Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1886 — NATIONAL LAW-MAKERS. [ARTICLE]

NATIONAL LAW-MAKERS.

Brief Swmmnry of the Proceed* toffs Of CoMgress. Tux bill confirming public-land entries bbr«tofore made in accordance with the rulings of the Land Office in force at the' time the entries were made, and the bill pensioning the widow of Gen. Hancock, were passed by the Senate on the 23d of March; Senator George ■poke in opposition to the Edmunds resolutions The - Logan onnv bill oaiue pp in the Senate, And Senator Manderson supported the pro]>osition to increase the force to 10,000 enlisted men. He read from testimony given and letters written by Gens. Schofield, Pope, and others, to show the inadequacy of the present force of 25.<XX). Senator Beok thought thilit'a large standing araty -was not necessary. He had seen enough volunteer soldiers on Pennsylvania avenue, Washington, when President Cleveland wasf Inaugurated, to carry on an Indian war. There were many persons, he said, who wanted a large standing army—capitalists who had designs upon the peo*>. Senator Logan said he would not use the word domogogißm in regard to the arguments made in the Senate, but ho would repel any insinuation that the increase proposed was for the purpose pf using the army against the people. Referring to Senator Hale, who was opposing the bill. Senator Logan said that his friend from Maine had been encouraged from the start to make war on this hill. He (Senator Logon! knew where it came from, and before the matter closed he would have something more to say.

Mo. Logan explained in the Senate, on the 24th inst.. that under the present laws there were but 23,625 effective men in the anav. and that under the proposed increase to 30.000 there would probably be only about 27,000 effective men. Mr. Teller opposed the increase. It was claimed by friends of the bill that the increase was needed for a specific purpose—to guard against Indian troubles; but he saw no reason in the Indian question for an increase in the effective force of the army. Mr, Platt favored the ]>roj>osed increase. He said we had no army. It was a misnomer to call it the present “skeleton" an army. The argument that we had no immediate need for an army was like arguing that because it was not reining to-day it would never rain. The house passed the Indian appropriation bill, and then took up the postoffice appropriation measure. Senator Mitchell, of Oregon, addressed the Senate on the Duskin resolutions. While he concurred in the majority report in so far as it asserted that it was the duty of the executive officers to furnish when called upon by the Senate papers relating to the administration of an offied, he Would not insist, he said, that the presence of such papers in the Sgnate was absolutely necessary to the discharge by the Senate of Its.,, constitutional duty in advising and consenting to proposed removals from office. He believed the Attorney General plainly in error in refusing to furnish the papers called for, But, it called on to. vote on the series of the majority resolutions as a whole, he would do so reluctantly and under positive protest. ’ While the resolution asserting that the absence of the papers called for would be ground sufficient to warrant the Senate in refusing to oct on the nominations referred to, his vote, if cast for the resolutions, must be considered merely perfunctory and under decided protest, and he would reserve (he right to exercise his own judgment as to the confirmation of nominations. He asserted it to be the duty of the Senate to perform its own proper functions whether papers were furnished or not, and in the light of such information or evidence as it might have before it, or might be able to obtain. Prior to the speech of Senator Mitchell, Senator Morgan (Ala.) made a constitutional argument in support of the minority report. The House proceedings were brief and unimportant.

Senator Voorhees addressed the Senate March 25 in opposition to the majority report on the Duskin resolutions. He criticised the Senate for dallying with such a subject while great public questions were pressing for attention, and the flesh and blood of men and women were being ground in the massive hoppers of great corporations. Referring to Senator Wilson’s characterization of the Democratic party as a “protoplasm,” Senator Voorhees said it was fortunate for the Dembcracy that the colored neople had not been told before election that the Democratic party was a protoplasm. If, instead of the word itself, the Senator from lowa had used its definition as given by Webster —“the viscid, nitrogenous material in vegetable cells, by which the process of nutrition, and growth goes forward” —the speaker's imagination shrank from contemplation of the probable results. IRenewed laughter.] If it had been understood that the Democratic party was anything like a “non-cellular" formation of a vital vegetable substance” Senator Voorhees had not the slightest doubt that that party would have been counted out in New York. [Laughter.] The Senator from lowa ought to have denounced the Democratic party as an hypothenuse or a rectangular parallelogram. [Laughter.] Senator Evarts addressed the Senate in support of the majority report. Tire doctrine that the President hail the right to say whether the papers called for relatedtb a subject with which Congress had a right todeal was inadmissible, because, under it, the President could refuse papers affecting his own conduct When the President mode announcement that a place was not to be vacated for political reasons, and then asked the Senate to coacur in the appointment of the successor of a suspended official, Senator Evarts thought that the Senate ought not to be left in the dark concerning the grounds for the suspension of that official. When the postoffice appropriation bill come up in the House Mr. Dockery, of Missouri, defended the Postmaster General from the attack made upon him by Mr. Burrows, of Michigan. In the course of his speech he declared that when the Democratic party left the control of the Government it left the Republican party in the possession of a splendid merchantmarine, manned by American sailors and carrying American commerce. Mr. Brumm, of Pennsylvania (interrupting)—And you gave us , the Alabama and the Shenandoah to drive it from the sea. Mr. Dockery —Oh. I know it hurts. When We come again to our fathers’ house we find that only 15 per cent, of the commerce of this great country is carried in American vessels; and these vessels are manned by whom? American seamen?-No; 95 per cent, of the sailors that carry your flag, or what is left of your flag, are foreigners. Who is responsible for that? Mr. Brumm—Semmes was not a foreigner. Mr. Dockery—The gentleman from Pennsylvania is one 6t the most extreme of the leaders who. flaunt the bloody shirt. Mr. Brumm—When your party stops brandishing the bloody dagger we will stop waving the bloody skirt. “I know the ‘galled jade winces,”' was Mr. Dockery’s comment, as ho dismissed the subject. The Edmunds resolutions condemning the Attorney General for his refusal to furnish copies of papers desired, and declaring it to be the duty of the Senate to refuse its consent to movals of officers in cases whore documents showing misconduct were withheld, were adopted by the Senate on March 26. The first - resolution, adopting the report of the Judiciary Committee, went through by a vote of 32 to 26. The vote on the second resolution, condemning the Attorney General for refusing to send. copies oj papers called for by the Senate, was 32 to 25. The third resolution, declaring it to .be the duty of the Semite to refuse its advice and consent to proposed removals of officers, the documents in reference to the supposed misconduct of whom are withheld, was adopted by a majority cf one—yeas 30, nays 29—Senators Mitchell, Van Wyck, and Riddleberger voting with the Democrats. The fourth resolution, condemning the discharge of ex-uUion soldiers and the putting in their places of .. men . who had renderedno military service for the Government; was then voted on and agreed to—yeas 56, nays 1 (Senator Morgan). Senator Hoar introduced a bill establishing inquests under national authority. It provides that upon the sworn complaint of three United States citizens that any person has been killed, or has sustained bodily injury, or serious injury in his estate, or has been threatened with injury in person or estate because of race or color- or political opinion, or to prevent such par».»n from casting a vote at any election provided for in the Constitution, any United States Judge must institute an inquest into the matter and report the facts to Congress. Any United States District Attorney in his circuit may be compelled , by the Judge to attend and assist in such inquest. Senator Hoar said the bill was suggested by the reports of recent occurrences at Carrollton, Miss. The House of Representatives listened to a letter from Assistant Secretary Fairchild, asking for an appropriation to enable the department to build vaults at the subtreasuries in which to store silver dollars. An economist says : “There way a time in the history of the world whdn a penny was considered a fair day’s wages for a laboring man.” Adam, who was in the gardening business in Eden, didn't receive half that much; and lie wouldn’t have known how to spend it if - he had. There was no shop across the street that sold a cigar for acent.--Norristown Herald. The ste irn power of the world during the last twenty years has risen from 11,500, 29,000,000 horse-power, or 152 per cent