Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-05-08

the leader of the minority in the House, |
is so far from sharing the aversion Of
less responsible persons for the clause
on account of which the President has
vetoed the Deficiency bill that he him.
SELF is the author of that clause, which
he drew, no doubt, in the hope that the
Democrats would put themselves in the
wrong by rejecting it, but which the
Democrats promptly accepted and put
his own party in the wrong, as factions
opponents of fair measures. Another
excuse the Republican members of Con-
gress had which the President had not.
They did not bring forward their OBJ
jections because they themselves were
80 foolish as to believe in them, but only
in hope that they could make irritating
speeches about them, and sworry the
Democrats into indiscreet replies,
which might be effectively used before
the country in the coming canvass. 1t
is noble work for s'grand old party"
no doubt, to stake its hopes upon its
success in taunting Southern men to
say SOuCtAihS NhtCA Snh NC aSSSA w S<A
cite sectional prejudice in the North.
Whatever its character, the attempt did
not succeed, and the men who made it
must be surprised as well as disguised
to see the President taking up aimlessly
the tactics which they had adopted for
a definite object which they had decided
ly failed to attain.
But for the curious condition of mind
which it shows in its author, the mes
sage has neither interest nor talUe A
state paper cannot be a very effective
Campaign document when it only
tempts people to discuss what could
have induced its author to deliver it. In
point of fact Mr.. Hayes latest message
is worse than worthless to ''the party"
as the representatives of the party in
the House had sense enough to see. The
people of this country are not particu-
larly scrupulous, not as scrupulous as
very likely they ought to be, in the
means they adopt for the attainment of
what seem to them desirable political
ends. If Mr.. Hayes had pitched into
the brigadiers and drawn a picture of
the horrors which would be let loose
on the enfranchised negroes if the DEM
ocrats were allowed half of the election
officers, he would not have lacked for
applause from his own party. But to
try to fire the Northern heart with the
proposition that riders on appropriation
bills are always Objectionable. so OBJ
jectionable that the President is justif
ed in depriving public officers of their
pay rather ti1an pass them, is a
preposterous attempt. There is not
a man in the country, of course
excepting Mr.. Hayes, who would not
vote with cheerfulness for rider on an
appropriation bill if it would give him
anything he much wanted and saw no
other way of getting. Much less is
there any party or any fraction of any
party which would hesitate to use all
the means which the control Of the leg
islature put into their hands to coerce
an executive officer OF an opposite party
or faction, even if the legislators thought
that riders on appropriation bills were
in the abstract improper.
Nobody except Mr.. Hayes does think
so or pretends to think so. Everybody
else knows that the President would be
the absolute ruler of the country if
Congress could be made to pass all the
appropriations. 1t is the power to with
hold supplies that gives Congress its
ha
Congress should relinquish this power
Congress would deserve and incur the
contempt of the country. The radical
mistake of Mr.. Hayes message is the
assumption that the stoppage of appro-
priations is more to be deprecated than
any use which can be made of the ap-
preparations. This is altogether untrue.
1t would be much better for the public
that there should be no Federal SUPER
vision of elections than that the Feder-
al supervisors of elections should be un-
scrupnlous civil-serYiee reformers bent
only upon securing by hook or crook
the nomination of the Administration
candidate aud his election, or upon
counting him in If he failed to be elect
ed. Congress has taken the ground
that deputy marshals shall not be so ap-
pointed or SO used. If Mr.. Hayes
chooses to insist that in that case deputy
marshals shall not be paid, Congress is
apparently powerless to prevent him
from stopping their pay. But he gains
nothing by putting his refusal to pass
the appropriation for their payment on
the ground that he personally objects to
the practice of all parties in this coun-
try, which is and always has been the
practice also of all parties in all coun-
tries where representative governme mt
has been established.