The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-04-08
HE DEALT WITH FACTS.
The Dignifed Senator from Vermont Laid
on His Back by the Energetic Gentle-
man from Kentucky.

man from Kentucky.
Senator Edmunds has never appeared
to more disadvantage since the organi-
zation of the spoils-mongers' crusade
against the Administration than he did
in his little bout with Senator Beck, of
Kentucky. Senator Beck has the habit
of calling a spade spade, and in
scrimmage his favorite weapon is the
club. He has very little respect for
Senatorial tradition, of which the
Green mountain statesman is the self
constituted guardian, and none at all
for the absurd notions of Senatorial
dignity and consequence with which
that eminent person is so tremendous
ly inflated. The stalwart Kentuckian
laid about him right and left with his
bludgeon, knocking Senatorial dignity
and Senatorial tradition into smith
Greens, exploding the gauzy fiction of
Senatorial secrecy, and filling the proud
Senatorial soul of the Vermont oracle
with profound disgust. Senator Beck
showed, by plain statement of facts,
the utter humbug and hypocrisy
of the pretensions put forward by SEN
ator Edmunds and his colleagues in sup
port of their demand for the papers in
the Duskin case. He declared that
Duskin was notoriously an unfit man
for the Office from which he had been
suspended by the President, and that
the fact of his unfitness was known to
no person better than to Senator Ed
munds himself; that Duskin had been
rejected by the Senate when originally
nominated in March 1881, and that
when again nominated in October of
the same year Senator Edmunds, as
chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
had refused to report his name back
for confirmation; that he had been
nominated in all three times, and that
there were papers now in the hands
of the Judiciary Committee which
abundantly justified Duskin's dismissal
from the public service.
Senator Edmunds WINGED under this
exposure of disagreeable facts, and
made several unsuccessful attempts to
choke off Senator Beck on the plea that
he was violating the rules by betray-
ing the secrets of the executive ses-
sion. A pretty plea, indeed. to come
from the man who has csntended, in
fine set phrase, that ''there u no room
for secrecy in the operations of free
Government" But it had no effect
upon the Kentuckian, who proceeded
to demonstrate the absurdity of the
theory of Senatorial secrecy by show
ing that all the facts as to the action of
the Senate upon the Duskin case in ex-
executive session had been published in
the newspapers of the country at the
| time of its occurrence. He concluded
! his onslaught upon the Edmunds
, cabal with the remark that ''forty-
parson power would not do justice to
much of the hypocrisy that is now pre-
| sented to the Senate in the pretenses of
desire to establish public justice. :"
Subsequently in .'secret session" the
Senator moved that all the proceedings
| of the Senate (relative to the Duskin
appointmenD in March, 1881, October,
! 1881 and December, 1881, all papers
before the Judiciary Committee, and
all the proceedings of that committee
be made public.
| In the meantime it would be inter.
esting to know what Senator Edmunds
really and honestly supposes the coun-
try thinks of his performances regard.
ing the Duskin matter, in the light oi
Senator Beck's astonishing revelations
on the subject. Chicago Times.