Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1886 — NATIONAL LAW MAKERS. [ARTICLE]

NATIONAL LAW MAKERS.

Brief §aw>ry of the Proceedlac* ®f CoagreM. The Senate took up the bill repealing the preemption and timber culture laws at its session on June 22, and rejected the Ingalls amendment applying to all lands the Blair amendment prohibiting the acauisition of more than 640 acres of desert land under one ownership. The original amendment was then rejected by a vote of 42 to 3, Senators Blair (N. H.), Dolph (Oregon), and Teller (CoL), voting yea The President has sent the following nominations to the Senate: David N. Burke, of New York, Consul of the United States at Puerto Cabello; Edward T. Pittman, Receiver of Public Moneys, Durango, Colorado; Samuel L. Gilson, of Pennsylvania, Agent for the Indians at Fort Peck Agency, Montana; John M. Galloway, appraiser of the right of way of the Southern Kansas Railroad Company through Indian Territory. Registers of Land Offices— Pierce H. Ryan, Humboldt, Cal.; W. E. Copeland, Carson City, Nev.; Richard McCloud, Durango, Col.; J. L. Camp, Prescott, Arizona. Postmasters—Fannie D. Porter, El Paso, Tex.; Thomas H. Perrin, Alton, Ill.; James Able, Auburn, HI.; John J. Ankeny, Minneapolis, Minn.; S. Curtis Symonds, Hudson, Wis.; James E. McDonald, Ligonier, Ind.; Frederick A. Edwards, Webster City, Iowa; Joseph J. Topliff, Longmont, Col. In the House of Representatives Mr. Morrison called up the proposed change of rule making it in order to amend a general pension bill by adding a provision for the imposition of a tax to meet the expenditures required hv the bill. A long and hot debate ensued. The debate took a wide range, and although in its opening stages it presented the rare spectacle of the rival leaders of the • majority party, Mr. Randall and Mr. Morrison, in apparent accord, they soon fell to belaboring each other in good set terms. Mr. Morrison and General Bragg maintained that the Randall faction, in voting against consideration of the tariff bill, had violated the pledges contained in the “platform” of 1884. Mr. Randall, on the contrary claimed that his course in the House upon the tariff question had been in entire accord with the “spirit” of the aforesaid platform, and resented the criticisms upon his conduct with much, warmth. A motion by Mr. Reed to lay Mr. Morrison’s motion on the table was defeated, and the motion went over. Nine vetoes of private pension bills were laid before the House, and referred. Several of the President’s terse sentences and ironical suggestions were greeted with applause and laughter. Mr. Morrison informed the House that he had concluded for the present not to renew his motion to go into committee of the whole on the tariff bill. President Cleveland sent in seven vetoes of private pension bills to the Senate June 23. The Senate voted to reconsider the vote by which it had passed the bill prohibiting Congressmen from acting as attorneys for land-grant railroads, and the measure was then refereed to the Judiciary Committee. In discussing the matter, Mr. Beck said he was himself a lawyer, and would not place any indignity on the profession of the law. When elected to Congress, however,* he found that' his public duties required all his time—not being possessed of the transcendent abilities that the Senator from New York perhaps possessed. The country believed that the $5,000 a year received by Senators and Representatives in Congress entitled the people to their whole services, and if Senators or Representatives could not live on that compensation they had no right to supplement it by taking fees from corporations whose interests wero adverse to those of the people. The entire legislative day in the House was occupied by the Republicans in filibustering to prevent the Democrats from adopting a rule which would result in setting apart for the benefit of pensioners the revenues to be derived from a tax on incomes. Messrs. Morrison and Randall have fought shoulder to shoulder in this fight, and only ten Democrats, including Messrs. Townshend and Worthington, of Illinois, aided the Republican opposition. Nothing occurred to break the uninteresting round of roll-calls except an occasional pass between Morrison and members on the Republican side. The latter frequently proposed to improve the time by going on with the appropriation bills or with the Blair pension bill. Randall replied that he would take care of the appropriation bills, and Morrison informed them that there would be no trouble about the pension bill if the Republicans would agree to amend it by providing for a tax to meet the expenditures that would result from its passage. The proceedings were conducted in good temper on both sides, and were ended by the arrival of the fixed hour for adjournment. The Democrats did not have a quorum at any time, and the Sergeant-at-arms was unable to find any of the absentees in the city. The bill repealing the pre-emption and tim-ber-culture laws passed the Senate, ou June 24, by a vote of 34 yeas to 20 hays. The Senate passed the bill providing for the appointment and compensation of a United States District Judge for tho Southern District of Alabama, with an amendment offered by Senator Logan (Ill.) which fixes the salaries of all United States District Judges at $5,000 a year, and prohibits nepotism on the part of Federal Judges. The Fitz John Porter bill was allowed to reach a vote in the Senate on the 25th of July, although the debate only began at a late hour the previous afternoon. General Logan limited himself to a speech of two or three hours. Senator Conger restrained himself entirely. Senator Teller spoke briefly, as did Senator Blair, and Senator Plumb only talked an hour. Senator Plumb addressed himself wholly to the Democratic Senators. He charged every ex-Confeder-ate openly with voting for the bill on previous occasions because they wanted to reward a Union General who helped them to win the second battle of Bull Run. Mr. Plumb’s remarks brought Mr. Butler to his feet, and he resented in the most impassionate manner the charge that he and some of his colleagues had any friendly feeling for a General who they believed betrayed the flag he was fighting under, and he* added with a littlo of the air of the South Carolina code, that if the Sonator from Kansas had made his remarks a little more personal, and in another place, he (Butler) would have resented them in a different fashion. The bill was passed—yeas 30, nays 17. In the House of Representatives Mr. Bayne, of Pennsylvania, made a bitter attack upon the* President for his vetoes of pension bills, twenty of which had just been read. ‘‘He was astounded at the vetoes,” says the report. “In the whole history of the Republic,” he said, “they wero without a parallel. Austere and. rigorous Andrew Jackson, desirous of asserting his power aud making individuality conspicuous, had never monopolized power as the President had done with reference to these pension bills. This man had even had the temerity to sneer at the reports of a committee of this House. He had the temerity to put tho seal of his sarcasm on the reports of a committee granting a pension to the widow of some man who had been slain in the service of his country. Who had invested this, man with such power that he must assert himself and say to tho people of the country: “I am larger than you all, and I know more about what should becomo law than the 325 members of the House of Representatives and tho seventy-six members of tho Senate.” It was a fault of men endowed with brief authority to arrogate knowlodge that they did not possess. “He is no better than any other American citizen," said Mr. Bayne, “and he, by G— d, is not tho equal oi any man who periled Ills life and went out to save the Union.’* [Applause on the Republican side.] Mr. Matson, of Indiana, defended the President, who, he declared, was fair and just und prompted by his conscience. Two men might honestly differ upon a question, and that was all there was in all this talk. All that had been said in the way of abuse of the President was uncalled for. The President was ail honest man and the people of the country knew it. [Applause on the Democratic side and in the galleries.] Mr. Peters (Kan.)—We cannot honor the President for an ignorance of his prerogatives. Mr. Matson -He knows his prerogatives, and, knowing them, he has the courage to exercise them. [Applause oil the Democratic side and in the galleries.l Mr. Blanchard (La.) thought that there was no need to answer the assault mode upon the President. The President could stand the assault made upon him by the gentleman from Pennsylvania or any other man. The country was prepared to applaud tho action of the Executive when he pointed out the mistakes which had been mode by Congress. The sundry civil appropriation bill occupied the exclusive attention of the House, at its session on June 26. The bill was completed iix committee of the whole, after which the House The Senate was not in session.