Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-04-02
Our Washington Letter.

WASHINGTON, d. G., March 30, 1879
Messrs Editors The contest over the appro-
praton bills, with the obnoxious political meas
ures added thereto has begun in earnest in the
House, and no one can tell just how or when 1t
will end The attempted
COERCION OF THE PRESIDENT
by the democratic majority In Congress. as al
ready decided upon in the caucus OF that party
is liable to bring about struggle fraught with
great danger to the future welfare of constitu-
tional government, menacing, as II does, the life
| Of the nation The speech Of Senator Hoar on
Tuesday last, was an able indictment OF the course
decided upon by the democratic party. The
| scheme was denounced as revolutionary, made to
| coerce the President, " not In his executive ca
pacity, but In his function part Of the egisa-
| ture, TO prevent his performance OF duty ex-
| pressly prescribed and defined by the constitu-
ton, not merely to aect his executive discretion"
The refusal to pass the executive, legislative and
| judicial appropriation bill and the army BILL II
| persisted in for considerable length Of time,
must in his opinion, bring the national govern
ment to an end. 1t was n refusal to submit to the
constitutional authority to which is entrusted the
enactment and repeal of laws. "To-day," said
the Senator, "this weapon may be directed
| against tho President Tbrea svaeLs ago 4, yas
directed against the Senate. In NV Judgment
| this novel and monstrous doctrine must be an
| countered resisted and overthro,vp nm the ,bresb
| old To Weld ANYTHING To IL ia To Weld everv-
| thing. The men who have set IL nm must abandon
Il here. or prepare themselves To defend IL before
| the Intelligent Judgment Of the American peope
who know and understand their constitution. OF
the issue of sucb an appeal have M fear
| IL il. without doubt. the expectaton Of the de-
mocracy that thew will be able to coerce the Pres
ident into signing these hills with their no,iticol
| measures attached There il bowever the verv
best authority for saving that he will not approve
the appropraton hills with the pro,osed legisla.
ton tackled npon them The Cabinet ia n mi. in
holding the same view Of the ouestion. The only
| ,,o,,. an. ,,,,,,.,,,,,,.,.
ia in tho nossih,li,v ,ha, tho democra,s will oor-
tent thamselves with tho renooI a, Tho i,ror,s
test-oatb la,v and tho s,o,rtos o,,horlv,n, ,ho
nreserco ,f troors n, tho rolIs ho,b "a sonara,o
measures ou,side NJ ,ho an,ronriaton h,,is and
aIlow tho snnor,isors Ia,v ,v,;ch ,ho pro.idon,
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| TODAY in tho uouse was tho opening of what IL
liable to he n protracted debate unon this hill and
| its amendments This sneech was an able exno.
sition of the points at issue between the two mar
ties and the annuncia,ion of the views held nv
| the Rennbicans unon than The Ceperal elah
GRATED his ideas at some length. and in language
which no one could fail to understand In the
first nlace he commanded that the nresenca ot
troops near the polls in n Government like this
inundated no one lint rather induced n failing
;oritv that in 1850 they had said ~ tbe Ranub,i.
cans elected and iuaururated Lincoln thew wonld
shoe, ,bis government IN dea,b "We Than
nched nm tho gage NJ hattie and Won know at
what loss of blood and treasure we won the vic
tory. Wesimply made the appeal to our sovereign
| that great omnipotent public opinion-to deter
| mine whether the Union should be shot to death
| And now lawfully in our right, and in our places
here, we pick up the gage of battle which you
have thrown down, and will appeal to our com
mon sovereign to see whether you shall break
down the principle of free consent in legislation
at the price of starving the government to death.
We are ready to pass these bills for the support
of the government at any hour when you will of
| them in the ordinary way; and il you offer these
other measures as separate measures we will meet
you In the spirit of fair and fraterna debate But
you shall not compel us, you shall not coerce us,
even to save this government until the question
has gone to the sovereign to determine whether
it will consent to break down any of its voluntary
powers. And on this ground, gentlemen. we
plant ourselves
The discussion WAS continued by Messrs Me-
Mahon of Ohio. Wood of New York, and others.
exciting the greatest interest on the floor and in
the galleries, being regarded as the opening of
the great parliamentary contest on which Con-
gress has entered. Among the listeners ON the
floor were Secretaries Evarts and Sherman. The
House adjourned at four o'clock until Tuesday,
when the debate il to be resumed, Mr.. Bedford of
Colorado having the floor
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