRrihes themanl.nr
pt,ru' np tn 1.tstlor m"
vote. Therefore, on tne bill rs sure
criterion by which 10 Judge the
strength Of the followers of the vice
president with one exception, SenR.
tor Eaton, | mcNn that those who
voted for the hin uklng control of the
subject by Con gross, could not have
sustained the pretensions OF the vice.
president because their votes would
hive been In violation Of their oaths
OF otllce. The vote for the bill, with
the vote Of Senator Eaton. may there.
fore he taken as an accurate represent
tation OF the strength In the Serqte,
Of those who would have opposed the
claim OF the vite.president to deter
mine the question. The hill passed
the Senate 10y a vote OF forty seven
for and seventeen against It.. Eaton,
who voted against II, holds with the
majority, that the power over the sub
ject is In Congress and not In the
vice.president The whole vote then
against the vice-presideutS pre-
tended authority was forty eight
to sigleen, or three to one!
Now, thoa, here Il where we
made our next mistake. After the
Senate had pl ssed the bill, and ty an
overwhelming vote placed the stamp
OF condemnation on the pretended
claim Of the vlce.presdent a Demo.
cratic House ought to have
rejected IL. What then? There
ia nothing left bnt the old beaten line
of precedenis. The two houses must
count, and the houses must concur In
the count The Senate is Republican
the House Is Democratic. Their pow
era are exactly equal. The Senate
could not count alone. That no one
ever pretended, end If the Senate
would rot support the uslrpatlon in
the vice president, where il was more
plausible, that would not usurp the
power itself If the s0phistry of the
vice Presidents claim was too absurd to
quiet the refractory element in the
West, this would be open aud declared
defiance Of the constitution. The
president, bold as he IL, would not
have been bold enough to have risked
his neck on that. His army, sutll-
GENTLY shaKy as il was, would have
wholly abandoned him and gone over
to the constitution and the West
What then would have been the re-
suit IL the House had defeated the
bill? The two houses would have
met in February; the count would
have 0omWopced. AS soOn AZ the
vice president arr0gared the right
to hinself to determine the ques-
items Independently, the two houses
would have separated, submitted the
matter to the list of each house, aud
oyerrnled him by an overwhelming
majority. Than they W0nId have re-
assembled and the count would haye
proceeded, and whenever there was
objection to the vote of a State, they
would again separate and pass upon it.
and no vote would lee counted unless
| IL received the assent OF both bodies.
The frauds sent up from Florida aud
Louisiana could not be counted
without the assent of the House; that
assent would never haye been given,
IT the Senate had sustained the vote
of the 'riiden electors in Louisiana,
then Tiiden and Hendricks would
both have been elected. i tho votea
| Of both sets of electors had been
Dhrown out, and on the i0iUt count no
one should have majority Of coll the
electors appoiated,n the House would
have 10 choose from the three highest
the president, aud the Senate elect q
vice president, in that case, 1ilden
and Wheeler would he president
and vice president. in any
event, we would have Il
Democratic president. AS it is, we
have IL usurper, ignored 10y the people,
thrust upon them in defiance of the
forms of law, by means of palpable
frauds and threats of force. Who is
responsible for this ? Are Southern
Democrats who voted for this bill re-
spOnsible? They have not been reCog-
nized as leaders in the Democratic
party since The war, They are yecog
n2cd as an essential part Of the Dem
ocraGy, but the part assigned them is
to create victories, that their Northern
brethren may enjoy the rruite and
hold the places of honor What
Northern Democrat would think Of
selecting Southern Democrat for q
cabinet position? How many votes
would Southern Democrat get for
speaker among his Northern allies ?
OF how many important committees
| have Southern Democrats been made
chairmeD? In politics, they are afraid
of principles. If a piece of expediency
promises to be agreeable to their dis
! tricts, they are for 1t. They are for
tariffs that rob the people out OF a
thousand million n year; but they
would tear passion TO tatters in sup
port of bill that reduced somebody's
salary five or ten dollars per annum.
remember during the last session |
offered resolution that the armed in-
yasion of any State or Territory by the
| general government, under any pre-
tense whatever, was among the gravest
of crimes, and 1t produced quite u
scene in the House. Numbers OF them
declined voting on II. Some among
the fathers demonstrated with me, and
told me their people were very sensi.
! dive about the cry OF States rights,
aud lust such conduct as that by us
southern men would defes' them ut
home. | succeeded, however, In allay.
ing their excited feelings when got u
book and showed that IL wins copied,
word for word, from the Republican
platform upon which Mr.. Lincoln was
| elected, ana that he read u and re-
endorsed it in his inaugural address,
and said it was law TO his party.
They seemed greatly ccmforted when
they found they could quote Mr.. Lin.
coin as authority; and after compar-
ing it, word for word, with the ORR
ginal. voted for It with something Of
the feeling Of relief | imagine, of
a man who had lust escaped
from great peril. Three times during
the last. session o Republican member
of Congress from Indiana introduced Il