Year: 1871

Senator Sumner has been made a test question
in the Senate itself of party fidelity to the
administration. The General demands the
removal Of Mr. Sumner from the chairman
ship Of the important Committee on Foreign
Relations, and the republican majority of the
Senate are required to act upon this question.
The rcqnisition places them in delicate and
dangerous dilemm,. Mr.. Sumner has been at
the head of this com mittee for twelve years.
AS scholar, and as an American statesman,
and as an advanced radical republican, he has
given great satisfaction to his party In this
responsible position. In his famous spaech in
opposition to the Reverdy Johnson treaty on
the Alabama claims he gave great satisfaction
to the American people; but he has never
given much satisfaction to General Grant from
the appointment of his first Cabinet down to
this day. Mr.. Sumner, in fact, in his strong
hold in the Senate, has stood somewhat in the
position Of master over the admins
tra.ion, and General Grant has been
made so to understand it. For the
sake Of peace he quietly submitted to
this state of things until his pet measure, the
treaty for the annexation of the republic of
Dominica, as the first step to the acquisition of
The whole of the splendid island of st. Do
mingo, was defeated through the implacable
opposition Of Mr.. Sumner, as chairman Of the
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.


This was that last package which breaks the
camels back. Nor can the result be wondered
at, if, with Mr.. Summers denuncatlons of this
annexation scheme, we recall his vindictive
arraignment of the President himself as the
head of corrupt speculative coalition. AT
any rate, from that day of the Senator's decla-
| ration of war the President resolved that it
should be war until one or the other of the
belligerents should bite the dust. So it is that
General Grant has demanded the displace-
| ment Of Mr.. Sumner as the head Of the Foreign
Relations Committee in the reappointment of
the Senate committees for this new Congress.
And in j Justification of this demand it may be
said thai the chairman Of the Senate Com
mttee on Foreign Relations, from his neces-
sary confidential official relations with the
President, ought to be recognized friend
and no! declared enemy of the President.





sidered as de tacto a member of the Cabinet,
as the Secretary Of State for the Senate on
foreign affairs. Every foreign appo intment
and every treaty from the President is first
referred to this Senate committee, and the re-
port Of its chairman on the nomination or the
ment of the Senate.


Hence the influence Of Mr. Sumner in the
rejection of the ST. Domingo annexation
treaty-the ratification requiring two thirds
vote. Hence the adoption by General Grant
Of the Texas annexation plan, in connection
with this st. Domingo investigation expedi-
ton. Again, it may be matter Of the high
est importance to the President to have a
friend at the head of this Senate committee in
view Of the treaties expected from the Joint
| High Commission, and in view of a treaty in
reference to the Darlen canal, and in view of
! other treaties in other quarters, upon all Of
which he will desire occasionally to confer
con6dentially with the Senate chairman on
Foreign Relations. This confidential inter-
change of opinions between the President and
the Senate through its official representative
is now arrested; and here is the difficulty of
which the President very naturally and pro-
perly, too, desires to be relieved. AS the
recognized head and candidate of the republi-
can party for the Presidential succession, and
as the head Of the executive department of the
government, he makes this request, and the
republican special committee Of the Senate
and the party caucus on the subject have, as
it appears, decided upon the question in the
Presidents favor and against Mr.. Sumner.


The special Senate committee on the re-
appointment Of its regular committees, and
the Senate caucus, we are informed, have
agreed upon General Cameron, a good and
safe man, as chairman of the Committee on
Foreign Relations, and, as peace offering to
Mr.. Sumner, they have offered him the head
| OF a new committee on elections, which he has
| declined. General Cameron himself is peace
Offering but nothing, II appears, will satisfy
| Mr.. Sumner but defeat Of the President.
The proper course, on the part of the Senator,
in resolving upon war with the President,
! you'd have been e resign his position on the
foreign Committee in order that the Senate,
through its regular channel, might still be free
to communicate with the President on our in :
ternational affairs. Failing to adopt this
| alternative Mr.. Sumner will have no right to
complain as a party man if he is supplanted in
the place which he has SO long filled, and with
such credit to himself, to the Senate and the
country. Men, it must be remembered, even
great men, are compelled often to yield the
wall when great measures are at stake. The
Senate however, in open session, has still to
act upeu this proposed removal Of Mr.. Sumner,
and it is possible that the democrats, from
their approval of his course on St. Domingo,
| may exert themselves for him and carry the
| balance of power in his favor.