Year: 1876

AN EXCHANGE OF SHOTS BETWEEN NORTH AND


soUTH-MR. HILL SAYS TIE EXAMPLE OF sECEs-


SION WAS SET BY THE HARTFORD CONVENTION


INDIGNANT REPLY BY MR.. HoAR-MR. cox


CALLED TO HIS FEET


TBr TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUSE.l


WASHINGTON. Feb. 29.-For half an hour this
afternoon there was repetition in the House of the
scenes with which the amnesty debate has made the
people familiar. The South was again pitted
against the North, and the prevalence of the five
minutes rule alone prevented spectacle as exciting
as the recent passage-at-arms between Mr.. Blaine
and Benjamin Hill. As it was, the South and New
England again met, and Benjamin Hill crossed
swords with George +. Hoar of Massachusetts,. The
running debate that preceded this spirited affair
possessed dramatic elements, and prepared the
House for what was TO follow. The text of discus
sion was the bill granting pensions to soldiers Of the
war of 1872 which was last week amended in the
Southern interest Brief pointed speeches had been
made by Messrs. Kasson, Hurlbut, Caswell, and
Williams of Wisconsin. When Benjamin Hill arose
there was great anxiety among the Democratic
leaders, who feared lie might make some dangerous
slip. His purpose was to tell Northern people in
Congress three things First, that the Republicans
in Congress are a bundle of Inconsistencies and that
their conduct is exasperating to patriot second,
that the soldiers Of 1912 in the South we're all
Union third, that secession did not originate
in the South but in New-En gland, and that the
Yankees in the Hartford Convention were plotting
secession when the soldiers Of 1912 were battling
for the Union at New-Orleans.


This was too much for the Republicans TO stand in
silence, and Geo. L. Hoar accepted the challenge
thus thrown out He was tired Of being lectured by
gentlemen on the other side Of the House. lie
thought that class of persons, who i'll any other
country would have been gibbeted, should be more
modest. The Republicans believe that tho Demo
Gratis who have confessed that the North was right
in everything and that secession was wrong, who
have come back to share in the glory Of Republican
rule and enjoy the benefits of Republican legisa-
ton, should be more modest, and discontinue their
old lectures. As for the Hartford Convention, he
said il never contemplated resistance by force, and
the resolutions were in fact transcript OF those
passed in Virginia in 1893. In the course OF this
spirited speech Mr.. HOar was especially severe on
Mr. Cox, whom he arraigned as having opposed the
Thirteenth Amendment, and for having violated
parliamentary law and courtesy by calling Mr..
Blaine a byena," for which the Democrats had
conferred upon him the honor Of an election to be
Speaker pro tenpore.


Mr.. Cox replied and while he did not transcend
the rules of decency, he did the previous
SON. and did explain his record in regard TO the
treatment of prisoners during the war; he sneered in
a very unbecoming way at Northern phlanthropists
who have disturbed the nation with their cry of
"the noblest place for man to dieD is when he dies
for man. The Democrats became so alarmed by the
discussion that the bill recommitted TO the
Committee, and may never see the light again.