Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-05-15
WHOLE NO. 1880.
my.Hnyes and the HIders.

IN. Y. World.l
| II our Washington correspondent
correctly report the Intention of tn
| president, Mr.. Hayes is about to pu
himself and his party into a rathe
serious dilemma. They aver tha
while he will sign the army bill h,
will veto the Immediate deiicienc,
bill on the ground that the latte
carries a rider. 1t is difficult to Sc,
why provision restricting the US,
Of-troOps Is not as much of a "rider'
upon an appropriation bin as {
provision prescribing the mode il
which deputy marshals shall be ap
pointed. 1T is announced also thai
Mr.. Hayes will endeavOr to save
the feelings of Mr.. Garfield by an
intimatiOn that If the stmarshals
clause in the deficiency bill Is pre-.
sented. to him as separate measure
he will sign it.
Sensible men of all parties must
be struck by the absurdity Of this
performance; and Mr.. Hayes him.
self must be conscious that it is a
long journey from the ample mouth
of the horn on which Mr.. Chandler
blew so furious a blast last year, to-
wards the little end of that instru-
ment from which he is about to
emerge. The army bill has rider,
and the president, who last year
was opposed "On general principles"
to riders on appropriation bills, ac-
cepts this rider, possibly for the rea-
son that it does not absolutely pro-
hibit the political use of troops, but
only provides that the bill for such
service shall be sent to republican
state committees instead of to the
headquarters of the United States
army. When he gets to the i'm
mediate deficiency bill the president
returns to his original and conscien-
tious opposition to all manner of RI
ders on appropriation bills, and We
toes Mr.. Garf1eld's amendment on
that ground. Mr.. Garfield was a
leader in the republican party long
before Mr.. Hayes was conspicuous
as a republican politician, and is
very likely to continue to be lead
er of that party after Mr.. Hayes has
ceased to be a republican president.
G Considering the manner In which
Mr.. Ewing the other day exposed
from the record the nature of the
conscientious opposition of the re-
publicans in general and of Mr..
Hawley in particular to all riders
on appropriation bills, the president
can scarcely feel secure in vetoing
provision to which he can find no
kkans nnfnnffOVa than that - 20 81
tached to an appropriation. But if
1t be true that he means to fortify
his message by reference TO the
opinions which Mr.. Rutherford B.
Hayes held and expressed ''in con-
when he was under no
sort of official responsibility, con-
the riders which his own
party attached to appropriation bills,
he is about to make himself highly
1t will not do for the
president to be too sure even about
MS own record. He was in con-
yress, we believe, in Andrew John
jon's time, and the odds are that |
he name of Mr.. Hayes, of Ohio, is |
% be found on more than one divis-
on in the list of men who voted to |
hamper "the government" with |
'iders.
1t is true that there is nothing to
De said against Mr.. Garfield's prop |
,sition except that it is a rider. Mr.. |
may be said to have |
proved that by showing how hope
ess it was for an able debater like |
himself to make out any case against /
t on its merits. The proposition
hat all riders on appropriations are
and that a provision
otherwise unobjectiOnable should
,e rejected because it is a rider, is
me of the most mOnstrous PROPOSE
ions ever made since the history Of |
government. 1t re-
minds one of Cobbett's saying that
I it were the interest of a govern
nent to attack the law of gravita-
ion it would have no trouble in en-
isting philosophers to help IL. AS
matter of fact the history of the
establishment of constitutional gov
rnment is little else than history
f riders on appropriation bills. Leg
slatureS constrain executives by In
isting on redress of grievances as
condition precedent to granting
evenues, and they have no other
and peaceable means of
There is something
ludicrous to anybody who
.nows the history of free Institutions
ven in outline, in the spectacle of
Ir. Joseph Hawley arraying him
elf against the whole system of rep
government, of which
e is one of the latest and perhaps
ot one of the most important re-
ults, because he is "opposed to RI
ers," and of President Hayes de-
wing the traditions of twenty gen
rations and citing against them the
Jews which he expressed sin con-
when those traditions
1ere followed by his own party.