The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-13
THE SENATE AGAIN.

wall the influence of the west in the
senate; and indeed some papers go SO
far as to speak of it as the superf1u-
Gus senate the New York Times, in
TACT, using the phrase as a caption for
long editorial on the subject. The
Times refers to that phrase descrip-
ton Of the house of representa-
tives by President Andrew John
son as body hanging on the
verge Of the government" The Times
then proceeds to trace what it consid-
ers the degeneracy of the senate. in
the course of which it says:
But from 1868 to 1896 the degenera-
ton of the senate has been much more
rapid than in the eighty years before
1868. Up to that time, and at that time,
1t had really fulfilled the purpose of its
creation. 1t had acted, and 1t acted
then, as a check upon popular passion,
And it vindicated the wisdom of the
men who had established it 1t is no
impeachment of their wisdom
that it no longer fulflls the
purpose of its creation. 1t never
entered their minds to suppose
that a national party would ever, by
way Of securing its own supremacy,
set to work to degrade the senate,
erect mining camps and cattle ranches
into sovereign states and allow COM
munities which were not numerically
competent to send one representative
each to Washington and to send each
two senators. 1t is from this that 1T
has come that the senate is no longer
a conservative body, but it is looked
upon by all people who have anything
to lose as a dangerous and revolution
airy body. An appeal lies from it to
the house as from Philip drunk to
Philip sober. Not that the jayhawkers
and cowboys are unrepresented in the
house, but that they are represented
there only in proportion to their num-
bers, whereas in the senate they are
represented in proportion to a dozen
times their numbers. Hence it is the
senate and not the house that may now
be properly described as a body "hang-
ing on the verge of the government"
It is equally useless and unwise for
the papers of the east to complain of
the influence of the western states in
the senate, or to attack the senate it
self as an institution of our government,
and especially are Democratic papers
to be condemned for resorting to that
practice. The reason why we say it is
useless to complain of the influence of
the western states in the senate is be-
cause it is something that cannot be
changed by those complaints. Equal
representation in the senate is part of
the fundamental law of the land; it is
secured by constitutional provision;
and a provision which cannot be
amended by any constitutional pro
ceeding, unless the state or states
whose equal representation it would be
proposed to cut down, would
give their consent. That is. ar
ticle five of the constitution
which prescribes the manner in which
amendments to the constitution may
be proposed and carried, after saying
that they shall become a part of the
constitution when ratified by the leg
islatures Of three-fourths of the sew
eral states, or conventions in three
fourths thereof provided, that =
no state, without its consent, shall be
deprived of its equal suffrage in the
senate" Commenting on this proviso
Judge Story says: GAS the equality Of
the representation of the states in the
Union might be destroyed by an
amendment, it is expressly declared
that no amendment shall deprive any
state, without its consent, of its equal
suffrage in that body" And as it is
beyond all human probability that the
states either in the west or the east
will ever consent to give up their equal
suffrage in the senate. it is vain to
talk of tit cannot be changed with
out resort to revolution.
Talk of the senate being a SUPER
f1uous institution in our government,
or denouncing the equal suffrage of the
states therein is especially to be con-
demned in the Democratic press for
the reason that the equal suffrage of
the states is the very best monument
we possess in all our institutions rec
ogniztng the existence of the states as
entities, as sovereignties, entitled as
such to equal suffrage in the senate.
1t is the best monument of the fed
erative principle In our government;
1t bears witness to the fact that the
states have a separate existence that
is as indestructibIe as the Union is
indissoluble; and therefore, in these
days when the tendency is towards
Capitalization in our government it i'll
becomes a Democratic press to covertly
attack the monuments which bear wit
ness to the true character of our gov
eminent, and that may be Invaluable in
time to come as rallying points around
which patriots will gather to contend
fer American institutions.