Year: 1869

The Last NH ours of the Il EOrtieth Congress.


Whatever the Fortieth Congress does must
be attended to within the next seven days and
half. Many important measures are in a fair
way to fail offs passage, and some of them GER
tainly will. Among those that viii certainly
go over is the Civil Service bill, and among
those that will probably be passed by is Gen.
Schenck's bill for strengthening the public
credit. Both ought to pass, but the former
has had to rely for its support chiefly upon the
newspapers, and the latter, pledging the gov
ernment to pay its creditors in gold where ID
has promised to do so, is, it would seein' 700
straightforward to meet the views ol Congress
men. 1t is incompreheDsible 10 everybody OUT
side of Congress that some Dill OF the klnd was
not passed wears ago, but it looks now as if we
should be obliged to rely upon tho Forty-fir
Conpress to assure the world that the govern.
ment ofthe United States is not dishonest
bankrupt. We hope to be disappointed in this
matter.


Many thousands ofpeople would have been
extremely gratified to see Mr.. Lynch's bill for
the gradual resumption of specie payments
passed at the present session. L has gained
the support of more sound financiers than any
other similar measure Of the session, as the
best practicable means of reaching a result
held to be desirable by all except a few vision
ary people who have Joined in the pursuit OF
that ignis .tat,tus, Gen. Buffers irredeemable
paper dollar. There can be little doubt that
whatever be the fate of Mr.. Lynchs bill this
session, it will command strong support in
the Congress that assemblies on the 4th of
March.


No bill funding the public debt or revising
the tariff has ghost of a chance this session.
The mammoth bill of 100 pages, revising and
digesting the internal revenue laws, has been
passed by the House, but fails in the Senate
for lack of time. The omnibus Pacific railroad
bill, giving away to railroad monopolsts public
property enough 20 produce the revenues ofan
average empire, is not understood to be in a
prosperous condition. Neither probably are
the various schemes for "untying the Pres-
dent" like the repeal of the civil tenure act and
the act protecting the Chief of
the Army from the too absolute control of the
Executive. The people will not mourn over
either of these failures, and they will reconcile
themselves to the defeat of some measure oi
great public utility, like the Niagara Ship Ca
nal, in consideration that il is a part of the
same economical policy that defeated various
movements to increase salaries and to subsi-
die railroads and carried through a measure
to restrict the franking privilege to the written
autographs of members. Not SO the bill that
has passed the Senate recognizing tie Judi
ciary, providing for the appointment Of nine
circuit judges and one additional associate JUS
ice Of the Supreme Court. This has the ap-
pearance of attempting to make some provis-
ion for ten of the hundreds of gentlemen who
will be disappointed in their Cabinet aspira-
tions.


The most serious failure of the Fortleth
Congress seems at present likely to be in what
may be called reconstruction measures, viz
the constitutional amendment establishing i'm.
partial suffrage and the various bills for the
restoration of Virginia, Mississippi and Texas
to the Union. OF the latter measure there is
hardly hope, while the constitutional amend
ment is tossed back and forth between the
House and Senate and has finally gone to a
conference committee. The amendment of
either the House or Senate would secure the
negro in his right to vote and hold office, but
the quarrel is now as to the nature of the inn
partial qualifications for suffrage. The Pacific
coast is jealous of the Chinese and Rhode
Island of the Irish. They desire that the
terms of the amendment shall not be such as
to forbid the exclusion of these classes from
the polls. But there is still possibility that
the amendment agreed upon may be
liberal one. If il fails the case is not hope
less for the Republicans will have two-thirds
majority in both branches upon the assembling
of the Forty-frst Con gress