Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-08-03
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THURSDAY EVENING, AUG. 3, sss2
The Great Blunder.


THURSDAY EVENING. AUG. 3, s6s2.
The Great Blunder.
The members of Congress who seemed
to have SO little difficulty in making up
their minds to pass the river and harbOr
bill over the presidents
veto will be very sure, before long, to
realize that they have voted in haste TO
repent at leisure. There is not one of
them in any constituency, whose pulse
on the subject We can feel, who will be
sust aimed at home. They thought to
rebuke the president /; they will find
themselves rebuked. 1t is very strange
that they could not recognize the popu
Lar strength of the position he took and
the danger they ran in buttirg against
it. 1t does seem, often, as though the
Washington atmosphere was very un-
favorable to political foresight ; for GER
tsinly there is no class Of men that often
appears binder in matters of political
policy than congressman who Of all
men should be the most clear sighted.
Probably there was some passion dis
turbiDg the spirits of the congressman
who make this latest and clearest mis-
take. They were annoyed that the pres
ident should hold them up to the repro
baton Of the country, and they thought
to help themselves by persisting in their
vote. They demonstrated their obstinacy
and their stupidity. They saved their
appropriations, but lost the popularity
which they sought to gain by them. In
dividually the congressman had no bene-
fit in the money they voted away !:
they voted it because they thought
their constituents wanted it. So
doubtless many of them do; but
not the majority of them. It may
be that in some regions where works of
great public utility are sorely needed
the people may applaud their representa-
tives for getting it at any cost. This
may be the feeling in the Mississippi
valley. The appropriation bill got the
votes of a great many representatives
from the Southwest, who seemed to think
that their people wanted the Mississippi
river taken care Of and would not for
give them for letting slip its appropria-
tion. But even here we think they
mistOOk public sentiment. For every
where the predominant feeling will he
that which the president has SO well ex-
pressed in his veto message, that the
money of the nation should only le ex-
pended for purposes of general utility ,and
that the small grabs that creep in under
the wing of the big measures should have
an end put to them. 1t is espe-
cially not the interest of those who
who want the Mississippi river guarded
out of the national treasury that there
should be extravaganza in the internal
Improvement expenditure for the Mis-
sissippi is our greatest waterway and
uuquestiOnably entitled to the national
care. 1t passes through many states and
is an avenue for many more. Its national
character is un,!eniable, and it can bet
Ter be afforded large and adequate ap
Preparations if the many but little leaks
from the treasury are stopped.
There can be no question that in the
North the presidents position is heartily
and nearly unanimously sustained. W.
are at a loss to know where the Northern
congressman who voted to override il
will 80 to get anything but the hardest
kicks. There will be absolutely no resi-
for the poor devil, and lie will he likely
to wish when he gets home that he hai
never been born to be Il congressman
an ungrateful constituency will make
him sick of political life. We are sorry
for him but when a man goes int
political life lc should make sure to la,
in Il reasonable stock Of political sagacity
and when he goes to Washington he
ought to return home once a fortnight tt
get his politics Strengthened out, out of
its Washington twist. He will surely
come to grief if lie don't take an Occa
siOnal breath of the country air and feel
the temper Of his people.