The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-05-13
Crowding Them off the Bridge.

Ine discussion OF the new Army Bill in
the Senate Friday was edifying as well as
entertaining. The Southern men who are
now controlling the Democratic party and
shaping its policy, were sharply rebuked by
Senator Chandler who reminded them that
they are falling into the same error they
committed in the decade before the war,
when they Crowded. their Northern allies
''oif the bridge" by compelling them to vote
for measures which the North could not and
would not approve. Then as now the
Southerners had a majority in the Democrat
ic caucus and SO dictated the course the
representatives of the party should pursue.
The Northern Democrats acquiesced, of
Tended their constituents, and, every man of
them lost their Seats. The Southern lead
ers are repeating their blunder, and crowd
ing Northern Democrats off the bridge 1881
will see a change of seats in the Senate. If
the Democrats have a majority in that year
it will be because they abuse their power to-
day and unseat the regularly-elected Senator
from Louisiana
The course of the South was even more
sharply commented upon by Senator Blaine,
who demonstrated that the old Calhoun her
esy of State Rights, strangled for the time
by Jackson, reasserting itself under the lead
OF Breckenridge, and stamped out it was
supposed, at Appomatox, is now advocated
in the Senate chamber by ''the heirs lineal
of Calhoun and of Breckinridge," and car
ried to an extreme that the old upholders of
the doctrine never dared to preach. The
old question over which so many battles
have been fought is revived in form as
dangerous and menacing as ever before. /
The dispute between those who uphold the
paramount authority of the Federal govern
ment and those who uphold the eminent
sovereignty of the States, is once more to be
fought out; and this time, as in 1861, the
Democratic legislative majority supports the
theories of Calhoun and opposes the prac-
tices of Jackson.
The third speech made in the Senate Fri
day was by Senator Edmunds, who demon
strated that the bill under discussion is the
first step toward taking away from the Gov
ernment the means for its own preservation.
Unless the President can exert the military
powers of the Government whenever the ex-
ecution of the Federal law is obstructed by
combinations too powerful for the civil au-
thority to suppress, he cannot execute those
laws made in pursuance of the Constitution
which he is by his oath sworn to preserve,
protect and defend. He will have less pow
er than the Governor of a State and the
Federal authority must yield to an authority
nominally subject to it. The teachings of the
trainers of the Constitution and the practice of
their successors are to bedisregarded and we
are to break the strong bond of the Union and
substitute fort the rope of sand of the old Con-
federation. The liberty and security (which
the wisdom of the fathers achieved and the
yalor of their sons preserred'' are to be swept
away, the Federal authority is to be but NOM
inal, and each State will work its will utterly
regardless of laws there is no power to en-
force. The General Government may still
but it will be unable to command
the observance of its statutes. The election
laws will be as imperative as the Maine law
where there are no sheriffs to enforce it.
Upon these three speeches in the Senate
the Republican party can safely rest it's case
before the people. If the dominant South
wishes to repeat its defeat it can go on. 1t
will find that it has driven its Northern sup
porters off the bridge, and it will stand in the
next Congress a powerless minority, con-
fronted by solid North.