Show ADMISSION OF SENATOR HILL If it be true that Senator BILL CDASD LElt of New Hampshire is taking steps to prevent Senatorelect HILL from assuming the duties to which he has been called in the Congress of the nation he will certainly certain-ly l be subject to the ridicule if not the contempt con-tempt of the nation It is difficult to realize real-ize i that he is willing to place himself in so unwarrantable an attitude though the newspaper correspondents state with great pcsitiveness that such is bis position The ground on which it is proposed to deprive Senator HILL of his seat is that ho is holding the office of governor of New York beyond the time of themeeting of the Congres to which the legislature of New York elected him But this is not the business of the Senate to know There is nothing in the United States constitution that declares a prohibition against a man holding office in a state from being at the same timo a mem ber of Congress In this case it is well known that Governor HILLS term as governor gov-ernor does not expire till the 1st of January Janu-ary It is equally well known that other Senators will not be in their seats till after the holidays as no business is transacted of any moment in either branch of Congress Con-gress before the standing committees get to work Nothing therefore but spiteful noss of a personal nature or the desire to lay hold of any pretext however slight for political purposes could actuate a Senator Sen-ator to insist either as a legal question or one of parliamentary discipline upon a L colleague being where there is nothing for him to do at the sacrifice of urgent duties in another place The provision of the constitution which makes each house the judge of the qualifications qualifi-cations and return of its own members cannot be construed as giving arbitrary power to a majority to disfranchise a state All the Senate can do when Governor HILL presents himself at its bar to be sworn in us a member is to see that his certificate of election is in due and legal form and properly attested It cannot go behind this return It connot like an exacting schoolmaster demand reasons for tardiness tardi-ness or lecture the delinquent for loitering on the way Among the precedents that may be presented pre-sented in tho case of Senator HILL we recall re-call one that to our view is apropos In 1554 or 1SS6 LYMAS TRUMBULL who had just resigned from the circuit bench was elected to Congress from one of the southern south-ern Illinois districts and I a few months later on the assembling of the Legislature was elected United States Senator The constitution of Illinois contained a clause that no judge of tho circuit court could be eligible for any office during the term for which he was elected or for one year thereafter Judge TRUMBULLS case was within this inhibition yet he was admitted to his seat in the Senate without a contest and tho gentleman who claimed the election elec-tion in the lower house was rejected Senator Sen-ator DOUGLAS though of opposing politics upheld the rights of TItt nuLL declaring that the legislature of Illinois had taken all the responsibility in the case and that the Senate could not go back of the certificate of the secretary of state in order to make a point which had not been considered by those who could be presumed to know the meaning of their own action In the admission of Governor HILL the Democracy will not be beholden to Senator TELLER or Senator HOAR or Senator any body else He will be admitted to what is his own and of which no scheming of such unscrupulous partisans as BILL CUAXD LEn to depose him will avail |