Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1881 — THE REPUBLICAN SENATE. [ARTICLE]

THE REPUBLICAN SENATE.

[From the Cincluuati Enquirer.] It consists of Mahone & Co. It has been made' Republican, not by the votes of the people of the States, not by the votes of the Legislatures of the States,, but by so infamous a bargain and sale that the decent Republican journals of the United States are all compelled, for shame, to apologize for the infamy. Thirty-seven Republican Senators of the United States are partners in this guilt, and constitute the “Co.” of the firm of Mahone & Co. Never before in the history of the United States Senate did its members of any political iaith separately and. solidly engage in so bald, open and disgraceful a scheme of corruption as that with which these thirty-seven Senators have defiled themselves. The effects of this corrupt, predatory transaction can not fail to be demoralizing to our politics and to our public sentiment. Wai'd politicians in our great cities sometimes buy and sell ; but it was not expected that thirty-seven Republican .United States Senators would sink to a level in political methods with the ward politicians of Philadelphia, for example, till recently a great Republican stronghold ; nor was it expected that a Virginia Democrat, who could be elected to the Senate of the United States, could bo bought like an ox or an ass. It is creditable to the New York Times that, among other decent Republican journals, it feels the necessity of apologizing for this low behavior on the part of the Republican Senators. The firm of Mahone & Co. begins business in disgrace. The terms of the partnership are those of inieprity, and are those which might probably be fitly executed in a den of thieves, but which ill become the highest legislative temple of the Union.

This partnership will not commend itself to the approval of the candid, intelligent men of the country. We do not believe that good can come of it to either of the partners in the iniquity. We cannot but think that Americans will presently tire of these methods far up in our Federal polities. We do not believe that a partnership between one traitor and thirty-seven corruptionists will have a business career long and successful. Its gains will be ill-gotten. We do not believe that public opinion in this country has been so far demoralized and lowered in tone by the Presidential theft of four years ago as to look with complacency upon all manner of political villainy. But, unquestionably, the most deplorable feature in the theft of the Presidency and in this corrupt procuring of the spoils of the Senate is the poisonous effect of such methods upon public Sentiment. They are dangerous precedents. They lower the ideals of public virtue. They taint the minds of thousands of young men, of boys just budding into voters. The evil effects of such precedents are measureless. They tend to teach the rising generation, and the coming generations, that politics in this great republic must mean theft, or treachery, or purchase. The behavion of the Democratic Senators in this matter is creditable to themselves and the great organization which they represent in the • Senate, and will compel the admiration and approval of fairminded men throughout the country. They stooped to no dishonor. They have been generous, magnanimous, not greedy for spoils, and they have maintained their dignity and self-respect, if they have lost the emoluments which belong to the majority in the Senate. It is announced that the President of the United States endeavored to make fragrant the infamy of Mahone & Co. by sending flowers to the Virginia partner; but the behavior of the Democratic Senators has been made fragrant by their honorable, self-respectful bearing. The Democrats in the Senate have not yet resorted to filibustering and obstructing devices to secure petty ends, or to prevent the action of the Senate upon important public questions. It has been easily in their power at least to prevent the Republicans from organizing the Senate. Mahone & Co. do pot constitute a quorum of the Senate, and, by refusing to vote, the Democrats could have prevented a quorum indefinitely, blocked the public business, and retained the present Senate organization till death, or resignations, or new elections, should change the political complexion of that body. On three recent occasions the Republicans of the Senate have committed this offense—twice near the close of the Forty-sixth Congress, and now, to prevent the organization of the .Senate by the Democrats, who were in a clear majority. The Republican Senators threatened by this filibustering process to prevent a Democratic organization of the Senate till, by fresh arrivals and by the purchase of Mahone, they could organize it themselves. They insisted that Democratic Senators should pair with vacant Republican seats in the Senate, with men not yet elected to the Senate, and endeavored to make the country believe that if Democrats would not pair with Republicans not yet members of the Senate the Democratic party was a desperate, revolutionary, spoils-grabbing party. As one Democratic Senator maintained in the debate, pairing has become a great evil and great hindeance to the public business. But if members of the Senate must pair with men who are not members of the Senate, pairing has certainly gone too far. We cannot but believe that the calm verdict of the country in this matter will be one of disapproval and condemnation of the course of Mahone & Co., and that the behavior of the Democratic Senators in a critical and tempting hour will win the thoughtful commendation of the land.