The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-10-04
Discussing the Veto Power as Exercised by
President Cleveland. and Loaning of the
Surplus to Favored Banking Firms.
The United States Senate DevOtes Three
Hours to Debate on Benet'S Order.
Senator Cockrell Justifies the Circular, and
Messrs Hale and Chandler Denounce 1t
The Condor Story Again DisprOved.
HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.

epecfal to the Indisnapolis journal
DETROIT, Mich, Oct. 3.-Mr. Blaine spoke
for twenty-ihree minutes this afternoon, In the
Detroit Rink. 20 an audience estimated at 1000.
All the railroads ran special excursion trains
for tho occasion. The cheap rates and the fame
Of the orator contributed to augment the crowd
Many ladies were present There was the usunl
campaign hurrah. but the meeting was not an
exclusively partisan one, AZ was evidenced by
the quite general applause which followed Dir.
Blaine's reference TO Andrew jackson as a great
leader Of Democracy, snd which occasionally
greeted the name Of Mr.. Cleveland. Upon
being introduced by the chairman, General
Alger. Mr.. Blaine said:
"Mr. Chairman and Fellow-citizens-For, de-
spite the HoD. Don Dickinson, q New Englander
may still venture TO call q citizen Of Michigan
his felow-cisizen-it was said ut the beginning
or our government that the veto power was en-
anomaly in it, In the effort for the preservs-
ton OF constitutional liberty, when framing the
great document which they transmitted to their
posterty. our ancestors were compelled to copy
largely from England. whence they their an
cestors bad come. In Eogand there had not
been a veto By the crown of act OF Parlia-
ment since the revolution Of 16SS. 1t occurred
to the mass of the people in the colonies that TO
give the President the unqualified power OF ve-
votes Of two-thirds Of the Senate and two
thirds Of the House to override that veto.
was 20 confer ppon the President q most extra
ordinary power. j: gave him, In the Senate and
in the House. that which was equivalent to one
sixth Of the Whole legislative voting power,
because the difference between majority OF
one and vote of two-thrds amounts to one
sixth Of the whole So that the President OF to-
day, when he vetoes bill, wields the power OF
thirteen Senators and ffty-seven Representa-
fn
functions. power &C extraordinary was natur-
slIy used with great canton by our earlier
Presidents. General Washington. in eight
years, made nee of ii twice The fret Adams,
tho successor Of Washington, never resorted 10
IL Jefsrson-eousidersd very erroneOusiy, but
still considered by the modern Democracy as
their great prctotype-in eight years, never
used IL all Madison, in eight cars, used II three
times. Monroe made Of it once, and John
Quincy Adams never. In the first forty years
OF the national government, from Washington
to Adams. the veto power was used six times-
Then cano TO Office the great leader of the pres
eDt Democratic party as u has been organized
for the last sixty years-General Andrew Jeck-
son. Applause. He is worthy OF your cheers,
because, however his contem mpo-sries or those
who have followed them have differed from him
.,l eeTsai. q Iestions. it has been remembered
that the frat effort Of the Southern disunionists
was strangled IN the cradle by that sodi-r-Pres-
ident. (Appiause.l 10 the succeeding forty
years the veto power was used sixty tiUes. and
OF those sixty vetoes over nifty were by Demo
erata. SO that the party which Processes to be so
intensely democratic has been uuiformIy che
one which rescrted to the ons-man power 20
defeat the popuiar will General applause.
Up TO March 4, 1855, when the present Presi-
dent of the United States was inaugurated, the
veto power OF the goverDment had been used IN
ell about seveu,y-fve times-that is. from 1859
te 1ss5-ope hundred years, lacking four. Now,
Mr. Cleveland in three years and half has
used the veto over three hundred times.
I'Hear.' hear and applausel or had when
left New York day before yesterday-how many
times since thon do not know. IDerisive
laughter and applause. OF those vetoes, zoo
have been to prevent pitiful pensions Of "a o
month Of 50 month. and lew, believe. OF
$l2 a month to worn-down and starving soldiers
hrss President Of the United States who
ever vetoed bill for the relief Of q
soldier who had exposed his body the field
of battle to bullets and shells of the enemy in
defense OF bis country. ] wish had those veto
messages here, and had time 10 read them to
you They have ali been issued in pamphlet,
and rs afording succ,nct expression OF the
difference between the Republican and Demo
cratic parties OF to-day. 1 commend that docu-
ment as one of the best In print
Now. mark you thisl There was not in any
single Instance a charge that the man to whom
the pension was TO be given bad not been col.
der OF the United States There WAS not a
gle denial OF the fact that the men who were to
pressing need of bread. There WAS not in any
case tho slightest question involved as to the
constitutional power Of Congress TO grant pen
sions. But every one of President Cleveland's
veto messages read precisely though they
we're, in each instance, the decision of the Com
missioner OF Pensions on an application for a
pension under the law. Now, We all know land
it has been from the foundation of the gov
erpmsnt). that no general law can provies for
all casss. We do our best by general laws reach
all cases; but. IN gensralizlng, there Will always
be found exceptions, and every one OF these 206
that have met vetoes from the President came
outside of the general law, but not outside of
the personal merit Of the applicant In any case.
Every ease had heen before the committee OF n
Republican Senate, and before the committee Of
q Democratic House, and every had been
passed through Republicans Senate and Dem
cratic House,. II would be hard to imagine more
impartial legislation than that thus Or need and
yet they meC every time with the absolute veto of
the President Some OF them, even out of their
grimness and their cruelty. had. think. n epice
OF humor In them. read one IL wish had it
here 10 read now), 10 which the man, the victim
of a desperate neuralgia. to al!ay the pancs Of
which, he was in the habit OF taxing opiates,
was found dead in his bed, and the question
was, whether he had died from the pain or from
an overdose OF the opiare re had taken and If
from the latter, whether the desc was takeo in
nocently or with the intention of suicide. Mr.
Cleveland, In his veto message, said IL would be-
q very had precedent to grant the widow and
children or that man pension, because, OK
course, you know, q case of that kind might be
SO often repeated, whore a man would have a
desperate neuralgia, would take too much of an
opiate, and would, some mornine. be found
dead. With all due respect TO the President it
carried my mind back to boyhosd days
when / attended the theater oftener than
do now. and when / heard the old play of
Paul Pry.' AS yon may remember, the pro-
fessional philanthropst in that play refused to
contribute any thing upon the subscription paper
"a thA 1sAt <.f h. >e l. L.
had fallen from the top of a high house on which
he bad been working, because, as the philan-
thropist said tand l think he was in some re-
spects the prototype of rnat veto), If you relieve
the widow and child Of that brick -layer you will
have all sorts Of people falling from all sorts of
houses.' lGreat merriment and good humor.
Il am not going to dwell upon that subject
and only introduce it to place il vis-a-vis
with another, and that other is the great
surplus 10 the treasury of the United
States, part OF which might have gone
to that poor man without endangering
the stability OF the government Iiaue teri;
that surplus which the President has been ac-
cumuating with great industry for nearly q
year and q half or over. refusing to apply il to q
reduction OF the public debt; that surplus 10
which he finds such great danger to the Repub-
lie. De has sought, or bis Secretary of the
Treasury has sought. To amelicrate this by
giving moro than s60. 000, 900 Of 1t as q loan,
without interest, to some national banks scat-
tered over the country This, bear in mind
your money aud mine. the money Of every citi-
zen OF the United States 70 the amount Of more