The daily gazette., 1879-04-22
SECOND EDITION
From the n. Y. Sun of yesterday.
The Republicans and Stand
Ing Army.

From the N. Y. Sun of yesterday.
The Republican, and q stand
Ing Army.
Mr.. Dawes has framed feeble indici
ment against tbe majority in Congress
because they propose to repeal some @
the odious legislation which the Repub
licans, in their day of power, put upo
the statute book as means ofprOlongin
misrule and corruption. His chief coun
runs thus:
"Th had not been in power in TIN
House of Representatives month before
they struck at the army itselfand under
took to reduce it to ten thousand men.
SO far from this charge being a just
ground of complaint, the very reverse o
1t is true. IE their whole line of acts o
retrenchment, the army stands out as al
exception for which the Democrats are
partially responsible. 1t WAS the veal
point in the programme of Mr.. Randall
in the Forty-iourth Congress, and has
stood ever since, as if to stutlfy the pro
fessions of economy. II is true that at
tempts have been made to reduce the
standing army to the actual needs of the
country, but they never we're pushed
with zeal and purpose, such as were wit
messed in regard to the navy and other
branches OF the public service.
Tie Senate always stood as an obstruc-
tion to this particular reform, but, with
its control of the public purse, the House
was in a position to have exacted terms,
had the demand been pressed resolutely.
A con- binatiOn of ffortuitous circumstances
favored the army at the very time when
reduction might have been carried
against all ordinary opposition. And
subsequently,, when it was possible to
have passed bill cutting down the force
from twenty-five thousand to seventeen
thousand men, the delegation from Texas
deserted the Democratic side and turned
the scale.
The Republicans have consistently
and defianlly sustained large standing
army as a part of their political policy.
They used it to set up carpet-bag govern
ments in the South they used it in cleo
tions they used it as posse cOnaitdtus
and they enerafted it ON their system oil
rule as a necessity which must be main
|
the civil war and the passage of the first
appropriation bill by the Democratic
House OF the Forty-fourth Congress, they
voten away fully four hundr. and fifty
millions of dollars for the army, or about
one fifth of the whole national debt.
The Republicans may be properly Z IL
ed the party of the army, because they
are wholly responsible for the legislation
by which, under different partisan pre-
texts, this enormous expenditure was
made. In the midst of general suffering
throughout the country they have con-
stantly voted to impose this burden on
the people, already eroaning under taxa.
tion, and they are now struggling with
every possible energy to prevent The Ie
peal of clause IN the Revised Statutes
which allows the presence Of troops al
the polls under preteuce Of keeping th.
peace.
How dffarent is the attitude of ths
party to-day compared with what it wa
when great l'.a,iers-Seward, Chase,
rressenden. Wade, Sumner, aud Others
like them-Illustrated its principles.
The very question which now vexes
Congress ami disturbs the public mind
was debated by the best inteIlects twen-
ty-three years ago. MIR. Seward, from
bis silent tomb, seems to rebuke the
small demagogues who are sitting iu the
places that the giants of the party then
filled. He said on that memorable oc.
casion:
"Ciya liberty and standing army for Mt
purpose of ciuil police ike keeping peace
at the polIs.-ED. haze neUer get stood to-
getl,er and neuer can stand together If
am to choose between upholding laws
in any part Of this republic which cannot
be maintained without standing army
or relinquisbing the law themselves,
give up the laws at once, by whemsoevel
they are made and by whatever authori
ty; for either our system of government
is rad cally wrong, or such laws are un
just, unequal and pernicions.
"If the founders of the CONSTITUTE OF
han been told that within seventy years
from the day on which they laid its solid
foundations and raised its moiestic col
umns standing army would have beer
foucd necessary and Indispensable mere
ly to execute municipal laws, they woult
have turned away shudderiug from The
massive despotism which they had erect
ed.
"The time was, and that not long ago
when proposition to employ the stand
ing army OF the United States as do
nestle police would have been univer
sally denounced as a premature revela
ton of plot, darkly contrived in thu
chambers of conspiracy, to subvert the
liberties of the people and TO overthrow
the republic itself"
These words are worthy of the states
man. who uttered them, and who, first o
all, was an American to the core, and re
publican in the proper sense of the word
He knew what stan ding armies had dons
in the Old World, and the danger tha
beset free government in the New If the!
were perm tied to obtain such a foot
hold az the false republicans have sough
to establish since the close of the rebel
lion.
Stripped of all the DISCUSSES which par
tisan policy has assumed, the plain livini
issue in Congress is, whether the arm.
shall be continued as political force
and to act as police in the States re
gardless of their local laws. The Repuh
Iicans have been foolish enough to TAX
their stand for strong government
popped up by bayonets, and for an or
gaDized machinery OF supervisors an
deputy .marshals at the public expense
When that case comes to trial before tn
people there need be nc doubt as 20 tn
verdict.
HON. AIECK Ii. STEPHENS introdut
ed bill in the House yestt rday, pre-
yidlug for the coinage of new piece c
gold money, with the value of four do