The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-12-26
WHAT THE COMMITTEES MEAN.

monstrance to the contrary, and we heard
chicken-hearted people raving over the
"bloody shirt" .while the Democratic schem-
ers said we didn't mean free trade, only
revenue REFORM" whatever that cabalistic
term may mean in their mouths. Well, look
at the committees If the ways and means
committee does not mean that free trade is
the ultimate of the Democratic party, what
does it mean? Morrison, Mills, Hurd, Black
burn, Hewitt-the very strongest free-traders
that could possibly be found. Conservative
Democracy is not represented. Well may
ex-senator Eaton, wise and prudent Demo-
crat say that the ways and means commit
tee means Democratic defeat in Connecticut;
and we'll may Mr.. Calkins say, in blunt ver-
nacuar, that the committee is intended to
raise particular thunder" The ways and
of a conservative, careful reform of the tariff,
but its basis is the most extreme free trade.
Mr.. Carlisle has given his theories and the
spirit of his party free course upon this
question:, anu III 81 uOlIlS LAS SllOML HlilioCll
to be much more of nah than are the more
timid ones of his faith, who trembled before
the shadow that threatened them, and ran
under cover crying ''incidental protection"
Mr.. Carlisle has recovered from the ague
into which he temporarily fell Immediately
after his election and in the tremor
and depression of which he made
his apologize speech on accept
ing the chair Business and manufacturing
interests may as we'll be ready for the music
which Mr. Carlisle and his free-traders have
prepared as the organic party tune Demo
cratic success and supremacy in all depart
ments of the government means a free-trade
attack upon the interests and industries of
the country, which have been developed and
fostered under the protective system, and
not conservative, careful reform in the
tariff, with incidental protection" as its OBJ
Ject. ee, ,.'
AS to the solid South; The programme, as
heretofore announced, has been carried out
to the letter-the bargain, it may better be
called-and the South has twenty-nine
chairmanships to twenty-sx for the remain
der of the country. When this outrage
upon all the 'decencies and proprieties was
first announced the Journal examined into
the matter little, to see upon what grounds
the discrimination could be justified,
Neither on the grounds of territorial ex-
tent, OF population, of wealth, of industry,
of commerce, OF the amount of tax paid, nor
of any other national attribute, out of which
subjects of legislation necessarily and nat
urally develop can this division of the COM
mittees-which have charge of all important
lesislation-be explained or defended. Yet,
not only numerically but in the character
and influence of the committees is this pre-
ponderance of the solid South Extensively
obtruded. The committee on elections has
Turner, of Georgia, for chairman. The judi
ciary has Mr. Tucker, of Virginia. Banking
and currency and coinage are in the hands of
the widest Southern financial buccaneers.
Rivers and harbors, postoffices and post
roads, and railways and canals are in the
control of Southern chairmen. Soldiers of
the union army will be interested to know
that the pension committee is headed by Mr.,
Hewitt, of Alabama. The committee on
claims has a Southern chairman. The Dis
trict of Columbia is dominated by gentlemen
from Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama-so
that, at last, the Southern Confederacy is not
only 'in the saddle" as Major Edwards
picturesouely observed, but it has also cap
tured the federal capital. The State Depart
ment the Treasury Department, the Postof-
| flee Department and the Interior Department
are put under committees controlled abso
lutely by Southern congressman. This sub
ect might be pursued further, but enough
has been shown to indicate the obnoxious,
unfair, unprincipled and indecent manner in
which the solid South has thrust itself into
the affairs of the government.
1t is the South and the Democratic party
which have forced "sectionalism" upon the
attention of the country. We have no dis
position to draw the sectional line. 1t is Mr..
Carlisle and his party who have done it, and
the graver they use cuts both deeply and
roughly. The North has no desire to say to
the South that it shall not have its fair, just
and equitable share of the privileges and
burdens of citizenship and administration;
but it is to the last degree outrageous in
solent and revolutionary that the South,
| 90 tbe South shall demand and he
given such an improper and scandalously
unjust power. So long as the Democratic
party obtrudes such ''sectionaism" as the
list OF Mr. Carlisle's committees indicate,