The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-04-11
Passage Of the Army Bill.

PhSSaSe OF tne Army Bill.
The bill appropriating money for the sup
port of the army, with provision forbidding
thepresence federal troops at the polls, pass
ed the House ofRepresentatives last Saturday,
by vote of 143 to 1922 The Greenbackers
voted with the Democrats in favor Of the bill
The bill went to the Senate on Monday. 1t
will no doubt evoke a lengthy debate there
also, but it will be passed and be submitted to
the President for his approval. Considerable
curiosity is felt as to the course the President
will pursue in the matter If he approves
the bill, it will show that he prefers his coun-
try above his party, but he will be regarded
as unfaithful to the Republican party, whose
leaders have made the question an issue with
the Democrats. If he vetoes it, he will stand
before the country as supporting and uphold
ing, for partisan purposes, a principle odious
TO free people and contrary to the principles
of our government.
General Garfield, ex-Secretary Robson and
other stalwart Republicans, in opposing the
repeal, raised u cry of revolution" and Ell
deavored to rouse the old war feeling between
the North and South. They saw however, be-
fore the debate concluded, that they had made
great blunder, in opposing the repeal of an
unconstitutional and Objectionable law, and
after all their threats of veto, Gen Garfield
attempted to retrieve his lost position by de-
claring that the Republicans were not oppos-
ed to the repeal of the law, but merely desired
to have it separated from the army appropria-
ton bill, and promised to vote for il as a
separate measure. Thus il appears that Gar
field, Notwithstanding his cutlery of "revolrl-
tion," was not opposed to the repeal of the
law, but only objected to the mode of its pas
sage. His course was therefore reprehensibe,
in provoking bitter discussion upon mere
technically. The Democrats had no guaran-
tee that Hayes would sign it, in that shape,
and remembering the broken pledges of Conlk-
ling, Edmunds and other Republicans, dur
ing the Electoral Commission controversy,
they were unwilling to trust him, and passed
the bill in such shape that President Hayes
will hesitate before he vetoes it.
The position occupied by the Democrats in
this matter is impregnabe. 1t is justified by
every consideration of regard for the future
of our country. The law does not prohibit
the use of federal troops at any time, in a
State, to quell domestic instruction or foreign
invasion, but they may only be used upon the
requisition of the Governor or Legislature
The next political question to occupy the
House will be the provision attached TO the
Legislative, Judicial and Executive Appro-
priation bill, repeating the law authorizing the
appointment of marshals and supervisors of
election. The principle involved is the same
as that which governed the repeal of the clause
permitting the presence of troops at the polls,
namely the right to vote without the super
visou of Federal officials.
1t was evidently the intention of Gen. Gar
field and his colleagues to make the cry of
revolution" the issue for the Presidential
campaign of 1880, but the plan has failed and
a new watch-word will have to be chosen.
DEATH OF MADAME Madame
Elizabeth Bonaparte, widow of Jerome Bo-
napartc, brother Of Napoleon Bonaparte and
King of Westphalia, died in Baltimore, last
Friday, at the advanced age of "a years. She
was married to young Bonaparte in 1903, but
his imperious brother compelled him to desert
his wife and marry another. The Emperor
refused to allow her to land in France, width
er she sailed to meet her husband. Notwith-
standing her treatment she was stanch Bona
partist to the last day of her life. She was the
mother of Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, from
whom are descended Col. jerome Napoleon
Bonaparte and Charles j. Bonaparte, both well
known citizens of Baltimore. Madame Bo-
naparte retained her faculties in remarkable
degree to the last She kept herself well
posted in the affairs of France, and was as
noted in her old age for the keenness of her
intellect as she had been in her youth for her
beauty.
The Reisterstown Peoples I0ise appeared