Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1886 — EDMUNDS AND BECK FALL OUT. [ARTICLE]

EDMUNDS AND BECK FALL OUT.

The Vermont Senator Questions the Kentuckian's Honor and'the Latter Retorts Savagely. IL. 8. Senate proceedings.] Mr. Beck did not wonder that Dudkin was not here for-htrnsolf. Everybody knew, Mr. Beck said, that Duskin was nominated in March, IWU, and the Senate did not see fit to confirm. He again appointed after the adienrnment of the seseioii, and nominated at the October term of the same year, and the Senator trim Vermont (Mr.,Edmunds) had not felt justified in . evuii reporting hlffi tn the Hennte for i-nnfirma-tirn. Mr. Edmurds rose, as n matter of duty, to a quost'ou of order. The Senator from Kentucky, he said, was violating the duty of a Henntor in respect to procei dlnge in executive session. Mr. Beck denied this. The records and the* public papers, he said, showed throe nominations of Duskin, and It was because the Senator from Vermont know that he wa< unworthy that the papers were asked for—because ho expected to entrap the department. ’ Mr. Edmunds insisted that the Senator from Kentucky .was out of order, and asked the Chair to decide the question. The Chair stated that the S< nator from Kentucky hnd an undoubted right to refer to public facts, but Mr. Seek (interposing) remarked that he had, and that he would prove tbe public facta by the press ot the country, and also prove by the records of the House of llepresentaiivM, which worn public, that Duskin Utterly unfit nr.a to loll! the from which he was reiiio-.'^d-cJLurJt±TTY\.u<>ons, because of his connection with F allback, the Marshal, and the Senator from V< rmont himself knew the facts. And Mr. Becksthought he would produce the records flora the Attorney General’s office—the Republican Attorney General, Brewster, verifying the fact stated by him. He hoped alsi in executive session to get a Vote of th i Senate to compel the Senator frem Vermont to produce evidence which he had before his own committee to show Duskin’s anfitness. Ho hoped to prove that this effort to make an issue in regard to Duskin was because the Senator from Vermont believed Duskin’s case so bad that thb Demccratic administration would bo glad to prove how bad he wns; and thin the Senator wo ild claim it as a precedent in good cases. “And I hope to prove,” continued Mr. Beck, “that this move, not made with such a flourish of trumpets—l will not say what I expect to prove, fori could not do it, perhaps. in parliamentary language.” Mr. Edmunds said he would have to leave entirely in silence what the Senator from Kentucky nad stated in regard to affairs in executive session. “I feel bound in "honor," he said, "not to make any allusion to any such subjects. The ideas of Senatorial honor, under the rules, of the Senator from Kentucky:sand my own, ore entirely different. Every Senator is sworn to a faithful performance of his duty as Senator, acccrding to regulations of the Senate that are made under the Cenatitution. If the-Senator from Kentucky thinks it is honorable to garble and misstate the existence of circumstances in closed doors, of course I have no criticism to make upon his sense of what is honorable and right. I can not moke any reference to what has taken plaee under any circumstances, when, under the rules of the Senate and by oath, the doors are closed. Therefore, I can make no reply to what the Senator from Kenctucky has said on the subject to which he has alluded as in executive session. As to Mr. Beck’s reference to the reports in the Attorney General's office about Duskin and what they would show " Mr. Beck said his reference had been to the ■ Committee on the Jiidiciary. of which the Senator from Vermont was Chairman. Mr. Edmunds reminded Mr. Beck that he had referred to papers in the offic J of Attorney General Garland and what they would show. He (Mr. Edmunds) could not allude to what the Judiciary Committee had or had not until he should have permission. “I shall not violate my oatli or my l:o lor,” Mr. Edmunds said, “by doing it now, whatever other., gentlemen may choose to do." If there were repi rts in the Attorney General's office concerning Dsskin they were precisely what the Senate desired when it passed the resolution calling for the papers. “It appears," Mr. Edmunds continued, “that the Senator from Kentucky can get at what the Attorney General and the President of the United States consider to be confidential and private communications when the Senate of the United States cannot; and that is the advantage that the Senator has over the body of which he is a member; and that is an advantage which the administration considers to be, as all the Democratic Senators do, I presume, an undoubted advantage. But what the Senate?from Kentucky gets it appears the Senate cannot get. If it were true,” Mr. Edmunds continued, “that Duskin had been a bad, officer, it was of the highest importance not onty Yhat the'*Senate, LutTKe House of Representatives shcuHLknow" it, and what big misconduct had been." Senator Beck said he had'not seen any paper in the Attorney General’s office relating to Dubkin, nor had he evermsked to see one; nor had he ever spoken to the President in regard to Duskin. “And as to my honor and oath,” continued Mr. Beck. “I hope it is as sacred as that of the Senator from Vermont. If it was not at least as good as hisT would not have as mnch regard for myself as I have now. I propose to stand upon my integrity as a man and a Senator ; and I say forty-parson power would not do justice to much of the hypocrisy that is now presented to the Senate in , pretenses ,of a desire to establish public justice." * Duskin, Mr. Beck saifi, was known to be an unfit man for the place he occupied, and nobody knew it better than the Senator from Vermont. The Senator from Vermont spoke of his honor and oath and integrity, and compared them with hi»4Mr. Beck’s), and Mr. Beck was willing to stand by the comparison. “Thank God,” said he, “whatever I say I say boldly and openly. I mean what I say. I do not stand on the comers of streets and thank God I am not as other men. and pray aloud to make men believe that I have all the virtue and all the integrity and all the godliness extant. When I see a great public question I meet it—l meet it fairly. I may make blunders and I may make mistakes, but I have more respect for the man who meets his enemy in the open field and either knocks him down or takes a fair knock-down himself than I have for the man who stabs his brother under the fifth rib while shaking him by the hand and asking him, ‘How is it with you, my brother:’ Ido not believe in secret waVs; Ido not believe in phoriseeism; Ido not believe in hypocrisy ; I do not belie re in circumventing anybody. I will move now, in order to see whether I am telling what is true or not—and if I cannot move it now I will do so the first opportunity—that all the,proceedmsa.in March, 1881, Octobex, 1881, and December, 1881, and all the papers _ filed with the Judiciary Committee and all the proceedings had before the committee in the case of the nomination of Duskin, shall bemade public, so that the country can judge whether what I say is true or not. If I have falsified anything I will take it back, and if I have not I want a chance to prove it, since comparisons are made between the oath and the honor of the Senator from Vermont and myself. I make that motion now and will let it lie over until tomorrow morning, or I will do it in lhe first executive session if it is not in order to do it now.” The Chair decided that the motion was not in order now. Mr. Edmunds—l shall undoubtedly agree with the Senator from Kentucky as Idoin a large part of what he has said. When he at least says that he is not better than other men, I am bound to agree with him. Wh> nhe tells us that he compares honor, I agree with him about that. He has his own views ot what is honorable, and I have mine. I suppose both being Democrats [laughter], we are both entitled to opinions as to what is honorable. I supposed that all I said was in reference to a plain, manifested—l will not say intended—violation of the rtiles and or-, ders of the Senate in the Senator’s references to reports of committees in executive session. Perhaps the Senate: is net yet conscious that he ESsviolated the rule about that. I doubt if be is, because I believe the Senator to be a man who means to do the right thing in the right way. Buthe dil that, and it was tn respect to that that I called the attention of the Chair to bis remarks. Mr. Beck inquired where Mr. Edmunds had got the Thurman matter that he read the other day. Mr. Edmunds replied: ‘From the committee minute-book, upon an order of the Senate withdrawing secrecy from it. Perhaps the Senator from Kentucky ean see the distinction. ’ “I can see a barn.” replied Mr. Beck, “but I ean not see a fly on the barn-dcor without seeing the barn." Mr. Edmunds —Undoubtedly; and the Senator has seen a good many barns undoubtedly. I am inclined to think Be has not seen much of anything else. [Laughter.] i Mr. Beck—l have not seen the fly. Mr. Edmunds—No, the Senator, never takes anyUking on the fly. Mr. Beck—Nor on the ’lie. either [Uproarious laughter on the floor and ta tbe galleries.] .. . Mr. Edmunds admitted thia No Senator from Kentucky, he said, regarded the resolution, as he had now discovered, as a device to entrap* tbe President and the Attorney General into reporting the official facta on sue, which showed Duskin to he—art improper officer, in order that they might be compelled to report in other cases where they had slaughtered a man upon charges, on the invitation of the Postmaster General or somebody else, that were false and fabricated. The point was. therefore, that the administration was going to be unveiled before the people by being en-

7'■officer, and So be led to tell the truth alH.ut a good officer. That certAinlv Mr. Edmiityls said, was an amazing attitude for the administration to occupy—and he took it that the Rentier from KentuckyrMireainited the adminitirutioii in the-mntter. we were asked to assist in removing an officer, an l because, wo ftskwi for officTaT in terraatiun tn to act in that matter, we were not .to get the information for fear that ill another instance where on accused officer had been accused falsely, and by invited perjury, <t offenses that I he had never committed, the oondQct of the sdnilnlHtration had been brought Into reproach. “I will leave the position jmtthere,” concluded Mr. Edmunds, who then moved an sascuUve seswton. "r - When the ga'lertes hnd been cleared and tbe doors closyd Mr. Beck offered the resolution which he gave notice of. He uni 1 that l.e did not wish to rest under the imputation passed upon his honor b/the Senator from termont, and wiaheiT to show the public that he had good grounds for all he had asserted. Mr. Edmunds disavowed all intention to cast uy Miwoiiau u|X>u tbs bonor of tbe Ruaator from Kentucky, whom he held in the highest esteem. Mr. (longer proposed an amendment to the rosohitlcn of the Henator from Kentucky, providing that tbe resolution should not take effect until the Attorney General or the President should have sent in the papers in the < as*. Thereupon the rseofijtlon and the amendment were referred to ths Committee on tbu Judiciary.