Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-05-29
The Recent Veto.

The Recent Veto.
Mr. Hayes has occasionally been de-
scribed as weak man. 1t very often
happens that man who knows or sus-
poets that his neighbors regard him as
a weak man takes pains to convince |
them of his real strength by adhering |
with peculiar obstinacy to some scheme |
he has formed or some opinion he has
announced, in the face of evidence |
that the scheme is crazy or the opinion |
absurd.
The Presidents course in regard to
the Immediate Deficiency bill will seem
to many persons a fresh illustration of
this trite truth: 1t is reported that his
veto was received with disappointment
even by the Republicans in the House
who had voted and spoken against the
bill on the same grounds as
his veto. They were perfectly aware,
however, that their objections were sill
ly, and they had excuses which the
President had not. Many of them were
men of no sort of political standing OF
responsibility, and nobody would think
Of holding the Republican party to ac
count for what they said or did. Mr..
Garfield, who is recognized by the coun-
try as the leader of the minority in the
House, is SO far from sharing the aver
sion of less responsible persons for the
clause on account of which the Presi-
dent has voted the Deficiency bill,
that he is himself 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 ac-
| eepted and put Mr.. Garfield S own party
| in the wrong, as factious opponents of
| fair measures. Another excuse the Re-
| publican members of Congress had
| which the President has not. They did
not bring forward their objections be-
| cause they themselves were so foolish
as to believe in them, but only in the
hope that they could make irritating
| speeches about them, and " worry the
| Democrats into indiscreet replies,
which might be effectively used before
| the country in the coming canvass. 1t
! is noble work fora s'grand old party
no doubt, to stake its hopes upon its
success in taunting Southern men to say
something which can be used to excite
sectional prejudice in the North. What
ever its character, the attempt did not
succeed, and the men who made it must
be surprised as well as disgusted to see
the President taking up aimlessly the
tactics which they had adopted for a
definite object which they had decidedly
failed to attain. tH5s4-tf
+ But for the curious condition of mind
which it shows in it's author, the. mes
sage has neither interest nor value. 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 last message
is worse than worthless to ssthe
party,'' as the representatives of the
party in the House had sense enough
to see. The people of this country are
not particularly scrupnlous, not as scru-
pulous as very likely they ought to be,
in the means they adopt for the attain
ment 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 Democrats were allowed half of
the election officers, he would not have
lacked for applause from his own par
ty. But to try to fire the Northern
with the proposition that riders on APP
preparations bills are always objection
able, SO Objectionable that the Presi-
dent is justified in depriving public of
fficers. of their pay rather than pass
them, is preposte: Gus 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 faction 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 par
ty 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 Con
gress could be made to pass all the
appropriations. 1t is the power to
withhold supplies that gives Congress
its control over the Government, and il
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 un-
true. 1t would be much better for the
;. public that there should be no Federal
supervision of elections than that the
Federal Supervisors of elections should
be unscrupulous Civil-Service Reform
ers bent only upon securing by hook
or crook the nomination of the Admin
! istration candidate and his election, OF
upon counting him in if he failed to be
elected. Congress has taken thegrounC
that deputy marshals shall not be sc
appointed or so used. If Mr.. Haye:
chooses to insist that in that CASE
, deputy marshals shall not be paid, Con
!; gress is apparently powerless to pre-
! vent him from stopping their pay. Bu
! he gains nothing by putting his refusa
, to pass the appropriation for their pay
ment on the ground that he personally
objects to the practice of all parties il
this country, which is and always ha'
been the practice also of all parties il
all countries where representative gov
: ernment has been established.-N. Y
| World.