Year: 1875

stigmatizedr by his fellow. .partisans as {
| jobber and one of the most persistent OF


salary grabbers, will be placed at the


head of one of the chief committees OF
1 the House-as an earnest of the ardoI
| with which reform and publication are
| to be sought. The Speaker elected, Mr..
! Kerr, of Indiana, is an honest and labori-
| Gus man, belonging to the hard-money


and free-trade wing of party which has
no principles upon either subject. Like
/ all the present prominent men of his
/ party, he was bred in the old school of
| Southern and slavery dominance in the
| government. and was opposed to all the
/ great measures which have redeemed the
honor of the country. As Speaker of the
House in the renewed Union, he is as


much out of place as Samuel Curwen or
any other Tory Of a hundred years ago


would have been as Speaker of the same
House in 1870. e.--..,t...l..r


The first act of the new House was also
indicative of its spirit. 1t was an at


tempted breach of plighted faith, under


the leadership of Fernando Wood, sup


ported by Mr.. Lamar, of Mississippi


Wood proposed to disregard the Wheeler


compromise of last winter, by which Kel-


logg was recognized as Governor Of Lou


isiana. The compromise was accepted by


all sides, and has been honorably obsery-


ed. The Speaker is said to have favored


Woods movement and the breach of


faith, but seeing that it would not do to


throw -exery-disguise- at the very be-


ginning, and when they have no control
OF the Senate and Executive, the Tre--
form managers were demoralized, and


the effort failed. This incident empha-


sizes anotherifact which those who an


ticipated a spirit of reform in the Demo
or 70 to vi


is that Fernando Wood is a leading fig
ure in the Assembly whose election was


declared to be a sign of unmeasureable


benefit for the country. There are those


who argued from the prominence of Gen
eral Butler in the last House the tdegra-
dation and decline of the government,
yet who actually regard House in which


Fernando Wood is more conspicuous as
a body from which reform is to0be ex-
pected But the final exposure of the
hollow pretense under which the House
assem- bles will be made when the reform
Speaker appoints the reforming Fernan-i
do wood to the head of one of the three
chief committees. As political opponents
we might be glad of such an efeetual
and conclusive proof of the absolutely
unchanged character and purpose of the
Democratic party But as Americans we
should wish to be spared such disgrace
to the country. Wood has been seriously
mentioned as the probable chairman of
the Ways and Means--the leading com
mittee of the House. Such an appoint.
ment would be a gross outrage upon the
national sense of deceney. His relations
to the statute of limitations are we'll
known in New York As a politician he
is an interruptions demagogue, who as
Mayor of New York,resisted the Metro
politan Police Law so that the Governor
detained regiment about leaving the
city to withstand any possible violent
demonstrations upon his part; and in
war, he was baffied in the attempt to
send arms to the rebels, and apologized
to their agent that he was not permitted
to aid them Such a man as leader of
the Democratic House and chairman of
one of its chief committees is an illustra-
ton of the kind of political Millennium
that is to be expected from the Demo
cratic party. - . "