The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-12-29
A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS.

A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS.
| 1t is an undisguised fact that many Demo-
Gratis throughout the country entertain the
belief that Democrats in Congress will fail
to pass what is known as the morgan joint
rule" relating to counting the votes for
President and Vice President The present
Congress is Democratic; the next Congress
willnot be Democratic. In theimmediate past
Democrats, in dealing with great questions,
have not acted wisely nor prudently. They
have not exhibited the amount of political
courage the exigences of the times demand
ed. They have proposed great measures,
advocated them, outlined ultimatums de-
monstratea the absolute correctness of their
positions, fought the battle grandly up to a
certain point, and then receded. Take, for
instance the question of troops at the polls
That question took this shape: If the
President proposes to station troops at .he
polls to overawe and intimidate the people,
when casting their ballots, then the Presi-
dent shall have no troops at all. If the army
is to be turned with fixed bayonets and
shotted guns upon the sovereign citizens at
time when they are exercising the sovereign
right of suffrage, then appropriations for the
support of the army shall be withheld. and
the army shall be disbanded. Republicans
fought with intense zeal to maintain the
right to station troops at the polls They
fought against the rights and the liberties of
the people, the Constitution of the country
and its traditions. Democrats yielded
Republicans triumphed. Democrats lost
power and neutrality-suspicious. won both.
Now then, for the Morgan joint rule. There
is no doubt about the propriety of passing
the rule The testimony of the most emf
nent Republicans that party has ever pro-
duced is conclusive, but just now Republic
ans in Congress are opposed TO it, They
demand that Vice President Wheeler shall
do all the counting and deciding, and that
Congress shall have no voice in the matter.
Upon this subject Senator Morton. on
March 16 1876, said
Which is the more reasonable. which is the bet
ter, which is the safer of the two-to adopt that
construction which gives this great power to one
man, the President of the Senate, who may be
counting votes for himself as it has turned out
six times in our history, or would it be safer TO
leave it to the determination of the two Houses
of Congress- representing the States and the peo-
pie? II we are open to adopt either one of these
constructions say the latter is safer; it is the
more reasonable; il is in conformity with the
spirit of our Government and popular institutions
then adopt the latter construction.
Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, one of the
great lights of the Republican party, and
who is intellectually the superior of any Re
publican Senator now in the Senate, said:
say, sir, that it staggers human credulity that
if the makers of this Constitution had designed
to turn the President of the Senate into Judge
in the most critical of all cases for the being
of the Republic, and in a where il was fore
seen and even known that he himself would be at
first, and perhaps often afterward as it happened,
the very man who to profit to lose by his
decision, it staggers human creduIity that If they
had intended TO repose such power in that Chair
they should not have SAID so.
Senator Conkling is also on record in
favor of the Morgan joint rule On former
occasion, he said:
II the Constitution ordains this one man power,
let every man bow to it, mystery though 1T be-
But do not so read; can not so read. The
canons of construction the letter and spirit of the
Constitution reason, all revolt against con-
struction so puerile and so perilous. Prudence
points with warning hand TO day when parties
in the Senate may be reversed, and when new
majorities may set up presiding officers to WELD
licentious power under baneful precedent es-
tablished now
These declarations of distinguished Re
publicans declare. with commanding EN-
phasis, that Democrats in seeking to pass
the Morgan rule are in the right. Notwith-
standing this the opinion is abroad that
Democrats instead of passing the rule,
as they have the power to do, will fail, and
that another victory will b scored in favor
of Republican minority. Such things are
not calculated to promote the interests of
the Democratic party or the welfare of the
country. If the Democracy of the country
is again to obtain power, it must be by some
road other than that recently pursued by
those who have had control of Congress.
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