Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-02-07
FRIDAY MORNING, FEB. 7, 1890.
THE DANGEROUS PRECEDENT SET
BY SPEAKER REED.

BY SPEAKER REED.
The exciting scenes in the House of Rep
resentatives last week and this were
not unworthy of the occasion that
gave rise to them. The provocative was
the assumption by Speaker Reed of the
right to declare the existence Of a quorum
by simply seeing enough members, present
and not voting, to complete quorum, and
directing the clerk to read their names to
show that a quorum was present. This
the declaration of the existence of quorum
when the recorded ayes and noes do not
show it's the boldest assumption Of pow
Ell ever made in Congress. Mr.. Blaine
when Speaker refused to do it, even in the
exciting times attending the Force Bill in
1875, though some Of his party urged him
to do it. He said such a procedure on the
part of Speaker behind the roll
call-''would be the foundation for the
greatest legislative frauds ever committed"
and the legislatures in which it had been
done drought scandal on their name"
Later, in 1880, when the House Of Repre-
sentative was Democratic, and the Repub-
lican minority refused to answer to their
names when some measure they opposed
was sought to be gotten up, and thereby
broke the quorum, Hon. John Randolph
Tucker of Virginia, sought to cure the sit
uation. He introduced a proposition to
amend the rules of the House so as to give
the Speaker the power to do what MI. Reed
did last week. His proposition was
opposed by j. A. Garfield, Conger
of Michigan, and by MI. Reed 1.-THE present
Speaker) himself Mr.. Reed then held that
''the constitutional idea of quorum is not
the visible presence of a majority of all the
members of the House, but a majority of
the members present and participating in
the business of the House." The Demo-
cratic party in the House refused to sup
port Nh. Tucker S proposition and he did
not bring it to vote. They did not believe,
Notwithstanding the ability of Nh. Tuck
er's argument, that the constitution in
tended to clothe the Speaker with the power
to declare the existence OF a quorum if he
thought proper to do so, and they rightly be-
leved that to give a Speaker such power
opened the field for all possible force, fraud
time ever entered the head of anybody,
Democrat OIL Republican, on the floor of
the House Of Representatives, a
few revolutionary Republicans during the
Force Bill excitement in 1S75-that any
man elected speaker would assume to him
self, without the power having been placed
in his hands by the House itself to
count in a quorum when no such quo
rum was shown by the call of the ayes and
noes. That is, to force a member of Con-
gress to participate in a vote when by his
silence be expressly refused to participate.
1t was this that speaker Reed did on
Wednesday without the authority of any
Rules, and therefore without the authority
of the House itself. From bad he went to
worse, and with the recklessness Of man
drunk with power he went on to refuse to
entertain appeals from his decision OF to
entertain motions to adjourn-both under
the plea that they were made for the pur-
pose of delaying business. Such rulings
were never heard before from the Speaker S
chair.
The underlying motive Of Speaker Reed S
action may be stated this way. The Repub-
blicans have a majority of the members
elected to the House of Representatives
and this constitutes a quorum. If they
could get one hundred and siXty-siX Re-
publican members to be present in the
House, they would have no trouble. But
their trouble came just there. They could
not get their men together, and when the
Democrats refused to vote, the ayes and
noes showed no quorum. 1t had been de-
termined by the Republicans to cure this
state Of affairs by supplementary violence
in order to get up the contested seat cases
and turn out sixteen;D and seat six
teen Republicans after which there would
be no more trouble about a quorum. In
preparation for it, their Committee on Rules
had purposely delayed reporting any rules
for the House, thus leaving the matter at
the disposal of Speaker Reed. The Demo
cratic minority thus found themselves
without the protection of rules and at the
mercy of the rulings of partisan Speaker
who proved himself utterly without con
science.
All that has been left for the Democratic
member to do was to make record against
this usurpation, on which they will go be
fore the country this summer. Whether thu
usurpation results in the passage of nation
al election laW-whichi is the moving objec
ne fn No. ,,,f
inevitably to the advantage of the Democra
tic party and result in their carrying the mex
House Of Representatives; for no nationa
election law will elect any more Republican
members of Congress from the South thai
are elected under the present State laws
When the Democratic majority comes into
the House in 1892, it is question
whether they will again reject such a reso
luton as Mr.. Tucker offered in. 1880. An(
that is the graveSt outcome of Reed :.
usurpation of this winter for loosed from
their constitutional moorings, parliamen
tary rulings rarely drift back to them, but
Oftener further and further away.
The Republicans got up the first contes
ted election case from West Virginia, an(
as was expected by strict party vote OF
Monday (having by that time mustered ;
quorum) turned out the Democrat jackson
and put the Republican Smith in his place
The country has lately had many occa
sions to send it's sympathy to the Nationa
capital, but not under such tragic circum
stances as now. In the last two months Mrs
Harrison has lost a sister, Mrs Blaine
sister, Secretary Blaine brother and eldes