Year: 1874

the accomplishment of one lOng-deslred re-
form. The XLIIId Congress opened with fair
promise and remarkable opportunities. 1t be-
gan its deliberations at a period of political
calm. The Administration commanded large
and compact majority in each House. Fresh
from a signal victory at the polls, and COM
paratively free from partisan cmbarrassments, it
seemed easy enough for it to redeem the
pledges under which the Republican party
had fought and won the campaign of 1872.
The Salary bill was repealed prOmptly-not
with the best grace indeed, but that could
hardly be expected The Custom-hOuse abuses
were subjected to long and rigorous inves-
tigation which reflected the highest credit upon
the zeal and good faith of the Committee;
and the moicty system which had been for
so many years the reproach OF our revenue
and one of the great sources OF political cor
ruption was completely Overthrown. The San
born investigation, pushed with cOmmendable
earnestness, put an end to gross fraud upon
the revenue. The same inquiry drove from
the Treasury Department three dangerously
unfit officers. The scandalOus District Gov
ernment was abolished, and still further good
may follow tho disclosure OF Its iniquities.
These are practical and valuable reforms
which may give the first session of the XLllld
Congress some character in history and make
amends for part of the mischief it has done
by actual legislation and by cowardly neglect.


For while it has shown itself upon occasion
in more or less complete sympathy with the
good IMPULSES of the people, it has fallen far
short of its promises The Philadelphia plat
form, upon which this Republican Congress
professed to square its conduct, held out to
the colored man the prospect OF "exact
equality in all civil political, and public
"righs :" and Congress has thrown over the
Civil Rights bill without daring to vote
against it, The platform committed the party
to Civil Service Reform and Congress, after
kicking the bantling from one end of
the Capitol to the other, finally sat
down on it and fattened it out. The
platform declared that the franking prlyi-
"lege ought TO be abolished ard the
"way prepared for speedy reduction in the
"rate of postage;" and Congress has disgraced
itself by tricky devices to restore the privilege
abolished only few months ago, and to in
crease the postage on newspapers. Finally
the trainers of the platform confidently ex-
"pected speedy resumption of specie pay
"ments; !" and Congress has deliberately tram
pled that profession under foot, and P.Nnseu
us deeper than ever into the nirc OF dlilcuity'
# has failed TO distribute che Alabama money
according TO tb, terms of the agreement with
Great Britain. 1t has given no relief to out
rogaE Louisiana, and offered no word even of
sympathy to the rest OF the plundered South.
Burlesdue legislatures are still to make sport
of the miserics of that unhappy region, and
fclons to dispOrt themselves in places OF
state and profit. The abuse of Fed
eral interference i'll local affairs has
not been checked; it has even been
encouraged by the scheme for upsetting the
courts of Utah. What may have been accom-
plished in the direction of economy we can
hardly determine until the Appropriation Bills,
completed as usual in the hurly-burly of the
closing hours, have been subjected to care
full analysis. That extravaganza and Jobbery
have held carnival in these last days Is
extremely probable; but we are glad to
believe that the session on the whole has been
n pretty honest one, and that the proits OF
the lobby have been smaller than for many
years before.


Let us give the departing statesmen every
word of praise we can, and set the highest
store upon the Investigations which have been
their best employment; for after we have
scored every possible item to their credit, there
will still remain tremendous balance against
them. They came together when the country
had just passed through great commercial
revulson and they have passed six months try
ing TO bring on another. The future historian
of American finance will find in the abortive
90 sin ta no
of lying, irredeemabe paper, to drive gold out
of the country, to repudiate the national
promises, to undermine the national credit, to
make black white by calling it so, and
to aggravate the dlstresses of the mer-
chant, the manufacturer, and the farmer, the
most striking imaginable illustration of the
danger of trusting demagogues and igno-
ramuses with legislation upon such delicate
matters as debt, currency, and common
honesty The successive finance bills which
have threatened from time to time to become
law, have been stupnndOus monuments of
either folly or rascality, and after more
precious weeks than we care to count have
been wasted In the discussion of financial
measures by men who do not even know what
money is, we have law at last which covers
the country with dishOnor and the President
with ridicule. For this measure, Senate,
House, and Executive are equally to
blame. There have been times this
session when Gen. Grant seemed to be the
strong, sensible, honest, popular defender who
stood between us and the ruin menaced by
Congress. There have been moments also
when the House of Representatives, stirred
by an impulse of the popular feeling fought
with a noble zeal for the destruction of giant
wrongs, and dragged the reluctant Senate