Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1882-08-17
The River and HarbOr ROguery.

bor lob come to be understood by the
country, the sterner will be the indig-
nation Of honest men of both parties at
the manner in which this infamous
piece of legislative roguery was con-
summated. The method of the thing
was as great an outrage on public de-
cency as the thing itself upon public
honesty. The defeat of the Presidents
veto was engineered, like highway
robbery, between midnight and morn
ing, it being vital to the robbers to get
through with their work before cock
crow. The bill was driven at full
speed through Congress over the veto
simply and obviously because the driv-
ers knew that if it had not been passed
with the haste with which it was pass
ed it could not have been passed at
all.
Nothing can be more scandalous than
the unprecedented and furious hurry
in which the bill was taken up and
huddled through. The traditions of
Congress, founded upon a sense of pub
lie decency, oblige it to receive re-
spectfully and with some semblance of
consideration a veto message from the
President. There is no precedent
whatever for the insulting haste with
which President Arthur's veto was
vetoed by a Congress ofhis own party.
In the House the bill was passed over
his head within three-quarters Of an
hour after the House met. Robson
and Keifer and Hiscock and Page
seem to have been aware that in
brutal speed like that of Dick Turpin
lay their only chance. Within an
hour the bill as passed by the House
over the veto of the President was on
its way to the Senate Here it might
have been and should have been ar
rested. A single Senator determined
to see the Treasury defended against
thieves could have compelled delibera-
ton, and deliberation, as the jobbers
in the House had show that they
knew, would have been fatal to the
bill. An appropriation bill was under
discussion at the time when the bill as
repassed was received from the House.
Under the courtesy of the Senate,
whatever is in order at any time is i'll
order at all times. There was nothing
to prevent a Senator, in speaking to
the Appropriation bill, from taunting
the Senate with its eagerness to get at
the bill which provided for carrying
out scheme of public plunder, not
withstanding the objections ofthe Presi-
dent, and from attacking and exposing
the monstrous scheme. One resolute
Senator could have procured the post
ponement of the bill until the next
day, and the next day the country
, would have been heard from. The
next day the country was heard from,
but before the next day the mischief
had been done. Many of the men who
took part in this galloping rascality are
already sorry for their share in it now
that they authenticity know the opin-
ion of the country upon their perfor-
nance, though it is to be hoped they
are not so sorry as they will be before
their action is forgotten by their con-
stituents. But at the time when they
gave their votes, which looked like a
defiance of the unanimous sense Of the
country, it is to be borne in mind that
they had had no means of learning
what the sense of the country was
whatever. The veto was not the de-
liberate defiance of public opinion it
seemed to be, for there was no delibera-
ton in it. The veto was net even
read. Not a single Senator who voted
to pass the bill over it knew what
reasons the President had given for
vetoing it. Not one of them, swept
along in the rush of the leaders of the
rascality, had sense or courage enough
to steady himself for a moment and
ask, we will not say what his duty re-
quired him to do, but even what the
sense of the country would be in re-
gard to his action.
1t was not only in the indecent haste
with which Congress vetoed the Peesi-
dents veto that the traditions of Con-
gress and especially of the Senate were
disregarded. Senator Logan, who The
World does not regard as a shining
light or a model of Senatorial dignity,
but who does not lack for courage and
who upon this occasion was lucky or
sensible enough to be on the right side,
pointed out one of them. When
two-thirds vote is required to pass a
bill, pair to be valid must be a pair
of one member opposed to the bill with
Ewo members in its favor. Senator
Logan asserted, and the assertion was
not challenged, that this had always
been recognized as the rule of the
Senate, and yet, he added, "this bill
has been passed by pairing one Sena-
tor with another" In other words,
the opposition to the bill was in great
part collusive. 1t is easy to verify
Il ..