Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1887 — CONGRESSIONAL. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL.

Work of the Senate and the House of Representatives. A memorial of citizens of New Lebanon. Ohio, asking the initiation of negotiations for the acquisition of Canada, was presented in the Senate on the Bth inat. Bills were passed for the settlement of accounts with the Mobile and Ohio Road, to prohibit any agent of the Government from hiring out the labor of prisoners, and to ascertain the extent and value of the vessel fisheries of the United States The President sent the following nominations of postmasters to the Senate: At Aurora, Ind., Sanford G. Given; Chenoa. HI., S.vlvanua Chapman ; Earlville, 111.. Berkley G. Barratt; Monroe, Mich,, Henry B. Noble; Plainwell, Mich., Jacob V. Rogers; New Richmond, Wis., Ezra A. Glover, Jr.; Fort Howard, Wis., Peter V. Cottrell; Benicia, Cal . William H. Foreman; Buffalo, Wyoming, Leoille Simmons; Butte City, Montana, Patrick Talen. The House of Representatives passed bills to indemnify certain Chinamen for losses sustained by a mob at Bock Springs, Wyo., and to prohibit the importation of opinm by any subject of the Emperor of China; for a public building at Houston, to cost $75,000. and to grant the Seal Bocks to the city of San Francisco. Addresses eulogistic of the deceased Bepresentatives from New York were delivered by Messrs. Millard, Van Eaton, Felix Campbell, and others. Memorial services in honor of the late General John A. Logan were held in the Senate on the Sth inst. The Senate chamber was packed with attentive listeners—Mrs. Logan and family being among the number. Fifteen members delivered touching eulogies on the life and services of the deadSanato'r. In the House of Bepresentatives eulogistic addresses relative to the death of the late Congressman Price of Wisconsin were delivered by Bepresentatives Caswell, Thomas of Wisconsin, Hudd, Pettibone, Henderson of lowa, and Breckinridge of Kentucky. The House pass 3d a bill authorizing the Fort Worth and Denver Road to lay track through Indian Territory. The Senate bills appropriating $21,000,0X1 for coast defenses and gun foundrios were sent by the House to theCommittee on Appropriations. Joint resolutions of the Republican members of the Indiana Legislature were presented in the Senate on the 10th inst., protesting against the validity of the election of David Turpie as United States Senator. The Senate amended and passed House bills relating to the importing of mackerel caught during the spawning season, and for the erection of a branch Soldiers’ Home west of the Rocky Mountains, asr also a Senate measure giving right of way through the Cueur d’Alene reservation to two railways. Unfavorable reports were made on bills for a sub-treasury at Louisville and for the eroction of a Federal prison. A hill was reported for the division of the State of Illinois into judicial districts. Senator Cullom introduced a bill providing that no prisoner shall be debarred from receiving a patent nor any patent be declared invalid by reason of its having been first patented in a foreign country, unless it has been introduced into public use in the United Stateß for more than two years prior to the application. Tne President sent the following nominations to the Senate: Postmaster—At Mtflinburg, Pa,, Cyrus A. Eaton;. Houtzdale, Pa., G. W. Dickey; Lewisburg, Pa., William Himmelright; Brownsville, Tonn., Daniel Bond. To be Register of Land Office, Samuel E. Byrne, at Marquette, Mich. To be Indian agents, at Fort Belknap agency, Montana, Edwin C. Fields, of Maryland; Colorado River agency, Arizona, George W. Busey, of Ulinois. The House of Bepresentatives passed bills appropriating $575,000 for a public building at Denver, and granting a railroad right-of-way across the Ft. Douglas military reservation,Utah! The House Judiciary Committee reported adversely the bill for the erection of a United States prison for the confinement of United States prisoners. The Republican members of the commttee made a minority report recommending the passage of the bill. A bill was favorably reported to convey to the city of Aurora, lU., a five acre island in Fox River never surveyed by tho Government, but which has excited the cupidity of a citizen. Senator Stanford introduced a bill in the Senate on the 11th inst. to provide mortars and heavy guns for the armament of the forts, coast defenses, and vessels of the United States. Bills were passed to repay Thomas A. Osuorn, formorly Marshal of Kansas, J8.70J public money lost by him through tha failure of "a private bank ; to give the State of California five per cent, of the not proceeds of land sales within her limits, and to grant railroad rights of way through several Indian reservations. A resolution was passed by the Senate calling on the Secretary of the Interior for information as to the existence of a rule in the Pension Offico whereby hearings are refused to rpplicants because they have applied to Congress for relief. A message was received from the President transmitting without his approval tho dependent pension bill. The House passed thirty-five pension bills. The poatoffice appropriation, bill with an amendment setting aside $500,000 for the mails to South and Central America, passed the Senate on the 12th inst. The House bill for a public building at Portsmouth, Ohio, limiting the cost to $60,000, was also passed. Mr. Cullom presented a petition from over two hundred citizens as Flora, 111., asking such an amendment of the law that the widow and minor children of a pensioner shall receive his allowance after his death. Mr. Williams introduced a bill to authorize the redemption of legaltender notes in coin at San Francisco. Tho Houso of Representatives passed the l-enate bill for the retirement of the trade dollar, with an amendment providing that its recoinage shall not count in the bullion required to be coined under the Bland law.