St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-15
Some Speculations as to Tilden's
Candidacy For the Presi-
dency.
The Tariff Dilemma and the Possible
Future Action to be Taken
by the Democrats.
An Effort Will be Made to Unity the Party
on This Question Before Further
Open Discussion.
Rumored Effort to Induce the President
to Veto the Fitz John Porter
Bill
Especial Telegram to tho Globe ]

eral Democratic congressman devoted to the
old ticket who cling to the belief that Mr..
| Tilden will yet be a candidate. Several OF
them are in pretty direct communication
with Mr. Tilden, and while they insist that
he is entirely sincere in saying as he has
said to many of his friends that he has sur
vived his political ambition and does not
wish to be candidate, they still entertain
| the hope that he will yield to solicitation and
place himself in that normal position of pol
iticians-iD the hands of his
friends. The contradictory accounts of Mr..
Tilden's health are not sufficient to reconcile.
He has the appearance of being very feeble.
His voice is weak, and partly for that reason
and partly from habit he speaks in tones not
much above a whisper. One of his hands
has sort of palsy and it shakes around in
an unpleasant way till Mr.. Tilden notices il
and takes hold of it with the other hand.
These things give him the appearance of
extreme decrepitude to a stranger, but they
have existed for years; they existed when he
was governor ! of New York and
nobody thought of him as an
invalid. Still it is some years since he was
governor of New York, and some of bis
health. and admit under their breath that he
has failed a little in the last six or eight
wears. This does not deter them from in
sisting that he is an available man, and some
of them who have had recent conferences
with him, and with his immediate associates,
believe that before the convention Mr.. Til
den will allow his friends to pass the word
around that it will be perfectly safe to
nominate him. At any rate every effort is
being made to induce him to withdraw his
refusal to be a candidate and some sanguine
gentlemen say he will certainly yield to the
pressure of his friends.
THE FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE.
To-day was marked contrast with yester-
day in the senate. Few persons were in the
galleries and most of the seats of the senators
were empty. A great constitutional debate
does not draw the crowd that a
discussion of Fits John Porter's claims does.
The question before the senate most of the
S25, ZOO, to be used at the discretion of the
commissioner of agriculture in stamping out
the foot and mouth disease in Kansas. This
raised the interesting, but not altogether
fresh question whether this is a government
of limited and enumerated powers or not.
Mr.. Garland said congress had the right to
appropriate the money, and quoted from
Story on the constitution and Monroe's
message on internal Improvements to
prove it. Mr.. Vest said congress did not
have any snch power and read from Story
on the con stitution, and Monroe on internal
improvements to prove it. Mr. Maxey OF
Texas, who represents constituency that
prefers cattle disease to Capitalization and is
very much afraid of being quarantined came
to the help of Mr.. Vest. In the meanwhile
the representatives wrote letters on Their
desks or smoked in the cloak room
and left the Democrats to wage
among themselvs the war Of
strict construction and loose construction,
during which Mr.. Vest tried to read out OF
the grand old Jeffersonion party so-called
Democrats who learned constitutional law OF
the Republicans. At the same time the Dem
ocrats at the other end of the capital were refus-
ing by large majority to vote pension of
81, 500 year to the granddaughter OF Thorn.
as Jefferson. The senate did not dispose OF
the resolution before it.
TARIFF DEMONSTRATIONS.
Ten days will give members of the house
plenty of time to examine the tariff and
prepare their speeches and decide whether
they will support the bill in its present shape
or seek to amend it. In the meantime the
feelthe pulse of every doubtful Democrat, and
having ascertaincd as nearly as possible how
many votes can be relied upon in
any emergency will seek TO exert
such Influences as can be prudently
brought to hear upon the weak kneed to per-
suade them to stand by the bill as party
measure. Then party conference will be
held. 1t is not intended that this confer
ence shall find those who participate!n it, for if
that rule should be laid down it would GER
tainly prevent largel and influential number
of Democrats from participating in it at all.
1t is designed that the subject shall be fully
discussed in the conference in the light
VI OAPSOiCASJ3 1lOili UPaipJ opoA0 POAhe5
and that a vote shall then be taken upon the
question: s'Shall the bill be endorsed by
the party" Some will promise to give their
support, provided notifications be made here
and there; others will advise that a more
moderate reduction of duties be proposed to
the house, but it is believed that large ma
jority will agree to swallow the Morrison bill
whether they like it or not. The dissenting
Democrats will then be left to decide whether
they will give their votes to the policy of q
majority of the party or to the Republicans.
The tariff reformers who have taken some
trouble to sound the men who have kicked
against the policy which guided the party in
the relation of a speaker, and which has de-
veloped into the practical issue presented by
the ways and means committee, do not esti-
mate that more than twenty-five Democrats
will vote against the bill, after its approval
by the caucus; but this is believed to be an
over sanguine estimate, unless the
high tariff Democrats are trying
by bluff to prevent caucus action, and
induce the low tariff men to abandon theiI
purpose to pass the bill. Mr.. Randalls sue
cess in defeating the bonded whisky bill is
held up as scarecrow before timid tariff re-
formers as an indication of the strength Of
his following, but the vote on that bill was in
no sense test of the relative strength of the
protection and low tariff forces. In that
controversy Mr.. Randall was supported by q
number of earnest advocates of tariff
revision and opposed by some
of the protectionists. Mr.. Randall has a
strong following but he cannot rely upon
carrying with him the fifty-fve men who
voted for him for the speakership. Among
those fifty-fve men were some who regarded
him as a safer man than Carlisle to control
the machinery of congress, and while they