Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1882 — THE FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. [ARTICLE]

THE FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.

A Review ot the Work Done at Its Firet Seaaion. The Hon. Edward McPherson, Clerk of the House of Representatives in seven Congresses, has written the following review of the work of Congress : The state of the parties at the opening of the Forty-eeveuth Congress betokened a fruitless session. The Republicans had barely a majority in the House. They hud not a majority in the Senate. A very large proportion of the membership of the House were serving their first term, and by a singular coinqjd -eice most of the trained leaders of the present majority had been transferred to the Senate, which responded uncertainly, to any call of leadership. A tragic change of executive administration had wrought a revolution in it and in the Cabinet, and had devolved unexpected duties upon gentlemen suddenly called from pursuits of private life. As a result poI litical affairs were in December last in a state of confusion, and it is not surprising that it was several months before the machinery of legislation was brought into motion. It would have been surprising had the fact been otherwise. Congress sat eight months, a term of unusual length, but it devoted itself with extreme ’diligence to public duty. Its sessions were constant, its committee work was judicious and thorough, its debates intelligent and able, and I think it can be truly said of it that it has perfected more important measures of legislation than any Congress which has met in tne last ten years. Comparing it with its immediate predecessor, the Forty-sixth Congress, the contrast is striking. The sole contribution of tho Forty-sixth Congress to political legislation was a clause forbidding “the use of any portion of the army of the United States as a police force to keep the peace at the polls at any election held in any State.” Of legislation touching the varied interests of the country, it was barren. It essayed to establish a commission to adjust tariff duties, but failed in the undertaking. It maintained all internal taxes, contenting itself with petty provisions on distilled spirits and tobacco. Its funding legislation, by its own confession imperfect, alarmed the country and was defeated by a Presidential veto. It ignored the dangers which surround the question of the electoral count, and made no contribution whatever to their removal. It toyed with the silver and a few other questions, but masteredftione, and it showed no capacity for government except of that obstructive kind which had for illustration a public service so meanly provided that the courts were closed for want of appropriations and the buildings were lighted by private subscriptions.

The Forty-seventh Congress, upon the other hand, has met and more or less completely disposed of every important subject which came before it. .It has patiently considered, and has settled for a t eriod of ten years, the policy of the country respecting the immigration of the Chinese, ana thus, by a measure which finally received the concurrence of an Overwhelming majority .qf both houses, and is undoubtedly sanctioned by public sentiment, it has closed an irritating agitation which has disturbed the peace of communities. , That it was finally reached through the struggle consequent od a Presidential veto, and in a spirit of mutual concession on details, is a tribute to the strong practical ’ sense which has marked this Congress. Its legislation against 1 polygamy aims at the extirpation of an evil which has become intrenched in one of the Territories, which is rapidly extending into others, and which has for thirty years, under bold leadership, been silently and steadily spreading, until the theocracy which sustains it has absorbed the personal rights and wields’the political power of all within its reach. The act which deals a blow at this despotism, while confessedly experimental, is yet the first real attempt tq. rescue out. American civilization from the dangers which threaten it in the center of;the continent. It is not to be dehied that the subject is surrounded with grave difficulties. Neither is it to be denied that the Forty-seventh Congress is the first body which has had’ tire courage and the intelhgepce to assail it. The crowning achievement of this Congress, however, has been the passage of the bill to extend the national backing system for a period of twenty years. The Thirty-seventh Congress, in the darkest hours of the Rebellion, established the system with the double of strengthening the Government by compelling the bonks to subscribe for its bonds, which then sadly needed purchasers, and of protecting the people by securing to them a paper circulation of equal value everywhere and of absolute value as the securities of the nation. The Forty-seventh Congress has had the honor of placing this question beyond the domain of political resentments and ambitions. Besides, it has, as far as possible, given a guaranty to the business of the country against the dangers of undue contraction or inflation, by continuing a'sound yet flexible system of currency which unites in perfect harmonv the essentials of safety and autttoieaoy. Besides these great mei-ures, any one of which would entitle the Congress to distinction, the holies whose first session has recently closed, have placed on'the statute book an act which provides for the distribution of the remainder of the Geneva Hwird, a subject which has perplexed their predecessors; have established the ’Apportionment of Representatives for the next, deoade, an unfinished work inherited from their immediate predecess< »rs; have placed in the way of adjustment at the next session the long dispute connected with the count of the electoral vote, and have created a spqpial commission to examine into and report to the next session upon the revision of

the tariff system, a proposition which commended itself to the majority of the Senate in the Forty-sixth Congress, but which was smothered in the House. All these measures of high utility attest at once the judgment and patriotism of the Congress and vindicate the popular verdict which two years since committed the public interests to their charge. On one important question there was a difference of theory between the houseo. which there was not time that related to reduction of internal revenue taxation. The House late in the session passed a bin to reduce taxation by the sum of $16,000,000 a year. The Senate, under adverse influences, hesitated, and then proposed to add other reductions in the internal revenue and special reductions in the tariff rates. Debates ensued. Further debate was decreed by the Democratic caucus', and in the midst of the discussion the session closed almost by general consent. Most of the legislation named was reached by partisan votes. The discussions and votes upon the Utah bill show very clearly that it was not in harmony with Democratic principles, and that the Democracy of 1882 were as little capable of grappling with polygamy a» the Democracy of 1862 were of grappling with its “twin-relic,” slavery, and for substantially the same >e isons. Bound by its traditions, it seems unable to grasp new objects, or apply proper remedies for grave evils. The extension pf the national-banking system was made in spite of Democratic opposition, not that such opposition was united, but it was general. The Democrats who-supported the principle of the bill, and were agreed as to its policy, were few in number. It is quite safe to say that a Democratic Congress would not have passed either the anti-polygamy bill or the national- banking bill. On the Chinese question the Democracy were substantially a unit in favor of extreme legislation. With them was a large segment of the Rpublicans. The bill as passed received a united Democratic support with about one-half of that of the Republicans. On one subject only has there been sharp criticism on this Congress, and that is the amount of appropriations to rivers and harbors. The * amount is large, but it is not over one-half that recommended by the army engineers as a sum which could be wisely expended. Great public works, respecting whose improvements there is no ‘difference of opinion, absorb the largest share of the money. It is not to be denied that there are many appropriations made for obscure purposes, and for objects which scarcely fall into the description of national works, but like incongruities have recently appeared m former legislation, controlled by individual discretion, and they will always disfigure our appropriations for these works until we have adopted a rational, comprehensive and carefully digested scheme for the improvement of the internal waterways which carry our' enormous' domestic commerce, and if criticism of ill-propor-tioned legislation should, be the means of leading competent men of the country to the elaboration of such a system, an incalculably valuable result will be reached. It does not follow, however, that money spent upon streams which are little known is, therefore, wasted. It subserves local purposes, and prepares the way for the lapge things which are to follow. Beside, the country has an assurance on the integrity of the officers charged with these disbursements that there will be an ’equivalent in labbr for the money paid, and that jobbery will not mar, nor scandal attach to this expenditure of money. It rhay be well, however, to/ add that the conservative force on the .river end harbor appropriations wait on ■ the Republican side, especially in. the Senate,“where the Democrats were clamorous for. appropri- ■ ations, as if in rebound from the repressive influences of theirformer creed. It tb the honor of this Congress that it has, been clean-handed. The lobby failed to control it. No law stands upon the statute-book placed there by an illegitimate power. At the tame time it liberally considered the wants of the CQUutry and freely' applied restrictive legislation, limiting executive discretion and enforcing official accountability. Tested, therefore, by the standards of wide intelligence, unflinching courage, impartial regard for the wants of the whole country, a strong grasp of needs of the present and acute’ appreciation of the problems which the future will develop, the Forty-seventh Congress has proved itself not inferior to any of its predecessors.