The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-04-30
THE DEMOCRATIC PARALYSIS.

him. Then / shot him, and released the
parrot.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARALYSIS.
A Rasping speech by Gen. HawIey.
The political amendment to the Army
Appropriation bill being under consider
alton in the House of Representatives.,
Gen. Hawley, Of Connecticut, spoke as
follows:
Mr.. Chairman, am well aware that many Of
these topics have been very thoroughly dis
cussed during the sixteen weeks We spent here
last summer, and yet am not willing to pass by
this bill and pending amendment without some
remarks. / believe we have before us one Of
the most important questions which has agItated
Congress for years; not altogether included in
the simple amendment which the Committee on
Military Affairs has proposed, but in the general
policy OF which that IL u part, and chiefly, l may
say, in the evident determination of the ruling
majority OF this House TO insist upon forcing
upon us political riders on appropriation bills.
think that involves great constitutional right,
involves complete revolution in deliberative
legislation. Whatever the amendment may be,
whether it BIO altogether bad or only tainted and
colored with badness, or whether il be altogether
good, whether it be the devils creed or the New
Testament, vote against any political amend
ment on an appropriation bill, and vote against
that bill when the amendment shall have been
put Oh 1t.
believe that to be my duty; ask no other
man in the world to follow me. think there
ID 80 much involved in the claim Of the majority
that j have not only the right, but il Is my
bounden duty, to take that ground. l do il With
the iirmest conviction that am right, and with
out hesitation. i rely upon my constituents to
sustain me-; know they will; but whether theV
do or not, it is my ground.
i confess / was little astonished at the
declaration on the other side that they wanted
no general debate and there ought to be none
here. Why, Mr.. Chairman, We have spent two
days in this House lately, hurried az We have
pretended to be, in discussing a little private
bill-very little compared with the great inter.
ests of this COMMUNICATING the repayment
Of $4,000 to a citizen of Louisiana; two whole
days We have spent on it, and gentlemen are
suddenly seized with such q desire TO econo-
mize time that they desire to force without u
moments debate political amendment upon
the Army bill
do not understand this. What change has
come over the spirit Of their dream2 Last sum-
mer they were ready for nothing 80 much as
debate. They appealed to English and Ameri-
can history to justify them in their alleged
right to load down appropriation bills with
amendments. They were all for talking. They
appealed to the country; they chal-
lenged us to meet them at the polls
and on the hustings. Now they pass the
word that there shall be no general debate, and
one of the best-natured men on the other side
of the House said that if any man on that side
wanted to debate this question he should be
shot on the spot. take it, therefore, that tie
gentleman from Illinois Mr.. Sparks) is doomed,
for the gentleman from Georgia who made that
threat is a brave soldier and man of his word.
ask again what has come over them? Is it
the frost of the last fall elections? Where were
these gentlemen in the recent elections who rode
about here last summer with spurs and plumes
Did they come to Maine, and Massachusetts,,
and Ohio, and New York, to advance these doc
trines? Many of them whom We should have
been glad TO see there were absent. They failed
to come and yet the people tolerably well under
stood the issue. confess hoped to hear them.
l am anxious because We want some speeches to
circulate in the next fall campaign. We want
some more of these fiery arguments made OH
that side Of the House in denunciation of all
military force. of all armed force in the Ameri-
can Government; in denuncation of what
conceive to he the incontrOyertible right of the
National Government to protect the people in
electing members of the Federal Government.
We want some more of those threats to repeal
every word ON the statute-book that was "born
of the spirit of the war y or if you choose, zen
gendered by the hates of the war; having in
mind not alone the legislation of reconstruction,
but manifesting also hostility to the famous con-
stitutional amendments. / beg gentlemen of
the majority to go on with the power they dis
played last summer i'll laying down the princi-
Piles of last summer. Why is it they are SO
silent? Is it in obedience to the commands of
the whisperer of Gramercy park? Does he OBJ
ject to this discussion? Is 1t because il will dis
close difference of opinion among themselves
that they object to this debate? Possibly, for
il you will take the members of this House aside,
four out Of five of them will tell you that po-
itical legislation on appropriation bills is unfair
and unwise. Is there any further political mo-
tive III this enforced silence among men who
dearly love to talk, and better still love to
fight?
II was said last summer and last autumn that
in order to insure the nomination and election
of q certain Presidential candidate it was only
necessary that the Democratic party should
maintain the policy of the extra session. Is it
possible that the opponents Of Gen. Grant have
laid in with the majority in this House not to
bring about the nomination and election Of that
most distinguished gentleman? Have you not
heard it said, gentlemen on the other side, as
have heard it said, that if the Democratic party
proceeds, insists upon its policy, the country
will be ready to elect and inaugurate even John
Brown, if he can be found? Are you aware of
that fact? Do you know that defeat stares you
in the face if you attempt to make as bold a
fight as you made last summer? II you do not
know it, know it. i think you do know it, and
therefore understand this silence. I am not
saying whether l want Gen. Grant or not; but
have so much Of the nature of ordinary men
that confess the more Of that there is the
more 1 am driven to combative feeling, and the
less care how pronounced and vigorous the
man may be whom We nominate, for am ready
to meet every charge that we met before.
court it. / wish the majority to make abso-
lutely certain the election Of q Republican
President that we may have for four years more
the country in the hands of the men who saved
it, and under the legislation which saved it.
Thereafter the census will dispose forever Of all
anxieties about solid South.
Probably there are many gentlemen here who
have visited Madame Tussaud's gallery in Lon.
don. Doubtless il has happened TO some Of
them, as it has happened to great many 9TH
ers, that in walking through those halls they
have brushed against some lacy or gentleman
and have made ample apology to what turned
to become Madame Tnssaud's gallery2
A member-Jarleys wax-works.
Mr.. Hawley-I shall apologize If say any
thing discourteOus to the wax figures.
/ see over there our witty friend from New
York mfr. Coxl. We shall see our light and
graceful friend from Michigan MIR. Horrl in
the role of Hamlet, walking over there, placing
his tender finger upon the head of the gentle
man from New Yorh, and exclaiming:
Alas, poor Yorick! knew him, Horatio; fellow
Of infinite jest, Of most excellent fancy.
Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your
songs? your flashes Of merr1ment that were wont to
set the table OH q roar?
And he is silent For the order is given that
there shall be no general debate. commiserate
him and many others. How they rode through
this arena How the feathers danced in the
sunlight The feathers are here, but they are
not on the ostrich. His head is in the sand.
Irecollect how CALAMITY my chivalrous friend
from Kentucky Mr.. Blackburn came into
the lists. "Where is my Highland laddie
gomez
There shall be no general debate on great
question, one Of the greatest we have had here
for years. But, Mr.. Chairman, there will be
general debate. ! do not refer to this House
alone. The general debate Of this year began
last summer, and il has not stopped the gen.
eral debate of the thousand cross roads the
general debate in u thousand groves the gen.
eral debate in every shoe-shop and in every
country tavern, and in the sheds Of every meet
ing-house, even on Sunday, for there are men
who believe that their duty to their country is
quite near their duty to their God. And there
will DO general debate in the 1000 periodicals
published in this country. II you could see
them flying through the air, they would cloud
the sky like the multitudinous flights of pigeons.
The rolls Of the great papers passed through the
press at the rate OF fifteen miles an hour, printed
on both sides, cut and folded. That is the
general debate that you cannot suppress by the
vote of a caucus here, and that the kindly gen.
tleman from Georgia (dr. Cook cannot shoot
down.
The general debate has begun we welcome
it we courtit we challenged; because through
that we expect to save our country. We have
done it before and believe that We shall do it
again.
The Gentleman Wins.
From the Boston Herald
If you speak the right word at the