New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-02-09
TIE hANNAS QIENTION

Whether Mr. Martin should be permitted
| to take a seat in the Senate is not question
| for parti>ans 10 answer. The occasion calls
| for common honesty, and the sort OF states
manshp which rises above the tricks OF the
ward politician or the pctlloggcr. The seat
Is now filled by appointment. and the present
incumbent will not cease - be legally sen
ator from Kansas until the Legislature of that
State has duly elected successor. \ mas
meeting on a street corner cannot elect a sen
at0r. even though il happens T. embrace manI
legally qualified members Of 4 Legislature
Unless there are two houses duly organized
according to law there is no Legislature anf
therefore there can be no election of a Sen
ator But il is a fact admitted by Democrats
and by many sane and lw-abdng Populis'
also that the >o-callod PopuliSt House has
never been legally organized.
II is not n question about which there can
be difference of opinion among men who re-
,pect the laws. \ majority Of the member
who held certificates Of election took part IL
the organization Of the Republican House.
minority. no; at first even pretending 10 have
n quorum organized by itself Half a dozen
seats had been contested grounds more
less impudcnt. In order 10 make mp a pre-
tended quorum the claimants in these cases
were permitted 10 act as members before their
cases had been decided. and 10 the exclusion
Of the members who held legal certificates.
Further. these same claimants as members de-
cided their own cases in favor OF themselves.
and voted that they were entitled to the seats
they pretended to occupy. As there was not
a quorum and therefore not legal House,
without the votes Of these contestants. their
participation did not make any action one whit
more legal and body which had never been
organized according to law as House of
Representatives possessed no power whatever
with or without the votes of outsiders claiming
seats, to pass upon contested elections.
1t was this illegal and revolutionary body
and not q House Of Representatives in any
legal sense, which took part in the pretended
election Of q Senator. The legally organized
House, composed of Republicans and few
Democrats and embracing "a majority Of all the
members holding legal certificates, did not vote
in the so-cacd election. and its members as
individuals were not permitted to vote when
they claimed the right, even though they held
regular certificates of election and there had
not been so much as the prctence Of a con-
test about their seats. The plea will doubt
less be raised that the certificate of election
given by State officials mnst be respected. what
ever the facts behind it, But in this case
tho recognition Of the Illegal and revolution
aly body pretending to be House OF Repre-
scntatvcs by the popuIst Governor renders
4 certificate given by him entirely worthless.
II shows that he is only a participant in law
less attempt t. steal the control of the Lcgis-
lature.
If there ever was in the history OF American
States revolutionary usurra'ion. Of power in
oldci 70 secure pretended majority in a Lcgis-
latulc, such case is presented in Kansas
should the Senate meet this revolutionary per
Torrance with approval or liberation, a strong
stimulus would be given 10 every rascal in the
land to join in stealing Legislature by any
extreme Of cifrontery or crime, on the assulnp-
ton that the United States Senate would in
stantly open its doors to the thief II is
not to be believed that Democratic Senator's
OF character will consent to approve rs valid
the utterly indcfensiblc performance Of the
Populists in Kansas and Republican Senators
are justified in resisting the admission Of Mr..
Martin t. the utmost The seat is filed until
a successor has been elected by lawful Legis-
a'ure, and no such Legislature has yet chosen
a Senator from Kansas. Moreover, if the SEN
ate as now constituted declines to admit Mr.. |
Martin before the expiration Of the present ses-
sion. his name will not appear and tho name
of the present Senator will appear as Senator
from that state at the organization of the Sem |
ale after tho Inauguration. so that it will not |