The Colored citizen., 1894-09-17
REED TO THE PEOPLE
THE ex-SPeAKsR REVIEWS THE WORK
OF THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS.

iVG orGTNCNtGNlCWO lHc WYNN
OF THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS.
He Sends outs Forcible Message and Shows
the Democrats In Their True Light-"st.
PecksnIff and Down with Monopoly" Is
the New warcry.
Copyright, 1894. by the New York Press.l
And now they have gone, this senate
and house Of representatives, gone, with
only three months more of unhappy life
left in them. What are we to say? One
year of almost continuous session, and
what have they done, and how have
they done it? The Republicans cannot
use the language of reproaoh, Of invect-
i've or abuse. The whole vocabulary has
been exhausted by themselves speaking
of themselves, We cannot hope to equal,
in commenting ON the senate, the tremen-
dous and effective words of the presi-
dent Of their own choice. II we were to
search the whole dictionary of diatribe,
We could not equal the charge of "par-
ty perfidy and party dishonor" made by
the president against the senate and re-
'ceived by the house of representatives,
with its 100 Democratic majority, with
cheers and applause.
Condemned Themselves.
If we were to comment upon the pres
ident and his action, we could not use
language half so damaging as Democrat.
ic senators used in open senate with up
lifted hands, asseverating the truth of
personal betrayal and personal bad
faith. II we were to comment upon the
house OF representatives and its leaders,
We should be deemed guilty Of gross
partisanship if we used even their own
words in describing their own actions
What condition for q partisan critic
to be in, to be obliged in common de-
cency to use softer words about his ene-
mics than they use about themselves!
And the enemies are not saints in en-
bryo, beating their breasts and confess
ing their transgressions to reach the
heights of sainthood through the depths
Of sin. Oh, mol They are simply earnest
men standing by the broken business of
q whole country and trying to tell who
destroyed it, and having met success we
obviously cannot use any language Of
reproach or of harshness. Earlier and
for that purpose-worthier hands have
gathered all those laure's. All we can
say is that all the three sides are prob
ably right. The president and senate
have told the truth about each other
and the house about itself.
A Slight Review.
With this simple expression Of faith
in their veracity, let us turn to slight
review of what they have done. There
is no doubt that this review will be as
distasteful and unsatisfactory to the
majority of honest Democrats as to Re-
publicans themselves Whatever good
there has been done has been spoiled Ia
the doing. II the house has yielded to
the dictates of q long denounced COM
mon sense and adopted proper rules, 1t
was only after all sound precedent had
been violated in the attempt to avoid
the necessity. II the congress has re-
pealed the purchasing clause of the Sher-
man act, it was only done after such
long delay as has deprived the country
Of any advantage the repeal might have
given it. Nor has the mystery of the
collapse of the compromise and the con-
nection of the president Herewith ever
been cleared up. Whether he consented
to that compromise or not is not for me
to say. That is family secret, but it
is no family secret that hatcompromise
was not repudiated until after the Re-
publican members were sounded and it
was clear that they would have no part
or lot in it.
Two such misunderstanding as these
between the president and the senate, il
Republican, would have caused sensa-
tion as of burned woolen among the peo-
pie. But the Democracy has limitations
as to morality very much enlarged.
That party seems to realize what Gen.
eral Butler said in jest-''that nobody
was truly unassailable until his charac-
ter was gone"
The tariff bill of "perfidy and dis
honor" has become law, and an inter-
esting law it is. How Democratic SEN
ate believing in the platform of its party,
could have passed it, how Democratic
house could have passed it, having 100
majority, is simply incomprehensible.
How the president could have permitted
it to become law is simply an impossi-
BILE study in human nature. How can
the country reconcile this action with its
former estimate Of him? He was deemed
by a very large part Of the people as a
man Of sound common sense and of
great will power. His reputation for
good sense certainly had shock in the
case of the Sandwich Islands. And this
is more likely to suffer from the con-
trast between the letter to Wilson and
the surrender to German. Twas not one
of those who expected such q result.
Surrender was in the capitulation. He
ought to have handed in his side arms
and signed the bill