New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-06-13
THE BLUSTER AND BACK-DOWN CONGRESS-

THE BLUSTER And BACK-DOWN CONGRESS-
The Democratic party has special reasons
for remembering the present called session.
1t has been, as we have heretofore pointed out.
in every respect calamitous to them. They
have done nothing that has not damaged them;
attempted nothing that has not ended in fail
ure. 1t may as well be called the Buster and
Back Down Congress. With record by no
means deficient in instances of clustering pro-
carnations and bullying threats, followed by
ignomniOus defeats and abject tail-turn-
ings, the Democracy have in this case fairly
outdone themselves. They have not only
"tapered Off i'll their organized threats and
their caucus manifestoes, but their in
diyidual performances have been of the
same character. Their great leaders
have been continually announcing gymnas-
tics, fireworks, and pugilIsm in way that
excited public attention and gave promise OF
dusty tussle in the Congressional arena, and
then either forgetting all about it, backing
down Internationally, or making feeble
show of wrestling, which ended in their hay-
ing their own coats to dust. The general
back-down has been accompanied by so many
individual recognitions of the "better part of
"valorn that the whole session has had no
other feature. At the beginning of the ses-
sion it seemed as though nearly every Demo-
crat in the House had made up his mind to
destroy a Republican, had announced his pur-
pose, and named his man; while the general
proclamation against the Administration was
as fierce as that of certain Jews who banded
themselves together to slay Paul.
In the Senate, there was Thurman, with
blood in his eye, aud definite proposal to
take the scalp of the President; there were
the raging Voorhees,, the "imprOmptu Beck,
the impetuous EatOl and Others, all with their
work laid out and the funerals of their VIC
tins appointed by the Democratic press of the
country. And now we are almost at the end
of the session, with nothing in the world to
show for all the buster except new illustra-
ton of the adage that threatened men live
"long.n There was that delightful old gen
tleman, Eaton, with his programme for Jump
"ine OH Blaine" and his funny forgetting of
it for so long, and final retreat, Boosting as
he fell back that very few men had the cour-
age to admit their mistakes, but he had. The
gifted Voorhees, upon one occasion, after call
ing for some information concerning election
methods in New-York from Senator Conkling,
and getting what the reader of The Record will
readily perceive was an overwhelming belly
full. promised to attend to Senator Conklings
case later in q tone and with a manner that
had rhetorical cutlasses in them-and he, too,
forgot the engagement. The country heard
the announcement some time ago that Mr..
Ben Hill was getting ready to fay Blaine
"aliye." That performance came off on
Wednesday, and was so very far from faying
that it read more like confession and plea
in mitigation. And how long have we all
been waiting for Mr. Proctor Knott to issue
his demolition of the Veto Message, which
was TO leave nothing of the message, or the
President, or the Republican partyf That
discharge came yesterday. 1t was SO heavy
that the Democratic organs couldn't print
il. and The Herald advises the Republicans
to publish it as a campaign document
So we might lengthen the list /; but to what
purpose7 The party as an organization began
with buster, louder even than that it habitu-
aly INDUCED in, and the individual leaders
seemed to be under the influence of the same
craze. They have been In session now three
months, and at every point backed down,
tapered of, or been sent to grass. Call it the
Buster and Back-Down Congress. That name
fits it.