Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1880 — THE CROP OF CANT. [ARTICLE]

THE CROP OF CANT.

Radical Hypocrisy Eloquently Ventilated in the United States Senate. [Extract from the Speech of Senator Vest in the Spofford-Kellogg Case.] Mb. President : In the absence of any argument on the other side of the chamber, and from those who oppose the resolutions reported by the Committee on Privileges and Elections, we axe left simply to sxu'mise the grounds of those who advocate the claim of the sitting member from Louisiana to remain in this body. I say that no argument has been made on the opposite side of this chamber against the resolutions of the committee. A report is before us coming from the minority of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, destitute of argument, destitute of facts, and consisting alone of partisan abuse; I use the words deliberately and advisedly. Sir, there can be no graver question presented to the American Senate than that involved in the issues now before this body. A sovereign State, and the fairest and most unfortunate of all the States of this Union, mangled and torn by the sharp teeth of the wolves that gathered about her, is a suppliant before us, and her sister States can alone give her justice. Leaders of the Republican party, eminent statesmen who stand before the couixtry as the dictators of its policy, join the minority report, in which this extraordinary language, the only salient point in it, is presented to file Senate of the United States :

“The men whose professions of returning loyalty to the constitution have been trusted by the generous confidence of the American people are now to give evidence of the sincerity of their vows. The people will thoroughly understand this matter, and will not be likely to be deceived again.” It requires no sensitive scrutiny to know the meaning of this insulting and offensive statement. Because the Senators upon this side of the Chamber, or, as the Senator from Maine (Mr. Blaine) elaborated it, “the Senators from sixteen States, lately in rebellion or sympathizing with rebellion,” do not construe the law as announced by the minority of the committee, and do not believe that the sitting Senator from Louisiana is entitled to his seat in this Chamber, they are denounced as false to their oaths of allegiance to the constitution, and unworthy of the confidence of an honest people. Sir. I have, n > language suitable to this presence in which to express my contempt for a charge like this.

I desire in this discussion to say nothing more partisan than the nature of the issues involved necessarily must cause. It is useless to disguise the fact that the American people look with peculiar solicitude upon the decision of this case, because it reminds them of the fact that the administration now in power in these United States obtained that power from the ven- abuse which to-day is sought to be reiterated m the Senate of the United States. Sir, when instead of argument we receive abuse, it is adding insult to injury. What is this declaration of the minority of the Committee on Privileges and Elections upon a question involving the existence of the constitution itself but an appeal to the partisan passions of the hour? What is it but a declaration to the people of the United States that the Republican party propose to merge and whelm all the other issues in the single fact that sovereign States of this Union have dared to trust in the Senate of the United States men who risked life and fortune and all in common with their fellow-citizens in those States, and what is this but an insufferable taunt of the most despicable order ? The crop of cant springs perennial and eternal with the Republican party. The cotton crop may fail from the ravages of the caterpillar. Wheat may perish with rust ox - weevil. Corn may be destroyed by thought ox' floods; but the crop of cant is more certain with the Republican party than “seed-time and harvest.” Who does not know that all this virtuous indignation about the constitution simply menus indignation because the Democrats in this Senate do not intend to allow the outrage committed upon a sovereign State by a partisan majority to remain unredressed, or that the Republic: n party shall profit by their unconsritutional and illegal action ?

“ The men whose professions of returning loyalty to the constitution have been tru ted by the generous confidence of the American people." We heard this retrain at the extra session, and it promises to be the catch-word of the coming canvass. “ The men who struck at the life of the nation must not be trusted to make its laws. The Confederate Brigadiers are traitors to the constitution they have sworn to defend.” And yet the world knows and tbe past proves that the test of patriotism nud loyalty to the constitution is simply voting the Republican ticket and giving the offices of the country to the Republican party. When did Longstreet, or Mosby, or Key express penitence for the part taken by them in the Rebellion? Show me one word from either of them indicating regret for having led the charging columns that dashed their tattered gray against the Union lines. No, they have not repented, but they have done what covers every transgression, they have given their adherence to the Republican party and supported its ticket. To-day, in the leading Republican paper in this city, in the LfepuWican, which I have now in my hand, is a declaration from Gen. Mosby, now the accredited Minister- of the United States to a foreign country, now in full fellowship with the Republican parly, now a great apostle of the party of God. morality, progress, and reform, in regard to his part in the Rebellion :

“I said this four years ago, and my words are now prophecy fulfilled : ‘I feel a just pride in their glory, and am as jealous ol the military honor of the Southern people as any man oil their side. A generous foe would not ask to deprive us of it. I know that Gen. Grant would not.’ ”

And to-day this gentleman stands the acacredited Minister of the United States Government abroad, and says that he feels as much pride in his record as a Confederate soldier as he did when his flag waved in terror for four long years before the national capital. By what and when and how did Mosby, Longstreet and Key, the Postmaster General, obtain the confidence of the Republican party? When they voted the Republican ticket, and to give the offices of the coixntry to the Republican party ; when they said, we give the spoils of the National Government, wo vote this ticket, this mystic piece of paper that wipes away all sin and hides all transgressions. Why, sir, there is not in all the pharmacopoeia, from the days of Hippocrates, any drag with such miraculous effect as that tiny piece of paper on which is written the names of the Republican candidates at an election.

Not all the water of the Jordan : not the pool of Siloam itself; not the famed talisman of Saladin presented to the royal Richard ever had the medicinal and heahng virtues of a Republican ballot! It casts oblivion over the blood and carnage of Shiloh -and Chancellorsville, hides the sex-ried ranks of Longstreet and the black flag of Mosby which for four long years waved in terror before the national capital; and it even stills tlxe groans of Libby and Andersonville ! There’s a drop, said the Peri, that down from the moon, Falls through the withering airs of June, Upon Egypt’s land ; of so healing a power, So balmy a virtue, that even in the hour That drop descends contagion dies, And health reanimates earth and skies. But even this mystic drop compares not in efficacy with the drop of a radical ballot into the box of a returning board, although from the bloodiest hand that grasped musket or saber in the army of the Confederacy. Who has not seen the repentant sinner coming forward to the mourner’s seat, while the ecstatic melody burst from gladdened hearts : Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling. In every orthodox creed repentance is current coin; but not so with our Republican brethren. There is no welcome from them to an empty-handed sinner, no matter how full he may be of repentance. He must come with the radical ticket in his hand, prepared to vote it early and often. Mv'. President, I assert that there is not a Confederate Brigadier in this Chamber who would not be appointed to any office within the gift of the administration, and receive the votes of Republican Senators in confirmation, if without one syllable of repentance for the past he should promise allegiance to the Republican party for the future. Ay, sir, even xny friend from South Carolina, “the Hamburg butcher,” who has been cartooned in the illustrated Republican papers as a leadex- of the Ku-Khxx, with a sword ten feet long and spurs weighing ten pounds each, riding until midnight “fetlock deep ” in negro gore—even he, by sacrificing honest conviction and real manhood, could be accredited abroad, and grace with his many accomplishments a foreign court.

A Conclusive Answer. Dr. Murphy was boasting recently that the climate of Minnesota beats the climate of California or any other State, and, with a triumphant air of exultation, exclaimed i "Look at xnef Behold my

beautiful rounded form. When I came here I weighed only ninety-seven pounds, and now I weigh 275 pounds. What do you think of that ?” One of the sons of the late Bishop Willoughby, standing by, said: “Why, doctor, that’s nothing; look at me. I weigh 175 pounds, and when I came to Minnesota I weighed only six pounds.” The doctor left.—A?. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer-Press.