Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1884 — BISMARCK AND LASKER. [ARTICLE]

BISMARCK AND LASKER.

The Resolutions as Agreed Upon in Committee Passed by / the House. ■ ■■ >ll - ■r' ■ Some Excitement Among the Members Boring the Debate—The Various Speeches. .. 1 [Associated Bress Report.] As soon as the members were in their seats Mr. Curtin, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted as a privileged question the report of the committee. This declares that the original resolution was intended as a mark of sympathy for a distinguished man who had died in this country. While the committee was of the opinion that tho resolution should have been received In the proper spirit, yet it would refrain from criticising the action of the German authorities in regard to them. The dignified position of the Deparment of State fully sustained tho high character the department had maintained 6ince the organization of the Federal Government. As to the resolutions offered March 10, the committee was of the opinion that they contained language not necessary or proper to vindicate the charno.'er or dignity of the House. Therefore they would report the following resolution as a substitute: Resolved, That the resolutions referring to the death of Dr. Edouard-'Lasker, adopted by this House on Jan. 9 last, were intended as a tribute of respect to the memory of an eminent statesman who had diqd in the United states: as an expression of sytnpathy with the German people for whom he had been an honored representative. Resolver/, That the House, having no official concern with the relations between the executive and legislative branches of the German Government, does notrdeem it requisite to itfr dignity to criticise the manner of the reception of the resolutions or the circumstances which prevented their reaching their destination after they had been eommuni.atod through the proper channels to the German Government. Mr. Curtin then moved the previous question. Mr, Reagan said he hoped this would not be done, as the House had already made apologies enough for being insulted. Mr. Cox, of New York, moved to lay tho matter on the table, as the best way to treat the German Chancellor, but this motion was lost—B3 to 125. 'I he previous question having been ordered, Mr. Ochiltree rose to deba'e the resolution. Ho declared that this affair had gone beyond the domain of rod tape and circumlocution and had assumed a phase, which called upon each Representative to preserve his own honor and dignity. It was not becoming the honor arid dignity of the House to explain the meaning of the original resolutions. They spoke for themselves. The apologetic tone of tho pending resolutions was unworthy the representatives of this great nation. The compliment to Lasker had been a rebuke to the German Chancellor because the mbn were the antithesis of each other. The Chancellor had ever been a sycophant to royalty, had never upheld the rights of the people, and never lost an opportunity to denounce populam sovereignty. Mr. Belford inquired ironically whether it would be In order to offer a resolution j resenting the apologies df the House to the German Chancelfor for having troubled him, but was told it would not. Mr. Phelps, the second -speaker, said that this matter had become of grave consequence. As the committee had unanimously agreed in their report, It would seem that there ought to be an explanation. Tho resolutions were passed unanimously Jan. 9, just as tho members were preparing to adjourn. Ten days later the House was startled by the information that the Chancellor had retusCd to accept thorn. Tho members then looked up the record to see wlmt they had done. They found that they had expressed regret at the death of Lasker, and also the belief that his free and liberal sentiments had advanced the interests’of his country. Both were true, but the histone the House could not report. It hud no righf to send out its opinion that his political work had benefited Germany. There was no refuge. The House would resent the fact that its friendly sentiments had been rejected, but it could not resent the fact that its political sentiments had beoit sent back because ft had no business to put them on the same paper. Mr. Curtin reviewed and defended the features of the report, and the resolutions were adopted without division, though an unsuccessful effort was made to have the yeas and nays ordered. Mr. Curtin then' presented a report concerning the memorial of the Liberal Union of the German Parliament tlx pressing u desire for a closer union of the two nations, and an appreciation Of the action of the House. Resolutions wero presented reciprocating the wishes of the Liberal Union of Germany, accept ng the resolutions, and directing that they should be spread on tire journal. Mr. Cox thought the House was trying to show its thanks to one portion cf the Reichstag after having been thoroughly insulted by the blood-and-iron Minister. By so doing it was complicating matters in such a way as to lose all dignity and pluck. Ho (Cox) had favored the resolution of Mr. Hiscoek, which was dignilied and consistent, but the House preferred to make republicanism and democracy a three or un-, dignified but! ornery. The people of Germany wore in accord with those of this country, and ho believed that sime day there would be an uprising of tho liberty-loving Teutons. Mr. Brurnm said thirt the House was trying to carry water on both shoulders. Dignity was, in his judgment, honorable, heroic action, and not the playing of the coward, simply because a Chancellor might suy tho rules of etiquette had not been strictly followed. Mr. Deuster commended tho action of the Department of State, and declared that Bismaret'*te«stya®t*on.vi'©»)*l<j»’(>veiuiloi’.tunate only for him. Mr. Phelps closed the debate. He claimed that the letter sent by Bismarck to the German Minister in Washington, in which he had expressed his cordial regard for tho American people and willingness to transmit the resolutions if they had not expressed a political opinion, was an ample apology. Thanks to Bismarck, to Frellnghuyseu and- his skill, and to tho Committee on Foreign Allafrs, the dignity of the House had been saved. Tho Gorman Chancellor had entered the Reichstag for the first time in eighteen months, in order to play the new role of an apologist: the gentleman from Texas had seen his tame grow from the confines of his State to the circumference of the world; all had been satisfactorily ended, and the members had the right to ring down the curtain on this international episode. The resolutions were then adopted without a division. ,