Year: 1879

After forty days of angry ana useless DE-
bate the democracy in Congress have passed
the Army bill and pushed 'he Legislative APP
preparation bill through the House, and at the
end Of this prolonged exDend ture of force
they find themselves just where they sto9d at
the beg,ninc. They are no nearer the object
of their ,icslres now han tney were Yhen they
delibera a'y defeated the supply rs IN the
last sess m. The repeal of uGc Federal
statutes for the protection of n free and
fair ballot cannot be effected by this Con-
gress and the longer the dispute continues
the stronger becomes the popular conviction
that they ought not to be repealed. Any politI-
cal leader Of average shrewdness ought to have
seen, three months ago, that this would be
the outcome of the proposed revolution, and
to have warned the Over-eager Democrats that
their strength was unequal to the task they
wished to undertake They have acted all
along upon the idea that bare majority Of
the two houses has the ability, and the right,
TO carry any measure of legislation it may see
fit. But the Constitution carefully withheld
any such right from O bare majority of
Congress, and when the Democrats I'M
dertook to compel the opposition, by threats
of stopping or subverting the Government, to
yield to them power which the Constitution
distinctly denied them, it was inevitable that
the entire conservative and rational part OF
the country should rise in resOlute resistance.
A few of the wiser men in the Democratic
parry did fOresee this result, and recogniz
the policy of an extra session as q great MS
take. We presume that most of the fiery
patriots are sorry by this time that they did
not sit down and count the cost before they
began to build.


We have said that the debate has been Ufr-
less. 1t has certainly been useless to the fac
ton that provoked it. But to the pc pie of
the United States the extra session has beCn
full of instruction, and save for its ost to ha
public treasury and the obstruction If has
caused to the incipient rev val OF business,
the Republicans might well rejoice at such an
exhibition of the folly Of their adyersaries.
year ago the prospects of the Democracy
were bright. The Nation had suffered from q
long and severe commercial and industrial
depression. Hard times are always unfa-
vOrabe to the party in power; and
there were internal disseDsions and other
circumstances which gave the Republicans 10
slight anxiety. If the Democracy had been
blessed with wit enough at this critical time
TO attempt nothing more than they could law
fully accomplish, and to keep within the
bounds of decency and moderation, it is pos
sible that even the disclosure of their enor
nous operations in the line of bribery after
the election of 1876 might not have destroyed
their chances of the next Presidency. There
can be no question, however, that they have
damaged themselves irreparably by this extra
session. Every observer of political signs is
conscious Of strong drift of public
feeling against this party of disturb
ance. In a thousand incidents, in the
tone of the press, in the talk Of the clubs and
public resorts. in conversation, tie prevailing
sentiment displays itself Except, perhaps, in
Washington, where members Of Conpress
often mistake the echoes of their own words
for the voices of their constituents, even the
Democrats are convinced that they have
steadily lost ground all the Spring, and that
they are still losing.


And they have not advanced one step
toward their object. The abolition of the
election laws is, TO all appearances, more i'm


probable to-day than it has been 'at any time
in several years The President will inter
pose his veto; the veto will be sustained.
This result the Democrats might have fore


seen two or three months ago. They had
not votes enough in the last Congress to re-
peal these laws. They knew well enough in
advance that they had not votes enough in
this Congress either. Yet they called Con-
gress together. and went to work, swearing
that the laws should be repealed Well, they
have gone TO the end Of their rope, and are