Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1887 — CONGRESSIONAL. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL.

Work of the Senate and the House of Representatives. A House bill forfeiting certsie lands granted to the State of Michigan for a railroad from Ontonagon to the Wisconsin State line passed the Senate on the Ist inst. The Senate passed fifty-seven private pension biUs in twenty-five minutes, as also bills to convey to the city of Aurora, 111., a small island in Fox River; to authorize the bridging of the Missouri at Yankton; to annex a portion of Idaho to Washington Territory; and to give right of way through Indian Territory to the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Road. The Senate ordered the preparation of an index to its secret journal for the fifty years from 1829 to 1879. The injunction of secrecy will probably be removed next autumn. The conference report on the river and harbor bill was adopted by both houses. It appropriates nearly $10,000,000. The House of Representatives passed the Mexican pension appropriation of $2,300,000 for the remainder of the fiscal year, and $4,000,000 for next year. The legislative and deficiency appropriation bills were passed under suspension of the rules. At the evening session bills were passed for bridging the Missouri at Omaha and Kansas City, and the Mississippi at Keokuk. The Senate passed the naval appropriation bill on the 2d inst., with an amendment providing for six protected steel cruisers and for the purchase of Ericsson’s Destroyer. In executive session Public Printer Benedict was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 37 to 19. The report of the Committee ou Printing recommended his rejection because he did not answer to the requirements of the law, which stipulates that the incumbent of this office shall be a practical printer, which, technically speaking, Mr. Benedict is not. having never learned the trade. He gained what knowleige he has of the printer's art while editor of a newspaper and proprietor of a job office. Mr. Gorman and Mr. Miller, of New York, defended Benedict, and argued that having proved himself a competent man during six months of trial he should not be rejected upon a technicality, which appeared to be tne opinion of the Senate, for twenty Republicans voted in his favor. The Senate Committee on the District of Columbia reported adversely upon the nomination of James M. Trotter to be Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. The nomination of Lieut. Greely to be Brigadier General and Chief Signal Officer was rep irted favorably. The House of Representatives receded from its amendments to the Senate retaliatory fisheries bill and the Pacific railroad investigation resolutions. The Committee on Ways and Meaus made an adverse report on the bill for the relief of sufferers by fire at Eastport, Me. Senator a bitter attack on Speaker Carlisle, in the Senate on the 3d inst. He stated that by holding back the appropriation hills both the Senate and House were compelled in the closing hours of the session to submit to the dictation of three or four members of the House Committee on Appropriations. He also complained that the Speaker haa recently refused to recognize a n ember desiring to make a motion of which the Chair disapproved. The Kentucky Senators rose and defended Speaker Carlisle from the charge of usurpation of power. The Senate passed bills for public buildings at Dayton, Sioux City, Lafayette, and Lynn over vetoes by the President, and the House bill appropriating $8,000,008 to pay pensions to Mexican veterans. The President sent to the Senate the nomination of Chauucey R. Schultz, of Missouri, to be Assistant Treasurer of the United States at St. Louis, Mo.; also the following Registers of Land Offices : At Concordia, Kan., Samuel Demeres; Deadwood, D. T., John R. Whiteside; Blackfoot, Idaho, Frank W. Bean. The President approved the act authorizing the President to defend the rights of American fishiug vessels, American fishermen, Am -rican trading and other vessels in the British Dominions of North America ; also the Indian ap propriation bill; the act to establish an agricultural experiment station in connection with the colleges established under the act of July 2, 1882; and the act relating to the division of the State of Illinois into judicial districts and to provide for holding terms of court of the Northern District at Peoria. The House of Representatives passed Senate Dills to repeal the tenure of office act; to accept the Highwood tract from the Commercial Club of Chicago; to appropriate $35j,00J for the purchase of a postoifice site at ban Francisco; an attempt to pass the Senate bill pensioning Mrs. Logan was defeated. The bill admitting free of duty articles intended for the Minneapolis exposition, and the Senate bill authorizing the construction of a bridge across the Mississippi at Grand Tower, 111., were passed. Chairman Curtin, of the select committee created by the House of Representatives to inquire into the cause and extent of Western railroad strikes, submitted the report of that commtitee. By far tho larger part of the report is devoted to a history of the origin and progress of the Missouri Pacific strike, and a recapitulation of the testimony taken by the committee. Congress adjourned sine die at noon on Friday, March 4. Among the appropriations of national importance that failed during the closing hours were the following: The deficiency, the District of Columbia, and the fortification bills. The river and harbor appropriation bill, including the Hennepin Canal, failed because of the failure cf the President to sign it before the adjournment. Tho anti-polygamy bill became a law without the President's signature, ten days having elapsed after its passage before the. nnal adjournment of Congress. The failure of the deficiency bill is likely to embarrass the postal service, as it contained provisions for supplying pressing demands for postal-cards, stamps, and other items. The legal machinery of the Government will also be materially disarranged during the remainder of the fiscal year, as no money will be available for jurors’, witnesses’, or marshals' fees, and many prisoners cannot be tried for luunths to come A number of soldiers claims, aggregating $703,000, which had been certified by the Treasury, will fail also of settlement. Navy department officials say the failure oi the bill will cause a stoppage of all work on the now cruisers Boston and Chicago. It is expected that the Atlanta can be completed, as bat little remains to be done on her. Rhe Senate in executive session confirmed James W. Trotter to be Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, and Captain Greely to be Chief Signal Officer, with the rank of Brigadier General. A Washington special thus describes the closing scenes in the House: “All night long the conference committees were wrestling over the contested portions of the appropriations, and the two houses were necessarily kept in session to await reportß thereon and take final action. It was the most tedious and uninteresting all night session, and after midnight, when the galleries had been emp-ird of the crowd, at least one-half of the members went to their lodgings or to committee-rooms and convenient resting-places to sleep. A quorum was not present at any time after that hour, but the forms of legislation were kept up, and a number of bills were passed. The shouting and rushing for a chance to get bills before the House for action was kept up at intervals, but did not disturb members sleeping in various parts of the hall. Wide-awake and tireless fellows unbent their dignity, played pranks upon each other, and resorted to other boyish means of whiling away the time. During the night the announcement of an agreement upon tne legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation bill brightened the prospeot so that the diversion of a brief debate on a proposition to give clerks to Representatives as well as Senators was indulged in. Meanwhile the portions of the bill that had been in dispute were being enrolled, and the bill was ready for the President in good time. The House remained firm against the mail Bubsidy, and so the Senata receded and the postoifice appropriation was saved. The conferrees on the fortifications bill did not agree, but had so far reconciled differences that it is believed a few more hours would have brought them together. The Sioux City public building bill, vetoed by the President, was again passed by the Senate, but in the House William L. Scott, of Pennsylvania, fought it and beat it because Mr. Struble, of lowa, had defeated the Sioux City bridge bill, in which Scott was interested. ”

Learn from the earliest days to insure your principles against the perils of ridicule; you can no more exercise your reason if you live in the constant dread of laughter than you can enjoy your life if you are in the constant terror of death.— Sydney Smith.