Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1886 — A REPUBLICAN M. C. SKINNED. [ARTICLE]

A REPUBLICAN M. C. SKINNED.

January 22d, in the House, at Washington, Mr. Herbert, of Alabama, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, reported back the Boutelle resolution calling on the Secretary of the Navy for information relative to the alleged erasures of inscriptions and the dismissal of Union soldiers at the Norfolk Navy yard, with an amendment extending the inquiry of dismissals made at the navy-yard and light-house district at Norfolk during the terms of the immediate predecessors of the present Secretary of the Navy, Mr. He v bert stating that the resolution was substantially the same as that c riginally offered by Boutelle, except that it was somewhat broader, and demanding the previous question. The Republicans resisted this, but on division were outvoted 87 to 84. Mr. Perkins, of Kansas raised the point of order th tno quorum had voted. “It is evident then,” said Mr. Herbert, “that gentlemen do not want their own interrogations answered. Absentees were sent for and the previous question was then ordered on the resolution yeas, 139; nays, 91. Then commenced a political debate, which was opened by Mr. Boutelle, who premised his direct speech upon the resolution with a remark calling attention to the fact that the first legislative act of the House had been the passage by unanimous consent of a bill removing the political disabilities of an ex-Confederate, who had waited more than twenty years before discovering a desire to be placed in the line o 2 eligibility to an appointment under the Executive Department of the United States. In contrast with this he( Mr. Boutelle) had been tauntingly informed that fifteen minutes of time was an ample allowance in which to p esent the case of outrageous dismissal of disabled soldiers of the Union army from th employment of the Government, and the obliteration and removal of inscriptions commemorative of the success of the Union army. A Norfolk paper had stated that commandant Truxton, in place of censure was entitled to praise. The paper said that when he had taken charge of the Norfolk Navy-yard, he had found inscriptions intending to keep alive the bitter memories of civil strife and hßdpatr : otically ordered them to be removed. Mr. Boutelle then referred to the removal of the Superintendent of machinery at the Navy-yard because of his demurring to the defacement of the dry dock, and the appointment of a man whose title to the position rested on a service in the Confederate Army. If, said Mr. Boutelle, the time had come or should come to obliterat the memories of the rebellion, tke monuments of the rebellion itself should be first turned down. Let not the work be begun by taking down inscriptions commemorative of the victories of the. armies of the United States. He had a list of great marble memorials growing up all over this land to perpetuate the cause of treason and rebellion. The people of the country ought to say as old General Dix did in regard to the American flag: “If any man attempts to pull down a memorial on the great triumphs of the loyal people of this country, shoot him on the spot.” [Prolonged applaue on the Republican side.] Whether his position that of a member of Congress or a citizen in private life, he entered his protest against this morbid sentimentality, against this false idea of magnanimity which would for one moment tolerate the laying of the hands of desecration on the memorials of the triumphs of the Union Army. In the case of the Norfolk Navyyard and Custom-house, gallant, efficient public servants who had followed the flag of their country across a hundred battle-fields had been turned out that their places might be given to men who had fought to destroy the government. • i-y ■ •” ii. •' -- - ■ l ~ * a-. 9•.iAkAw

Mr. Wise, of Virginia, said that the Secretary of the Navy was called upon to report if any tablet had been destroyed at the Norfolk Navy-yard which commemorated that the dry-dock at Portomouth had been c estroyed. He was glad of the opportunity to inform the gentleman from Maine that the dry dock at Portsmouth had never been destroyed. [Applause on the Democratic sid .] A gentleman asked the Secretary of the Navy if inscriptions had been removed from cannon captured from the Confederate Army.— He would inform the gentleman from Maine that no cannons with such inscriptions had Q ver been in the Portsmouth Navy Yard. [Applause on the Democratic side.] The gentleman from Maine wanted to know if a Union soldier had been discharged and a Confederate given his place. He would inform him that the man who was discharged had never been in the Union army, had never been within a thousand miles of a line of battle, had never heard the music of a minnie ball. [Ap; lr iuse and laughter on the Democrr. ic side. ]

Mr. Boutelle—Did he not render great service to his country? No, sir, replied Mr. Wise. He, sir, was in receipt o f a large salary in a bomb-proof position, while brave men fought the battles of the country. Mr. Brady, of Virginia, asked permission to propound a question. “No, sir! no, sir!” declaimed Mr. Wise, “I will give my attention to you in one minute. r he Confederate, or the one you (Mi. Boutelle) allege was appointed on account of his service in the Confederate army, was appointed on a competetive examination, and the man to whom you refer was removed for beastly intoxication.” [Applause on the Democratic side.]

“One other fact I commend to your consideration: During the Arthur administration the Postmaster of Portsmouth, who was a Union soldier, twice wounded and twice promoted for gallantry, was removed at the dictation of Wililam Mahone. [AppHuse on the Democratic side. J Ah, Mr. Speaker, it is a good thing to xaise a fuss over this, isn’t it? Your fellow-citizens of Maine (addressing Mr. Boutelle) are anxious to know if a Confederate has been appointed in the Norfolk Navy Yard by this A dministration.— Have you forgotten that during the Grant administration and d iring the administration of Hayes and Arthur, you sent the captain of the Confederate guerillas, John S. Mosby, to represent the Government of the United States in a foreign country? [Applause on the Democratic side.] Have you forgotten Longstreet, a Confederate Lieutenant General, who was selected by yoilr Republican administration for tke most important office in Georgia ? Why is it that we have not heard a howl from that ice-bound region about these appointments?” [Laughter on the Democratic side.] “Does the gentleman desire a reply?” inquired Mr. Boutelje. “No, sir,” exclaimed Mr. Wise; “go read the speech as the Senator of the United States, who in all kindness, is, in the estimation of the whole country, a better man than you are. Go read the speech of Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.”

“If Charles Sumner knew that his magnanimous suggestions wo’d be quoted by you for such a purpose he would turn in in his grave,” exelaimed Mr. Boutelle,amid much confnsion. “Go,’ continued Mr. Wise: ‘Read the speech of Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts. If I mistake not he was the first in the country who declared some fifteen years ago that the time had come for peace, and that the bitter memories of the war should be removed, and mark the contrast between the lead, er of the Federal army and the gentleman from Maine. The last words spoken by that great leader, oh his dying bed at McGregor, were hat he thanked God that be clesed

his eyes on the world believing that peace had returned to a distracted country.” [Applause on the Democratic side.] “Now, Mr. Speaker, I want to say one word more to the gentleman from Maine, while we sit here and vote pensions to our soldiers.” “Our soldiers?” exclaimed Mr. Boutelle. “ Yes,” exclaimed Mr. Wise, “our soldiers. We are in the house of our fathers, and we have come to stay. [Applause on the Democratic side.] While we are ready and willing to vote pensions to honorably discharged soldiers who served their country in time of war, we will never consent that it shall be held and proclaimed on high that one who happened to have been in the Confederate army is forever disbarred from the servicsiq jo 9 country. I protest that these honorable soldiers of the Union army shall never again be subjected to the treatment that they were subjected to under the last administration, Avhen men who had fought bravely for the Union, under the circular beari g the name of William Mahone as Chairman and James D. Brady, the present member of this House, as Secretary.” “There was no such circular,” interrupted Mr. Brady. “I ehallenge him to produce the circular.” “When,’’continued Mr. Wise, not heeding the interruption, “they were required, under the whip of a master, to give money for partisan purposes, required like slaves to hold their ballots up, that their bosses might see whether they voted right. Oh, what an attitude in which to place a discharged soldier of the Union! —under the whip and lash of a Confederate Brigadier!” [Loud and continued applause on the Democratic side, and in the galleries. J | The resolution, as amendedj by the Committee on Naval Affairs, was then adopted.