Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-04-19

threat involving the independence of the
! Executive. Mr.. Clay rose to his full height
and thus responded
said nothing whatever Of any obligation on the
part of the President to conform his Judgment 10 the
opinions Of the senate and House of Represent atves,
although the senator argued as IL had, and pefse
yered in so arguing after repeated correction. said
no such thing, know and respect the perfect in.
dependence of each department, acting within its
proper sphere, of the other departments.
A leading democrat an eloquent man.
a man who has courage and frankness and
many good qualities. has boosted publicly
that the democracy are in power for the first
time in eighteen years, and they do not intend
to stop until they have wiped out every YES
| ige of every war measure. Well, ''forc-
warned is forearmcd," and You begin appro-
priatcly on measure that has the signature
of Abraham Lincoln. ! think the picture is
a striking one when YOU hear these words
from man who was then in arms against the
| Government of the United States, doing his
best to destroy it, exerting every power given
him in a bloody and terrible rebellion against
the authority of the United States and when
Abraham Lincoln was marching at the same
time to his martyrdom in its defence Strange
times have fallen upon us that those of us
who had the great honor 10 be associated in
higher or lower degree with Mr.. Lincoln in
the administration of the Government should
| live to hear men in public life and on the
floors of Congress, fresh from the battle-fclds
of the rebellion threatening the people of
| the Cnited States that the democratic party
in power for the first time in eighteen wears.
proposes not to stay its hand until every YES
| tige of the war measures has been wiped out
The late vice-president of the contedcracy
boasted-perhaps had better say stated
that for sixty out Of the seventy-two wears
preceding the outbreak of the rebellion. from
the foundation of the Government, the South
though in a minority, had by combining with
what he termed the ant-centralsts in the
| North ruled the country: and in 1866 the
same gentleman indicated in speech, think
before the legislature of Georgia that bv a
return to Congress the South might repeat the
experiment with the same successful result.
| | read that speech at the time; but ! little
thought should live to see so near a fulfill
ment of its prediction. | see here to-day two
great measures emanating, as | have said
not from a committee of either House. but
from a democratic caucus in which the South
has an overwhelming majority, two-thirds in
the House. and out of forty-two Senators on the
other side of this Chamber protesting the demo
cratic faith thirty are from the South-twenty-
three, positive and pronounced ma ority.
| having themselves been participants in the
war against the Union either in military or
civil station. So that as a matter of fact,
plainly deducible from counting your fingers
the legislation of this country to-day, shaped
and fashioned in democratic caucus where
the confederates of the South hold the major
| ity, is the realization of Mr.. Stephens proph-
esy. And very appropriately the House I'M
der that control and the Senate under that
control, embodying thus the entire legislative
powers of the Government, deriving its po-
litcal strength from the South, elected
from the South. say to the President
of the United States, at the head of
the Executive Department of the Govern
ment, elected as he from the North
elected by the whole people, but elected as a
northern man elected on republican principles
elected in opposition to the party that con-
trolls both branches of Congress TO day-they
naturally say. 'Yon shall not exercise your
constitutional power te veto a bill"
Some gentlemen may rise and say. ''Do
you call il revolution to put an amendment
| on an appropriation bill?" OF course not /
There have been great many amendments
put on appropriation hills. some mischievolis
and some harmless: but call it the audaci-
ty of revolution for any Senator or Repre-
sentative or any caucus of Senators or Rep
resentatives to get together and say, "We
will have this legislation or we will stop the
great departments of the Government" That
is revolutionary. I do not think it will
will not. think that is revolution that
will not go around; | think that is revolu-
ton which will not revolve; | think that is a
revolution whose wheel will not turn; but it
is revolution if persisted in, and if not
persisted in it must be backed out from with
ignominy The. democratic party in Con
gress have put themselves exactly in this po
sition to-day, that if they go forward in the
announced programme, they march to revo-
luton. think they will in the end go back
in an ignominious retreat That is my judg-
ment.
The extent to which they control the legis-
lation of the country is worth pointing out
In round numbers the southern people are
about one-third of the population of the
Union. I am not permitted to speak of the
organization of the House of Representatives.
but | can refer to that of the last
House. In the last House of Rep
resentatives, of the forty-two standing
committees the South had twenty-five. am
not blaming the honorable Speaker for it.
lie was hedged in by partisan forces and
could not avoid it, In this very Senate, out
of thirty-four standing committees the South
has twenty-five. | am not calling these
things up just now in reproach | am only
showing what an admirable prophet the late
vice-prcsident of the southern confederacy
was, and how entirely true all his words have
been and how he has lived to see them real
lied.
do not profess to know, Mr.. President
least of all senators on this floor, certainly as
little as any Senator on this floor. do pre-
fess to know, what the President of the
United States will do when these bills are
presented to him, as / suppose in due course
of time they will be. certainly should new
cr speak solitary word of disrespect of the
| gentleman holding that exalted position. and
| hope should not speak word unbefttng
| the dignity of the office of Senator of the
| United States. But as there has been specu-
lation here and there on both sides as to
| what he would do, it seems to he that the
dead heroes of the Union would rise from
their graves if he should consent to he intim-
| dated and outraged in his proper constitu-
| tional power by threats like these
| All the war measures of Abraham Lincoln
are to be wiped out, say leading democrats
| The Bourbons of France busted themselves
| | believe, after the restoration, in removing
every trace of Napoleon's power and grand
deur. even chiselng the an from public
monuments raised to perpetuate his glory;
but the dead mans hand from st. Helena
reached out and destroyed them in their pride
and ina tn;r call ,,l \ all ~,