New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-03-03
RESULTS or THE DECISIONS.

Let lis look back a little. The Democratic
victory Of 1890 was won largely upon the as
sortion tina, tho Mckinley Tariff and the Ding
lev Worsted bill were unconstitutional. Men
pr,f,essedly of great knowledge in the law, not
in the chief importing cities only but IN other
par,s of the country, including conspicuous MEM
bcrs Of tho Senate and House, staked thelr
reputation rs lawyers on the assertion that th'~o
acts wero not merely ineXpcdlent, As thcy
claimed. but plainly in violation oil the Consutu-
tim Yet tho supreme Court of the United
States. Democratic and Republican Justices
aprcinc. decides by unanimous vote that both
those acts are constitutional and valid
Another great advantage which tho Demo
Gratis had in the elections Of 1890 was that the
action Of Congress on many important measures
,vas declared unconstitutional because the speak
or counted members as present who were pres
ont Who does not remember the frantic OUT
erica of Democrats at that time, how Speaker
Reed WAS n tyrant, usurper. Car, and how tho
,romon dospotism in the House must be re-
linked by tho people? Because a Republican
majority took to itself the power to control legs-
la,ion. and 70 make effective the will of tho peo-
ule in the previous Congressional elections, this
Infamous, usurpaton, it was said, must he put
down or the liberties of tho people would be
sacrificed This notion actually caught many
thousand innocent voters, who imagined that
rIlo Of the House must be quite outrageous be-
cause Democrats had never adopted L. But
po,v tho United States supreme Court, LSmo-
cratic and Republican Justices agreeing. nnanl-
molsly decides that the action of Speaker Reed
was constitutional and Of unqucstionable validity.
- IL was said that Reciprocity was iiaudu-
lont and worthless trick that Congress had no
never 70 intrtst the President with the response
blli,y Of deciding whether the conditions upon
which a legislative act depended had been met
There were some people who really considered
il about the worst and most revolutionary thing
the last Republican Congress had done. But the
United States Supreme Court now decides that
it wa, unqucshonably constitutional, and in that
decision one Of the Democratic and all the Re
publican Justices concur
Ordinarily a decision Of the Supreme Court
has no political bearing weight. These would
nor have It the Democratic party had not car
ricd the elections OF 1890 largely by fraudulent
prrtences Bat the loud and positive assertions,
reiterated by many of the most prominent Dem
ocraic lawyers in the country, that the acts OF
the last Republican Congress were outngeolEy
unconstitutional and would be set aside by the
Supreme Court as void, did beyond a doubt i'll
nucnce the minds of many persons What was
then gained by fraud the Democratic party now
loses by the decision of the Supreme Court, and
more. With contemplate weakness it is said by
some journals that the court could only be cX-
pccted 10 decide one way because majority Of
its members are Republicans in principle. But
on every question having political bearing, ex-
ccpting the question of Reciprocity, the court was
unanimous. and on that question also the fact
that only two Of the Democratic Justices dis
-ented, all the other Justices sustaining the action
IF Congress. is conclusive for men not wilfuly
blind.
These decisions come in good time to help
reasonable voteis in the judgment they have to
form this ycar regarding the two parties. They
happen TO accord moreover, with the exceedingly
emphatic decisions Of Democratic Judges in the
State of New-York regarding the stealing of seats
in the Legislature. They exhibit the Repub
hcan party as acting carefully and sciupulousy
within its constitutional powers, even in the
most difficult emergencies, and cOntending only
for what is legal and right. They disclose also
the impudcnt. lawless and aw-resisting spirit Of
the Democratic party in National as well as State
affairs.