The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-24

| for the American people except those who
| looked and discerned how the American pc opie
| had expressed their minds. He quoted as pre-
senting impregnaole provisions the following
paragraphs from the report signed by himself
and Messrs. Logan and Teller:
The only constitutional rights, powers and duties
which sustain or properly induce an INVESTIGATION
ate by the honorable House Of Representatives of the
State of Ohio arise from two opposite and independ
emit clauses of the Constitution. BY the first clause of
Section 3 of Article of the Constitution each house
of Congress is made the judge of the elections returns
and qualifications of its members. By the sec
ond clause of the section each house may with
| the concurrence of two-thirds, expel member
AS these two ends alone limit the basis and OBJ
ject of any investigation proposed, either for in
validating the election of Senator or expelling
from the Senate duly elected and qualified
member of it, scrutiny of the grounds in fact,
upon which action is demanded in any case ars-
ing from the Senate, requires an ascertainment
whether the scope of the proposition and the
testimony, presented or reasonably assured,
would justify the ultimate action of the Senate
under the other of these clauses of the
Constitution. He did not understand that these
propositions were doubted by the chairman of
the committee. This was not the frst time that
such matters had been considered by the Senate
Every step should be wise just candid. and i'm
partial 1t should be effected by external
pressure of political advantages. nor should it
be intimdated by the incursions Of popular feel
ing. They should hold on, with both hands TO
cratic majority. and now to Republican major
ity, and not allow within, caprice or rage to be
the rule for every occasion. de who would violate
these rules not only did wronS in this particu-
lar case but he reduced the strength of the fort
ress which had been painfully built Nothing
could be wiser more useful than that
there should be permanent and standing COM
| mites, not committees appointed on each case
as it arises. 1t was not for him to say whether
the committee whose work was now under the
eye of the Senate wise, profound, dis
Greet, upright, candid and just committee. If it
was not, it ought not to expect from the Senate
any high degree of respect But 1t was not TO
be torn in pieces by the Senate on account of
the presentation, post-hate, of circumstances
which the committee had considered and on
which it had reported. Undoubtedly dlsap-
pointed plans, sentiments and opinions, outside
of this Senate, might think that they could COM
mend themselves by storming the Senate with
viliffcations of members of that body. If they
net response in the heart and conscience of
the Senate, the committee would be in
volved in no ruin which it did not share
with the whole body of the Senate and with the
whole fabric of government. Coming down to
the merits of the particular cage, he quoted Sen
ator Paynes letter to the chairman of the Ohio
legislative committee, inviting and challenging
the most thorough and rigid scrutiny, and offer
ing for inspection bis private books of accounts
and Chairman Cowgills reply that if there was
any testimony tending to inculpate him Mr.
Payne in any degree with any questionable
transaction, his request would DE acceded to-
Could any person, he asked, require more
early, more prompt, more universal PROPOSE
ton from the Senators The fact that the Ohio
legislative committee did not call on MIR. Payne
was proof that it did not consider there was
anything before it which required his examina-
ton. Thus the opinion of Ohio about her SEN
ator was clear. That was settled 1t was clear
that from one end of Ohio to the other in all
the agitation of the subject, no imputation had
touched the Senator He was right, then, in
saying that the Senate must discard that view
Of the matter from it's consideration.
They had in their body a man who had
sat in the other House, who had sat nearly two
years in the Senate; who, IN all the rage of po
litical elements in Ohio, stood omne exceptions
major. A man emerging from such a storm
could meet the encomiums which he had re-
ceived on all sides; and he Mr.. Evartsl ex-
pressed the hope that Ohio would. in the future.
be as fortunate in the Senators she would send
to Washington as she was in the Senators who
now represented her.
Referring to the extracts from Democratic
newspapers which had been presented by Messrs
Hoar and Frye, Mr.. Evarts stated that these
editorials were all published Immediately after
the election, when all Ohio was ablaze and that
when, six weeks afterward, Mr.. Payne pre-
sented himself, he took his seat IN the Senate
"as camly summers morning. a King
would come to the throne" The Senator whom
he was succeeding presented his credentials; and
the other Senator from Ohio Mr.. Sherman
held mp the hand of the sworn Senator when he
took his seat. Senators might talk till they
were hoarse about the power, and force, and
value OF this newspaper testimony; but it was
two years old, and, when 1T was gathered
| up by the opposite party, the case was In a diff
| ferent situation. When he said gathered up by
the opposite party" he should say that he did
know who had collected it. He had never seen
| it in the committee-room and had never dreamed
that such matters Were TO be presented. He
knew no means by which ponderable evidence
could be made more weighty by the aggregation
| of imponderable elements. These Democratic
editors, instead of meeting-as sometimes hap
pened, in political distractions-to have Demo
cratic feast on crow, had decided to hold
crow parliament. The parliamentary system of
| these knowing birds was extremely simple. They
all spoke at the same time and they all said the
same things. They had great power Of voice.
but a very limited vocabulary They had great
energy of assertion but great poverty of action.
| They had great emphasis IN their elocution,
but they lacked the rising and falling infections
| that were so recommended by rhetorcians AS
| to the opinion which Senator Sherman had given
| of one Murat Halstead-that his attacks were of
| no consequence, as he had attacked Grant, Sher-
man and Lincoln. as well as Logan-he said that
! he would not venture to speak of the editor of
! the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette quite in that
| tone. 1t would seem from what Mr. Sherman
had said that this gentleman did not the hide
of a lion at all. He was reminded of that scene
in IA Midsummer Nights Dream where the
| young players were intending to entertain the
company with the comedy of "Pyrar,us and
Thisbe, aud where they were consulting as to how
the lion might be represented without frighten-
| ing the ladies'
Here the speaker quoted a portion of this
scene, with much comic effect, ending with Bot
| toms advice LET him name his name and tell
them plainly he is Snug. the jonern
Referring to Mr.. Hoar's allusion to the fact
that Mr. Payne had not previously been known
as a candidate, he instanced the case of Mr.. Gar
field receiving the nomination for the presidency
in a convention where he was representing the
interests OF another favorite son of Ohio and he
asked whether it was to be said that that could
not be accounted for except ny treachery or the
use of money or other improper means.
In conclusion, Mr.. Evarts said the way to dis
| courage crime to punish 1t; punish the man
who brides and punish the man who is bribed.
Then the honor of the States, the safety of
| States, and the duty of States would all be
served but the readiness to be careless, to be