Year: 1874




The Congress which reassembles next month
will be watched with unusual interest. Under
the operation of the statutes which provide
for the sessions of Congress, and of the State
laws which regulate the elections of Repre-
sentatives, it so happens that we have in the
approaching session one branch of the Legis-
lature which may be said in some sense to
survive its responsibility. The successors of
the present Congress are, with few excep-
tiOns, already chosen. 1t is known that large
number of the present Representatives. have
not been returned. Not having to look to the
people for the approval of their acts which is
given or withheld in the popular election, but
having already had judgment pronounced
upon their conduct, they are to certain
extent relieved of responsibility. Whatever
they may please to do, or to leave undOne,
there is not now any such check upon
them as the sense of accountability backed
by the prospect of a pending election neces-
sarily gives. If the Representative be honest
but tmid, he will be in this state of affairs
more Independent and less disposed to truckle
to party or bend to popular caprice. If he be
demagOgue and self-seeker-and unfOrtu-
nately they are not unknown in this Congress
his temptation will be to make the most of
his opportunities, and in the rush of "every
man for himself" to let "the devil take the
hindmOst." Besides the individual politicians
who are to sit the remainder of this Congress
legislating without hope of reward in reelection,
or, as the old saw has it. "paying for dead
horse" it is well enough to remember that
great party which for fourteen years has
held the purse and carried the sword, and had
its own sweet will and way almost uDcontra-
dicted, is holding its last session preparatory
to turning over to the Opposition the power
to overhaul the books, audit the accounts,
and inquire, examine, and investigate into the
administration of these years.


From the individual members and the party
organization there is lifted off the sense of
responsibility which attaches to the assured
continuance of public confidence and of power,
or to the doubt which attends on pending
elections. The old party has had public judg-
ment passed upon its acts and has been con-
demned, but for three months longer it holds
the purse strings and makes the laws. The
new party with the favorable verdict of the
people has yet not arrived at power, and can
not be held responsible as yet for legislation.
The situation is one that points out its own
dangers. A party that has been weighed
In the balance and found wanting, has to sit out
three months lease of power under q notice
to quit. You may count up a score or two of
leading persons in the House who, when they
step down and out this time, have little ex-
pectatiOn of returning ever. To them it mat
ters little what the people shall think or say
hereafter of themselves or the Republican
party. The party is squeezed orange, and
so perhaps is the country, so far as they are
concerned Having no further use for it, it
will be but a politicians instinct to make the
most they can out of it for the next three
months. On the other hand, the Democrats in
the present Congress have not shown great
wisdom or craftsmanship, or even patriotism.
In all the schemes of plunder they have been
as eager and as fierce for spoils as the fore
most of the Administration spectators. Some
of them have had notice to quit also, and 80
are stripped of care for personal cOnse.
quences, while others will reason hereafter. as
they have before, that it makes no difference
with the Democratic party what wild and reck-
less legislation Congress is guilty of, so long
as the Republicans have the majority and are
responsible for the whole of it.


Possibly it may seem uncharitable to take
such a view of the situation. 1t may be said