Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1871 — Weekly News Summary, [ARTICLE]

Weekly News Summary,

CONGRESSIONAL. In the Senate, on the 7tji, the Ku-Klux 1)111 was received from the House, read twice, and referred to the Judiciary Commtttoe... .By unanimous consent, Mr. Morrill, of Vormont, was owurded the floor, und addressed the Senate lu a three hours’ speech against the San Domingo annexation ... .The concurrent resolution for a Joint special Investigation committee on the South was taken up, and tho House amendment increasing the number of the committee to lonrteen bom ttie House and soven from the Semite, was concurred lu -87 to 12... .The Vice-President then appointed, to represent ttie senate on the committee, i lie presont. Select Committee on Outrages—Messrs. Scott, Chandler. Nye, Klee, Wilson, Bayard and Btalr... .Executive session nnd adjournment to the 10th. In the Senate, on the 10th, the House Ku-Klux bill was reported, with amendments, from tho .Judiciary Committee.... The election cases of Messrs. Blodgett and Goldtliwalte were debated at considerable length... .Adjourned. In the House, on the 10th, a bill was introduced and passed—l4l to-10—nndor a suspension of the rules, removing all legal and political disatilllllcs, excluding only members of Congress who withdrew from Congress and aided the rebellion, oltlcers of the army nnd navy who aided the rebellion, and members of State conventions who voted und signed ordinances of secession... .The resolution declaring that the tariff should be so reformed as to be a tax for revenue only, and notfor the protection of a class interest at ttie general expense, camo up in order, and was referred to the Committee of Ways and Means.... A bill was introduced nnd referred for the appointment of commissioners on the subject of the division of profits between labor and capital....A bill was passed authorizing the Secretary of War to extend or continue the contract for the Improvement of the harbor of BulValo. N. Y., made on the 20th of January, 1888.... A resolution was adopted—l3o to'2l— a resolution adopted December 12, 1870, declaring that the true principle of revenue reform points to the abolition of the internal revenue system, which was created as a war measare to provide for extraordinary expenses,and requires the ropeal, at the earliest day consistent with the maintenance of the faith and credit of tho government, of all stamp and other internal tales, and that properly adjusted rates should be retained on distilled spirits, tobacco, and maltliquors, so long us I lio legitimate expenses ot tne government require the collection of any sum from internal taxation .... Adjourned.

Amnesty bill was read twice and laid on the table ~■; -The HouseKn-Rhix bill came up and a lengthy debate ensued.... The resolution to admit Blodgett, and Goldthwalte, coming up in order, it was aid on the table-yeas, 19; nays 17... .Adjourned. In the House, on the 11th, Senate bills w ere passed—to pay Schenck his salary as Minister to England; donating condemned cannon for the erection of a monument to the late Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, of Missouri. ...A resolution was adopted declaringthat the election for members of Congress held iu Tennessee on the Bth' of November, 1870, was held on the day fixed by jaw, and therefore not void. . . .The Sena’c amendments to the House Deficiency bill were considered.... Adjourned. In the Senate, on the 12tli, a memorial was presented from the Republican Executive Committee of New Orleans, asking the passage of the pending Ku-Klnx bill, or some more stringent measure... .A resolution was adopted instructing the Finance Committee to consider, during the recess, the best system of reducing taxes, so as to, leave only enough revenue to pay the working ex-' senses of the government... .A resolution was offered and referred for printing 5:),000 copies of the President's Message and Commissioners’ Report on San Domingo,.. .The Ku-Klux hill \vu- further debated. .. .Executive session and adjournment. In the House, on the 12th, a petition was presented from the New York Chamber of Commerce for the repeal of the income tax.... Bills were introduced—authorizing the construction of a bridge ncrops the Missouri River at or near St. Josenli; supplementary to the acts to prohibit the Coolie trade; to provide for the adjustment of the French spoliation claims ptfior to the .'Ust of July... .Messrs. Strong and Starkweather, menibers-eiect from Connecticut, appeared and took the oath as members .. The following commit tves were announced by the Speaker: Committee on Rules—The Speaker, Messrs. Banks, Garfield, Cox and Randall. On Public Buildings and Grounds—Mossrs. Halsey, Starkweather, Tyner, Platt, Morpbls, Orr, Get/., WeTls and Perry.... The Senate amendments to the Deficiency bill were further considered, and several of them were concurred in... .Adjourned. In the Senate, on the 12th, announcement was made of the appointment of Senators WiFon and Carpenter as visitors to West Point. ... .Mr. Wilson, upon bis own request, was excused frou* service on the southern outrage investigation. .. .On motion the Secretary of the Interior was directed to furnish a statement of the population of the United States, giving the representatives and total population of each State separately, as ascertained by the ninth census Tho Ku-Klnx bill was further considered, and a verbal amendment, changing the phraseology of the bill, was nyreed to 11 to 7—and an evening session was agreed to for debate on the hill. In the House, on the 18th, Mr. Barnum, member-elect from Connecticut, appeared and took the oath.. ..The bill authorizing the construction of a bridge across the Missouri River at or near St . Joseph, was takeu up, discussed, amended, and passed.... The Dctieieney bill was proceeded with, and several Senate amendments were concurred in, including one" repealing the law which requires the meeting of each new Congress on the 4th of March-yeas, 90; nays, its... Adjourned.

FOREIGN. A Paris dispatch of the 7th says: “The situation is hourly becoming more alarming. The forces of the Commune arc growing stronger and bolder. Thiers’ proposition to treat for peace has inspired the Commune with fresh hopes, and it is believed they Stave 100,000 men who will boldly '‘fight! TUB government troops retain their conquered positions, and make no advance for peace. To-day, a battle is raging in the fields betweeu Chatillon and Yanvres. From the latter place the insurgents maintain the lorts. Crowds of women and children, frantic with grief, are searching each ambitlance as it arrives for bodies of their husbands and fathers. The slaughter on both sides yesterday and to-day was fearful. Terror reigns and prisons are crowded. The churches and houses of aristocrats are pillaged, and all the priests imprisoned. A great many murders have taken place. On this Good Friday there were no religious services in Paris. German intervention is the only hope.’’ Cable dispatches of the 9th make mention of desperate fighting around Paris the day before. Fort Valerien and the advanced batteries of the Army of Versailles steadily bombarded Porte Maillot, their shots falling in the Champs Elysees. An engagement took place at Villejuif, and there was skirmishes at Bagncux and Bcllancoiirt, The government forces were gaining ground slowly. A flotilla of gunboats had been sent from Havre up the Seine to assist in operations against Paris. . , Contradictory statements were received on the 10th concerning events in Paris. London dispatches reported the insurgents fighting among themselves, and that a number of leaders had been shot, Thiers believed they would destroy themselves if left alone, but it was feared they would sack, the Commune was getting very desperate, and committed great excesses. Archbishop Durboy was stripped nuked, bound to a pillar, and scourged and mocked for hours by a band of 200

Reds. The Cathedral of Notre Dame had been sacked and plundered of nearly all its valuables. A dispatch from Paris at 12:80 on the evening of the 12th says: “ A loud and uninterrupted cannonade has been kept up since last evening, between Chatillon and the southern forts. Infantry are also engaged, and the noise of mitrailleuses and musketry has hec-n incessant since 4 o’clock this morning. Cannonading around Neuilly, Forte Maillot, and Porte des Ternea has been resumed, and is violent as that on the south. Fighting is now going on in the Bois de Boulogne, and at Asnieres. The Communes are forwarding reinforcements to the troops engaged. The wounded are coming in in large numbers. The losses are heavy.” The Berlin official journal of the 12th says Germany will only interfere in the domestic affairs of France when it shall become necessary for the collection of money due herself. A Kingston, Jamaica, dispatch of the 10th says: “ The President of Hay ti, since the departure of the San Domingo Commissioners, has received addresses, numerously sighed, from every town and village in the republic, protesting the attachment of the Haytiens to 1 their nationality, and their determination to maintain independence against intrusion, from whatever quarter, and in whatever manner it may show itself. The addresses breathe the same sentiments against annexation.” A Versailles dispatch of the 13th says: “Thiers, iu a circular bearing date] of the evening of the 12tli, describes the situation as in the main unchanged, and - says the government will act at the proper time. Commune accounts of a victory at Paris are false. They are unprincipled. Our victory will come bloodlessly.”

DOMESTIC. Gold closed in New York on the 13th at 110%. Serious disturbances occurred among the miners at Tripp’s mines in Scranton, Pa., on the morning of the 7th. Riotous proceedings were engaged in there and at other points, in response to a call from the local authorities at Scranton, Governor Geary issued a proclamation on the evening of the 7th, calling out the militia to suppress the rioters in the coal regions. The Western Female College, at Oxford, Ohio, was destroyed by Are on the morning of the 7th. gome of the young ladies had a narrow escape, and it was feared that one perished in the flames. An extensive conflagration occurred at Albany, N. Y r ., on the morning of the 7th, intlicting a loss of over $400,000. All the houses on the west side of Broadway, between Nos. 600 and 632, were destroyed. The large printing house of Weed, Parsons <fc Co. was entirely destroyed. Over three hundred people are thrown out of employment. John O’Brien, a fireman, lost his life at the fire. A fatal case of sunstroke occurred in New York city on the Bth, the first that ever sccurrcd there so early in the season. The victim was Elisha Devoe, a cartman, on Fulton street.

In New York city on the 9th, the thermometer ranged as high as 88° in the shade; at Philadelphia, 81 °, and at Washington, 84°. A Scranton, Pa., dispatch of the Bth says: “ All was quiet on the I-iackawanna this morning. Matters have been greatly exaggerated. It is now asserted that no person was killed, and but few hurt. The only trouble since yesterday was the burning of the house of ft miner at one o’clock this morning.” Dispatches frommany points speak of the occurrence, mi' the night of the 9th, of the finest auroral displays known for years, in many instances the streams of light spreading from the zenith in all directions, some parts of the sky being all ablaze. A New Y'orx dispatch says: “At 9:M this evening a fine display of aurora commenced. The movement was north and south, shifting to the east and west At 10 o’clock the telegraph wires were se■riously affected. Communications with cities iu all directions were lor a tune suspended.” The steamer Samuel J. llalc, bound from Cincinnati to Memphis, burst her steam-pipe on the morning, of the Bth near Golconda, and killed seven deckhands—three white and four colored.

A Washington dispatch of the 10th says There is high authority for the statement that the Fishery questiou and the Alabama claims are already so for disposed of as to be no longer matters of discussion at the sessions of the Commission. I ndeed. a basis of agreement on the Alabama claims has already been secured which will probably be satisfactory to the representatives of both countries.” Buffalo gnats are killing large numbers of horses and mules along tj-.e Mississippi River. The recent overflow lias made them gnd mosquitoes unusually numerous. The town of Wolcott, New Y'ork, was almost totally destroyed by fire on the night of the 11th. An extensive conflagration occurred at Grand Rapids, Mich., on the night of the 11th, by which a part of the best business portjon of the place was destroyed. Loss stated at about ’ $300,000; insurance about SIOO,OOO. The suit for $59,000 damages instituted in the United Stales Court at Richmond, by Judge J. Wright, colored, of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, against the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company, has been compromised by the payment of $12,000 to plaintiff. He claimed damages on the grouml that he was forcibly ejected from a first-class caron account of color, notwithstanding he held n firstclass ticket. Dispatches from Galveston, Tex., on

the 12tli give an account of a very serious affair which happened recently on the Mexican border. It seems that a train tn route from Chihualma to Fort Bayard was attacked near the boundary lty a hand of Indians, and a man named Keard, his wife, and five other Americans, were killed. The Chihuahua frontier troops (Mexicans) pursued the Indians over the border into the United States, and killed and captured eighty of them. The United States troops at Fort Goodwin were sent to protect the Indians, and came in collision with the Mexican soldiers. A fight ensued, in which the commanding officers at Fort Goodwin and forty American soldiers were killed. The Mexican soldiers numbered 200. The War Department, at Washington, up to the ltigltj, of the 13th, had received no report of the'affair. A disastrous fire occurred at Newbem, N. C., on the morning of the 12th. Loss nearly $200,000. Thomas Hodges, a noted desperado, who had killed five men in the vicinity of Staunton, Va., was taken from the jail at that place on the night of the 10th, by a mob, aud hanged. '

PERSONAL, The President has appointed John H. Yager, Collector of Internal Revenue for the Second District,of Illinois. E. H. Rollins was elected Treasurer of the Union Pacific Railroad, at Boston on the Bth, in place of Mr. Williams, resigned. In the famous Vanderpool murder case at Kalamazoo, Mich., a motion for a change of venue has been granted and the case sent to Barry County. In Chicago on the evening of the 7th a terrible tragedy was enacted. Dr. E. S. Scanland, a well-known physician on the West Side and husband of Mrs. Agnes Leonard Scanland, of literary celebrity, was shot and instantly killed by his brother-in-law, P. A. Leonard. The difficulty grew out of domestic troubles, and on the occasion of the fatal shot Leonard claims to have been acting in self-defense. He was held for an examination before the Grand Juiy. . In a game of base-ball at New Orleans, on the 9th, the Chicago White Stockings defeated the R. E. Lees —28 to 4.

The R. W. Grand Lodge of the United States has decreed that the 20th of the present month shall be set apart and observed by the members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows throughout the country as a day of general thanksgiving, and in grateful recognition and acknowledgment of the goodness of God in the preservation and prosperity of the Order. German peace celebrations were held in many leading cities at the East and in other sections of the United States on the 10th. The procession in New Y'ork City is said to have excelled, in point of numbers and enthusiasm, any similar display ever witnessed in that city. The nominations of T. L. Bond, to be Register of the Land Office, and D. R Wegstnff, to be Receiver of Public Moneys, at Saliua, Kansas, were sent to the Senate on the 10th. Commodore John S. Cltauncey, of the United States Navy, died at Brooklyn on the 11th. He entered the navy in 1812. Hon. Robert S. Glass, of Henderson, Ky., a leading member of the State’Legislature, was found dead in bed a few mornings ago. It is supposed that he died of heart disease.

Among the nominations sent to the Senate by the President on the 13th were : Collector of Internal Revenue—W. B. McCreary, Sixth District, Michigan. Assessors of Internal Revenue—Townsend Nutt, Sixth District, Michigan; G. S. Smith, Eighth District, Michigan. Postmasters— McPherson, Clyde, Ohio; E. Smith, Galien, Ohio; H. P. Cowics, Washington, Iowa; Jas. Davidson, Monticello, Iowa; 8. 11. Shoemaker, DeWitt, Iowa; E. R. Brown, Elmwood, Ill.; A. C. Paxton, Lockport, Ill.; S. G. Brougham, Lansing, Mich.; H. S. Robinson, Washington, O.; F. Swift, Detroit, Mich.; Jas. Goodspeed, Joliet, Ill.; J. B. Cunningham, Hayes City, Kan.; W. C. Snyder, Fulton, Ill.; Charles Southard, Morris; Ilk

POLITICAL. The Illinois Legislature has passed a bill authorizing the election of women to school offices. At a meeting of the Central Council of the Republican party, at Mobile, Ala, on the 7th, a resolution was unanimously adopted, protesting against the appointment of Werner, ex-United States Senator, or Beriek, ex-Congressman from that State, to any Federal office in Alabama. A bill passed the Mississippi Senate, on the 7th, authorizing the Governor to raise a cavalry force to put down lawlessness in the State. The following is a telegraphic summary of the Ku-Klux bill as"it finally passed the House on the 6th. 1. Conspiracies or the combination of two or more persons to deprive any class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, are dellned as felonies, punishable in United States Courts by tine and Imprisonment, while the lujtired parlies have recourse thereto for damage*. ». In case of obstruction to the laws of a Btato or of the United States, so as to deprive any person of any privilege, immunity, etc., and that the State authorities are uuable or fall to atTord protection, or to apply to the President for protection, the I “resident may use the national forces; thereby meaning. It Is believed, the militia as well as the army, to arrest any offenders, and hand them over to the United Mates Courts. The act of 1803 is revived, which requires the military to hand a list of Imprisoned (lersons to the United States Courts, and then, If the term adjourns and no indictment is found, all such arc to be discharged. 8. After proclamation, the President may suspend tho writ of habeas corpus till the Ist of June, 18T2, whenever and wherever he finds numerous unlawful combinations. 4. The lron-clsd or test oath for jurors In the United States Courts is abolished, but the Judge may oxact an oath of a juror that he has never belonged to the Ku-Klux. Albany and Lockport, N. Y., and Railway, N»wl., have recently elected Democratic Mayors. A recent Hartford, Conn, dispatch says: “An evident error baa been discovered in the return of the from the Fourth

Ward of New Haven, by which 100 more votes were returned for Governor English than should have been. This will probably be investigated by the Legislature, and if the return is the result of a mistake or fradulcnt count, Jewell will be Governor." J. W. Smith, Republican, has been elected Mayor of Springfield, 111. The Illinois Legislature has passed a joint resolution to hold an adjourned session in Chicago next fall. The Mississippi'Legislature has passed a law making it a misdemeanor to assign passengers on railroads to particular cars, aud punishing the offense witli a heavy fine or imprisonment.