Rensselaer Union, Volume 12, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1879 — Control of the House. [ARTICLE]

Control of the House.

In the possible contingency of a failure by the people to elect a President and Vice-President, the election would be thrown into the House of Representatives, where each State would have one vote. This has happened twice in our history, and is as liable to happen next year as ever before. The situation, therefore, is worth considering.That the Democrats are already considering it is evident from an expression of the Washington Post, the organ Of the Democracy at the capital, which says : We do not see how, in justice to the party and the country, the majority can delay much after assembling in December the work of seating those Democratic represent* tives-eleat who are now kept out, of the offices to which they were elected last fall by the radical usurpers. So foul an injustice ought to be quickly remedied.” In order to understand the meaning of this it is necessary to notice the present political of the House. Since the Republicans have elected all spur Congressmen in California they control nineteen State delegations, while the Democrats control eighteen. One, Indiana, is practically a tie, standing six Democrats, six Republicans and one National. Twenty States are a majority. If the Democrats oould unseat one Republican from this State and put a Democrat in his place they would have nineteen States, and if they could capture one other State by a similar process they would have a clear majority. This is what the Washington Post hints at and what the Democrats in the House will probably try to do. Some steps were taken last session toward contesting the seat of Mr. Orth of this .State; hit-the contest was abandoned. The Democrats, however, will not hesitate to re-

vive the oontest and unseat Mr. Orth and put a Democrat in his place, if they find it necessary to the success of their political plans. 'Hie record they have already made in the mattered contested elections shows they will stem at nothing. If they find they can depend on De La Matyr in all contingencies, they may regard their tenure of Indiana secure, but if there is any doubt about him, they will, in aH proDablUfy, renew the raid on Mr. Orth and make a desperate effort to unseat him. What we have said refers to the control of State delegations, bnt the numerical division of parties is made veryclose by the California election. The House is now full with the exception of two vacancies caused by death, one from New York and one from lowa. Leaving these out of the oount, the Democrats have 148 members, the Republicans 131 and the Nationals 12; total, 291. If the Republicans carry both the vacant districts this fall, as they are likely to, they will have 183 members, and the Democrats will have only one more than a majority in the House. They will not rest content with this situation if there is any possibility of improving it, and that they will resort to any means, however desperate, of doing it, admits of no doubt. The extract which we have given from the Washington Post shows that the situation is being discussed at Washington, and that the Democrats are preparing to strengthen themselves in the House by a resort to arbitrary and high-hand ed measures. —lndianapolis Journal.