Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1887 — CONGRESSIONAL. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL.

Work of the Senate and the Home of Representatives. A resolution offered oy Mr. Hoar, instructing the Committee on Privileges and Elections to investigate the allegations made by three residents of Washington County. Texas, as to their being driven from their homes, compelled to abandon their property, and deprived of the right of suffrage in that county, came np in the Senate Jan. 26, and gave rise to a warm debate. Mr. Coke protestad that the proposed investigation was into a subject outside the jurisdiction of Congress. The State of Texas had State autonomy. Her constitution and laws were in full force and operation. She could redress all grievances, personal or otherwise, occurring wi.hin her birders. The subject was one peculiarly within the jurisdiction of the State, and the resolution was an intermeddling with sometning belonging wh >lly to the State, and outside of the jurisdiction of the General Government He gave a history of the case, to the effect that a respectable white Democrat had b en shot by a colored man at the polls near Brenh&m, Texas ; that three colored men had been arrested and placed in jail, charged with that crime ; that a mob had taken tuem out of jail and hanged them, and that the three petitioners, Hackworth, Moore, and Schultze, who had Been prominent in influencing and deluding the negro population there, had supposed their lives to be in danger and had fled the country. He had received a telegram from D, C. Giddings, of Brenham, formerly a Representative in Congress from Texas, saying tnat the three petitioners were of the worst type of scalawags; that they had been mainly instrumental in stirring up strife between the races, and were charged with investigating tne murder referred to; that they were not driven from their homes nor were their lives threatened, but that their own guilty consciences had caused them to leave the country for the country’s good Mr. Hoar said the three petitioners represented themselves to be men of property and wealth: that they had been earning their living in peaceful, lawful, and honorable ways; and that they had been driven out from their homes on American soil. Mr. Hoar, referring to the speeches on the fisheries bill, asked whether the right of an American citizen was less sacred in the eye of the American Congress when it happened to be violated on American soil. Mr. Eustis (a member of the committee) opposed the resolution as a “waving of the bloody shirt a little in advance of the usual season.” Mr. Evarts (a member of the committee) sustained the resolution and argued that now, when there was an opportunity to prove, under the authority of the Senate, that this was a mere “waving of the bloody shirt.” it should do so. The resolution was adopted—3l to 25. By a vote of 17 to 31 the Senate rejected the nomination of J. C. Matthews, a colored Democrat from Albany, as recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia. The Senate fisheries bill was laid before the House, and on motion of Mr. Belmont it was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and leave granted the committee to report at any time. The agricultural experiment station bill passed the Senate, Jan. 27. It directs the establishment in connection with the agricultural , coll ges of a department to be known and designated as an “Agricultural Experiment Station.” Where fuere are two such colleges in one State the amount appropriated to each State and Territory for this purpose ($15,000 a year) is to be equally divided between them unless the State Legislature shall otherwise direct. The object and duty of such experiment stations is: To conduct original researches or to verify experiments on the physiology of plants and" animals ; the diseases to which they are severally subject and the remedies therefor; and chemical composition of useful plants ; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping; the capacity of new plants or trees for acjlimation; the analysis of soils and water; the chemical composition of i**.nures; the adaptation and value of grasses and forage plants; the composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food for domesiic animals; the scientific and economic questions involved in the production of butter and cheese, and such other researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States as may be deemed advisable. The Senate also passed the House bill for the relief of dependent parents and of honorably discharged soldiers and sailors now disabled. A resolution was adopted directing an investigation by the Engineer Bureau of the alleged obstructions to commerce in the Columbia River by salmon traps and wheels. Senator Olngalls introduced a bill to amend the Revised Statutes so as to provide that no person shall be engaged in or carry on the business of rectifier, wholesale or retail liquor dealer,wholesale or retail dealer in malt liquors, or distiller, nor shall till! Collector of Internal Revenue receive from any such person any money in payment of special taxes or for revenue stamps, until the dealer has first made a sworn state-, ment that he has fully complied with all the law 3 concerning his business of the district in which tho business is to be conducted. A rosotion, previously offered by Mr. Hoar in executive session, declaring that after the Senate has refused its advice and consent to the appointment of auy person to office, it is contrary te the spirit and intent of the Constitution to designate the same person to the same office immediately thereafter, was taken up by the Senate and referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections. The House passed the river and harbor bill —yeas, 154; nays, 94—in the exact form in which it was reported from the Committee on Rivers and Harbors. The House Judiciary Committee reported adversely a joint resolution providing for the election of United Statos Senators by the people of the States, and it was placed upon the calendar. Mr. Edmunds, in presenting to the Senate, on the 28th ult., a memorial from manufacturers and business men in Vermont for a repeal or reduction of internal revenue taxes, said he wished to urge on the Finance Committee the importance of the subject of reducing, if not altogether repealing, this remnant of the unpleasantness of twenty-five years ago. Mr. Muhone presented numerous petitions from. Virginia manufacturers of and dealers in tobacco, for the abolition of the tobacco tax. Messrs. Evarts, Teller, Spooner, Pugh, and Eustis were selected as the Senatorial Committje to investigate the alleged Texas outrages. The President sent in a message vetoing the bill granting a pension to Benjamin Obekiah. “The bill,” he says, “directs tnat the beneficiary named therein be placed upon the pension roll subject to the provisions and limitations of the pension laws. In July, 1885, the person named in this bill was placed upon the pension roll at a rate determined upon by the Pension Bureau pursuant to the provisions and limitations of the pension laws, and it is entirely certain that the special act now presented to m'o would give tbs claimant no new rights or additional benefits.” The President also vetoed the bill for the relief of H. K. Belding, who was a mail contractor in Minnesota in 1860. The measure is vetoed because the President thinks the evidence in the case gives rise to a strong presumption that the claim is entirely fictitious. Edward F. Mealty, of Maryland was nominated to be Consul at Mnnich. The Houbs of Representatives passed the Washington cable-rail-way charter and agreed to a conference report on the bill making an annual appropriation of $400,001) for the equipment of the militia forces. The bill exto uding the limits of the Yellowstone National Park on the east and west, and diminishing them by two miles on the north, passed the Senate on the 29th inst. The Senate by a vote of 24 to 20, placed at the foot of the special orders the Judiciary Committee’s substitute for the Beck railroad attorney bill. Mr. Beck, with some show of anger, gave notice that the measure must be voted on, and he should call it up -from day to-day. The House of, Representatives pas sod a bill setting aside SIO,O 4) for a special distribution of seed in Texas by the Commissioner of Agriculture. The postoffice appropriation bill, in which there is an increase of $159,090 over iast \ year’s figures for the investigation of mail depredations in fourth-class postofflees, was - passed. The committee on alleged violations of the rule regulating admissions to tho floor recommended that the rules be so far amended as to adpriit to the floor only such ex-members as are nest-interested personally or as attorneys or agents In any claim or bill pending before Congress.

An actor may be another actor’s enemy and yet take his part.