New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-07
THE EEL POINTS Ar ISSUE.

Senator Hill, of Georgia, has made n good
speech for consumption IN the far South. But
he has made it in the wrong latitude, and
will find that its effect is by no means what
he desired. In the South, where the State
is wOrshipped and the Union is hated, such a
speech would have suited the spirit and pur
pose of the people. Here at the North, it Is a
declaration of war. In the far South, where
ignorance abounds and newspapers are few
and poor, and lies have chance to run a
long time before they can be hunted down,
the false statements of Mr.. Hill might have
been received as truths. Here, where the
millions read, Mr.. Hill will be obliged to ac-
knowledge that he was in error, and to cor
rect his statements so as to leave them pow
eriess save to damage the cause which he es
pouses, or he will brand himself as a wilful
falsfer in the estimation of millions Of intel
ligent voters.
Mr.. Hill asserts that the Democratic party
never proposed to stop the supplies of the
Government and starye it," Every Northern
man or boy, who has read the daily dis
matches from Washington since January last,
knows that this assertion is untrue. On the
10th of February, three weeks before the
regular session ended, a Democratic caucus
was held to decide what political Legislation
should be attempted. Mr.. Blackburn presided,
and very full accounts of the proceedings,
which appeared the next morning in North
ern journals of all shades of opinion, were
found to agree in every essential partic-
ular by intelligent voters who compared
them. 1t was decided by an Overwhelm-
ing majority to pass certain political provisions
as amendments of the Legislative, Executive
and Judicial bill, and in order to make them
germane, clauses which usually belong to the
Sundry Civil bill were to be transferred to the
Legislative bill. And the reason was openly
stated in the debate in caucus, namely. that
failure of the Sundry Civil bill would throw
out of employment great number of labOrers
on public works, while the Legislative bill was
absolutely necessary to the support of the
Government and if it should fail an extra
session would be rendered necessary. Mr.
Thurman was reported in dispatches to The
TRIBUNE as declaring that the Democrats
fought to withhold the necessary means for
transacting the public business" until the
legislation he demanded was secured; and Mr..
Eustis, Mr.. Beck, Mr.. Blackburn and Others
were reported as supporting his position
in speeches. On the other hand, Mr..
Bayard " warned the Democrats that it
"would be unwise for them to take any steps
THAT would look like revolution" and re-
minded his friends that " the south was al
"already solid that the debatable ground was
the North and that if the Democracy hoped
"to win in the future, 1t must so shape its
Legislation as to make it accord with pubic
" sentiment at the NOTth.r The reports further
declare that "Senators Hill and Herman made
"speeches in which they supported the posi-
"tion taken by Mr.. Bayard.n At this caucus,
Mr.. Bayard was overwhelmingly defeated,
and the policy which he had termed revolu-
tionary was adopted without formal division,
either as to the Juror clauses or as to the re-
peal of the Federal Election laws.
In the face of this record, and much more
to come, Mr.. Hill has the GOODNESS to assert
that the Democrats first proposed 10 attach
these laws to the appropriation bills as the
" quickest and most effective way of securing