The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-05-19
POLITICAL.
Mixed Politics In the Senate.

With two vacancies in the Senate,
from Oregon and Florida, and the title
to two seats in dispute, one from Della
ware and ole from Utah, the present
United States Senate is mixed body,
and the most surprising thing about it,
perhaps, is the fact that 80 many Demo.
cratic States are represented by Repub-
licans and 80 many Republican States
are represented by Democrats. The
confusion which has resulted from this
has delayed, as much, perhaps, as any
other reason, the organization of the
Fifty-ffth Senate, and is now an OBJ
stacle to its active work in legislation.
The Senate is presided over by a
New Jersey Republican, the first New
Jersey Vice-President in the history OF
the United States, and a Republican
from State which has been almost uni
formly Democratic since the founda-
ton of the Republican party. North
Carolina, long regarded as a " Bourbon
Democratic State," is represented by
one Populist and one Republican, but
no Democrat. The new Senator from
Kentucky, impregnably Democratic I'M
til this last year, is Republican, and
so is the junior Senator from Mary
land, which has been stanchly Demo-
cratic for many years. But the third
of these border States, equally pro-
nounced in it's tendency toward the
Republicans and in its denial of ale.
glance to the Democracy of the Chi
cago variety, Delaware, has as it's new
Senator a Democrat, and Kansas, in
which the Republican party made its
earliest battle against the extension of
slavery, is represented by a former
General in the Confederate army, ma
tive of Virginia, and Populist voting
with the Democratic members.
Further north there is found Demo-
cratic Senator from Wisconsin, which
has been for years, and with one break
only, in a national election, strong
Republican State, while the newest of
the Senators from Utah, Rawlings of
Salt Lake City, is Democrat, the rep
resentative of territory in which
Democrats have not heretofore been
numerous. West Virginia, Demo
cratic State, has its senior Senator,
senior in duration of service, a Repub-
lican, while Nebraska, which, when Or
ganized as State in 1867, was consid-
cred one of the strongest Republican
States in the country and likely to so
continue for many years, has Popu-
list representative, and an Ohio-bo
Populist at thatl The State of Nevada,
organized as a sure Republican Com
monwealth, has two Populist represen-
tatives, and the six States of New Eng
land, with collectively twelve Senators,
have twelve Republican representatives
not one Democrat On the other
hand, North Dakota, in which at the
last previous State election the Demo-
Gratis polled only 5000 to 10000 for the
Populists and $4,000 for the Republi-
cans, the Democrats have one Senator,
and in South Dakota the Senator with
the longest term to serve is James III.
Kyle, who has broken all previous po-
litical records as an "unplaced states
man." A native of Ohio, educated in
Illinois, a theological student in Penn
sylvania, pastor of church in Salt
Lake City, he was elected as United
States Senator in 1890 by combina-
ton of Democrats and Populists,
though he distinctively disavows being
either a Democrat or Populist, and
hence, at his own instance, a separate
party designation was bestowed upon
him; he became the first and only elm
docrat Yin Washington. His term hav-
ing since expired, he was reelected
this year by combination of Republi-
cans and Silver Republicans and is
now, therefore, no longer an Indocrat
nor Populist, Republican, Democrat,
Popocrat or even plain and simple
4" Independent" He represents no
special issue, local or national; he is
committed to no policy, State or Fed
eral; he belongs to no particular politi-
cal group, and yet he is member OF
Senate in which one vote would turn
the power from the majority to the mi
nority party, or vice versa, with the
Vice-President' casting vote on the
same side. New York, Indiana, and
Wisconsin, as before mentioned, are
the only three Northern States, east of
the Mississippi River line, which now
have Democratic Senators.
In all this territory, stretching from
the Mississippi headwaters to the At
lantic seaboard, north of the Ohio
river, there is not Populist Senator,
and in the Gulf States of the South, and
in the Southwestern States there is not
Republican Senator. The represen-
tation of the Pacific coast States, too,
is much more varied than is has been
heretofore. California, the chief of
these States, has one Democratic and
one Republican Senator. Washington
has one Republican and one Populist
Senator. Oregon has one Senator and
one Senatorial vacancy. Montana and
Colorado have one silver Republican
and one Republican silverite each, and
Wyoming, which Bryan carried against
Mckinley in November, has two Re-
publican Senators, just as Delaware,
which Mckinley carried against Bryan
in November, has two Democratic Sem
ators. The mixed conditions which are
to be found in the present Senate are
almost without parallel in American
politics, and it is somewhat peculiar
fact that the present Senate has a much
larger proportion of native.born mem.
bers than any previous Senate, and
consequently, fewer naturalized Sena'
tors, The terms of thirty Senators ex
pire in 1899, fifteen of them Democrats
New York Sun.