Year: 1876

| The Democratic members of the House Oh
Representatives can hardly realize the position
| in which they have placed their party. ohiy
four DAYS remain of the present fiscal year,
and at the end of that time, unless the dead
lock is broken or the recommendation of Presl-
dent Grant complied with. almost the wnoie
machinery of the Government will come 10
stop. Do the gentlemen in Washington under-
stand what that means 7 The mail trains VIII
cease running. The post-of1ices will be closed'
The consular and diplomatic corps will be re-
called. Drafts on the Government VIII be
protested. Clerks and laborers Will be ds-
charged in a body. A little while ago
Mr.. Randalls Obstinacy over an approprla-
ton bill threatened us with the closing OF
the post offices in several large cities at dark,
because he would not consent to pay the gas
bills, and the whole business community was
in fever of irritation at the prospect. But
now the danger is of the stoppage of the postal
service altogether, and general paralysis OF
all departments of government except one or
two which are permitted by special laws 10
run awhile longer on their unexpended pal
ances


The action of the House on the River and
Harbor and Bounty bills is proof that the ma
iority is not actuated in its present course by a
mistaken zeal for economy. The House has laid
out our expenditures for the coming year on
scale of ruinOus extravaganza, anu mas
proposed, in a season of declining revenues, TO
give away a trifle of hundred millions or So
merely to buy votes. What then is the cause
of the dead lock ? The action of the Senate Is
easily understood. 1t is resisting not so much
reduction as revolutionary change i'll the
management of public affairs which will inev-
itabIy cripple the Administration and disorder
the entire Federal machinery. The sums abso-
lutely necessary to enable officers of the Gov
ernment to discharge the duties laid upon them
by law are ascertained from the department
accounts aud estimates, and when the House
disregards these sources of enlightenment the
Senate is bound to interfere. Mr.. Randall and
his partsans are not so readily accounted for
They offer no argument. but planting them
selves in the attitude of the most obdrrate OF
animals dismiss one conference committee
after another disheartened and exhausted.


Their determination probably proceeds from
an erroneous idea of the functions of the lower
house of Congress. According to the Consti-
tuition "all bills for raising revenue SHAH
"originate in the House of Representatives"
the principle being borrowed from the British
Parliament. where the Commons jealousy
hold the strings of the purse, and VIII not
allow the least alteration in a money bill to
be proposed by the Lords. But there never
was any intention OH the part of the trainers
of our Constitution to follow the strict system
of their ancestors. On the contrary 1t Is dis
tinctly provided that "thc Senate may pro-
"pose or concur with amendments as on other
"blls,r and in the first draft of the
Constitution the power To originate money bills
was given to both houses alike as it is still! III
some of the State Constitutions. The Senate
is not an aristocratic and privileged body,
analogous TO the House of Lords, and there is
no reason here for limiting the control OF the
supplies to the more immediate representatives
of the people. Both branches of the national
legislature are representatives Of the people,
only of the people in different capacities and
relations; and when the House of Repre-
sentatiyes arrogates to itself, as it is doing in
this case, the exclusive powers of the British
House of Commons, it shows a strange miscon-
ception of the character of the American
Congress, and of the points which distinguish
il from the legislative bodies of all monarchical