The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-08-05
POPULAR REPRESENTATION.

Its True Significance Destroyed In Our
House Of Representatives.
Hon. John Cabot Lodge. at Pilgrim Monument Dedi-
cation.
We ought to find the fundamental prin-
clple of representation exempilned In It's
highest and most perfect form in the great
national council: for there, In the lower
house, richly endowed by the Constitution,
are directly represented the will and SOW
ereignty of the sixty or seventy million
people of the United States. ~ the Con-
stitution the representatives of the people
were to have the sole right of originating
bills to raise revenue, and it was In behalf
of the House of Representatives that Wash
ington uttered the only words spoken by
him from the floor during the sitting of the
convention of 80. The House of Represent
atives was intended by the trainers of the
Constitution. to be the body which
sssrsss the greatest na Influence s
purely legislative, and the public
purse was cOnfded to its keeping Yet the
great assembly thus gifted by. the Constitu-
ton, strong by its nature, and as the direct
pie, has declined, instead of rising in intiu-
ence and force. BY it's own mistakes it has
allowed its great powers to slip through It's
fingers and to pass into the keeping of the
executive powers conferred upon it by the
Constitution. The House of Representa-
tives, from one cause and another, certainly
from entirely false theories of government
its own making until it is reduced to simple
lnactiOn. The majority has ceased to rule,
and the minority is unable to govern.
Great measures demanded by three-quar-
tiers OF the people, without regard to party,
and favored by three-Quarters of the House.
come up only to be strangled, and the acme
of absurdity is reached when great rep
resentative and legislative body lives
under rule which fOrbids it to add to an
appropriation, but only allows it to de-
travesty of representative government, OF
popular government and of govern
ment by the majority than Is presented
by the American House of Representatives
exist to-day. AT the same time the powers
which they have taken from themselves,
under some idea that they cannot be safely
trusted with them, have been assumed by
others. What the House has laid down
the Senate has taken up, and it is to the
Senate, intended originally from a legisla-
tive point of view to serve as check and
balance on the House, that the people
now look for any real legislative action,
while the House serves for little more than
to keep the Senate from doing what the
House ought to do itself and what the
Nation demands.
crippled by the mass of things thrown upon
it with which 1T should not be called upon
to deal. 1t should not be made court of
claims or pension office. Least of all
should it be made a machine for the distri-
button of Offices; for of all the evils which
beset public life and which destroy the
usefulness of parties and of public men, the
greatest beyond all doubt is the evil of
patronage. 1t is utterly un-American, it is
wrong in theory, it is vicious in practice,
and it should be done away with entirely
an unworthy of American intelligence. and
fit only for the mOnarchles from which it is
inherited.
The body which ought to represent to-
day in its finest flower the great principle
of representation does not hold the posi-
ton nor have the opportunities which be-
long to it. The national House of Repre-
sentatives OF the United States does not
representation planted on these shores
more than $50 years ago by the men who
landed on yonder rock. i say to you, and
wish that my voice could reach every
thoughtful American in the land-restore
your House of Representatives. to the po-
sitiOn which it ought to occupy. l know
that the evil and the power of cure are in
the keeping of the house itself, but With
out the mighty force of public opinion all
effort in this direction is pOwerless. There
no Congress will disobey. Let the
voice of the people command that the house
that command eM9 Will III be " executed LET ans ms
then tear Oft the swaddling bands which are
paralyZing the Congress of the United
States. Let us throw off the burdens which
should never have been placed upon it.
Let us root out the evils of patronage which
infest the public life of the United States.
Let us do these things so that the House of
Representatives may become again the
representative of the people, able to do the
peoples work. able to deal with the ques-
tions which affect the people, and able to
carry out the will of the majority of the
people, whatever that will may be; Re,
be occupied by great representative body
which on this continent traces its high de-
scent from jamestown and from Plymouth
Rock