The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-10-15
THE NEXT SPEAKER.
SMALL RzE BE RANDALL OR A SOUTH
RRN HANg
The Elections Have Settled the Question
As to Nils EBaIng HBeEmOCFat-Vhy ME
Should Hse FrOm the South Objections
TO the Present Speaker.

WASHINGTON, October 10. 1878. |
The four days that have elapsed since the date |
Of my last may safely be called
FOUR GOOD DAYS FOB THE DEMoCBATIC PARTY. !
All things considered, they are the best four
Democratic days that ever came under my OBJ
seryation. Elections OF congressman were held
In four States, possessing an aggregate men,
bership Of rty-fve-twentY In Ohio, thirteen
In Indiana nine In Iowa and three In West Vir-
ginia In the present Congress these forty five
members stood thirty Republicans to fifteen
Democrats. IN the next Congress they will
stand twenty-one Republicans to tWenty-four
Democrats. That Is to say. the Democrats. who
have already majority OF twenty-five out of
aa3 Iaamhafas have gained etevsn In n poll of
forty i've IT nv memory serves me, the ap-
pearsnca OF things Immediately after the Maine
election was construed by the Radicals to mean
that the Democratic party was to be absorbed
by the National Greenbaek Labor triple headed
thrice named third party incontinently and at
once. Under these circumstances feel moved
to cry out Absorb US some more!" absorb us
oftenl!"
In short, Absorb us all the timel!l'
It would strike q man UP q tree that party
which can manipulate things so as to beat three
out of eight Republican candidates for Com
gress In States like Maine and Vermont, and
then gain elgvan members outright in q poll of
forty two In States like Ohio and Indiana, WIS
being absorbed very rapidly being absorbed,
as 1t were, right into the absolute control of the
government as fast as the constitution will ad-
mit Of. Your readers ger M T,l Ct Ct least bear witness
guine predictions set my figures at sixteen
members In the two
STATES OF OHIO AND INDIANA.
and WE, have eeeted nineteen certain and TWEEN
ty probably, Ia Iowa, my estimate was one
other comm 10" as the colored person SAYS
Generally speak ing, then, We may consider tie
have stood By it when there wasn't much en-
couragement, will be likely to meet their
reward.
your space with q literary jolli1cation. [ set
bout to write this letter on q subject connected
with the immediate future Of the Democratic
party; subject Of paramount interest to
Southern prosperity. to Wit: The Speakership s 10 10
of the next House Of Representatives.
Whatever the October elections did in other
directions. they certainly sitnnlifled the Speak
ership question and reduced the contest for
that that important post to very definite Issue.
as 1t Is to be deDl0red on personal grounds,
and in View Of his usefulness to. the party at
large, removes the only serious obstacle in the
way Of the choice OF
SOUTHERN MAN FOR SPEAKER
OF the Forty y-siEth House. Had Mr. Sayler been
elected he would have bean candidate and
would have claimed and held Il certain volume
Of Southern support In this respect he would
have afded Eandalls canvass. because it would
have been Impossible for b. I'm to be elected, and
all be could have done would be to keep the op-
position to Randall so divided and demoraized
as to repent tine result Of last year. Nobody
| doubts that Randall can be beaten any day by
| the united vote of the men who do not want him
to- be Speaker. Hut It Is equally certain that he
will continue to pull through 50 long as tl1g oD-
position to him is irreconoilably divided be-
| tween two or three candidates.
THE CHIEF OPPOSITION TO Mr.. RANDALL
! Is In the South. It is an opposition based
neither on sectional nor on personal grounds.
| but simply upon the conviction in the minds
Of the best and ablest Southern mon that he Is
not the proper person to represent the Demo
| cratic party of the nation in the third office
under the constitution. Mr.. Randa!rs failing is
Inherent; He f. j is not corrupt nor is there any
simply because his mind is too narrow and his
| vision too short to perceive and grasp the diff
ference between the function of representing
| q district constituency on the floor Of the House
| and thai Of representing the body Of fl national
| party in the Speak ker's chair. AS parliament
ary tactcian on the flor. as worker In the
committee room !; In all the essentials of q pa rty
leader in the House, Mr.. Randall has no equal
IN this @ Gongross and WI have no riyal In the
thereby as .shaper and rnolder Of general
| legislation and policy
MR. RANDALL HAS HARDLY AN INTERIOR
| among men Of sufficient congressional expe.
| T1SHG6 10 KNOW now many committees there
are, or what are ths functions Of each. He Is
| tngrainsd and inftrated with the idea that the
South is lead to be carried by the Democratic
! party-a poor relation, so to speak, OF the
| Northern Democracy, to be kept out Of sight as
much as possible. and to be apologzsd foi
whenever it happens to be in sight. He is bese
| with grotesque inCapAeity to discriminate be.
| tween economy and ,Darstmonyin fiscal egisla-
ton with an absurd habit Of mistaking little
ness for ,shrsWdness, and faithlessness fol
fnesse, Above all, he is SO intensely selfish tha
| ne can 500 no interests Of the Democratic partJ
except as refracted through the atmosphere o
his own ambition, and no usefulness for Demo
| cratic majOrities except to boost himself into
| place and power Thus he was no sooner warn
In, his seat than he b.gan to eonspire with him
self and the few follow medocrities whom hs
had selected as his intimates and advisors to re-
elect himself two years thence. And he woult
no sooner hgve heard the result Of the ballo
| announcing
HIS REFLECTION
than he would begin the same little setting 0
Triggers and the same little generalship of hi
dimnutive brigade Of small blowers and strk
ers to insure bis politica! life for third torn.
dali Is not q proper person to be Speaker Of
Democratic House Of Representatives; Of
House con @eontaining such men ag y Blackburn. Nor
morton, Ellis, Chalmers. Randolph Tucker
Hunton, John 3. CLARK. Tom Ewing Franl
In considering the propristes In q case lik
this we may as well begin with the chief argu
ment which Mr., Randall employs to demon
ity Of fifty odd In the caucus, ought to be- sup
ported By the majority Of over hundred. Tha
argument Is
THE FAMILIAR OLD CRY
that the South should take q back scat shoult
be DISQUALIFIED, so to speak from the privilege
Of American citizenship on account Of previous
condition OF servitude. For my part-and an
a Northern Democrat Of Liberal Republican
aniecedents-I scout this theory as the smallest
meanest and most coWardly that narrow poll
tician could advance for his own selfish inter
ests. And the time has now arrived, whateve
may have been the semblances OF excuse Q
apology IN the past. when 1t will be as coward
for Southern men to submit 10 such terms q
for Northern men to dictate them. have be-
lieved and haRve maintained, ever since the cleo
ton Of 1874 brought that argument into play
that the true way for the Democratic party q
large to meet tho outcry against the "Soli
South" was by bringing the solid South to tn
front and giving Southern men an opportunit
i to exemDffy their active interest In and loys
attachment to the affairs and
81 THE WELFARE OF THE NATION.
boo, o., E,