Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1879 — NEWS OF THE WEEK. [ARTICLE]

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

FOREIGN NEWS. An unsuccessful attempt has been made to assassinate the Czar of Russia, at St Petersburg. While he was taking his morning walk nefir the palace, four shots were fired at him. The Czar was unhurt The man who fired the shots was arrested by the crowd, which the firing attracted. A dispatch from Afghanistan says a bad feeling is growing against the British among all the tribes interested in the Khyber pass. They complain that the British are acting as though they intended to keep the pass in order to spy out the hill fastnesses. The Nihilists abducted the Governor of Charkoff, Russia, as hostage for leniency to prisoners. The American horse Parole won the Newmarket handicap, at London, beating Isonomy, Una and three others. Isonomy was the favorite, and Parole the last in the betting, A St. Petersburg dispatch says the name of the would-be assassin of the Czar is .Alexander Solovieff. He is a schoolmaster of Targphez, in the Government of Plaskov. He will bo tried by the highest criminal tribunals. The belief that the prisoner took poison is erroneous. He was severely injured by the populace, who would have killed him but for the police. The British have begun an advance movement in Afghanistan. A letter from the United States Consul at Tangiors gives a terrible account of the famine, cholera and typhus fever that have been raging in Morocco. In the city of Moroc•co the daily deaths from typhus ranged from 200 to 250. So great was the starvation and suffering that parents ate their children, and in other places the dead wore devoured by the living. • The cable reports further destructive fl'Mxts in Hungary.* In Russia, a ukase has been published ordering the appointment of a Governor General for six of the most populous districts in Russia, with perfectly despotic powers, exceeding those of a General in time of war. The President of the French republic has pardoned 800 more Communists.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. LDewt. John P. Phair, recently hanged in Vermont, left a statement declaring his innocence, and that justice was not done him. A pedestrian named Lavelle, who started in a walking match at Woonsocket, R. 1., was taken ill on the track and died in a few hours. Christian Lester, of Morristown, N. J., fatally shot his wife and then killed himself. The Philadelphia Common Council has decided to send a committee to California to receive Gen. Grant, and the Assembly of New York nas passed a resolution to tender him the hospitalities of the State on his return. In the East river, at New York, the other day, a tug boat was run down and sunk by a steamer. Of ten mon on the tug, only five escaped. The daughter of William R. Townsend, a wealthy New York publisher, has created a stir in fashionable circles of the metropolis by marrying her father’s coachman. The young lady was well educated, and something of a society belle. West. A tornado swept over the town of Collinsville, 111., one day last week, destroying several buildings, unroofing and partially wrecking numerous others, killing one person, injuring many more, and half frightening the entire population out of their wits. Dr. John S. Parsons, a man of education and position at Yankton, D. T., has been hold in bonds of S3,WO for robbing the mails. He charges his fall to whisky. Advices from all parts of the Northwest concur as to the probability of Indian boHtilitios in that region this summer. Prairie fires are raging in the Indian country in the vicinity of Fort Stephenson, and causing intense alarm among the settlers. The office of the Illinois State Treasurer at Springfield was robbed, a few days ago, of a package of $5,000 by two sneak-thieves, who entered the office ostensibly for the purpose of getting a SI,OOO bill changed. The money was not missed until the sharpers had had made good their escape. There is stored in the grain elevators of Chicago (i,87(1,644 bushels of wheat, 2,858,965 bushels of corn, 380,132 bushels of oats, 240,947 bushels of rye, and 516,759 bushels of barley, making a total of 10,873,447 bushels, against 3,304,969 bushels at this period last year. A Kansas City (Mo.) dispatch says: “The total number of colored immigrants who have arrived in Wyandotte up to the present time is 1,771. Out of this number about 300 are in that city, dependent upon subscriptions fbr their subsistance. The sickness is increasing, and the committees are becoming tired and manifest less interest.” The jury in the Olive man-burning case at Hastings, Neb., returned a verdict of murder in the second degree against Olive and Fisher, and the Judge sentenced the prisoners to imprisonment for life at hard abor. The law recently passed by the Ohio Legislature to authorize the appointment of women as notaries public has been declared unconstitutional by the Attorney General o' the Stale. Dr. George St. Louis, under sentence of death at Fremont, Neb., committed suicide in his jail, on the eve of his execution, by shooting himself through the head. The steamship Great Republic was recently wrecked on the Pacific coast while attempting to enter the harbor of Astoria, Oregon, during a dark night. Ten of the crow were drowned in departing from the wrecked vessel oy the capsizing of a boat. Soutn. Ex-Congressman Smalls, of South Carolina, states that the negroes in that State have caught the emigration fever, and are only prevented from stampeding to Kansas by a lack of money. At a delegate convention of colored men of Arkansas, held at Little Rock the other day, resolutions were adopted affirming that, “as the colored citizens of Arkansas in many localities are not allowed the free enjoyment of their constitutional rights, they are desirous of emigrating to some other State or Territory where the elective franchise can be enjoyed unmolested,” and recommending the appoint ment of two colored Commissioners, under the National Emigration Aid Society, to select a suitable State or Territory. Denwood B. Hinds and Isaac D. James engaged in a shooting affray in the streets of Baltimore the other day, which ended in the death of James and the wounding of Hinds and a younger brother who was present and took part in the affray. A terrific tornado recently swept through the lower part of South Carolina, de-

stroying hundreds of houses and killing many people. In the village of Water boro more than 100 dwellings and all the churches were swept away. Three-fourths of the inhabitants are homeless. Fifteen persons were killed and many wounded. At Oakley, a station on the Northwestern railroad, all the negro houses were leveled and one negro killed, besides many hurt Similar casualties are reported from various points in the track of the tornado. POLITICAL POINTS. For the first time in eighteen years the Senate of the United States has a Democratic President pro tem. The Republican State Central Committee of lowa has issued a call for a State Convention at Des Moines on Wednesday, June 11, to nominate candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Judge of the Supreme Court The basis of representation is one delegate for each county, and, in addition thereto, one delegate for each 200 votes or fraction over 100 cast for Secretary of State last year. This will make a total of 772 delegates. The official returns of the recent State election in Michigan, though not complete, are sufficiently so as. to make certain a Republican majority of about 4,000. The total vote so far received : Campbell, Republican, for Justice of the Supreme Court, 182,000; Shipman, coalition, 128,000. The full official returns of the late election in Wisconsin show that Judge Cole, the Republican candidate for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, received a majority of 33,133 votes. Senator Conkling is said to have written a letter formally abandoning bis Presidential aspirations and favoring Gen. Grant ... .A straight Democrat has been elected over a Greenbacker, in the Texas district formerly represented by the late Mr. Schleicher. DOINGS OF CONGRESS. Debate on the Army Appropriation bill was opened In the Senate on the 14th. The pending question was on Mr. Blaine’s amendment prohibiting the appearance within a mile of a pollingplace of any person armed with a deadly weapon of any kind, and Mr. Blaine began the debate in a long speech, the first part of which was devoted to ridiculing the Democratic supposition of possible intimidation by the army ai an election. In South there were only 1,155 men—6o to each million of inhabitants. In some Southern States there were none at all. In North Carolina there were 30; in South Carolina, 120; in Georgia, 29; in Arkansas, 57; in Alabama. 32; in Louisiana. 231; and not one in Texas, outside of the border. Mr. Blaine concluded as follows: “I do not profess to know, Mr. President, what the President of the United States will do when these bills are presented to him, as I suppose in due course of time they will be. I certainly should never speak a solitary word of disrespect of the gentleman holding thatexal ted position, and I hope 1 shall not speak a word unbefitting the dignity of the office of Senator of the United States; but, as there has been speculaiion here and there on both sides as to what he would do, it seems to me that the dead heroes of the Union would rise from their graves If he should consent to be intimidated and outraged in his proper constitutional power by threats like these. All the war measures of Abraham Lincoln are to be wiped out, say leading Democrats. The Bourbons of France busied themselves, I believe, after the restoration in removing every trace of Napoleon’s power and grandeur, even chiseling the “N ” from public monuments raised to perpetuate his glory, but the dead man’s hand irom St. Helena reached out and destroyed them in their pride and in their glory. And I tell the Senators on the other side of this chamber, I tell the Democratic party North and South, South in the lead and North following, that this slow, unmoving finger of scorn from the tomb of the martyred President from the prairies of Illinois will wither and destroy them. “ 1 hough dead he speaseth. When you present these bills with these threats to a living President who bore the commission of Abraham Lincoln, and who served with honor in the army of the Union which Lincoln restored and preserved, I can think only of one appropriate response from his lips or his pen. He should say to you with all the scorn befitting his station: ’‘ls tby servant a dog that he should do this thing?" Mr. Wallace, in reply to Mr. Blaine, said the bill makes no threat to deny supplies. Let us look at this subject of coercion. The President, Senate, and House are independent, each in its sphere. Each possesses a negative upon the other. The Senate and House each has an absolute veto upon the other, while that of the Executive is limited. If the Senate refuses to pass a House bill because of objectionable matter, and makes its removal a condition of its passage, it coerces the House to that extent. It has this right. It is not revolutionary. It exercises its constitutional right to judge of the measure. Tills right is vital; the check invaluable. The same is true of the Executive negative upon the Legislative power. If the Executive dissents, and, on reconsideration there are not two-thirds, the Legislative branch may decline to act. It has this right or it has no independence of action. It alone for itself must judge of the fitness, necessity, and constitutionality of the measure proposed. It cannot coerce the Executive nor can the Executive coerce it. Each is responsible to the people for its conclusions and actions, and must act in full view of that tribunal. If the Legislative branch could be coerced to act in this mode, the will of the majority would be controlled by the minority. The patronage of an unscrupulous President and minority could dictate legislation. No such purpose is intended by the constitutional negative. In the House, Mr. Ladd, oi Maine, attempted to introduce a financial bill, but Mr. Conger, of Michigan, and other Republicans objected, and caused so much discussion and delay in the proceedings that the morning hour expired before this or any other financial measure could bs brought before the House. Upon the assembling of the Senate on the 15th, the Secretary, before reading the journal, read a note from Vice President Wheeler, stating that the dangerous illness of ffiis sister had called him away from Washington, and it would be necessary for the Senate to elect a President pro tem. Mr. Bayard offered the following: That, in the absence of the Vice President, A. G. Thurman be and he is hereby chosen President of the Senate pro tem.” Mr. Anthony moved to substitute the name of Thomas W. Ferry. Disagreed to—yeas, 18: nays, 28—and the resolution passed; Mr. Thurman was conducted to the chair by Mr. Ferry, the former remarking, on the way thither, “Turn about is fair play.” Mr. Thurman, on taking the chair, said: “Senators, it is only necessary for me to say, in fewest possible words, that I sincerely thank you for this mark of your The Army Appropriation bill was taken up, and Mr. Logan addressed the Senate. He thought the question now before that body more important than any other that had arisen since 1861, when the same sentiments which prompted the present legislation were expressed by many of the same men who are now uttering them, and led to war. He denounced the proposed legislation as bad in itself, and as being attempted by unparliamentary practices. Mr. Beck followed Mr. Logan. He said the Democracy was warned of an appeal to Cmsar. They intend to appeal to the people before Closer comes, before the Rubicon is crossed, and the cry is, “ Aiea jacta est.” It is to prevent Ciesar from coming that they desire the soldiers to be taken from the polls. As to the small number of troops east of Omaha, spoken of by the gentleman from Maine (Blaine), Mr. Beck said when it was determined that Louisiana should be carried by force, 4,500 men were sent there. It was easy to concentrate troops when necessary for such a purpose. When this law was passed there were no John Davenports and such people to take command of the army. The House passed the Senate bill for the construction of a refrigerating ship for the disinfection of vessels and cargoes. Mr. Chalmers, of Mississippi, arose to a personal explanation, and caused to be read extracts from newspapers reciting the old charges of cruelty and massacre of colored people at the battle of Fort Pillow, and connecting him (Chalmers) with the same. Mr. Chalmers asked for the appointment of a special committee of seven, a majority of which shall be composed of Republicans, to investigate the truth of the statements made. The resolution was, on the suggestion of Gen. Garfield, postponed for the present. The House then went into committee of the whole on the Legislative bill, the pending question being on Mr. Bragg’s motion to insert a clause repealing the law creating the Southern Claims Commission. After considerable debate the amendment was defeated—yeas, 65; nays, 118. A hill was offered by Mr. De La Matyr providing for the substitution of United States legal-tender paper money for national-bank notes. Mr. Beck concluded his remarks on the Appropriation bill on the 16th. He read the resolu tion heretofore offered by Mr. Hoar denouncing the alleged Democratic programme as unconstitutional and revolutionary, and then said the Democrats were not proposing either to coerce the President or to prevent the President from coercing them. Nor were they setting up revolutionary measures or endeavoring to pass acts which would deprive the President from using the army for constitut onal purposes. All they proposed to do, as would be seen by the sixth section of the bill, was to say to the President he should not recall the troops from the

frontier, or where they wero placed to prevent an invasion from abroad, to be used merely for political purposes. Mr. Beck retorted upon the ReSublicans the charge of revolutionary action y referring to the law of *6B. which, he said, was so framed that acts of Congress declared by any Circuit Court of the United States null and void were sustained unless two-thirds of the Judges of the Supreme Court should agree in pronouncing them unconstitutional. He also referred to the manner in which the Thirteenth amendment, abolishing slavery, was ratified, as affording another example of Republican revolution. He quoted numerous precedents to show that it was not unusual to attach legislation on general appropriation bills. Among them it was seen that the law relating to Supervisors and Deputy Marshals was enacted on an Appropriation bill by a Republican Congress, and that the celebrated Drake amendment, which annulled the decisions of the Supreme Court, was made part of an appropriation bill. Mr. Dawes next addressed the Senate. He referred to the dangerous theory of State’s rights which could be seen underlying these attempts to deprive the General Government of the right given it by the constitution to regulate the elections for Representatives. He denounced that theory, and upheld the idea that we are a nation, not a confederation oi States. Mr. Dawes said his friends on the other side ought not to prate about purity of the ballot-box until it was forgotten bow 16,000 Republican vot rs in the State of New York were wiped out in 1868. in accordance with a circular sent out beforehand in the name of their chief. 8. J. Tilden, who afterward did not know anything about it, just as he does not know anything about every other political iniquity that has been transacted in his name and in his house. He supposed it was only a question of time when the threat to wipe out all the war measures. and restore the old order of things, would bo fulfilled; but he had felt called upon to raise his protest as a representative of a State whose people would always be found in the van of any movement necessary for the defense of tiue republican principles. The House completed the money parts of the Legislative bill, and entered upon the political discussion. Mr. Lewis opened the debate with a legal argument against the Election laws. He denied that the South was solid for any illegal or unconstitutional purpose, or out of antagonism to the North. The Southern people needed help and sympathy too much for that. Ths Senate continued the discussion of the Army bill on the 17th. Mr. Voorhees said the protection of the ballot-box had been wrested from the proper local officers, and given to corrupt Federal officials. The spirit that dictated this law was distrust of the people and their capacity for self-gov-ernment under free elections. The whole power of (he constitution was thus perverted. Die people would resent this insulting tyranny when the facts should be clearly presented to them, and a righteous sense of resistance would spring up in their breasts. He hoped the people would read this law until it should become an abhorrence to the public mind. There was no American who was not liable to arrest for no other reason than that existing in the mind of a Supervisor or Deputy Marshal, thus placing every person’s liberty at the mercy of party malice or hate. Every ruffian acting in such capacity was to determine a man’s rights at the polls. Mr. Voorhees said that it was a satire on free government to say that suffrage should be exercised at the point of the bayonet. Nr. Teller followed Mr. Voorhees. He said the Democratic cry seemed to be for free ballot. All the frauds on the ballot for the last thirty years, he said, emanated with, or had been to the advantage of, the Democratic party. He cited the frauds in Kansas in 1852 and 1854, in Louisiana in 1861, and in New York city in 1868. He did not desire to misrepresent the South, but would only state the facts in regard to that section which, in his opinion, made Federal supervision necessary to a fair election. He then reviewed at a considerable length the testimony taken before the committee of which he was Chairman, and declared that even white Democrats in good standing testified to lawlessness aud intimidation at the elections to prevent colored people from voting as they desired in Louisiana aud South Carolina. Debate was also continued in the House on the political amendments to the Legislative Appropriation bill. Mr. Kelley spoke first. While disclaiming partisanship and deprecating inflammatory speeches.he warned the Democrats that if they adjourned because of a veto, and permitted our light-houses to go out on our coasts, and neglected to enact necessary measures, they would make the North as solid as it was from 1861 to 1865. He said, too, that the South would not be solid in the event of a violation of the constitution, and that the two Greenbackers from the South, which prevented it from being solid now, were oidy the forerunners of the break hi the solid South which would result from the execution of the present Democratic programme. Mr. Carlisle, of Kentucky, made a strong legal argument for the Democratic side in favor of the constitutionality ot the Democratic position, and in conclusion said: Disclaiming any intention to make appeals to passion; disclaiming any intention to excite partisan feelings or to distract the judgment of people's representatives on this very exciting question, I say to the gentleman on the other side, not in any spirit of arrogance, but with all the deliberation and earnestness which the gravity that this great subject demands, that these laws must be repealed, and that tills power of the Executive to control the election of the people’s representatives must bo taken away.

Mosers. Randolph, of New Jersey, and Groome, of. Maryland (Democrats) addressed the Senate on the 18th in support of the political amendments to the Army bill. In the House, the Legislative Appropriation bill being under discussion, Mr. McKinley (Republican),of Ohio, spoke in opposition to the proposed repeal of the general Election laws. Ho denounced the legislation as a bold and wanton attempt to wipe from the law every protection of the ballotbox, and to surrender it into the unholy hands of hired “repeaters ” and ballot-box staffers at the North, and of tissue ballot-cheats at the South. Mr. Burrows (Republican), of Michigan, was the next speaker. He said that if gentlemen on the other side were really anxious to preserve peace and the purity of elections, they would be the last to attempt to tear down the only remaining national fortress reared for that purpose. Did they desire an honest registration? These laws providedit. Did they want a pure ballot? These laws secured it. Did they want a fair count? These laws insured it. Did they want true returns? These laws enjoined it. Did they want l>eace and oraer at the polls? These laws commanded it. There was nothing in those laws that was a terror to any man save one who had committed or was meditating an attack on the purity of elections. Mr. ColYroth (Democrat), of Indiana, said that an honest election and a fair election, where the voter could deposit his vote untrammeled and unawed, was the palladium of American liberty. The teaching of statesmen, from the earliest history down until the Republican party had come into power, had been an unbroken declaration that the Federal power had no authority to interfere in elections, but that each S’ate should regulate the manner of holding its elections. He maintained that the ballot was the weapon with which a freeman was to protect his personal liberty and his civil rights. The gentleman from Ohio (Garfield) had sounded the war tocsin and waved the “bloody shirt,” and the whole camp had danced. On hearing the bitter denunciation from the other side, he had ventured to look over there, and he had been delighted to see that his Republican friends were not actually enraged, but were as peaceful and pleasant in appearance as a May morning. Mr. Dickey (Democrat), of Ohio, said the issue was squarely made, the parties were squarely divided, and the question was whether these objectionable laws should be repealed. To thatquestion the Democratic party here and the Democratic party throughout the nation answered, “Yes;" The constitution required it, the freedom of elections and the liberties of the people demanded it. The Senate was not in session on the 19th. speech against the repeal of the Election laws. The bill to provide for the exchange of subsidiary silver coin for legal-tender money was discussed. Mr. De La Matyr filed a petition embodying a bill to establish “greenback currency,” and to relieve the financial distress of the country by granting aid to certain companies incorporated by State authority for works of internal improvement. It provides that the Secretary of the Treasury be required to have prepared notes and obligations of the United States to the aggregate of $1,00(1,900,600, to be known as “ greenback currency.” for general circulation in amounts and form as the bill provides, which notes or obligations shall constitute a legal tender for all debts, and receivable for all United States Government dues.