New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-05-04
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AFFAIRS AT WASHINGTON.
TOPICS OF GENERAL INTEREST

| vi tnc Nar IOr inc Union were discussed
yesterday. The Tariff Commission bill was
| further debated in the House. A resolution was
presented to the House of Representatives, by
the adoption of which it is hoped many i'm
pOrtant measures before that body may be
acted upon with some degree of promptness.
The Senate Committee on Military Affairs
made a report on the management of the
Soldiers Home. General Hazen, OF the Signal
Service, has sent a letter to the Secretary OF
War urging that every effort be made to re-
arrest Captain Howgate and bring him to
trial, in order to set at rest reports injurious
to the Service.
MAINTAINING THE FRUITS OF VICTORY.
fBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRTBUSE.i
WASHINGTON May 3.-The refusal Of the Dem.
ocrats of the Senate to allow the bill for the relief OF
DrTebbs to be referred to the judiciary Committee,
has stirred up the Republicans 10 make spirited
opposition to the present movement for the repeal
of the war legislation" This is the bill which
repeas the statute prohibiting eX-rebels from hold
ing positions in the army. Anumber of the Northern
Senator's have expressed their Willingness TO vote
for the repeal modification Of the statute in
question, and of the test oath laws but they
wished it kept constantly in view that this was a
concession TO be made TO repentent ex-rebes, be-
cause OF their belief that the circumstances which
made these laws necessary at one time have ceased
to exist.
The speeches of some of the Democratic Senators
on this subject have not been discreet, unless In
deed it has been their purpose to open the old war
issues for political reasons. Acquiesonce by the
Republicans following such speeches, and following
the refusal 10 allow the Judiciary Committee of tho
Senate to frame suitable bill covering the ques-
tion would be Interpreted as in some sense an adj
mission that the laws themselves unwise, and
that the rebels were not morally wrong in their
efforts to break up the Union.
Senator ingalls, was the first of the Republicans
to state his opinions to-day, and he did it with
charac erstic force. He said the difficulty with
Southern Senators appeared to be that they were
unable to understand that the war meant any,
thing. They seemed to think it fought about q
point of constitutional etiquette. He understood
that, iii that controversy. the South fought to
tablish human slavery and the North fought for the
purpose of securing universal liberty that the
South fought to dismember and destroy the Union,
and that the North fought TO preserve il
indlssolubly. When these questions
vived they assert that, notwithstanding the
four years of war, God alone knew who was
right-whether it was right to fight for
the Union or against it; for human slavery or uni
versal liberty. Notwithstanding the war; not
withstanding the seventeen years of debate that
ensded; notwithstanding the amendments which
have been imbedded in the organic law of the land,
they still say: "God alone knows who was right"
These matters are not dead. Slavery is worse than
liberty. Union Is better than dsintegration; and,
as s:ertng that there is no such thing under the Fed
era system as loyalty, devotion 10 the Union as
love of liberty and of freedom, the Senators from
the South render it impossible, for those who believe
as they assert, that bygones should be bygones 10
agree with them in attempting to oblterate the
dissensions and the difficulties that after the
over.
Senator voorhees, characterized the sentiment
Which, flvors the retention of the war measures
upon the statute book as humbug, and instanced
the fact that General Longstreet. who fought dur
ing the war against the Union, but converted
to Republicanism at his close, good enough i'm
medately to be appointed to the highest of offices,
and might have entered the Army but for the fear
that it would be an uncomfortable precedent. He
spoke of the reply of President Lincoln TO Mr..
Greeeys letter. in which the President said the
object of the war was TO save the Union and he
would save it with slavery or without and OF the
dark days in Washington following the first battle
of Bull Run, when resolutions were hastily passed
by Congress protesting that this war was to be COLI
ductcd not for the destruction of institutions, but
for their preservation. This speech did not have o
tendency to harmonic matters.
Senator Hawley made eloquent and forcble
reioinder asserting that Democratic Senators were
alone responsible for reOpening those issues the
original bill would have passed WITHOUT objection.
The war for the union was right, and that Tor DIS
union was wrong. Appeals were made tn wipe Out
these statutes, not because they were no longer
necessary but the ground that they were origin
ally wrong. IL is not repeal but repentance thai
was asked of the North. The moment that ground
upon the forces that organized twenty
vears ago TO take their sides yield.
Tie Congress representing the loyal sentiment OF
the North perfectly willing TO see the rebels lay
down their arms even If slavery did continue 10
exist: but the issue that shook the continent and
the world was that between human liberty and
human slavery Disguise IL In any way that was the
whole of IT, The sentiment of the country was that
slavery should not go into the Territories and that
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise az out
rage That sentiment carried the election of lsG0.
folio wing which part OF the country undertook 10
secede. 1t took years to teach tho North that the
South was really IN earnest. The North was
willing to > cure the abolition of slavery by
degrees It postponed the final decree,
hoping, hoping hoping but the time came wnen
they proclaimed freedom, ana from that mo mo-
song of John Browns Body II was me sentl-
ment that sent the hot blood boiling in Northern
VEINS. Old Democrats, old Wings, old free Soilers
were of one mind II the North had not in "a
it would have have won in go or SO. In IA the
North Lad only begun TO work. ~
Mr. llawcy said that bill. or series OF bills come
ing from the Judiciary Committee upon this SUBJ
iect supported as they won d be by the argumcnts
ot members of that committee and based upon the
ground that the circumstances which called for
such laws were changed, wOull be passed but tho
virtual demand that they shall be repealed because
they are evidences of sectional strife aud Ietect
upon the honor Of men who sit III the Senate could
not he thought OF. The measure went over at
o'clock.
THE TARIFF COMMISSION DEBATE.