Year: 1877

/


businesslike, and is SO strictly confined to


the few subjects which rendered the extra


session necessary as to raise no questions on


which there can be n reasonable difference


of opinion. Nobody disputes that the army


ought to be paid. The ground on which


the appropriation for paying it was with


held by the last House Of Representatives


has entirely disappeared. The army appro-


priation failed in the last Congress because
the democratic House inserted proviso,


which the republican Senate refused to
accept, forbidding the use OF troops to
set up or to pull down State governments
in the South. The wise and generous South
ern policy of President Hayes has rendered
such precaution superfuous Nobody
doubts his sincerity, and there can be no
further democratic objection to passing the
Army Appropriation bill in its usual form.
| Every Southern State has now democratic
Governor and democratic Legislature, and
| there will be no more bogus applications
for federal assistance in suppressing domes-
tic violence.


| The army as it now exists is authorized by





listed ought to be promptly relieved from
| the inconvenience and suffering entailed by
| long postponement of their pay. The
President recommends an immediate APP
preparation sufficient to pay the army on
the present scale for the remainder
Of the fiscal year, without waiting to
determine what the future size of the army
r1. ho 81, hn~a fta~< Il
J eide to reduce the army there would be an
unexpended balance Of the appropriation
left in the Treasury at the end Of the fiscal
year. IfCongress should decide to increase
the army it can then appropriate more
money. So long as the army remains fixed
by law at its present maximum its support
should be provided for on that basis. This
recommendation Of the President is SO
plain dictate of common sense and COM
mon justice that it should encounter
no opposition. The President also recon-
mends appropriations to supply deficiencies
in the Navy and the Department Of Justice,
and also small appropriations to enable our
citizens to take part in the Paris Inter-
national Exposition and the international
Prison Congress at Stockholm. Action on
the two last is recommended now in order
to afford adequate time for preparation. AS
there is no topic in the Message which can
be made party question we trust Congress
will act promptly without consuming time
in idle debate. On these non-partisan
subjects, at least, Mr.. Hayes deserves the
cordial support Of his political opponents.


The indications from Washington tend
to show that while the democratic members
will stand by their party they will make no
factious opposition to President Hayes.
They will steadily support his Southern
policysand will give no aid to the republi-
can opponents Of his civil service policy.
His treatment of the South is precisely the
same that would have been adopted by Mr..
Tilden, and is more successful than it
could have been under q democratic Presi-
dent. Had Mr. Tilden been elected, and
had he taken precisely the same steps,
the whole republican party would have
assailed him, but Mr.. Hayes has prac-
tically nullifed the republican opposition
to liberal Southern policy by carrying
majority of his party with him and reducing
the opposition to mere fight OF factions
within the republican lines. Adding Mr..
Hayes republican supporters to the citi-
zens who voted for Mr.. Tilden there is
at least three-fourths majority OF the
people Of the Northern States which
approves of the pacific policy Of the
President. 1t is probable that more than
four-ifths Of the voting population of the
United States are pleased with, or at least
acquiesce in, Mr. Hayes Southern policy.
| With SO powerful q support it can never be
reversed. Nothing is more completely cer-
tain than the success of the Presidents
Southern policy. Three years hence it will
be matter Of wonder that any republican
leader who claimed rank as a statesman
should have been SO blind as to oppose it.


Mr. Hayes attempt to reform the civil
service will also receive the nearly unani-
nous support Of the democrats in both
houses, though not, we fear, from mo-
tives SO generous and disinterested.
The effect OF prohibiting the great army
Of federal office-holdcrs from taking
any active part in politics is to put the
uGAoCAhtiO puiSy, tHohbl ouS Va pOWcI Ill
the federal administration, on precisely
the same level as the republican party,
which is in power 1t would be calamity
to the democrats to have this policy broken
down by republican opposition. 1t Mr..
Hayes is upheld in it and perseveres in it
until the Presidential election Of 1880 the
democratic party will not have to fight
against the powerful and colossal patronage
OF the federal government. The civil SER
vice policy of President Hayes will be worth
several hundred thousand votes to the DEM
ocratic party in the next Presidential con-
test ii the republicans in Congress should
not force him to abandon it. 1t is to be
presumed that the democratic Senators are
not so blind to opportunities as to permit the