Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1886 — CONGRESSIONAL. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL.

The Work of the Senate and House of Representatives. The Senate passed an anti-Oklahoma boomer bill on the 17th inst. It provides for the punishment by fine of not more than £5Ol nnd imprisonof not more than one year, or both, of persons going on Indian lands with the purpose or occupying the same. Mr. Hoar introduced a bill providing for the erection of a monument at Washington to General Grunt. The sum appropriated is £250,0)0. The bill was sent to the Committee on Library for consideration. Senator Morrill introduced a bill providing for the establishment of an education il fund by setting apart each year the receipts from the sale of public lands over und above the expenses of the land office, together with one-half the amount received from railroad companies, under the provisions of the Thurman act; such fund to be apportioned to the several States and Territories nnd the District, of Columbia upon the basis of population between the ages of 5 and 20 years, the interest on the sum apportioned to each State and Territory to be paid to its proper officers each year for educational purposes. The Blair educational bill was discussed aud amended. In the House of Representatives Mr. Murphy, of lowa, from the Committee on Railways and Canals, reported a bill providing for the acceptance by the United States of the proposed grant of the Illinois and Michigan Canal for the construction of the Illinois nnd Mississippi River Canal. The bill was placed on the calendar. The House passed bills providing that all settlers within railway limits restricted to less than 160 acres, who make an additional entry under the acts of March and July, 1879, shall he entitled to have the lands covered by the additional entry patented without any further cost or proof of settlement and cultivation, reducing from 8 to 5 cents the fee for money orders not exceeding $5, and making allowances for cleik-hire to postmasters at first and second class, postoffices cover the cost of clerical labor in the moneyorder business*. The Fitz-John Dorter debate was continued in the House, Messrs Laird and Oates supporting nnd Messrs. Kelley and Thomas opposing the hill. Mr. Thomas said that he believed the bill to ne wholly unconstitutional, and. that its passage would be an insult to the living nnd an outrage ‘to the dead. Mr. Oates bases his argument upon his personal knowledge of the incidents of Ang. 29, 1802, and was listened to with great attention. He * thought that McDowell was more to blame for not interposing to prevent the union of the forces of Longstreei and Jackson than Porter wa3. Mu. Edmunds, from the Judiciary Committe,o renorted the following resolutions to the Senate on the 18th inst. They, were accompanied by a long report, a liberal abstractfof w hich was given in these columns some days ago; “ Resolved , That the. Senate hereby expresses its condemnation of the relusal of the Attorney General, under whatever influence, to send to the Senate copies of papers called for by its resolution of the 25tli of January, qnd , set forth in the reports of .the Committee on the Judiciary, as in violation of his official duty and subversive of the fundamental principles of the Government and of a good administration thereof. Resolved, That it is, under these circumstances, the duty of the Senate to refuse its advice and consent to proposed removals of officers, the documents and papefs in reference to the supposed official or personal misconduct of whom are withheld by the Executive or any head of a department, when deemed necessary by the Senate and called for in considering the matter. Resolved, That the provision of section 1754 of the Revised Statutes declaring that .persons honorably discharged from the military or naval service by reason of disability resulting from wounds or sicknfess incurred in the line of duty, shall bo preferred for appointments to civil offices, provided that they are found to possess the business capacity necessary for tho proper discharge of the duties of such office,’ ought to be faithfully and fully put in execution, and that to remove or to propose to remove any such soldier whose faithfulness, competency, and character are above reproach, and to give place to another who has not rendered such service, is a violation of the - spirit of the law and of the practical gratitude the people and Government of the United States owe to tho defenders of constitutional liberty and the integrity' J>f the Government.” The report recites the fact and circumstances of the removal of Mr. Dustin and tlie appointment of his successor as-United-States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. It declares that it has been the uniform practice of tho Judiciary Committee, since the passage of the tenure-of-ofliee act. to call upon the heads of department for all papers and information in the possession of the departments touching the conduct and administration of the officer proposed to be removed, and the character and conduct of the person proposed to be appointed. This has been done with the unanimous approval of all tho members, although tlie composition of the committee has been during the period sometimes of one political diameter and sometimes of another. 111 no instance until this time hn/| tho committee nut with any delay or denial in respect to furnishing such papers and information, with a single exception, and in which exception the delay and-suggested denial lasted enly for two or throe days. The precedents are cited, and discussed at great length. It was agreed that no discussion of the question should take place until the minority of tho committee had prepared and p. eseuterd their side of the question, and for this purpose they were given until Monday, the Ist of March. The House of Representatives, by a vote of 171 to 113, passed the, bill to restore Fitz Jbhn Porter to tho army. An analysis of the vote shows the following-result: Yeas— Democrats, 155: Republicans, 15; GreenbackDemocrat, 1. Nays—Republicans, ill ; Democrat, 1; Greenback-Republican, 1. During the closing hours of the debate the galleries were crowded, and the groups which surrounded the speakers showed the deep interest felt by members on the floor. Phelps, of New Jersey ; Curtin of Pennsylvania; and Bragg, of Wisconsin, were the principal speakers, all of them advocating the passago of the bill. Considerable excitement was caused by a heated altercation between Bragg and Cutcheon. THEBlaireducational bill was discussed again in the Senate on Feb. 19. Senator Evarts supported the bill. Senator Ingalls opuosed the bill us a Southern measure. He saw no reason why the common schools should bo turned over to the Federal Government, and he criticised the. South for calling on the General Government for aid. Senator Hoar denied that tb# bill was a Southern measure. He himself drafted the first of these education tolls ten or fifteen years ago. The measure was a. Northern idea, supported by Northern* sentiment. Only three Southern votes were given to the first bill of the kind. Senators Wilson (Md.) and IJarris opposed the bill on constitutional grounds. They objected to interference on the part of the General Government with the schools of a (State. Senator Morrill, from the Committee on Finance, reported favorably Senator Butler’s bill authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to deliver, upon satisfactory proof of ownership, to the claimants thereof, the silverware, jewelry, and other property deposited in the ’Treasury by the Secretary of War in June, 1809, as property captured by the United States army during the late war, and providing that all such property remaining in the Treasury for two years after tho passage of the act shall be sold at public auction, and the proceeds of the sale coveied into the Treasury. Tho Senate passed bills to remove the political disabilities of Alexander P. Stewart of Mississippi, Thomas L. Rosser of Virginia, nnd E. G. Butler of Missouri. A resolution wa? introduced directing the Secretary of War to report the facts of the murder by Mexican tioops of Capt. Emmet Crawford, of the United States army. In* the House of Representatives, Mr. Scott, of Pennsylvania, delivered a long speech on the silver question. Ho defended tho course of "tliA President and Secretary Manning in the management of the nation’s finances, and regretted that his party colleagues had not left it tJ tbs Republican side of the House to attack tho administration. He declared the charge that thes'e officers were undtr the influence of capitalists to he unfounded. They had violated no law and hail conformed to the very letter of the statutes. They had, indeed, recommended the suspension of the silver coinage, but wild could say that this advice might not prove to be wise and conducive to the public good ! Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, renewed his request to have printed in the Record a review oft'the testimony in the Fitz John Porter case, prepared by Judge Advocate Holt. Mr. Rrngg, of Wisconsin, wbo had previously objected, said that, ns tho battle was over, he yas in favor of a general amnesty, and would make no objection,. The request was granted.