Year: 1879




1t was stated in the Associated Press
report of the proceedings of the House
upon the reception of the Presidents We
to message last week that when certain
portions of the document were read there
was IAN audible litter" on the Democrat
lc side. The tittering was occasioned by
the Presidents references to the stipend
Gus election frauds in this city in 1868,
and the need of some such measure OF
prevention as the laws which the Demo
cratic Congress has determined to repeal
The idea seemed so funny that it sent an
audible litter through the party. They
are apt to be effected in that way by any
practical suggestion in the direction OF
preventing fraud or purifying politics.
They will howl themselves red in the
face for Reform upon the stump and in
the press, when they are out of power
and want to get in; once in, they greet
any practical movement for Reform with
an audible litter No doubt there was
an audible litter among the crowd Of
Democrats who pushed on to Washing
ton with the advent of their party to
power, when they were told that the
party was opposed to the use of official
patronage TO reward party service. There
must have been very audible litter in
the Tweed Ring when, in answer to the
protests against the rascalities and rob
berries of Democratic rule, "The Old Man."
said with leer, Well, what are you GO
ing to do about it


Titterers they are, indeed, and always
have been. Whenever and wherever
men have been lifted up by conscience
or patriotism or sense of duty or philan-
thropy or love of justice to great and Sc,
rious and unselfish work, then and there
just such men as those who are fighting
for free fraud at Washington have audi
bly, Uttered They Uttered audibly over
Bleeding Kansas" and the earnest pro
tests that went up from all the North at
the high handed outrages, the violence,
intimidation and fraud by which it was
attempted to fasten slavery on free terri
tory. Frightened half out of their wits
at the insane invasion of Virginia by
John Brown, they recovered their spirits
upon the old mans capture, and Uttered
audibly when he picked up and kissed
the little black child on his way to the
scaffold he made immortal. And when
Abraham Lincoln, starting from his home
at Springfield in 1861, in addressing the
crowd of neighbors and friends who had
gathered to witness his departure, in
view of the tremendous responsibilities
OflOI0 uiulS d6htu W De re-
membered in their prayers, the audible
litter ran through the party press from
Maine to Mexico. There was the same
audible litter in the Confederate Con
gress at Montgomery when it was an
nounced that President Lincoln had is
sued a call for IS 900 men-"derisive
laughter" was what they call il in the cur
rent reports. And many of US remember
well what sort of news it was from South
ern battle fields, all through the war, that
sea- an audible litter through the ranks
Of the Northern Democracy. II WASH t
news that cheered the hearts of mothers
and wives whose sons and husbands were
down there wearing the blue.


And since the war, though making a
great show of Indignation at the oppres-
sion and injustice OF negro rule whenever
the stories of outrages practsed upon the
poor blacks, Of whippings and scourgings,
shooting and killing have come up into
the North, their only comment has been
the audible litter and the stereotyped
sueer at the bloody shirt" Quick to be
incensed at any reflection upon their We
racity and honor, and ready to wipe out
fancied insults in blood, they have, for
the appeal to their truthfulness and hon
or for the payment in full in honest mon
ey OF HOnesC OoiigatlonS, only the same
old audible litter: No step has been
taken in the direction Of establishing
justice and equality and human rights
OF giving the nation stability. permanence,
credit, that these men have not factiously
opposed and sneered at with their audi
bic litter. Nothing is so amusing to
them as devotion to principle; nothing
excites their serious indignation except
ing the prospect Of losing office and pow
er. There is something, however, in
their present situation that does not pro
woke them to much mirth. They are not
tittering audibly in view Of it, There
may be an audible litter in few days
when they turn their faces towards home,
but it is not probable that they will take
any part in it.