Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1877 — FORTY-FIFTH COSGRESS. [ARTICLE]

FORTY-FIFTH COSGRESS.

Monday, Oct. 29. —Senate. —The following bills were introduced and referred : By Mr. Matthews, to amend the Bankrupt act. By Mr. Ingalls, to fix the date of the meeting of the first regular session of the. Forty-fifth Congress on Nov. 1. By Mr. Hereford, providing for the coinage of silver dollars and for making the same a l«gal tender. By Mr. Saunders, to establish the Territory of Lincoln, and to provide a temporary Government therein. By Mr. Booth, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to declare the forfeiture of railroad grants in certain cases. By Mr. Chaffee, to create a customs collection district in the State of Colorado and Territories of Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. By Mr. Garland, to amend so much of the Sundry Civil Appropriation bill for the present fiscal year as provides for paying mail contractors in the Southern States before the rebellion... The President sent to the Senate a large number of nominations, mostly of the persons nominated during the recess of Congress. Among tne nominations were E. W. Stoughton, to be Minister to Russia; Theodore Roosevelt, Collector, S. A. Merritt, Surveyor, and Bradford Prince, Naval Officer, at the port of New York; John D. Defrees, to be Public Printer ; William Henry Smith, Collector at Chicago ; Jewett Palmer, Collector of Internal Revenue in the Fifteenth Ohio District; John Baxter, of Tennessee, United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit; Romanzo Bunn, District Judge for the, Western District of Wisconsin... .The Senate, in executive session, confirmed a number of nominations for small offices, but took no action on those for important places.

House.—The House was flooded by a perfect avalanche of bills. There were introduced, placed upon the records, and ordered to be printed, the enormous number of 845 bills, an average of almost three to each member. The following are the titles of a few of them : Providing for uniform certificates of the election of members of Congress ; reducing the postage on letters; to repeal the law taxing deposits in savings institutions; for the removal of all political disabilities; declaring the Department of Agriculture one of the Executive Departments ; for the establishment of a Department of Commerce ; to repeal the act for resumption of specie payments; for the restoration of wages in the Government Printing Office ; to make United States notes receivable for import duties; also, to consolidate the bonded debt and to reduce interest; to abolish the tax on liquors distilled from fruits; to abolish the iron-clad oath; for mail steamship service to Brazil; repealing the law forbidding the appointment in the army or navy of persons who have served in the army or navy of the Confederate States; also, to transfer the conduct of Indian affairs to the War Department; to reform the civil service, also, to provide for counting the Presidential vote ; in relation to votes for President and Members of Congress; for the issue of national savings bonds; for a national savings depository as a branch of the Postoffice Department; for the admission of Utah as a State ; for the admission of Dakota as a State ; establislung a land district in the Black Hills; to organize the Territory of Pembina... .Speaker Randall announced the House committees. The Chairmanships are assigned as follows: Elections, Harris, of Virginia ; Ways and Means, Wood, of New York ; Appropriations, Atkins, of Tennessee; Banking and Currency, Buckner, of Missouri; Pacific Railroads, Potter, of New York; Ciaims, Bright, of Tennessee ; Commerce, Reagan, of Texas; Public Lands, Morrison, of Illinois; Postoffices and Post Roads, Waddell, of North Carolina; District of Columbia, Williams, of Michigan ; Judiciary, Knott, of Kentucky; War Claims, Eden, of Illinois ; Public Expenditures, Hatcher, of Missouri; Private Land Claims, Gunter, of Arkansas ; Manufactures, Wright, of Pennsylvania; Agriculture, Cutler, of New Jersey; Indian Affairs, Scales, of North Carolina ; Military Affairs, Banning, of Ohio; Militia, Miles Ross, of New Y’ork; Naval Affairs, Whitthorne, of Tennessee ; Foreign Affairs, Swann, of Maryland; Territories, Franklin, of Missouri; Revolutionary Pensions and War of 1812, Mackey, of Pennsylvania; Invalid Pensions, Rice, of Ohio; Railways and Canals. Schleicher, of Texas; Mines and Mining, Beebe, of New York; Education and Labor, Goode, of Virginia; Revision of Laws, Walsh, of Maryland ; Co nage, Weights and Measures, Stephens, of Geoirgia; Patents, Vance, of North Carolina; Public Buildings and Grounds < Cook, of Georgia; Accounts, Roberts, of Maryland; Mileage, Cobb, of Indiana; Expenditures of the State Department, Springer, of Illinois; Expenditures of the Treasury Department, Glover, of Missouri: Expenditures of the W’ar Department, Blackburn, of Kentucky; Expenditures in the Navy Department, Willis, of New York ; Expenditures in the Postoffice Department, Williams, of Alabama; Expenditures in the Interior Department, Sparks, of Illinois; Expenditures on Public Buildings, Lynde, of Wisconsin; Expenditures in the Department of Justice, Bragg, of Wisconsin ; Reforms in the Civil Service, Harrison, of Illinois ; Mississippi Levees, Robertson, of Louisiana ; Rules, Stephens, of Georgia; Revision of the Law Regulating the Counting of the Electoral Votes, etc., Southard, of Ohio; Printing, Singleton, of Mississippi; Enrolled Bills, Hamilton, of Indiana ; Library, Cox, of New York. Tuesday, Oct. 30.—Senate.— The Senate was in session but fifteen minutes. A number of bills were introduced and referred to appropriate committees. Nearly all were of a private nature.... A resolution authorizing the presiding officer to appoint a select committee on the subject of ascertaining and declaring the result of the election for President and Vice President of the United States was agreed t0....Mr. Coke introduced a bill making an appropriation to pay over to Texas the residue of the $5,000,000 reserved for the satisfaction of that portion of the public debt of the late republic of Texas for which the duties on imports of said republic were especially pledged, being tne balance remaining after the payment of such debt. Referred. He also introduced a bill to reimburse Texas for expenses incurred by repelling invasions of Indians and Mexicans. Ref erred.... The Senate then went into executive session and confirmed the following nominations : E. F. Noyes to be Minister to France ; E. W. Stoughton, Minister to Russia; Thomas Osborne, Minister to the Argentine Republic; James M. Comley, Minister to the Sandwich Islands; Jamesßussell Lowell, Minister to Spain; John A. Kasson, Minister to Austria; Romanzo Bunn,United States Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin. A number of other nominations of minor importance were confirmed. House.—Not in session. Wednesday, Oct. 31. Senate.—The following bills were introduced and referred: By Mr. Burnside, to remove all restrictions regarding the enlistment of colored citizens in the army. By Mr. Ingalls, to provide a building for the Postoffice; courts and other public offices at Topeka. Kan.... A number of unimportant bills were introduced... The Vice President announced the select committee to consider the question of making a change in the method of counting the vote for President and Vice President, as follows: Messrs. Edmunds, Conkling, Howe, McMillan' Teller, Davis (of Hlinois), Bayard, Thurman and Morgan—five Republicans, tlfree Democrats and one Independent... .The Senate was in executive session over an hour, and confirmed several hundred Postmasters, but took no action on important nominations. House. —Mr. Ewing, from the Committee on Banking and Currency, reported the following bill: “ That the third section of the act entitled ‘An act to provide for the resumption of specie payments,’ approved Jan. 14, 1875, be, and the same is hereby, repealed.” Air. Fort presented the views of the minority of the committee in the shape of an amendment to the bill as follows: “ A bill to repeal all that part of the act approved Jan. 14, 1875, known as the Resumption act, which authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to dispose of United States bonds, and redeem and cancel the greenback currency. Be it enacted, etc., That all that portion of the act which reads as follows (quoting as above from the third section), be, and the same is hereby, repealed,” Mr. Ewing moved that tly> bill be printed

and recommitted, which was agreed to without division, and he then moved to reconsider that vote, his object being thus to retain control of the bill and be able to call it up at any time. Mr. Conger moved to lay the motion to reconsider on the table, which was rejected—yeas, 116; nays, 138. Thursday, Nov. I.—Senate.—The desk of Senator Morton was marked by a bouquet of white flowers. The Chaplain alluded to the illness of the Senator, saying: “We unite our prayers to beseech Thee to give to the dying Senator the prospect of a better life, to open to him a new career and another journey beyond the stars.”... .The proceedings in the Senate were brief and unimportant. Mr. Armstrong presented a memorial from the Kansas City Board of Trade favoring the repeal of the Specie-Resumption act and the remonetization of silver; also, a resolution of the St. Louis'Merchants’ Exchange favoring the repeal of the Bankrupt law. House. —Mr. Goode, of Virginia, offered a resolution indorsing the Southern policy of L resident Hayes. Mr. Phillips objected. Mr. Butler suggested its reference to the Committee on Education and Labor. The resolution was not received.... There was a spirited fight over the motion to reconsider the vote referring the bill repealing the date for the resumption of specie payments. The result was that the measure was left in the same parliamentary position it occupied the previous day.

Friday, Nov. 2.—Senate.—The reading of the journal was dispensed with, and the death of Senator Morton was announced by Senator McDonald. A resolution submitted by him, providing for the appointment of a committee of six Senators to attend the funeral, was agreed to, and the Senate then, as a further mark of respect to the memory of Senator Morton, adjourned till Tuesday, Nov. 6. House. —In the House, Air. Ewing withdrew his motion to recommit the bill. repealing a part of the Resumption act, accepted Mr. Fort’s bill as a substitute, and moved the previous question. Mr. Hale moved to lay the bill and the amendment on the table. The motion was defeated—yeas, 108; nays, 140. The Fort bill was then made the special order for Nov. 13.. . .Mr. Hanna offered the following resolution, which was agreed to unanimously: “ Rewired, In view of the sad intelligence of the death of Oliver P. Morton, late distinguished Senator in the Congress of the United States from the State of Indiana, that the Speaker of this House, as a mark of respect for the memory of the man whose death is the nation’s loss, appoint a committee of seven members to represent this House at the funeral obsequies. ’.... Mr. Atkins, Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, reported the Army Appropriation bill, which was referred to the Committee of the Whole. The bill appropriates $25,723,000... .Mr. Wood asked leave to offer a resolution calling on the Secretary of the Treasury to furnish the House copies of contract made with certain syndicate American and foreign bankers for the negotiation of the 4-per-cent. bonds of the United States, together with copies of all other papers relating thereto. Mr. Pridemore objected. Saturday. Nov. 3.—Senate.—Not in session. House. —Consideration was resumed of the bill for the repeal of a part of the Resumption act. After discussion as to the proposed terms for the management and consideration of the bill, Mr. Kelley proposed to offer a resolution making it the special order for Tuesday, the 6th, and until Thursday, the 15th, when the previous question should be ordered, but Mr. Willis objected absolutely to the resolution being received, inasmuch as he regarded the bill as an assault upon the national credit.... The bill for a free coinage of a standard silver dollar was introduced by Mr. Buckner, and was, on motion of Mr Stephens, after discussion, referred to the Committee on Coinage, rather than to the Banking Committee.... Two other bills were introduced for the remonetization of silver—one by Mr. Clark and one by Mr. Townsend... .Mr. Finley introduced a bill to amend the constitution so as to elect the President and Vice President by a direct vote of the people.