The herald., 1893-09-28
THR TWO SENATORIAL NssroRs.


The best Office which any newspaper,
politician, statesman or publicist can do
just now is to throw itself or himself
into the stream OF toadyism that is now
pouring over the United States and
puncture it. 1t is in this sense, and in
this sense only, that we approve CT and
are amused at such ealliee as occurred
between Senators Stewart and Palmer,
the other day, in the senate of the
United States. 1t was highly fortui-
tous incident that both of these gentle
men are aged and vigorous-both to a
remarkable degree. There is tradition
that Senator Stewart once drove stage
coach on the Sierras, and Palmer as a
farmers lad has passed into the local
history of Illinois. 1t was altogether as
though two Nestors had locked shields
in deadly combat, while the Achilles
and the Ajax of the senatorial forces had
sulked in their Trojan tents.
In the last days Of the debate the
Democratic champion, Senator Palmer,
had little the best OF the fight. He
called upon Senator Stewart to name an
instance in which the president had at
tempted to influence senator or con-
greesman. Now just here is where the
Democratic senator from Illinois-for
years Republican and now a Demo-
cra.-had his equally venerable fellow
senator-for years Republican and
oil 1xro ,to<
Senator Stewart was undoubtedly in
fuenced in his onslaught upon Cleve-
land by that gentleman's unmistakable
attack upon the senate, in his speech
commemorative of tho laying of the
corner stone OF the national capitol. In
this passage at arms both Senators
Stewart and Palmer wereright at points
and wrong at points.
In the first place, Senator Stewart
should not arraign the head of co.or-
dinste branch of the government of the
United States for attempting to infu-
ence the action OF congress on the slen-
der premises that will ever reach the
public ear. He ought to have achieved
his purpose by long homily at an in
terlocutory stage OF the debate. II he
had been a member of the House of
Representatives, and had moved arti-
cles OF impeachment. his conduct, al
though abortiye, would have been logic
al. There has been no instance in the
history OF the United States in which
the Senate has evar undertaken to lec-
ture the president. 1t has ignored his
nominations and bedeviled him as much
as it could, but it has stopped there.
1t is not in the power of Senator Stew
art ever to get resolution through the
ate censuring the president. This
is where the Nevada senator has made
a mistake, in the sense that he has bit
ten off q bigger piece than he can chaw.
to employ the language OF the iNiterati.
He ought to know that such delicate
and impalpable thing as the duresse of
patronage can never be brought home
to a president, although the circum-
stances were even so suggestive as those
which environed Sir Boyle Roche when
he said, II smell mice, l see him
floating in the air. l will nip him in
the bud"
Sir Boyle Roche, in the instance in
question, was undoubtedly fully imbued
with the idea that there was rodent
around somewhere. Both his moral
sense of sight and smell assured him
that the horrid beast was about his i'm
mediate neighborhood. but it would
have taxed his peculiare oquence to the
utmost to convince his fellow members
of the Irish parliament that there were
any more rats than usual around the
parliament house. All the came, he
knew that there was a screw loose some
where. Stewart, therefore, ought to
have made his remarks interlocutory,
and have gotten in his work on the plan
of downright objurgation, or. in other
words, pure 'cussedness" AS it is, his
resolution is sure to fall stillborn.
AS to Senator Palmer-the other ven-
erable Nestor of the senate-he ought to
have known that there are more ways
of killing pig than sticking him in the
neck. He ought to have known that 80
we'll nourished man as Grover Cleve-
land-eo ample OF person and slow Of
motion has always at hand lot of
agile lieutenants, who can convey his
will to the parties in interest without in
any sense compromising himself, and
that this has been done, and in good
shape. 1t does not take long to thor
oughly permeate an ofIice-seeking con-
gressman with the notion that bis cake
is dough unless he does 80 and so. A
mere whisper--a trif1ing oscillatory mo-
ton OF the air--does the business. A
consu mmately skillful gentleman like
Secretary OF War Lamont can have the
whole country. from the headlsnds of
Maine to the Gulf of Mexico, and from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, thoroughly
permeated with the notion against
which Stewart is kicking, in a week.
Where Palmer is wrong and disingenu-
GUS is in ignoring this fact.
What the HERALD desires is to see
the government of the United States
get back to its old time-honored tradi-
tione, in which one man 10 as good as
another, aud often good deal better.
AS to the exercise of the power OF q