Year: 1879

Now that the controversy between the two
political parties in Congress has been adj
iourncl. and is to be submitted to the judg-
ment of the people at the State elections be-
fore it can he revived at Washington, a brief
review of tn" main features of the struggle
will, perhaps, not be unwelcome to our read
ers.


The contest which gave rise to the pro-
longed extra session was begun last winter in
the closing session of the XLVth Congress.
The democrats came to Washington discour-
aged and a good deal demoralized at the re-
suit of the fall elections, which had dispellcd
their dream of floating into power in
1850 on an irresistible current Of popular
opinion. They saw that a sharp reaction had
taken place in the public mind, and that all
indications pointed to the choice by the c0un-
try of another republican President. After
much wrangling among themselves they
agreed upon programme which they be-
leved if carried out would enable them to
hold the solid South, and add to il the ecc-
toral vote of New York. This together with
Indiana and one or two smaller Northern
States. would Give them a majority in the
next Electoral College. They undertook first
to repeal the Federal Election laws, which
are the only effective safeguard against fraud
ulent voting in great cities: and second. to
reduce the army to skeleton, and provide
that in no case should it be used to keep the
peace or enforce the laws of the United States
at elections At that time the democrats on
Is had control of the House; the Senate was
still republican. They embodied their poiti-
cal schemes in the shape of riders" to the
,I IL,
revolutionary doctrine that they had the right
to refuse the money necessary to carry on
the government unless the Senate and the
President would permit them to have their
own way. The Senate paid no heed to the
threat of starving out the government, and
refused to concur in the House riders. The
House declined to pass the bills without them
and the session ended at noon on the 4th of
March, leaving the Army and the Executive,
Judicial and Legislative branches of the gov
ernment without ii dollar applicable for their
support after the Both of June.


President Hayes Immediately convened the
new Congress in extra session on the 18th Of
March The democrats then modified their
programme, abandoning all effort for the re-
duction of the army. They had obtained
control of the Senate in the meantime by the
incoming OF democratic Senators from South
ern States elected in the place of republicans,
and they imagined they could cover up their
partisan purposes and raise an issue between
Congress and the President, in which the
people would take the side of Congress.
They passed the Army Appropriation bill
with a section prohibiting in effect the use Of
any armed Federal force, whether military or
civil, to keep the peace or enforce law at the
polls. This the President vetoed on the Both
of April Then they took the section out and
modified it, SO far as it applied to civil OFF,
GERS and passed il as a separate bill The
President found this would practically sus-
pend the enforcement of all United States
statutes where elections were in PROCESS. and
would subordinate National to State authori-
tv. He killed the bill with II veto message on
the 18th of May. Later in the session the
Army bill was passed with Il clause prohibit
ing the employment of the troops as police
force at the polls. Most of the republicans
in the House voted for this bill. In the Sen
ate, however, the republicans, fearing some
trick of Interpretation lurking in the words
police force opposed it. The President
placed the meaning upon the words given
them in COMMON use and signed the bill.


The democratic attack upon the election
laws began with saddling rider upon the
Executive, Legislative and Judicial Appro-
pration BILL providing for their entire re-
peal The democrats revived the old South
ern doctrine of State Sovereignty, and pro-
fessed to assail these laws on the ground that
they interfered with the rights of the States
TO control elections The bill in this shape
was vetoed May 80. Then the democrats
backed down from their threat of starving
the government unless they could get rid OF
Federal Marshals and Super yisors at cleo
tions They hit upon the expedient OF dlvid-