Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1891 — THE NEXT CONGRESS. [ARTICLE]

THE NEXT CONGRESS.

Aaalysls of the PoUtloal Com* plexion of the Lower Branch. Dmomcj-'i OTtnrk«laiß| Majority ud Mow It May I* died to KUct a Preald«nt Coder Certain ConUng-eaeiet. Wash. Correspondence Indianapolij Journal. , Interesting figures and deductions are furnished by the printed lists of members-elect of the next House of Representatives. The lißt is unofficial but it is accurate. Of the 332 members there are 287 Democrats, 87 Republicans and 8 members of the Farmers’ Alliance, who will not go Into either party caucus. There are Other members ia Southern States whe were elected on the Alliance platform, but they will vote on party questions with the Democrats. Glancing over the list, by States, It appears that there are, of the for-ty-four States, no less than sixteen with solid Democratic delegations, and thirteen more where the the majority of the delegation is Democratic. There are ten States with solid Republican delegations, and two with Republican majorities. Of the remaining three States two have'. Alliance majorities, while.in the one remaining State. Minnesota, there are three Democrats, one Republican and one Alliance man, so that the delegation, on a vote, is Democratic. Summing up, the Democrats control the vote of thirty States, the Republicans twelve, the Alliance two, a total of forty-four. There are, than, sixteen solid Democratic delegations and tea Republicans. The sixteen solid Democratic delegations include a membership of 106, while the ten solid Republican •delegations number a total membership of fifteen. The frightful disparity lies in the fact that of the ten solid Republican delegations, seven of them—Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming—consist of one member each, who is a solid Republican. There remain three solid States, of which two. South Dakota and Vermont, have two members each, and the State of Maine, with Messrs. Reed, Boutelle,Dingley and Milliken, form a very solid delegation of four. The solid Democratic States are almost appalling. Missouri alone has 14, nearly jas many as the entire force of the solid Republicans. The others are Alabama, 8; Georgia, 10; Louisiana. 6; Maryland, 6; Mississippi, 7; South Carolina, 7; Texas, 11; Virginia, 10; West Virginia, 4; besides such odds and ends as two each from Florida, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, and one each from Delaware and Montana, where the spirit is willing but the flesh is evidently weak.

In the thirteen States where the Democrats have majorities in the delegations there are in all 115 Dem ocrata and 47 Republicans, a net majority of 68. In the two Republican ■States there are 22 Republicans and 12 Democrats, a net majority of 10. 'Here again the Democrats control, ■with the exception of Pennsylvania, all of the large delegations, the States standing: Illinois, 14 to 6; Indiana, 11 to 2; Kentucky t 10 to 1: Massachusetts, 7 to 5; Michigan, 8 to 3; New York, 23 to 11; North Carolina. 8 to 1; Ohio, 14 to 7; Tennessee, Bto 2; Wisconsin, 8 to 1; Connecticut, 3to 1; lowa, 6 to 5; New Jersey, 3 to 2. The Republican delegations are Pennsylvania, 18 to 10; California, 4 to 2. Of the remaining States, there are in Kansas 5 Alliance men to 2 Republicans, and in Nebraska 2 Alliance men to 1 Democrat, giving the Alliance these two States:; while in Minnesota, as already stated, there being 3 Democrats, 1 Republican and .1 Alliance man. the control of the delegation is with the Democrats. On a division of States upon any -question, therefore, the Democrats would carry the vote by 30 to 12, or a majority of HOW A PRESIDENT MAY BE ELECTED. It is not out of the range of the possible that such a question may arise in the next House. That question would be the most important in the history of this country. It would be the question of the next President of the United States. It seems almost certain that the politicians in the Farmers’ Alliance will try to force that organization to place a candidate for the presidency in the held. Whom he may be, no one can guess. It is said that Senator Iceland Stanford, Of Canifornia. gel it. if he wanted it, In any event. it is among the possibilities that the determination of the Kesidential question next year may left to Congress, which makes invfceresting, if not important, the Janalysis of the political complexion by 'States.

Should the House have the control- - ling vote in the Presidential contest all the States would meet on a common level and the 50,000 whites, blacks, half-breeds, mongrels, Chin<ese and Indians ojf the Nevada min•ing camp would be as powerful in •electing a President as the many millions of intelligent residents of "the State of New York, and Mr. JBartine would be as big a man as Mr. Flower, as the States would vote as States and hot individual members of the delegations. So big is the Democratic majority, even m the united vote by States, that they could elect the President even if not a single .Republican was present. The constitution provides that there shall be present a quorum consisting of a member or members from two-thirds of the States so that with their thirty States the Democrats could elect the President without the attendance of ~a single Republican. The deep in-

teres t with which the Democratic and Republican partial take in thh Alliance’* entree Into the field of national politio* can therefore be readily understood.

■Still another feature presents itself in case the Alliance throws the vote into the House. There would then probably be a Democratic President and a Republican Vice-presided; For the same article of the Constitution which makes the house elect the President throws the election of the Vice-president into the Senate But here there is a difference. In the first place, the list of eligible* for the Vice-presidency is confined to the tw6 names having the highest number of votes cast for them in the Electoral College, instead of three, as is the case m the President. Hence in the present Senate Messrs. Irby and Peffer, the Alliance Senators, and Mr. Hyde, the “Indscrat" from South Dakota, would be compelled to vote for either the Republican or the Demr ocrat. Another important difference is that the unit rule for States does not hold in the Senate, for the Constitution provides that in electing the Vice-president the quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority r of the whole number of Senators (not States) shall be necessary to a choice. The Republicans have a majority of six in the Senate now. They would, therefore, elect their Vice-president. Here, too, the election would be totally independent of the size or importance of every State. Indeed, here Nevada would out-vote New York, for the Republican candidate would get two votes from Nevada, while the Democratic candidate would get only one vote from New York. In some States like Ohio and Wisconsin, there would be a stand-off, there being in each a Democratic and Republican Senator.

This recalls a curious omission in ; the provision for the presidental election in the House. No provision is made for such States whose delegations consist of two members, in case they should be of opposite politics. Injthe present congress there are five such States-Florida.New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Vermont. It so happens that in each case both members of the delegation are of the same party, the three first Democratic, the two last Republican, But if it should have happened that in any one of these States one member had been a Democrat and the other a Republican— a contingency by no means impossible—the two gentlemen could never have agreed on a candidate, and that very interesting question would then have arisen as to how the State should vote. Under the Constitution it would have lost its vote altogether. This would seem to deserve the attention of Congress. It is plain, therefore, that the Alliance and its national political future are worthy of careful attention.