Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-03-27
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS.
OF the Fort BilI-Fitz John
Porter-The Foot and Mouth Disease.


NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS.
Constituti0nality OF the Fort BIlI-Fitz John
P0rter-The Foot and Mouth Disease.
From THE HERALD Correspondent
WASHINGTON, ID. c., March 20, 1884.
An unlocked for impetus has been given
to the Greenback movement by the re-
cent decision of the Supreme Court de-
claring the constitutionahty of the Fort
bill, the effect of which decision NAV
cut no small figure in the approaching
Presidential campaign. The friends of
ga sound currency and honest money!"
who foresaw the formidable train of dis
asters in the financial world that would
result from the passage of the Fort bill,
have thus far been disappointed; and it
was doubtless the fact that the court,
taking judicial notice of the comfortable
state of things under the operation of
the law, resolved that it were bettet not
to disturb it. However, it cannot be de-
MED that the court went out of its way
unnecessarily in its dictum, to say that
the Fort bill was called for by any such
exigency as that which existed during
the prosecution of the war, for there
was really no other exigency than
general public demand for a currency
having legal tender character. When
the bill passed the House with only
thirty votes in opposition, there were no
pretensions upon the part of any of its
friends that there was any other possible
exigency than this, which fact is con-
tirmed by the desperate attempt to de-
feat the bill in the Senate by striking
from it its legal tender provisions; and
it was Mr.. Bayard's speech in behalf of
this amendment that inspired so much
mention of his name in connection with
the Democratic Presidential nomination
four years ago.
The most animated scene in the SEN
ate this session occurred on Thursday,
when the vote was taken on the Fitz
John Porter BILL Every seat in the gal
leries was occupied and all who could
get upon the floor were there. There
was no debate, simply three speeches,
and during these the Democratic seats
were empty, their occupants being in
the cloak-rooms with their minds made
up. During the progress of the vote
considerable excitement prevailed, and
as the result was announced cheer
went up from the friends of Porter,
which was quickly drowned in an over
towering storm of Kisses, a scene very
much out of place in the Senate cham
Der. A good many Republicans ex-
pressed surprise and indignation at the
vote of Senator Sabin, Chairman of the
National Committee, who despite APP
peals of the q. A. r. posts of his State,
voted for Porter, as did six other Re-
publican Senators, including Mr.. Hoar,
of Massachusetts, who conceives that
Porter has been punished enough.
Strangely enough there was no Demo-
crat, Northern or Southern, who had
the temerity to vote against the bill,
Notwithstanding the fact that they have
all along protested against the bringing
of the case into the realm of politics.
Porter was conspicuous in the gallery
of the Senate during the proceedings,
as he was in the House during the dreary
discussion of the bin in that body. The
bill simply puts Porter on the retired
list with the rank and pay of colonel,
making no allowance whatever for back
pay, rs some of the newspapers persist
ia declaring. The question whether the
President will sign the bill is being
generally discussed and the prevailing
opinion is that he will, though many in
cline to the belief that he can gain poll
teal support by vetoing it. As a can
didate for denomination l guess he
would be glad to be rid of the whole
matter without doing either.
Another avenue to the Treasury sur
plus is opened by the appropriation of
moneys to stay the ravages of cattle
diseases in the West. With the foot and
mouth disease in Kansas, the Texas
fever in the Southeast, and the pleuro-
pneumonia everywhere, the quarantine
| - Ill
have a good deal more than they can
do to enforce the provisions of the pros
pective law With what holy horror
would the fathers of the Republic view
this taking money from the National
Treasury for such purposes, when they
secuted the idea OF possessing authority
under the Constitution of making in
ternal improvements of any kind in the
several States! 1t really does seem to
be good deal of stretch of National
authority for Congress to go into this
animal disease business, but it readily
finds reasons for it, and absolute neces-
sity for it, by the action of France and
Germany, whose imputation upon the
health of American cattle and hogs
makes it matter of National concern
The bill that recently passed the House
has been taken up in the Senate, which
has reinstated two sections that the
House fought over for four days to strike
out. The vote in the House shows that
the bill could never pass that body with
these sections in it, while the vote in the
Senate makes it equally certain that it
can never get through there without
them, so that Mr.. Tucker in the House
and Mr.. Coke in the Senate may yet be
able to kill it with the Constitution.
JUNIUs,