Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1875 — CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS.

On the 14th the Attorney-General's annual report was laid before the Senate. A bill was passed extending the duration of the court of the Commissioners of Alabama Claims six months. A resolution was passed—3s to S3—calling upon the Secretary of the Treasury for a list of unsettled accounts of Government officers and defalcations. After considerable debate the motion to sllow Mr McMillan to withdraw his papers claiming a seat as Senator from Louisiana was agreed to—yeas 30, nays 28 .. Among the bills introduced in the House was one by Mr. Blaine, proposing an amendment to the Constitution prov ding that no State shall make any law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and that no money raised by taxation in any State for the support of the public schools, or derived from any public fund thereof, or any public lands devoted thereto, shall ever be under the control of any religious sect; and that no money or lands so donated shall be divided among religions sects or denominations. A bill was also introduced by Mr. Davis, of North Carolina, to repeal the act forbidding the payment of the accounts, claims and demands of Southern citizens for Quartermasters’ store-, etc., and appropriating $500,000 to pay for the same. • Other bills were introdu ed—to repeal the act for the resumption of specie payments; against subsidies and grants of lands to railroads; to reduce postage; to establish a mint lnßt. Lewis for the coinage of gold and silver; to remove political disabilities from all citizens of the United states: to provide for the admission of Utah as a State; to fund United States legal-tender notes and to prepare the way for the resumption of specie payments as soon as practicable; to amend the Constitution relative to the Presidential term of office. The Senate bill extending the duration of the court of the Alabama Commission was passed. Resolutions were offered and laid over under the rule—requesting the President to transmit to the House al) the correspondence in reference to the dismissal of ex-Sena(gr John B. Henderson as one of the special counsel of the United States in the prosecution of the whisky-fraud cases before the United Stales Court at St. Louis; directing the Secretary of the Treasury to transmit copies of all letters, telegrams, orders and instructions relating to the organization and prosecution of the present movement against the whisky ring at St; Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee; directing the Secretary of War to transmit copies, orders and instructions under which Quartermaster-Gen. Meiggs is acting for the G vernment during his absence from the United cates.

On the 15th a large number of memorials were presented in the Senate asking for the appointment of a commission to inquire Into the ma' ufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. Mr. Morton submit.ed a resolution for the appointment of a committee of five to inquire in o the hands, violence and intimidation alleged to have been practiced at the late election in Mississippi. Mr. Morton also submitted concurrent resolutions decla ing that the people of the United States are one people in the sense of national unity; that the National Government is not a compact between the States in their municipal and corporate characters, but was formed by the people of the United States in their primary capacity; that the rights of the States are defined and guaranteed by the Constitution, and not by an outside theory of State sovereignty, and th t the rights of the States cannot be enlarged or diminished except by an amendment to the Constitution ; that local domestic government by the States, within the limits of the Constitution, is an essential of our free republican system; that the doctrine that a State has the right t secede from the Union is inconsistent with the idea ofmationality, is in conflict with the spirit and structure of the Constitution, and should be regarded as having been forever extinguished by the suppression of the rebellion. Consid' rable debate was had on a resolution offered by Mr. Stevenson calling for information relative to the prosecution of the p rties accused of whisky frauds, and the resolution was withdrawn... Several bills were intro, duced in the House, among which were: To amend the Postage law relating to postage on third-class mailable matter; for the removal of all political disabilities imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution; reducing the salary of the President after March 4,1877. A resolution was offered and referred declaring in favor of prompt legislation to render effective the act of Jan. 14, 1875, providing for the return to .specie payment on the Ist i f January, 1879. A resolution declaring against the granting by Congress of subsidies to public or private associations or corporations was adopted —yeas 223, nays 83. A resolution was also adopted—232 to 18—declaring that any departure from the time-honored custom adopted by Washington and other Presidents in retiring ’from office after their second terms would be unwise, unpatriotic and fraught with peril to our free institutions. House adjourned to the 17th. On the 16th, in the Senate, bills were introduced —to provide for the appointment of a committee on the subject of the alcoholic liquor traffic; to authorize the appointment of special agents to investigate "frauds under the Pension laws. A resolution adopted by the House to adjourn on the 20th to Jan. 4 was amended by inserting Jan. 5, and adopted. Mr. Spencer, of Alabama, offered a resolution, which was adopted, instructing the Committee on Privileges and Elections to inquire into the manner of his election to the Senate, as to whether corrupt means bad been used to secure his election, as had been alleged. Mr. Morton's resolution providing for a special committee of five to inquire into the circumstances attending the recent election in Mississippi was debated at considerable length... .House not in session. On the 17th a resolution was offered in the Senate, by Mr. Edmunds, for the election on the 7th of January of a President pro tem.; referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections. The resolution for a special committee to inquire into the recent election in Mississippi came up as unfinished business and was laid over until the 20th, to which date the Senate adjourned....ln the House the Senate amendment postponing the day of meeting after the holidays from the 4th to the Sth of January was agreed to. Among the bills introduced were—to repeal the duties on teas and tobacco; providing that all pensions on account of death from wounds or disease received or contracted in thje service shall commence from the date- of death or discharge. Mr. /*age, of California, offered a preamble and resolution to the effect that the Constitution imposes no limits on the eligibility of any citizen to the office of President further than that he must be native born, and of a certain age and time of residence, and that any attempt by the House to limit or forestall the public will on a question of such imp rtance is an evas on of the powers reserved by the people at large to be freely exercised by them without any interference from any legislative body whatever; the previous ques tion was voted down -120 to 89. Adjourned to the 20th.