Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1883 — DOINGS OF CONGRESS. [ARTICLE]

DOINGS OF CONGRESS.

Bills were passed by the House, at its session on the 31st ult., to extend for one year the time for filing claims for horses or equipments’ lost by officers or soldiers; to pay the Cedar Rapids and Northern railroad $6,57()f0r carrying mails, and to appropriate $75,000 to reimburse the States of Oregon and California for expenses incurred in suppressing Indian hostilities The Senate was not in session. The President laid before the Senate, at its session on the 2d inst., a communication transmitting the report of the Mississippi River Commission, with maps, etc. Ordered printed. Mr. Garland. presented the remonstrance of certain merchants of Arkansas against the increased duty on tin plates. Referred. Several petitions were presented for the passage of a bill giving an increased . pension to one armed and one-legged soldiers. Mr. Garland, from the Committee on Judiciary, reported the original bill as a substitute for the bills referred to that committee, providing for the forfeiture of certain railroad land grants. The bill cancels all grants of 1 and to railroad companies which have made little effort to complete their tracks within the time specified. Mr. Logan delivered a three hours’ speech in opposition to the Fitz John Porter bill. In . the House, bills were introduced to transfer the revenue-cutter service to the Navy Department, and to limit to one year the presentation of claims by States for moneys expended in suppressing Indian hostilities. Bills were passed: To place tobacco exported by rail on the same footing as that sent to Europe by sea, and to permit Canadian farmers to ’have grain ground at mills on this side of the border. Mj||Logan finished his argument in the Fitzjfohn Porter case on the 3d inst., and a motion for an indefinite postponement was lost—2B to 20—Mahono and Cameron, of Pennsylvania, voting with the Democrats. A number of petitions wore presented for a constitutional amendment to prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors. A statement from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue estimated the amount required to refund taxes on tobacco and matches at $3C,C80,716. In the House, a telegram was presented from the St Louis Mercantile Exchange, -a'king the immediate passage of the Bonded Whisky bill The Army Appropriation bill was taken up ill committee of the whole, and Mr. Browne's amendment for the gradual abolition of the pay corps was adopted A sharp debate took place over the statement by Mr. Hiscock that the Democrats at the last session left deficiencies in the appropriations amounting to $27,000,000. The West Point Appropriation bill was passed by the Senate on the 4th inst. Mr. Morrill reported the House bill to reduce in-ternal-revenue taxation, with an amendment for an entire revision of the tariff and of the machinery for its collection. The Sherman bill extending the bonded period for two years on whisky in warehouses was passed by a vote of 23 yeas to 20 nays. In the House, Mr. Kasson, of lowa, Chairman of the Committee on Civil Service Reform, reported back the Senate bill to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States, and sjioke in favor of the measure. Mr. Reagan, of Texas, spoke in opposition to the bill, on the ground that it was not efficient to remedy the evils complained of. Mr. Townshend, of Illinois, favored the provision of a penalty for the violation of the clause' forbidding political assessments by public officers. Mr. Buckner, of Missouri, favored the bill, as it would tend to break nil the iniquitous assessment system. Mr. Calkins, of Indiana, regarded the bill as a turning point to perfect civil reform. If the Democrats could stand this bill now he was sure the Republicans, with their fellows in office, could He admixed his Democratic friends who could take medicine in the shape of a Civil Service Reform bill after having wandered for twenty-four years in the Desert of Sahara For this reason and many others he favored the bill.

. > i..ii... no* . n , i i mi . , • ■ - • prohibiting^the 1 Msesnneufc of *prd}U<Mnnployes by private persona Lost—yeas 85, nays 114 The bill then passed-yeas 155, nays 47. Of tire 155 affirmative votes, 100 were Republicans and 49 Democrats—4o Democrats and 7 Republicans voting in the Senate devoted the principal part of the day, at its session on the sth inst, to the discussion of the Presidential Succession bill Senator Garland, of Arkansas, made an earnest plea for the passage of the measure, declaring that “after the 4th of Much next, the life of President Arthur is the only life between order and anarchy.” He favored a Presidential term of six years Messrs Jones, of Florida, and Morgan, of Alabama, opposed the bill Mr. Ingalls presented to theßenate a petition for the admission of Dakota as a State Mr. Vest submitted a report in relation to Yellowstone Park. President Arthur nominated to the Senate Gustavus Go ward, of Illinois, to be Secretary of the American Legation in Japan. The House took up the District of Columbia bill, which appropriates #3,443,847, and passed it.