The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-10
VEST ON THE BLAIR BILL.
HE OPPOSES 1T AS TENDING
TOWARD GENERALIZATION.

DllnQeu Dy the GllJCerlnR ISInpuaIlOn
OF Gold.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9.--In the Sen
ate to-day the Blair educational bill
was taken up as the unfinished bust
ness. Mr.. Vest opposed the bill upon
constitutional grounds. If he were called
upon, he said, to frame title for it, he
would call it AN act to erect monument
to the memory of Alexander Hamilton, and
to encourage mendicancy i'll the Southern
Statesn
A SORRY SPECTACLE.
Mr.. Vest was not surprised that the Re
publican Senators warmly supported it.
When suffrage was given the Ignorant
negroes of the South it was with firm be-
lief on the part of the Republicans that it
would give them political supremacy in the
Southern States. A great deal was heard
of the magnanmity and generosity on
the part of the Republicans who
supported the pending bill; but yet when,
as a result of giving suffrage to the negroes,
a swarm of white carpet -baggers, like vul-
lures, swept down on that unfortunate
region, and when sovereign States lay pros
trate and writhing at the feet of those ad-
ventUrers, there was no sympathy with
them on the part of the Republican leaders
i'll the presence of that CHASTITY spectacle.
SURPRISED AT THE DEMOCRATS.
He expressed his surprise and regret that
Democratic Senators who had given their
lives to an eloquent defense of n strict con-
struction of the constitution and of Jetfer
sOnian doctrine, that all powers Of appropri-
alton were gwen to Congress under express
Tor necessarily implied guarantees of the
constitution were now found to have sur
rendered all landmarks of their party in the
presence of the great temptation in the pro-
posed law. If the dead were permitted
to take any interest in the affairs
of the living what. he asked, must
be the surprise of the majestic spirit of
John c. Calhoun, when he saw his former
followers, strict constructionist and States
rights Democrats of the South, yelling i'll
both Houses Of Congress for the old
flag and appropriations In his Judgment
the enactmont of the pending bill would BE-
greater calamity to the Southern
people than war pestitence, and famine.
TEMPTED BY MONEY.
If it were not for the money temptation
in the bill, it would stand no more chance
of the votes of the Democratic Senators
than a donation for the devil would stand
in Christian congregation If any Sena-
tor thought proper to abandon the Demo
cratic construction of the constitution, and
adopt that of the Federalist, he was at lib
erty to do so; but he should not without
his Vests protest carry with him the
names of great men who had distinctly and
emphatically repudiated the Hamiltonian
idea that this was government of unlim-
tied power To quote Jefferson, Monroe
and jackson in support of the pending
measure las had been done by Democratic
Senator's was a monstrous outrage. The
bill breathed the spirit of Capitalization and
paternal government in every section
and line. 1t should bring joy aud
unlimited satisfaction to the bosom of
every true Federalist. He believed i'll uni
verSal education, and would be glad if every
child in the United States were taught to
read and write. But that was not all of
education.
THE HIGHEST EDUCATION.
The highest education was that which
taught self-respect and self-reliance and
individual independence. Without it
individuals and communities must deteri-
crate. This measure was intended
to destroy the common school system of the
| Stat and put upon it the stamp of Fed
eral authority. To accept money under
the terms of the bill would be to surrender
all that made State authority respectable
They were asked by the Senator from New
Hampshire to pass the bill because the life
of the nation was in imminent danger from
illiteracy, and tables Of figures had been
paraded from the last census
in support of that idea. He Vest could
make use of census tables to prove the op-
posite OF the ten Northern States that
lead in the matter of common school in
struction. Wisconsin was first i'll morality
and eighth in instruction. In only three of
those States did th9 statistics of crime coin
eide with those of illiterary. As TO the
Southern States, South Carolina stood first
in morality and tenth in instruction, while
Tennessee was tenth in morality and first in
instruction.
DON'T GO TOGETHER.
Figures proved that illiteracy and crime
did not go together in the ratio claimed by
the Senator from New Hampshire. He (Mr.
| Vest) was not attacking education, but he
was attacking the monstrous enthusiasm
which represented this bill as panacel for
all the evils which affiict the body polite
There were other things that affected
crime-such as climate, religion, conditions
of life, nativity and density of population.
If they listened to the speeches in favor of
the bill they would have to believe that it
was a universal panacea, a philosophers
stone that solved all difficulties. IL did Not
do it Education made men if not better,
more useful, but when any men under
took to tell him that they
had discovered the great ultimate
solution of the art of governing mankind in
one single measure like this he hoped to be
excused for expressing slight dissent.
MR.. HOAR sKEPTICAL.
Mr.. Hoar inquired whether the criminal
statistics which Mr.. Vest referred to showed
the charges Of crime, arrests or convictions,
and suggested that if they only showed
arrests it would be an unfair comparison,
because in Boston, for instance, there
might be 5000 arrests in year for smoking
in the streets
Mr. Vest replied that he took the figures
from the census tables as he found them
He was not responsible for them. But the
census had been brought forward as the
foundation of all the arguments in favor of
the BILL and he was simply finding out what
the census proved. In conclusion he said:
IL have loved the Southern people. They
stand now in the presence of
great temptation. If they
weld to the tempter, if they turn their
backs upon principle, upon tradition, upon
independence, upon all that they have
hitherto held dear, shall turn from them
not in anger. but in sorrow and grief If
this bill becomes law it will be by South
ein votes in this Senate, and in tho other
house of Congress. But there is one place
of refuge still left in the constitu-
tion. The brave and honest
man who is now President of
this republic, unless he is false to the prin-
ciples Of mis- whole life and of the great
party which elected him, will interpose his
executive veto in the path of this most
abominable and undemocratic MEASURE
When Mr. Vest concluded Mr.. Wilson, of