San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-12-08
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 1888.

! WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 1888.
Daily LIGHT:
Senator Ingalls, and Speaker Car
| Isle 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 was much larger than
was expected or thought possible
| forty-eight hours ago. Every train
| brings additional members, and it Is
probable that nearly all of them will
be here by the middle of the week.
According to the action of the demo-
cratic caucus 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 members
fillibustered against because under it
their states will receive no money.
Its early passage by the house is con-
fidently expected, and it has been in
timated i'm some quarters that Mr..
Cleveland would veto 1t.
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 regularly occupy his
seat in the house. The defeat of the
free traders has put Mr.. Randall back
into his old place as leaders of the
democrats in the house.
The stranger as he sits in the GAL
lery of the house of representatives
has no difficulty in naming the poll
tics of each member as he enters the
hall. The republicans still wear the
smiles they put on the day after the
election, and the democrats all look
something like professional pail bear
e~s at funeral.
Some men will have notoriety, even
if it is necessary to make asses OF
themselves in order to obtain it. One
would think that Representative
Oates, of Alabama, who led the fill
busterers in their attack on the direct
tax bill last spring had gained enough
notoriety at that time to last him at
least one year, but it seems not.
He has announced himself as the
special champion of 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 do
almost as easy as they now illegally
do it in his own and other southern
states. The idea is almost too
absurd to be even seriously
considered by anybody. Aside
from any question of right
and wrong that may be involved, the
Southern politicians would resist the
proposition from motives of policy.
If adopted, it would deprive the south
of about One-third Of its present rep
resentatiOn in the house of represent
tatives and in the electoral college.
The reason given for this most re-
markable and extraordinary PROPOSE
ton, is unfortunately for the poor ne
GRO a 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 conclusion and de-
prive the hoodlums of New York and
other large cities of their right to
vote? The negro is ignorant because
he has had no opportunity to be 9TH
erwise. The democratic hOodlums of
n. Y. are both ignorant and vicious
from choice. No sane man will assert
that the average negro of Alabama is
vi lCSS DdDlO vi III Icl-
ligently 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
constitutional amendment depriving
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 III his calibre may
as well make up their minds that as
long as this republic exists the negro
will be citizen thereof of every sense
of the word. This is an age of pro-
gress, not of retrOgression.
1t is generally understood here that
if Representative Mckinley is q can
didate 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, of Michigan, and Mckinley
and Butterworth, of Ohio. 1t is alto
gether a friendly rivalry, and any
one Of the gentleman named will
give satisfaction to republicans of
every section. The democrats, or
rather large number of them will
endeavor to give the complimentary
nomination for speaker to Mr.. Ran
dali, as a slight compensation for the
treatment he has received at the