Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/93

Rh what this means? A powerful interest demanding secret government, and an important step in the direction of it. Let us not forget that the more a government becomes secret government, the more it will tend to be irresponsible government, and that irresponsible government will soon be arbitrary and corrupt government.

Nothing could be more deceptive than the plea put forth that all the hurry, all the unprecedented arbitrariness of proceeding, had no other aim than to execute the will of the majority of the people. Even had that been the true aim, the means would have been none the less reprehensible. But was it the true aim? The Speaker and the majority were bent upon pushing through two bills,—the tariff bill and the election bill. And with regard to both they had good reason to think that they were not the will of the majority of the people. Why? They knew that in the last Presidential election the Republican party polled only a minority of the popular vote. They knew that now there is wide-spread opposition in the Republican ranks to both the tariff and the election bill, in addition to the united opposition of the Democrats. Thus they had the best reason to think that these bills did not represent the will of the majority of the people. And it was not in spite of this, but because of it, that they resorted to unprecedented means to rush them through. They took snap judgment, for they feared that they would not have another House of Representatives with a Republican majority to pass the measures dictated by the ruling interest. To defeat the true will of the majority of the people, not to obey it, was the object.

Do you observe how the one-man power is growing in our government? There never was a time when a Speaker so boldly and so successfully usurped the functions of the House, when he counted quorums, unceremoniously suppressed the opposition and made it evident that no