Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1886 — CONGRESSIONAL TALK. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL TALK.

Interesting Debate in the House On the Hoar Bill Passed r ~T~ by the Senate. - rhe Silver Question iA" the Senate — Messrs. Brown and Maxey Favor Coinage. Presidential Succession. Mr. Caldwell, of Tennessee, called up the Hoar Presidential-succession bill in the House, snd stated that in reporting this neasure, had not dealt with indifference or disrespect with other propositions before it. There were many measures proposed that would more properly meet all possible or imaginary oxigensies thon the one nOw reported, but they nil required a constitutional amendment before they could become laws, and” ’ a constitutional amendment involved a delay which would ill accord with the reasonable anxiety which the great body of the people felt. There were many exigencies which the pending measure did not cover, but the present exigency it completely covered. It was a temporary bridge thrown across a chasm in order to meet public demand, and would be followed in due time by an enduring structure over which a loiig line of Republican-Democratic Presidents might march in unbroken succession. Mr. Cooper, of Ohio, who prepared the minority report, protested against the general principle of the bill—against the idea of vesting in the person who occupied the Presidential chair the power to perpetual® the succession, by naming his successor. He was profoundly doubtful of the constitutionality of a provision which would vest the Presidency upon a man appointed by an outgoing administration. He befieved it to be in violation, not only of the spirit and letter of the Constitution, but of the spirit out of which the Constitution rose; and was unwise legislation, because it tended to widen the space between the President and the people. If there were,defects in the present law they should be remedied by carefully considered legislation. What was worth while for the American Congress to do, was worth doing well. He could see uo exigency which required red-hot haste in passing this measure. Mr. Eden, of Illinois, defended the bill against Adverse criticism, and pointed out wherein it was an improvement over the existing law. The presept measure would preserve the country fronranarchy in oases of trouble arising in the matter of the Presidential succession. Mr. McKinley, of Ohio, gave notice of a substitute which he would offer for the bill. This substitute preserves the law of 1792, with the addition of a provision that for the purpose of having a Speaker of the House of Representatives continually in office Congress shall convene on the 4th of March next succeeding the ejections of Representatives of Congress; and whenever a vacancy exists either in the office of President pro tern of the Senate or the Speaker of the House the President shall convene the House in which the vacancy exists for the purpose of electing a presiding officer. Mr. Potets, of Kansas, regarded the pending measure as unconstitutional, inexpedient', and impotent. But for these faults it was a pretty J fair bill. He asserted that Congress had no power to enact a law which violated the intent of the Constitution, and which in effect declared an appointive officer should act as President. It was a flagrant usurpation of the power vested in the people. The best on the subject, in his opinion, was the bill introduced in 1867. providing for the meeting of Congress on the 4th of March each alternate year. That would amply provide against any break in the line of succession. Mr. Seney, of Ohio, believed that the Presidential succession under existing law was at best doubtful and uncertain. He earnestly advocated the passage of tlfe pending measure,, maintaining that it would remove many dan-' gers from the path of the Presidential succession. v, Mr. Bowell, of Illinois, characterized the bill as a crude one, and suggested that if the presiding officer of the Senate was of the same party as the Executive there would not be the haste to amend a law which had stood for nine-ty-four years. The strongest objection to the bill, in his opinion, was that it permitted the party in power to perpetuate that power for an indefinite number of years, as admitted by the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Caldwell). Never before had the American people beenpresented with such a temptation to crime, such a temptation to anarchy, such a temptation to revolution.

The Dollar of the Fathers. In the Senate Mr. Brown called up Mr. Beck’s silver resolutien and addressed the Senate on it. The officers of the Treasury, he said, should treat all public creditors alike ; if they paid the bondholders in gold iWoue, they should pay the' laborer in gold alone. As to the accumulation of silver dollars in the Treasury, Mr. Brown insisted that it was the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to ; pay them out to the public creditors whenever 1 anything was due, and if that did not dispose of them, he should call in enough bonds' on which' the people are paying interest to absorb the silver dollars, and so stop the interest payments. If the public creditors were paid 30,000,000 or -40,0tM),Q00 of silver doilars their endeavor would be to keep up the value of silver; if paid in gold alone their endeavor would be to depreciate the value of silver—to make it represent less property. If it were said that it was not honest'to pay them in silver, on the ground that the silver dollar was not an honest dollar, Mr. Brown would reply tin t it was always honest to pay a debt in the very currency which the creditor, by his contract, had agreed to take. The creditors had secured several successive changes in the contract, and the contract as it now stands, was that the bondholders should be paid in gold dollars or silver dollars, at the convenience of the Treasury. Tnough they had thus agreed to take payment in either gold or silver, they were being paid in gold alone; while everybody else was paid in silver. Tliis was neither fair dealing nor common honesty. Mr. Brown advocated the Issuance of silver to represent the silver in the Treasury. Every surplus gold and silver dollar, he said, net part of the necessary Treasury reserve, should be put into circulation by a gold or silyer certificate. Instead of having too much much silver coin, business would be much improved if we he,d more of it in circulation in the form of paper certificates. If the national banks attempt to practically demonetize silver.said Mr. Brown in conclusion,'and if the officials who now represent the people in the different departments of the Government will not take the matter in hand, then the people, at their recurring ‘ elections, should take it in hand and fill all the departments of Government with men who will apply the corrective and forfeit the charters of such banks as abuse their privileges. Mr. Maxey followed on the same subject. He said the raid on silver was a European raid, and if successful would inflict incalculable injury on the United States. The bugbear of silver, so terrifying to the European moneychangers, had no , terror for the American people. The people of the South were not grievously burdened with silver 4 or anv other money, but if they should by chance find themselves hampered by a great weight, of silver they could exchange it for paper certificates, which, when based on coin, dollar for dollar, were better than coin for active use. Mr. Maxey expressed himself as utterly opposed to an irredeemable paper currency, and declared a fluctuating currency inconsistent with healthy trade, while a sound currency, based on the precious metals and convertible into coin, was a blessing to civilization.. The silver advocates, he contended; repelled the .imputation that they wanted to. take any advantage of their creditors by paying a dollar debt with an 80-cent ‘ dollar. A fouler lie had never been uttered against a brave and industrious people. The people knew that the fall of silver was the result of' a conspiracy of combined capital to destroy silver as a money metal; and the gamblers were but reaping the fruits of their own folly. The suspension of silver Coinage was but another name for the total stoppage of the coinage, and such suspension or stoppage would be fraught with most serious consequences, to the people. What we needed in our dealings with the bondholders, Mr. Maxey insisted, was a strong, vigorous enforcement of the contract made with them.

Miss-Cleveland always speaks other brother as “ the President.” Alphonse Daudet is getting ready to write a life of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Bar Association of New York recommend to the Legislature of that State the passage of a mamage-license law. William McCoy died at Nashville, Tenn., at the age of 105 years. His wife survives him, at the age of 99 Danbury, Conn., malms one-fourth of all the hats wdrn in the Ignited States. It turns out hourly on an average 1,313 hats. Prince Bismarck is the first Protestant that has ever received the decoration of the Order of Christ. The badge is worth £6OO.