Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1875 — The Control of the Next House. [ARTICLE]

The Control of the Next House.

JTndEJtewfll. Gomasmm rff’irr served in the rebel army or held civil positions under me rebel Government. We suppose this number embraces those in the Senate as Well as those in the House. And yet there can only be very few In the Senate. We do not know the exact number, but an examination of the list shews that it probably doe! got exceed five at the most. The remainder are in the House. What does this statement mean! It meow that the control of the next Home of Representatives is in the hands qf those who were personally, officially and actively engaged in carrying on the rebellion and seeking to destroy the Government. It means that the mastery of legislation and of the purse of the nation has been acquired bv those who were lately seeking to break up the Union. For consider the facts: The Democrats have 163 members of the next House—being a majority of sixty over the Republicans. Of this whole Democratic strength, eighty-two is a clem' majority. Or this eighty-two, the actual fighters or officers under the rebel flag have at least eighty, possibly the full eighty-two—certainly enough, with the help of one or two Northern dough-faces where a score could easily be had, to give them an unquestioned majority on the Democratic side. Now what follows? The House of Representatives, with its power over legislation and aH the appropriations, founder the control of the Democratic members; the Democratic members are under the control of the caucus which determines the policy of the party; the caucus is under the control of the majority of its members; and that majority, as we have seen, is made up of those who have served in the rebel army or under the rebel Government. Thus it comes to pass that those who were only the other day fighting to destroy the Government have now, through the Democratic party, secured possession of the popular branch of Congress, and have the power to say what it shall and what it shall not do. This is certainly a significant and startling result. It shows, first of all, that the,.Government whose legislation permits such a possibility has been anything but “oppressive” and “tyrannical” in its treatment of the defeated rebel foe. It shows in the mere practicability aS such a result a magnanimity unparalleled in the history of the world. But it also ruses other questions of the most suggestive character. _ Whether the appropriations for carrying on the Government Shall be made will depend upon those who are just fresh from the attempt to overthrow the Government. Whether the principal and interest of the debt incurred in saving the Union shall be paid will depend upon those who fought to break up the Union. Whether the pensions of the maimed and crippled Union soldiers shall be continued will depend upon those who struck the wicked blow. Whether the true and loyal men of the’ South shall have any protection will depend upon their bitter foes. Already the threat has been made that the appropriations for the army and for other vital na tional purposes shall be cut off. And whether they shall or not is for those who fought under the rebel flag to say. Isn’t this a most extraordinary state of things? Isn’t it an astonishing result? It seems but the other day that after four years of bloody war, costing a million lives and ’billions of treasure, the rebellion was finally subdued. Had anyone, on that great day of Appomattox Court-House, predicted that in less than ten years the American people would put the control of the House o Representatives in the hands of rebels there defeated, would he not have been pronounced a madman? And yet that is precisely the result we now see, as the fruit of the Democratic success. Many who shared in bringing it about doubtless had no thought of such a conclusion. And how do they like their work?— Albany Evening Journal.