Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1886 — CONGRESSIONAL. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL.

The Work of the Senate and House of Representatives. The Chair laid before the Senate, on the 27th ult., a communication from the Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio, transmitting a transcript of testimony taken by a committee of that House, and the’ report of the same committee on the subject of charges against the official integrity of certain liiombers of that House in connection with the elecii n of the Hon. Henry B. Payne as United States senator. Mr. Payne at once rose in his seat in tne Senate and entered a most emphatic denial of charges and invited the most exhaustive scrutiny of all his acts and of his private correspondence. The whole thing, he said, was an attempt to circulate baseless gossip and scandal, everything substantial in the way of charges having been discredited and disproved by the testimony. He was willing to leave the matter with the Committee on Privileges and elections of the Senate, to which committee it was referred. The Senate passed bills allotting lends in s?veralty to the Indians of the Round Valley Reservation, California; appropriatings3oo,ooo for the extension of the White House, and authorizing the building of railroad bridges across the St. Croix River, between Prescott, Wis., and Still--water, Minn., and across the Missouri River at or near Kansas City, Mo., at or near Council 1 Bluffs, lowa, on the line of railroad between either Clay or Jackson County, Missouri, and the county of Wyandotte, Kansas, near Atchison, Kansas, at or near Salino City, Mo., near St Chatles, Mo., at or near St. Joseph, Mo., and near Chamberlain, D. T. The Senato has confirmed the nomination of C. W. West as Governor of Utah. In the House of Representatives Mr. Breckinridge introduced a bill to reduce the number of internal revenue officers and to amend the internal revenue laws. The House Judiciary Committoo reported adversely a bill to prohibit aliens from acquiring title or owning lands within the United '■ States.

The postoffice appropriation bill was- discussed in the Senate on the 28th ult., the bone of contention being the amendment appropriating SBOO,OOO for carrying South and Central American, Chinese, and Australian mails and authorizing tho Postmaster General to make, after due advertisement, contracts for five years with American steamships. The House of Representatives debated the river and harbor bill, and passed the bill providing that hereafter no alien who has not declared his intention to becomo a citizen of the United States ■ shall be granted a license as pilot, engineer, mate, captain, or other officer on any steam* vessel carrying tho flag of the United States.

Mr. Beck (Ky.) spoke for three hours and a half in the Senate on the 29th ult. in opposition to the subsidy clause of tho postoffice appropriation bill. Mr. Hale (Me.) addressed tho Senate in favor of the Bubsidy amendment. Tho Senate passed the 4th of July claims bill, with an item of $67,000 for the heirs of Ayres P. Merrill, of Mississippi, for supplies furnished the Union army during the war. In the House the amendment of Mr. Hepburn, of lowa, to the river and' harbor bill, that th'O' appropriation for the Missouri River shall be expanded jmder the direction of tho Secretary of War without tho intervention of the Missouri River Commission, was defeated. A bill was reported to the House providing for the reception of .trade dollars at. their face value in all payments to the Government, or for exchange at the Sub-Treasury for standard dollars, to lie transmitted to the ■ mints as bullion. Mr. Hall (Iowa) gave notice that he would call up the Campbell-Weaver contested election base May 4. The Committee ■ on Public Lands reported a hill to grant the right of way through the public lands to any canal or ditch company formed for tho purposeof irrigation. The postoffice appropriation bill occupied the attention of tho Senate on the 30th ult., and Mr. Hale, of Maine, finished his speech in support of the subsidy amendment. Mr. Brown, of Goorgi.a, also spoke in favor of it. The bill to. make Omaha a port of entry was vetoed by the President for the reason that at that place the Government does not have the necessary officers for the appraisement of merchandise and the collection of duties. The President sent the following nominations, of Postmasters to the Senate : At Brooklyn, N. Y r ., Joseph C. Hendrix; at Baltimore, Md., Frank Brown, vice I. Parker Vesey, resigned; at Shippensburg, Pa., J. A. C. McCune; at Washington, Kansas, James S. Vedder. In the House of Representatives the Committee on Indian Affairs reported favorably a bill giving the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railroad the right of way through the Indian Territory. The House rejected an amendment to the river and harbor bill offered by Mr. Warner (Ohio), providing that the appropriation for the improvement of the Mississippi River shall be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War instead of the Mississippi River Commission, and providing for a Congressional committee to investigate the work of the Mississippi River Commission. The House refused, by a vote of 33 to 129, to strike out the levee clause. The Senators took a rest, and the House of Representatives only was in session on the Ist inst. Mr. Cox, of North Carolina, from tho Committee on Foreign Affairs, reported a bill amendatory of tho Chinese immigration act. Also, providing indemnity to certain Chinese for losses sustained within the jurisdiction of the United States, Mr. Ward, of Indiana, from the Committee on Postoifices and Roads, reported a bill authorizing the employment of messengers in the mail service. Mr. McAdoo, of New Jersey, from tho Committee on Naval Affairs, reported a bill authorizing the construction of dry-docks at certain navy-yards,