The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1894-08-04
SPEECH OF SENATOR YILAS.

gress or anywhere else attracted so
much attention as did Senator
Germans arraignuent of President
Cleveland says the Inter Ocean. 1t
was listened to with bated breath, and
eagerly read by the people. 1t recalled
the sturdy blows dealt President Jack
son by Henry Clay, and the historic
battles, or campaigns rather, between
Presidents Tyler and johnson and the
congresses of their times. Mr.. Cor
man hardly elected word of protest
at the time. Evidently the friends of
Mr.. Cleveland preferred to wait and
agree upon line of defense. than put
forward the most eloquent of their
number, Senator Villas, to be their
spokesman.
The selection of senator Villas for
the task was the best that could be
made He is, and long has been,
warm friend of Grover Cleveland's,
personally, and cannot fairly be classed
as a cuckoo. The first presidential
nomination of Mr.. Cleveland was made
by a convention over which Colonel
Villas presided. That, however was
not his first public appearance. In
fact he owed bis selection for that
craftsmanship to the fame he won in
responding to the toast, sour Com
mander," at the ever memorable BAN
quet given to General Grant in Chicago
on his return from his trip around the
world No one who heard that fight
of eloquence can forget it.
The charges which were the subject
of both the German and the Villas
speeches are quite apart from the mer-
its and demerits of the pending tariff
bills. Mr.. German charges, first, ex-
ecutive encroachnent upon congress.
sional jurisdiction, and, second, down.
right, fatfooted, and undiluted du-
pliclty.
Senator Villas insists that the Presl.
dent has right to exercise all the in
fuence he can, personal and official, to
carry out the policy to which his party
stands pledged. Never before has a
president gone 30 far as to take rec
ognized hand in trying to coerce one
branch of congress into submitting to
the other. Tnat Cleveland Wilson
letter is the only one of its kind; at
least no other like 1t was ever given
to the public But it must be admit.
ted that General jackson went far
in the same general direction. He
never gave sigrs of having read Wash
ingten's farewell address, with its ex-
plicit warning on that point. But Mr..
Villas might have gone further. An
drew Jackson is not the only precedent
he might have adduced. John Tyler
and Andrew johnson also tried with
all their might to thwart the will of
the majority in congress, and now that
compass has been boxed, there being
four of kind. Whether Cleveland
will succeed with Tyler or fail with
Johnson time alone can tell.
But the really important part of the
Villas speech was also its weakest point.
The strength and sting of Germans
indictment of the president was the
charge of duplicity and the specific
evidence adduced in support of the
same. The charge was that after
examining the bill, and with perfect
knowledge of what it contained on
coal and iron ore, the president def
nitely promised senators Vest and
Jones to help pass it through congress;
not the senate, where his help was not
needed, but the house, where it was
necessary to success. He was explicitly
told by senator Jones that without
such help he would not undertake to
get the house to yield and accept the
senate bill. When the time came to
redeem that promise the president
:urned squarely around and went out
If his way to make his perfidy as en-
ohatic as possible.
The defense entered by Mr.. Villas to
his latter charge is wholly unworthy
lis great reputation as a lawyer. He
to transparent pettisogging.
No milder word fits the case. "Mr.
German himself" he says, "had no
PERSONAL testimony to offer. He called
IN Mr.. Vest" and he might have ad-
led, and others, "who offered CONVEX
ations-heresay testimony that would
ave been excluded in any court of
ustice."
What, pray, is the Villas conception
t "heresay testimony" The issue
aised is as TO what position Mr..
jleveland took toward the senate bill
n his conversations with Jones and
Vest. Mr.. Cleveland is party in in
crest, and by one of the fundamental
avs of testimony it is entirely compe-
ent to adduce in testimony witnesses
Who heard from Mr.. Cleveland's own
ips the promise to support what he
fterward opposed. No one knows
'etter than William F. Villas, law
'er of large experience, that any court
{ justice not presided over by a
)ogberry would admit such testimony
8 senator German adduced.
Notice.
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