Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-09-07
Sentimentalism In Politics.
AZ ZOE Herald.

pensities meeting an unshOd tramp in
Broadway should bestow his own boots
upon him and walk home in stockings there
would be a strong temptation to apply that
disrespectful epithet to such a philanthro-
pist which the Scriptures prohibit under a
severe penalty. Having the prospect of a
session Of Congress In near view some of
our Republican friends, with an ingenious
ness which is truly touching, insist that
political charity requires the Democratic
Senators to signalize themselves by Just
such Pickwickian exploit Of simplicity In
the choice of a presiding officer of that
body. Our innocent hearted neighb0r, the
Tribune, discourses eloquently on the sub
lect. THE people declare their will, " IL
says, "by the election OF President Garfield
and Vice President Arthur, that the execu-
tive power should remain for another term
in Republican hands, The President pro
TEN. of the Senate is an officer of the law
full line of succession, and "hence It would
be an act of supreme folly on the part Of
the Democrats of the Senate to make any
attempt to elect a possible temporary
Executive in disregard Of the popular will, %
and ga defeat Of the party obtaining power
by such means would be well nigh inevi-
table"
Now, really, would It? 1t occurs to US
that there has been previous case precisely
In point. The people elected General Tay-
Tor and MIR. Fillmore President and Vice
President for four years from the 4th of
March, 1S49, but nevertheless ''the Demo
Gratis OF the Senate" committed the "su-
preme folly" OF choosing one OF" their
own number, Senator William r. King, of
Alabama, to be their pro tempore Plesi-
dent, and after General Taylor died and Mr..
Fillmore entered into the Presidential Office
Senator King was kept by "the Democrats
of the Senate" in the legitimate line of sue
cession without any evil consequences to the
Democratic party that we are aware of
from the neglect to put Wing into his
place. On the contrary, the Democrats not
merely were not defeated in the next Presi-
dental contest, but they carried in their
candidates with two hundred and ffty-four
out Of two hundred and ninetY-six electoral
notes.-the greatest electoral majority any
had received since James Monroe's time
and the Vice President whom they then elect
ed was Senator King himself, the head and
front of what the Tribune pretends to be the
otfense against the will of thespeople. The
fair inference from this historical precedent
is that our partisan Republican neghbor's
assumption about the popular will is not
trustworthy.
1t is to be observed also that the same
argument-if 1t deserves the dignity of that
title-by which Democratic majority of
the Senate is exhorted to elect Repubn-
can presiding officer would equally apply to
the election Of Speaker of the House of
Representatives, for he also stands 10 the
lawful line Of succession to the Presidency.
But In a common sense view this would be
as If the philanthropist whom we imagine
to bestow his boots on tramp were to give
away his stockings too and walk home
barefoot. The reduction of the argument
to its intrinsic absurdity would bs more
~E{II h 4 A.,
provision for the Presidential succession be-
yond the Speaker. There is nothing to It
but sentimentalism, and sentiment alism
has no more place in politics than in war or
whist.
The Democratic party would have just
cause of reproach against "the Democrats
of the Senator If they should throw away
the opportunity which the resignation Of
Senators Conkling and Platt has afforded
them to put presiding officer of their own
political complexion into the chair. The
people did not elect the Republican party to
retain the Executive power absolutely for
four years from the 4th of March, 1881, with
q guarantee against all possible lapses of it
meanwhie-especiallY lapses due 10 folly.
The party must bear the legitimate conse-
Quences Of the abdication of its own
Senators without whimpering or it will lose
ifs claim to manliness. When, by the vol
untary course of Mr.. Conkling and Mr..
Platt, it has reduced itself to the i'll estate
of an unshod tramp in the Senate 1t makes
itself ridiculous by begging that the Demo-
erals shall present it with their boots, and
the prophecy Of the Tribune that IL they do
not the people will take vengeance on them
is as preposterous as if the tramp should ac-
company his petition with threat of resort
ing to the police to punish a refusal of his
demand for shoe leather.
Whenever the Republicans have been
given the opportunity to gain or to retain
an advantage in politics akin or analogous
to that which "the Democrats of the Sen
ate" now enjoy they never have failed to
improve It with as utter absence of senti-
mentalism as Shylock showed when he de-
manded his pound of flesh Our now senti.
mental neighbor, the Tribune, scarcely will
deny that when Vice President Wilson died
In 1873 popular disapproval Of Republican
Executive administration had very recently
been expressed with an emphasis almost
By the Congressional elections
of 1874 Republican majority oftwo-thirds of
the House of Representatives had just been
supplanted by Democratic majority OF the
same proportion. The Republicans had
been driven out of power in almost every
State where the people got chance to reach
them. Even In Massachusetts Democratic
the first time in almost forty years. Never
theless no Republican then proposed 10 put
q Democrat into the Presidency Of the Sem
ate. Two years later, II ever there was a
case when the popular will, as indicated
by large popular majority,
would have warranted the minority
in surrendering technical rights,
1t was in the instance of the Presidential
election of 1876. But If there was any ten
dency on the part of the Republican politi-
clans and the Republican press then to con-
cede the Presidency to Mr.. Tilden we are
not aware of it. One solitary Republican
visitor to the contested localities, General
Barlow, did venture to express non parti-
san opinion concerning the electoral vote of
the State of Florida, and he paid the penal.
ty Of his political life for his sentimental
ism, and we seem to remember that the 1ri-
bune was among the most vigorous singers
OF stones in his martyrdom.
No, the political advantage which the
Democrats enjoy in the condition into
which Republican blunder has put the
Senate is perfectly fair one. They have
right to improve it, and the coun-
try will incur no danger from their doing
so. It will be Gan act of supreme follyn on