Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-06-11


Closed
Ever since the Democratic party has
been in complete possession of both
Houses of Congress its leaders have
proceeded upon the theory that Gov
ernment in this country is a mere piece
Of party machinery, with no other aim
or purpose than to subserve a class of
men who are seeking to control the dis
tnbution of taxes as spoils among their
retainers.
The present Congress has been in
gession altogether about ten months,
and during that time it has not matured
a single measure for the promotion of
public Interests. Worse than this, it
has actually failed to provide for the
proper support of such working DEPART
ments Of the Government as lie outside
the scope of political machinery, and
this in spite or the enormous surplus
revenue which is accommodating by rea-
son of the reduction in the interest
charge, etc.
The Democratic party leaders set out
to repeal the Election laws, or to so
cripple them as to render them inoper-
alive, in order that the bull-dozers at
the South and the roughs of the North
ern cities might have full swing at the
approaching Presidential election. This
unworthy and dishonest party purpose
has been kept steadfastly in view ever
since it was adopted as a policy. The
Democrats Of the last Congress refused
to pass the requisite appropriations for
the judicial service of the Government
because they could not carry out their
notification project. The President
called an extra session of the present
Congress in order to perform the work
which the old Congress had deliberately
neglected. At the extra session there
was persistent but futile effort
to coerce the President into an approval
of the proposed notification, and, when
that attempt failed, an adjournment
was taken without appropriating the
pay for the Executive branch of the
United States judicial system. The
perversty of the Democratic policy was
emphatically condemned by the people
in the elections of 1879, when the work
OF the extra session was in issue. The
Democrats were defeated everywhere.
Notwithstanding this pointed rebuke,
the Democrats renewed their efforts at
notification at the regular session.
They delayed for months to vote the
accumulated deficiency in the pay of
the United States Marshals, and then
passed the bill with a political rider
which was sure to call out an Executive
veto, as it did And there the case
stands to-day.
During the year in which no supplies
have been furnished the United States
ho1 hpVra glAttrf, n ut sab
would not have been expected from
them if they hadbeen Democratic Office
holders. They have performed the
services required of them without any
compensation, and without any assur-
ance that they would ever receive pay
which depended on the vote of a Demo-
cratic Congress. They have also made
personal iVlvances for the necessary
expenses of holding court. But
the limit of patience, and in
many cases of the individual
resources of the Marshals, has been
reached. Mr.. j. w. Chapman, the
United States Marshal for Iowa, has
notified the Attorney-General that,
after serving several months without
pay and advancing something like Sl0,-
900 for the pay of other Court officers
and necessary expenses, his resources
are eXhaused. The Attorney-General
is helpless. He can only thank Mar
shal Chapman for his past devotion to
the public service, and repeat that he
himself has over and over again di-
rected the attention of Congress to the
injustice of Withholding the necessary
supplies, and the injury that would
unquestionably be done to public in
terests. The United States Court in
Iowa must be closed with a full and
important docket of litigation that de-
mands settlement.
What has occurred in Iowa will soon
occur in other sections of the country.
The United States Courts will of neces-
sity close unless Congress directs the
pay of their officers, and the
public who pay so dearly for the
support of Government will suf-
fer losses amounting to millions
Of dollars by the ineXcusable delay
enough if it were the unavoid-
but it is infamous when the United
States Treasury is overrunning with
money, and when it is brought about to
uSSlSI III Ille peTpeuIuJlOn OF u pafJlSan
wrong, 1t may be that the nullifers
will be brought to their senses by the
actual imminence of the necessity for
the United States Courts,
and will now seek to make tardy |
atonement for the wrong and injury |
they have put upon the public. Even |
If they shall do this now, because they
dare not longer fy in the face of public
Indignation, the people will not forget |
that justice in the Courts, which is GER
tainly the first claim the citizen has
upon Government, has been retarded |
and in part denied in order that the
Democratic majority might urge the
of laws for the protection
of honest elections. That was from the
first, and is now, the only pretext for
the necessary authority to
pay the United States Marshals and
keep open the United States Courts.
Never before was so outrageous O
scheme attempted through such mex
cusable methods by any political party.
Chicago Tribune. l'