Year: 1877




have convinced any head not wholly
daft, and satisfied any brain not utterly
bcdeviled with Jim jams, that the Chan
dlerain conspiracy was. like its author
and chief promoter, q colossus of brass,
towering on thin and attcnuated legs of
minute of cooi calculation must have
produced the conclusion that, inasmuch
as nature has forbidden the industrious
pismire to carry off y mountain at one
load, so. even would the conspiracy of
Chandlcrfail of ravishing away from our
sight the Presidency of the United States.
Now, it is true, nature has provided that
the Industrious pisnire may transfer the
mountain ultimately, by dividing it into
myriad picemeals and taking his time.
SO also might Chandler, if giving time in
which to operate, have


ABDUCTED THE UNITED STATES
and carried them Off, say u township or
q precinct at a time. But when he bent
his shoulder to the whole chunk its spe-
cific gravity was too much for him, and
so great was tho disparity between
weight of burden and strength of back
that the feeble boasts of tho other pis-
mires in the Senate and White House
We're rnfeIt.


In the meantime the Democratic House
had got together and had surveyed the
situation from the other standpoint, The
temper of the House during the first
furry is perhaps best illustrated by
= AN OBSERVATION OF PROCTOR KNOTT.
The Wednesday after tho session began
I met our solnfen statesman of Kentucky
on the floor of the House, and asked him
how the situation looked to him at that
moment, adding some light remark about
the troops at the arsenal, and the peace
able inauguration Of Hayes on the 5th OF
March.


Mr.. Knott gazed upon mo with solem-
nifty. The pupil of his melancholy grey
eye tlilated. The corners of his funeral
white moustache dropped sadly, and he
said


elbow many people were there in the
North when the war began ~


About twenty millions.


And how many in the South p


About eight.


Correct. And didn't it take the
twenty millions four years to whip the
eight ~


Yes.


Well, then, at that ratio, how long
will It take the five or six hundred sol
diers at the arsenal to whip the forty
odd millions III both North aud South
to-day z"


told him that not having my light
ming calculator with me, should beg tc
defer my answer till the next day.
Well" said Knott, "when you solve
| that problem 1 will tell you the exact
date upon which Hayes will be peace
fully inauguratea.'


This was,sin outline, the view of the
| House. Whatever may have been the
| phantas,ns which took shape as posi-
bilties in the distempered visions Of ths
Chamberlain conspirators, there was
ONE COLOSSAL FACT


bcaming as a beacon-light to the House
and that was that it was in the right
The conspir,tors sought in plain terms tt
end Il protracted Gebauch with an easy
revolution to sober Oft from Il big
drunk on q grand fraud. And tht
House sought to evolve the order of law
out of the chaos of license.
| The Chamberlain conspirators basei
their programme upon the theory thai
the people were as debauched as them
selves. But the House grounded it's plar
Of resistance upon its faith in the sobe
second thought of the nation. This is nc
place to quote Carlyle. If it were
should say that " the whole corporation
Of captains, from Walter the Peniless t,
Napoleon Bonapartc," could not have sue
cessfully led our pitiful snutf-pinch of ;
| regular army to success against the embat
| tied majesty which one sign of force il
Washington would have worked at tn,
! back of the nations sober second thought
AS it is 1 shall suit the word more aptly
to the occasion, and say that the whole
PAY ROLL. OF THE TRoOLY-LOIL,
| from General Grant down to Privat,
Galgell, would havo been powcrless tt
stem the torrent of fury that would have
! greeted the first attempt at armed consu
| nation of the Chamberlain conspiracy.
| This the House saw and realized and
seeing and realizing, the House went
| about its business 18th an unmindfulnes.
of the rant and fustain at the other enc
of the Capitol, which was contemplation.
to tho end of contempt and the verge o
pity. The Senate had expected that tht
House would mount q high horse ant
excite the ridicule of the people. Thi!
hope was dashed but not as cruelty as
another dream of Chandler had beed dis
| s;nntnl Chn,nllnr had lreamcd that tll