Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1885 — THE NEWS CONDENSED. [ARTICLE]

THE NEWS CONDENSED.

FORTY-NINTHCONGRESS. ArTXßthe reading of the President’s Message, Mr. Hoar introduced a bill in the Senate, on the Bth inst., to provide for the discharge of Presidential duties in cose of the removal or inability of the President and Vice President; also to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy. Mr. Edmunds presented a measure to fix the day for the meeting of Presidential Electors. Bills were also introduced for the admission of Idaho and Washington Territories as States, toauthorire the payment of certain duties in greenbacks, to remove the limitation in ths payment of arrears pensions, to allot lands in severalty to the Indian tribes, for construction of the Michigan and Mississippi Canal, for two military posts on the southwestern frontier of Kansas, tor two railway rights of way through Indian Territory, to pension veterans of the Mexican war, for the repeal of the timber culture, pre-emption, and desert-land acts, to prevent the acquisition of real estate by aliens, to aid in the establishment of common schools, for the encouragement of American merchant marine, to retire the trade dollar, for four bridges over the Mississippi and one across the Missouri, for a navy-yard at Algiers, La., for the erection of thirteen public buildings, and for the cancellation of one and two dollar greenbacks. Mr. Cameron offered a resolution that it is inexpedient to pass any legislation for the reduction of tariff duties. 'The House of Representatives listened to reading of the message, and immediately adjourned out of respect to the memory of the late Reuben Ellwood. of Illinois. ! Mb. Jones, of Arkansas, introduced a bill in the Senate, on the 9th inst., to secure cheaper telegraphic correspondence. It is that known as the postal telegraph 'bill of the last Congress, A bill was introduced by Senator Van Wyck, providing for the taxation of unpatented lands owned by railroad companies. It requires such companies to pay the cost of surveying and locating land within sixty days after the passage of the act, or that in default thereof the lauds shall be subject to entry under the homestead and pre-emption laws and liable to taxation. Bills were also introduced to prevent the diffusion of contagious diseases, to cede the abandoned marine hrfspital grounds at New Orleans to Tulane University, and for the relief of sufferers by the destruction of salt-works in Kentucky by Gen. Buell. A resolution was adopted calling upon the Boatmaster General for the names of all postmasters in Maine appointed on the recommendation of S. S. Brown, Chairman of the Maine Democratic State Committee, who is charged with extorting money from such appointees. Mr. Blair introduced resolutions for temperance and woman-suffrage amendments to the Constitution. Mr. Brown presented the petition of Alexander R. Lawton, of Georgia, for relief from political disabilities. Resolutions were adopted calling on the President to furnish details recardinc international coinace and tlw rejection of Minister Kelley by tne Austrian Government. In the House of Representatives Messrs. Morrison and Springer presented two propositions for amending the rules, which; after discussion, were referred to the Committee on Rules, composed of the Speaker, Randall, Morrison, Hiscock, and Reed. The House adjourned till the 12th in order to give the committee time to consider the proposed changes in the rules.

Bills were introduced in the Senate on the 10th inst. for a postal telegraph, to relieve commercial travelers from license taxes, for an international tribunal of arbitration, to open to homestead settleinent certain portions of Indian Territory, to transfer the barracks at Baton Rouge to Louisiana University, to prevent gambling in the army, and to repeal the luW for the ••ttlement of 'claims of officers and soldiers lor tne loss or private property. A joint resolution was presented from the Legislature of New Jersey for an inquiry into the fitness of Alaska for a penal colony. The President sent in to the Senate a very large number of nominations, including those of Ministers Lothrop, Curry, Denby, Stallo, Tree, Jacob, Winchester, Winston, Thompson, Zay, Hopkins, and Bearn, Postmasters Judd, of Chicago; Larkin, of Pittsburgh, Paul, of Milwaukee : and Speer, of Denver, and many Consuls, Secretaries of Legation, officials of the Interior Department, officials of the navy, and Postmasters whose appointments have already been published. The House was not in session. The Speaker laid before the House, at its session on the 12th inst., a large number of Executive communications, including the annual reports of the .Attorney General, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Controller of the Currency, and they were laid on the table for the present. Mr. Reed of Maine offered a resolution ior the printing of the compilation of the revision of the rules of the House in the Thirty-sixth and Forty-sixth Congresses, stating that they would be of use in the discussion of the proposed change in the rules. The resolution was adopted. Mr. Buck of Connecticut presented aresolution from the Connecticut Legislature, asking that a by-law be passed for the ascertainment and counting of the electoral vote. Laid on the table. There was no session of the Senate.