want it to go back to the House, as there, in the dying hours of the Session, its defeat would have been certain. It was passed by a vote of 38 to 26, all the Democrats, Liberals, and Independents, and four Republicans voting against it.

This Bill, the political measure adopted by the late Session of Congress, which was the most violently contested and caused the greatest sensation, was passed in a form very different from the measure originally framed by Senator Sumner. It was modified and toned down in many ways, and had this not been done it never could have got the President's approval. At present it refers to but four classes of matters, granting equal rights to the White and Black populations in inns, public conveyances, places of amusement, and jury service. Schools, cemeteries, churches, and a mass of other places of general business which were mentioned in the original measure are left out in this. The preamble of the Bill declares it to be "the duty of the Government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, colour, or persuasion, religious or political." The Bill declares that all persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theatres, and other places of public amusement, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and colour, regardless of any previous condition of servitude. Punishment for violation of the law is provided by fine and imprisonment, and the United States Courts are given jurisdiction of offences under it, to the exclusion of the Courts of the States. In reference to jury service, it is provided that no citizen possessing all other qualifications which are or may be prescribed by law, shall be disqualified for service as a grand or petty juror in any Court of the United States or of any State on account of race, colour, or previous condition of servitude. The negroes have for some time enjoyed practically most of these rights, which are conferred in most sections of the North. They are deprived of them, however, in the South, and hence the demand for the passage of the law.

The Force Bill was fought over in the House, and every method of delaying it resorted to for several days, and the final vote was not reached until midnight, February 27th. It was designed to give the Republicans control of the Southern elections; and was regarded as a measure looking to a "third term" for General Grant. The first attempt of the Democrats was to prevent this Bill being voted upon, as they saw that if they could stave it off to another sitting the Republican majority, not being two-thirds, would be insufficient to thrust the Bill through without debate. The question was, how this should be done. If they proposed any dilatory motions they would be beaten, and a vote would then be taken on the Bill. But they

saw that by adopting the French practice of "abstention" they would bring the House below the necessary numbers of a quorum, and this would involve resort to the tedious process of " a call of the House." This was done, and thereupon the Serjeant-at-Arms seems to have been instructed to search for and bring in absent members; but as each was brought in the Democrats moved to excuse him, and again an insufficient quorum was discovered, and again a roll-call was demanded. This process lasted from Wednesday forenoon to 2 o'clock on Thursday afternoon, twentyseven hours having been spent by the adverse hosts under General Butler and Mr. Randall; but at this time it was discovered that a Republican quorum was made up; so the Force Bill was at once called, and the House voted to take it up by 170 to 89. The Democrats had thus lost their first heat, but they refused to give in, and new dilatory motions followed, till, after 30 hours' sitting, the House adjourned at 4.15 on Thursday. On Friday they re-assembled, and the indomitable Randall showed that he was an antagonist worthy of Butler. He pointed out that the Opposition were entitled to call upon the Clerk to read over the journal of the 30 hours' session,-a labour of several hours in itself,--but he volunteered to give up this right if the Republicans would allow other business to be taken up, and adjourn any other vote on the Force Bill till 1 o'clock the next afternoon. To this the Republicans agreed perforce. But on Saturday the House met, and kept up the contest fiercely until midnight. The Bill was amended, first, by restricting the power of suspending the Habeas Corpus writ to the four States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama, and next by limiting its operation to two years; and thus modified, it at length passed the House by a vote of 135 to 114.

But it met an adverse fate in the Senate. There, in spite of an ardent struggle on the part of its supporters to get it through, and an extraordinary Session held for the purpose, it failed to come to the vote before the day on which the Congress broke up, the 4th of March.

The admission of Colorado to the Union as the thirty-eighth State was one measure of this Session; a Bill for the similar admission of New Mexico failed.

We give from a New York letter, which appeared in one of our journals, a general summary of the character and performances of the Forty-third Congress of the United States, whose existence had now come to an end.

"The adjournment of the Forty-third Congress, which took place yesterday, was received, if not with public rejoicings, at least with a sense of relief, which has found a general expression in the newspapers. It is not so much that this Congress has passed many bad laws, or squandered the public money, as it is that since December there has been a general uneasiness as to what might be done next from week to week. The majority in

1875.]

Character of Forty-third Congress.

[307 both Houses, belonging as it did to a party which had been heavily defeated at the polls, and being in the great mass composed of obscure men, led here and there by reckless men, it seemed very doubtful whether Congress would feel sufficient respect for public opinion to keep its hands off a great many things which would be much better left alone. Then the organization of the Louisiana Legislature by the troops, the introduction of the Force Bill, and its passage by the House, and the Message of the President about Arkansas, seemed to indicate a purpose on the part of the Republicans to "put it through" at all hazards, to get possession of enough of the Southern States by force to enable them to carry the next Presidential election, no matter how. It must be admitted, however, that the behaviour of Congress, now that it is dead and gone, does not seem in the calm light of reflection to have been dictated by any settled purpose at all, even on the part of the majority. So large a number of Republicans developed a disloyal and unpartisan disposition early in the Session that the majority was never sure of being able to bring out its party strength. The Force Bill, giving the President the power to suspend the habeas corpus in four Southern States at his pleasure, was a daring measure to introduce; but it did not pass the Senate, while the House, after having passed it and sent it to the other body, actually passed a resolution with regard to Arkansas affairs (Arkansas being one of the four States) declaring that no Federal interference was needed there. The House also passed a reso lution recognizing the Kellogg Government, but at the same time passed another advising the Louisiana House to reseat the five members expelled by the troops, giving the House to the Conservatives. Again, with regard to the currency, the Forty-third Congress did little or nothing. They passed a Finance Bill, it is true, providing for the banking and the retirement of greenbacks (in the proportion of four to five) pari passu with the issue of additional bank notes. They also gave the Secretary of the Treasury power to accumulate a stock of gold, which he is begining to do, and directed resumption to begin in 1879; but whatever the Secretary may succeed in doing in future, the Bill has had as yet little or no effect on the market.

"The most remarkable thing Congress did was to pass a Tax Bill, intended to raise some 30,000,000 dols. additional taxes, absolutely without debate. Mr. Dawes brought in a Bill, which was debated for a time and loaded with amendments, until there seemed no chance of its passing, upon which he ingeniously withdrew the measure, by carrying a motion to strike out all but the enacting clause, and substituted for it a new Bill which no one had seen or heard of before. The Bill passed. The Senate, under earnest pressure from the Secretary of the Treasury, gave it their approval without any debate whatever, and the President then affixed his signature to this remarkable enactment. The vote in the Senate, however, was very close, and it was understood that the opposition was at one

time headed by Senator Sherman, the chairman of the Finance Committee a fact which does not give the impression of there being very united councils among the majority even on this question of taxation-an important one according to the Secretary of the Treasury, inasmuch as it is necessary to give the Government income enough to pay its interest.

"The only matter on which Congress really was united was on that of economy in appropriations. There has not for some time been a Congress which passed so few jobs, or which showed so great a desire to save money for the country; and yet even here the members showed a strange want of coherence and unanimity by passing a Bill for the equalization of bounties,' which, had the President signed it, would have taken out of the Treasury an enormous sum of money, estimated at from 30,000,000 dols. to 300,000,000 dols. The equalization of bounties has been since the close of the war with a certain class of politicians almost a profession. The war bounties paid for enlistment were of course very unequal, as their amounts depend on the need and difficulty of getting soldiers, which again varied with the changing fortunes of the war. Since the war the politicians who expect to perpetuate their political lives by the aid of the votes of the soldiers have very strong opinions on a variety of military subjects, including the pensions of surviving soldiers, or of widows and orphans, the necessity of employing soldiers and sailors in the Civil Service, the importance of denouncing the infamous designs of those public enemies who would seek to deprive the soldier and sailor of their just dues, and the urgent demand supposed to exist for the 'equalization of bounties.' Probably not one man in ten in this country knows what the Bill which the President has now declined to sign was to do; but it is a striking indication of the uncertain temper of the expired Congress that they should have voted down scheme after scheme for taking money out of the Treasury, and then at the last moment dashed through a measure in comparison with which most of the others would have worn an air of frigid economy."

To quote another criticism. The Philadelphia correspondent of the Times says:-"The Forty-third Congress has been probably the most unsatisfactory Congress that has met in Washington since the war. The Republican majorities were large-over threefourths in the Senate and two-thirds in the House; but the policy on political questions has been weak and halting, the ruling party being usually divided, and often thus unable to avail itself of its power. The President, who at the opening of the Session was in full accord with his party, at the close was found to be opposed more or less strongly by a very large portion of it. The ill-advised and headstrong policy adopted in Louisiana and Arkansas has been chiefly responsible for this."

In view of the anticipated Presidential election of 1876, the wire-pullers of the respective parties were already at work

with their schemes and counter schemes. A vote had been taken in the House on the 26th of January, which showed the feeling in Congress against a "third term" for the Presidency. Mr. Potter (Democrat), of New York, reported, from the Judiciary Committee, a joint resolution proposing to amend the Constitution by extending the Presidential term to six years, and making a President ineligible for re-election. There was a brief debate on it, which was ultimately cut off by the "previous question." But the result of the voting was considered very significant, as it developed just what strength the "third term" principle had, and showed a large Republican minority to be opposed to President Grant's re-election. At the end of May there appeared a letter from General Grant himself to the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Convention, in reply to a declaration by that Convention against a "third term," stating, that so far from seeking for a third term of office, he had never himself sought for a second term, nor even for his first nomination. He continued :

Now, for a third term I do not want it any more than I did the first. I would not utter a word to change the will of the people in having their choice. The question of the number of terms allowed to any one member of the Executive can only come up fairly on a proposition to amend the Constitution, fixing the length or the number of terms for which one person shall be eligible to the Presidency. Until such amendment is adopted the people cannot be restricted in their choice by resolution further than they are now restricted in age and nativity; and it may happen in the country's future history that to change an Executive officer because he has been eight years in office will prove an unfortunate if not disastrous idea. That any man could elect himself President, or even re-nominate himself, is preposterous. It is a reflection upon the intelligence and patriotism of the people to suppose such a thing possible. Anyone can destroy his chances for the office, but no one can force the election or even nomination. To recapitulate, I am not, nor have I ever been, a candidate for re-nomination. I would not accept a nomination if it were tendered, unless it should come under such circumstances as to make it an imperative duty--circumstances not likely to arise."

The State elections which were to be held in the autumn were looked forward to with great anxiety. Their event disclosed an unsuspected and important change in the detached mass of American opinion. It had been supposed that the Democratic reaction, which had swept away the Republican majority twelve months previously, was still an operative force. But in Ohio and Iowa, where the first contest took place on October 12th, victory declared for the Republicans, and this victory was the harbinger of a series of successes in most of the other States in which contests ensued shortly afterwards. The most signal question between the parties being at this time that of the currency, the Republican triumph indicated that the nation as a whole advocated