CHAPTER XV.

WITHERING SARCASM.

It will be remembered that in April, 1879, the passing of the necessary appropriation bills was refused on the decision of the Democratic caucus, unless accompanied with the passage of certain other bills, planned and favored by the same authority. Such an effort to coerce legislation could but arouse the indignation of every free and fearless man, and it did thoroughly arouse Mr. Blaine, and call forth his withering power of denunciation and sarcasm, which weapons he employs reluctantly, and never except on pressing occasions. On this movement he spoke thus in the Senate:

"We are told, too, rather a novel thing, that if we do not take these laws, we are not to have the appropriations. I believe it has been announced in both branches of Congress, I suppose on the authority of the Democratic caucus, that if we do not take these bills as they are planned, we shall not have any of the appropriations that go with them. The honorable Senator from West Virginia [Mr. HEREFORD] told it to us on Friday; the honorable Senator from Ohio [Mr. THURMAN]

told it to us last session; the honorable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. BECK] told it to us at the same time, and I am not permitted to speak of the legions who told us so in the other House. They say all these appropriations are to be refused-not merely the Army appropriation, for they do not stop at that. Look, for a moment, at the legislative bill that came from the Democratic caucus. Here is an appropriation in it for defraying the expenses of the Supreme Court and the circuit and district courts of the United States, including the District of Columbia, &c., $2,800,000:' 'Provided'-provided what?— 'That the following sections of the Revised Statutes relating to elections' (Going on to recite them) be repealed.'

"That is, you will pass an appropriation for the support of the judiciary of the United States only on condition of this repeal. We often speak of this government being devided between three great departments, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial-co-ordinate, independent, equal. The legislative, under the control of a Democratic caucus, now steps forward and says, 'We offer to the Executive this bill, and if he does not sign it, we are going to starve the judiciary.' That is carrying the thing a little further than I have ever known. We do not merely propose to starve the Executive if he will not sign the bill, but we propose to starve the judiciary that has had nothing

whatever to do with the question. That has been boldly avowed on this floor; that has been boldly avowed in the other House; that has been boldly avowed in Democratic papers throughout the country.

"And you propose not merely to starve the judiciary, but you propose that you will not appropriate a solitary dollar to take care of this Capitol. The men who take care of this great amount of public property are provided for in that bill. You say they shall not have any pay if the President will not agree to change the election laws. There is the public printing that goes on for the enlightment of the whole country and for printing the public documents of every one of the departments. You say they shall not have a dollar for public printing unless the President agrees to repeal these laws.

"There is the Congressional Library that has become the pride of the whole American people for its magnificent growth and extent. You say

it shall not have one dollar to take care of it, much less add a new book, unless the President signs these bills. There is the Department of State that we think throughout the history of the Government has been a great pride to this country for the ability with which it has conducted our foreign affairs; it is also to be starved. You say we shall not have any intercourse with foreign nations, not a dollar shall be appropriated there

There are the mints of

for unless the President signs these bills. There is the Light-House Board that provides for the beacons and the warnings on seventeen thousand miles of sea and gulf and lake coast. You say those lights shall all go out and not a dollar shall be appropriated for the board if the President does not sign these bills. the United States at Philadelphia, New Orleans, Denver, San Francisco, coining silver and coining gold-not a dollar shall be appropriated for them if the President does not sign these bills. There is the Patent office, the patents issued which embody the invention of the country-not a dollar for them. The Pension Bureau shall cease its operations unless these bills are signed, and patriotic soldiers may starve. The Agricultural Bureau, the Post Office Department, every one of the great executive functions of the Government is threatened, taken by the throat, highwayman style, collared on the highway, commanded to stand and deliver in the name of the Democratic congressional caucus. That is what it is; simply that. No committee of this Congress in either branch has ever recommended that legislationnot one. Simply a Democratic caucus has done it.

"Of course, this is new. We are learning something every day. I think you may search the records of the Federal Government in vain; it will take some one much more industrious in that

search than I have ever been, and much more observant than I have ever been, to find any possible parallel or any possible suggestion in our past history of any such thing. Most of the Senators who sit in this chamber can remember some vetoes by Presidents that shook this country to its centre with excitement. The veto of the national bank bill by Jackson in 1832, remembered by the oldest in this Chamber; the veto of the national bank bill in 1841 by Tyler, remembered by those not the oldest, shook this country with a political excitement which up to that time had scarcely a parallel; and it was believed, whether rightfully or wrongfully is no matter, it was believed by those who advocated those financial measures at the time, that they were of the very last importance to the well-being and prosperity of the people of the Union. That was believed by the great and shining lights of that day. It was believed by that man of imperial character and imperious will, the great Senator from Kentucky. It was believed by Mr. Webster, the greatest of New England Senators. When Jackson vetoed the one or Tyler vetoed the other, did you ever hear a suggestion that those bank charters should be put on appropriation bills, or that there should not be a dollar to run the Government until they were signed? So far from it that, in 1841, when temper was at its height; when the Whig party, in addition to losing their