New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-12-12
WASHINGTON LETTER.

raped their respective Houses to order
at noon today, and the closing session
| OF the Fiftieth Congress was formally
/ declared open for business. Neither
House was BY any means full, but the
number present was much larger than
was expected or thought possible forty
eight hours ago. Every train brings
additional mem bers, and it is probable
that nearly all of them will be here by
the middle of the week. According to
the action of the Democratic. forces in
agreeing to break the long deadlock in
the House at the last session of Congress
one of the first measures to come up
| in the House will be the Direct tax bill.
This is the bill that the southern mem
bers flibustered against because under
| it their States will receive no money.
Its early passage by the House is conf
IDENTIFY expected, and it has been in
timated in some quarters that Mr..
| Cleveland would veto it.
Representative Samuel j. Randall came
to Washington on Saturday. He has
almost entirely recovered his health,
but owing to the orders of his physician
he will not attempt for some time to re-
gularly occupy his seat in the House.
The defeat of the free traders has put
Mr.. Randall back into his old place as
leader of the Democrats in the House.
The stranger as he sits in the gallery
of the House of Representatives has no
difficulty in naming the politics Of each
member as he enters the Hall. The Re-
publicans still wear the smiles they put
on the day after the election, and the
Democrats all look something like pro-
fessional pail bearers at funeral
Some men will have notoriety, even
ii it is necessary to make asses of them.
selves in order to obtain it. One would
think that Representative Oates,of Ala
bama, who led the filibusterers in their
attack on the Direct-tax bill last Spring
had gained enough notoriety at that
time to last at least one year, but it
seems not. He has announced himself
as the special champion of a movement
to disfranchise the negro. This man
talks about legally depriving the
negroes of their votes as if it was the
simplest thing in the world to bo. al
most as easy as they now illegally do it
in his own and other Southern. States.
The idea is almost too absurp to be even
seriously considered by anybody. Aside
from any question of right and wrong
that may be involved, the Southern po-
liticans would resist the proposition
from motives of policy. If adopted it
would deprive the South of about one
third of its representation in the
House of Representatives and in the
Electoral College, The reason given
for this most remarkable and extraordi-
nary proposition is, that the negro, as a
class is ignorant. That assertion is, un-
fortunately for the poor negro true
one, but if the negro is to be deprived
Of his citizenship on account Of his
ignorance, why not carry the idea to its
logical confusion and deprive the hood
lums OF New York and other large
cities of their right to vote? The negro
is ignorant because he has no opportun-
ity to be otherwise. The Democratic
hoodlums of New York are both ignor-
ant and vicious from choice. No sane
man will assert that the average negro
of Alabama is more ignorant or less ca
pable of intelligently casting his ballot
than the average hoodlum of New York
or any other large city, and yet there is
not a Democrat in the country who
would dare to make a proposition to
adopt a Constitutional amendment de-
priving the hoodlum of his vote. Why?
Simply because the hoodlum always
votes the Democratic ticket. As long
as the South persists in sending such
men as Mr.. Oates to Congress the color
line will exist in Southern politics. Mr..
Oates and men of his calibre may as
well make up their minds that as long
as this Republic exists the negro will be
a citizen thereof in every sense Of the
word. This is an age of progress, not
of retrogression.
It is generally understood here that il
Representative Mckinley is a candidate
for the Speakership of the next House.
Representative Butterworth will not be-
| AS the question now stands it is the
East against the West, the Eastern
members mostly favoring Mr.. Reed, Of
Maine, and Western members dividing
their support among Messrs. Cannon, Of
Illinois, Burrows, ofMichigan, and Nc.
Kinley and Butterworth, Of Ohio. It is
/ altouether a friendly rivalry and any