The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1880-03-11
Washington, Letter.
From Our Regular Correspondent
Meadville. Pa, March 8, 1880.


Washington, Letter.
From Our Regular Correspondent.l
WASHINGTON. d. c., Mar. 6, 1880.
The House has ceased its labors upon
its new code of rules by adopting them
as finally amended under call for the
previous question made by Mr.. Black
burn. OF course, they were adopted by
party vote, for the Republicans con-
tested to the last, Mr.. Conger even
compelling yea and nay vote, though
he did not attempt to fillibuster. The
new rules are undoubtedly open to fair
and Independent criticism, notwith-
standing the many improvements
made in pruning them of obsolete and
useless provisions. No appropriation
of public moneys should be permitted
save on a yea and nay vote, and no ap-
preparation bill should contain general
legislation on any pretext whatever
the specified permission of retrenching
expenditures is speciOus one which
will permit easy evasion. In other,
though minor respects, too much lati-
tude is given for depletion of the Treas
ury by designing persons, and we pre-
dict that the most pernicious legisla-
ton of the future will, as in the past,
he rushed through Congress by means
of the loop-holes afforded by the lack
of the safeguards above. Senator Ran
dOlph opened up the ball on the Fitz
John Porter case in the Senate, with
an able and ingenious desense, and
there is promise of prolonged de-
bate. Senator Logan's rejoinder Occu-
pied several days, and should other
Senators deem the ground insufficient
ly covered by him, the end of the de-
bate is prOblematical. This discussion
is hot upon the House bill, which pro-
posed pardon and reinstatement and
the payment of $75. 900 as back pay,
but upon a substitute offered by Sena-
tor Randolph, which gives only par
don, with reinstatement on the retired
list. It Is unfortunate for Gen. Porter,
that this matter, so vital and important
to him, should have been made polit-
ical issue between the two parties in
Congress, for there is much less likeli-
hood of impartial justice being done
him. We have often urged his pardon
on the ground that he was no more
guilty or wrong than Gen. Mcclellan,
whose disobedience of the Presidents
peremptory orders of August 10, IL, "a
and %, are wholly indefensible. Por-
ter was made the scape-goat, and now
owing to the political aspect given his
case, it will be hard for him to secure
relief.
The pension question is Incoming a
most serious one to Congress, and how
to best dispose of it perplexes the minds
of no few of the solons. Mr.. Coffroth
has introduced into the house bill es-
tablishing Pension Court, to which
shall be referred the many cases reject
ed by the Pension Office. This is a
most judiciOus and commendable
measure. The Pension Office cannot,
in the nature of things, be otherwise
than technical, hence the need of an
other tribunal empowered to rule upon
Il
view of the immense national business
before it. is certainly not the place to
hear and adjudicate upon such small
matters as rejected pension cases, since
it is clearly within the province of an
ordinary Court or Board of Judges to
perform such duty, and it isto be
hoped Mr.. C.'s bill will soon become a
law. Soldiers will then have proper
court of appeal, instead of the present
most unsatisfactory course of pro-
cedure.
The citizens of the northeastern por-
ton of the city are intensely excited
over brutal and murderous assault
and rape committed RET Gently on ayoung
| woman by negro. She was knocked
senseless by blow which severed one
of her ears, and then had her person
outraged. Her face and body were
fnger-marks of severe choking, and so
severely injured was she that her life
is not yet fully assured. Within the
last three years several similar out
RACES have been committed in this To-
cality, and naturally its citizens are
aroused to a fever heat, and are de-
manding increased protection. Sena-
tor Harris has taken one step in that
direction by introducing a bill making
rape punishable with death. The sup
posed perpetrator in this case has been
arrested, and, though the girl herself
is unable to identify her assailant, yet
the circumstantial evidence against
him is so conclusive that, were he not
strongly guarded by the police, he
would undoubtedly be lynched.
The trial of the Hirth murderers
terminated with a verdict of guilty,
but, as hanging is played out" here,
of course they will luxuriate a year or
two in the penitentiary preparatory to
a return to former haunts and vices.
Another negro murderer, Stone, under
sentence of death for the murder of
his wife. and for cutting the throat of
her sister, has been respited thirty
days, and doubtless, he, too, will soon
be snugly enscOnced at Sing Sing.
Our courts present us with a most
singular incident. A Miss Jessie Ray
mond filed a bill by her attorney, Mrs.
Lockwood, against Senator Hill.
charging him with her seduction in
Atlanta, Ga, in November, 1877, and
with being the father of her young
child. But the next day our city pa
pers contained a card, sighed by the
plaintiff, denying the whole charge,
and alleging that Mrs. Lockwood filed
the bill without her knowledge or con-