New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-04-16
MR.. BLAINE on THE ARMY Bill.

The powerful speech of Senator Blaine
effectively opened the debate on the Army
hill i'm the Senate. The absurdity of Democratic
objections to the exis ting law was shown when
Mr.. Blaine gave official statements of the
number of troops in each State. The
notion that the people of Alabama are ground
down under the iron heel of q military des
potism. the whole number of soldiers i'll that
State being twenty nine, or that North Carolina
WAS subiugated by an army of thirty men,
deserved all his ridicule. Yet the cOnstitu-
tiopal right of the President, as Commander
in Chief of the Army and Chief Executive OF
the Nation, to station as many soldiers IN any
part OF the country as may be necessary to
enforce the laws and to support the civil au-
thorities in preserving the peace, Will not
be lost sight Of and is not to be
treated as lightly as tho Democrats suppose.
Nor will they escape the dilemma upon which
they are pinned by the amendment which Mr..
Blame offered-in effect, that if the forces of
the United States may not be near any
pOll. neither shall "any military, naval, or
| "ciyil officer or any other person, ap-
"ppar within mile of any pOlling-Dlace
earned with any deadly weapon, either
concealed or displayed" If the Democratic
party dares to deny to the President the power
TO enforce the laws and to preserve the
| peace, it will next be compelled to say
whether Wade Hampton's red-shirted le-
cions, and the White Leaguers of other
States, shall be permitted to defy the
laws and to break the peace. The Senators
are right in directing especial attention to the
matter of this bill. Its manner is revolution
ary and outrageous, but that is not the only
or the chief ground for resisting it.
The assistant Democrats. in the press and
elsewhere, have nearly abandoned the pretence
that there is nothing revolutionary in the at
tpmpt TO cOerce the President into a surrender
of his veto power. by threat to stop the
operations of the Government. very few of
the most senseless and INSCRIPTIONS still
stick to that pretence, however. and the
speech of Senator Wallace was meant to give
them comfort. He possesses a rare faculty for
stolid and unblushing denial of things which
every person within the sound of his voice
knows TO be true. Hence he was, of all Senators,
the right one To assert that tho Democrats
had no idea of depriving the President of his
full right of veto, and that the measure pending
was not forced upon the House and Senate by
the dictates of a party caucus. The threats
openly made at the close of the last session
sufficiently answer one assertion. The formal
action of the Democratic caucus, before
either the Army or the Legislative bill was
introduced, settles all question as to the
truthfulness of the other. DAILY denials
will not change the ugly fact-which Senator
Beck has been frank enough to confess i'll
public-that the Democratic leaders openly
declared that they would force the President
to sign their bills, or would stop the supplies
The very form of the bills now pending in
the two houses was dictated by Democratic
caucus.
Mr.. Blaine is perfectly right in calling atten-
ton to these facts. A majority of all votes
| in Democratic caucus is cast by members
from the Solid South. Government by Demo-
cratic caucus, therefore, is government by the
| rebel minority it is the Gray above the
Blue. That Is exactly what it means,
| and every Southern Democrat rejoices in the
| fact that the men who tried to destroy the
| Union in 1861 are able, through a Demo-
| cratic caucus, to dictate laws to both branches
Of Congress i'll 1879. If the power is not
used to the full extent this year. il
| is only because the Democratic party
| is not yet in control OF the Executive. and
prefers TO disguise both its purpose and Its
methods, i'll some degree. until after the cleo