Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1881 — A LASHING FOR HAYES. [ARTICLE]

A LASHING FOR HAYES.

Mr. Conkling?* Remarkable Speeds in the Senate. [From the New York Sun.] We have taken pains to procure, by telegraph, from Washington, the full text of Mr. Conkling’s speech in the Senate. It is a most remarkable speech; remarkable considering about whom it is spoken, who spoke, and what is said. The leading Republican Senator of the United States was discussing a proportion to refund to another Republican, who has occupied the office of President during the past four years, a little less than $4,000 which this President de facto paid out of his own pocket for the expenses of certain individuals who went South to manipulate election returns in his favor. - . And what does this leading Republican, Senator Conkling, say on the subject? He says it would be “ making an appropriation worse than unlawfulbe says the measure “does involve the question whether gentlemen requested to go as tourists, not as Commissioners with law, but,” as be believes, “ yithout law, on an errand not tolerated either by the constitution or by any law which -obeys it—whether they are to be paid under the guise of expenses to them, or upon the allegation that the President lias paid this money out of liis own pocket.” Then Mr. Conkling goes on to threaten, if the appropriation is insisted upon, to discuss and expose the whole matter, with the plainest possible intimation that it will be very damaging to the persons concerned. The allegation that this money was paid out of Mr. Hayes’ own pocket takes away from him the last vestige of defense—the apology that he was not an active participator in the foul conspiracy which placed him in office. Yes, Hayes himself supplied the oil for the torch which burnt up tbe honest returns that made his opponent, Samuel J Tilden, the rightful President of the United States. Let him go, guilty conspirator, to his home in Ohio, with his hundred and .fifty thousand dollars of savings in his miserly pockets, and covered with infinite shame and dishonor. ' Tire world will look upon the truthful portrait, a glimpse of which has been given, just before bis departure from Washington, by the acknowledged leader of his own party.

SENATOR CONKLINO’s SPEECH. Among the amendments to the Sundry Civil bill reported to the Senate committee was one of $3,950 to reimburse Mr. Hayes for the expenses of the MacYeagh Louisiana Commission. When the nill was reached yesterday, Senator Beck, of Kentucky, who had charge of it, explained that the amount had originally been advanced by the First National Bank of New York, and had subsequently been paid by Mr. Hayes. Mr. Beck said that he did not know mTjrc was any warrant of law for the apft would be a small thing to refuse to reimburse Mr. Hayes. The following debate then followed: Mr. Conkling—Mr. President: This amendment addresses itself to me as an appeal to sympathy. Tho First National Bank is located in the State of New York, and I cannot but feel the interest, not to say the tenderness, which naturally exists between a representative and his constituents, and when 1 reflect upon the hard and frugal road that bank has been compelled to tread, and then contemplate the idea of its losing such a sum of money, the possibility is one I cannot calmly contemplate. It requires more fortitude to inflict such an injury than I possess. If I turn to the idea of allowing the President of the United States to take out cf his meager compensation a sum like this to defray the expenses of five tourists, called in the amendment “Commissioners,” it might make an appeal which I must be hardhearted to resist. When we think of these five gentlemen, all of whose names appear in this sometimes sumptuous hill of particulars, which fails to amount to the $6,000 originally estimated, but which still does amount to a considerable sum, when we think cf their defraying such expenses unrewarded and unrecognized as they are, we must be stingy indeed, particularly when voting tho money of other people, to be willing to consent to such cruelty. The distinguished citizen of Tennessee and one other are not like the rest of these gentlemen in the rewards which have waited upon them. They are also not like the many other persons of whom we have heard so much in Louisiana, useful, handy and active as they were in services rendered about this complicated matter. They, the legion to whom I now refer, are enjoying a grand total of annual salaries paid to them in official places held as rewards for the peculiar services they rendered to the citizens upon whom these expenses might fall. Tho amendment Comes as an urgent appeal to sympathy, and yet I shall not be able to discuss it without vexing the ear of the honorable Senator from Kentucky, who doe i not wish to listen to a political discusiion. Ido not wish to engage iu it or to listen to it, and yet, if the amendment is to be adhered to, I shall deem it my duty to enter into a political discussion, so far as such discussion is needed, to solve the question of the propriety of making ail appropriation worse than unlawful, which I believe

The House of Representatives in this bill and in other bills have decided not to make it. The House of Representatives has repeatedly refused to make it. With all the facts before it, the House has repeatedly refused to pay the money. The committee of this body has chosen, by importing an amendment into the bill, to invite the Senate to consider it, and the Senator from Kentucky says that Friday is the beginning of a new administration and the day on which this session will cease, I know all this, and I want this bill in every defensible part of it to become a law. I submit, however, to the honorable Senator from Kentucky that, if he would save time, he ought not to come hero with a provision that has been repeatedly discussed in the Sen.it© ; which has never succeeded in winning even a a informal vote in its favor, but has over and over again been reported against, and over and over again voted down on the yeas and nays in the Senate; which does not involve political discuss Ion; which does involve the question whether gentlemen requested to go as tourists, not as Commissioners with law, but, as I believe, without law, on an errand not tolerated either by the constitution or by any law which obeys it—whether they are to be paid under the guise of expenses to them or upon the allegation (I choose that word because I wish not to be disrespi ctful) that the Pres dent has paid this money ont of his own pocket. I say the Senator from Kentucky ought not to bring such a quest ion here if lie does not wish it to be discussed, and discussed at length. I ask that Benator to treat his amendment as he has treated other amendments, and spare himself and the Senate the infliction of the debate which is certain to occur if this amendment is persisted in. It involves not the $3,000 or $4,000 —not the items of this bill of particulars, insignificant as they are to all of these gentlemen, whether now holding official stations, or whether, as the Senator remarked as to one of them, about to cross the threshold of distinguished official place. It involves a principle much beyond that, and much more considerable than this sum of money. I hope the honorable Senator from Kentucky will allow this cup to pass from us, and be content with the fact that this very body as now constituted, not those who went before us, but consisting of these here assembled, has again and again passed upon it. If the Senator will accept the fact, I for one will relieve him; but, if he will not, and wants to 'litigate this matter afresh, then I submit he ought not to complain of any debate. Mr. Beck—Will the Senator from New York allow me to interrupt him? Mr. Oonkling—Of couise. Mr. Beck—l desire to close the debate. I care nothing about this item, one way or the other. I hope the Senator will move to lay it on the table. I shall vote against laying on the table, because my committee has instructed me to report the amendment. If it is laid on the table, however, that enda it. Mr. Oookimg—But my honorable friend will

observe that a motion to lay on the table not only cuts off debate, but brings the Senate to vote upon the merits of this amendment as those merits have been stated by those who Mr. Beck—ls the amendment is laid upon the table that ends it Mr. ConkUng—lf laid upou the table that is the end of it, and if the Senator can assure me that such a motion will prevail I will gladly forego any discussion. Mr. Beck—No. If it is not laid on the table it will be still open to discussion. Mr. Conkling-I am aware of that, but still I would not like to take the sense of the Senate, after wha£ has been said, without the Senate having brought back to its recollection and attention at least some of the circumstances which surrounded this transaction, without having read the papers which constituted the open, public and ostensible object of this embassy. All that will take some time, and time should be given to it—as little time as possible. But Ido not wi-h to go into it unless the Senator from Kentucky feels called upon to insist upon his amendment. If he will let us take the bill as the House 6eut it to ns, and rest upon the fact that over and over again Ibis question lias been passed upon, both in committee and in the Senate, I shall be glad to leave it there ; but, if he will not, then I do not see but all those who feel aB I fuel, that this claim ought to bo not only defeated, but discussed sufficiently to display its merits, must proceed in that course. Mr. Thurman—l want to adjourn this fight over to the next Congress. I want my friend from New York to meet my successor, a member of Mr. Hayes’ Cabinet, under which what my friend from New York thinks was n great crime was perpetratod. I want him to meet my successor lace to face, and discuss the propriety of this thing with him. not with me. I want him to meet the new Attorney General, MacVeagh, who was one of those Commissioners, and who was said to have had most persuasive eloquence in getting out the Packard Legislature, who, by the way, were cooped up in a house, and had not a particle of jurisdiction. I Want him to come to this contest with some foes worthy of his steel. He has nobody here now to battle with him. The Senator from Kentucky has shown the white feather and mn at the first fire. Ido not feel called upon to defend this administration or its ways, or the way that it got into power. Ido not do that, but my successor is aide to do it. I say, therefore, to the Senator from New York, as the preux chevalier, as a man ready to put his 1- nee in rest against any foe that sounds his trumpet and calls him to the encounter, let this thing go over until my successor is in his seat and until the new Attorney General will be up m the Department of Justice. That is the way to do this thing. Do not ask to lay this amendment on the table as a final and decisive vote to determine the question on its merits. Oh, no. Wait until the men who inaugurated it, who executed it, and who are able to defend it are within the lists. Now, I move to lay the amendment on the table, for I want to have it taken up then. The amendment was then laid on the table.