The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-05-01
ROSCOE CONk'LING.
Abstract Of EHis Great Speech i'm
the United States Senate.
A Powerful Argument in Favor o.
Pure Elections.


levying duties on imported merchandise, and
$103, 00,000 and a fraction on American pro-
| auctions Of this total-$ 1896, 00O, 600 in round
numbers the twenty seven States which
adhered to the Union during the war pail
| 1921, 204, 268. The. residue came from eleven
States, namely: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia,
| Florida Louisiana, Mississippi North Caro-
lima, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and
Virginia These eleven States paid $13 627, / 90.
Of this sum more than $6,500,000 came from
| the tobacco of Virginia. Deducting the latter
sum from the former and the eleven States
paid So, 125, 1862 This great sum was collected
under law The constitution requires all bills
for raising revenue to originate in the House of
| Representatives. They are not recent laws
| They have been approved and affirmed by
succeeding Houses and the last two Houses
were ruled over by a Democratic Speaker
The bills were reported by Democratic com
mittee and passed by Democratic majority
Both houses are now Democratic, and we
hear Of no purpose to repeal or suspend the
| existing revenue laws. They are to remain
and continue to operate and take the tribute
| of the people. If the sum stated is to be less
| than it was last year it will beonly because the
| tobacco tax has been reduced This vast reve-
l q
time Of great depression and distress to pay the
debt in which we have been involved by
| the Rebellion, to pay the pensions of
widows and orphans and OF cripples
made by the Rebellion, and to maintain
| the Government preserved at an expense
not to be estimated of life and treasure. 10 ex-
act money and then forbid the use for which
the people paid it, would indeed be perfdious
| and abominable. There was only one mode in
| which it could reach such uses. and that an ap-
preparation by law. TIE constitution SO ordains
| The constitution permits no discretion to a ma
| iority or to Congress whether it make needful
/ appropriation or not. = The constitution, how
I ever does commit to Congress the discretion to
ascertain how much money is needed, but that
/ done the command to appropriate is positive
! and absolute The command to make the ap-
/ preparation is plain and perelptory, and re-
| fusal to do so is revolutionary and reasonable.
| So too, when the constitution invests Congress
| with power to provide money to pay debts and
provide for the common defense and general
/ welfare the plain meaning is that Congress shall
| do this thing and a refusal to do this is dis
| obedience to the constitution and subyersive of
| it. If the members of the judiciary and execu-
tive departments failed to do their duties I'M
| der the constitution they would be liable to i'm
| parchment IF members of the Legislative
branch were likewise amenable to punishment
for dereliction of duty, it would be a Drawer, if
a not less guilty, act to violate their exalted
| trust In ordinary times truisms like these
| would be needless if not out of place in the
| Senate They are pertinent only because an
| occasion has arisen unparalleled in American
history, and so far as he knew, in British his
| tory IF precedent could be found ii should
not be in country possessing written con-
stituton plainly defining the rights of all living
| under it. 1t was not to transplant but to leave
| behind the traditions of the struggle between
| the subject and the ruler that our fathers fled
to these shores. 1t was to render impossible
here the caste distinctions of an adjusted So
ciety. The partisan spirit animating this de-
| bate, if it was anywhere misunderstood, was
| mistaken, especially in this body To hear what
| was called the debates on this subject oneWould
think that the majority were arraigned simply
| because they were acting unconshtutionally in
| putting legislation on an appropriation bill.
| This was not the case. For himself he knew of
no better reason than convenience, common
sense and danger of a log-rolling combination
| to forbid putting all the appropriations on a
| single bill. A biz embracing such huddle of
homogeneous provisions, if no objection to its
separate parts was found, it was difficult to see
on what ground veto could stand. But OBJ
lection to this legislation would be as strong if
| it had taken the form of Independent bills. To
separate bills might even have cloaked the sin
lister design of the legislation, and in that view
| would have been wise policy for the other side.
In the case pending the face of the bill itself
shows that the legislation is not such as the Ex-
| ecutive can rightly approve, 1t shows the de-
sign to coerce the Executive into violating his
sense of right in order to permit the Govern
! ment to live. Thus far the achievements of the
Democratic majority had been easy, but the
trial was yet to come and it. would be more
difficult The party had got themselves into a
| predicament, and unless the Executive led
them out they would have to back out
Mr.. Conkling, in the course of his speech,
said the effect Of this bill is to prevent the sup
preston of any violence by any armed men
acting under national authority, upon election
day. Ia New York every thug shoulder hitter,
carrier of dirk or bowie-knife; every graduate
of rat-pits, bucket-shops and slums, the nurs-
| cries of what is nowadays called Democracy.
and every man from Kings bridge to the Bat
terry is advised beforehand that no enornity of
his will be checked by law or officers of the
Government. Another bill, to be brought for
ward, provides that, even If the elections are
turned into bloody burlesques, national author
ity must keep away, though White Leaguers may
take an active part armed, perhaps, with mus
kets furnished by the Government IF there
ever was time when such law would be safe,
that time IS not now
They had been told that if the President re-
fused to accept these bills with all their poiti-
cal excrescences, and yield to majority, they
will vaeate their seats and leave the Govern
ment moneyless. If the majority should make
such an attempt he (Conkling) hoped and trust
ed they would be called back as soon as need
be, until they relinquished their monstrous
pretensions, and abandoned their reasonable
position. The Army bill was not the same bill
in some of its features that was presented as the
ultimatum of the Democratic party few days
ago. The pending bill condemned it's predeces-
sor It had been found that the
bill needed alteration. It did need i
badly. The bill of the last session
lacked proviso A proviso now came to save
the right of the President to aid State in the
contingency contemplated by the constitution
Without this proviso, as the bill was previously
it would punish the President and General Of
the army, and others whom it might concern
for obeying the constitution of the United States
and two acts of Congress, one of which was
signed by George Washington. Shorn of it,
absurdity if the bill became law it would b.
the first statute Of the kind found on the statute
books of the United States century, will
all its action and party strife, and Presidential
discord, and wisdom and folly, with all it,
patriotism and treason, had never yet produced
a majority who believed that such statute wa
fit to be enacted.
The constitution says Congress shall hay,
power to provide for calling forth the militia Il
execute the laws of the Union. Speaking tt