Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1886 — NATIONAL LAW MAKERS. [ARTICLE]

NATIONAL LAW MAKERS.

Brief fluauaory of the PreceeA ‘"tmjgm of Ceaffres*. r ’ ' * ‘ & Three reporta from tho Senate Committee on Privilege* and Election* upon the Payne case were submitted to the Senate, on the 15th hut. The report signed by Senator* Pugh. Saulsbury, Vance'and Eu*ti*, the Democratic members oi the committee, sets forth at length the public history of the case, recognize* the transcendent importance of throwing around the Senate of. the United States the highest safeguard* against seating a member whose title was procured by bribery, fraud, and- corruption, and describee the processes by which the shiner* reach the conclusion that there is no ground for further proceedings against Mr. Payne. The report saye the committee's first act was to comply fairly with tho first request of the Ohio House of Representatives to make an examination of the testimony taken by the select committee at Columbus. Upon this testimony Mr. Hoar made a report to the committee that, after careful reading, no evidence, opinion or statement whatever was found personally inculpating Mr. Payne jn any way with the corrupt use of money in connection with his election. Neither did such examination show that enough had been found to justify the charge that the election was procured by the corrupt use of money. This report asks that the committee be discharged from further consideration of the subject and that it be indefinitely postponed. Senators Teller, Kvarts, and Logan unite in a report in which, after reciting the circumstances surrounding the Senatorial election in Ohio In 1884, it is said that no action was taken by the State Legislature which elected Senator Payne oalling in question the validity of his olection, but that the new Legislature iu January of the present year had adopted tne resolution under which tho investigation of Donovan’* charges had been made. The Senate committee had found it proper to accept tho presentation of the case set out' in the majority and minority reports of the select committee of the Ohio House of Representatives. The only constitutional warrant for an investigation in a case like tnat presented is in the clause making each house of Congress the judge of the qualifications of its own members, and the clause conferring the right of expulsion. The signers of the report do not find that a case has been presented that would affect Mr. Payne with such turpitude as would tolerate his expulsion from tho Senate, nor that testimony is accessible that touches the subject of the personal inculpation of Mr. Payne. They therefore turn their attention to the question of- the validity of his election to the Senate. The report holds that the evidence in such a case must show that the fraud which it alleged was committed embraced enough in number of the voting electors to have changed the result The testimony presented by the Ohio House of Representatives showß the numbpr of members i of the General Assembly that have beon brought into Inculpation and the weight of evidence against him. Senators Hoar and Frye ip a separate report state that they eannot concur with the views expressed by the other members of the committee, and say they think a cebc is -presented in which it is the duty of the Senate to permit the petitioners to present their evidence and to authorize the issue of proper process to aid in procuring the attendance of witnesses. The Senate is the only court which can have jurisdiction of the question. The report concludes with a resolution directing an Investigation of the charges, and with a recommendation that it be adopted. The amendment to the river and harbor bill increasing the appropriation for improving the harbor at Chicago from $75,000 to $150,000 was rejected by the Senate on the 16th Inst., as also the amendment Increasing the appropriation for the Missouri River from $375,000 to $600,000. An amendment swelling the appropriation for the Mississippi River, from the passes to Cairo, from $1,687,500 to $2,250,000 was tablod. The amendment reducing all appropriations in the bill 25 per cent, was then agreed to and the measure put on its final passage and adopted. The Senate also passed the naval appropriation bill. In the House ol Representatives an effort to pass the pension bill of Elizabeth Luce over the Presidential veto was lost by a vote of 116 yeas to 124 Similar action was taken on the measurj pensioning Catherine McCarthy, the vote being yeas 122, nays 97, but in the case of Joseph Romiser the bill was passed over the veto—yeas 175, nays 38. Quite a sensation was created in the House by a personal encounter between Messrs. Cobb (Dem.l of Indiana,,and Laird (Rep.jpl .Nebraska, growing out of the charges made by the former on the floor of the House, to the effect that the Nebraska member had been concerned in a land ring. Mr. Laird made nn attack upon tho Publio Lands Committee, of which Mr. Cobb is chairman. The latter undertook to defend the committee, and in the course of his remarks charged the Nebraska member with having been a memoer of a land ring, who retorted by calling the gentleman from Indiana a liar. Mr. Cobb declared that Mr. Laird did not dare to come outside aud repeat his language. Mr. Laird is said to have replied that the gentleman could not get out soon enough for him. With this the pair started through the lobby into the basement. Some one called Mr. Parson's attention to their exit, with the statement that they were going outside to fight it out. Thereupon Mr. Payson hurried through the doorway, and coming up with: tho would-be combatants on the stairway caught Mr. Cobb by the collar and remonstrated with him for pursuing so boyish and fooHsh a course. He succeeded in getting Mr. Cobh to retrace his ateps so far as the west door of the lobby, Mr. Laird following, whon the controversy broke out afresh. Recurring to the charges Mr. Cobb had made against him in a '6p®SCh several weeks ago, Mr. Laird angrily declared that bo (Mr. Cobb) was liar.* Mr. Cobb rejoined that Mr. Laird was “a but the words had hardly passed his lips before Mr. Laird struck him a heavy blow on the mouth and nose. A stream of Ulood trickled down Mr. Cobb's face, and he was thrown backward against tho doorway. A crowd which had collected interposed at this juncture aiid the combatants separated, Mr. Laird taking his seat in the House aud Mr. Cobh reclining in an easy chair in the lobby, where he was surrounded by friends. There was every reason to believe that, if interference had not come in the shape of Mr, Payson, who sought to pour ' oil on the troubled waters, a sanguinary personal combat would have resulted. Roth of tho members concerned ore of powerful physique, and tear the reputation of men ready at all limes to defend themselves in a fitting manner. Mr. Cobb Btonds six feet and over in bis shoes and is..of proportionate breadth, bulls somewhat at a disadvantage on the scoro of age, being in the neighborhood of fifty-eight or sixty years old. Mr. Laird is but thirty-seven years of age, with a girth of chest that would ornament an athlete, and a fiery, impetuous temper.

The Committee on Indian Affairs made a report to the Senate, on the 17th inst., recommending the passage over the President’s veto of the bill granting railroads right-of-Way through the Indian reservation in Northern Montana. Mr. Blair, from tho Committee on Pensions, submitted a report adopting as tho report of "the majority of the committee the report before submitted on the message of the President vetoing the bill granting a pension to Mary J. Nottage, and which was recommitted by the Senate. The report was adopted by a strictly party vote. Senators Whitthorne, Camden, ana Wilson of Maryland, submitted a minority report, defending the President’s action in the matter. Tne Senate decided to consider the oleomargarine bill, and then refused to refer it to the Finance Committee. The House of Representatives, in considering the fortification appropriation bill, rejected an amendment to increase the item lor sea-coast armament to 83,500,000. The Prince of Monaco and the French Admiralty are perfecting a scheme for determining the direction and force of the Gulf stream by means of* numbered floats, which will be launched at intervals with a request that finders report the time and posi-J tioff of picking them up. hr Germany there are now eijght schools of forestry, where a training of five years is necessaij for students seeking government positions. France supports a s ngle Bchool at Nancy. There is too much talk. Plenty of men are always willing to fight an army two miles off, but few of them can be depended on to attack or vanquish anything at close range. Praise is what we generally get for doing that which ought to mortify ns. A really goc*l deed is seldom recognized even by common civility. A man may have a very good know ledge of the world, and yet fail because he has too poor an opinion of his chances in it.