Year: 1871

free press9 Do you know of anything in
litical usage, which forbids q President
from advising representative upon any
matter which interests him or concerns
the public service? How long has it been
considered necessary that Republican
Senate should fly in the face of Re
publican President in order to escape the
reproach of Executive dictation from a
Republican pressS


No; whether the reason be good or bad,
| stated the true one for transferring Mr.
Sumner, on the floor Of the Senate. He
could be of no further use to the Presi-
dent, the Senate, or the country at the
head of that committee, for he would no
longer hold personal Intercourse with
either the President or the Secretary of
State. '-fa r.-'


No one insists that Mr.. Sumner shall
ride after anysman's horse, or drink any
mans wine, or eat any mans dinner, un-
less he chooses to do so. Mr.. Sumner may
undoubtedly choose his own personal asso-
ciates. But whether he can choose his
own position in the public service also is
another question to be determined. If he
does not choose to associate with the men
whom the Republican party made Presi-
dent and Senate made Secretary of State,
that is matter of taste for which no one
can call him to account except the people
of Massachusetts. But if he insists upon
excluding those gentlemen from his society,
and still to stand at the head of com
mittee with which those officers ought to
have such intimate communication-that
concerns the public service. That is a
claim for the Senate TO consider The
Senate considered it, and decided it in the
negative.


You urge that their personal relations
were unimportant so long as their official re-
lations were unimpaired. answer, they
hadno official relations to impair. When the
President or his Secretary has any official
communications to make to the Senate
upon foreign affairs, it is laid before that
body, not by its Chairman of the Com
mittee on Foreign Relations, but by its
presiding officer. If it is of sufficient i'm
portance, it is printed, and each Senator
has copy. All such communications will
be made to Mr.. Sumner hereafter as much
as heretofore. If he knows more of our
foreign affairs than any one else, as his
friends assert, the country will have the
benefit of that knowledge, so long as Mas
sachusetts is pleased to continue him in
the Senate. So the country will lose
nothing by his transfer, except the advan-
tage of having a man of his great and
varied attainments to confer and advise
with the President and Secretary from
time to time, not officially, but personally.
That advantage he himself denied to the
country before the Senate transferred him
to another committee.


Mr.. Tilton, YOU are a moralist. If the
Senate had, in wanton disregard Of its
own convictions of public duty, removed
Mr.. Sumner from all committees whatever,
to punish an honest opinion, and to ap-
pease an unreasonable Executive, it would
have committed a grave offense. But
would that offense have been grayer than
those commit who falsely charge the
Senate with having struck down a col
league wantonly and basely? Which is the
worse offender, he who steals, or he who
falsely charges an honest man with theft?
Which is the heavier offense, to take from
the rich man his purse or to take from an
honest man his good name? Or which is
the greater offense, to traduce an indi-
vidual, or to vilify Senate?


You are pleased to say that you expect
ed from me "more chivalrous part" l
am sorry to have disappointed any just ex-
pectations of my friends. 1t may be that
only courage exposes itself to such lauda'
ton as has been heaped upon Mr.. Sumner
and the minority of the Senate, and that
only cowardice takes shelter under that
cloud of vituperation which has been
spread over the majority. But if so, will
you insist that such exposure isreally much
harder to endure than such security?


But where, on that day, did you discover
an example of that chivalry which you
mould houa bo6 iu1itata9 hid Won find
it among those daring Democrats who
voted against the organization of the COM
mittees, but without venturing to assign a
reason for their votes? Or among those
reckless Republicans who declaimed
against the same measure for hours, and
then left the Senate Chamber without
venturing to record a vote against it? Do
you find your model Of chivalry in him
who votes without reasoning? Or in him
who reasons without votingp


You quote Mr.. Trumbull as the author
ity for the statement that ain all the time
he had been in the Senate never until
then had chairman of a committee been
changed by his political friends except at
his own request" / corrected that state
ment when it was made. / named one
notable instance to the contrary. | could
have named others. The truth is, that
since Mr.. Trumbull has been member of
the Senate, the committees never have
been once reorganiZed without making
changes of chairmen or members which
have been very distastelul to the individ-
uals, and have created many heartburn
ings. So inevitable is this that there is
not q Senator who has ever been assigned
to the duty of revising the committees who
does not shrink from repetition of the
effort. 1t remains to be seen who will as
sumo such responsibility hereafter, if it be
understood that dissatisfied Senator may
appeal not only from the committee to the
caucus, both of whom are composed of his
own party; but from the caucus to the
Senate, composed of both parties; and
from the Senate to the country, composed
of all parties.


Mr.. Tilton, you have voluntarily taken
the stand to give the country your views
of this great question. You will not OBJ
ject TO a slight cross examination. Will
you tell the country, upon your honor,
whether, if Senator Sherman had fallen
into such temper as that he would moi
speak either to the President or the Sec
retary of the Treasury, and if for that
reason the Senate had placed him at the
head of the Judiciary Committee, instead
of the Committee on Finance, would you
have attacked the Senate for doing so
But by what law do you demand for Mr.
Sumner consideration which you would
deny to another Senator under the same
circumstances +? Is it because of his pre-
eminent greatness? But how great must
man be before he is above the obliga
tions of that courtesy which ordinarily
characterizes the intercourse of gentlemen
You have bravely defended the equality Of
rights between white men and black
viii you deny the equality of rights be
tween Senator and Senator?