Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1886 — CONGRESS. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESS.

What is Being Done by the National Legislature. The bill to increase the pensions of boldiers’ widows and dependent relatives loom JH to >l2 a month passed the Senate on the loth Inst., just as it camo from the House. Senators Morrill, Cullom, Maxey, and Dolph addressed the Senate on the.Duakin resolutions. Senator Morrill supported the resolutions in a very brief speech. Senator Cullom made a long argument in support of the resolutions. The refusal of the Attorney General tp furnish tho nepers called for “By the Senate, he said, was a denial of the right of the Senate to inquire into tbe management of a public office. Senator Maxey opposed the resolutions. However much the issue might bo disguised, he said, tho real object was to ascertain the President's reasons for suspensions or removals of officers. Complaint, he said, was made In that majority re)x>rt that 643 suspensions had been made under this administration. The complaint made by the peoule, Mr. Maxey said, was that there had not been ten times 643 removals. Bills or resolutions were introduced in the House to pay to Mrs. Thomas A. Hendriclts the salary of the Vice President for one “Year, to establish postoffice savings banks, to provide for a conference of American nationiron a common standard silver coin, and for a commission to investigate the war claims of loyal citizens of the border States. The House passed, under a suspension of the rules, a bill for the closing of the business of the Alabama Claims Court; also the Senate bill authorizing the Comptroller of the Currency to pennit the receiver of a national bank to use tho trust funds for tho purchase of property upon Which the bank holds a mortgage or other evidence of in-. debtedness. Mb. Van Wyck offered tho following resolution in the Senate March 17 : “Resolved, That the Committee on Public Lands be directed to examine the nature and extent of the alleged use and destruction of timber on the public lands adjoining the line of the- Sotitherh Pacific Railroad, particularly by the Mont ma Improvement Company, and report what, if any, additional legislatioE is necessary to protect timber on the . publi« domain, and that the committee have power to send for persons and papers.” The resolution was agreed to The'Cluiir laid before the Senate the new electoral count bill. Mr. Hoar addressed tho Senate on the bill, and at the conclpsioh of his remarks the bill was passed without division. Mr. Dolph addressed the Senate in support of the Edmunds resolution. Mr. Coke and Mr. Wilson, of Maryland, spoke upon the resolution, and then Mr. Beck took the floor in opposition and ho and Mr. Edmunds huxl quite a wrangle uponTr-tjuestion of order, during which Mr. Edmunds moved an executive Session. In secret session a motion was entered the vote by which R. S. Dement was confirmed as Surveyor General of Utah. In the- House Mr -Bumes, of- Missouri, reported . back the urgent deficiency appropriation bill, with Senate amendments/ Concurrence was ~ recommended in some amendments, and nonconcurrence in others. The roi>ort was agreed to. Mr. Dorgan. of South Carolina, from the Committee cn Military Affairs, reported a bill to replace unserviceable ordnance issued to the militia of States and Territories. Mr. Peel, of Arkansas, from the Gommitte on Indian Affajjrs, reported back a Senate bill granting the right of wav through the Choctaw and Chickasaw lands to the St Louis and San Ffanoisco Railroad Company. When the Duskin restftutions came up in the Senate on the 18th of March, Mr. Van Wyck moved that these words be added to them-: “And In all such cases of removal tbe matter of confirmation shall be considered in open session of the Senate." Mr. Brown, of Georgia, opposed the resolutions and made a long Argument to show that the ]>ower of removals is vested by the Constitution in the President alone. Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin, followed Senator Brown with a long argument in support of the resolutions. The power claimed by the President would enable him, at his will, to shut out the sunlight of investigation Trom the public offices. He did not think that because papers were written by private citizens they were therefore private papers. Their contents determined their character. The Senate passed without debate the bill providing for a commission of five persons" to investigate the al-coholic-liquor traffic, its relations to revenue and taxation, and its general, economic, criminal, moral, and scientific aspects ; also tho bill providing for the study in the schools of the Territories and the District of Columbia of the nature of alcoholic stimulants and narcotics. In the House, the Com- . mittce on Ways and Means made a favorable report-on a bill ia authorize the establishnient_ of factories for the .manufacture of tobacco exclusively for exportation. Bills to establish a national live-stock highway, for the relief of heirs of cavalry recruits killed by guerrillas at Lawrence, Kansas, and to authorize the retirement of Lieutenant William P. Randall, of the navy, as a lieutenant : commander, passed the Senate March 19. A hill was introduced to increase to $6)0,000 the appropriation for a postoffico at Minneapolis. Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin, continued bis speech in support of the Duskin resolution ins the Senate. Ho maintained that the tenure-of-office actis unconstitutional. In discussing the civil-service views of the President he declared that “honest " partisanship is honest citizenship.” Every plan suspended from office, he said, had a right to know why he was suspended. Senator Spooner did not suppose the l’r< sident meant to submit his fellow citizens to serious injustice, but the system he had adopted in the matter ot suspensions inevitably tended to cast arslmdow on the .honor of honest men. Senator Saulsbury (Del.) opposed the resolutions. The President, had suspended, up to the time -Congress ipet, only 643 out <>f 17,000 officials subject to his control. Notwithstanding this magnanimity, President Clovehuid’s noininaticns had been allowed to slumber for now three months without action, becauge the Republican side of the chamber had set to work deliberately to devise some scheme to {irevent the removal of their partisan friends from office. Senator Saulsbury said the Republicans had converted themselves int > an obstruction party, hindering tho due exercise of exec’utiie power. 7 The House of Representatives passed a bill directing the Secretary of War to grant an eonorable discharge to Francis H. Show,_who was a captain in the Fiftv-fiifill,..lllinois Infantry, and was summarily' dismissed by General Howard for misliehav.or before tho enemy. The bill to pension the widow of tho,late General Hancock came up -in the House, and was strongly op-,, posed-bv Mr. Price of Wisconsin. On theAiueition of passing tho bill the vote stood 25 to 4, Messi s. Price, Z&ch Tay:or, Johnson of Indiana, and Winans voting nay. Mr. Price then raised the question of no quorum, but the previous question was ordered on the bill and it went over. Thebe was no session of the Senate on March 10, and the House devoted the day to speechmaking on the free-coinage bill.