The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-26
Furnishing south Carolina .

The power Of the Senate to expe
Senator TILLMAN by a two-thirds vote
is undeniable. That his conduct has
made him deserving of expulsion il
obvious.
But where in the Constitution is the
grant Of power to deprive him of his
vote except by expulsion? Is it in Sec
ton SO, Article l.? That section pro-
vides:
Each House may determine the rules OF IL,
proceedings. punish its members for d~isorderly
behavior. and. with the concurrence Of two thirds,
expel a member
When Gen. SAM Houston, not then a
member Of Congress. stood a prisoner
at the bar of the House in 1882, under
arrest by the Speakers warrant for
having knocked down and beaten Mr..
STANBURY Of Ohio half a mile from the
Capitol and outside of the hours of
session, he exclaimed:
Where is the prlvilegei Show II 10 me. that
I may obey the law. l am told that IL Is underlined
and undennable, and that II Is TO be regulated by
your discretion alone. II such a discretion is In your
manu.. lnt power OF puulhnIuVHN uluSl tANfnu " llo
itself. II you can srres, him. you may not only
nne him. and ~imprison him, but you may inlet
upon him torture and death"
That wa an extreme and somewhat
imprisoned statement of n question
which must now be puzzling more than
one Senator who voted TO sustain Mr..
FRYE's ruling in the case of the two
South Carolina Senators.
The power to punish is underlined, but
is it u~ndefnable? The infection of pun
ishment by the Senate or the House is
the exercise of n judicial function, neces-
sarily involved in the Constitutional
power to regulate its own proceedings;
but can the punishment precede the
judicial inquiry?
The Senate is practically maintaining
that it can; for while the facts of Mr..
TILLMAN's and Mr.. MCLAURIN's cul-
pability are under investigation by its
committee. and while neither Mr.. TILL
Nan nor Mr.. MCLAURIN is under arrest
or in any way restrained in his liberty to
go and to come, and to occupy as usual
his desk in the Senate Chamber, it is
furnishing them in advance of an inquiry
and decision by depriving them of their
votes, and their State Of representation.
under a vague theory of continuous and
unpurged contempt.
To the venerable Senator HoAR is
attributed the remark that this is doing
no more than would have been done if
Senator TILLMAN and Senator MCLAURIN
had been committed to Jail for thirty
days by a Justice of the Peace. The
answer to this is that the South Caro-
lima men have not been committed 10
Jail by a Justice Of the Peace or by
any other authority.
We have no sympathy whatever for
Mr.. TILLMAN in his brutal breach of
the peace and of privilege; and about as
little for Senator MCLAURIN in his out
rageous oral defiance of the proprieties
of the floor. One Of the offenders richly
deserves expulsion and the other at
least a severe r%eprimand.
But the establishment of the principle
that the Constitutional right of a State
TO its two votes in the Senate may be
iiuelihlOely suspended Dy u majority
vote of that body while charges of I'M
parliamentary language and of assault
and battery are being considered and a
final determination of the proper punish
ment is pending, seems I o us something
to be undertaken with caution, and
viewed with apprehension.
The right thing in this case seems TO be
TO expel TILLMAN, but t o let him vote until
he is expelled and his State is thereby
enabled TO provide a successor; and
TO punish MCLAURIN by adequate repri-
mand-not to punish South Carolina.