Year: 1877

last Congress to pass the Army Appropria-
ton bill. The old appropriation was about
exhausted, and there was the constitutional
prohibition to prevent the drawing OF any
money from the Treasury but in consequence
of appropriations made by law. The army
could not be paid after the commence
ment Of the fiscal year on the lst day OF
last July, and the necessity Of providing
funds for this important purpose before
that date was SO apparent that it was gene
rally regarded as certain that the new Con-
gress would be called together in June
| The advisers of the President, however, in
an excess Of caution, were anxious that time
should be afforded to place the Presiden-
tial policy in regard to the Southern States
| and civil service reform thoroughly before
the people, prior to the meeting of Congress-
in the expectation that the popular approval
would be SO strongly marked as to check
any opposition in which disappointed poll
ticians at Washington might be disposed to
indulge. They urged the postponement OF
q clear constitutional duty from motives OF
supposed expediency, Notwithstanding the
serious embarrassments likely to be caused
| by the delay.


| President Hayes must now see that he
made a grave mistake when he yielded to
this advice. Very moderate political
| shrewdness would have taught him that
| new administration has less to fear from
opposition within it's own party lines at the
| commencement Of it's career than at any
other period of its existence. In June last
there were many republicans who ques-
toned the expediency of the withdrawal OF
the United States troops from the Southern
States and the practicability of the civil
service reform then just foreshadowed by
the administration. But not one, probably,
OF any prominence would have ventured
to unreservedly denouncs these measures
or to attempt to make an open breach be-
tween the republican President and the
republican Senate. The party would not
have indorsed any such revolutionary action.
There is always a disposition to allow new
administration certain latitude at first in
political matters sentiment in favor of
suffering new policy to be tested, to say
nothing of the 'great expectations" which
attach to a new dispensation of the federal
patronage, which would have discouraged
any premature crusade against President
Hayes. The movements of the boldest of
the dissatisfied and uneasy republican
leaders long after June prove with how
much caution. they ventured on any acts of
even apparent hostility to the administra-
ton. Mr.. Conkling started on his European
trip without SO much as a passing hint Of
dissatisfaction. Mr.. Blaine, the Hotspur of
the republican ranks, hesitated to use the
| State Convention he controlled as the
mouthpece for the utterance of his real
harmless sneer at the Southern policy of the
administration, qualifying even this by q
warm invitation to the President to be his
guest. Grumblings and grievances were
heard all over the country, it is true ; but
they were the whisperings of secret conspi-
racy, not the defiance of open rebellion.


If President Hayes had performed his
constitutional duty and called Congress
together in extra session. in June last he
would have found his party and it's leaders
in the position we have thus described. He
was then newly in Office, his policy had not
been passed upon by the people or by the
republican party, his enemies in the Senate
did not then know that Ohio and Pennsyl-
vania would rebuke him, that New York
would be triumph for Conkling; the fed
eral patronage was still undistributed, and
the hope OF sharing or controlling it was
quite as strong among the republican SEN
ators as among the applicants for office


There would have been no disposition to
prolong the session during the hot summer
months, and if few Senators had en-
tertained the thought of holding Con-
gress together until December they would
have been regarded as fit subjects for O
lunatic asylum. 1t is certain that SO wild
an idea would not have met with encour-
acement, and that it could never have been


the point of meeting the then untried
people, would have been rs anxious to avoid
as they have now been to meet the issues
which have excited Washington for the last


ten days, and the session would have been


confined to the passage of the necessary ap-


preparation bills, and would then have
closed. II the President had been anxious
to make himself master of the situation he
might have refrained from sending in any
| appointments Mt the June session except
such as were necessary and unopposed, and
he would then have been in a position to
make such suspensions and appointments
MS he might have pleased after the adjourn
/ 1rio Tn l,J
held, and had passed over with an apparent
harmony bclween the administration and
the Senate, while the democrats were re-
exciting party feeling by availing them
selves of every pretence for increasing their
majority in the House, it is not an unwar-
rantable assumption to say that the result in
the Ohio election might have been reversed