Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1879 — NEWS OF THE WEEK. [ARTICLE]

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

FOREIGN NEWS. Gen. Gourko, the newly-appointed Governor General of St Petersburg, has ordered all gunmakere to send lute of their stock to the city commandant, and sell only to persons presenting special authorization, under the penalty of the confiscation of the stock and prohibition of trade. Private persons poeeessing arms can only retain them by special permission. Porters must be kept at the doors of all houses day and night to prevent the posting of placards and scattering of explosives in the streets. Simultaneously with Bolovieff’s attempt on the Czar’s life, three policemen were shot in Kazan. Among the assassins were an educated girl, aged 17, and a nobleman. The news from Routh Africa is that voi. rearson, who had been so long bu... . od by an army of hostile Zulus at Ekowe, has been relieved after severe fighting. Two battles were fought, in which the British lost about 500 men, while the Zulu loss is placed at 2,500. A third brilliant victory has been scored by the American horse Parole, in England, by winning the great Metropolitan Stakes at Epsom. A cable dispatch says of the race: Castlcreagh was the only other entry that faced the starter. Castlereagh carried 110 pounds; Parole, 124. F. Archer rode Parole and Platt was on the back of Castlereagh. Castlereagh made the running, and a magnificent contest ensued, and it was apparently either horse’s race when they were passing the Tottenham course down to the grand stand. In his exciting state of the contest, Archer called on Parole for an effort, and the gallent gelding nobly responded, and, putting forward a wondrous effort, passed the judge’s chair ahead of Castlereagh. Thousands of political prisoners, Xiost of them arrested only on suspicion, are oeinf sent from St. Petersburg, Russia, to jails and penitentiaries of the center and east of the empire. A match has been arranged in England between the American horse Parole and Mr. Gretton’s Isonomy, for >25,000 a side. Recruits for the Russian police force are being sought for in Paris. One house after another is searched at night, and every occupant whose passport is found irregular is arrested. The Emperor of Austria emphasized his silver wedding by pardoning 212 prisoners. Gen. Garibaldi has opened a subscription for the purchase of 1,000,000 rifles to arm the nation, and has sent addresses to the inhabitants of Istria, Trieste and Trente. His determination is to secure universal suffrage at any sacrifice. A cable dispatch says that “ porters to guard the doors of houses and prevent the posting of placards in St. Petersburg, as required by Gen. Gonrko’s regulations, cannot be obtained, because the Nihilists threaten all who undertake the service with death. Gon. Gourko has apparently been removed from the dictatorship of St. Petersburg on account of the impracticable nature of his orders. The Czarowitch has received anonymous letters warning him to go abroad. Murders continue to lie reported. Dr. Wieder, of Zurich, Switzerland, editor of the Near. (lexcllschaft, has been arrested iu Milan, on an accusation of engaging in a plot to assassinate the Queen of England and the King and Queen of Italy. Iu a six days’ walking tournament at London, Brown covered 542 miles, Corkey 492 miles, Hazael 473 miles, and Weston, the American, 450 miles. Brown’s time is the best ever made in a six days’ walk. Dispatches from Calcutta state that arrangements for the British advance on Cabul are now complete. Nihilism pervades all ranks in Russia, and a revolution is only a matter of time. All subjects are deilt with in a summary and bloody manner. Thousands are arrested daily. Troops are concentrated at the points most likely to be the scones of the first fires of the general revolution. The Emperor wears a suit of fine mail under his ordinary clothes against assassination. Every house in St. Petersburg and other leading cities is under military surveillance. Many soldiers and policemen have been secretly arrested by the imperial Judges.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. ICast. August Belmont, the well-known New York banker, was thrown from his carriage, the other day, and seriously injured. Three children of Oliver Stout were burned to death at Penobscot, Pa., by a lamp il their bedroom exploding. A remarkable murder trial has just been concluded at Lebanan, Pa. Six men were placed on trial for the murder of an old man to obtain the insurance on his life. All of them were convicted and sentenced to be hanged. A Boston dispatch says the Laconia National Bank, of Laconia, N. H., was entered by burglars, and notes, bonds and money representing upward of >150,000 were taken away. The suit which was agreed upon by Gen. Butler and Congressman Chittenden to test the validity of the reissue of the United States legal-tender notes in time of peace is to be tried before Judge Blatchford, in the United States Circuit Court at New York, and will probably be reached in a month. Ex-Judge George Barnard, of the New York Supreme Court, is dead. South. Seven hundred Tennessee moonshiners appeared before the United States Circuit Court at Nashville, last week, and accepted the amnesty offered by Atty. Gen. Devens. They agree to go and sin no more. A convention of colored people has just been held in New Orleans. A report was adopted stating that “an emigration society was organized in the parish of Caddo, in August, 1874, which rapidly spread through the* State, and now numbers on the rolls 928,000 names of men, women and children. Sixty-nine thousand are residents of Louisiana. The cause of this emigration is the fact that negroes are charged a rental of >lO an acre for land, >4O per annum for the hire of a mule, 20 cents per pound for pork, and that these payments are secured by a lien on the crops. Life in Louisiana under these circumstances simply means perpetual debt or starvation, and hence they have concluded to leave the State and appeal to the country to assist them in their exodus.” It is reported that the emigration fever has reached the sugar parishes, and that the negroes are leaving in such nfflHbers as to excite the most serious apprehensions regarding the sugar crop. A Charleston (S. C.) dispatch says that ex-Treasurer Cardozo and ex-Congress-man Smalls, convicted of bribery, have been pardoned by Gov. Simpson. The region of Corsicana, Texas, was visited, the other day, by one of the most terrific rain-storms ever witnessed. In twentyeven hours inches of rain fell Bridges

and fences were swept away, hundreds of cattle and hogs were drowned, and the Texas Central railroad was submerged and the trains abandoned. West. About half the business portion of the town of Kinsley, Kan., has been burned. Loss, >75,100. The town of Eureka, Nev., has been nearly destroyed by fire. The total loss is about >1,000,000, on which there is an insurance of only >125,000. The citizens of Wyandotte, Kan., recently refused to allow a steamer to land 330 negro emigrants at the levee in front of that town. The buildings of the celebrated Catholic University of Notre Dame, located near South Bend, Ind., were destroyed by fire on the 23d of April. The loss is about >200,000, and the insurance >60,000. Rebuilding " rl ” —imnto/R*’w A small fight with hostile Sioux lately occurred in Northern Montana, on the Musselshell, a tributary of the Missouri. Eight es the savages were killed, and one Gros Ventre, acting with the whites, was killed, and one wounded. The troops engaged were under command of Lieut Loder, of the Seventh Infantry. A sensational scene, and one not down in the bills; was enacted in McVicker's Theater, at Chicago, the othei evening. Shakspeare’s historical play of Richard IL was being enacted, the well-known tragedian, Edwin Booth, personating Richard. The third act had been reached, and Mr. Booth, dressed in somber costume, was seated on the stage delivering the lines of the immortal bard, when a man arose in the audience and deliberately fired two pistol-shots at the actor. Fortunately, the would-be assas sin was a poor shot and the bullets went wide of the intended mark. The episode created the wildest excitement among actors and audience; but, after a brief intermission, the play went on and was earned to its conclusion. The shooter was arrested and gave the name of Mark Gray, and his residence Keokuk, lowa. He admitted the shooting, and expressed regret that he bad not aimed more accurately. It is suspected that the man is crazy. Four large warehouses, with their contents, on Kinzie and State streets, Chicago, were destroyed by fire last week. Loss about >90,000. A very notable murder trial has just been concluded at Chicago, having lasted eighteen days. In July of last year a young man named Peter E. Stevens, fired by jealousy, shot and killed his wife, a girl of 16 years. In due course of time he was indicted and arraigned for trial. For counsel Stevens engaged Storrs and Trude, probably the two shrewdest, if not ablest, criminal lawyers iu Chicago. They set up the insanity pica, and abored with masterly ingenuity to convince the iurv that the murderer was insane at the time of the commission of the deed; but without success. A verdist of manslaughter, with fourteen years in the penitentiary, was rendered. No sooner was the decision of the jury rendered in the Mrs. Young, the mother of the murdered woman, who had been a constant attendant at the trial, leveled a revolver at the head of Stevens and pulled the trigger, but, fortunately, a corner of a handkerchief which the would-be murderess held in the same hand that grasped the weapon was caught by the hammer, the cap failed to explode, and the intended-victim’s life was saved. One of the most depraved and bloodthirsty wretches of whom modem criminal annals give any record has just been executed at Minden, Kearney county, Neb. The immediate crime for which 8. D. Richards—such being the name of the fiend—suffered was the murder of a Mrs. Haralson and her two children, but these constitute but a third of the people whom he had robbed of life within a period of four years. The wretch made a speech from the gallows, in which he said he had made his peace with Jesus, and expected to go to heaven. Richards was in his 25th year; was born and raised iu Northern Ohio, and was an exemplary young man until he came West four years ago.

WASHINGTON NOTES. Secretary Schurz some time ago ruled that railroad lands mortgaged, but not sold, within three years after the completion of the roads were not within the meaning of the phrase “ or otherwise disposed of,” and hence were open to pre-emption by settlers. The Supreme Court has just decided the contrary, decreeing that the title to these lands is in the railroad companies. The decision involves the title to millions of acres of railroad lands. A Washington dispatch says that “Senator John A. Logan has been challenged to mortal combat by W. M. Lowe, a Greenback •Congressman from Alabama. The trouble grew out of a statement of Lowe to the effect that Logan, in 1861, raised recruits for the Confederate service. Logan will pay no attention to the challenge. ” The President has issued a proclamation warning squatters against settling upon the lands in the Indian Territory. The row between Senator Logan, of Illinois, and Congressman Lowe, of Alabama, caused something of a sensation at Washington. It grew out of an interview between Lowe and a Pittsburgh reporter, in which the former said that Logan aided in raising recruits for the Confederates at the beginning of the late war. Logan gave publicity to a card characterizing tne statement as “ false and slanderous.” Lowe thereupon addressed the Illinois Senator a note asking him whether the words “false and slanderous” were applied to him. Receiving no reply, a second note was addressed to Logan, again demanding an explanation. Still no answer. Then a third note was sent by the Alabama Congressman, demanding that he, Logan, name some place out of the District of Columbia where another communication would reach him. This, of course, implied that a challenge to mortal combat was the next thing in order. This note was treated in the same manner as the two preceding ones, with silent contempt Then the irate Lowe comes out in the newspapers with a “card,” in which, after giving the notes he had addressed to Logan, he “Thus ended this onesided correspondence which explains itself. It needs little or no comment from me. I will not brand John A. Log an as a har, for he is a Senator of the United States. I will not post him as a scoundrel and poltroon, for that would be in violation of local statutes; but I do publish him as one who knows how to issult, but not how to satisfy, a gentleman, and I invoke upon him the judgment of honorable men of the community.” Thus the matter rests at this writing. At Washington it is not believed the affair will go any farther, as Lowe is satisfied with his card, and Logan expresses indifference as to how many cards may be written.

POLITICAL POINTS. United States Senator Whyte, of Maryland, declines a re-election. In response to an inquiry sent to its correspondents in Indiana, the Indianapolis Journal publishes twenty columns of views

and interviews upon the question of who is the choice of the Indiana Republicans for President in 1880. Reviewing the result of the inquiry, the Journal editorially says the views it prints represent that 75 per cent of the Republicans of Indiana are for Grant, 15 per cent for Sherman, and the remainder are divided between various other aspirants.

MISCELLANEOUS GLEANINGS. The death of Gen. John A. Dix occurred at his residence in New York city on the 21st of April. Gen. Dix was bom at Boscawen, N. HL, July 24, 1798. He entered the army in 1812, but resigned in 1828, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In 1842 he was elected to the New York Assembly; in 1845 was made Senator in Congress for the unexpired term of Silas Wright; in 1852, was appointed Assistant Treasnrer nf *’—**o/t I New York city, and in 1859 was made Postmaster. In December, 1860, he was appointed President Buchanan’s Secretary of the Treasury in place of Howell Cobb. In May, 1861, he was commissioned Major General of United States volunteers, and subsequently received the eame rank in the regular army. He was appointed Minister to Paris in 1866, and in 1872 elected Governor of New York. He was again nominated in 1874, and defeated by Tilden. This ended hh political career. He has contributed to a number of journals and published several works; Of late he has lived in retirement Visible supply of grain in the States and Canada: Wheat, 18,187,000 bushels; 12,668,000 bushels of com; 2,129,000 bushels of oats; 1,004,C00 bushels of rye, and 2,206,C00 bushels of barley. White settlers are emigrating to the Indian Territory by the thousands. Members of the National Board of Health have received information that two cases of yellow fever have succeeded in passing the quarantine at New Orleans. April returns to the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, show that the acreage of winter wheat is about per cent, greater than last year. The wheat in the ground, taken as a whole, is about 2 per cont. below the average. The crop in some sections was unfavorably affected by a fall drought, and in others by the absence of snow during the extreme winter cold. With average growing conditions, however, it will make a very large crop of winter wheat Rye has fallen off about 4 per cent, in acreage, and is about 4 per cent below the average. Bishop Edward R. Ames, of the Methodist Episcopal church, died in Baltimore, on the 25th of April, aged 74 years, after a protracted illness.

DOINGS IN CONGBESS. The Senate resumed consideration of the Army Appropriation bill on the 21st. Mr. Bayard took the floor and defended the incorporation of general legislation in Appropriation bills, there being nothing unusual in it; hence the cry of “ revolution ’’ was unsubstantial and foolish,and the people would condemn it. He condemned all conduct which would tend to prevent the restoration of full confidence and friendship to all parts of the country. He was well assured tha‘ the hos tility of one section against the othei would speedily lead to depression and degradation, and ultimately ruin both, and, in conclusion, expressed his confidence that the American people would support the majority in their present legislation, as it was in the direction of justice, and had for its object the protection of the liberties of the people. Air. Maxey followed Mr. in a speech strongly advocating the repeal of tlio Election laws.—ln the House, a per feet avalanche of bills was introduced, the total number being 1,385, the largest number, by all odds, ever before introduced in Congress iu one day. The following are among the most important ones: To provide for reviving the Alabama Claims Court: to provide for the distribu tion of the Geneva award fund; to extend the time for the completion of the Northern Pacific railroad ; to retire trade dollars ; to increase the volume of currency; to appoint a National Board of Railroad Commissioners; to prohibit the further increase of the interest-paying debt; to enforce the observance of the EightHour law; to pay all Government workmen an increase of wages where they work over eight hours per day; to establish boardof assistants in the navy; to reorganize the army; to amend the Jaw relating to the reimbursing of States for money spent in equipping troops during the war; to amend the Postal laws; to provide for the taxing of incomes. The Army bill was further debated in the Senate on the 22<1. The first speech was delivered by Mr. Garland, of Arkansas. After discussing at length the legal aspect of the questions at issue, he passed to the question of the prop lety of attaching the proposed repeal to an Appropriation bill. Mr. Garland said the practice was an old one. and, whatever its faults, it could not be uprooted save by a constitution al amendment. He reviewed some of the notable instances of similar action by Repub iean majorities, and said the cry of revolution was raised too late ,) be sincere. He alluded to Mr. Blaine's enumeration ot the consequences of a failure to provide for the expenses of the Government, and declared, rather than see the liberties of the humblest citizen longer abridged by law, which it was in the power of Congress to repeal, he would se,c the Capitol crumble to pieces, tUe ships rot at their moorings, and the Supreme Court unfrocked. Mr. Davis, of Illinois, spoke next. He said the sixth section of the Appropriation bill Proposes to strike from both sections the words “or to keep peace at the polls,” and nothing more, so that the army cannot be used hereafter at elections for any purpose. As an abstract proposition, could there be any rational objection to this? Ought the army to be used at the polls when there has been profound peace for more than a decade? Does atiy one believe that such a Jaw would ever have received the approval of the American Congress if it had been bro gilt forward in time of peace. The charge that this is revolutionary legislation has no force. It might be called a partisan device. Congress has power under the constitution to raise and equip armies, and the House of Representatives hold the purse-strings. The amendment is germane to the bill, and is simply a condition as to the use of the army, which the people's representatives had a perfect right to impose. It is not in auy pr/per sense general legislation, and if it was the statute-books are full of precedents that the friends of the present maasure might cite against tiieir opponents. Mr. Alliion, of lowa, followed Air. Davis. He believed It was revolutionary to force an amendment of the constitution without ordinary processes. lhe constitution says that bills shall be passed by both houses and receive the signature of the President in order to become law, yet it was now proposed to make the Pr< sident’s signature a condition to the appropriation of money to defray the Government expenses. Gen. Jackson would have been amazed at such presumption. He read from Jackson's message to the Senate in 1834 protesting against a resolution passed by that body to the effect that the President had acted outside of his constitutional perogatives, and saying that if such interference with the Independence of the Execu ive was allowed to pass unnoticed, and grew into a custom, it would be as effective in destroying liberty of action in the independent departments of the Government as if a constitutional amendment were adopted throwing into the hands of the President the power delegated to the Senate. 3 he House passed Mr. Stephens’ bill to provide for an interchange of subsidiary coins for legal-tender money, and to make such coins a legal tender in all sums not exceeding S2O. There-was a sharp debate over the political amendments to the Legislative bill, but the guns were of small caliber and made little noise. There was a sharp discussion in the Senate, on the 23d, over the resolution to rescind the rule regarding the rem oval of Senate employes. An amendment proposed by Mr. Pendleton, that the employes shall be only retained so long as acceptable to a majority of the Senate, was adopted by a vote of 36 to 23. The debate on the Army bill was then resumed, and Messrs. Williams, of Kentucky, and Jones, of Florida, spoke in favor of the repeal of the Election laws, after which there was a sharp colloquy between Messrs. Blaine and Butler iu regard to alleged charges of bulldozing and election frauds in the South. Mr. Blaine, in closing the debate, paid his respects to Mr. Davis, of Illinois. He denied to that Senator the right to carry the traditions and fame and glory of Abraham Lincoln into the Democratic camp. He might go there himself, and he might sit on that side of the Senate, where he was the only man that gave Lincoln a support. Had Lincoln lived, as the Senator said, some things might and others might not have happened. But the thing that had happened was that a Senator on this floor, elected by Democrats over a Union soldier, had spoken as a representative of Abraham Lincoln. The Senator had the right to go when and where he pleased. He had the right to address to the living what he chose, but he had no right to drag the greatest man of the last ten centuries into the mire ot the party that he would have opposed

to his death. The House continued the discussion of the Legislative bill, Mr. Frye being the first •peaker. He based his opposition to the repeal of the Federal Election laws chiefly on the good effect of their operation in the city of New York, where, he said, false reg stration, repeating, voting on names of dead*men and convicts had been pretty effectually stopped by the enforcement of those lawa. Mr. Robeson followed in a two hours’, speech. His argument was that the power of the United States to make controlling regulations as to Federal elections In the States is constitutional; that in pursuance of that authority the Federal Election ,laws have been passed, and should not be repealed. Mr. Finley argued in favor of the proposed repeal. Though it was true special Marn-bals could only be appointed in citiesof 20,000 and upward, still.under the decision of Attorney General Taft in 1876, Deputy Marshals to the number of 11.000 had been appointed in no less than 2,224 precincts. Of these 11,000 Deputy Marshals, 10,400 had been placed in strong Demociatic or in doubtful precincts. Of the remaining 600, 388 had been stationed in Philadelphia, and he had It upon good authority that the greatest bulk of them had been stationed in Randall’s district. The discussion of the proposed repeal of the rule relating to Senate employes was continued In th» *i— atife, uuv uu action was taken. The trmy bill was then taken up, and Mr. Conkling addressed the Senate. He said there was a purpose on the part of the Democrats to stop the appropriations unless certain legislation is conceded. It was a plain duty of Congress to make appropriations to keep tbe Governmetn alive, and a refusal to do so is revolutionary and treasonable. Thus far the achievements of tbe Democratic majority had be n easy, but the trial was yet to come. It would be more difficult. The party had got themselves into a predicament, and unless the Executive led them out they would have to back out. They had been told that if the President refused to accept these bills with all their political excrescences, and yield to a majority, they will vacate their seats and leave the Government moneyless. If tint majority should make such an attempt, he (Conkl>ng) hoped and trusted they would be called back as soon as need be until they relinquished their monstrons pretension, and abandoned their treasonab’e position. Air. Conkling spoke three hours, and hiseffort is pronounced by the Republicans the ablest yet delivered during the long debate.' Several amendments were offered by the Republicans to the repealing clauses, all of which were voted down by the Democrats. In the House, the day was devoted to the discussion

of the Legislative bill, and quite a number ci speeches were mad). Mr. Gillette said that he did not consider that there was any pressing necessity; for placing the proposed legislation on the Appropriation bills, anl he should, therefore, vote to strike it out; but, if it was retained, he would vote for the passage of the bill, not with a view, however, of forcing Executive approval. Alluding to Republican rule in Louisiana, he said that according to what he heard, he thought that hell must be better governed than Louisiana. He denounced the Connecticut Anti tramp law. and declared that, before saying to the Chinese that they must go. he would say to every law on the statute-book which oppressed the laboring classes that it must go; the national banks must go; the national bonds must go; the land-monopo-lists must go; the mountains of idle money in the treasury must go into the channels of business; the millions absorbed by coin bonds must go out once more to make glad the heart of the toller. What people wanted was bread, not blood. Mr De La Matyr spoke in the same vein. Down with the puerile cry of revolution, raised by those who had been cowards on one side or cormorants on the other. He had no language to utter his supremo contempt for it. The country wanted peace, not reopening of sectional strife. Mr. Hazelton denounced the Greenback representatives for the fol-de-roll in which they had been indulging. He said that they appeared to him to be prepared to stab the national credit and honor, and that their speeches were like the chattering of some maudlin individual at a funeral. Mr. Bragg followed Mr Hazelton. He said the attempt of the Republican party to arouse a feeling of alarm in the North had failed. The people of 'New York k: ew that the men of the South who had been brave enough to fight the battle, when they had laid down their arms had laid them down as brave men always did, accepting the consequences of their defeat. When the boys in blue and the gray had knelt together at the feet of the Goddess of Liberty, the boys in blue had stood sponsors for the boys in gray, as they would always stand against any party or men who attempted to break down the bulwarks of civil liberty. The attempt cf the Republican party was to stiffen the backbone of the President and force him to starve the army to death. It would be a fitting close to the Republican party In the executive branch of the Government for their President to signalize his last term by attempting to defeat the will of the people for the purpose of doing the will of his party. The result of the adroit knavery of that party had been to cheat the ballot-box of the fruits of its victory, and still the Republicans had cheek enough to talk about the purity of elections. The Army Appropriation bill was finalljpassed by the Senate on the 25th. by a strict party vote—4l Democrats to 30 Republicans. Several amendments were offered by the Republicans, all of which were voted down. In the House debate on the Legislative bill was resumed, and a number of members delivered themselves of speeches. The long debate in the House en the Legisislative Appropriation bill was brought to a close on the 26th of April, and the measure passed with the political amendments in it, substantially as it came from the committee. Mr. Garfield’s amendment to strike out all the political amendments was rejected by a vote of 121 yeas to 130 nays, and finally the bill was passed by a second vote of 140 yeas to 119 nays. AH the Republicans voted in the negative. All the Greenbackers except Barlow, of Vermont, and Kelley, of Pennsylvania, voted with the Democrats for the bill. The Senate was not in session.