The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1884-04-30
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WAsaNoreS, DC, Apr. %, 's4.

truthfully, said that the only thing
Congress cannot do is legiHlate. /
will venture 20 say that no legisla-
tive body ever before did so little Of
its legitimate work as the present
House Of Representatives. Usually
the Senate has been thebranch that
pigeon holed public measures, and
at last had to adjourn leaving their
calendar full of bills, acted upon by
the House, but smothered by their
delay. With the present Congress
IL is directly the reverse. The Sen
ate wing, with all its PomPous as
sumption Of dignity and deliberate
way Of transacting business, is pass
ing moro measures than the noisy
turbulent House finds itself able to
act upon. The first is acting only
with its usual speed, but the latter
is absolutely doing nothing but talk,
quarrel and fiitter away its time.
An examination of the Record up to
the 2Sth of March, discloses the fact
that, though Congress had then
been i'm session seventeen weeks,
with recess of fourteen days, both
branches had passed and the Presi-
dent signed Just twenty bills. These
We're as small in Importance as in
number. Four changed the names
of national banks; two changed the
time of holding certain courts; two
were 'relief" bills; one removing
the disabilities of an "eX-rebel. "
Perhaps some of the next six would
be called public, but they affect but
q small proportion of the public. OF
the remaining five, four were appro-
priation acts, the largest of which
was the Military Academy bill, the
smallest of all the regular appropri-
alton bills. The other is in strict
sense a public measure making AL
ways and highways post routes. In
this little showing is the completed
work of our assembled wisdom for
near four months. From that time
up to the present their course has
been equally slow, and President
Arthur has had an opportunity TO
affix his signature to but very few
more measures. All of the great
appropriation bills are yet to be-
come laws. Only the Senate has
passed the educational, bankruptcy
and a dozen other bills of national
importance, which now are buried
on the House calendar.
Now that the Morrison bill has
been taken up, everything except
appropriation bills, will be forced 10
give way to the unegding CAB iU is
bound to call forth. Already nine
ty-two ambitious men have notified
the speaker that they are loaded on
the measure and must have an op-
portunity TO fire their adiectives for
or against it, This means weeks of
steady talk, by tho majority of ora
tors to empty benches and a sleepy
presiding officer. The subject is
dry and the way il is 10 be handled
will I'LL the cloak rooms, Hobbies,
aud every where else except the
chamber and galleries. Long be-
fore this debate can be closed, hot
weather will be here with its at
tendant malaria, and members will
rush home, after crewding into a
week such public business as must
be done, and ought to have months
elaboration. The Morrison Carlisle
pet may be killed before then, if not
it will smother with the rest of un-
finished legislation.
Now what is the cause or samuel
delay? Some might attribute it to
one thing, some TO another. The
most reasonable cause to assign
however lie the total lack of leader
ship. There is no man or set of
men who are on the floor to work
for national measures. One party
is not more to blame than the other.
Each man has sectional ideas and
pet projects, which he puts all his
energies into, and as all cannot be
passed, each makes out Of himself a
little dog in the manager, and helps
kill everything else There should
be some man, or set of mon whose
ability would raise them above the
common level, whose minds conld
realize more than narrsw district
lines, and who could command fol-
lowers enough to control Legislation.
The rules then should be chang
ed so that cheese pairing demagogues
could not by a single objection block
all business. Holman, of Indiana,
Is a good specimen Of this class OF
statesmen. Any bill proposing to
spend money anywhere outside of
his State, is sure TO meet with his
objection. He kills hours by de-
roll calls, aud reading orl
bills to which he pays no attention, |
and when unanimous consent is
needed he is always contrary. Last
week he was on his feet steadily.
TO bills for tho erection OF
public buildings ia different parts
Of the country, until ono was
brought up for an Indiana town
which was actually smaller in 1880
than 1870, when he silently allowed
It TO pass withsut comment. When
-witted, he Replied that "it was un-
usually meritoriousi Such sham
economy and demagogism is the
greatest shame Of our national
body. zen.
In the United States Circuit
Court at Richmond, Va, on the
18th, Judge Bond rendered a de-
,ision in the case involving the
egality of the act known as the
Riddleberger coupon killer No. =.
n which he decided that a Treas
lrer who levics upon the property
If tax payer after the latter has !
endered the coupons in payment of
ais faxes is a naked treispasser, and
Ill acts of the Legislature which
attempt to Justify and defend hum for
liS treSspaSs are unconstitutional |
ind avoid. In another case iLvol-