Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1884 — THE NEWS CONDENSED. [ARTICLE]

THE NEWS CONDENSED.

COIteBESSrON AI, proceedings. - A resolution was offered in the Senate on the Bth tost by Mr. Hale, and adopted, calling on the Secretary of the Navy for a statement of the original cost of the vessel? on the naval register, and the amount expended in repairs. Mr. Van Wyck presented a resolution forbidding the Secretary of the Interior to issue -land patents to the New Orleans and Pacific road .until Congress has determined the questions involved in the claims of the company. 11l response to a request of the Senate the Secretary of the Treasury submitted to that body i>ftt< :nl figures concerning the national debt. The highwater mark was reached Aug. SI, 1865, when the nation owed $2,766,431,571; June so, lXat, this colossal burden had been reduced to *1,551,0Ji,207. The reduction, including Interest and less cash in the Treasury, has amounted to $1,205,340,363. In the House, Mr. Hunt introduced a joint Resolution for the appropriation of t 1,030,000 to Continue work on the Mississippi river improvements. Bills were introduced to erect public buildings at. El Paso and Houston, Tex., and La Crosse, Wis.; to bridge the Mississippi at Memphis;, to admit Washington Territory as a State; to regulate the Bale and manufacture of liquors in the Territories, and to increase the pension of the widow or General Frank P. Blair. Mr. Beach offered a constitutional amendment providing tor uniform laws on the sublect of marriage and divorce. The President submitted a message recommending an appropriation of $1,000,000 to'continue the work of improving the Mississipi river below Cairo. The President also sent in a message on the Illinois canals. He recites the action of the Illinois General Assembly offering the Illinois and Michigan canal to the United States Government and the recent action of Congress In directing a survey for the Hennepin canal, and commends the whole subject to the present National Legislature as a matter worthy of its early consideration. •> Mr. Plumb presented a petition in the Senate. on the 9th inst., from 200,000 veterans for a soldiers' home in Kansas. Mr. Anthony offered a resolution that the committee on foreign relations report on the expediency of legislation In retaliation for the exclusion of American meats from foreign countries. Mr. Logan presented a petition for pensions for ex-prisoners of war. A resolution was adopted thatthe Attorney General furnish copies of reports on abuses in the Federal courts in the Southern State’. A bill was passed ' to pay $6,000 to the parents of Lieut. Schwatka for land taken for a military reservation in 1850. In the House, Mr. Hasson introduced a resolution, which was unanimously adopted, instructing the Committee on Foreign Affairs to ascertain whether the “ favored nation " clause in our treaties has been violated by Germany, France, or any other foreign Powers, and if so to report what may be deemed necessary In the way of retaliatory legislation. A bill for the relief of Fits John Porter was reported by the Military committee. A message from the President was received, submittingthe repoit of the Mississippi River commission, and after a long debate the document, was referred to the Committee on Rivera and- Harbors. Mr. Bagley intrcduced a bill to appropriate $130,000 toward the expense of placing the statue of Liberty in the harbor of New York. The House missed a resolut'on of sorrow at the death of Edward Lasker, the German statesman. Mr Dawes introduced a bill in the Senate, on the 10th inst., providing lor the establishment of a postal telegraph system by the Government A communication was received from the Secretary of the Interior, announcing depredations in the Yellowstone park. Mr. Plumb presented a petition with 1,500 signatures, asking that Oklahoma be opened to settlement Foui bills were introduced in relation t» pensions and awards of land to soldiers. It was resolved to request the Secretary of the Interior to suspend the issue of land patents to the New Orleans and Pacific Railroad company until Congress shall determine the claims of the corporation. A resolution by Mr. Voorhees was adopted directing the Secretary of War to inform the Senate of the amount of money required to equalize the bounties of those who served in the late war. Mr. Cullorn introduced*bill for the construction of the Illinois and Mississippi canal. In the House of Representatives, the oath was administered to Mr. Clirdv, of Missouri. Mr. Rosecrsns introduced a bill for the relief oi Col. Thomas Worthington, of Ohio. A resolutioi was offered calling on the Secretary of State for information as to the irregular practices in the importation of goods and what legislation is necessary. A joint resolution for the immediate appropriation of $1,000,000 for Mississippi river improvements Was referred. A resolution was adopted calling on the Secretary of the Treasury to give his reasons for discontinuing the issue of silver certificates. The House adjourned until the 14th A bill appropriating $1,000,000 to ooutinuo Improvements on the Mississippi river passed the Senate on the 12th inst Mr. Call introduced a measure to create a university of medicine at Washington, and setting aside $1,000,000 as a perpetual endowment. Mr. Edmunds handed in a bill for the relief of the anrvivora of the Jeannette expedition, and Mr. Call introduced one for the establishment of savings banks at all Presidential postoffices. Mr. Cnllom spoke at length in regard to his bill to reorganize the legislative power of Utah by means of a Governor and council of nine. After an executive session the Senate adjonru ed to Monday.