St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-06-02

SpScldCl6 WOuiu also DE presented OH Il sec
rotary who, on occasion, could prove him.
self competent to direct naval battle.
The general run of secretaries of the navy
have been chiefly distinguished for what
they didn't know about that suppositious
portion OF the country's armament. Ii war
must come the Northwest may rest assured
that she is thus not left without protection.
THE SENATORIAL OLIGARCHY.
Gov. HILL of New York is accused of
having presidential aspirations and the
probability is that the accusation is just.
Considering the good luck that New York
governors have had in reaching presidential
nominations. it would be surprising thing if
Gov. HILL did not have his mind bent in that
direction. Gov. HILL being new man in
national politics, it is essential that he
should have some distinctive issue on which
to base his case. He has gone to work to
carve out one and has done a very skillful
job. He has selected that obligarchy COM
monty known as the United States senate
as the object of his assault, and delares
in favor of an amendment to the constitu-
ton which will wrest from the senate its
appointment confirming power. Gov. HILL
has struck the keynote of a very popular
policy, and it is surprising that some of the
prominent presidential candidates had not
created the issue before this time The
aristocratic tendencies of the senate in lat
ter years has created an intense prejudice
against that body in the popular mind. Its
disposition to convert itself into an oligarchy
is repuiSive to American sentiment. 1t has
always been a surprise to some students
OF American history why it is
that the trainers of the government. who
aimed to keep the different departments of
the government separate and distinct from
each other, should have consented to invest
the senate with power to manacle the eX-
ecutive department. This singular action
on the part of the trainers of the constitu-
ton is explained upon the theory that they
assumed that the senate would always be
constituted of honest, patriotic statesmen,
and that it would be just the proper body
to act as check or balance wheel on the
other departments. This overweening con-
fidence in the infallible purity of human ma
ture on the part of our constitutional
fathers is what has caused the great evil
under which the nation groans to-day. If
senators were really the ideal statesmen
that our ancestors pictured them to be, then
the constitutional provision which gives the
senate the confirming power would be all
right. But the senate, as it is constituted
to-day, is very different bodu from what
the trainers of the contitution imagined it
would be. 1t is now nothing more nor less
than an Office exchange, In which the bust
ness of Office brokerage is regularly and sys-
tematfcally carried on. Instead of being
an aid to the executive, it is stone tied about
the presidents neck. With its star chamber
methods the senate is really more menacng
to liberty than the red flag of the anarch-
ist. 1t is high time that the country was
getting rid of this abomination, and Gov
HILL has struck popular chord in declaring
in favor of its overthrow. Itmay not carry
the governor into the White house, but he
will begin the agitation of reform that
will be great blessing to the nation.