442 CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-SENATE. JANUARY 6, 

fisheries along the Canadian border-to the Committee on Ways and 

Means. 

.Also, petition of John P. Holloway and others, praying that cer~in 

license fees paid by them to the United States Government be refunded . to them-to the same committee. 

.Also, papers in the claim of Bishop E. Fitzgerald, of Little Rock, 

.Ark.-to the Committee on War Claims. 

By ~Ir. SPRINGER: Paper relating to claim of Jacob Lucas-to the 

Committee on Claims. 

Also, papers relating to claim of Frederick Klor-to the Committee on War Claims. 

By Mr. E. F. STONE: Petition of citizens of Gloucester, :Mass., for a survey of their harbor-to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors. 

By ~Ir. W. J. STONE, of Missouri: Resolutions of 0. P. Morton Post, 

No. 14, Department of Missouri, G. A. R., of Joplin, Mo., for the passage of the amended Mexican pension bill which was pending in the 

Forty-eighth Congress-to the Committee on Pensions . 

.Also, petition of Harmon Conley, of Joplin, Mo., for relief-to the 

Committee on War Claims. 

By l\Ir. STORlvi: Memorial of the Grocers and Importers' Exchange, 

of Philadelphia, Pa., for the e..'l:tension of the Signal Service-to the 

Committee on :Military Affairs. 

By Mr. SWINBURNE: Petition of 1\Irs. lt!argaret Kempf, for in- crease of pension-to·the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

By l\Ir. J.ltf. TAYLOR: PapersrelatingtotheclaimsofE. A. French; 

of A. Thompson, administTator of JohnN. Barnett; of John A. Barnes; 

of E. A. Collins, administrator of W. P. Collins; of John Deaton; of 

Alfred Gardner; of J. G. McFarlane; of Louisa Meriweather; of John 

B. Inman; of John Willett; of JerreR. Wright, administrator of Nancy 

Wright; of Isaiah Sweat; of .Archibald Thomas, and of William R. 

Collier-to the Committee on War Claims. 

By l\1r. Z.!.CH. TAYLOR: Petition of business men of Memphis, 

Tenn., praying for the suspension of coinage of silver-to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. · 

Also, petition of merchants of Memphis, Tenu., for the abolition of 

duties on ::fish-to the Committee on Ways and Means. 

By lli. THROCKMORTON: Petition of citizens of Bowie, Tex., asking national aid for education-to the Committee on Education. 

By Mr. TOWNSHEND: Petition of G. I. Georgeand62 others, ex-soldiers, of Illinois, for the passage of a law allowing persons entitled to 

pen ions to draw arrears of pensions from date of discharge-to the 

Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

By Mr. TUCKER: Petition of 1\Irs. :Marion Twiggs ~eyers and co- heirs of D. E. Twiggs, for relief-to the Committee on War Claims. · 

By Mr. VAN EATON: Petition of Julia. A. Nutt, widow and execu- trix of Haller Nutt, deceased, for relief-to the same committee. 

.Also, petition of ltf. V. Dahlgren, widow of the late Rear-Admiral 

Dahlgren-to Committee on Claims. 

By l\Ir. T. B. WARD: Two petitions ofcitizensofTiptonand Hamilton Counties, Indiana, praying that a pension of $8 a month be gJ:a.nted 

to all soldiers ·and sailors who served a period of 3ixty days in the Army 

or Navy of the United States in the late war-to the Committee on Invnlid Pensions. 

Also, petition of Morton Post, No.1, G. A. R., for the enactment of a law granting pensions~to soldiers and sailors for service in the late 

war-to the same committee. 

By 111r. WILLIAM WARNER: A bill making ail appropriation to 

continue the improvement of the M:issouri River-to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors. 

Also, peti~ion of Lydia A. McGill, administmtrix of John C. 1\IcGill, 

decE-ased, for balance due on contract with Commissary Department 

for beef furnished the .Army in 1862-to the Committee on War Claims. 

By lli. A. J. WEAVER: Petition of Phebe Martin, for a pension-to 

the Committee on Invalid Pensions. · 

AI o, petition for the relief of Albert Cotton from the charge of desertion-to the Committee on l\filitary Affairs. 

The following petitions, praying Congress to place the coinage of sil- ver upon an equality with gold; that there be issued coin certificates 

of one, two, and five dollars, the same being made alegal tender; that. one and two dollar legal-tender notes be i ued, and that the public 

debt be paid as rapidly as possible by applying for this purpose the idle 

surplus now in the Treasury, were presented and severally referred to 

the Committee on Coinage, Weights, anl'l Measures. 

By l'llr. BRUl\IM: Of citizens of Georgia. 

By Mr. COMSTOCK: Of citizens of Ionia County, ltfichigan. 

By 1\Ir. CONGER: Of citizens of Woodward, Iowa. 

By Mr. DOCKERY: Of citizens of Harrison County, Missouri. 

By Mr. ELDREDGE: Of citizens of Litchfield, Hillsdale County, 

.Michigan. 

By Mr. J. T. JOHNSON: Of citizens of Fountain County and of 

Montgomery County, Indiana. . By Mr. O'DONNELL· Of citizens of Quincy, Branch County, and of 

citizens of Battle Creek, :Michigan . . By Mr. PERKINS: Of citizens of Elk and Chautauqua Counties, of 

citizens of La bette County, and of Crawford County, Kansas. 

By Mr. PETERS: Of citizens of Galva and of citizens of Harper 

County, Kansas . 

By 1\Ir. LANHAM: Of citizens of Texas. 

By Mr. RYAN: Of citizens ofKansas . 

By l\1r. J. B. WEAVER: Of citizens of Washington Territory; of 

citizens of Pennsylvania; of Calhoun County, Texas; of citizens of 

Illinois; of citizens of Kansas; of citizens of Ohio; of citizens of Iowa; 

of citizens of Wisconsin; of citizens of Missouri; of citizens of Oregon; 

of citizens of l\Iassachusetts; of citizens of West Virginia; of citizens of 

New Jersey; of citizens of New York; of citizens of l\Iichig:m. 

B:y l\Ir. WILSON: Of citizens of Marion County, West V:uginia. 

SENATE. 

WEDNESDAY, January 6, 1886. 

Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. E. D. H~TLEY, D. D. 

The Journal of yesterday's proceedings was read and approved. 

EXECUTIVE COMMUXICATIO:NS. 

The PRESIDENT priJ tempore laid before g~e Senate a. communication 

from the Secretary of War, transmitting, in compliance with section 3663 

of the Revised Statutes, plans and estimates for the construction of a · permanent wharf at Fort Monroe, Va. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The communication, with the accompanying papers, except the maps, will he printed. The question of 

the printing of maps has usually been referred to the Committee on Printing. That course will be taken if there be no objection. 

The PRESID&'IT' pro tempore laid before the Senate a communication 

from the Secretary of War, transmitting, in compliance with section · 3663 of the ReTI.sed Statutes, plans and estimates for the construction 

of a school building and bar~acks at Fort Leavenworth, Kans. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair calls the attention of the 

Senate to the fact that this communication is accompanied by a number 

of maps, the printing of which probably would delay the printing of 

the communication a long time. Therefore the question of printing the 

maps will be referred to the Committee on Printing if there be no objection, and the communication wil.J, be referted to the Committee on l\Iilitarv Affairs. 

The PRESIDENT p1·o tempore laid before the Senate a communication 

from the Secretary of War, recommending provision for comfortable 

quarters for the keeper of the Yorktown Monument; which was referred 

to the Committee on Appropriations, and ordered to be printed. 

S. S. BROWN'. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair lays before the Senate a communication from the Postmaster-General in reply to a resolution of 

December 8, 1885, in regard to S. S. Brown, of Maine, procuring theremoval and appointment of postmasters in that State. What disposition 

shall be made of the communication? It will be read if it is desired. 

l\fr. HALE. I should like to have the communication of the Postmaster-General read. The list that accompanies it need not be read. · 

Then I wish to call the attention of the Sen.1.te for a few moments to the 

subject. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The communication will be read. 

The- Chief Clerk read as follows: 

To the Senate of the United States: 

Po· T-OFFICE DEPARTME.IT, 

OFFICE OF THE Po T.MASTER-GENERAL, 

December 2 , 1835. 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, on the 11th day of December instant, of an attested copy of the following resolution of the Senate, namely: 

"IN THE SENJ.TE OF THE UNITED STATES, 

"Decembe1· 9, 1885. 

"Whereas it is alleged that S. S. Brown, a citizen of the-State of Maine, has 

been largely instrumental in procuring the removal of certain postma ter in 

said State and the appointment of other persons to serve in their stead; and 

"Whereas it is further alleged that said Brown has written to parties whose 

appointment he has p1·ocured as aforesaid letters in form and sub ta.n.ce like the 

following, to wit: 

"'WASHINGTON, D. c.,--, 1885. 

"' DEAB Sm: I have secured your appointment as po tmaster at yom.· place. Your papers will be sent in a day or two. If you feel like sending o. small sum to help defray the expense of attending to our Mn.ine matters you IIlllY do so. " ' My mail comes to the above address. 

"'Respectfully, yours, 

"'S. S. BROWN.' 

"Therefore, . "Re.solved, That the Postmaster-General be, and is hereby, directed to furnish to the Senate a list of the po t-offi.ces in Maine and the names of the person re- moved and of those appointed po tmasters of the same where the said S. S. Brown has favorably recommended the ame or indor ed l>he applications therefor. 

"Attest: 

"Al\SON G. Me OOK, 

"Secretary." 

And in response thereto to state that the said Brown indorsed the several pe- titions of numerous citizens for the removal of the postmasters at East Vassalborough and North Vienna, in Kennebec County; at Naples, in Cumberland 

County, and at. Torth Shapleigh, in York County, in the State of 1\I&ine, and in no other case discoverable after careful examination or known to any officer of 

the J?epartment; but that all removals in that State during my incumbency of 

this office were ba ed upon special representations by citizens of the respective localities, including the fow· above named; and also that;, in point of fact, af-

.. 
1886. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 443 

firmed on myknowledge,!!ofar n.s my personal att-ention has been given to the 

action taken, and on the knowledge of the First Assistant Postmaster-General 

for the residue of the statement, the appointments of all persons to be postmas- ters in the State of 1\Iaine, during the period mentioned, have been made upon petitions and communications from citizens within the respective deliveries of 

the several offices concerned, and in no case because of the recommendation of 

said Brown. That, however, many such petitions for appointment have been presented 

throuooh the mediation of, nnd sometimes indorsed and sometimes favorably re- commended by, S. S. Brown, as chairman of the Democratic State central com- mittee of l\Iaine ;.andherewithaccompanying !transmit a list of all post-offices in that tate from which the postmasters have been removed during the period 

aforesaid, with the names of the removed and of the newly aJtpointed postmas- ter , whei"e any indorsement or recommendation by said Brown has been mo.de or appears on any petition or communication presented in favor of such appointed 

postma te1·. 

WM. F. VILAS, Postmaster-Gene~·aT. 

Mr. HALE. l'lfr. President, before this communication shall be sent 

to a proper committee I desire to call the attention of the Senate to the 

important subjects-matter contained in it. 

Everybody realizes that within the last half-dozen years there has 

been in the country a growing sentiment with reference to the conduct 

and management of the civil service of the Government. Ideas upon 

this ubject have taken root with the people, and have found form and 

expr ion through the press, through the platforms of the great political parties, and indeed in the every-day utterances of men. It has • become more and more the belief of the American people that the civil 

sen-ice of the Government should be for the good of all. It is a civil sernce paid for by all, and therefore should benefit all. The growth 

of the belief that appointments to office should not be merely a reward 

of party se:nicc or personal service has undoubtedly been marked; and, 

abo,·e all, men have become convinced and the country has desired that 

the civil service should be a pure service. Now, in order that there 

shall be a pure civil service in the United States, it must inevitably 

baYe a pure foundation. There must be no taint of bargain and sale 

about the distribution of patronage, because if that taint be found then 

it will infect the whole ervice. 

All parties have recognized this. It has found expression in their 

platforms; both Republican and Democratic. 

There has been in the State of Maine, which I have the honor in part 

to represent here, a remarkable condition of affairs within the last ix 

months. That is a State where there are no great centers of patronage. 

There is but one considerable custom-house iii. the State, and that not 

of the largest grade or rank. There are in the whole State but few 

great offices of emolument and trust to invite able men as candidates 

tor filling them. There is none of the paraphernalia of the great busi- ness of the Land Office, its r0ooi.stration and all of the force necessary to 

carry on that department of the Government.. The great Bureau of 

Internal Revenue has little, almost no representation in the S~te, there 

being a single district with a collector, with no grea.t pay and a very 

small clerical force, for but little is collected. There are but thirtyseven Presidential appointments to post-offices in the State; but scattered over its entire territory, ramifYing everywhere, are the fourth-class 

post-ofilces, numbering several hundreds. Oat of about nine hundred 

of these post-offices perhaps a hu:il.dred outside of the larger towns ancl - the few cities 'range in value to the incumbent from $200 to just within 

$1,000 per year, and the rest are fur below this and insignificant in point 

of compen.c;ation. 

But, Mr. President, there is no Department of the Government that 

comes so near to the people of the State of Maine as does the Post-Office 

Department through its representatives in the fourth-class postmasters. 

They do the business of the public; they are intrusted with its mails 

and to a great degree with the people's secrets, and nowhere is found so much interest in having a good and pure service as in this Department of the Government_ 

When the administration of President Cleveland came into power it 

fonnd this situation in the State of Maine: The incumbents of these 

small post-offices were attending to their duties a:ad no complaint was 

made. 'l}ley were gen~ra.lly Republicans undoubtedly. Along course of power rn the Republican party ha<l :resulted not univer.sally, not en- tirely, but in a large majority being Republicans. 

r wish to say here now that I make no appeal for these men who 

have been removed. The letters that I have received calling attention to 

the scandals that have bronghtdisreputeon this branchofthe service in 

the S ta teof Maine do not come from Republicans; they do not come from men who have been removed from office_ I want to say here that theRepublicans who have been holding office heretofore have expected togo out 

but in a" decent and orderly" fashion. Their belief in the wants and 

necessities and clamor of Democratic partisans has been so great that 

they never expected to be kept long in office, I g;peak not for them but 

in the interest of political morality. ' 

The Administration proceeded cautiously with reference to the large 

post-offices and but few changes have been made in the State. The 

President maintained n. conservative attitude, and while he was beset 

by constant delegations from the State of Maine to make a. clean and 

general sweep of the Presidential post-offices he declin¢, and but few 

removals were made. . • 

But;, as my colleague knows and as I know, the situation in the State 

outside of the great offices was soon found· to be this: A village upon 

the coast with a good postmaster performing his duty, with Democratio 

aspirants for the office, as they had a right to aspire, who had seemed 

the fa,vor of their fellow-citizens by petitions for a, removal and appointment, would wake up on ome bright morning in the summer and find 

thatanewman had beenappointed whomnobodywanted, whomneitheir 

Democrat nor Republican desired to fill the pluce, who was objectionable 

to the patrons of the office. At once the question arose, how had thin 

been done, and the further question arose whether this was civil-servict> 

reform and a purification of the ervice. 

Somewhere in the interior, a little town with a post-office paying 

S200 or $300 a year would join unitedly, Democratic and Republican, 

for the appointment of a Democrat of character and standing, and the 

papers would be presented or sent to Washington, and the morcing 

mail would bring the announcement that another man for whom nobody 

was suppo ed to have signed had been appointed postmaster. And so it 

went on from week to week, the ax constantly falling, but the source of 

the decree by which the ax: fell being a mystery to the people in the 

several post-office districts wht-.re the change had been made. 

Soon inquiry wa directed as to how this bad been. DepntationtJ visited the Democratic candidates for Congress in the di tricts, who told 

them they knew nothing. They visited the Democratic candidate for 

governor, who is a citizen of my town, who told them that he knew 

nothing. Attention was then ca.lled to the fn.ct that the chairman of 

the Democratic State committee, Mr. S. S. Brown, who is mentioned 

in the resolution, had left his home in Waterville and his practice or 

law there, had shut up his office, andhadcometo Washington to attend 

to the distribution of patronage under the civil-service-reform administration of the Government. 

That called further attention to the fu.ct that when the Democratic 

party in Maine found itself fuce to face with the di tribution of patronage, it discovered that the old and conservative forces of that party were not equal to the occasion; and when the Democratic State committee 

met, in view ofthe distributionofpatronagein theState, theoldchairman was left out, and thi new ma~ J.Ir. S. S.. Brown, substituted in 

his place. As I shall show presently, he discloses the purposes and the 

doings of the meeting where h~ was dire~ted to take charge of certain 

Jlfaine patronage. · When it was found tha.t this one-man power was working in this man- ner, in llk'\ny cases without regard to the rei?resentatiQn of the several 

communities affected, when it was discovered that here was the source of removals, a great indjgnation arose throughout the State. I began 

to get letters, as I said, not from Republican but from Democrats. A 

prominent Democrat, not in my own Stat~ butwhovisits it in summer and has become interested in a locality where a postmaster has lately 

been remo-ved, says in a letter to me: 

The removal of the po tma ter (who bn.d indm:sements sufficiently strong, as 

was said to me in_ the Po tma ter-General's office, to secure the appointment of: 

a Cabinet:omcer), under the circumstances. was simply disgraceful, and ought to be exposed and the blame put where it belongs. 

Another letter says of a candidate who was not appointed : "His location was in the right place, and he b:ui the indorsement of the Democratic member of the county of the Democratic State committee, and is a reliable man, but he was set aside by Brown, and a c.andidate who 

went to Washington with money in pocket. was appointed. Another 

says: 

She sent a petitionReferring to the candidate who was put inShe sent a petition signed by tluee patrons of this office. The remainder o( 

her petitioner , m· nearly aU, live mil o.way. We:-

The peopleWe sent a. remonstrance signed by eighty-four, ali pa.trons of this oflice, and 

yet she has had an appointment sent her contrary to the wishes of aJl parties. 

'Ve feel outraged and will not patronize the office. 

I could go on reading these complaints for an hour, and I know that 

my collCUooue, and perhaps every member in the other House from the 

State, ~?as just such complaints as these, which were made until it became a universal scandal and a.rou ed the indignation not only of Republicans but of good conservative Democrats. Untler these circumstances, when I came here at the beginning of the session, one of this 

man's letteTS, which he had written to one of the parties for whom h~ 

had secured an appointment, was hande9. to me, and I deemed the subject of sufficient importance for Congress and the American people to 

call for information. This was the letter on which my resolution was based: W.ASH:ISGTON, D.C.,-, 1885. 

DEAR Srn: I b ve secured your appointment as postmn.ster at your place. Your papers will be sent in a day or two. If you feel like sending a small sum to help defray the expen es of attending to our l\Iaine matters you may do so. l\Iy mail comes to the above addre s. Respectfully, yours, · S. S. BROWN. 

I made that the basis of a resolution calling for information from tho 

Department. What I sought to obtain was entire and exhaustive information as to Brown's connection with these appointments, as to hia 

solicitations for the &'l.m«; and of appointments made where he lmd. 

r~mmended themj and the Depa~:tment's answer has just been read, 

S1gned and sent here by the Po tmaster-General. Accompanying 1t il 
444 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. J ..ANU.ARY 6, 

the following list of four Presidential post-offices where Brown recom- mended the change, and eighty-seven fourth-class offices: 

List of post-offices in lJiaine, called for JJy tlte 1·esolution of the Senate of 

December 9, 1885, 'With the names of the p9stmasters removed and of 

the persons appointed instead. 

PRESIDK.,..TIAL. 

Post-office. Postmaster. Person appointed. 

Biddeford....................... Esseff H. Banks ................. Timothy Shaw, jr. 

Saccarappa ..................... James 1\!. Webb ................. N. A. Sweet. 

Waterville ...................... Willard M. Dunn............... FrankL. Thayer. 

FOURTH CLASS. 

Lisbon............................ Hannah W. Garrish........... J. M. Corbett. 

Livermore Falls............. Alvin Record..................... Winfield S. Trest. Lisbon Falls .................. John Plummer ................. John H. Coombs. Turner ........................... WilliamL. Bonny .............. Walter B.Irish. 

Ashland .......................... Ansel T. Mowers ............... W. P. Brigham. 

Caribou.......................... Joseph Garey..................... Orlando N. Smith. Fort Fairfield................. Agnes L. Paul.................... Miles F. Doney. 

Frenchville...... .............. Alexander S. Eaton........... Elai R. Marchand. 

Presque_lsle .................. George M. Lane ................. Mrs. T. A. Parker. Van Buren ..... ................ W. C. Hammond, jr ........... J. B. A. Farrell. 

Gorham .......................... Henry R. Millett ............... Theo. B. Edwards. _Naples ............... ~ .......... David H. Cole .................... Samuel Leavitt. 

Woodford's .................... Charles M. Legrow ............ A. R. Huston. Kingfield........................ Charles W. Clark............... Alonzo Knapp. New Sharon ................... Jabez S. Moores ......... ~ ....... T. Arthur Paul. 

North Jay ....................... Warren Leland .................. W. Woodman. 

Strong ............................ Eben J. Gilkey .................. A. J. Norton. Blue Hill ........................ Eugene A. Stevens ............ T. N. B. Holt. 

Brooklin ........................ Richard A. Herrick ............ T. R. Alden. Mount Deset·t.. ............... Jonathan Hamor ............... A. C. Fernald. 

Orland........................... George H. Condon ...... ...... R. P. Harriman. 

South Deer Isle .............. Benjamin F. Warren......... Benjamin F. Small. Fremont ....................... :. Eben D. Clark ........ -............ Ella M. Benson. China .............................. F. 0. Brainard ................... Theron E. Doe. East Vassalborough ...... J. S. Butterfield.................. Charles ,V. Mower. Kent's Hill..................... Noah Jewett...................... S. McNear. Monmouth..................... F. H. Beale........................ l\1. 0. Edwards. 

North Vienna ................ J.S.Grnves ........................ H. Whittier. 

Readfield ........................ T. P. Johnson ..................... Annie 1\-I. Craig. 

Readfield Depot ..... : ....... Nelson Poole ..................... S. H. Morrill. 

Vassalborough ............... Edward W. Bush ............... l\Iary A. Hanson. Wayne ........................... J. S. Berry ......................... J. C. Stubblefield.l West Gardiner ............... William P. HaskelJ.. ......... A. W. De Fratus. Windsor......................... H. A. N. Dutton................ I. C. Bachelder. 

Vinal Haven .................. Austin B. Binal.. ................ D. H. Glidden. 

Union ............................. R. W. Bartlett ................... John A. Gleason. 

Round Pond .................. James E. Nicholls ............. Wiliam M. Fassett. Dixfield Centre .............. D. F. Newton ..................... Mrs. A. A. Holman. East Dixfield.................. William H. Winslow........ Charles H. Fuller. West Paris ..................... Francis A. Young .............. B. B. Dennen. Charleston ..................... Thomas J. Peaks .............. H. C. Holden. 

Corinna .......................... E. P. Burrill...................... M. P. Hamilton. Etna ... ...... ..................... J. E. Friend....................... H. C. Friend. 

Hampden Corner ......... ;. 'Benjamin F. Smith ........... F. G. Rogen. . Kenduskeag .................. F. A. H. Stackpole ............ T. B. Bachelder. 

Lincoln .................... ; ..... Harrison Piper .................. M. B. Pinkham. 

Medway .................... , .... .J:unes T. Kimball .............. Freeman Dickey. 

Newport ........................ S. P. Judkins ..................... Edgar R. Dow. Patten ........................... Calvin Bradford................. C. ,V, Stevens. 

Springfield ..................... M. l\L Lewis ....................... F. L. Hanscom. '\Vinn ............................. Thaddeus R. Joy ............... J. E. Estes. Abbott Village ............... Jesse Barber ..................... G. A. Brad1pan. 

Greenville ..................... John H. Eveleth ............... D. T.Sanders. 

Guilford ........................ George W. Pratt, ............... James Hudson. 

Milo................................ Clara M. Owen.................. George B. Crane. Monson ......................... Ed, win R. Hayner .............. Charles l\I. Coombes. 

Bowdoin Centre ... -......... James L. Rogers ................ Mary A. Coombes. 

Bowdoinham ................. A. S. Purinton.................... Franklin K. Jack. Pa~ker's Hea~............... George Puley.................... William H. Small. 

Brighton ........................ L. D. Libby........................ Peter Walker. 

Cambridge ..................... S. E. Bailey ........................ George Mitchell. East Madison................. Charles F. Tuffts............... Mrs. H C. Moore. Pittsfield........................ F. M. Ireland .................. ,.. Henry F. Libby. 

Brooks ........................... James S.Huxford .............. F. W. Brown, jr. 

Frankfort ....................... Hiram Treat ...................... Upton Treat. Lincolnville .................... R. B. Sherman .................... Robert W. Perry • . Northport ...................... 0. H. Cummings ................ E. B. Elwell. 

North Islesborough .. : ..... William P. Sprague ........... 1\1. P. Pendleton. 

Prospect.. ....................... Benjamin Colson ............... James F. Libby. Sandy Point ................... Alexander Black............... 0. C. Wardwell. 

Unity .............................. H. B. Rice .......................... James R. Tabor. 

Winterport.. ................... I. H. Dunham ..... : ......... · ...... Jennison Grant; 

Danforth........................ B. F. Runnels..................... James Robbins. I 

Lubec ............................. Micah M. Foster................ James H. Gray. Bar Mills ........................ H. ,V. Palmer.................... . .James W. Meserve. Berwick .......................... William H. Rich ................ H. B. Tibbetts. 

Cornish ......................... William H. Nevers ............ I. N. Brackett. 

North Shapleigh ............ James E. Coffin .................. Esther S. Thing. West Newfield ............... Josiah Durgin .................... Albert H. Davis. 

York Corner ................... C. H. Jenkins ..................... George F. Plaiste_d. 

1 Commission held. 

As I said in the beginning, of the large number of fourth-class post-. 

offices in the State, numbering in all several hundred, perhaps one hundred of them are _important enough to make it an o~ject to hold the 

place, the pay ranging from $200 up .to nearly $1,000. Of this class 

of about one hundred-! ouly speak approximately, not exactly-over 

eighty are found in that list. It is a large part of the patronage of the 

Post-Office Department in the State 9f Maine; and undoubtedly, as is 

suggested, if the letters sent out and the statements of citizens of .Maine can be depended upon, there are hundreds of others where the appointment was procured at little plaees where nothing appears upon the rec- ord, for there has been almost a general sweep in this branch of the 

Post-Office Department in ::M:aine, aside from the Presidential appoint· 

menta, which fall under the scrutinizing eye of the President and the 

Postmaster-General. The Republicans have gone out and the Democrats have come in. 

As to the answer to the resolution of inquiry which the Senate passed, 

I have no complaint to make against it. It has followed the terms of 

the resolution and has technically answered it; and the Postma,sterGeneral also states that all these appointments where Brown had rec· ommended them were made not because he recommended them, but 

because they were backed up by petitions. I acquit the Postmaster· 

General of any knowledge of this man's performances. He comes to 

that official armed with the indorsements of the Democratic party of 

the State of Maine. He was its committee's chairman, and the com- mittee had sent him to Washington to manage this business, and it was not strange that the Postmaster-General turned this subject-matter 

over, as he did largely, to the First Assistant, and that that assistant 

depended largely upon the representations of l.1r. Brown. They were ignorant, we will presume, of his ways and of his methods, but the 

party at home knew it, and the citizens in Maine knew it, and the 

whole State was scandalized by it. 

We do not learn from this reply in how many cases there were different petitions, like some that have been alluded to in the letters which 

I have read, where a small number asked for the appointment of a cer- ta.in Democrat, and he was indorsed by Brown and the appointment 

made, when ten times or twenty times as many asked for the appointment of another Democrat. Of that we have no knowledge. The 

Postmaster:-General has sent us no information upon the crucial question whether or not the wishes of the people who patronized these 

offices were considered. We have no account of the visitations and 

soiicitations of this man at the Post-Office Department, or how he held 

aloft there the authority given by his party and the committee of his 

party, upon which he based this infamous system of brokerage in public offices. That is not disclosed by the answer of the PostmasterGeneral. · 

But 11r. Brown himself avows this control. Driven at last to bay, 

with the newspapers commenting upon it, with a resolution of the Senate banging over his head, with an indignant people aroused against 

him, from the retira-cy and seclusion of a sick-bed, on the lOth day ot 

December last he sends to the public probably the most remarkable ex- culpatory letter that the annals of modern political literature have disclosed. I shall put the whole letter, giving him the benefit of it, into 

the RECORD, to accompany my remarks, so that nobody shall say that I 

have in any way misrepresented this man. He begins: 

·To the Editor of the ArgusA Democmtic paper at Portland, Me.-

DEAB. Sm: For more than two weeks I have been connned to my bed with an attack of pneumonia. To-day is the first time I have been able to sit 'Up long 

enough to write .t-o you. Some three or four days ago I first became aware of 

what was being telegraphed from Washington about me, under Ule inspiration 

of J.P. Bass. 

So that this communication, this emanation is not a hurried one, but 

is the result of careful reflection and thought. 

The story comes I am "blacklisted 11 there because of the fact that certain 

gentlemen have seen fit to pay me for expenses incu.rred in securing the fourthclass post-offices: So far as the blacklisting business is concerned I care but. 

little about that, but be it true or false, time brings all things to light, and I am content to wait, but I don't want to stand inn. false light among my own ac- quaintances and friends, and hence I write this letter to you and ask you to publish it in the Argus, the only Democratic daily in our State. 

Let-me· read some of the statements of the manner in which patronage is disposed of under the ruling powers in the State of Maine. 

He says: 

Sometime in the early part of last summer our Democratic State committee 

determined that it was important as a. political influence to have our fourth· 

class post-offices filled with Democrats as soon as we could have them. 

I have found nothing in the civil service resolution of any party's 

platform that reads precisely like that. ' 

We then agreedIt was a harmonious compact--

We thenagreedamongourselves by vote that so far as this class of officers was concerned eacl1 member of the committee in his own county should examine 

into cases in his own county,find out what was the wish of the local Democracy as to persons to be appointed, and recommend the person for postmaster whom 

the Democrats receiving mail at the various offices wanted. 

The Republican patrons of the office were excluded. I am not much 

surprised at that. 

And each member of our committee was to respect that recommendation, and I was requested, as chairman of the committee, to indorse the papers of such persons, and use my efforts to secure their appointment. I have been trying 

for the last six months to discharge that duty. I visited Washington three times 

in the discharge of this duty prior to July. On these several trips I had paid out over ~. but had accomplished but little, because the Administration was not willing to do anything for us. But in July I secured quite a large number 

of appointments. 

The Postmaster-General does not say that Mr. Brown secured any. 
1886. CONGRESS! ON AL RECORD-SEN ATE. 445 

Mr. Brown says that he did; and from that day the gateway wa.s open 

and the appointments were made ro the extent that the list indicates. 

The subject of expense necessarily incnl'l'ed in this work was discussed by our committee at the time and several times since, and it was the unanimous opinion 

that the persons who received the appointmentsLet Senators listen ro this. This is giving the deliberation of the 

State committee of the Democratic party of the State of Maineshould be called upon to contribute each his part of the expense. When I se- cured the appointments in July I notified by letters a few persons of the fact of 

their appointment by my efforts, and suggested if they felt disposed to contribute a small sum toward the expense it would be accepted. Some responded and some did not. On reflection it seemed to me a little undignified to call in this manner for these expenses, and since then I .have asked no one to contribute 

toward this expense. It seems that Mr. Bass bas picked up some of these letters and now has them on exhibition in Washington. If he thinks this a dignified proceeding an,d one that will redound to his lasting benefit he is welcome to all he can make out of it. 

I have done the best I could to put Democrats into office. I have had no clients. 

I have done nothing that I am aware of that in any degree partakes of office 

brokerage, but have received the papers of such candidates as have been sent to me and such as I have found on file in Washington. properly indorsed by the 

members of my committee and other leading Democrats in their several coun- ties and tried to secure their appointment. The amount of actual work performed by me in answering letters, explaining about charges, and giving all sorts of information can not be well appreciated. I have abandoned my law business for 

six months and paid out at least $200 more than I have received. If some one else will now take hold and do the balance of this work-for I believe fully in 

giving the Democrats all the posk>ffices-I will be content, 

Respectfully, yours, 

S.S.BROWN, 

Chairman of the Democratic Stale Com~~nittu of Maine. 

Mr. President, this is "reform" with a VfJ)geance; this is "purifying the public service;" this is 11 cleansing the Augean stables;" this is 

"turning the rascals out;" this is 11 securing a non-partisan service!" 

Let Senators reflect for a moment upon the proposition that men who are appointed ro office."shall be assessed for the expenses attendant upon 

that appointment. Does any Senator-know where the line would be 

drawn? The whole brokerage business is not even thinly disguised. 

Let any party proceed upon that presumption that men appointed to 

office shall be assessed for obtaining the office, then you have got every 

source of patronage polluted aud the service is de ba.uched and destroyed. 

And this man was empowered, a.s he says, by his party to do this. 

It is due to fairne._~ to say that several old Democratic members of 

the State committee deny th~knowledge that Brown was given such 

powers; but that he acted by the general direction of the committee 

there is no reason to doubt. 

Why, Mr. President, 8enatorswillrememberthreeyearsagowhen the 

Senator from Kentucky [Mr. BEcK] and I and others vexed this body 

for days with our contention over a resolution which he submitted 

calling for an investigation where voluntary contributions had been 

requested from men in office, a committee of the Republican party 

did what had been done. by both parties for years: it sent out circulars 

asking men in office if they were 'Jilling to contribute something to the 

legitimate expenses of the campaign; and the Senator from Kentucky 

introduced a resolution demanding an investigation and denouncing the 

act in the severest terms; and the chairman of the Republican committee, who boo sent out these circulars, doillg no more than others had 

done, doing no more than I had done when chairman of that committee 

in previous years, found the whole newspaper press <;>f the country upon 

his back, and his name was coined into a new word expressing improper 

levies upon men in office in the way of assessments. 

Mr. President, that was a thing of the slightest importance compared 

with this of assessing men, who are appointed, to pay the expenses of that 

appointment. That, it may be, muddies the water; this poisons the 

fountain. This selling and marketing of public office has been the sign 

and accompaniment of corruption and corrupt parties for all the ages. 

Shakespeare puts the reproach of "an itching palm" into the mouth 

of the incorruptible Brutus where he denounces the venal CassiusHe sold his offices to undeservers. 

Mr. Pre~ident, there is one thing more with this that will make entire havoc of political morality. When you add to the bargaining and 

selling of public places one other thing, the perversion, the thwarting, 

the denial, the debauching of the suffrage, then political honesty may 

cry aloud in the streets. When that condition of affairs has set in with 

the American people then you have an evil so colossal that civil-service 

boards and examina tions for promotion and appointment are "mere 

leather and prucelb ; '' t hey do not begin to touch the evil; and here we are confronted, in my own State at any rate, by this condition of 

thin-gs. It is the first time in the history of that State that anything of 

this kind has appeared. 

The Republican party has not been by any means a perfect party; it 

has not always succeeded in getting the best men to hold its offices, but 

in twenty-four years of the administration of that party of the General 

Government with the patronage of the State of l\Iaine in its hands, with 

a Senate to confirm always with the exception of two brief years, I 

have never heard the charge made that a pnblic office had been sold and 

marketed for money, whether under the guise of paying for expenses or paying for maintaining a brokerage in public office; and no man in the 

State of Maine, or ou~ I venture to say, has ht'ard of it. I do not know 

whetl_:ler this infamous system bas extended to other States. I do not 

know what the process has been there. I do not know whether State 

committees have taken charge in other States of patronage, and have 

beat at the doors of the President and the doors of the Departments, 

demanding that. their fiat shall be carried out as to appointments. I 

do not know how it has been done in other States. I asked the other 

day aiJOld employe of the House of Representatives, whom I had known 

in former years of my service there, if a good many members had been 

here during the summer. "Yes, sir," he said, "never so many; mostly 

Democrats.'' He said: '' I do not think that the fudiana Democrats 

have left here at all. It appeared a.s though each wa.s afraid somebody 

else would get ahead of him, and they have been here." 

Mr. VOORHEES. Allow me ro say to the Senator from Maine--

The PRESIDENT protempore. Doesthe Senatorfrom11Iaineyield? 

M:r. HALE. Certainly. 

Mr. VOORHEES. Allow me to say to the Senator that he was keep- • ing company at that time with a man who did not tell the truth. 

Whether that has been his misfortune in regard to other branches or this discussion or not I do not know; but I happen ro know that the 

statement which he has just entertained the Senate with is absolutely 

untrue. 

Mr. HALE. I am only giving the statement made' to me by an employe of the oth6r House; and I was going to say that if the Indiana 

delegation did-and I do not care whether they did or did not remain 

here on the ground to control patronage-it was an infinitely better way 

than it was to select a man, as the Democratic State committee of Maine 

did, and send him on with concentrated power to distribute the l,)atronage of the Government among the people of the State of Maine; and it 

the Senator from Indiana, putting aside his characteristic modesty in 

such matters, consented at the solicitation of his people ro remain here 

in Washington and to help advise the President and the heads of Departments, a better result would have come out of it, I am sure; than re- sulted in the State of Maine. 

Now, the question is, What shall be done in this case? I am not particular. The papers should go to a proper committee, perhaps that upon 

civil service, a.s the case rouches the great question which is committed 

to that committee, and a further investigation, if need be, made; but I care not whether it is done or not. That letter by the chairman of the 

emocratic State committee of the State of Maine, citing his authority, 

giving the discussion upon which it was confided to him, and what he 

did and his intending to exact assessments from men for whom he had 

secured appointments to cover expenses, tells the whole story. No investigation can go beyond that. The man seems to be color-blind as ro 

what is or is not political morality. He would not be of that importance that he is excepting as the representative of theorgan.Uation that 

sent him here. ·Mr. President, I have not cn.lled up this matter because I care about one of these offices. As I have said, the Republicans of Maine are not 

dependent -upon them. They made gallant fights years ago when they 

had no patronage, and expect to do it again and to continue to battle 

for the cause and for the principles of the Republican part,l; and I trust 

it will not be seen that their numbers have been lessenea by the loss 

of patronage. They expect under these clamorous demands of the Democratic party to go out of office, but they expect to do it decently and 

orderly, and it is a shame to my State that the system of brokerage in 

public office should ha\'e been-I will not say inaugurated there, for I 

do not know whether it- was inaugurated there or not, but that it 

should have been set up and carried out in this fashion. And when I 

ask for the exposure of this, I do it not in the interest of any man who 

has lost his place; no man upon whose neck the 'axhasfallenhassolicited my intervention; but the facts furnish such an example of the insincerity of the cry of civil-service reform, of regarding the wishes of 

the people, and of getting pure men from pure sources and upon exam- inations into the public service in proper ways, that I deemed it fitting 

to bring it before the Senate. I have asked theexposuxein the interest 

of the people of Maine, including the Republican party and the honest 

conservative Democracy of Maine, and they are numbered by thousands, who to-day are shocked and indignant at what has been done by 

the leaders of their party. 

I do not know what will become of this man. I have little or no acquaintance with him; I know but little a,bout him or his antecedents before this, except in one marked case of our State history, and 

that is not to his credit; but there he stands, sir, to-day with the indorsement of the Democratic party for the State of Uaine. He is still 

chairman of its committee that manages its campa,igns and represents 

the party before the people. I ha\'e heard of no attempt at deposing 

him, but, whether deposed or not, the people of the State of Maine will 

remember him and will girdle him as a tree is girdled, so that his power 

fox evil will cease for the future. I am willing to commit him to the 

mercies of people of the State of Maine. 

Mr. VEST. Mr. President, it would be sufficient answer to the Senator from Maine in his extraordinary speech if it were simply announced-and that announcement would meet the assent of every intel-

·ligent person here-tha t in the nature of things it is impossible that 

the President of the Unitecl States or the heads of the Departments in nn ·aclministr<.ttion just com in~ into power, or which has been for a term 

iu power, should know the qualitk.1tions and merits or demerits ofap-· 
446 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 6, 

plicants for local office in the respective States. If my own personnJ. 

convenience and comfort were alone concerned, and I will frankly say 

that if I could have my own way in regard to the distribution of patronage, I would make it a misdemeanor for any Senator or Representative 

to ap,proach the Departments or the President to solicit office. But it 

has obtained as a practice in·this Government that this thing sho~d be 

done) and the people who .send us here haveocome to believe that it is 

the common law of politics that Senators and Representatives should 

solicit for their friends offices of an administration which they have 

helped to place in power. 

The Postmaster-General has simply availed himself.of the only instrnmenta.litywhich could in the nature of things give him information 

fu regard to offices in the State of 1\.faine. Was that Postmaster-General to go to the two Senators from Maine, his political opponents and 

decided partisans? Was he to go to the representation of the State in 

the other House, men who belong to a. party antagonistic to his own? 

He could only go to the instrumentality or agency or representative 

nearest to him in the partytowhich he belonged; and with due respect 

to the Senator from 1\Iaine it is cant, mi erable political cant~ to talk 

of anything else being done in regard to this patronage under the circumstances which· su.rrounued that State. It has always been done. 

The Senator eems to have discovered, he think , some new and strange 

abuse which has come int.o vogue since the present Administration. 

Mr. President, let me state on my own personal knowledge-and I 

am prepared to bring the papers here at any instant to prove from their 

signers, from irrefragable testimony what I say-the State of Uissouri 

had a solid Democratic delegation in the last Congress and every district in that State was represented by a Republican, the referee of the 

Administration, who said what persons should obtain office and what 

should not. I have seen, and 'they are now on file in the Post-Office 

Department, applications for office from the respective districts in Missouri referred to 1\fr. So-and-so, the referee in such cases. 

Further than that, I assert the fact of my own personal knowledge 

and my colleague's that men remained in this city from the State of 

1\Iissouri, Republicans, by the year, month, and day, with no other 

business here but to distribute the patronage of that State. More than 

that, sir, I know from my person3.1.1..-nowledge, and can substantiate it 

from the papers on :file, that it was urged as an argument against an 

man in the Republican party applying for office that he had the friendly 

feeling of my colleague or myse~ and the written indorsement can be 

found there to-day: "This man is indorsed by VEST and CoCKRELL;" 

therefore he is unfit to hold office under the Government! 

The Senator from Maine has j ru;t discovered that that is a new abuse. 

Sir, I congratulate him on his new-born zeal for civil-service reform. 

In the administration of General Grant 25,000 was appropriated to pay 

for the services of a civil-service commission, and three gentlemr.n were 

appointed. After one year, certainly before the end of two, the appropriation: was withdrawn; and although that distinguished. President, 

soldier, and statesman called repeatedly in his messages upon a Republican CongresS to appropriate the pittance of $25,000 to preserve the 

life of civil-setvice reform, not one cent could be obta,ined! His successor in office, Mr. Hayes, made the same appeal, and without any result. His successor in office, General Garfield, made the same appeal, 

and not a dollar w:-1 appropriated. President Arthur made the same 

appeal in his inaugural message, and not one cent could be had until 

after the election of 1882, at which the Democratic party swept the country, when it was all at once discovered that civil-service reform was the 

great panacea. for all the evils that afflicted the body-politic. Not until 

the people at the polls had spoken did the Republican party come to the 

relief of the public press; and that too, sir, when the Pendleton bill had 

been reported from the Committee to Examine the Several Branches of 

the Civil Service, and for months had remained in this Chamber without notice on the part of the dominant party in the Senate. It remained 

here without notice, and had no more chance for passage than I have to 

carry this Capitol away now. in the palm of my hand but for the elections of1882. Then the Republicans picked up the bill and passed it, 

and said ''it is our savi9r, let us burn incense on its altar.'' 

Mr. HALE. :Mr. President. the Senator from Missouri with all his 

ingenuity shall not twist and ·distort the main issue here. That the 

wholesale removal of competent and faithful officials and the substituting in their place of Democratic partisans is a violation of every pledge 

of ci vii-service reform is undoubtedly the fact; but that is not the pene-

~ting, corrupting, and destructive practice that I mainly call attention: to here. That itself is bad enough as the representation of professions that are made to be broken, of promises that are given never to 

be kept; but that is little, as I said before, in comparison with this great 

ca.lossal evil that' will destroy the public service by selling and marketing public offices. That the Senator has not touched upon. I have, and 

I have said that in twenty-four years, with all the mistakes and errors 

germanetohumanlifewhichtheRepublicanpartymayhavecommitted, 

no charge of this kind has been made in my State. 

Mr. VEST. Will the Senator permit me a word? 

Mr. HALE. Yes. 

Mr. VEST. I inadvertently neglected to state what I do now sta~e, 

that when my colleague and myself, from the repeated practice which 

obtained in the State of Missouri under the Republican administration, 

undertook to find how certain gentlemen could remain in this city to 

manage the patronage in the State at their own expense, we never were 

able to find a letter from them, because they were acute and finished 

politicians, but we did find conclusive proof that in certain localities 

where certain appointments had been made money had been rai ed by 

the parties who were nppointed. We could not, in the nature of things, 

find evidence that this mpney had been directly paid; but it is safe to 

assume, and I believe, and I think I could convince the moral judgment 

of any one acquainted with the facts, that these gentlemen from 1\fissouri did not remain here from day to day and month to month at their 

own expense from a patriotic desire to properly distribute the public 

patronage. 

Mr. HALE. Well, Mr. President, if the Senator found that condition~ his State, or had reason to suspect it, he should have done what 

I have done. It was in this case no piece of good luck in finding a letter of this man demanding pay for hiS services in procuring office, but 

it was impossible to escape these letters; they went broadcast throughout the St.c1..te, and therefore! have called attention to the subject; and 

the Senator from Missouri ought to have called attention to anything 

of that kind, because this is a matter that rises above party. 

I assume that no Senator here would wish for a moment that in his 

own State the publiS! places should be the subject of brokerage. If 

that contamination has reached the Senate-and I know that it has 

not-then the disease i too far gone for remedy. I do not believe that 

it has. I believe in pillorying the men who have set afloat this infamous system. I meant to say, and with the leave of the Senate I will 

inoorporate it in my remarks, that certain members, old Democratic 

members, ~f the State colhmittee deny that this man was given this 

authority by the committee, or that they ever knew that he was authorized to make assessments upon men appointed at his intervention. 

It is proper that I should say that out of deference to those gentlemen. 

Mr. VOORHEES. 1\fr. Presi(lent, happening to beoutforamoment, 

perhap looking after theinterest ofsomehonestmanwhowantsaplace 

under the Government and has ::> right to ask for it, I did not hear the 

letter of the Postmaster-General when it was read at the desk. Consequently, when I came in and found a Senator on the floor makingan 

hour speech, I sent to the desk for the letter and obtained it and have 

read it. I wanted to know whatthiswasall about, and! find anissuo 

of the immense proportions diSclosed by this communica~ion that three 

Presidential postmasters in l\faine have-t>een change9. by this Administration and several more of the fourth-class persuasion. I find also 

the statement by the Postmaster-General that the name of 1\Ir. S. . 

Brown-whoever or whatever he may be is unknown to me-is found 

upon the recommendations on which four changes were made, including 

the three Presidential offices. Why, sir, when I heard the Senator froni 

Maine wailing his grievances here, I thoaght that 1\laine had been flooded 

with political blood, that there had been wholesale decapitation, that 

the guillotine had worked everywhere even up into the little '\"illaO'e 

so poetically described as under the fringe of the dark forest. Instead 

of that'it does not seem to me that there has been enough of change 

in the State· of 1\laine to answer the demand which the American people 

made last fall when they decreed that the administration of this Government should be changed and put in other hands. Let us see how the 

Postmaster-General presents this question. After reciting the resolution heretofore adopted by this body, the Po tmaster-General proceeds 

to say: 

That the said Brown indorsed the several petitions of numerous cilizens for 

the removal of the postmasters at East Vassalborough and North Vienna, in 

Kennebec County....,. 

Twoat Naples, in Cumberland CountyThreeand at North Shapleigh, in York County, in the State of MaineFour in alland in no other case discoverable after careful exnm.inaiion or known to any officer of the Departlnent. 

I have heard small questions, which were magnifi.ed into important 

ones, designated as a great cry over a small amount of wool. "\Ve have 

had it here in an eminent degree. 

Mr. HALE. Does the Senator mean to le"t it go that that is the ex- tent of the intervention of this man Brown, as Shown by the letter of 

the Postmaster-General? 

1\fr. VOORHEES. I mean to let it go that those are the four po itions wherein he joined other numerous recommendations for changes, 

three ofwhich were Presidential and one not. 

Mr. HALE. The Senator is mistaken. 

Mr. VOORHEES. No. I will correct what you think is my mi ~ 

take; but it is not my mistake. Of course he took part in changes 

affecting minor offices. I am glad to :malyze the grievances of the Senator from 1\Iaine wherein Brown has done so much wrong, first as to 

three Presidential post-offices and one other that is designated here 

by the Postmaster-General. Then the Postmaster-General proceeds to 

say that in other cases he recommended changes. .No doubt about 

that. How many fourth-class postmasters have suffered the tortures 

of political execution up in Maine I do not know. I sym~athize with 
1886. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 447 

them. It bus been a long time since any of that political family suffered in tbatwny. On our sideoftheCbamberwe are used to it. We 

know how to behave under dangers of tba.t kind perhaps better than 

the other side, but aft.er a little time is past-I think they will learn 

·also. [Laughter.] I hope so, at least. 

Now, :Mr. President, the Senator from Maine makes a grievance as 

.to a person in his State. Itmaybetb.atallhispointsarewelltaken. 

I am no there to challenge the accuracy of his arraignment of Mr. Brown. 

I kii'ow nothing of Mr. Brown. If be bas done w bat the Senator from 

Maine charges him with the Senator has done a public duty and a favor 

to the Democratic party, which he did not intend, by exposing him. 

I hope that all such people will be promptly brought to condemnation 

and contempt. Whether these accusations are just or not, I say I remit to that locality up yonder where the Senator says he will be girdled 

by the people; but I do humbly protest, .Mr. President, that it seems 

to me the tienate of the United States has become a meeting not much 

larger than often frequents a cross-roads when we have to listen to such 

grie>ances in regard to fourth-class post-offices and the like up in the 

State of Maine. Does the Senator from Maine suppose that he can make 

an imp1·ession upon the country that the Democratic :party symp~thize 

with practices li.ka those he charges upon this man Brown? 

The Senator, I think a little forgetful, saw :fit to base a statement on 

some informer's false information that the whole delegation from Indiana had pretty much camped here during tl;le summer-time. I think 

I was a way from this capital more than the Sen..1.tor from Maine. I was 

in distan courts and at distant places and at my home from the time 

of the adjournment until a little while before we met again. Some of 

my colleagues in the other House came here and went away. Some 

did not come at all. But for all that we have done we will stand responsible before our people and here in the Senate and House. 

I do not know.that I quite agree with my eloquent and gifted friend 

from Missouri upon one point. I may be made of more patient clay than 

he is. I am willing to trust and help those people who have helped 

me, and I have but little respect for a man-I mean Ilo personal application to anybody-who is not. At any rate I go my rounds; I help 

the people who put this Administration in power to hold office under 

it, believing solemnly with all the gr~t exponents of the Democratic 

party from Jefferson and Jackson down thatwhen the people proclaim 

their desire for a change in the administration of their Government they 

expect the head of that administration and those whom he calls around 

him to administer this Government through friendly hands by friendly 

hearts and friendly minds. There is not a business man within the 

hearing of myvoicewhowould employ in any subordina.te capacity tho e 

who did not wish him to succeed. those who did not wish him busine s 

prosperity; and I proclaim but the uni\ersal experience of parties and 

of nations when I say that th~t principle applies to them as well as to 

business of a less public nature. 

.Mr. VEST. I hope my friend from Indiana will permit me to say 

one word. · I understand the Senator; and I think we shall have no 

misunderstanding when we understand each other. I was unfortunate 

in my expression if I did not convey the. idea that if I consulted my own personal convenience and comfort Iwouldmakeit a misdemeanor fora 

Senator or Representative to solicit patronage. I meant to say that. 

.Mr. VOORHEES. Yes, the Senator did &'ly it~ · 

.Mr. VEST. I always work for my people. 

Mr. VOORHEES. I know that, and none do more so. These observations that I make are made with my entire friendliness and with 

perfeet respect to the other side of the Chamber. You gentlemen have 

acted upon the principle I have laid down ever since you have been in 

power, and you would do it again to-morrow (and you know it) ifyon 

had the power. I am willing for civil-service reform to have all the 

fair chances to which it is entitled. I was not for the present law. I 

do not think its workings have justified those who were for it or condemned my opposition. I make no opposition now to it. I hope that 

it will advance the public interest if it is possible for it to do so; but 

holding these news I, recurring to the Senator from Maine, must protest agai.nst being held responsible for what has, perhaps improperly, 

taken place in his State. 

Mr. HALE. :M:r. President, I move that the communication and 

papers be refro;red to the Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment. 

1\!r. LOGAN. Before that is done I desire to say a word. I do not 

wish to enter into this discussion, for my friend from Uaine is perfectly competent to take care of himself and his State; but I desire to 

call the attention of the Senator from Missouri to one fact which I 

tb..ink he overlooked in his statement in reference to President Grant 

and !'resident Hayes and President Garfield having called upon Congress to ;:tppropriate money that the commic;sion might proceed under 

the l:l.w of civil-service reform, as it is termed. Does he not remember 

that tho Oonp-ess of the United States from 1874, I believe up to the 

present time, has never been reaUy in the hands of the Republican 

pmty? Does he not remember that the appropriation bills coming 

from the House of Representatives to be agreed to ·by the Senate of the 

United States were in the hands of the Democratic party, who refused 

to appropriate money for any such purpose? For one Congress during thL~ whole time the Senate was in the hands of the Democratic party. 

I only mention this to call the attention of the Senator to the fact 

that the country may understand this proposition and not be led to believe that the Republican party had power to continue th·e commission 

and appropriate money for it when the 1·efusal was made by those in 

control of Congress, being the party opposed to the then existing administrations. 

Mr. VEST. Mr. President, the Democratic party has never controlled 

the Senatebutonce, and that was during two years, in all the time since 

1861. 

l\Ir. LOGAN. That is very true, but it has controJled the othe1· 

Houre. 

Mr. VEST. Exactly. 

Mr. LOGAN. I take it that the Congress (which includes both the 

Honse and the Senate) has never been entirely in the hands of theRepublican party from 1874 or 1875 to the present time. One time when 

you might say it was in the hands of-the Republican party the Senate 

was really in the power of l\Ir. Davis, who had the casting vote in the 

Senate of the United States. If l\Ir. Davis voted with the Democratic 

party it had a majority of one. Really never since that time I mentioned, during Grant's administration, Hayes's administration, and the 

Garfield administration, bas the. Congress of the United States been in 

the hands of the Republican party so that they could control legislation.. · 

Mr. VEST. Mr. President, if tlie Republican party ha-d such an exceedi:D.g love for civil- ervice reform as is now manifested here, if they 

considered the necessityforcivil-servicereform so immediate and overreaching, it is very remarkable that the Senator from Illinois and other 

distinguished Senators on the Republican side whoha-dplaces beredid 

not attempt to amend the appropriation billsiu that regard when they 

came from the House of Representatives without any such appropriation within their limits. Iliave never yet heard of this question being 

mooted here. · 

Mr. LOGAN. If the Senator will allow me, I will not state it as a 

fact, because the Senator to whom I alluded is absent now, but I think 

on an examination of the records it will be found that the Senator from 

Vermont [Mr. EDl\IUNDS] did make the proposition in this body. But 

I did not call the attention of the Senator to this fact for the purpose 

of discussing whether the Repub1ican party was in favor of the civilservice-reform law or not. I only called his attention to the fact th:-tt 

he might correct, if he chose to do so, the statement which he made that 

the Republic,an party ne>er support€d the administration when it asked 

for these things. I called his attention to the fact that they could not 

do it because they were not in power. That is all. The question who 

was for the civil-service-reform law as it exists is not a question that I 

desire to enter into at this time. 

Mr. VEST. With a view to historical accuracy in this matter, I ask 

the Senator from illinois if it is not the fact that from 1881 to 1883 his 

party held both branches of Congress? 

Ur. VOORHEES. The Forty-seventh Congress. 

Mt. LOGAN. Cextainly they did. 

Mr. VEST. Then there was an era in which the Republican party 

could ha•e enacted this law if they wished-from 1881 to 1883. But 

there is another remarkable fact--

Mr. LOGAN. I made an inadvertent admission when the Senator 

said the Republicans held both branches of Congress from 1881 to 1883 . 

I desire to correct the statement. They did not. The Republicans 

held the House of Representatives. The Senate was Democratic for one 

term; afterward it was .a tie, with the vote of Senator Davis on the 

Democratic side, giving them a majority of 1. 

Mr. HOAR. The Senator will pardon me. The vote of Senaror Davis 

on the Democratic side made a tie. 

1\Ir. LOGAN. I beg pardon; that is true. 

Mr. HOAR. Voting with us, he made our majority two. Nolegislation could be passed without the assent of Mr. Davis. 

Mr. VEST. I will aSk the Senator, then, who controlled the committees of this body during that time? They were controlled by the 

Republican party. But further than that, every one of the committees 

was in charge of the Republican party during the time I have named. 

I recollect that I took my seat here in March, 1879. For two years we 

held the Senate with l\Ir. Thurman, of Ohio, as President pro tempore,· 

and after that the committees, the legislative power of this body, 

passed into the hands of the Republican party. But in addition--

Mr. HOAR. Will the Senator pardon me on a mere matter of fact? 

Mr. VEST. Certainly. . 

Mr. HO.A.R. The Senator will remember that in the session of which 

he speaks the Senator from Delaware, Mr. Bayardt ·now Secretary of 

State, was elected by the Democratic party President pro tempore. He 

held the office a single day, I think, but it may have been two days. 

Then it seemed to Mr. Davis, of lllinois, a most eminent gentleman, 

thllt a good arrangement would be to have the Republicau.s bold the 

committees and the Democrats hold the offices of the Senate. That was 

done, and Mr. Davis, wl10 was an Independent, was elected President 

pro ternpore by the Republicans, Mr. Davis announcing in his inaugural 

address that that was a. tribute by the Republica.n party to the independ'entposition which be occupied in the politics of the country. Now, 

in regard to the matter of the organization of the committeest the Re-
448 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-.SENATE. JANUARY 6, 

publicans had the Senate by two votes, including Mr. Davis's. In the 

matter of the offices we couldhavemadeno change, because Mr. Davis's 

vote with the Democrats would have made a tie. 

Mr. VEST. I recollect very distinctly the trimsaction to which the 

Senator from Massachusetts alludes. I recollect very distinctly that 

the Senator from Illinois--

Mr. HOAR. The Senator will pardon me one further sentence. As 

I have made this suggestion about the facts, I do not wish to be understood as claiming for a moment that the Republican party, whether in 

the majority or minority during those years, was in favor of the appropriation for the Civil Service Commission. Neither party was. The cause was a growth; a reform, and it was intended to reform-abuses 

which, while they had begun under the Democratic party from Jackson and Jefferson down, had been increased under the Republican party, 

and it was a reform which made its way slowly in the minds of both 

parties; but it is equally true that both political parties in the country, 

the Republican party leading the way and the Democratic party following it, have now placed in their platforms and public professions the 

doctrine of adhesion to the principle of divesting the civil service from 

politics; and! suppose t;he Senator from Missouri will not question that. 

The profession of the letter of acceptance, the inaugural address, and 

the message of President Cleveland, and the utterances of President 

Hayes and President Grant are all in favor of it. · . Mr. VEST. Mr. President, I r.epel the assertion of the Senator from 

Maine taunting the Democratic party with insincerity in its professions 

of admiration of civil-service reform as compared with its practice, and 

I have the right to refer that Senator to the record of his own party, 

showing that in its platform for more than twelve years it professed zeal 

for civil-service reform, that all its Presidents from General Grant on had specially recommended an appropriatiop for civil-service reform, and 

still that they had neglected these appeals; and never until they were defeated in 1882 did they manifest any disposition to take t-his subject 

up and deal with it. I assert now that the Democratic party have not 

since 1861 held the legislative power of this country. We have had the 

House without the Senate; and we have had the House and Senate without the President; but from 1881 to 1883 the Republican party held 

both Houses of Congress together wit the Presidency. ·As I was about to say, ex-Senator Davis was nominated for President 

pro tempore by my distinguished friend from Illinois [Mr. LOGAN]. I rec- ollect it very distinctly, and I take it for granted that so eminent aRepublican as my friend would never have put in the chair, in the lineal 

line of succession to the Presidency, any gentleman who was not perfectly sound on civil-service reform. I take that for granted. It is 

true that President Cleveland and President Grant made like professions in favor of civil-service reform. It is not for me now to defend 

the Administration. I express simply my own personal sentiments as a member of the Democratic party. 

President Cleveland has undertak~n, in my judgment honestly and 

conscientiously, to carry out every scintilla. and iota of the principles an- nounced in his letter of acceptance and, as he understands, in the platform of the Democratic party. Of that I have no question. He has 

made appointments which were not acceptable to large numbers of Democrats; but if there is one complaint that bas come up from the Democratic party more than any other it has been that he bas not made 

enough; and it is astonishing to me to hear intimation from any portion 

of this Chamber, or at least from the opposite side of the Chamber, that 

President Cleveland has not conformed to every particle of the pledges 

which be made to the people of the United States prior to his election. 

1\Ir. HALE. · I move that the papers be printed and referred to the 

Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Maine moves that 

the communication be referred to the Committee on Civil Service and 

Retrenchment, and printed. 

The motion was agreed to. 

PETITIONS .AND MEl\IORI.A.LS. 

The PRESIDEN'.r p ro tempore presented a petition of the Board of 

Trade of Portland, Oreg., praying sufficient appropriations for the Signal Service to enable it to continue work and enlarge its sphere of operations; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

Mr. VOORHEES presented a petition of 80 solrliers and 102 citizens 

of Ripley County, Indiana, praying the enactment of a law placing on the pension-rolls the names of all honorably di charged soldiers and the 

widows of those who are dead; which was referred to the Committee 

on Pensions. 

Mr. MORRILL presented the petition of Professor Joseph Echteler, 

of Hoboken, N.J., praying the repeal of duties on WOJ;kS of art; which 

was referred to the Committee on Finance. 

Mr. LOGAN pre ented a petition of John 1\Ioore,.late private Eiftyeighth Indiana Veteran Volunteers, praying to be allowed a pension; 

which was refened to the Committee on Pensions. 

He also presented the petition of Joseph F. Wilson, of Peoria, Ill., 

praying indemnity for costs and other expenses in litigating title to 

ce1·tu.in lands in the State of Indiana; which was referred to the Committee on Claims. 

Mr. CALL presented the petition of F. Bauer, J. O'Neal, and other 

citizens of Warrington, Fla., praying the cession by the Government 

to the State of Florida of a. portion of the naval reserve adjoining the 

navy-yard at Pensacola, Fla.; which was referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs. 

He also presented a petition of clerks in the Rail way 1\Iail Service of 

the United States praying to be placed on an equal footing with other 

clerks in Government employ as regards compensation and leaves of absence; which was referred to the Committee on Post-Offices and PostRoads. · Mr. WILSON, of Iowa, presented the petition of J. B. Morrison and 

10 other members of the Allen W. Miller Post, No. 328, Grand Army 

of the Republic, and 20 other citizens oflowa, praying for the passage of an act granting a pensiori to the heirs of Daniel J. Strunk, late a private in Company G, Second Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry; 

which was referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

He also presented the petition of F. W. Myer and 103 other citizens 

of Iowa, praying that the land laws be so amended that none but citi- zens of the United States can acquire title to public lands; which was referred to the Committee on Public Lands. 

He also presented the petition of W. T. Walker and 111 other citi~ 

zens of Iowa, praying the passage of an act of absolute forfeiture of the 

unearned portion of the land grant to the Sioux City and Saint Paul 

Railroad Company; which was referred to the Committee on Public 

Lands. . Mr. EVARTS presented a resolution adopted by the Chamber of Commerce of New York favoring legislation recognizing the merit and value 

of the corrugated-iron life-car and other appliances connected with life~ 

boats invented by Joseph Francis; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

Mr. VAN WYCK. I present a petition of the United Labor League 

of America, praying for the promotion of Lieut. Gen. Philip A. Sheridan to the position of a full General of the Army. It consists of but 

three pages, and I ask unanimous consent to have the petition printed 

in the RECORD and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. 

The petition was referred to the Committee on ~filitary Affairs, and 

ordered to be printed in the RECORD, ·as follows: 

Petition of the United Labor League of .America, requesting the promotion of 

Lieut. Gen. Philip A. Sheridan to the position of full General of the Army. 

WASHINGTON, D. C., Januar-y 5, 1886. 

.A.t a. meeting of the United Labor League of America, held in Washington, D. C., on the 27th day of December, 1885, it was resolved thatWhereas Lieut. Gen. Philip A. Sheridan, was mainly instrumental in striking the final blow which crushed the great rebellion, and compelled. the surrender 

of General Robert E. Lee, as the records of the war will show; and 

Whereas we consider he is justly entitled t<> the rank, title, grade, honor, and 

emolument of General of the Army just as much as the other two great cnpta.ins, 

Grant and Sherman, upon whom Congress conferred tha t distinction for emi- nent services during the late war, but in our opinion not any more eminent or more useful to the nation , or more practical in theirnnn.l results, than tho e ren· dered by Lieut. Gen. Philip A. Sheridan. His brilliant achievements in the Shenandoah Valley and at 'Vinche te r, Va., have deservedly won for him the so- briquet of the "Orlando" of our armies. He was the only general "in our late war who repeated history ; and who by his own prowe s, quickness ofpercep· 

tion, military skill, personal magnetism, and power to inspire men with confidence in his superior ability to command them in a. terrible emergency, rushed onto the field of battle at Cedar Creek, Va.; halted and wheeled around a fleeing, demoralized , a nd a. defeated army; and be then a nd there fought the battle over again on that same day, and changed an ignominious defeat into the most glorious victory of the war. This victory won from General Grant the unmistakable language tha t it had " tamped Sheridan with what be always thought him to be, one of the ablest 

of generals." 

General Meade, in a dispatch to General Grant, speaks of it thus: "To achieve 

such results, after having met the reverse he describes, is one of the most bril· 

liant feats of the war." 

President Abraham Lincoln says, on September 20, 1864: •• I h a -ve just heard of your gt·ea tvictory. God bless you all, office rs and m en, Strongly inclined to come down and see you." 

On October 22, 1864, President Lincoln writ.es to him as follows: ~· With great pleasure I tender to you and your brave army the thanks of the n ation and my own personal gratitude for the month's operations in the Shen· 

andoah Valley, and e pecially for the sple ndid work of October 19, 1864." Ther efore, in consideration of the above , Resol-ved by the United L a"!Jor"League of America, That for those eminen t, meri· torious, highly comme ndable, and almo t unexampled mHitary (exploit ) serv· ice to his couutry and to the cau ·e of human freedom throughout the whole civilized world we respectfully request, as the sovereign representatives of the 

wm·kingmcn of America , who are the law-making power, th at Congt·e s pass a special bill conferring the rank, title, honor, and emolument of Genera l of the 

Army of the United States upon Lieut. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, a bill imilar to tha t already passed conferring the same ra.,nk, title, honor, and emolument on Genera ls Grant and Sherman for similar services. 

All of which we respectfully submit for your careful con ideration and favor· 

able legislative action. · JOHN POPE HODNETT, President and Founder United Labo1· L eague of A merica. JOHN C. P U RCEL, 

&creta'"Y Un ited Labor League of America. 

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 

:Mr. BLAIR. I am directed by the Committee on Education and 

Labor, to whom was referred the bill (S. 194) to aid in the establishment and temporary support of common schools, to report it ba.ck, rec- ommending an amendment by striking out the thirteenth section, and as amended recommend its passage. Individual members of the com- mittee reserve the right to be heard in the Senate. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The bill will be placed on the Calendar. 
1886. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 449 

Mr. HOAR, from the Committee on Claims, to whom was referred 

the bill (S. 208) for the relief of Alexander Swift & Co., partners, and 

Alexander Swift & Co. and the Niles Works, reported it without 

n.mendment, n.nd submitted a repmt thereon. 

1r. PIKE, from the Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the 

hill (S. lG) for the relief of Sallie Jarratt, executrix of Gregory Jarratt, 

deceased, reported it with an amendment, and submitted a report 

thereon. 

1\Ir. JACKSON, from the Committee on Claims, to whom were re- ferred the following bills, reported them severally without amendment, 

and submitted reports thereon: 

A bill (S. 506) for the relief of Emerson Etheridge and William B. 

Stokes; and . · • 

A bill (S. 7) making appropriation for the relief of the First National 

Hank of Newton, Mass. 

"blr. DOLPH submitted the views of the minority of the Committee 

on Claims upon the bill (S. 506) for the relief of Emerson Etheridge and 

Will.iam B. Stokes; which were ordered to be printed. 

Mr. JACKSON, from the Committee on Claims, to whom were referred 

the following bills, asked to be discharged from their further consideration and that they be referred to the Committee on Post-Otnces and 

Post-Roads; which was agreed to. . A bill (S. 315) for the relief of B. F. Rockefellow; and 

A bill (S. 314) for the relief of William M. Keightley. 

Mr. JONES, of Arkansas, from the Committee on Claims, to whom. 

were re1~rred the following bills, reported t.hemseverally without amendment, and submitted reports thereon: 

A bill (S. 22) for the relief of Martin and P. B. Murphy; and 

A bill (S. 178) for the relief of Tobias G. Richardson and Albert Baldwin, testamentary executors of the succession of Cora A. Slocomb, Ida 

A. Richardson, and Caroline A. Urquhart. 

Mr. DOLPH, from the Committee on Claims, to whom was referred 

the bill (S. 767) for the relief of John Leathers, reported it with an 

amendment, and submitted a report thereon. 

BILLS INTRODUCED. 

Mr. GIBSON (by request) introduced a bill (S. 903) for the relief of 

PeterKiveney; which was read twice by its title, and, with the accom- panying papers, referred to the Committee on Claims. 

Mr. PLUMB introduced a bill (S. 904) to divide the State of Kansas 

into tw.o judicial districts fixing terms of court, and for the appointment of judges and Qther officers therein; which was read twice by its 

title, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. . Mr. HOAR. I introduce a bill which I desire to ha>e read in full 

by the Secretary. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The bill will be read. 

The bill (S. 905) fixing the time for the meeting of Congress w·as xead 

the :first time by its title and the second time at length, as follows: 

Be it enacted, &c., That the meeting of Congress in the year 1886, and in every second year thereafter, shall be on the first 1\Ionday in October, and that in the 

year 1887, and in every second year thereafter, it shall be on the second Monday of November. . 

Mr. HOAR. I should like at this time, as that is a very important 

matter, to say that I think it is clear, it must be conceded by all Senators, that the business of the country has grown to such an extent that 

it j.s impossible to do justice to the great public interests in our charge, 

especially at the second session of a Congress,·within the time which is 

now appropriated to the meetings of Congress by our existing law, and 

we must at least add two months to the second session of ea.ch Congress, and that it would be more convenient also to have the long ses- sions begin earlier in t.he autumn and leave off earlier in the summer; 

but it is quite likely that some other arrangement than that proposed 

in the bill will be found to meet the judgment of Congress. I merely 

introduce the bill, without committing myself to its details, to bring 

the subject before the appropriate committee. I move that the bill be 

referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. CONGER introduced a bill (S. 906) to regulate the powers and 

duties of the board of trustees of the Industrial Home School of the 

District of Columbia in respect to infant wards and scholars, and for 

other purposes; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the 

Committee on the District of Columbia. 

Mr. CULLOM introduced a bill (S. 907) for the relief of William 

Gardner; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committe on Military Affairs. 

1\ir. BECK (by request) introduced a-bill (S. 908) for the relief of A. 

H. Herr; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Claims. 

1\fr. 1\f.AHONE introduced a bill (S. 909) for the relief of H. H. Sibley; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Claims. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 910) for the enlargement, improvement, 

and completion of the public building now being erected at HarrisonbU'rg, Va.; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. 

Mr. GEORGE introduced a bill (S. 911) to prevent contraction in the 

XVII-2!> 

currency and to increase the circulation of silver and silver certificates; 

which was read twice by it.s title, and referred to the Committee on 

Finance. 

l\1r. CALL introduced a bill (S. 912) to increase the pension of Ann 

Leddy; which was read twice by its ti tie, and referred to the Committee 

on Pensions. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 913) granting to G. W. Hendry, his heirs or assigns, parts of sections 15 and 22, township 31 south, range 25, in 

the district of lands of Gainesville, in the State of Florida; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on PublicLands. 

Mr. CAMERON introduced a bill (S. 914) granting a pension to William H. Weaver; which was read twice by its title, and, with the accom- panying papers, referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

Mr. PLATT introduced a bill (S. 915) granting .a pension to Mary 

A. Orcutt; which was read twice by its title, and referred t.o the Committee on -Pensions. 

Mr. 1\fiTCHELL, of Oregon, introduced a bill (S. 916) to provide for 

the retirement of Brig. Gen. Rufus Ingalls (retired) as a major-general 

of the United States Army; which was read twice by its title, andreferred to the Committee on Military Affairs. 

:M_r. MITCHELL, of Oregon. In that connection I present the record 

of General Ingalls's service to be refelTed with the bill to the Committee 

on Military Affairs. 

The PRESIDENT pro tetnp01·e. That reference will be made. 

Mr. HARRIS introduced a bill (S. 917) for the relief of James H. 

Smith, late postmaster at l\1emphis, Tenn. ; which was read twice by 

its title, and, with the accompanying papers, refen-ed to the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads. 

Mr. MORGAN introduced a bi11 (S. 918) for the relief of Charles A. 

Sibley, guardian of Lloyd M. Stevens; which was read ·twice by its 

title, an·d referred to the Committee on Claims. 

Mr. HAWLEY introduced a bill {S. 919) to revive and continue in 

force an act approved .Tune 23, 1870, entitled "All a.ct to authorize the 

settlement of the accounts of officers of the Army and Navy;'' which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. 

Mr. MANDERSON (by request) introduced a bill {S. 920) to confer 

brevet promotion on officers of the United States Army particularly 

distinguished by heroic action in Indian warfare, and for other purposes; 

which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. 

Mr. SHERMAN introduced a bill (S. 921) to provide for the muster 

into service of Martin V. Miller as second lieutenant Company E, Seventieth NewYorkVolunteers; which was read twice by its title, and, with 

the aecompanying papers, referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. 

1\Ir. LOGAN introduced a bill (S. 922) for the relief of Joseph F. 

Wilson; which was read twice by its-title, and referred to the Committee on Claims. • 

He also (by request) introduced a bill (S. 923) authorizing the Secretary of War to remove the charge of desertion from the record of Private 

Ernest Beechner; which was read twice by its title, and, with the ac- Companying papers, referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 924) granting a pension to Ellen Shea; 

which was read twice by its title, and, with the accompanying papers, 

referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 925) to grant Dearborn Park, in the city 

of Chicago, to said city for the use and benefit of public and benevolent 

institutions; which was read twice b.vits title, and referred to theCommittee on the Judiciary. 

M.r. COCKRELL (by request) introduced a bill (S. 926) for the relief 

of the legal representatives !Jf the late James Monroe, a lieutenantcolonel in Virginia State Line during the war of the Revolution: and 

President of the United Stat€s; which was read twice by its title, and 

referred to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. 

Mr. COCKRELL. I think I am justified in saying that my vote has 

alwa.ys been against the passage of any such bill, and always will be. 

Mr. MORRILL. Let me say in relation to that bill that I made a report as a member of the Committe on Revolutionary Claims, by which 

it was shown that Mr. Monroe never was a colonel in Virginia; that he 

went home from the army at the direction of General Washington to 

raise a regiment in Virginia, failed to raise it, and went ba-ck to study 

law with '£homas Jefferson. · 

Mr. MITCHELL," of Pennsylvania, introduced a bill (S. 927) to ex- tend the benefits of the act approved March 3, 1879, and the act of Mar~h 3, 1885, to certain pensioners whose disabilities are caused by am- putation, and increasing the rate therefor, and for other purposes; which was read twice by_its title, and referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

1\Ir. HARRIS introduced a bill (S. 928) for the relief of Pearson c; 

Montgomery, of Memphis, Tenn.; which was read twice by its title, and, 

with the accompanying papers, referred to the Committee on C~ms. 

PAPERS WITHDRAWN AND REFERRED. 

On motion of Mr. GIBSON, it was 

01·dered, That the papers relating to claim for the relief of the Citizens' Bank 

of Louisiana. be taken from the files and referred to the Committee on Claims. 

Ordered, That the papers in the claim of Peter Keverney be taken from the filez 

and referred to the Committee on Claims. 
450 CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-8-ENATE. J ANU .A.RY 6, 

DEATH OF VICE-PRESIDENT HENDRICKS. 

Mr. VOORHEES. I beg the indulgence of the Senate for a moment 

togivenoticethaton Wednesday, the20thofthismonth, afterthemo:rning business has been transacted, I will, with the permission of the Senate, call up the resolutions pending before this body expressive of the 

sense of the Senate on the death of the late Vice-President, Thomas A. 

Hendricks, and shall a.'3k for their consideration at that time. 

STATUARY IN FRONT OF CAPITOL GROUNDS. 

Mr. MORRILL. I offer the following resolution: 

Resolved, Tha.t the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds be; and hereby are instructed to inquire into the expediency of placing sta.tues of Columbus and of Ln. Fn.yette near the western front of the Capitol Grounds, one upon the circle at the intersection of Pennsylvania avenue, and the other upon the circle at the intersection of Maryland avenue; and also further to inquire as to the propriety of a removal of the Navall\Ionument to a new site, and report by bill or otherwi e. 

Let me say, Mr. President, that perhaps the highest naval authority 

in the country is strongly in favor of a new site for the Naval Monumen4 which is open to some objections on account of its size and some 

other objections in relation to it as a proper monument for the place 

where it now is. It has seemed also to many others that these twin 

circles at the foot oftheCapitol Groundsought to be occupied by some 

monument of historic interest, something of a national character. At 

all events it has seemed to me a matter of sufficient importance to be 

worthy of con ideration and investigation by the appropriate committee. 

:Mr. VOORHEES. Being in hearty sympathy with the resolution 

offered by the Senator from Vermont, he will not take it amiss in me to 

congratu1:'l.te him upon his somewhat tardy conversion ·to my views ill 

regard to the removal of that graveyard statuary which has looked us 

in the face so long, as we come up Pennsylvania avenue; and I am glad 

a1 o that the high naval authority he has spoken of has concluded to 

r econsider his position in that regard. I think with the Senator from 

Vermont that those two approaches to the Capitol should be utilized 

with statuary indicating great historical events and keeping in remembrance great historical personages. I hope 'the resolution will pass. 

The resolution was considered by ID:lanimous consent, and agreed to. 

DISTRICT 1\fETROPOLITAN RAILWAY COUPANY. 

Mr. VANWYCK. I ask for the adoption of the following resolution: 

Resolved., That the president of the :Metropolitan ·Railway Company, in the District of Columbia, be, and he hereby is, directed to furnish the Senate a sworn statement of the amount of their capital stock, the amount of their bonded and floating indebtednes , the amount of their gross and net earnings, the amount of their operating expenses, and the amount of dividends paid annually since June ::lO, 1 7 ; also why said railway company has not made the annual report re- quired by the act of1864 incorporating said company. 

Mr. SAULSBURY. I desire to inquue whether that is not an un- usual resolution, proposing to require the president of a private corporation to make a · report of the affairs and condition of that company. 

It is true the company is incorporated by Congress; but is it not unusual to inquire ofthe presidenthimself? Ought not the information 

to be obtained in some other mode than by an inquiry of the president 

of a private corporation? 

Mr. VANWYCK. In answer to the Senator--

Seveml SENATORS. Let the resolution be read. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolution will be again read. 

Unanimous consent is asked for its present considemtion. 

The Chief Clerk read the resolution. 

Mr. VANWYCK. In answer to the Senator from Delaware I would 

state that this has been done by the United States Senate. A resolution precisely in this form has been adopted before, so that the most 

sacred rule of precedent has been followed, 

Mr. SAULSBURY. I think it is a bad precedent. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection to the present consideration of the resolution? 

Mr. ALLISON. I ask that it lie over. 

Mr. SAULSBURY. I think that it had better go over. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolution lies over under the 

rnle. . 

Mr. HARRIS. I ask the Senator from Nebraska to allow the reso- lution to be referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. 

Mr. VANWYCK. Notjustnow,tha.Wryou. 

INDIAN 1\ITLITARY EDUCATION 

Mr. MORGAN submitted the following resolution; which was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to: · 

Resolved by the Senate, That the Committee on Indian .A.ffa.irs be instructed .to inquire and consider whether a wise policy in the civilization of the Indian re- quires the establishment of a school we t of the Mississippi River, based on the principle of the military enlistment, instruction, and discipline of Indian youths and young men, with a view to qualifying them for service in the Army of the Unit-ed States, and that said committee have leave t-o report by bill o r oth- erwise. 

BILLS OF FORTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS. ' 

Mr. MANDERSON submitted the following resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on Printing: 

Resolved, That the Public Printer be, and he hereby is, awthorized and directed to bind duplicate sets of bills and resolutions of the Forty-eighth Congress, said bills and resolutions to be furnished him from the files of the Senate document- room, and the volumes, when bound, to be kept there for reference. 

ORDER OF DU D\ESS. 

Mr. GRAY. Ur. President, if it be in order, I ask that Order of 

Business No. 13on the Calendar, the resolution of the Senator fromKentucky [Mr. BECK], introduced on the 18th of December, be taken up 

for consideration. · 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware moves 

to proceed to the consideration of a resolution which will be l'ead. 

Mr. HOAR. If the Senator from Delaware proceeds now, when the 

hour of 2 o'clock arrives it will be necessary to lay the unfinished business, which is the judges' salary bill, before the Senate. I desire to a k 

unanimous consent that that judges' salary bill may stand as the unfinished business on Monday next as it stands now. That will save any 

interference with the Senator; and I al o ha>e a cold, which would mak!) 

it rather inconvenient for me to addres the Senate on the subject of that 

bill to-day. I ask unanimous consent--

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The hourof2o' clockhavingarrived, 

the Senator from Massachusetts asks consent that the pending bill (S. 

6) fixing the salaries of the several judges of the Uni~d States district 

courts at $5,000 per annum, and for other purposes, be postponed until 

Monday at 2 o'clock. 

Mr. IIO.A.R That it stand as the unfinished business on Monday 

next at 2 o'clock as it stands to-day. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. That the bill stand as the unfinished business on Monday next at 2 o'clock. Is there objection? The 

Chair hears none, and it is so ordered. 

Mr. ED~1UNDS. If I correctly under tand the Senator from Dela.-

ware he does not expect action of the Senate further than his making 

remarks on-the subject he asks to have taken up. Then I wish to say 

that when his matter shall have been concluded, I shall ask the Senate 

to proceed with the consideration of Senate bill No. 10, the Utah bill, as was understood yesterday. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It is proper that the Chair should 

state that other Senators rove given notice of a desire to discuss the 

resolution, but perhaps not to-day. 

1\Ir. EDMUNDS. I shall not object to the Senator from Delaware, 

who has desired to address the Chair, going on now. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware. 

lir. EDMUNDS. We shall see what happens when he concludes. 

~Ir. BECK. I have been requested by several gentlemen to ask that 

no vote be taken on the resolution until they shall have had a chance 

to be heard. So I hope there will be no vote taken after this speech is 

made, because other gentlemen desire to be heard. 

Mr. McPHERSO~. I understood the Senator from Vermont obi ected to the debate going on. I desire to follow the Senator from Delaware, and I do not know but that the Senator from Vermont objected 

to any further discussion. . 

1\ir. EDMUNDS. The fact is that I was objecting because the bill 

about Utah went over yesterday at the req,uestof the Senator from Missouri [Mr. VEST] with an understanding (which I admit does not bind 

anybody who was not pre ent) that we should go on with it to-day, and I 

think it is more important to the public interest than a discussion of 

the silver question. I yielded to the Senator from Delaware from an 

universal and good courtesy of this body that a Senator who is, as we 

say, new in the Senate and desires to address the body, shall be heard 

at any time unless the Capitol is burning down or something of that 

kind; and so I hope my friend from New J er~ey will not think it unkind in me io ask that we finish up the Utah bill as we probably can 

in an hour or two. 

Mr. McPHERSON. In my own case I would like to state to the Senator from Vermont that circumstances beyond my control will require 

that I shall absent myself from the Senate for several days, and if it will 

not interfere materially with the business of the Senate I should like 

to say what I have to say (which will be very brief) this afternoon. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Very well, we shall see about it after the Senator 

from Delaware concludes. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware has the 

floor on ·he pending resolution. 

?tlr. Gl'AY. I ask that the resolution be read. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolution will be read. 

COIN DUTIES ON IMPORTED GOODS. 

The Chief Clerk read the r~ olution submitted by Mr. BECK, December 18, 1885, as follows: 

Whereas the laws of the United States require that all duties on imported goods shall be paid in coin; and Whereas it is provided by section 361M of the Revised Statutes that "The coin paid for duties on imported goods shall be set apart as a special fund, and shall be applied as follows: First, to the payment, in coin, of the interest on the bonds and notes of the United States; second, to the purchase or payment of 1 per cent. of the entire- debt of the United States, to be made within each fiscal year, which is to be set apart as a sinking fund, and the interest of which shall in like manner be applied to the purchase or payment of the public debt, as the Secretary of the Treasury shall, from time to time, direct; third, the residue to be paid into the Treasury :" Resolved, That the Committee on Finance be instructed to inquire whether the laws above stated now are, or have heretofore been, obeyed; and if they ha'e not, to report by bill, or otheTwise, such measures as will secure their enforcement. 

Mr. GRAY. 1\Ir. President, I shall vote for this resolution. But as 
1886. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 451 -

I shall do so for 1·easons very different from those avowed by the distinguished Senator who offered it, I feel that I owe it to myself, and 

also to him (whose right to leadership on this sida of the Senate I gladly 

recognize), to state as briefly as I may the views that I hold on the 

general question of the continuance of the coinage of the silver dollar . . 

I know that any attempt now to fully discuss the silver question, so 

called, will be to thrash over again the straw of the exhaustive and able 

debate that attended the passage of the act of 1878. Bu.t·there are some 

salient points of the question that may profitably be reconsidered in 

the light of the experience gained in the eight years that have come 

and gone since that law went into effect. 

as Germany has lost by demonetization. And the equilibrium in the"Value of sil- ver as com.pared with gold will be rapidly restored. 

Then he goes on to say: 

But this bill proposes not only that we shall do this, but that we shall invite 

the other nations who favor the use of silver to join us in fixing a uniform ratio 

between the two metals ; and if that is done, as I believe it can be very soon, if a concurrence of those nations shall take place, then it will be but a brief period until the restoration of silver will be <:omplete and absolute. 

And again: 

This amendment contemplates that asufficieut number of nations will join to create such a demand for silver as will keep the commercial and mint value of 

the two metals at par with each other at the ratio fixed. 

In the same debate the Senator from Nevada [Mr. JONES] said: 

My own opinion is that at the relation ofl6 tol eighteen months will not have 

elapsed before silver will be back at its old place where it stood before demonetization took place, at 2 or 3 per cent. abo>e gold, and that it will be the metal 

that will be excluded from the country.-Record, volume 7, Part IT, Forty-fi.flh . Cong., page 1081. 

The Senator from Texas [Mr. CoKE] said: 

If I correctly understood the drift of opinion in and out of Congress 

when the remonetization of silver was being discussed, there were two 

classes of advocates ofthe proposition. The firstwerethosewho clamored loudly for the unlimited coinage of the silver dollar at a ratio to 

gold of 16 to 1, becp,use at that ratio the silver dollar was worth 8 to 10 

per cent. less than the gold dollar, and who boldly avowed their desire 

for a cheap dollar, and, as they said, the cheaper the better. These 

l 1 tr I fr th ted f . fl. . . T,he theory on which I shall vote for the dollar of 412l grains is, that it will be were arge ys agg ets om e ron arroyo paperrn atioDISts, those worth 100 cents in gold, and if that dollar isworthlOOcents in gold, the buiJion 

who were for fiat-money pure and simple, and back of whom was the with free coinage, will spring up to par with the coined dollars.-Record, pag~ 

small but compact, intelligent, and well-organized bodywhorepresented 1066. 

that '' large pecuniary interest '' in the production of silver which I think his reasoning was fallacious, but I have read enough to sup-

:M:acaulaydescribesin thepassagequotedbytheSenatorfromKentucky, port the assertion that the avowed and la.udable purpose with which 

and who were ready to dispute the law of the attraction of gravitation, the bill was, for the most part, ad>ocated ill the Senate, was to produce 

or any equally well established economic law, if. such interests were concurrent circulation of gold and silver, and the reasons given by the 

concerned in their so doing. · distinguished Senators whom I have cited are all based on anexpectaTo the dangerous dogmas of this class I know the Senator could not tion entertn.ined and expiessed that the remonetization of silver, as prosubscribe. The power to create values by legislative fiat would be as vided for in the amended bill, would restore silver to an equh·alency 

resolutely denied by him'as other economic heresies which he has so with gold at the old ratio of 16 to 1. 

often and so ably combated. So, then, the measure for the remonetization of the 412~-grain silver 

The second class was composed of those who believe that bimetal- dollar, while it was at a discoont of about 8 per cent. as compared 

lism was indispensable to a proper settlement of our monetary affairs, with gold, was, so far at least as the action.of the Senate was concerned, 

and that an equivalency in the values of gold and silver could be estab- tentative. It was not intended to drive out gold by n. cheaper met.1.l, 

lished and maintairled by law. To the conservative and intelligent ad- but to restore and maintain an equivalency of value of 16:1. It could 

vocates of tills doctrine in this body we owe t:he modification of the not have been otherwise than tentative. It was a most important step 

Bland bill, and the fact that we are not yet compelled to struggle with in the monetary history of the country, and it had to be taken in the 

all the evils of a depreciated monometallic silver currency. By their ac- dark. The region before us was pathless and untrodden, and illumined 

tion ''free coinage'' of the silver dollar was eliminated from the bill by no lamp of experience. No precedent for the action proposed could 

and the number of dollars coined each month was restricted. ' be adduced, for it was absolutely the first time that any government of 

Undoubtedly, if the silver dollar had been admitted to the free coin- modern times had undertaken to issue de novo a coin at less than it 

age provided for in the bill as it came from the Rouse, we should lonu supposed bullion value. I do not, of course, regard as a precedent the 

ago have bad the experience that every man who owed a hundred dol~ attempt made in England in times hardly modern to raise a public 

Iars would have bought ninety, eighty, or seventy dollars' worth of sil- revenue by debasing the coin, although it is uncomfortably near to 

ver, and taking it to the Uint, would have received back one hundred being a prolotype of the bill of 1878. 

silver dollar.::, wherewith to discharge his debt. And gold would long As I have said, the hope wasfreelyindulgedand the confident predicsince have taken its flight to more hospitable lands. We would then tion made on all handsthattheremonetizationofsilverwouldrestoreit 

h3:ve s~en Gresham's law in full.operation, a depreciated and depreci- toparwithgoldwithinashorttimeafterthepassageoftheact-eightecn 

atmg silver would have taken theplaceofthe more valuable gold coin months, said the Senator from Nevada; and it was this hope and this 

prices of com modi ties would have risen, while wages lagged in the rear' expectation, based by some on the mere effect that the greater demand 

and all the uncertainties, distress, and disorder which are the resUlts of for silver would produce, by others on that combined with what they 

a depreciated and fluctuating currency, would have come upon us, and t~ought ~ould be _the probable success of the international scheme procome to stay. The only class who would have profited by the situation VIded for m the bill, that were held up all through the debate by the 

if we except those who would have reaped the doubtful advantage of" _leading advocates of the bill to. allay the fears of those who did not be· 

paying off $100 of debt with seventy or seventy-five dollars' worth of lieve it was possible by Congressional enactment or otherwise to estalr 

silver, would have been the money-changers and gold gamblers of Wall lish a. code of economic laws that were to be operative in America alone.. 

street; whose occupation would have returned again, to help increase And now that these hopes have been disappointed, these expectations 

the general demoralization: unrealized, was it not eminently a. wise and patriotic thing for the PresNow, as far as I can gather from the debate in the Senate in February, ident to do, nay, was it not his highest duty, to call the attention of 

1878, these da,ngers attendant on a free coinage of a depreciated silver Congress to the facts and express to them the apprehensions which he 

dollar, with unlimited legal-tender power, were appreciated. But the shared with many thoughtful and disinterested men that a continued 

advocates of the bill as amended by the Senate seemed to think that coinage of the silver dollar of 412~ grains, without any co-{)peration from 

these dangers would be avoided by the restriction of the coinage and the other civilized countries of the world, would in the near future 

by giving the profits or seigniorage to the Government instead of~ the bring us to a coin circulation of silver alone, take from the pockets of 

holder of the bullion, and by the provision for obtaining an interna- the people the more valuable gold, and replace it with the cheaper silver 

tional consensus to a bimetallic standard: The object aimed at by raise the price of commodities, and permanently defeat the avowed ob~ most of the leading advocates of the bill was the concurrent circulation ject of the bill of 1878-the establishment of a bimetalli~ currency of 

of the two metals, gold and silver-a. bimetallic currency. silver and gold? 

The Senator from Kentl:!.cky said (I quote from the RECORD of Feb- Silver, which was to have been brought back to its old relation tQ 

ruary 15, 11:378): gold, has steadily fallen in valueuntilthedollarworth 92centsinl878 

I believe in obtaining the largest amount of gold and silver coin and paper is worth less than80 to-day. And there is apparently no hope of pres~ b.ased o~ such gold and silver coin, an.d I believe that the moment yo::. make the ent relief by France and the Latin Union, England, or Germany con- ~Ih·er com oftll.e.same stan~ard that tt~as.when itwas demonetized, and putit senting to bear a portion {)four burden. Were ever the honest predic- In the samepos1t10n where 1twasthen, 1twill bear the same relation to gold coin that it did then. tions an.d arguments by which men were persuaded to any course of 

action so utterly falsified? All the reasons which seem to have been 

Well, Mr. President, the relation it bore then was about 1 per cent. potential in passingth.is bill have failed,· :md yet now we are asked by above gold. But the purpose of the Senator, whether mistaken or not 

in. his n_otions astothe possibilityofaccomplishing it bythe bill under some to reverse the maxim and maintain the lawthough the reason for 

d it has ceased. Passionate invective a..,uainst bondholders can not raise 

1Scuss1on,_ was the laudab~e one o~ producing an equivalency between the price of silver a. farthing in the bullion markets of the world. Pay- gold and Silver, and restorrng to silver the value which he and others believed had been lost by its demonetization. ment of the public debt in silver (which, must soon come if this law is 

~he Senator from ~owa [l'lfr. AJ;.LISON], who had charge of the bill to continue) will not better the situation a. particle. It can only hasten 

as lt came from the Frna.nce Committee, in the very able and instructive the catastrophe, which we should seek to avoid, of placing us on a 

speech with which he closed the debate said: monometallic basis. 

. Now, if we plant ourselves firmly in favor of the policy of the utilization of 

silver, w.e ta~e measurably the place of Germany in this regard, because by our own leg1~la.tlon from 1834tothetimeofabsolntedemonetization we banished silver, and if we restore it we shall require very n earty as much silver in circulation 

The burden of the argument of the Senator from Kentucky the other 

day was that the bondholder was demanding a different dollar from that 

which rewarded the toil of the Ia.borer, and that the action of the Treasnrywasadiscrimination in hi<; favor. I fail toseeitinthat light. The 
. 

452 OONGR.ESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY ·6, 

bond requires payment in coin,.and gold" coin is as legal for payment as verse of this is, of course, impossible. _If gold is supplanted by silver, we 

silver. But I underst..'llld that the action of the Secretary is intended have silver alone. From 1850 to 1862wewere on a gold basis. At the 

to a>oid a hastening of the time when silver shall replace gold until ratio of 16 to 1 gold was overva.lned and as the cheaper of the two 

Congress shall have an opportunity to decide whether it is wise to take metals became the sole standard, bnt we still had a subsidiary silver 

the risk of relegating our currency to the standard of an eighty-cent coinage, and I have never seen !ecorded or heard uttered any dissatisdollar. His action1 in my opinion, is calculated to promote, and not faction with that st.ate of things. In fact, everybody was sati fied. The 

<lefeat, the avowed object of the act of 1878. gold standard kept us in easy relation with the whole commercial 

If the gold dollar and silver dollar are at present, owing to the legal- world. 'Ve were not under the necessity of paying the ~st or producten<ler quality of the latter ttnd its limited coinage, equivalent, who has tion of the commodities we exported at an enhanced price in one metal 

a ri~ht to complain? The silver dollar paid to and used by the masses to sell at a lower price in another. And asarecentwriter on this period 

of the people is now precisely the equivalent in value of the gold dol- s:tys: 

lar paid the bondholder. And because the effort is made to maintain So well did the situation sntisfy.all demands that the question of gold o.nd 

a little longer that equivalency, the Senator from Kentucky has drawn sil\"er dropped out of the public mind. 

away onr attention from the real question which confronts u , namely, The act of 1853 regulated the subsidiary silver coinage so that it should 

how to maintain the concurrent circulation of both silver and gold, to not be u.ndervalued with respect to gold, but took no notice of the sil· 

the alleged rapacity of the bondholders as a class. vcr dollar which had ceased to circulate, and advisedly aequiesced in 

Now, I am not here to defend them. .All economic laws are founded and accepted the single gold standard which then obtained. Then it 

on the oneness of human nature, and the desires and appetites of men was, as pointed out by the writer to whom I have referred, that by this 

will lead to the s::tme results when the conditions arc the same. Uen act of 1 53 the double standard was abandoned in the United tates and 

will seek their own advantages and their ow1i interests, whether they the silveT dollar practically demonetized. And now when that most 

be owners of bond , or of gold mines, or of sih·er mines. I want no diStinguished bimetalistandemincntFrenchman, Ur. HenryCernu chi, 

privilege for any class. I am neither a bondholder or the son of a bond- has given his opinion to the people of the United States that imetalholder; but I do not want to see the money in the hands of the people ism can not be achieved by any one country alone, wpen every country 

cheapened for the sake of paying the bondholder in such cheapened in Europe has ceased the coinage of silver, except te supply the <lemand 

money, anu I repeat the question, if up tothepresenttimeasilverdol- for sv.bsidiary coinage, why should we be driven into difficulties that 

l:n aud a gold dollar are exact1y equal, who has the right to complain all other countries are seeking to avoid? 

if the public creditor is paid in either, so long us he is not paid more France woulu gladly get rid of the "hump" of her silver legal tendollars than his bond calls for'! clcr, and has long ago stopped its coinage. 

This q nestion of the currency and of the standard of values is no-t a Do the business interests of the country need expansion of th·e cur- question between the bondholder and the people of the United States. rency? The locked-up millions in Treasury vaults and banks tell a 

H we are to have a silver standard, then! want to see the publiccred- di1Ierent story; and ifth~y do, shall weincreasethemoneyoftheconnitor paid in the same coin that I am compelled to receive; but as long as try available for enterprise and the employment of labor by driving out 

I and all others can obtain a silver or gold dollar indifierently in ex- of it nearl.v six hundred millions of gold coin? 

change for our labor or onr pro:gerty, I am not disturbed that the bond- I fear, Mr. President, that some of the advocates of the act of 1878 

holder can do the same thing. I hall hope to see in the response to have shift ell their ground; that they now view with complacency the 

this m olution from the Finanee Committee a better defense of the prospect of our being plaeed on a single silver standard; that that large 

coursepnr ued by the Secretary of the Treasury than lean make. Now pecuniary interest which this so-called debtor class, or some of them, 

I wish to be done with the bondholder; his relations to the question of h:tve i!l scaling their debts, that. larger and more direct pecuniary inthe expedi ency of continuing the c~inage of 80 cents' worth of silver tercst which the owners of silver mines have in maintaining a market_ into a legal dollar are irrelevant, and are only brought to the front with for their silver in the public Treasury, };ave separately or together prothe effect, if not the purpose, of obscuring the true issue, which is, can or duced through its press the effect which :Macaulay describes and to cnn not the present situation of silver ~nd gold equivalency be main- which I haYe befure alluded. · tained with the continuing uninterrupted flow of overvalued legal-ten- Although I did not intend to again refer to the payment of the pubder silver dollars from the mints. lie debt, it occurs to me in this connection to say that when under the ·Let us see. It is certain that the predictions and hopes of the ad- present condition of coinage the Government pays a debt in sih·er dolvoc.'ltes of the bill of 1878 as to the rise in the value of silver to follow lars, it then has scaled that debt by the amount of the difference beits remonetization have not been fulfilled, nor bas that other more rea- tween the p rice paid for the bullion it has bought and the mint Talue 

on able hope as to co-operation of European governments been realized. of the dollars it has paid. In other words, it is in a position le creelUpon what other grounds were the high hopes of those who expected itable tha.n a private debtor would have been if there had been free 

to achie>e bimetalism based? It will not do, as the Senator from Ken- coinage of the silver dollor-it has bought its own orcrdne paper at a _ tucky" has sought to have us, to reassure ourselves because the silver discount. Private morality will not sanction that, and I doubt whether 

dollar is to-day exchangeable for the gold dollar. It proves nothing to public morality can stand unshaken by it. It is not the hlgh tandard 

say, as the Senator has said over and over again ;in his speech, that the_ of individual conduct held up by Divine wisdom for our imitation when 

silver dollar will purchase as much to-day as the gold dollar, and 30 the man "who sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not" is decbred 

per cent. more of many commodities than it would in 1870. That is especially bl ed. I know the Senator from Kentucky woultl govern 

solely bee.'\ use it has not yet parted company with gold. himself by that standard of morality and would not knowingly con- The rising tide of silver has not yet risen quite high enon~?:h to over- tribute to making a lo·wer public standard. 

flow the barriers that were enacted against it by the Senate amendment There is another view of this question which should certainly comto the bill of1878, providing a limited though compulsory coinage, and maud attention, and that is, that the act of 1878 having failed to raise 

giving to the Governnlent the difference between the bullion value and the price of silver, if a continued coinage of sil>er dollars at the pre ent 

the mint value of the dollar. But I do not see what comfort can be ratio to gold, is persisted in, till their accumulation cause gold to 

given to tho e who, living near by, fear the overflow of a reservoir into disappear, and with it gold prices; we will then have had forced upon 

which a steady and constant stream is flowing by telling them that their the country a practical silver monometallism by an act that was passed 

dwellings are still dry, unless some precautionisatthesame time taken with the avowed object of establishing a bimetallic currency. Now, 

to have the water turned off when the reservoir is fnll. Yetthisisex- does not good faith to the country require that we should call a 

actly what the Senator from Kentucky has been doing, in laboriously halt and suspend the coinage of silver dollars until the people have 

arguing that because the reservoir is not yet quite fnll it never can be had an opportunity to exercise an option as to whether there hall be 

full, because the silver dollar has not yet overwhelmed the country to a gold or silver st..'tlldard o( values in this country? Let the question 

the point of driving out gold, it never will. He· points triumphantly be fairly presented to Congress, and discussed there and in the press, and 

to the purchasing power of the silver dollar as compared with gold, yet let it be deliberately determined whether we will settle down on a-gold • denounces the efforts of those who are trying to keep it what it is. basis, such as we have now, with gold prices, or give up all the ad van· 

When the atmosphere has absorbed moisture to the point of satura- tages of the present situation and take the risk at this time of reviving 

tion the rain must fall, and when the capacity to absorb the light- business and renewed commercial activity, of descending to the basis of 

weight silver dollar in· the various uses and demands of business and an 80-cent dollar, thereby scaling all debts, public and private, 20 per 

trade is exhausted the storm must come. The fact is that, owing to cent. and enhancing all prices at that rate. I, for one, protest against 

its restricted coinage and the seigniorage therefor going to the Govern- this denial to the people of the right and opportunity to decide for 

ment, the silver dollar has performed the office largely of a subsidiary themselves this question so vital to their prosperity and well-being. 

coinage. For that purpose I want to keep it, because only &o can we But as it is said by many of the advocates of the cheap dollar that the 

have under present conditions a bimetallic currency. Gold remains, interests of a large class, to wit, a so-called deotor class, demands the 

and will continue to remain, the most desired and desirable standard lowering ofthe standard ofvalnes, it may be well to inquire whocomth~ world over. No civilized country that I know of has or desires a pose this debtor class that is represented as appealing to Congress for 

silver standard or single silver currency. The most that is claimed by a depreciated coin in which it may pay its debts, and whose menacing 

the advocates of silver is the desirability of a double standard of silver cohorts are sometimes invoked to drive from their convictions those who 

and gold, so that gold for the larger transactions and silver for the believe that economic laws no more than natural laws can be violated 

smaller may make a wider basis for a metallic currency. with impunity; thatthephilosopher's stonehasnot yet been discovered 

We can always have a gold and a subsidiary silver coinage. There- by whose touch 80 cents in silver can be transmuted into 100 cents in 
1886. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 453 

gold. This class is not composedofthetoiling millions of our country 

whose week's or month's wages are the reward of honest labor of hand or brain. These, as has been often shown, are the great creditor class 

of the country, if we. are to have classes at all in this matter. 

No men are so interested in preserving the purchasing power of the 

dollar which is to reward their industry as they. Each day, each week, 

each month they are the creditors of the capital that employs their 

labor. If I could reconcile myself to the idea of speaking for a class at 

all in a matter which concerns the welfare and prosperity of the whole 

country, I would appeal to Senators that the dollar of the laborer, which 

to him is not a thing for gambling or speculation, but is the measure of 

the amount and quality of the food, the clothing, and the shelter that 

he can provide for his family, the basis of his home and his happiness, 

should be the best possible dollar; the dollar which, when translated, means the largest amount of those comforts which money can buy. I 

want his dollar to be as good in every respect, and mean as muchofthe 

good things ofthis life, as the dollar of the bondholder. 

But, Mr. President, thelaboringmenofthisconptry, the tens ofmillions dependent on agriculture, and the other minions whose wealth is 

their daily toil, are not the debtor class whose interests are so loudly 

championed. 

They are largely those who h..'tve embarked in speculative enterprises, 

those who have bought land for which they could not pay, and who, 

properly enough-! do not mean to cast reproach upon them-have 

looked to the future for a profit which would largely exceed the savings 

that could be made from the fruits of years of industry. It is the speculative hopeful class, manyofwhomare ''making haste to be rich,'' and are impatient of any delay in their race for fortune. 

Now that these men, or some of them, should see a present advan· 

tage in scaling the debts they have incurred, and repaying only 80 per 

cent. of the borrowed capital with which they have sought to become 

capitalists themselves, I can readily _imagine-but they do not appeal 

very strongly to my respect or my sympathy when they seek to accom- plish this object by legislation which in my opinion is to affect disastrously the prosperity of 60,000,000 of people. If a lowering ofthe 

standard of values brings a temporary benefit to some, it must also 

bring a corresponding injury to others, so that there is no resultant 

advantage in that view alone. But that is not the whole story; the 

manifold evils that arise from the uncertainty and confusion of values; 

the want of confidence, and demoralization in all business operations 

that are sure to follow in the wake of a disturbed standard of future 

payments-the impairment of credit, public and private, will be a heavy price to pay for ''compliance with the demands" of this importunate class. 

Credit is the great instrument of modern civilization, and it will not 

do to trifle with it. It."! purchasing power every day transcends that 

of all the gold and all the silver and all the paper that ever is at one time in circulation. It is that which builds our railroads and opens our mines and fans into a :flame the fires of a thousand industries. It walks 

hand in hand with sound finance, stable values, and an unfluctnating 

currency. 1 ts conditions are peace, .good government, and public faith; 

that uberrima fides which is the soul of commercial prosperity. The 

want of confidence in the future, which is sure to be bred of unstable 

values and a fluctuating currency, destroys it. · 

I do not believe that the class I have described, as a whole, desire 

this. There may be some, but surely not all, whose notions of public 

and private obligation are so obscured by the sophistries that have been woven around this question that the simple truths and axioms of monetary economics no longer have a meaning for them. But God forbid 

that this class, be it great or small, should ever so influence public opinion that as a people we shall be willing to abandon the path of honor 

and of safety. • And now, Mr. President, in view of the present monetary situation, 

in view. of the fact conceded on all hands, that the value of silver has 

steadily fallen since the act of 1878, that that act has disappointed the 

hopes of its friends, and has not enhanced the price of silver, as they 

said it would, and has, instead of advancing us on the road to bimetallism, made possible in the near future a monometallism of silver, that no progress has been made in persuading foreign nations to agree with us in the establishment of a common ratio between the two metals, I say 

in view of all tbisshould we not heed the caution given us by the President and stop for a time the coinage of the overvalued silver dollar in 

order -that we may at least have a b:reatbing spell to see whither we are drifting? There is no demand for these dollars in trade or business. 

Our present currency is abundant for the wants of both. Their con- tinned coinage threatens us with a change from the gold standard of 

values, and there is no evidence of a desire on the part of the people for 

this. The dangers honestly apprehended from a continuance of this 

silver stream may be real. I believe that they are. The suspension can hurt no legitimate interest, except silver mining, and I doubt ifitwill 

hurt that. I desire to see silver kept in circulation with gold, and shall 

do all that I can to accomplish that end. I believe that our best hope 

for a consensus with the countries of Europe as to an international equivalency between silver and gold, that will establish free coinage of both, 

lies in our suspension now of the coinage under the act of 1878. 

At all events let us try to reconcile our honest differences of opinion 

in the common interest of alL We are all embarked on the same voyage, on thesamewideocean, debtor and creditor, bondholder and honest 

toiler foraday'swages; and whetberweencountershipwreckandstorm, or are borne by prospering gales over summer seas to a peaceful haven, 

one fate awaits us all. I sincerely trust that no pride of opinion on either sid.e of this question will prevent that calm and dispassionate 

action that becomes the representatives of a great, an intelligent, and 

honest people. 

Believing that the report of the Finance Committee will vindicate the 

wisdom and legality of the course pursued by the Secretary of the Treasury, I shall vote for this resolution. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 10. [A pause.] I yield to the Senator from 

New Jersey [Mr. McPHERSON]. 

Mr. PUGH. I desire to a-ddress the Senate on the resolution of the 

Senator from Kentucky [Mr. BECK], but it is a matter of no materiality with me on what day I do so. I am ready to proceed now, but the 

Senator from New Jersey [Mr. :McPHERSON] has informed the Senate 

of his desire to leave the city this evening, and I give way to him to 

ask that the consideration of the resolution be continued, and give no- tice to the Senate that after the disposition of the Utah bill, reported 

from the Judiciary Committee, of which I am a member, and which I 

favor, and agree with the chairman of the committee as to its importance, I shall caU up the resolution of the Senator from Kentucky with 

the view I have indicated. 

Mr. McPHERSON. Mr. President, I may not be able to add much 

to the value of this debate, and as the issue is confined to a single question, I need not add much to its length. 

In approaching this. discussion I shall assail n~ man's motives, nor waste the time of the Senate in vindicating my own. I have no mines 

of gold or silver, neither bank stock, nor Government bonds, nor any 

interest which takes issue with my duty. 

On the 4th of Ma!'ch last was terminated, for four years at least, the 

reign of a politi~l party which had held uninterrupted control in this 

Government ibr a quarter ofacentury. It points us with pride totwo 

great events in its history: With having successfully terminated the 

greatest civil war of which history makes any mention; with having 

paid in gold fullyone-halfthewar debt, reducing in a like amount the 

annual burden of what remained, and so continuing to pay the obligations of the Government to the very end. 

The administration of the Government to-day is in other hands. A 

rival political organization which for the same quarter of a century had 

struggled in vain for the mastery has at last its chosen Executive at the 

bead of the Government. The President at the very moment when a crisis in our monetary affairs was imminent, in the performance of his 

constitutional duty, sent his first message to Congress-a paper com- mended greatly for the wisdom of its recommendations. Finding the 

gold reserve in the Treasury, hitherto employed to pay the principal 

and interest of the Government obligations, gradually and steadily 

diminishing, and the silver dollars, which are receivable for customs 

just to the extent to which they are used by importers instead of gold, 

returning to the Treasury, it became only a question of time when the reserve would be changed from gold to silver and of necessity payments 

thereafter be made in silver. ·Prompted alike by considerations of 

honesty and good policy, he sent his message to Congress recommending the suspension of the silver coinage, 

The Treasury Secretary, in the honesty and simplicity of his nature, 

believing that more misery was often caused by bad dollars than by bad 

government, sought to adhere, and did adhere, to.the plan of gold payments, or deferred payments, until Congress could again meet and opportunity be given to save the country from a single silver standard, 

has been held up to the country as violating the-law, and made the subject of investigation by a committee of this Senate. 

I am now fully convinced that whatever has been said, and so well 

sai4, by the honorable Secretary of the Treasury, that not another syllable need be uttered, or may hereafter be said by the President, Cabinet Minister, Senator, or private citizen touching the suspension for all 

time, or for any given period of time, of the act authorizing forty-eight 

millions and decreeing twenty-four millions' worth of silver dollars an- nually from the mint, that the operation of the act in question will not 

be crippled by this Congress. 

It seems inevitable that the representatives of the sovereign people are determined to see their present system of finance die a natural 

death before they will have recourse to another. · 

Whatever may happen to the standards, we should deal frankly 

with each other and with the people. That the operations of the 

Treasury before and since the change in administration had been and are now directed solely to the maintenance and continance of the gold 

standard of payment will not by 1ne be denied. The illegal issue of 

silver certificates by the Treasury upon the deposits of gold coin, which 

certificates were redeemable in silver coin then in the Treasury, is to 

be taken as a note of alarm, if not a flag of distress. Moreover, as this 

gold was mainly supplied by the merchants and bankers of New York 

giving gold to strengthen the .Treasury reserve in exchange for silver 

certificates intended for circulation, whatever the law may say of it, it 

will scarcely do to say that the circulation of the silver certificate was not increased by it. 

Again, the exchange recently made in one block of several millions-
454 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- SENATE. JANUARY 6, 

giving fractional silver coin (not needed by the banks) to the banks . 

for gold (needed by the Treasury) to the Treasury to continue thegold 

staudard of payments pending anticipated adion by Congress-tends 

to show that even now the Treasury can not carry this burden alone, 

and furth er bows who its supporters have been. Whether or not further aid will be needed, and, if needed, may with safety be given, it is 

for Congress to answer. 

Complaint i made of the slowness of the machinery which shoots 

the sil>er dollars from the mint into the pockets of the people without 

even waiting to consider how few the pockets open to receive them. 

The United States Treasury 14'18 become a vast and complicated ma- chiue. What with seven distinct kinds of circulation of varied power, 

to wit: gold and silver coins '\lith full power, and then the fractional 

coin, go1d .and silver certificates with limited power, Treasury notes 

and national-bank notes, differing with each other and every other 

named in power, and therefore limited in quantity to the uses they can 

be put as cir< ulation, forbids any attempt to regulate the circulation by 

statute law, and that no disturbance in the affairs of trade may result 

the exercise of a wide di"cretion must be given the Secretary of the 

Treasury. So well has this disc:retion been used by the present ecretary that, notwithstanding the retiring Secretary of the Treasury predicted "we u·ould be forced to silver 11ayments in sixty days," the gold resen-e bas increased from sixteen millions to forty-eight millions, and 

there are more silver dollars in circulation than ever before. 

The present Secretary of the Treasury needs about as much and the 

same character of defense for what he has done, and is doing, as did 

~cretary Windom in 1 81-in the one case saving the honor as in the 

other case the money of the country-when, wij;hont shadow of law or 

other direction by Congress, he proceeded to change the interest burden 

of the bond, thus savingmanymillionsto the Government. A certain 

Senator ~nsidered such action unwarranted and an insult to Congress. 

He had prepared a great speech on the subject, and informed a brother 

Senator he was awaiting opportunity to deliver it. "Then, sir," was 

the good-natured reply, 'you are only waiting a chance to make an ass 

of yourself.' 7 It is needless to &'\y the. speech was not delivered, and 

the Senator- afterward became convinced the action of the Secretary 

was wise. 

If coinage be now suspended the silver dollar may be kept on a par 

with the gold dollar, both acting as a measure rather than as a medium of exchange. The vast machinery of the clearing-house in New 

York, which exchanges a thousand millions of property each week, requiring in the operation less than 3 per cen.t. of cash, shows how little 

of C:.lSh is needed in modern barter, the measure of exchange being uniform and stable. Nothing can be more abhorrent to the interest and 

ideas of society than widely differing standards, whether of value, extension, or quantity. The moment they cease to be uniform and stable all the operations of barter are greatly confused or brought to a 

stand. To illustrate: A standard measure for "1llilk in Philadelphia 

contains 43 quarts. A standard ~easure for milk in New York contains 4.0 quarts. With th~ measures of value as varying as the measures of qn.antity, it would require a rare facility for translation to determine relatively at a given time the market price of milk in the two 

places., less than 90 miles apart. In the opinion of the best .financial 

minds in this and other countries we have now reached a point in silver coinage b eyond which, owing to monetary changes and ·conditions 

elsewhere, it is unsafe for us to go. I quote Cernuschi, the distin- gui hed scienti t and bimetallist. In1876- 77 he visited this country 

in tl1 " inter of . ilver remonetization, which was effected in 1878: 

In October, 1885: Mr. Cernuschi says: 

o :oug as the bimetallic treaty propo ed in 1881 by the United States and France is not accepted either by England or by "Germany not one silver five- franc piece should be coined by France, not one silver dollar should be coined by the Uni~d States. In no form, under no pretext, should silver currency be in- ci·eased either in France or in the United State . · 

"Therei hereno chance for refining upon the meaningofwords; no 

opposing of records to reason; no appealing from the wisdom of the present to that of the past. The wisdom of to-day is often the ignoranoo of 

to-morrow, and Cernuschi frankly admits its trnth.' 7 

Twenty-four million dollars worth the amount for a year now yields 

thirty million dollars in coin; and if silver should fall until the metal 

in a dollar is worth but 70 cents, and the Mint be directed to coin 

the maximum amount (both of which events, except we stop now, are 

likely to happen-the latter inevitable), to wit, forty-eight million 

dollars' worth it would add about seventy millions annually to our 

stock ofsil,er dollars. Why inevitable? It being only a question of 

time when the specie reserve shaJ.l be changed from gold to silver, and 

payments mn.de for principal and interest of the Government bonds by 

the Treasury in silver, the sil>er will begin to drive out the gold from 

circulation. Prices will then be changed to suit the silver standard, 

and the maximum quantity will be issued to the public. The needs 

for any particular kind of currency can not be a need created by law, 

but one regulated by the demand of trade and commerce; and_the increasing quantity of the silver dollars then, too greatfortheneedscreated by law, will cause them to accumulate in the banks and in the 

hands of merchants who can .dispose of them only at their intrinsic 

bulJion Yalue. When the Treasury can no longer retain a gold basis, 

then the public must take care of themselves. It is asked why the 

two hundred millions now coined have not produced the result just 

described. "In the first place, they are limited, in quantity, compared 

with the use to which they canbeput." "Theycannotent.erintocuculation only as they are sent forth from the Treasury in payment of 

dues." · 

"The Government has not forcibly paid out silver, but has left its acceptance to the option of the Government creditor 7 -and not one-fifth of 

the dollars coined have at anv one time been in actual circulation. Both 

the silver dollar and itsrepr~entative, the certificate, by the act of 1 78 

were made receivable at the custom-house. The certificates or silver 

dollars to-day paid out of the Treasury are sent back to the Tr&'lSury 

to-morrow through the custom-house, and this operates as a daily redemption of the silver dollar. Under such condition tbe silYer dollar 

has remained at par with gold, and will remain at par with gold until 

more is forced upon the circulation than is necessary for such uses. The 

standard silver do11.'U' bears the same relations to good money as does 

the fractional currency, and both will depreciate if· ned in unnecessary 

quantities. In the language of Professor Laughlin, whom I freely quote, 

"no legal power conferred upon them by law can save them from this 

fute." 

By continuing to coin the minimum or twenty-four millions you are 

forced to the maximum or forty-eight millions per annum. Whenever 

the financial community i convinced that the law is not to be suspended or repealed, that we are to be forced to silver payments, that 

the interest and principal of the public debt are to be paid in silver, 

gold will retire from circulation in accorlli'tnce with the law of Gresham, 

the truth of which has been proven by the experience of three centurie which is "that bad money drives out good money; but that good 

money can not drive out bad money." In other word , the relatively 

cheaper medium of exchange will be retained in circulation, and the 

relatively dearer one will disappear. 

The universal hungry demand of nearly all our great commercial 

rivals for gold with which to reform their currency will draw our gold 

to them, and the silver displaced by our gold will gravitate to our 

Treasury, the only vi ible market. They will have no use for silver; 

we will have no use for gold. Whenever the outflow of gold exceeds 

the silver decreed to take its place, contraction with all its dire calamities is sure to follow. The outflow of gold might at first be slow; or on the other baud it mi<Yht be very rapid. It is not so much the lesser 

evil we now utter, but the greater evil we must ultimately expect to 

uffer, that guides capital with as much certainty as the laws of gravitation. Capital, always timid from past reverses, like time and tide, 

waits for no man. The national banks, which now furnish a large 

proportion of our circulating medium, would in self-pr ervation assist 

greatly in the inevitable contraction-in short, anticipate it. They 

would surrender circulation, redeem and take in gold the premium 

upon the bonds pledged to make good their notes, and bank, if at all, 

upon the issues of the Treasury or the Mint. From thee two causes 

alone, to say nothing of the boarding of gold by private citizens, the 

effect upon our industries would be frightful. 

To fill the void thus created we could only look to the Mint; silver 

dollars from the Mint, or po ibly paper promises redeemable in silver, 

if at all, from the Treasury. Not alone the forty-eight million dollars' 

worth as the law now limits, but enough dollars to save the debtor cla" 

from impending bankruptcy, must be supplied. This for a time would 

c.reate an abnormal demand for silver and thus relieve other nations 

now seeking relief from the load they carry, and which our necessities 

would make us only too glad to accept. This accomplished, we have 

reached a point from which '\le can not recede. Instead oftwo-metallism, which we now lhwe, and with prudence to a certain degree may 

be abl to maintain, we are launched upon the se..1. of silver monometa.llism and in commercial transactions pay tribute to E11gland as India, 

-aoes now. To prevent contracts being made payable in gold(which at this moment is being done extensively), and thus a ist the debasement of our 

own coin, the gold unit of value must needs then be disgraced to a 

silver unit of value, and the gold dollar, which now keeps it shortlegged, infirm, and limping associate on the trnck, will cease to run. Again, all history teaches that with a currency of an uncertain and 

fluctuating value as ours must needs become, it tends to stimulate 

speculation and consequent expansion until we float on to wealth and 

happiness without any thought of the futura .:rhe floods of peculation continue to gather strength, and the mound is swept away with a 

sudden fury which shakes the very foundations of society and spreads 

monetary ruin qver a wide field of civilized life. 

EXPERIENCE. 

If the know ledge which experience gives is any guide in the affairs of 

men, the continuance of silver coinage in this countryatthis time will · 

make silcer the only standard of value, the only coin currency in use. 

.A forme.r Secretary of the Treasury, in commenting upon the laws of 

coinage, most appropriately says: 

If the slight error in the ratio of1792 prevented gold from entering into circula- tion for forty-five years, an d the light error in 183-1 brought gold into circulation and banished silver until 1853, how more certainly will an error now of 5 per cent. cn.use gold to be exported and il ver to become the sole standard of ...-alue. 
1886. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 455 

Let it be remembered that from 1492 to 1834 gold was rated fifteen 

times more valuable than silver; from 1834 to 1873 (when the coinage was suspended) gold was rated sixteen times more valuable, and at no 

time between 1792 and 1873 did the variation of real value of the two 

monetary metals differ greatly from the relative legal value, and yet we were never able to maintain the two methls in continuous, simultaneous, and healthy circulation with each performing its office as money. In those days the power c: to coin money" imposed likewise 

the duty "to regulate its value." Nothingelsebutequivalence in the 

two forms of the monetary unit could retain both; this was the object 

diligently sought, but not secured because the relative ratio here 

fixed was not the relative ratio fixed by other coinage countries. Since 

the remonetization of silver in 1878 gold has been twenty-one times more valuable than silver, and remains at about that ratio to-day. 

In1878 not a state in Europe dared open its mint to silver; atwhich 

very period of time we began to coin and ha>e since steadily continued 

the coinage of about thirty millions per year, and with but one resultthat of debasing the currency of a country without even protecting the 

silver industry. The mints of Europe closed to silver; silver is there no more than a merchandise without monetary power_:_and to con- tinue longer its coinage here means that all monetary communication 

between Europe and the United States is to cease; that we must return 

to barter although abolished between the nations many thousand years 

ago; but for us it would be barter without valid ratio or scale of val uation in exchange. COMMERCE. 

We have heard much of our decaying and decayed American commerce. When you descend from a gold to a silver standard you drive the last 

nail into its coffin, and no more will ~eseenofitsave its sheeted specter. 

In the commercial world gold is king. Gold counts the cost, markets 

the goods, alid measures the margin of profit and loss. If we desire commercial prosperity we must obey commercial laws; Our exports being 

mainly breadstuffs and raw cotton, our commerce must needs be with 

the nations which consume them. These nations either have the gold 

standard or are struggling to that end. We have also the gold standard, 

but are surely drifting to a different end, and unless wise counsels prevail are sure to reach it. If reached, all our exports of silver for payment of debts would of necessity be sent abroad as merchandise and 

translated into gold before the debt could be paid. It would have no 

greater stability than cotton or wheat or any other article of merchandise; it would continue to fluctuate, and our own mines would aggravate the fluctuations in the London market so that the merchant could 

no more know how many dollars of silver (our valuation) would be re- quired in the payment of a debt than he would know how many bales 

of cotton would accomplish the same purpose before the market price of 

the cotton was determined. Silver in all foreign markets whose mints are not open to silver coinage will circulate only at its purchasing 

power as bullion (not in our standard dollars), and no one can be cer- tain that its power will be the same in any two transactions. 

All this will be at the cost of the producers, who are not exporters; 

but the exporter would demand upon every purchase a sufficient discount to cover the possible risk of fluctuation in the value of the money. 

All the losses which the producers have suffered in this respect from 

the fluctuating character of the legal-tender notes will be repeated and 

continued with the silver standard. · 

LABOR, 

I was recently handed a pamphlet by a distinguished silver advocate, an ex-Senator of this body, with a supplement entitled Comments on President's Message, from which I read as follows: · 

'Ve call the attention of the President to the fact that in addition to the general depres ion of business and the great injustice to the people which would be 

effected by the demonetization of ilver, there are three great industrial classes 

of the United States who would be especially injured thereby, to wit, gold and 

silver miners, cultivators of wheat, and planters of cotton. The great wheat and cotton producing empire of India, with its 250,000,000 of population, has silver 

for its circulating mediu111. All :products of India are bought on the silver basis. 

Wheat and cotton are purchased m India. with silver and sold in Europe for gold. 

The difference between silver and gold in London is about 25 per cent. This difference gives the wheat or cotton merchant of India 25 per cent. advantage in 

the European markets overthemerchantsofthe United States dealing in those 

commodities. 

The honorable ex-Senator evidently believed a lie-he spoke the truth. 

All value is the creation of labor. "Labor," says Adam Smith, "meas- ures value with more certainty than gold or silver." The wheat and 

cotton of India (only another name for Indian labor), our great competitor, meets the wheat and cotton of the United States in the London 

market, the greatandonlyworld'smarket, for both countries. The value 

of a given quantity of each product expressed in gold is the same. India, 

with a legal sil>er standard worth confessedly 25 per cent. less than the 

true value of the product, measures the cost of her production in silver 

and compels her laborer to take payment in her silver coin. ·God forbid 

that the legi lation ofthis country shall ever drive the American laborer 

to compete with the labor oflndia on such terms, andyetwit4 the silver 

coinlikelndia with which to buy labor, whichlabormusthaveorst..1.rve, 

and which the Government has decreed labor must accept, not at its true 

value, but at its legal >alue (which is. 21 per cent. less than the true 

value), what can the laborer do? Tbeexcbangeswearetold will settle all 

this. Yes, with themerchant, butwhosettleswithlabor? .Any fluctuation in the cost of exchange is always at the cost of labor. .And how can labor know it is not cheated in the exchanges? The Government gives 

the law and the coin--a.ndadollarisa dollar, whether true, like the gold 

dollar, or deceitful "and clipped before it is coined," like the silver 

dollar. 

Again, the savings-banks, life-insurance and trust companies are the 

agents for the safety of deposits far in excess of tbe Government debt. 

They are the agents of the poor man who has not sufficient means to 

start business on his own account. These institutions are the depositories of the laborer for all earnings in excess of that required for food 

and clothing, and the deposits are loaned by these institutions in aggregated sums to the great enterprises in which labor finds employment. The mite which the laborer loaned, together with his neighbor's mite, has given speed to the wheels of industry, made agreaterdemand 

for his labor, and thus enabled his small capital to help the work of his 

hands. It is estimated that fully 50 per cent. of all the outstanding 

bonds are held as trust funds by corporations and individuals to secure the safety of deposits and trusts; the property of widows and orphans 

who sought a perfectly safe ratherthan a specnlativeinvestment. The 

wild speculation consequent upon the fluctuating character of our CUTrency and securities (other than the bonds of the Government) found 

culmination in 1873 when the crash came, and people of small meaus sought safety in the issues of the Government, relying upon its then 

promise to make them good as gold. The blow, therefore, aimed at the 

bloated bondholder strikes with tenfold force the head of the poor laborer and people of small means. · 

I have no sympathy with auy ambition which seeks for any object 

to array labor against capital. ..AJ3labor was before capital, and created 

capital, labor should be first considered; not forgetting, howeYer, that 

capital is the handmaid of labor, and, if wisely employed, its truest and 

best friend. The legislation, therefore, which serves labor most serves 

capital best. .An inflated or depreciated currency, for one is both, and 

both one, serves neither labor nor capital, and wherever used it is always at the expense of labor, labor being always the first to suffer. 

THE BONDS. 

The effect of the law of 1834 was the expulsion of silver from the 

country-an ~ulsion so complete that even the small change left us. In 1853 we were obliged to issue a silver fractional currency in a debased condition, but no attempt was ?riade to restore the standard silver 

dollar to circulation. It is, therefore, to be.kept distinctly in mind that 

in 1853 the actual use of silver as an unlimited tender with gold was decisively abandoned. . In short, a double standard was publicly admitted in the debates at that time to be hopeless. In 1853 it was decided-by Congress to abandon its use, and in 1873, without having a single dollar of silver, we enacted the demonetization of that metal. 

There was no silve1·, then why demonetize it; except upon the fuir as- sumption that having the power of option under the law to pay either 

in silver o1· gold coin we elected to pay in gold coin. In short, the practice since 1853 was made law in 187:{. · 

"Like the attempted inflation act of 1874, which was >etoed by President Grant, the remonetization of silver in 1878 furnished a new and 

cheap device for meeting ~xisting debts. If silver had not fallen so low 

in 1876, perhaps there. would haYe been no silver agitation nor legislation, no cheap unit in which to liquidate inuebtedness." 

The cheap unit, then, we have. We have also the bondholder, and 

he stands at the Treasury door, bond in hand. You point him to the 

contract and tender the silver coin. He asks, Why this in>idious distinction? Had my bond.m.atured yesterday, as did my neighbor's bond, 

I should have received gold, as he did. This bond to 1ne rep1·esents so 

much honest labor. Can the obligation be canceled by givillg in return 

less than I gave? Would this be right? A sovereign State may do as it pleases; but when that State is both lawgiver and debtor, right is 

always taken in the sense of legal, in the sense of equitable, in the sense of moral right, and must be construed on the side of honor and good 

faith; and is it not a base cheat upon a confiding creditor to pay him 

in a dishonest measure of an inferior metal for credit given upon the 

faith of the nation? I did not contemplate receiving silver. At the 

time the bond was issued or refunded you had no silver to pay me with. 

It had been the long unbroken practice of the Government to pay in 

gold, and when you demonetized silver in 1873 you absolutely persuaded 

me that coin meant gold. By this exercise of your option I was induced 

to pay a high price for a bond bearing a low burden of interest. But 

this is not all. By your direction or concurrence the fact was advertised 

in all the newspapers in the land, to all the people thereof, that the interest on the bonds was payable in gold (see copy of advertisement below), and the financial agents ofthe ·Government from then until now have so construed it and confirmed it in practice. Now that silver has 

become permanently infirm, to act otherwise is it not plain, palpable, 

aggrn va ting repudiation? Judged in the light of business integrity and 

sound judicious business policy, can the Government afford in this way 

to play fast and loose with its citizens? 

It was the misfortune and not the. fault of the Government that 

the bonds were sold for less than par or were ever issued· at all. If 

the bonds were sold for less than par in gold, it was exactly what the 
456 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- SENATE. JANUARY 6, 

financial world thought of them. The value they placed upon the 

bond was the measure of their confidence. They took their chances of 

defeat. "Gifted not with an insight or foresight which the ancients 

would have called divination, they could not in the midst of the darkness and obscurity that prevailed discern the logic of events nor fore-

~t the result." You may have a technical right to pay me in silver 

co~n! but would not an enforcement of that right be a violation of the 

sp1nt oft~e contract? Your obligation can not equitably ~nd honorably be discharged except you give me something in return of admitted equal value, not only in our market but in all markets. The value 

you stamp upon your silver coin is a 1:alue created by law; your law, the 

lawojthedebtor. It costs you but79.4 cents in good money and will buy 

but that amount of labor or the products of labor where good money is 

used. 

Again, the price of all our surplus products sent abroad is fixed by 

~ood money, and as this also fixes the price of all we consume, with 

like measure must we value the cost of labor and production. Therefore, notwitbst:'tnding the law, your silver coin, except for debts now 

outstanding, will buy only at its market value, and not at its legal or 

stamped value. 1\Ioreover, the act of March 18, 1869, known as the act 

to strengthen the public credit, provides in like terms for the exemption of the United States notes and the interest-bearing bonds. If payment of the bonds under the terms of the law is to be made in silver, 

then also are we concluded by the same terms as to the redemption (in 

silve~) of the United Statesnon-interest-bearingnotes, although express 

provision was made by the sale of bonds (for which we are taxed) to pay 

the notes in gold. 

I can now take your silver coin in exchange for my bond, 'which cost 

me pm· in gold, fully realizing, however, that it cost the Government 

twenty-one p er cent. less to redeem it tltfln it cost me to get it. The cheap unit 

has not been cheap to me, but cheap to the Government. 

Senators, this is not a sectional qu~stion; it is not Northern or 

Southern, Eastern or Western, but it is as broad as the Union and affects all sections alike. ' 

The simple question is this: Shall we pause and take our reckoning 

anew before forcing our financial bark farther into a sea from which it 

should. be our object to escape? Considering, as we must, the condition 

of monetary affairs in Europe, and especially the alarm which peryades the states of the Latin Union as judged by its late proceedings, 

It behooves us, whatever may be our views touching the respective 

merits of gold and silver as coin, that we now act with great deliberation. • The state of feeling in France (the principal state of the Latin Union) 

is best expressed by one of its distinguished citizens and bankers in a 

recent confidential letter to his agent in this country, from which I am 

permitted to make copy: 

Reference to my letters prior to1870 will prove that all the disasters I predicted 

for France are eithet· fulfilled or now sure to occur. Had we closed our mints 

and adopted the gold standard alone, as we were preparing to do when the war wi~h Germany br<?ke out-and which Germany anticipated and prevented by 

domg the same thmg herself-we should to-day bold the strong position your country will have if wise enough to stop the silvercoinageatonce. France will not consent to see gold disappear from her reserves and from circulation· and now that silver is so cheap, and our bank vaults full of silver coin we fear the 

problem is beyond solution, and that we have more silver than we'cnn keep hi circulation at the legal rate. It is not surprising.-therefore, that our financiers 

view with amazement the action of your Government in respect to silver. 

.Again: somewhat of alarm bas already begun to show itself in business circles, and capital even now is upwilling to make contracts for 

the future except upon payments in gold. By the following letter it 

will appear that this has been the policy for some months with some 

of the great loaning institutions, and I am further informed this policy 

has become .quite universal: · January 2, 1886. 

DEAB 1\IE. --: I know nothing of what others are doing in the re::\tter of 

loans. We ourselves, in the uncertainty as to what is to be the character and 

value of the currency, resolved some months since to make no loans unless subject to repayment, both as regards principal and interest, "in gold coin of the 

United States of the present standard of weight and fineness." .All our loans are made on this condition, and will be made on no other. 

T~yyours, 

J. G. RuLSFONE, 

Manager Liverpool, London and Globe Ins. Co. 

[Office of Jay Cooke, subscription ag~nt, at Jay Cooke & Co.'s, bankers, 114 South 

Thtrd street.] 

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. ] , 1862. 

The undersigned, having been appointed subscription agent by the Secretary of 

the Treasury, is now prepared to furnish, at once, the new twenty-year 6 per cent. bonds of the United States, designated as "Five-twenties," redeemable at the pleasure of the Government after five years, and authorized by act of Con- gress approved February 25, 1862. 

The coupon bonds are issued in sums of 550, 100,$500,$1,000. 

The registered bonds in sums of 550, SLOO, $500, S1,000 and $5,000. Interest at 6 per cent. per annum will commence from date of purchase and 

is payable in gold. ' 

J.A. Y COOKE & ~0 .. Ban!.:eTs. 

;[From .Army and Navy Gazette, New York, January, 1863.] 

United States five-twenties, or twenty-year 6 per cent. bonds, payable at the . option of the Government after five years. 

I am instructed by the Secretary of the Treasury to receive subscriptions for 

the above loan at par. Interest will commence from the date of subscription, 

and is payable in gold at the :Mint, or any subtreasury or depository of the United 

States, on the first days of Ma y and November of each year. At the present pre- mium on gold these bonds yield about 8 per cent. per annum. A full supply always on hand. JAY COOKE, 

Subscr-iption Agent, 114 South Third st1·eet. 

[Published in American Presbyterian, October 23, 1862.] 

United States five-twenties, or twenty-year 6 per cent. bonds, payable at the 

option of the Government after five years. 

I am instructed by the Secretary of the Treasury to receive subscriptions for 

the above loan at p ar, the interest to commence from date of deposit, and is pay- able i n gold, at the Mint, or any subtreasury or depository of the United States, on the fir t days of May and November of each year. At the present premium on golc:t, these bonds yield about 8 percent. per annum. A full supply of these bonds always on hand. JAY COOKE, 

Subscription Agent, Xo. 114 South Third street, Philadelp hia. 

[Published in Baltimore American, November 21, 1802.] 

United StateFf five-tw~nties , or twenty-year 6 per cent. bonds, payable at the 

optiOn of the Government aft.er five years. 

I am in tructed by the Secretary of the Treasury t-o receive subscriptions for 

the above loan at p ar, the intere t to commence from date of deposit, thus a voiding the difficulty heretofore experienced by requiring payment in gold of the 

interest from May last. A full supply of thee bonds always on hand. JAY COOKE, Subscription Agent, 114 South Third street. 

:Mr. ED~IUNDS. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 10. • Ir. BROWN. Will the Senator from Vermont excuse me· a moment until I simply make an announcement? I desire to give notice 

tlL.1.t at.2 o'clo_ck. to-mor~ow I shall ask l~ve to call up the pending 

resolution, as It IS my wiSh then to subnnt some remarks upon it. I 

do not wish in any respect to interfere· with my friend the Senator from 

Alabama [Mr. P UGH] who gave notice that be would ask to be heard 

at the termination of our deliberations on the. l\Iormon bill. I ask for 

a definite hour at 2 o' clock to-morrow. · 

Mr. ED "MUNDS. I feel bound to say on the part of the Committee 

on the Judiciary that we must insist now upon proceeding, if it be the 

pleasure of the Senate, with the Utah bill until it is disposed of, and 

then the deb:1te upon the silver question, so far as we are concerned for 

the time being, may be resumed. .At any rnte, I now move that the 

Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 10. 

1t1r. HOAR. I desire to make one remark in regard to the notice 

which has been g~ven and the observation made by the Senator f1·om 

Vermont. I wish to call the attention of the Senate to the very an omalous condition of its business. Here are three or four important bills, 

matured, reported from committees, considered by the Senate, and 

partly debated and ready to be dealt with. There are three such meas~ 

ures certainly-two bills from the Judiciary CommHtee. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Three. 

Mr. HOAR. Yes, the Presidenti::a.l election bill makes three. It 

seems to me it is a very singular method of conducting business in a 

legislative body to lay aside those measures day after day out of courtesy 

to individual Senators; that they may debate a matter which is not before the Senate at all--

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President--

111r. HOAR. .Allow me to finish my statement. This is not personal 

to the Senator from Georgia. I s~ould like to finish the sentence and 

then I will yield. I say in order that they may debate a matter which 

is still before the appropriate committee of the Senate, and in regard 

to which the committee has not either matured or reported a pending 

measure. I recognize the courtesy which the Senate always extends 

to a ·senator who desires to address the body in this way to lay aside 

the business for that purpose, but it does seem to me that that courtesy 

ought not to extend to permitting the silver question, which we have 

got to debate all over again when the committee make areportnpon it, 

to monopolize all the time of the Senate. I do not say this with reference to any particular Senator, because I am as eager to hear the views 

of the honorable Senator from Georgia, and have been as eager to hear 

the views of those who have spoken already, as any other Senator. 

Mr. BROWN. I simply desire to ask the Senator from Massachusetts if the three bills he mentions are not np now by the ·courtesy of 

the Senate. · 

1Yir. HOAR. No, they are on the Calender in regular order. 

:Mr. BROWN. .Are they called in regular order on the Calendar? I 

think not, with all due respect. 

Mr. HOAR. They have all been reached. 

Mr. BROWN. I thiilk, just as I gave notice I should w.islt to be heard 

to-morrow, that bytheconsentoftheSenatethose bills were taken up out 

of their order. .At least they were taken up by consent of the Senate. 

Mr. HOAR. The bill inregard to judges' salaries was reported and 

reached in its order on the Calendar, and it has been postponed three or four times for the purpose of having this debatA. I made the suggestion, 

not with the desire of curtailing anything that has been done or that is 

proposed to be done, but merely to express the hope that after we bad 

had some reasonable:debate on the silver question, which of course will 
1886. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 457 

nll be repeated a little later on in the session, business might be resumed. 

Mr. BROWN. I will state that what I have to say now will not be 

repeated again during the debate. 

The PRESIDENT p1·o tempore. Does the Senator from Vermont 

yield to the Senator from Georgia? 

1\fr. BROWN. I shall ask the Senate to-m~rrow at 2 o'clock to permit me to be heard. I do not know whether it will extend the cour- tesy or not. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. If the Senator from Vermont will 

yield the Chair will recognize the Senator from Georgia and then he can make his question of order~ • 1\Ir. BROWN. . I have stated all I desire to state. ' 

Mr. EDMUNDS. The Senator from Georgia has onlystated thatto- morrow at 2 o'clock he wishes to make a speech on the sil·ver question. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. As the Chair understands the case, 

in order that Senators may know the view taken by the Chair, the res- olution in regard to silver is now the unfinished business. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. It is now the business before the Senate, but the 

Senator from Vermont has moved, under the ·rules, that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 10, and if the Senate agree 

to that motion and adjourns pending it-!18 I hope it will not but will 

adjourn having it finished, either defeated · or passed-if it adjourns 

with the bill as the unfinished business, then at2 o'clock to-morrow, or earlier as the case may be, it will come up; and I think it right, out of 

kindly feeling to the Senator from Georgia, to say to him now, as he is an old Senator and this silver question is not avery new one itself, that 

I think it of more importance to the public interest that we should go 

on with the positive business of legislation reported from a committee 

than spend any more time just now in dissertations upon the silver 

question, however interesting they may be. 1\Iy motion is that we proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 10. 

POLYGAl\IY .AND AFFAIRS l:N UT.A.ll. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont mo\es 

that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 10. 

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the 

Whole, resumed the consideration of the bill (S. 10) to amend an act 

entitled ".An act to amend section 5352 of the Revised Statutes of the 

United States, in reference to bigamy, and for other purposes,'' approved 

l\Iarch 22, 1882, the pending question being on the amendment proposed 

by 1\Ir. HoAR, to strike•out section 7 in the following words: 

SEC. 7. That it shall not be lawful for any female to vote at any election hereafter held in the Territory of Utah for any public purpose whatever, and no such vote shall be receive.d or counted or given effect in any manner whatever; 

nnd any and every act of the governor and Legislative Assembly of tho Territory 

of Utah providing for or allowing the registration or voting by females is hereby 

annulled. 

Mr. HO.AR. I ask for the yeas and nays on the pending amendment. 

The yeas and nays -were ordered. 

Mr. BROWN. 1\Ir. President, I am opposed to female suffrage, and 

in my own State if the question were up I would vote against it; but I 

believe it is a question of local self-government which ought to be left 

to the voters of each State or Territory to determine for then1Selves. 

The people of Utah having determined this question for themselves and 

adopted female suffrage, I shall vote for the motion of the Senator from 

Massachusetts to strike out the seventh section, believing that the people have ordained it there. 

The PRESIDENT PJ'O tempore. The question is on the adoption of 

the amendment of the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. HoAR~ on 

which the yeas and nays have been ordered. 

The Secretary proceeded to call the roll. . Mr. ALLISON (when his name was called). I am paired with the 

Senatol' from North Carolina [:rtlr. RANSO!!l] on political questions. I reserve my ·vote for the present that I may see whether or not this is a 

political question. 

Mr. JACKSON (when his name was called). I am paired on'this 

bill with 'the Senator from New York [Mr. MILLER]. I should vote 11 nay'' if he were present and he would vote ''yea.'' 

Mr. JONES, of Arkansas (when his name was called). I am paired on all questions with the Senator from Rhode Island [~Ir. CHACE]. If 

he were present, I should vote "nay." . Mr. KENNA (when his name was called). I am paired on all questions with the Senator from Minnesota [Mr. SABIN]. I do not see him 

in his seat, and therefore I shall not vote. I would vote "nay" if at 

liberty to do so. 

Mr. MORGAN (when his name was called). I am paired with the 

Senator from Indiana [Mr. HARRISON]. If he were present, I should 

vote "nay." 

J\1r. PLUMB (when his name was called). I am paired generally 

with the Senator from Missouri [~Ir. VEST]. He does not appear to 

be in the Chamber, and I therefore withhold my vote. 

The roll-call was concluded. 

Mr. SEWELL. I am pairedwith my colleague (Mr. McPHERSON]. 

He is not present, and I withhold my vote. · 

Mr. BLAIR. My colleague [Mr. PIKE] who is absent is paired. I 

do not know that his pair has been announced. 

The result was announced-yeas 11, nays 38; as follows: 

YEA8-ll. 

Aldrich, Call, Hoar, 

Blair, Dawes, Mitchell of Oreg., 

Brown, Dolph, Palmer, 

NAY8--38. 

Allison, Eustis, Lo1fin, Beck, Evarts, Me 'llan·, Berry, Frye, :Mahone, 

Blackburn, George, Manderson, 

Camermi, Gibson, l\1axey, 

Cockrell, Gray, ~ Mitchell ofPa., 

Coke, Hampton, Morrill, 

Colquitt, llarri , Payne, 

Conger, Hawley, Platt, 

Edmonds, Ingalls, Pugh, 

ABSENT-27. 

Bowen, _ Jiale1 Butler, Harnson, 

Camden, Jackson, 

Chace, Jones of Arkan as, Cullom, Jones of Florida, 

Fair, Jones of Nevada, 

Gorman, Kenna, 

So the amendment was rejected. 

McPherson, 

Miller of Cal., 

Miller of N.Y., 

I\! organ, Pike, 

Plumb, 

Ransom, 

Stanford, 

Teller. 

Saulsbury, 

Sawyer, 

Sherman, 

Vance, 

VanWyck, 

Voorhees, 

Walthall, 

Wilson of Iowa. 

Riddleberger, 

Sabin, 

Sewell, 

Spooner, 

Vest, 

WilsonofMd. 

Mr. ED~1UNDS. I offer an amendment to come in after section 19 as section 20. I do not offer it on behalf of the committe because I have 

had no opportunity to call them together, although I think when it is 

read it will meet the approval of all the members of the committee after 

the explanation I shall make. 

The PRESIDENT pro temp01·e. The proposed amendment will be 

read. · ' 

The Chief Clerk read as follows: 

If any person related to another person within the fourth degree of consan· guinity, computed according to the rule of the c~villaw, shall mary, or cohabit 

with, or have sexual intercourse with such other so related person, knowing her or him to be within said degree of relationship, the person so offending shall be 

deemed guilty of incest, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by imprison· ment in the penitentiary not less than three years and not more than five years. 

Mr. ED:\-IUNDS. Mr. President, in ~ the study that the Committee on the Judiciary has given totheTerritorial enactments of Utah we failed to discover or think of, because it is such an unnatural crime,-

the fact whicn now turns out to exist, that the criminal code of Utah 

makes no provision against that crime; and I have been informed since 

this bill was reported, by one of the judges of Utah, that he had recently a case of an aggravated character of that kind before and found that 

there was no Territorial statute to punish it, and the culprit was only 

punished for a much lesser offense than was connected with that one. 

I hope, therefore, that the Senate will agree to insert this section, 

which is in conformity to the ordinary statutes of all the States. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on the amendment 

proposed by the Senator from Vermont. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

Mr. EDUUNDS. I think ou page 13,section 24,as a matter of pre· 

caution (although I believe the clear implication would be that now in respect to the matter of doubt), that after the paragraph a of section 

24 there should be added, after ''marriage,'' the words: 

Unle she shall have lawfully released her right thereto. 

That paragraph now rea{}s: 

A widow shall be endowed of the third part of all the lands whereof her hns· 

band was seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during the ma.rriag?• . 

That was taken, Yerbally I believe, from the laws of the State of 

New York, which are very much like the laws of all the other States; 

but in view of a phrase that exists later on, which I need not take time 

to refer to, the implication might arise that even if she had released 

her dower by joining in a conveyance, still the statute said positively 

that she should have it nevertheless; andin ordertoguard against any 

possible question about it, I move to add the words I have named. 1 

The PHE,...IDENT pro tempo're. The amendment will be read at the 

desk • The CHIEF CLERK. In section 24, after the word ''marriage,'' at the 

end of line 3, it is proposed to add 

Unless she shall have lawfully released her right thereto. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. 1\Ir. President--

Mr. HOAR. Before the Senator from Vermont passes from the last 

amendment--

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The amendment has been agreed to.' 

1\Ir. HOAR. IinquiredoftheSenatorprivatelywhether he wasquite 1 

certain that the words "within the degree" included the degree or did not. It strikes me it would be safer to add to the words "within 

the degree'' .the words ''and not including,'' so as to read'' within and 

not including," so that there shall be no doubt on that subject. I suppose the Senator does not wish to punish the marriage of first cousins. 

1\Ir. EDMUNDS. I do not. 

1\Ir. HOAR. Then we had better put in the words ''not including.' 1 

l\1r. EDMUNDS. In the new section I will ask unanimous consent, 

if there is any doubt about it, after the word "within" to insert the 
458 . CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 6, 

words ''and not including,'' so as to leave first cousins untouched as I 

believe to be the clear meaning now. ' 

1\fr. COCKRELL. Let the section as amended be read·. 

1\.Ir. EDMUNDS. Let the Secretary read it as it would be bV putting in the wordB ''and not including.'' · · · 

The Chief Clerk read as follows: 

If any person related to anothe'r per on within and .not including the fourth degree of consanguinity, computed according to the rules of the civil law, shall marry, &c. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection to the modification 

of the amendment? If there is no objection it will be considered as so modified. 

1\fr. EDMUNDS. Recurring now, 1\Ir. President, to paraaraph a of 

section 24, where the amendment was just agreed to, as it sta~ds in the 

print, and which was, of course, right as it stood before, there is a period 

after the word ''marriage.'' That period should be stricken out so as to leave no interruption in the sentence. ' 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. That change will be made unless 

tbere be objection. . . 

Mr. VAN WYCK. I move to stJ:ike out all of section 18, on paae 10 

and to insert in lieu thereof: . o · ' 

The board of five persons created by section 9 of the act of 1882 is hereby abol- ished, and all the duties to be performed by the said board shall be performed 

by a board of three officers of the A.rmy of the United States to be detailed for that purpose by the President, a majority of whom shall be a quorum. 

:Mr. President, the existence of tbe so-called Utah Commission created 

by the act of 1882 has already been extended many years beyond the 

time proposed by the law when they were created. By the act itself 

they were to discharge the ordina,y duties of r~gistration and election 

officers, and nothing more. Three thousand dollars per annum were 

appropriated for that service to each commissioner; but President Arthur suggested to Congress that it would be impo sible to obtain the 

grade of intellect that he desired for the place unless the salary should 

be made $5,000, which Congress proceeded at once to do, supposing that 

the time would soon arrive when the act itself provided there should 

be an end of the commission. That act struck down all the election 

and registration officers in the Territory-abolished them, not the offices 

but the officers-and declared that when the Legislature had provided 

for the election of the officers who were abolished by the act of Congress, then the commission should die. That was to be the end of it. 

Its members were put there to fill up the gap between the abolishment 

of the officers of registration and the election officers then existina and 

the vacancy to be filled by the Legislature. It so happened th;t the 

Legislature passed an act providing for such officers, which I think the 

governor vetoed, and therefore the officers were not provided for, and 

the com~on continuedanotheryear.and still another year. In the 

Forty-seventh Congress I proposed the same amendment, but it was claimed then that they should be continued still a little longer. 

Now, the difficulty rjght here with section 18 of this bill is that it 

makes this a perpetual commission; substantially, practically, there is 

no end to it. Mark: That the provisions of section 9 of said act approved 111arch 22 1882, in re~mrd 

to registrati~n and election officers, and the registra-tion of vote;s, and the ~n­ duct of elections, and the powers and duties of the board therein mentionedWhich is this commissionshall continue and remain operative until the provision and laws therein re- ferr~d to to be made and enacted by the Legislative Assembly of said Terrritory of Utah shall have been made and enacted by said assembly and shall have been appro'\"ed by Congress. 

It is nearly four years since we commenced this revolution-no, not 

revolution, this reform; this seeking to do what the American people 

desired in Utah. Four years ago this commission was supposed to be 

necessary, not to exist more than one year, and still it has been running 

four years. One section in this bill provides that it shall continue till 

the legi.sla.tion of the Territory on th~ subject of registration and election 

officers shall be approved by Congress; and the bill has many sections 

declaring past legislation by the Territorial Legislature is not approved 

by Congress. Now, why provide that this commission shall continue 

until two irreconcileable forces agree? That is all there is about it. 

We have been four years acting under this Ia.w of 1882, and the Mor- mon power is untouched practically. You have a Mormon Legislature as much as you had before the law was passed. Yon have a Mormon 

Delegate sitting boldly in the other wing of this building. This is the 

result of four years' experience, and now you put a clause in this bill 

which provides for the perpetuity of the commission. The Senator 

from Vermont, long-lived as the people are np in that healthy country, 

will probably not live long enough to see the end of this commission 

under this bill. He says: 

Slu\11 continue and remain operative until the provision and laws therein re- ferred to be made and enacted by the legislative assembly of the said Territory of Utah, shall have been made and enacted by said assembly, and shall have 

been approved by Congress. · 

They have already existed four years. I do not know that the Senator will seriously insist that this expensive commission shall continue, 

because it is an expensive commission. They have been, as I stated 

before, only discharging the duties of registmtion and election officers; 

that is all they are required to do; that they have done. All they do now is to report from time to time what the other branch of the Government is doing; what the courts and the Territorial officers in that 

Territory are doing; there is nothing more. The duty which they were first called upon to discharge in Utah did not·reqhire even among the 

1\formons a high grade of intellect, I take it-the duty of registration 

and election officers. 

Now, if it is necessary to continue this duty, provide a board of registration such as Utah has and provide that it sh~l be created out of 

the Gentile population. There is nothing further necessary. Or would 

it not be as well to take a board of Army officers of three men? We 

have plenty of them on the retired-list, capable, strong, intelligent men, 

:fit to discharge this duty; and why'COntinne this expensive commission 

and then provide in. the bill that it shall never end, but shall be perpetual, because this continues the commission until an exigency which can never happen? I ask the Senator from Vermont if there is any 

more po ibility of that happening than there was four years ago when 

the commission was created? 

He may speak of the effect of the very strange provisions which creep 

into this bill at this time, legislative provisions and principles that un- der ordinary circumstances would belo6ked upon as an outrage in any 

civilized country. This commission was created for this work at $5,000 

per year for each member at the suggestion of the then President 

of the United States, and Senators will remember that a year ago we had occasion to take exception to the enormous expenses created by this 

commjssion, not only the $5,000 per year for each member but a large 

number of items. When these gentlemen went out there, their hotel 

and sleeping-car and porter's expenses were paid. When they reached 

Salt Lake, the :field of their duty, their home for the time being, their 

board bills were charged against the Government, their laundry bills 

were charged against the Government; and when they visited Washington in the di charge of their duty, as they said, their hotel and sleepingcar bills and porter's tips were charged; and when they came here to . the capital, their lunch hills and all others were charged against the 

Treasury of the United States. It was to be reasonably suppo ed that 

to a certain extent at least this part of the thing would have been discontinued, but it seems not. This commission, like all others, proposes 

to live forever. It is very seldom that they unloose their grasp on the 

Treasury. When such a system has been inaugurated it continues to 

fasten itself, as commissions always do, by the aggregation of these extraordinary expenses. I ~rtainly wish to have it stopped; but if it can not be discontinued, at least let it be economically administered. 

These gentlemen still go to Utah, and I see in last April they made a trip to Washington. For what? To make a report. Weneverheard 

before in the history of Utah that the Territorial registration and election officers visited Washington to make a report; .but these gentlemen, 

who could not be procured to discharge the duties of registration and 

election officers except on a salaryof $5,000 a year, necessarily had to 

visit Washington every year to make out a report. Then they come and include all expenses by the way; even tips to the porters of sleeping-cars &re charged up against the Treasury of the United States. I 

ask our brethren on the other side, now marching under the banner of 

reform, to pause awhile and look at these abuses, which I venture to 

say began under a Republican administration. That is the attitude of 

this oountry to-day. 

I think we have a right to ask why this commission has charued 

against the Treasury $45,000 or $50,000 per annum, never to stop 0acco:dffi.g to this sectio~, but t? be perpetual, because it is not to stop, 

this bill tells us, until there lS a complete union between the Ameri- can Congress and the 1\Iormon Legislature of Utah, between church 

and•state, and that kind of a church ! · · 

yve all desire to attain the same end; we have been wrestling with 

this problem for many years, and it would seem that the administration, be it Republican or Democratic, and the .A.merican Congress ought 

to be able to solve this question; but it apparently is no nearer solution than it w.as four ye..1.rs ago-at least not the political part of it; 

the part that 1s dangerous. I speak not of party politics, but the great 

q\lestion underlying this matter runs into politics and statesmanship in 

Utah of course. It is a great question. It is true some men have been 

incarcerated under your illw. Some lawful wives maybe incarcerated 

under the bill which we are to pass to-day; for if the only lawful and 

first wife of a husband in Utah does not feel it her duty from her standpoint to go into court in obedience to a subpama and testify against her 

husband, she may be compelled under the pains and penalties here provided to give testimony against her lord and husband. 

You may incarcerate a few lawful wives in Utah, as we have done 

under this law during thelast fouryearswith the males. That will be 

the only change. Your 1\Iormon power is not broken. It has not been 

broken by the pains and penalties of the last law and its :fierce administration, and you admit it by introducing this bill. That law which 

·with that expensive commission which we expected to achieve such 

great results, has accomplished nothing. You say so by this bill subst;antially. Reinforced it must be by greater power, denying to children 

who previously yon provided should be heirs to property, the right to 

inherit from their fathers! But the Mormon will circumvent your laws 

in making his will and disposing of his property as he choo es; and then 

yon will ask to go further than yon have gone before and sa.y the lawful wife shall be compelled to be a witness aga.inst the husband. 
1886. CONGRESSIONAL RECO~D-SENATE. 459 

Of course I need not tell my friend from Vermont that the people of 

this country desire this institution to be blotted out. There is no 

doubt about that; I merely call his attention to this to show how far 

you have progressed during four years, and to show that there can be 

no necessity for continuing this commission, whose duties can be as well 

and as ably discharged by another body of men and save all this ·expense to the Government. 

Now, still stranger, this commission, which has been in existence 

nearly four years, during the last two years, according to their last report, employed some six clerks, who were on their pay-roll. That is 

more than a Senator is allowed. 

·111r. COCKRELL. How many? 

Mr. VAN WYCK. Some six clerks, I think, are shown in their last 

repod to have been in their employ in June or July. 

Air. COCKRELL. Have you a statement of their force and the expense of it per month, &c.? 

Mr. VAN WYCK. I have a portion of it, as much as could be gathered from the general figures given. Some portion of it is here. From 

June 13--

Mr. COCKRELL. I think it is due to the Senate, if the Senator has 

that information, that he should communicate it to the Sena.te and let 

us all know it. 

Mr. VANWYCK. Thatispreciselywhati was trying to do. I was 

trying to give it to the Senate. I was stating the expense of this commission, which has evidently outlived its usefulness, and yet in its decrepitude and age the Senator from Vermont insists upon fastening it 

upon the groundofpension, I presume. I insist that to put it on full 

pay and then make it what evidently must be a life appointment is 

cerW nly asking a good deal at this time. I said to my friend that there 

are, I think, six clerks in the employ of the commission in Utah: 

Mr. COCKRELL. Let us know who they are, and what their sabries are, and all about it. 

l\I r. VAN WYCK. I can only tell my friend what I think. I do 

not know that it is important to know who they are; but I take it for 

granted that they are not Mormons. 

Mr. COCKRELL. Let us know them. 

1\lr. VOORHEES. I challenge the statement, and ask for a verification of it. I deny-that such is the case. Now, let us see what the 

proof is. 

Mr. V .AN WYCK. In this report, and I think it-is the last report, 

from June 13 to June 30, 18 5, I find: 

A. G. Paddock, clerk to commission, $100; E. M. Eynon, clerk, $100; C. C. 

Carlton, clerk:, ~00. 

That makes three. Then comes A. B. Carlton, member; J. R. Pet.. 

tigrcw, member; A. S. Paddock, member. 

lllr. VOORHEES. That is three clerks. That makes the statement 

one-half good. 

Mr. VAN WYCK. Then come the expenses on account of the commission: Ramsey, member; Carlton, member; Godfrey, memper. Then comes telephone rent, $30. ' 

Ir. VOORHEES. If the Senator will allow meMr. VAN WYCK. One moment. Here is another: Laurence 1tf. 

Paddock, janitor. That makes four. Henry Page, clerk, makes five. 

George ThackTah, clerk, makes six. Then Arthur S. Thomas, salary 

as secretary of the commi sion, seven. Then Walter F. Davis, as 

clerk, $600, which make3 eight. 

Mr. VOORHEES. Although the Senator bas counted ajauitor two 

or three times as a clerk--

Mr. VANWYCK. No; only once. 

.1\Ir. VOORHEES. Still allow me to say that there are periods of 

~ime, which do not last long, when there is a great deal of clerical work 

to be done by the commission. When I challenged the statement I 

knew what would come, and I desired it to come. Those are not clerkships running through theentiretime; theyaretemporarymerely. The 

date the Senator gave, from the 13th of June to the 30th of June, shows 

that it is a mere temporary appointment when they are making up their 

register for registration. I do not want to speak in the Senator's time; 

but I think I know the history of the commission pretty well, and I 

think I 1..-now some rea-sons why the Senator attacks them. 

~Ir. V .AN WYCK. Probably before the Senator sits down he had 

better unburden himself at the outset. I certainly do not object to the 

Senator's speaking in my time. I am very happy to hear him. 

Mr. VOORHEES. No; I object to it myself. Goonandmakeyour 

talk; I will find a time. · 

l\Ir. VANWYCK. The Senator says that this employment is merely 

exceptional; that when they need six or seven clerks and a janitor it is 

merely when they are required to do something in regard to registration. 

Let me call my friend's attention to the fact that in the same year, from 

January 1 to .April 30J four months before the bill from which I read, I 

find, Paddock, Page, and-Bynon, $400 each, as clerk. That is no tan exception. Then the next report, as I stated, taking the dates up where 

they were, the names are given and the amounts paid them are enumerated. 

I think I am justified in saying that this is an extravagant commissio-n. I know I ought to make an apology for treading upon this dangerous ground. That has been encountered before in this body, and I 

am aware of the natural and proper sensitiveness of Senators even toward 

a member of a commission who has been somewhat extravagant in his 

transactions with the-Government. It is all very well to attack your 

neighbors and friends; there is no objection to that; but when a friend 

happens to be upon a commission and a suggestion is made, even in 

gentle terms, as to his extravagance, theh necessarily and naturally it 

raises a protest, because it happens to_be the friend, I suppo:se, of a Senator who is menti.J)ned. 

I did not desire to refer to these names. The Senator's associate on 

the other side was in earnest and required proof and evidently desired it. Still the fact remains that this extravagant commission, to 

call it by no harsher name, is to becontinued in existence; and we ask 

properly that the Treasury and the people shall be relieved from this 

.expenditure and insist that the bill should not provide as it does for 

the continuance of the commission as it seems to me in perpetuity nearly, 

practically amounting to a life appointment. If there be duties required in regard to registration and election, and if the Territoral officers are not competent to discharge those duties, certainly the Pre ident 

can obtain from the Army men who are competent to perform them. 

I only rose to make these suggestions at this time in the interests of 

economy, not to weaken the force of the act of 1882 or to weaken the 

administration of the bill of 1886. · The sections of the law of 1832 aro 

enforced by the Territorial officers of the Territory. The sections of the 

bill which were now passing will be enforced by the Territorial officers. 

There is no new duty created for this· board, and yet it is carefully provided that they shall be installed and continued in power until the 

event happens which is mentioned in the bill. 

Mr. President, I trust I have said nothing unkind to anybody or to 

any body's friends. I certainly did not intend to do so. I merely stated 

the fact as I have a right, I think, to do, and I think the people l1axe n. 

right to ask the .American Senate when this matter of the Utah dilliculties is to continue from year to year that we shall ta.ke some advantage from the experience of the past and at least be admonished uy 

it. I will a.gree tp all that the bill undertakes to do if it is possible that 

these extra, unnecessary expenses to the Trel¥'ury of the United States 

may be relieved. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempm·e. The question is on the adoption of 

the amendment ofthe Senator from Nebraska [Mr. VANWYcK]. 

The amendment was rejected. 

Ur. EDMUJ\TDS. I am indebted to my friend from Oregon who sits 

farthest from me for a suggestion of technical impro-.ement in section 

4, line 18, where it now reads that such certificate of marriage shall be 

prima facie evidence, &c. It having been already provided that the marriage shall be recorded the bill omits to provide that the record or n. 

certified copy of the record may also be received in evidence. On his 

suggestion I gladly propose to amend by inserting in line 18, after the 

word ''certificate, 7 ' the words ''or the record thereof or a duly certi fi.ed 

copy of such record," so as to read: 

Such certificate, or the record thereof, or a duly certified copy of such record, 

shall be prima facie evidence of the facts required by this act to be st.a ted therein, 

&c. 

The PRESIDEN"T pro tempore. The question is on agreeing to the 

amendment. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

Mr. MORGAN. I desire to call the attention of the chairman of the 

Judiciary Committee to section 12 ·or the bill. I ain not sure that I 

understand it. I will si:.o'\te what my understanding of it is, and I 

should be glad to be corrected in it if I am wrong . 

Section 12 provides for the annulling by this act of certain acts of 

the Territorial Legislature or of some legislative tribunal of the Territory of Utah "so fur as the same may preclude the appointment by the 

United States of certain trustees of said corporation as is hereinafter 

provided.'' That is as far as the annulling feature of the section goes, 

as I underst..'\nd it. It leaves the act thus amended in full force except 

as to the part amended. 

As I understand it, the act which is thus amended in part and left 

in operation a-s to the remainder of it, ·was an act of the Territorial constitutional convention, as it was called, of the State of Deseret, which 

organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and went 

on to make a very fnll declaration of the powers that should be exercised by that corporation, reaching into domestic affairs, church relations, and church conduct, and also, as I believe, as I remember at least 

from a cursory reading of that provision, the conduct of the members 

of that Chuich of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as it is called. The 

bill provides that after thi,s amendment and after this virtual re-enactment of all that is contained in that original enactmentThe President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the 

Senate, shallappointfourteen trustees of the said corporation, who shall ha>e and 

exercise .all the powers and functions of trustees and assistant trustees provided 

for in the laws creating, amending, or continuing the said corporation, which trustees so appointed shall hold their respective offices for the term of two years; and the trustees of said corporation shall annually or oftener make a full report to the Secretary of the Int-erior embracing all the property, bnsiness affairs, and 

operations of the said corporation; and the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah shall not have power to change the laws respecting said corpora- tion without the approval of Congress. 
460 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- SENATE. JANUARY 6, 

As I understand the bill, we take up that act of incorporation, ·we amend it by simply substituting new trustees, who are to be appointed 

by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 

who are to be of the number of fourteen and hold their offices for· two 

years, and a1·e to execute the duties imposed by that law upon the 

board of trustees in whose places they are substituted. 

I should like to know of the committee whether it is the purpose of 

the bill to place the Government of the United States in charge of and 

put it to running the Church of the Latter-day-Saints. I do not know 

why this corporation is kept in existence at all. If it is a corporation 

whose purposes are evil, if it was ordained in the first instance for the 

purpose of establishing, promulgating, and perpetuating polygamy or any other crime, it can hardly be called a religion;:; establishment within 

the meaning of the Constitution of the United States, which forbids 

Congress to make any law touching an establishment of religion. It 

was a criminal conspiracy and combination to enforce upon a commu- nity a gre.o'tt moral offense, an offense that stinks in the nostrils of all 

Christ-endom, and which violates the essence and the fundamental organization of those societies which compose Christian and enlightened 

communities. 

But it seems that this act of incorporation, which was intended to 

give a legal frame to this church, was intended to embody in the law 

something even more than the mere power of acting as a corporation, 

which was intended for the perpetuity of polygamy, ann which I think 

in the very measures provided for in the language granting powers to 

this incorporation, does provide for the perpetuity of polygamy. That we shall take that up and substitute trustees, and that we shall validate the enactment which this act is intended really to put out of 

force, and to destroy, and that we shall conduct the Church of the Latter 

Day Saints of Jesus Christ by fourteen commissioners, to be appointed 

by the Pre..<::ident and confirmed by the Senate, is omething that I do not 

wish to do if that is the meaning of this section. What else it may be 

I do not understand. My idea about it is that in striking at that cor- por:::.<tion we ought to cut it up by the roots and appoint receivers fur 

its assets, disband it as a legal institution; and if it is to M allowed to 

remain there let it rest for its support entirely upon the public or the 

private sentiment of that community, and not upon any law that Congress either enacts or amends or enforces or executes in any way. As 

I understand this-perhaps I do not understand it correctly-that is 

the effect if not the purpose of the twelfth section. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I am glad the Senator f.rom Alabama has called 

attention to this topic, because I confess that I felt upon the su~ject 

exactly as he has now expressed himself, and as I think the other gen: 

tlemenofthe committee did last year or the year before, when we first 

took the matter in hand in regard to it. We had a tenderness of feE: ling 

and of opinion in regard to undertaking to interfere by legislation with 

any kind of a church organization, so fur as that church organization 

confined itself to beliefs and opinions and worship; that its members· might believe what they liked and worship in their own way so long as it was only worship. We, therefore, were reluctant to abolish this corporation, which, I confess, I felt a strong temptation to ask the committee to do. 

But this corporation, when youlookatits act of organization, would seem to be a corporation for two purposes. I do not doubt that the sec- ond purpose was one intended to promote the political hierarchy that 

stands at the head of the church organization; but that is promoted by 

human means and business ends of property and management and so on separate from worshipandfaith, whatever that faith may be. Irepeat that I felt reluctant to abolish so much of this corporation as related 

purely to the Mormon faith, because however much we may dislike it 

and believe it to be an utter delusion, and with many a sham and a pretense as a cover for crime, yet it would set a legislative precedent for interfering with opinion and with faith. 

We therefore took the narrower ground of attempting to steer cle.'lr 

of that and to get hold of the other part of the corporation which is 

provided for in the original second section of the act of what they call 

the State of Deseret when it was first passed, their constitutional convention really, I suppose, and to deal with that part of it which related to 

property and assets and business and politics, and not with the ordinary 

church organization. 

The first section of that Territorial or quasi-State act, which was afterwards affirmed by t.he Territorial Legislature of Utah, made the simple 

provision for the organization of this incorporation, of this church, by the 

namedescribed, in the ordinary way asachurch society. Then the second section provided "thatthesaidchurch," notthelawbutthechurch, 

that religious society, was authorized at a general or special conference 

to elect one trustee in trust, who is the head man in the whole of that 

organization. I am not now speaking of it merely as an organization 

of religion but as an organization of business affairs and politics aud 

everything that touches every man in that connection, "and nQt to exceed twelve assistant trustees to receive, hold, buy, sell, manage, use, 

and control the real and personal property of said church, which said 

property shall. be free from taxation." 

Then it provides for their meeting, &c. This trustee part of it, which we deal with, is a purely business, worldly affair, intended, of course, 

as it would be in an ordinary case, so far aS the mere worship of the 

church went, to keep up the church buildings and so on; but also intended, with unive:r:sal powers, to operate without limit on all real and 

personal estate. Then it goes on to provide for their accounting. It 

does not limit them to anything at all. They are to purchase, own, 

control, and manage real and personal property, &c.; and then it goes on to provide in the third section in respect of the church establishment 

again. 

The second section disposes of the business part of the affair, the 

trustee business. Then it goes on to provide for the church control, 

which comes up again under a similar head, which I need not go through 

with, when you come to it, and among other things making it valid 

by law that they were to regulate marria.ges. If that existed now, of course we could say that no church organization of any faith or kind 

would have a right to regulate marriages as it respected the laws of 

society, but in 1863, ifl am not mistaken in the year-about that timewhen Congr~ passed the act punishing polygamy, the old original act, 

that part of this s~me charter, if it may be called that, authorizing the 

church to regulate marriages was repealed and abolished, so that that 

power was gone. 

The consequence was that we thought it better at this time, at any 

rate, instead of abolishing the whole corporation, as we have a clear 

legal right to do, to take it into the control of the United States so far 

as these large powers of property and management and control of things as distingui bed fro·ill their articles of doctrine and worship are concerned, and the point was to endeavor to separate in this way, without abolishin~ the corporation, the church and the state, and to leave the 

church with its doctrines ancl its faiths, whatever they may be, because 

there is a great division among the Mormons, a growing one, I am happy 

to say, upon the subject of their faith aboutpolygamy; and all the rest 

of their faith is not very different f.rom that of all Christian people as it is put forth in their book of doctrine and co .. ~enants that I have here, 

their established book. We thought it best to leave that, however 

much we might di agree 'vith it., entirely to their own regulation still, 

but to take the temporal part of it into the supervision and the inspection and examination of the political power of the country, thus en- deavoringtoseparatematterathatwerepurelytho eoffaithand worship 

of that church from matters that were purely temporal and business 

management. That was our idea •. 

Mr. MORGAN . . I wish to inquire of the Senator from Vermont 

whether the ordinance from which he re.'l.ds'COntains any provisions con- fining the duties and powers of the trustees? 

Mr. EDMUNDS. The. trustees, as I read, are to hold, own, sell, 

buy, convey, and manage all the real and personal property of the concern. Mr. INGALLS. Is there any estimate of the amount of real and personal property ? 

l\Ir. ED~IUNDS. It would be purely guess-work. It is supposed to 

be enormous.. The Yery same statute of 1863, if I am right in the date, 

as I may not be, provides that no society of this kind shall hold, own, 

possess, or acquire any property beyond, I believe, $50,,000. 

l\lr. TELLER. What statute is that? 

Mr. EDMUNDS. That is the statute of 1863, the same statute which 

took it out of the range of politics. 

Mr. TELLER. I should like to inqnu·e of the Senator from Vermont 

whether he has any information to the effect that the Mormon Church 

has at this time any property save and except its temples and that class 

of buildings. 

l\Ir. ED.M:UNDS. l\Iy information is that under the cover and control of these trustees, whose books and records nobody can see, they 

have vastly more; and there is a provision in the bill which provides 

for cutting up all that which is acquired in violation of law, saving all 

private rights. 

l\1r. TELLER. I do not know but that the Senator may be rightly 

informed; but I have been advised on what I regard as very good au- thority that this organization controls practically now nothing except some small matters ~de from it§; church property. I should like to 

inquire also of the enator from Vermont if he believes that fourteen 

trustees appointed by the United States to carry on this work will con- fine themselves to the temporal duties of this organjzlttion, if it is not 

in the nature of things, when you consider how these trustees must be 

selected, the great excitement that is ;lil the time attendant on this 

question in that community, that they will go directly into the question of the religious affairs of this institution? And as was suggested 

by the Senator from Alabama, is it not actually making the United 

States an active co-operator in this church movement? If not, then 

they are to at once disestablish it and destroy it. 

I may not be conect as to the amount of property they have in hand, 

but I know something about these Uormons. They are as shrewd and 

enterprising as any people in this country. They have had ample notice 

of this proposed legislation. It passed the Senate last winter, if I recollect. It is not very probable to my mind that there is any considerable 

amount of money or property of any kind to be taken by these trustees, save and except that which every church organization has and has a right to have, and which the Senator says it is not proposed to interfere 
1886. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 461 

with; that is, their church property. They have in the city ofSalt Lak~ 

a very large building called a temple. I have not been there for some years, but they had when I was there, in addition to that, a very large 

building called a tabernade. The temple is a very massive struc~re. 

I should say that probably it had cost a million and a half or two million of dollars. It has a block of ground in connection with it of great 

value. The tabernacle is themost unique structure ofthe kind in the 

world. There is nothing like it in the world. It is a remarkable building from an architectural point of view. It has also land surrounding 

it. The surrounding land may not be absolutely necessary now to these 

buildings to carry on what we should call the religious workings of the 

organization. The trustees may seize on that land and say that is not 

church property proper, even if they attempt to carry out this act in 

the spirit suggested by the Senator. 

My own judgment is that it would be a great deal better to dissolve 

this corporation, that it would save a great deal of friction and a great 

deal of trouble in that community to take it out by the roots and say 

that there should be no such corporation whatever. The property would 

revert, of course, if we destroy the corporation, by the ordinary laws of 

corporations to the people who firnt put it in. there. It would go to the 

people who gave it; the people who took this country when it was a 

desert and made it bloss_pm like a rose; the people who have built this 

out of their hard earnings, and who are as much entitled to it in a re- ligious point of view as the people who have built any ca,thedral or any 

church on the continent are entitled to it. · I do not believe in polygamy: I voted for the original law; I voted 

fur the law that, in my judgment, is destined ultimately to destroy 

polygamy in Utah. I will not vote for this bill. I will not vote for 

this bill, because I think it is a step ba-ckward, and it is a step to undo 

that which we did in 1882 by the law then passed. I have had some know ledge of these people. I have had some know lerlge of the persecutions they. have endured at the hands of Government officials, and I 

say here, as I have said again and again, with afull knowledge of how 

unpopular it might be to say it, that if the Government officials had 

been sent there, who would have faithfully administered the old law, 

existing for twenty years, polygamy would now be as dead as any other 

wicked institution that has departed with the light of civilization. But 

we sent men there who aggravated and irritated and who abused. I was at Salt Lake in times when there were practically no Gentiles there. 

I was there when among the whole eighty thousand people of Utah there were not two hundred Gentiles. 

Polygamy was rampant; that is to say, there were large numbers of 

practical polygamists without any interference of the law. There was 

a. sentiment underlying that community that made itself heard in every 

hamlet and every village as opposed to that system. You could hear it 

discussed on the street corners, in the hotels, in the restaurants, and in 

every place. Men who were Mormons and who adhered to the faith 

of Joseph declared that polygamy was nota part and parcel of the Mornionreligion. By our persecution we drove. that class ofpeopletosilence. 

W..e silenced them as you will always silence the voice of a considerable 

minority when persecution and outrages are resorted to to accomplish even what may be a good end. 

Mr. President, I know that no man st..'l.nds upon this floor and defends 

that peoplewithout beingslanderedand traduced throughout this land. 

I know that the bigotry and the hatred that grows out of religious en- thusiam and zeal can never see beyond the very question tha~ is presented, that polygamy is a crime. It is a crime against civilization as 

we view it, and yet more than three-fourths of the world to-day are in 

favor of and praetice this institution of polygamy. Great Britain, with 

all her civilization, with all her religious fervor and zeal, ha.S never put 

her hand on her two hundred and fifty millions of Indian subjects as 

we have put our hands upon these Mormons. I am in favor of putting 

the strong hand of the law upon them and compelling obedience to the 

law, but I am for doing it under the color and under the forms of law, 

and not in such a manner as shall make every honest man in that Territory feel that the Government is going beyond ita legitimate powers 

and its legitimate sphere in persecution. 

1\Ir. President, I am not a churchman myself in the extreme sense 

of the term. There are other organizations in this land that teachJ>ernicious doctrines and pernicious. principles. Shall I say that it is the 

duty of the General Government to seize them with the strong hand 

and compel obedienceto what we may here think is proper? In so far as they violate the law they come within the province and the power of 

the General Government; but in so far as they maintain a strict compliance with the law they are entitled to the same protection and the 

same treatment as any other religious orgallUation in the land, and so 

far as I am concerned they shall have it always by my vote. 

Mr. President, thesepeoplearenotwit}:10utvirtues. They are an honest, painstaking, hard-working, i:fidustrious people. I went t-o their capital city when there were 15,000 people there and to their credit be it said 

not a place in it where whisky could be sold, not a grog-shop in the 

length or breadth of the land, not a house of prostitution, not a gambling place in the whole Territory with 80,000 people. They may not 

possess all the virtues; but they do have the vice which we are endeavoring to emdicate from their midst. It _can not be done by these harsh 

and strained measures. I believe if the act of 1882 had been carried out ·in the spirit with which it came from the committee and in the spirit 

with which I voted for it, polygamy would have been pra-ctically dead 

to-day. WesaidinitthePresident may grant amnesty to the men who 

have heretofore committed the crime of having more than one wile. It 

has not been done. The nien who took wives to their bosoms under 

what they professed at least to believe to be a legal right and a religious 

right thirty-five and forty years ago, were required to put them from 

them. 

· Take for instance the cases that I could mention of individual men 

who have raised four or five families, who have educated them in Europe and have given them all the advantages of travel and culture, and youcauno~ expect that those men will bastardize their children without a struggle; you cannot expect that the president of that church who 

married his wives more than a generation ago will put them f~om him ·aud declare that they are prostitutes. Yououghtto have some respect 

for the prejudices, for the feelings, and for the religious bigotry of these 

people. '.fheyare ready to suffer martyrdom as others have sufferedit 

in the cause of error, in the cause of untruth, and in the C!luse of crime. 

If you expect to approach that people and save them, you must do it by 

the proper and legitimate exercise of authority strong, yet soft. While 

the heavy band of the law should be put upon them, it should be with a velvety touch. It should be put upon them in kindness, not in 

anger. . This bill, in my judgment, bristles everywhere with vengeance and 

blood. I am as anxious to clear the country from the crime at which 

it professes to aim as anybody, and I shall vote for all proper andrespectable and constitutional measures for that purpose. But, Mr. Pres· 

ident, in my judgment it is quite as creditable that polygamy should · exist untouched within our borders as that we should go beyond the 

constitutional powers of the Government and establish a precedent here 

that may come back some time to rebuke us and to cause us immense 

trouble. 

1\Ir. EDMUND3. Mr. President, I do not wish to delay theSenate,' 

but I think I ought to spend a minute or two in reply to my friend 

from Colora{}.o, whose sincerity I have the greatest respect for. . 

Where is the persecution that the 1\formons as I will call them at 

large, the polygamists, ever suffered in Utah? I say nothing about 

Nauvoo or any other pla-ce because that is too large a subject to gointo.l 

I have heard of no anti-Mormon organization in thatTerrit.orythathas 

ever committed any offensesagainstMormon life or Mormon property.! 

I have heard and I believe there has happened a. good many times the 

persecution by those who control what is called the Mormon church,! 

which is a political hierarchy, going to the extent of taking life against 

people whose only .offense was that they did not believe as the Mormons· did, and had the courage to say so. That has been the perSecution part. of the business, and on account of that persecution the filling up of that' 

Territory with people who believe in the order of society as civilized 

mankind does has been prevented and kept back and diminished con-' 

tinually. · , Where is the persecution in this bill? My friend says that he is in" 

favor of the bill that we passed in 1882 to punish polygamy with more vigorous means and methods than the act of 1862 did. Where is the· 

persecution and the harshness of carrying those measures into effect ?

Are 1 you going to have an indictment against a Mormon elder who in-1 sists on keeping his six wives, which shall say at the beginning and 

end of it under the authority of the statute that this is not i:fitended to' 

do you harm, it is velvety, to use my .friend's expression, and that the1 

thing is to be prosecuted so softly that the jury are to acquit! • He doeS 

not mean that. · There is nothing, therefore, in the penal part of this' 

bill relating to the punishment of the crime of polygamy that does not1 

exist in substance and almost in form; going to the extent of giving' 

evidence by husbands and wives against each other, in every singlel 

State in this Union. I have looked at the statutes of Nebraska since· my friend from Nebraska alluded to that point, and found that the 

laws of Nebraska, their standing statutes, are in substance just th~. 

same thing. · t 

Mr. TELLER. On what point? . Mr. EDMUNDS. On the point of husband and wife giving evidence'1 

against each other in criminal prosecutions that affect either the one or. the other. I looked at the statutes of New Hampshire after my friend· 

from New Hampshire alluded to that poilit yesterday, and I found they: 

had the same. · - Mr. BLAIR. If the Senator will excuse me in regard to that, I thinki 

he will find a very marked difference between the statute of New. 

Hampshire and the statute of the United States applicable to Utah, asi~ will be if this bill shot11d become a law. I would say to him furtherl 

that I have never known a single instance in which by compulsion hus~ band and wife have testified against each other in my State. 1 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I am obliged to the Senator from New Hampshire.! 

Heprobabl.yunderstandsthestatutesofhisStateagreatdeal betterthaDi 

I have a right to do, but so far as I am capable of reading the English~ 

language the statute of New Hampshire reads in substance exactly; 

what this bill does upon that subject. 

Mr. BLAIR. Would the Senator b ;willing to substitute the statut~ 

• 
• 

462 CONGRESSIONAL ·RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 6, 

of New Hampshire for the language of this bill? If so, I should be 

very glad to move it and to vote for his bill on the strength of it. 

Ur. E Dl\IUNDS. It would be just about as good .. 

Ur. BLAIR. Then I will, u.t the proper time, make the motion. 

Mr. ED~I ITNDS. We shall then ee about it I believe that the 

statutes of almo t every State are exactly the same, that in any crime 

for which a husband or wife is prosecuted wherein and in many cases 

wherein they are not personally affected, the statutes of almost all the 

States of modern time provide for their being witnesses, and as I stated 

to the Senator from New Hampshire yesterday, under the common law 

in all instances in which the crime of the husband or the wife was a 

personal one of violence the other party was always allowed to be a 

witness. 

Mr. TELLER. I should like to ask the Senator a question. I 

should like tO a k him if b e knows of any State that allows the husband to festify to the criminal misconduct of his wife, or the wile of the 

husband, in any court? 

Mr. ED~.fUNDS. I do. 

Mr. TELLE R. I mean one to testify in reference to the other. 

Mr. EDM ~D . The State of Vermont is one. 

Mr. TELLER. Ifhe does, I will venture to say h ere that that is a new tatute, p ed within a very few y('ars. 

Mr. EDUUNDS. And I will venture to say, in ad<l.ition, that out 

of the thirty-eigh t Stat es of this Union there are twenty-fl. ,.e that have 

in di Yorce cases admitted the right of the husband and wife to testi(y, 

limitedj u t asthis bill is limited, to the exclusion of confidential communication antl conversations between each other. So I may di miss 

tb..'tt. - Thei e i no persecu ion in that. 

Where t hen is the persecution of this much-abused people? They 

h:n ·e not been disturbed; they have been the masters of the situation, 

and have glorified in it, again t the protest of a. respectable minority 

of their own people, for the propagation not merely of polygamy, the 

mini tration to the lust of mankind, but the propagation of a political 

governmen t of a. one-man power and nothing el e, becau e when yon 

take their statutes and codes together and run them through one after 

another you will find that everything runs up to the first president or 

the church (and all he has to do with the church is to have that name) 

with re!mrd to all their temporal:l.ff.J.i~:~, nothing to do with their faith 

or wor hip, but it is for the management of the whole affairs of society 

in the Tenitory, and as long as they can persuade Congress or tenderhearted members of it, sentimental members, if Imaysayso, who e sentiments are good stated in the abstract, to touch them with vel•ct antl 

leave them alone, they will rejoice; but I think that time has come to 

an entl. _ 

.Mr. TELLER. :M:r. President, this is not the time, nor is it the 

proper place, to go into any extended history of the persecution of these 

people. I state it a a fuct, and everybody who has been fumiliar with 

the condition of affairs in that Territory will admit, that fiJr many years 

the character of our official acts in the Territory was such as not to 

compel respect to the law, but, on the contrary, to excite an antagonism to ewrything connected with national affairs. I ba.•e myself left 

the court-room in that Territory outraged so that I could not stay there 

for fear,• as a member of the court and having a right to be heard at the 

bar, I shouJd be compelled to rebuke the presiding judge. I have 

heard from the bench things that could not have been uttered in the 

State that I represent without taking the judge from the bench. I 

have heard them on more than one occasion, and they we1·e repeated so 

as w be an every-day occurrence .in that court for years. I say that 

there is no State in thi Union and no Territory in this Union that 

would have submitted to such things a. single month, and those people 

submitted for fon.r straight years. 

The honorable Senator says there is _nothing oppressive in this bill. 

Does he know of any law tha.t compels the wife t.o testify against the 

husband? I do not know of any, and I do not want to live in a community that does compel it. It is undermining and breaking down the 

Yery essence of the marriage relation to compel a wife to testify against 

her husband. She may testify; but this says she shall be compelled to 

testify. Does the honorable ~enator know of any State in the Union 

where the sheriff acts as a committing magistrate on view? If he does, 

I do not. It is not so at common law, and it is not so in any country 

where there is due respect for human rights, and yet that is in this bill. 

Ur. EDMmTDS. Where is-that? 

Mr. TELLER. It is in this bill. I do not know where it is exactly. 

The sheriff may commit on view and take baiL That is the construction I put upon it. I may be incorrect. 

Mr. ED"l\IUNDS. I should be awfully glad to see that paragraph. 

It has escaped the attention of the committee, d my attention, too. 

Mr. TELLER. I do not mean the sheriff; I mean the marshal, which 

is the same thing. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I do not see it here as to the marshal. 

Mr. VANWYCK. The twenty-second section, fifth line, is probably what the Senator from Colorado refers to. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. If that is what he means- - Mr. VAN WYG'K. Less than a marshal, a co~oner may do it. 

Mr. TELLER. There is a provision here somewhere that the mar- sbal may arrest and that he may commit. There is one provision that 

the supreme court of the Territory may e::!:ercise ari appointing power. 

Tho Senator is not ignorant of the faet that the great mass of people, 

90 per cent. of them, at least, are in absolute antagonism with that 

court. I do not say the court is not right, but I do .say that it is unwise to put in the hands of the courtthatwhich might be exercised by some other power just as well. 

Here is what I alluded to: 

SEc. 22. That the marshal of said Territory of Utah, and his deputie , shaH po e sand may exercise all the powers in executing the laws of the United 

States po es ed and exercised by shet·iffd and their deputies as peace officer ; and ench of them shall cause all offenders against the law, in his view, to enter into recognizance to keep the peace, &c. 

I say that there is not another statute in this country of that kind. 

This is not yet one, but I suppo e it will be enacted; I have no doubt 

about that. As far as the ~enate is concerned, it has already pa ed 

this bill. The Senator can not be ignorant of the fact that these fourteen trustees will be there as the active agents to destroy this church. 

He can not be ignorant of the fuct that every Mormon will be in direct 

antagoni m with that agency. I repeat again, then, that it would be 

a great deal better, so far as they are concerned, to have thi organization abolished ab olutely. 

Now, 1\lr. President, if e>erything in this bill is in the other, why 

does the Senator want to pa...c:sthis bill? It is simply an irritant. It is 

simply to give the people who are nowprotestingaga.inst theenactment 

of this Jaw a lever upon and over those men in that community who 

would obey the law if they dared do ~o. There is a public sentiment 

there which keep~ hundred of men from yielding assent tO the law, 

ann every movement of this kind makes it easier for the malcontents 

~md the opponents of the law to keep in subjection the greatma of the 

people of that Territory. It will not accomplish the end. It could not 

have been better devi ed, in my judgment, to continue. the unhappy 

condition of affairs in that Territor.v than it has been by this bill. 

Mr. CALL. :Mr. President, it is impossible to get through with this 

bill to-night, and if tho Senator from Vermont will not object, I move 

that the 'enate arljourn. 

Ur. ED~UNDS. I should hope we might get a vote, if the debate 

hx ended. 

l\lr. CALL. Therearequiteanumberof amendments to be proposed. 

Mr. ED~ITNDS. Then I -shall not resist a motion to adjourn, but I 

gi ,-e notice that I shall ask the Senate to sit it out to-morrow and finish 

it in some way. 

Ir. MORGAN. Before an adjournment takes place I desire to offer 

an amendment to tl1is bill, so that it may be printed. In section 12 I 

mo,·e to strike ont all after the word ''annulled," in line 7, and inert 

a fter that the following: 

And the property of said oorporation of every kind shall be disposed of accordin ,.,. to the rules and principles of the common law as in case of the dissolution 

of ~~ corporatit>n. · 

Then in section 13, after the word ''the'' in line 3; I move to insert 

the word ''personal;' 1 so as to read ''the personal propel'ty, ' 1 and after 

the word "property" to insert ''of the church of Latter-day Saints 

and;" so that the section will read: 

That it shall be the duty of the Attorney-General of the United States to insti- tote and prosecute proceedings to forfeit and escheat to the United States the 

personal property of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint- and the 

corporations obtained or held in violation of section 3 of the act of Congress 

approved the lst day of July, &c. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Will the Senator be kind enough to 

hand to the Secretary the amendments that he desires printed? 

1\fr. MORGAN. And after the word " property," in line 12, I propose to insert the words: 

Declared by the courts to be. 

So as to read: 

And all such property so declared by the courts to be forfeited and escheated to the United. States. 

· And after the word "buildings," in line 16, to insert: 

Or the groundsappurteiU\Ilt thereto. 

So~ to read: 

Provided, Thn.t no building or the grounds appurtenant thereto shall be forfeited which is held and occupied exclusively for purposes of r eligions worship, &c. 

Then strike out the word ''religious'' and insert the word '' the,' 1 

and after the word "worship" insert ''of God;" so as to read: 

Provided That no building or the grounds appurtenant thereto sl.Jall he for- feited which is held and occupied exclusively for purposes of the wor hip of 

God . • 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator desire the amendments printed? 

1\Ir. MORGAN. I think they had better be printed. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. That order will be made. 

Mr. CALL. I move that the Senate adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to; and (at 5 o'clock and 20 minutes p. m.) 

the Senate adjourned.