Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-02-04
Aiiseellaneo,ls Beading.
JOSEPH G. CANNON.
Story Of the Big Man Who Presides
Over House of REPRESENTATIVES.

Story of the Big Man Who Presides
Over House Of Representatives.
This is the best abused public man
since the entire Republican party and
80 per cent Of the Democratic party
maligned, slandered, reviled Grover
Cleveland for protecting the public
credit from dishonor. Grover Cleve-
land was elected president in 1892 be-
cause the Republican fifty-first con-
gress was afraid to trust Ben Harrison
with a free coinage law. The Sher-
man silver law, enacted by a congress
Republican in both houses, and ap-
proved by Republican president, was
an assault on the public credit, and
put the country on silver basis, and
1t would have put the treasury on the
silver basis If anybody but Cleveland
had been president.
But Cleveland preserved the public
credit and got more abuse for it than
any other president in our history,
for he was assailed by both parties.
Cannon Is speaker Of the house, and
all he has done is to enforce the Reed
rules. He has done nothing that Reed
and Henderson did not do, and 1t is
the system, and not the man, that the
insurgents ought to assail.
Nobody has dared say that old
Joe is corrupt. He has saved the
American people too many millions for
that. I venture to say that Joseph G.
Cannon has saved to the treasury more
than Elihu B. Washburn, William s.
Holman and Samuel ]. Randall COM
bined. He has always stood for econ
omy, and those who saw how he
fought to keep down expenditures have
always wondered how 1t happened that
the Fifty first was billion dollar con-
gress.
Cannon first took his seat in con-
gress in 1873, and except the term
1891-93 he has been a member Of the
national library, whereat and where
ever since, record that beats all 9TH
ers in our national history. Blaine
was the speaker, Pig Iron Kelly the
titular leader on the floor, though Gar
field was the actual leader. Ben But
ler was there with his force bill, and
LIT was that congress John Young
Brown, hurled at Ben Butler that ter
rife philippe that pierced even his
rhinocerocian hide.
The bloody shirt was a-waving. The
G. o. P. hated everything southern but
the negro, and at that time the south
was not yet emerged from carpetbag
rule Negroes were in congress with
scalawags and carpetbaggers. Mr..
Cannon was a bloody-shirter of the
most scarlet hue. Julius Caesar Bur-
rows was another bloody-shirter Of a
little more ornate speech. William ].
Wilson used to say that Burrows kept
his speeches under glass like wax
work to be brought out now and then
for an airing.
The morning of the November elec-
tion in 1874 the country woke up as
founded. The election had gone DEM
ocratic by overwhelming majorities.
Samuel j. Tilden was chosen governor
Of New York and the new congress
had more than three score Democratic
majority, the first Democratic congress
to sit in Washington since March 4,
1859. Above all old Beast Butler was
beaten for reelection in Massachusetts.
And then it was that the G. o. F.
proposed to make it illegal to elect a
Democratic congress, and so Ben But
ler, at the last session Of the Forty
third congress, pressed his force bill.
Randall of Pennsylvania, Beck Of Ken
lucky, and Lamar of Mississippi led
the filibuster and it was one Of the
hottest and longest parliamentary bat
ties in our political history. When
they supposed they were beaten, hint
from Blaine, the speaker, taught them
how to renew the fight and keep 1t up
until March and then old Butler
abandoned the bill with a Parthian
shot at Blaine that went true to the
mark. Now Blaine did not care a rap
for the south; but he knew that with
that force bill the law, Grant would be
absolute master Of the Republican par
ty, and he further knew that Grant
would never allow the nomination of
James G. Blaine to succeed him In the
White House. Had Grant been his
friend, Blaine would have secured the
passage Of that force bill.
But what a piece Of folly 1t would
have been. Every southern state that
had been a party to the Confederacy
would have held convention and pro-
claimed that they preferred bayonet
rule to negro rule, carpetbag and seal
awag rule, and the bayonet would
have been authorized. The business
north would have stood for that about
fifteen minutes, and in the succeeding |
congress there would not have been
enough Republican members to de-
mand the yeas and nays.
During that entire period Uncle
Cannon was a bloody-shirter of the
fiercest sect, and even as late as 1890,
he supported with all his might the
force bill Of Henry Cabot Lodge that
was designed to make Mississippi a |
Republican state. In those days he
not only thought it possible to subject
the whites Of the south to negro rule,
but he held it desirable to accomplish |
this.
In this connection l shall call atten-
ton to the latest rebel outrage. 1t
seems that the song Dixie" has been
pronounced the most popular In the
Union by the song bureau of the ma
tional library, whereat and whereupon
sundry grand army posts at the north |
have taken action and denounced this
obsession Of the public taste as alto
gether reasonable in every particular.
The Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth and
Forty-sixth congresses were Demo-