Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1886 — CONGRESSIONAL. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL.

The W«k «f the Senate and House as Repreaentatiraa. In considering the river and harbor bill, on the 7th inst.. the Senate adopted an item appropriating $150,000 to make the Sturgeon Bay Canal free of toll to commerce. A Presidential veto was sent to the Senate of the bill authorizing the construction of railroads tnrough the Indian reservation in Northern Montana. The Speaker laid before the House of Representatives twenty-one pension veto messages from the President. Mr. Jackson, of Pennsylvania, attacked the veto policy of the Executive, who, he said, was not actuated by regard for the worth and merit of private pension bills. Mr. Bragg (Wis.) said that there seemed to be an idea in the House that it was the duty of the President to abdicate his office in favor of a majority of the Committee on Invalid Pensions. Whenever, in the exercise of his constitutional prerogatives, he examined legislation to see whether or not it was provident and wise, it was charged that he had perpetrated an outrage on the American people. He (Mr. Bragg) was glad to find that at last there was a man in the executive chair who had the nerve and courage to place his hand upon legislation when he thought it improper, whether it were pension or railroad legislation. Congress had gone altogether too far in the way of pension legislation. Before the House went further in pensioning the dead-wood of the army it should make some provision for the men who went to the front in 1861. Mr. Browne (Indiana) criticised the action of the President, and invoked God’s mercy on a man who had the heart to veto a bill for the relief of the widow of a man who died in the line of duty to his country. His Excellency belonged to that class of men who, during the war, were afraid of nothing but danger. Mr. Cannon (Ill.) read in the vetoes the story that while Cleveland was President there would be no further pension legislation. There were great questions in this country calling for the attention of the executive, yet the President brushed them all aside, and appeared anxious to cater to nobody except that little solid knot that came from the solid South. There he stood, looking through a gimlethole with a magnifying glass, hunting for excuses and heaping derision upon the heads of the poor men who lost their health in the service of the country. He assured the gentlemen on the Democratic side that they would have to defend the Presidents actions before November. Mr. Matson showed that nearly all pension legislation of importance had been enacted by and that nearly all of these bills had been vetoed by a Republican Commissioner of Pensions years ago. The Hennepin Canal amendment to the river and harbor bill was taken up in the Senate on the Bth inst. Senators Logon and Cullotn both made speeches in its favor. A bill was introduced authorizing the Secretary of War to have published additional volumes of “The War of the Rebellion” sufficient to supply all Grand Army posts. The resolution for open executive sessions was made the special order for Wednesday, December 8, thus practically disposing of it at the present session. The Senate passed the bill to establish a forest reservation on the headwaters of the Missouri River and on the headwatermof Clark’s Fork of the Columbia River. Resolutions inquiring into the authority under which a so-called State Legislature had been organized in the Territory of Dakota were indefinitely postponed. The Commerce Committee of the Senate reported unfavorably upon the nomination of Captain H. F. Beecher, son of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, to be Collector of Port Townsend, W. T. It is charged that he appropriated to his own use funds intrusted to him for others. The House met, but immediately adjourned, on account of the death of Representative Cole, of Maryland. Mr. Hoar offered a resolution in the Senate on the 9th inst., calling on the President for ini formation as to the seizure or detention in any foreign ports of any American vessels, the pretexts or alleged causes therefor, and what efforts have been made to provide redress for such seizures and to prevent their recurrence. The resolution went over. Mr. Call offered a resolution calling on the President to direct the American representative in Mexico to investigate the truth of statements made in the newspapers that citizens of the United States are confined in Mexican dungeons without trial for alleged offenses againstthe laws of Mexico, and that their final trial has been postponed without cause, and requiring the United States Government (if such statements are found to be true) to' demand the trial of such persons and their humane treatment* The Senate, in executive session, rejected the nomination of John Goode, of Virginia, tobe Solicitor General of the United States. In the House of Representatives a motion to refer to the Committee on Invalid Pensions the message of the President vetoing the bill granting a pension to Sarah Ann Bradley gave rise to an animated debate, in the course of which the Executive was arraigned by Messrs, Grosvenor, Barrows, McConias, and Boutelle, and defended by Mr. Springer. The message was referred—l3o to 118. The President sent to the House a message vetoing the bill for a public building at Dayton, Ohio, on the ground that the Federal officials at that point are well accommodated at a rental of ¥3,850 per annum. A House bill authorizing tho Chicago, Burlington and Northern Railway to bridge the Mississipi River at Dubuque, lowa, passed the Senate on the 10th inst. A resolution was adopted by tho Senate calling on the President for information as to the seizure or detention of American vessels in foreign ports. The Senate discussed the Hennepin Canal project at length, but did not reach a vote on it. After a warm debate the House adopted a resolution setting apart July 13 for tho consideration of such business as may be presented by the Ways and Means Committee, not to include any bill raising revenue, the main object being to allow the House to reach tho joint resolution reported from the Ways and Means Committee looking to the paying out of some of the surplus money in the Treasury. The House passed the general deficiency appropriation bill. Mr. Morrison reported the Randall tariff bill adversely from the Ways and Means Committee.