-- 8236 CONGRESSIONAL-RECORD-SENATE. SEPTEMBER 4, 

1\Ir. SPRINGER. I move that the House adjourn, as within a few wli'ich assembled at Penver, in the State of Colorado, adjourned after 

minutes we must adjourn at any rate. having passed the resolution which I send to the desk and ask the SeeThe motion was agreed to; and accordingly (at 4 o'clock and 55 min- retary to read. 

utes p. m .) the House a~journed. The Chief Clerk read as follows: 

PRIVATE lliLLS INTRODUCED AND REFERRED. 

Under the rule private bills of the following titles were introduced 

and referred as indicated below: 

By Mr. G. A. ANDERSON: A bill (H. R. 11344) granting a pension 

to Anna Cloningau-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

By Mr. COMPTON: A bill (H. R. 11345) for the relief of the heirs 

and legal representatives of Richard W. Meade, deceased-to the Committee on Claims. 

By Mr. FORAN: A bill (H. R. 11346) for the relief of Lucy 0. 

Thompson-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

By Mr. GEST: A bill (H. R. 11347) granting a pension to Eugene 

Durst-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

By Mr. HARMER: A bill (H. R. 11348) to increase the pension of 

John H. R. Storey-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. - By Ur. UAISH: A bill (H. ·R. 11349) for the relief of Adam Carlto the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

Also, a bill (H. R. 11350) for the relief of John W. Zinn-to the 

Committee on Invalid Pensions. -

By 1\fr. McCREARY: A bill (H. R. 11351) for the relief of E. J. 

Sbackelford-to the Committee on War Claims. 

By Mr. NICHOLS: A bill (H. R. 11352)_granting a pension to William Rommel-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

By Mr. SAWYER: A bill (H. R. 11353) for the relief of John H. 

Ferdun-to the Committee on Military Affairs. 

Also, a bill (H. R. 11354) granting a pension to Charles H. Greento the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

By Ur. STONE, of Kentucky: A bill (H. R. 11355) for the relief of 

the legal representatives ofT. J. Cobb, deceased-to the Committee on 

War Claims. 

By l\fr. WHEELER: A bill (H. R. 11356) to remove the political 

disabilities of James C. Long-to the Committee on the Judiciary. 

PETITIONS, ETC. 

The following petitions and papers were laid on the Clerk's desk, u nder the rule, and referred as follows: 

By :Mr. C. L. ANDERSON: Petition of Franklin Sessions, of Newton County, Mississippi, praying for reference of his claim to the Court 

of Claims-to the Committee on War Claims. 

Also, of Sarah :M:cClenachan, widow of William l\fcClenacban, alias 

James Robinson, late Company C, Third Regiment United States Artillery war of 1836-to the Committee on .Pensions. 

By Mr. BUCHAN..U-:: Petition of citizens of Mount Holly, N.J., in 

favor of bill prohibiting shipment of convict-made goods from Stat-e to 

State-to the Committee on Labor. 

By Mr. FORAN: Petition of citizens of Cleveland, Ohio, for amendments to the interstate-commerce law-to the Committee on Commerce. 

Also, of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, in 

favor of protection-to the Committee on Ways and Means. . By Mr. HARMER: Petition of John H. R. Storey, forincreaseofpension-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

The following petition for the proper protection of the Yellowstone 

National Park, as proposed in Senate bill 283, was received andreferred to the Committee on the Public Lands: 

By M:r. FORAN: Of Dr. E. Sterling, of Cleveland, Ohio. 

SENATE. 

TUESDAY, September 4, 1~88. 

Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. J. G. BUTLER, D. D. 

The J ourna.l_of yesterday's proceedings was read and approf~d. 

HOUSE BILLS REFERRED. 

The bill (H. R. 8636) for the relief of Isaa-c N. Enloe was read twice 

by its title, and referred to the Comll}-ittee on Military Affairs. 

The bill (H. R. 11262) to authorize the construction of bridges across the Kentucky River and its tributaries by the Richmond, Nicholasville, Irvine and Beattyville Railroad Company was read twice by its 

title, and referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

ENROLLED BILL SIGNED. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore announced his signature of the enrolled joint resolution (H. Res. 14) to authorize the Secretary of the 

Interior to certify lands to the State of Kansas for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, which bad previously been signed by 

the Speaker of t.he House of Representatives. 

GALVESTON HARBOR IMPROVEMENT. 

Mr. COKE. On the 31st of August the Deep Wat~r Convention 

The following preamble and resolution, by Governor Evans, of Colorado, were unanimously adopted: ·Whereas it is of vital importance to all the Yast region b etween t.he Missis- sippi and the Pacific that a harbor deep enough to protect the fleet tha t will be required to handle the commerce of the whole region of country nearer to it than any Atlantic seaport be constructed on the northwest coast of the Gulf of Mexico as soon as practicable; and 

:· ·whereas such harbor is of such great national im portance that it is worthy of an ample appropriation from Congress for its construction; and " \Vhereas we have already requested the present members of Congress to fa vor such an appropriation, but would m a ke that request more emphatic: Therefore, 

"Be it resowed, That the Legislatures and people of all the States and Territo- ries included in the region described be earnestly req uested hereafter to elect no Senators, R-epresentatives, or Delegates to Congress except such as are known to be heartily in favor of such an appropriation and will earnestly and fa ith- fully work for it until such a harbor is completed." Governor Evans insisted that the deep-harbor issue must be made a. sectional one, and be fought from the primaries up. • 

Mr. COKE. The States and Territories represented in this com·en- tiou were Iowa, Missouri, Wyoming, Arizona, Texas, and Kansas.. I 

have received from the deep-water committee of the city of Galveston a memorial addressed to the President, the Senate, and the Honse of 

Representatives of the United States in favor of a deep-water harbor of 

the first class at Galveston, Tex., which it is desired shall be considered in connection with the resolutions of the convention just read. I 

ask unanimous consent that the memorial, which is a very Taluable one as a statement of fa-cts, be printed in the RECORD. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection? 

Mr. DAWES. I should like, before the Senator from Texas takes 

his ~eat, to call his attention to.. the peculiar phraseology of the reso- lution. While it may be a very proper thing, as I doubt not i~ is, to 

petition Congress for such an appropriation, to distinctly announce that no man shall have the vote of anybody unless he shall do so and 

so when he gets into Congress is an unusual phraseology to say the 

least. I call the attention of the Senator to it. 

Mr. COKE. That is the resolution verbatim of the Denver conven- tion. I will suggest to the Senator from Massachusetts that the peppie have ways of their own and do things to suit themselves. 

1fir. DAWES. But the propriety of sending such a public announce- ment to Congress and have it put upon the records here is a matter to 

which I call the attention of the Senator. It is very proper for the 

people to express their opinions and intentions about voting for men 

who entertain particular opinions. That is all well enough; hut to . announce in Congress upon what terms members of Congress can obtain the votes of the petitioners is an unusual phraseology. 

Mr. COKE. The re.'lolution, I will state to the Senator, was not 

sent to Congress by this convention. It was taken from a paper giving the proceedings of the convention. I presume if the convention 

had been addressing Congress it possibly might not have used that language, although I regard the language as being simply expressive of 

the very earnest desire of the convention on the subject. It simply 

emphasizes their wishes. , 

Mr. DAWES. I do not mean to say that there was any improper 

motive behind such phraseology, but it is precisely the phraseology 

that one would choose who did have improper motives; and therefore, 

if the convention did not send it to Congress and it is simply moved 

by the Senator from Texas, I do not regret that I have called his attention to the phraseology. · · 

Mr. COKE. Nor do I. regret, Mr. President, having presented the 

resolution. I think it is a very proper resolution. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of 

the Senator from Texas that the memorial be printed in the RECORD ? 

Mr. HOAR. I should like to make one observation in regard to 

this matter. The memorial which has just been presented by tho 

Senator from Texas affords one among ten thousand evidences of tho 

close connection which bi'dds the business interests of this country. 

Some two or three years ago I was visited by the representative of a very important business firm in the city of Boston, having engaged in 

large trade with the State of Texas, who called my attention to this 

very improvement, and bespoke my interest in it, a.nd spoke of it as being of great interest to an important commercial house in the city of 

Boston, which I, with my colleague, represent here. 

It is a strong one among the many evidences of the great importance to all parts of this country, not merely .to special localities or sections, 

of improvements in the great. harbors and great rivers over which commerce among the States in this country and commerce with foreign 

nations in..part is conducted. I may here refer to what Mr. Webster 

stated in a speech of his made to his constituents at home after be br: d 

voted for a large expenditure to remove either a rock or a shoal in the 

harbor of Mobile. He received a letter from an enthusiastic constituent reproaching him. very severely for that vote in spending so large a sum of public money for a harbor so_distant from his own home. l\1r. 

Webster replied to him that however that might be, a very valuable 

\essel, with its cargo, belonging to a very near neighbor of the writer of 

the letter had been wrecked on that very shoal or rock in 1\Iobile Bay a few weeks before. 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 8237 

I desire to assure the Senators from Texas that it will give the repTesentatives of the commerce of-M:assachusetts the very greatest pleas- ure to support this desire of their own constituents when the time 

shall come. The PRESIDENT pro temp01·e. Is there objection to the printing of 

that object. Tbeproposed improvement of the entrance to the port of Galves ton would constitute a connecting link between this great system of internai 

transportation and the ocean, nature's great free highway of commerce. If the 

proposed depth of 30 feet at the entrance to the port of Galveston can be se· cunotl, that port would become the nearest and most accessible first-class sea- port for the States of Texas, Kansas,. and Colo1·ado, the Indian Territory, and 

the Territ-ories of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of the Sta.t~s and Territories adjoining those just mentioned. * * * · "It may be remarked also in this connection that the central portions of 'the 

State of Kansas are about equidistant from Chicago and Galveston. * * * If 

the harbor of Galveston shall be so improved as to admit t\le entrance of vessels 

Memorial to the !-'resident, the Senate, and the House of Represent-atives of the of the largest size, the various railroads connecting this city with Arkansas, 

United States for a deep-wat-er harbor of the first class at Galveston, Tex. "Vestern Missouri, Western Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and New 1\Iex:-

the memorial in the RECORD? The Chair hears none. · The memorial was referred to the Committee on Commerce, and or- dered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows: 

~n behalf of_six millions of people, sparsely occupying an area of BOO,()()() square ico will become active competitors with the railroads extending east, not only 

m1les, embracmg the States of Texas, Kansas, and Colorado, the Indian Terri- with 1·espect to trade with Europe, but also with respect to the trade between 

tory and the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, with parts of other States the area referred to and the chief Atlantic seaports. * * * Tbls competition 

and Territories contiguous, equal in extent and fertility to other portions of the would assert itself not only in the transportation of the products of the interior 

Union having a population of 35,000,000, annually producing for shipment as by way of Galveston, but also, and perhaps to a greater extent and more benesurplus products five hundred millions of values, we respectfully urge that, ficially, in the regulating influence which it would exert over the rates charged 

within your several spheres of constitutional power and obligation you lend by all the east and west railroads extending from Chicago to the Atlantic sea- your earnest aid to the vigorous prosecution of the improvement of th~ entrance board. The magnitude of the ad vantages which would be thus afforded to the 

of Galveston Harbor ns a port ol the first class, and that the driblet system of commercial and industrial interests of the count~.;y it is impossible accurately 

uncertain and inadequate appropriations for this work be abandoned, and pro- to compute or even approximately estimate, but the great importance of such 

vision be made by the appropriation of t.be balance of its estimated cost for carry- advantages is clearly apparent. * * * In view ·* * * of the vast area of 

ing the work to speedy completion without interruption. country the commercial and industrial interests of which would be directly subThere is no engineering difficulty or doubt as to practicability; the exercise served by the proposed improvement in the harbor of Galveston, and by the 

of no doubtful political power is invoked: no complaint is made of the official fact that such improvement would also, th'rougb competition, directly benefit a. ~bannel throu~h whi~h the work is being prosecuted; DQ change of plans or very large proportion of the whole country, it appears ·proper to characterize mcreas~ of est1J?ates 1s asked; but _on~y that for the wasteful procrastination of that project as a work of great national importance." uncerta.m and mad equate appropnatwns there be substituted by sound states- The report calls attention to a letter accompanying it from Capt. R. W.l\Ieade · mans~ip and practical wisdom business methods, and a suoject so intimately of the United States Navy, from which the following extract is given: ' affectmg the welf::u-e of so large a part of your fellow-citizens be dealt with in "When once over the bar the·harbor of Galveston is commodious and well 

the fair and liberal spirit its importance demands, and an appropriation be sheltered. The approach to the coast is easy and safe, and from an experience 

made in solido of the balance of the estimated cost to complete this work and of eighteen months in command of a blockader in 1864 and 1855, I can say that 

thus give to the producing interests of this port.ion of the Union access t~ the it is, as to weather and approaches, one of the safests of coasts." 

markets of the world by the shortest lines to deep-water transportation. On the 21st day of December, 1887, a State immigration convention was held 

The Government, through the Bureau of Engineers, is now engaged in this at Dall~, Tex .. and was largely attended from all sections of the State. .That 

work on plans for 30 feet of water across the bar, at a total estimated cost of conventiOn adopted the following resolutions: 

87,_000,000, of which sum _it has already expended $300,000, and $500,000 is appro- · "Whereas the great State of Texas, with its varied and extraordinary re- pnated by the present bill. The present plans and estimates were adopted in sources, developed and in process of development and still undeveloped with 

1886, at which time Maj. 0. H. Ernst was first assigned in charge of the work. an ocean border of over 500 miles, is without a seaport of sufficient magrtitude 

Prior to that time, in some tentative engineering experiments, the Government to properly ac~ommodate the maritime commerce necessary to the work of aufhad wasted on the work at Galveston, distributed over a period of thirteen ficiently developing the grand stretch of States and Territories whose natural years, _$1,481,782.84. There was. also expen~ed by the Government engineer water way to the markets of the world is the Gulf of Mexico; and 

lately 1~ charge, $100,000, su ?scrlbed by the City of Galveston. The city of Gal- '' Whereas through this condition the agricultural and pastoral interests of the veston Itself expended, efficiently, under the supervision of its own officers in State have been retarded in a. very large degree, and the matter of economic 

the years 1873, 1874, l'lnd 1875, $170,000 in improving the inner navigation of the ocean transportation burdened at the expense of the producers of a section of har~?or. Kor have the c~tizen~ of Galveston meanwhile been unappreciative 01 country greater in extent than all the rest of the United States. put together; 

the ~adequate manne_r 1~ wh1~h t?e deep-water problem was being dealt with and at th1s port, or otherw1se rnact1ve m the matter. In 1883 in response to their "Whereas the cotton-growers of Texas have borne their share of the burdens 

invitation, a proposition was obtained from the late Ja~es B. Eads for 30 feet which lack of !1- p~o~er seaport has i_ntlicte?- _upon the people of the State, yet, 

of water across Galveston bar at a cost of seven and th1·ee-quarter millions of greatest of allmflJCtwns, through this cond1hou bas fallen upon the cott-on interdollars-" no water, no pay." In his leiter of December 6 1883 containino- this ests of the State, and in an eminent degree likewise upon the grain-growers or 

proposition, Captain Eads says: ' ' "' Texas; and "A. less channel _than 30 fe':t should not be contemplated by your city, in as- . ''Whereas the effort-s. of the General. Government, through the recommenda· 

much as cheap fre1ght.S reqmre vessels of deep draught, and there is no reason tions of the boa1·d of Vmted States engmcers, for many years pasttogive a deep- why such works should not be constructed at Galveston as would place her water seap<;>rt to Texas, have been defeated by the system of desultory action 

harbor within the reach of the largest carriers now contemplated. "' * * At and scattermg methods, resulting in waste of means and failing in the accom- lea.st 20 feet could be relied on within two years after the work is begun and plishment of any substantial good: Therefore be it 

about 2 or 3 feet each year thereafter until the 30 feet is obtained. The de~ pen- "Resolved, That it is the sense of this convention-called together for the pur· i ng would continue slowly under tidal action for several years thereafter and pose of devising ways and ineans to best make known the resources oft be great I should expect it to reach at least 35 or possibly 40 feet before a perma:nent State of.Texas and to in_duce thert;to honest labor and honest energy, and as a. regimen would be established through the channel. * * * I have estimated con-elative branch ofth1s conventwn-thattbeTexasdelegationin Cono-ressbe 

the necessary works at Galveston to secure a permanent channel 30 feet deep urgently requested to unite their efforts in that body for securing deep ;'ater on at seven and tht:ee-quarter millions of dollars, for which snm I will construct the Texas coast at one point, that point to be by the best lights before them and 

the same, and will agree the payment therefor shall depend solely upon the in- ac~ording t<? their best judgment, but to unite in a common practical way to obcreased depth obtained." tam the desirable end, heretofore defeated by desultory action and scattering 

A committee appointed by the city council of the city of Galveston attended methods. 

the ses~i~ms of the Forty-eighth Congress.and urged the adoption of the Eads ~· ResolL·ec7, Th~t it is t.be sense o~ this convention. that the end herein sought 

propos1t10n. A favorable report was secured from the Committee on Commerce 'Ylll b~ best attamed by concentratmg upon one pomt, demonstrating the prac· in the Senate, ~nd the p~ssage of the bill in that body reasonably assured. Be- t1cabiht,r of the methods employed, giving to the State a deep-water seaport, 

fore tbcCornm1tteeon R1verand Harbors of the Housethe'subjectwasearnestly and pavmg the way for other seaports on the Texas coast as necessity and dedebated by General Newton, then Chief of the Bureau of Engineers, by Captain velopment warrant." 

E!ads, and by tl1e members of the Galveston committee. The river and harbor A com-;nitt,ee, composed' of 1\Iessrs. S. B. Maxey, D. C. Giddings, D. A. Nunn, 

b1ll bad already been report~d with the usual perfunctory provision of $250,000 J.P. Smith, BryanT. Barry, YV. D. Cleveland, John Hancock, B. H. Davis, W. 

for Ga:lveston: On the _m<;>t.wn of th~ member from Galveston district, by in- L. Moody, and J. W.Throckmorton was appointed and charged with the pre· structwns, th1s appropriatiOn was stncken out iind the port of Galvestom omit- sentation of the resolutions to the Texas Senators and members of the House. - ted from the bill. On the reference of the Eads bill to the House committee That duty th_e committee performed, visiting 'Vashington for the purpose. the opposition to it proved effective, and, in the last days of the session a com: In Appendix T of the annual report of the Chief of Engineers for 18S7 will 

promise wa;:; h_ad, the committee reporting as an amendment to the gen~ral bill be found the report. of ~aj. 0. H. Ernst on the improvement and progr~ss at a? _approprraho~of l,OOO,OOOforGalv:estonfor the ensuing fiscal year, with pro- Galveston. AttentiOn lS called to the followino- extracts therefrom· 

VISion for supermtendence by Captam Eads. The l'iver and harbor bill failed "The sum asked" (fo~ the fisc~l year ending june 30, 1889) "is S3,00o,OOO. No of pas~age, ~;tnd Capt!!-i!l .H:ads's en~agements did not. permit of his subsequently very extended explanatiOn of tb1s recommendation seems to be required. A 1·enewmg h1s propos1L10n. The dmgram of the terntory natural to the port or present annual trade of $73,000,000" (not including the coastin<>' trade except by ~al veston, with accompanying statistics, prepared by the Galveston News dur- l\I allorY: and _Morg-an steam-ship lines) "and a prospective trad; of vastly greater 

log the pendency of the Eads bill, is referred to in this connection. proportions lS hampered by an obstruction which it is in the power of Galves- . The revisi<?n of the plans and estima:tes by the board of 1886 places, it is be- tou to remove. The necessity of the improvement is notorious. The evil re- lieved, the VIeWS of the Bureau of Engmeers and Captain Eads in substantial sul~s of attet;npting !ts removal w_ith inadequate means are almost equally no- accord, both as to engineering plans and as to cost of the work. tonous. It 1s subm1tted that the mterests aL stake require that the work sbo•: lu 

Within t·!"te last six years the river and harbor bill has thrice failed to become now ~e undertaker>. seriously." (See third pag-e of cover for statistics acco•ua la~, hav1_ng been vetoe!l on_ce by a Republican President, once by a Demo- panymg report.) crahc President, and agam failed of passage. On the 11th and 12th of July, 1888, a deep-water convention was held at Fort The Society of Ameri.can Civil Engineers lately caused a 'careful examination Wort}l, Tex., attended by some seven bnnu red delegates fl'Om every portion of to be made by the Natwnal Press Intelligence Company of New York of two , the State, and also by delegates from various commercial bodies from the State 

thousand _new~papers with~ view of obtaining a reflex of public opinion on the I of Color::'-d.o. Resolutions were adopted urging vigorous measures by Congre_ ss general bill, w1th the f<?llowmg result_: Twenty~two papers in favor of, and one for obta1nmg a port of the_ first class on tbe Texas coast. Prior to the meeting 

hundred and twenty-moe papers agamst the bill. '£be relief required at Gal- of the Fort Worth convention, the secretary of the Fort 'iVorth Board of Trade veston :;hould n?t de~end on so uncer~in a measure. a?-dressed the honorable Se<:retary of War, requesting that an officer of the En- Pendmg the discussiOn ot the Eads bill, by direction of the Secretarv of the gme.er C_orps Shot;ld be deta1led to attend the convention for the purpose of imTreasury, an el~b?rate report 'Yas furnished by Mr. Nimmo, then Chief of the partmg 1nformat10n. That request was referred to J\Iajor Ernst, in charge of Bureau of Stati~tJcs (Senate M1scellaneous Document, Forty-eighth Congress, all works on the Texas coast, except at Sabine Pass. That officer responded as 

No. Ill), on the Importance of deep water at Galveston. That officer says: follows: . ''The harbor n.t G_alveston, having a depth at its entrance at the present 

hme of o_nl;v 1_4 f':et, IS the ?est harbor on our entire Gulf coast from the mouth 

of the ~ISSLSSlppl to. the R1o Grande. It is also believed to be the one most suscephble of Sl!-Ch: 1mprovements as would constitute a harbor of the first 

chtss. Its super1or1ty to the other ports of Texas is clearly indicated by the 

Coast SUJ·vey charts and by the fact that the principal railroads of this State extend to Galvest?n or connect _wit_h railroads terminating at that point-, * * * 

The value of railroad proper!les m theS,atc of Texas is about$160 000 000 This 11;'-rg~ expenditure of priv~te ?apital in supplying means of intern~! t~an~porta.­ ~wn m Texas expre~es fall_h lU the resom·ces of this State, :uid emphasizes the 

Importance of sec:urmg for 1t a fir:;;t-class seaport. Such expenditure stands also as the strongest 1ndorsement of any practical plan for the accomplishnlent of 

UNITED STATES E:>GL.'iEEil. OFFICE, 

_ . Galt·e£ton, Tex., July 7, 1883. 

SIR: I have to-day'receivcd your letter of the 18th ultimo, addressed to the 

Honorable Secretary of War, req nesting b im to permit an en o-ineer officer of the War Department to attend the convention to be held at Fort Worth on the lOth 

instant, who is to bring with him charts and details bearing upon the subject of~ deep-water port upon the •.rexas coast, and explain the same to the deleg .-~ tes. 

Th1s letter has been referred to me, with the permission of theSccr~tary of War to attend the convention in my private capacity and not as a representative of 

the Government .. I regret to ~ay that official busine~s, made pressing by the recent close of the 

fiscal year, will prevent me from bemg oresent in oerson at the convention; ako 
·8238 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. SEPTEMBER 4, I 

that charts suitable for explaining the situation of the various harbors to an assemblage of several hundred delegates would have to be specially prepared, and for that there is now neither time nor money available. The best that I can do under the cirownstances is to present a. few facts, which may be of service 

in aiding the convention to reach an opinion upon some of the questions to be brought before it. I shall confine myself mainly to the engineering features of the subject. . The coast-line of Texas from Sabine Pass to the Rio Grande measures about 875 statute miles. In this distance there are four points which are now receiving the attention of the Government with a view to harbor improvement, namely: 

Sabine Pass, at the eat3t-ern extremity of t.he line, Brazos Santiago, at the western extremity, Galveston, 65 miles from the eastern extremity, and Aransas Pass, 138 miles from the western extremity. Pass Cavallo and the mouth of the Brazos River have also been the subject of expenditure, but the present Con- gress has discontinued the work at those places. The channel depth over the bar at d ate of last reports was at- Feet. Sabine Pass...................................................................................................... 8 Galveston ................................................................................. ..................... _. 12t Aransas .................................................................... ........................................ 83- Brazos Santiago............................................................................................... 5 

All measured at mean low tide. Foreign vessels which now visit the Texas coast draw about 20 feet, and to accommodate thelll there should be not less than 20 feet depth of channel over the bar. It can be obtained by suitable im- provements at Sabine, Galveston, and Aransas, but not at Brazos Santiago. For safe anchorage these vessels require about 24 feet in the harbor. The area of water 24 feet deep is at- ~ 

Acres. Sabine .......................... ::..... ..... .................................... ......................... ....... 100 Galveston ...................................................................................................... 1, 30! Aransas.............................................. ... ...• ... .. .. ............ ......... .... .. . ...... . . ....... 60 

The improvements designed to furnish 20 feet depth over the bar at tbe1!!e places have been begun. To complete them there remains to be appropriated after deducting the amounts provided in the river and harbor bill now before Congress, forSabine ..................................................... .......................................... $2, 379, 000. 00 Galveston ............................................................... .,......................... 2,200, 000.00 Aransas............................................................................................. 1, 471, 000. 00 

Dividing these numbers by the number of acres of deep water, we find the cost per acre to reach the anchorage is, forSabine.................................................................. ........ ... ... ......... ...... $23, 790. 00 Galveston........................................................................................... 1, 687.11 Aransas .................................. ,......................................................... 24,516.17 

The depth of20 feet over the bar, which is sufficient to answer the most im- mediate pressing needs of Texas, is not sufficient to admit many large commer- cial vessels and ships of war. To accommodate these an extension of the im- provements at Galveston is contemplated, designed to give a depth of 30 feet at a co:;t of four millions additional to the amount mentioned above. No 30-foot channel over the bar has been projected at either of the other places. The area of water 30 feet deep is, at- Acres. Sabine ............... -. ............................................................................................. 63 Gal\"eston ......................................................................................................... 463 Aransas ............................................................................... : ....... ;.................... 19 

It is thus seen that the natural advantages which created Galveston and made her tbe principal port of the State still exist to maintain her pre-eminence. She has no-rival. But while she is now the only port of any prominence, and must always be the principal one, it does not follow that secondary ports can not be made and are not needed. Aransas Pass, in particular, is 172 miles from Ga1- veston,and its railway furnishes the shortest line to the coast for a large parb 

of,Vestern Texas. The improvement of that entrance is desirable for the pur- pose of creating a harbor of refuge in addition to providing a. highway of com- merce. The same is true, though perhaps in a less degree, of Sabine Pass. I be- lieve that the best interests of Texas require the development of both Galveston and Aransas, and possibly of Sabine Pass. The latter locality not being in my district, is not so well known to me as the others. 

Trusting that your meeting may be a harmonious one, and that it will result in benefit to the State of Texas, 

I remain, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

0. H. ERNST, Major of Engineers. Mr. TB:os. J. HURLEY, 

Secretary Bom·d of '.l7·ade, Fort Wo1·th, Te~. 

The depth of water on Galveston bar by th~ last officiH.l report was 12~ feet. . A later survey, just completed but not yet made public, will, it is believed, show 

13t or 14 feet. Inside G-alveston bar there are 1,304 acres of 24 feet depth; 463 acres of 30 feet depth, and a. considerable acreage of 40and 50 feet depth. It may be conlidently stated that there is no fair question of the success of this work according to pre;;ent plans and estimates. It is b-elieved that it will be completed within a period of between two and three years, if the money is furnished to allow of the work going forward without interruption. Tbe phenomenal development of that portion of our country naturally h·ib- utary to the port of Galveston by its great increase in population, manifold in- dustries, and interior lines of transportation render the necessity of d eep water at Galveston most exigent, and constitute just cause for dealing with the im- provement now in progress with exceptional vigor. It is alike a power and a duty devolved upon the General Go;ernment, and is without the domain of State and municipal action or private enterprise. The amount of money required is not equal to 5 cents per bushel on the annual corn cro,P of Kansas, and scarcely exceeds a half cent per pound on the annual cot- ton crop of Texas, which ,will be saved to the producers by cheaper freight.s in s~n~ey~~ · The necessity is obvious, the emergency great; we invoke a broad spirit of patriotism which shall make possible the right development of this great re- gion of country. 

Mr. BL.A.IR. I wish to ask, though slightly out of order, in relation to the memorial from Texas just ordered to be printed, if it is the 

one that is upon the tables of Senators this morning? 

lli. COKE. Yes, sir. 

1\Ir. BLAIR. I will inquire if the order to print embraces the pfct-

• ure and advertisement of the Galveston News?· 

.Mr. COKE. That was taken out. 

Mr. BLAIR. I should think that would be perhaps as useful in the 

wny of an advertisement as any part of the memorial. Certainly Galveston is the center of the universe from its appearance on the map here 

presented. I have rarely seen anything in any of the mountain books 

of my own country that really WQuld be such an advantage to a locality ns this superb production of the Galveston News. 

Perhaps the Senator from :Massachusetts who took part in the conversation on this subject has had his att,ention called to the illustmtion in the memorial. AB far as I am cohcerned, I should be glad to ; 

give my assent to the reproduction of the illustration as well as the 

memorial. I think it would suit his constituents; and probably something of the kind should be filed as an offset from the enterprising city 

of Boston, and New Hampshire wotild come in for a very f..worable 

illustration, if there could be the precedent established. It is much 

better than the printed m-atter, and what is to be found on the back of 

the document, the editorials and the statistics of Galveston and that 

. vicinity, are of very great importance. I do not notice anything in regard to the condition of illiteracy in that State, but it bears with great 

torce and comprehensiveness and ability upon everything else, upon 

everything relating to the material development of tha.t great Commonwealth. 

I shall not make any request II}YSelf, but indicate the p1easure it 

would give me to have the illustration reproduced in the RECORD, as 

well as the memorial itself. · Mr. COKE. The copy of the memorial handed the Secretary to be 

incorporated in the RECORD did .not contain the map which accom- panied the memorial referred to by the Senator from New Hampshire. 

It would take too much space in the RECORD; but if it is necessary for 

the information or for the pleasureoftheSenator from New Hampshire, 

I am perfectly willing that on his suggestion the map shall be published 

with the memorial. 

Mr. BLAIR. I made the suggestion, but I have made so many other 

useful suggestions to the Senators from Texas which they have not accepted that I am discouraged. 

Mr. CULLOM. I suggest that there is probably a rule which would 

prevent the map going in without a motion to print being referred to 

the appropriate committee. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempo1·e. PracticaUy there is no question before the Senate, because the paper sent forward to the desk by the Senator from Texas does not contain thy map or the advertisement. 

Mr. COKE. It does not contain tbem. 

Mr. BLAIR. I observe that the memorial is not signed by anybody. . 

lllr. P .A.DDOCK. If the Senator from New Hampshire is through 

with his playfulness I should like to make a report. 

Mr. BLAIR. I do not hear the Senator. 

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 

Ur. PAD DOCK, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the bill (S. 3429) granting a pension to Maria N. Abbey, reported it with an amendment, and submitted a report thereon. · 

Ur. DAVIS, from the Committee on Pensions, to wl:om was referrecl 

the bill (H. R. 4038) granting a pension to Victor, Gertrude, Margaret, 

and Helen, minor children of Lieut. George R. 1\IcGuire, reported it 

without amendment, and submitted a report thereon. 

He also, from the same committee, to whom was referred the bill (II. 

R. 4039) granting .a pension to Uary A.. Pfeiffer, reported it with an 

amendment, and submitted a report thereon. 

Mr. DA. VIS. In this connection, I mov-e that the House of Representatives be requested to return to the Senate the bill (S. 3086) granting a pension to Vjctor, Gertrude, Margaret, and Helen, minor children 

of Lieut. George R. McGuire, and the bill (S. 3087) granting a pension 

to Mary A. Pfeiffer. 

The motion was agreed to . 1\Ir. FAULKNER, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom were 

referred the following bills, reported them severaUy without amendment, and submitted reports thereon: 

.A. bill (H. R. 11030) granting a pension to Susan E. Latture; 

.A. bill (H. R. 10007) for the relief of Henry Rose; 

A bill (H. R. 10629) granting a pension to Washington Ryan; 

A bill (H. R. 9169) granting a pension to Tempy M. Johnston; 

.A. bill (H. R. 1085) granting a pension to Thomas Rains; and 

.A. bill (H. R. 9182) granting a pension to Ransom Riley. 

Ur. BLAIR, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom were re- ferred the following bills reported them severally without amendment, and submitted reports thereon: 

A bill (H. R. 9975) granting.a pension to Joseph Welsh; 

.A. bill (H. R. 10672) granting a pension to Mighill H. Patten; 

A bill (H. R. 11029) for the relief of Maq Vanbuskirk; 

A bill (H. R. 2474) granting a pension to Joseph Lincoln Young; 

and' 

.A. bill (H. R. 9935) to increase the pension of Isaac Hurd. 

1\fr. SAWYER, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom were referred the following bills, reported them severally without amendment 

and submitted reports thereon: 

A bill (S. 3457) granting a pension to Abigail Farley; 

A bill (H. R. 8200) granting a pension to Lydia Ann Wilber; 

A bill (H. R. 2073) granting an increase of pension to Daniel Willborg; .A. bill (H. R. 7457) granting a pension to Eleanor D. "Heath; 

A bill (H. R. 2689) granting a pension to Johanna Geyer, widow of 

Gustav W. Geyer; 

A. bill (H. R. 10103) granting a pension to William Fairbanks; and 

A bill (H. R. 10944) granting a pension to Victoria May. 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD===-SENATE. 8239 

BILLS INTRODUCED. 

Mr. McPHERSON introduced a bill (S. 3509) granting a. pension to 

Horatio M. Ellison; which was read twice by its title, and referred to 

the Committee on Pensions. 

l\Ir. CULLOM introduced a bill (S. 3510) to ·declare unlawful com- binations in restraint of trade, production, and manufacture, and to 

punish persons and corporations concerned therein; which was read 

twice by it&. title. 

Mr. CULLOM. I believe that one or two bills on this subject have 

been referred to the Committee on Finance and perhaps another was 

sent to the Committee on the Judiciary. I am somewhat at a loss to 

know where the bill belongs, but I am inclined to think it ought togo 

to the Committee on Finance, as it is a matter touching the revenue laws somewhat. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The bill will be 1·eferred to the Committee on Finance, if there is no objection. 

Mr. CAMERON introduced a bill (S. 3511) to increaSe the pension 

of John H. R. Storey; which was read twice byits title, and, with the 

accompanying paper, referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

Mr. FAULKNER introduced a bill (S. 3512) granting a pension to 

Daniel Kendall; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the 

Committee on Pensions. 

DETROIT RIVER AND ST. CLAIR FLATS. 

Mr. CULLOM submitted the following resolution; which was con- sidered by unanimous consent, and agreed to: 

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to report to the Senate whether 

in the navigation of the Detroit River or the St. Clair Flats, at the mouth of the 

St. Clair River, the channels in ordinary use for commercial purposes are in waters under the jurisdiction of the United States or of the Dominion of Can- ada, and what difference exists, if any, in the depth of water available for pur- poses of navigation between the parts of said river or of said flats which are within the respective jurisdictions named. 

DISTRICT ELECTRIC WIRE HEARIKG. 

Mr. HARRIS submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the 

Senate: 

R esolved, That the Committee on the District of Columbia be, and it is hereby, 

authorized and empowered to employ a stenographer to report hearings before 

said committee on the subject of overhead electric wires in the cities of 'Vashington and Georgetown, the expenses therefor to _be paid out of the contingent fund of the Senate. 

CAMP.A.IG:N WORK BY .A. SE:NATE EMPLOYE. 

Mr. FARWELL. Would it be in order for me to call up now for 

consideration the resolution which I reported yesterday'? 

The PRESIDENT pro temp01·e. It would not. 

Mr. FARWELL. I will ask unanimous consent--. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair lays before the Senate as 

morning business a resolution coming over from yesterday submitted 

by the Senator from Missouri [Mr. VEST]. 

The resolution submitted yesterday by :Mr. V~ST "as read, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Comm ittee to Examine the Seveml Branches of the Civil 

Service be instructed to inquire whether employes of the Senate, whilst re- ceiving pay, :ind when the Senate has been in session, have been engaged in 

preparing partisan campaign literature for the purpose of advancing the inter- ests of the Republican party in the pending canvass, and whether publication 

of the matter so prepared has been published by an employe of t·he Senate with 

his official character printed thereon, and what legislation is necessary to pre- vent and punish such conduct, a nd that said committee report by bill or otherwise. 

The PRESIDENT p ro tempore. The question is on agreeing to tl;le 

resolution. 

Mr. PLUMB. Mr. President, one good turn it is said deserYes 

another .. The advertisement which the Senator from Missouri gave 

yesterday to a Republican~ublication I think ought to be fairly re- turned by an advertisement in favor of a Democratic publication. I 

hold in my J1and a book entitled "Hand Books of the Tariff, No. 1. 

Tariff from the White House. Extracts from the Messages. Henry 

Talbott, clerk to Committee on Ways and 1.-Ieans"-meaning the 

clerk to the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives, and of course Democratic. The Senator will observe that this 

is only No. 1. I am told that No. 2, from the same hand and with 

the same title page, changed only to meet the change of the matter, 

is in press and will be out in a few days. - · 

I do not care to have any part of these pages read, because I do not 

deem it necessary to do anything more than merely call attention to 

it. It is a complete parallel to the case mentioned in the resolution 

of the Senator from Missouri. 

Mr. BLAIR. It is onlv a little one. Mr. PLUUB. As the- Senator from New Hampshire says, it is 

''only a little one'' anyway. It is not as large as the one the Senator 

from Missouri called attention to; but I will ask the Senator from Missouri if he does not think on the whole he had better discipline his 

~ii:::.o:ft:::ot: ::::::,h:~:ra~::o:: :i: :: :~~:::::: I 

the text of Mr. McKee's book about the severe and simple civil service _ of this Administration, as illustrated by the acts of the President in 

the case of two United States. district attorneys, one Democratic and one Republican, I wish to call the attention of the Senate more particularly to the case of Mr. Benton. The Senator said in the_ opening 

of his remarks that he called ~ the President immediately atter he 

had suspended Mr. Benton, and the President announced to him in 

very emphatic terms that he intended to treat e\erybody alike and to 

apply the same rule to Democrats that he did to Republicans. 

I base in my haml the remarks which Mr. Benton made while oc- cupying the office of district attorney, and which led "to his removal, 

the reading of which begets in me somewhat conflicting emotions. I 

will read those remarks as reported in a St. Louis paper at the time. 

The speech was delivered October 11, 1885. 

1\Ir. VEST. In what paper? 

Mr. PLUMB. I am not sure whether it was the St. Louis PostDispatch or the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, but I have an extract from 

the Post-Dispatch before me, a Democratic paper, stating that the statement as published was true, and then I have the affidavits, beside, of some more people, including two or three members of the church and so on, who hea,rd the speech delivered. 

. Mr. BLAIR. Were they Democrats? 

1\Ir. PLUMB. I do not know whether they were D€mocrats or not. 

I do not know really that it is necessary for a minister to be a Democmt in order to be able to tell the truth. Among other things Colonel 

Benton said: 

n is the truth that the Democracy is the poor and ignorant party of the coun- try--the great ba refooted, unwashed, and dirty-socked party. * * * I don't agree with President Cleveland in everything. I don't believe in his civil- service humbuggery. I do believe in genuine civil-service reform, but I don't want men under rue to work every conceivable dodge to defeat me and my party at the nex t election. But he believes it, and he is a. man w ith iron nerves. * * * I don't a gree with ~Ir. Cleveland on the silver question. He was rai.<;.ed east of the .AJleghanv Mountains, and he gets his ideas from that region. He never has been west of Buffalo, and has not any more idea of the great 

'Vest and its vast material resources than the mere schoolboy who learns it from 

studying geography. He get-s his ideas on finances from the gold-bugs of Wall 

street, who once d.emonetized silver and had it-the dollar-stricken from the 

coinage act clandestinely and wit.hout the consent of the people. :He learns his 

financial theories from 'Vall street, the leeches that suck the blood of the honest yeomanry of the West like vampires. That is where Mr. Cleveland gets his ideas of finance-. 'Vhen he wrote his gratuitous letter on the subject of silver coinage, even before he was inaugurated as President, he illustrated where he got his ideas, and 

he struck a blow at the West in t h e interest of the bondholders and money sharks, and I feel like sinking down in my boots; but when REAGAN, of Texas, 

and others stood up in their dignified manhood and wrote to him that he was the Executive and not the law·making power, and I saw these Democrats battling for their rights and the rights of the people against his assumptions, Ire- joiced again that I was a Democrat. 

Here it is maxked in parentheses that there was "tremendous applause." 

I do, in a great measure, indorse his administration. Fo1· the most part I in- dorse his vetoes of pension bills, but not every one. He vetoed ninety-seven 

pension bills, eighty-one of which had been rejected by Commissioaer W. W. Dudley, whose name is odoriferous all over the country. I am not here to defend e>ery one of his vetoes, but in the main I do. 

I have here an article from the St. Louis Post-DispatchofDecember 

D following, in which the statement is made upon the authority of that 

newspaper that the speech as reported, from which I have read, was sub- stantially correct, and there is given as authority 1\Ir. W. T. Sullivan, 

who makes his statement under oath, which is Bupported by the testi- mony of Judge Frank Ewing, of the Daviess County probate court, a prominent Democrat, who, when approached on the subject of Mr. 

Benton's speech, reluctantly admitted that Sullivan's report was sub· stantially correct, saying further: 

I am afraid Benton made use of the language attributed to him. I am ash·ong 

Cle,reland man myself, and I've got no use for any son of a gun who will draw a salary from the Government with one hand and rip it open with the other as Benton did. 

I have here the following statement: 

GALLATIN, Mo., December 14, 1886. 

'Ve have read the report of a speech made by United States district attorney 

for the western district of Missouri, Col.l\1. E. Benton, at Gallatin, Mo., October 

11,1836, and hereto attached, and having heard the speech delivered by Colonel 

Benton, we state that the report of the same is substantially correct. 

That is the report which I have read, which was signed by William 

1\f. Bostaph, attorney at law and ex-county clerk; John A. Keck, attorney at law; Boyd Dudley, lawyer, as to civil service and Cleveland's 

knowledge of the West; Hadly Brown, ex-county treasurer; A. H. 

Blakley, farmer and ex-justice of the peace for twelve years. 

A similar statement is made by Elder J. K. Reid, pa-stor of the 

Christian Church, and Oscar Saylor, attorney at law, and others: as 

follows: • 

The proof of the correctness of report of Benton's speech at Gallatin, tb.e following-named Democrats would testify to its substantial correctness: Elder J. K. Reid, pastor of the Christian Church. 

Oscar Saylor, attorney at law. Ed. E. Yates, chairman Democratic county central committee. l~r:mk Ewing, probate judge. 

William D. Hamilton, prosecuting attorney. Jesse McClure, att<>rney at law. William L. Brosius, M.D. D . Harfield Davis, druggist, late editor Gallatin Democrat Joshua F. Hicklin, att<>rney at law. James F. Nealand, member of city council. T. B. Yates, president Farmers' Exchange Bank. 
8240 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-- SENATE. 

I ask that the article from the Post-Dispatch, to which I have referred, may be inserted in the RECORD at this point. 

The article is as follows: • 

Last J nne, shortly after the renomination of the President of the 

United States, he hnd occasion to express himself upon certain things 

in a brief way which will probably find amplification some of these 

(From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 9, 1886.] days, if not forgotten, in a letter of a{!ceptance, in a speech which he 

Senator GEORGE G. VEST and other friends of Col. M. E. Benton, United States made to the committee which notified him that be had been nominated 

attorney for the western district of Missouri, are very much exercised over the as President by the St. Louis convention. I will read a few sentences attorney's unfortunate penchant for doing and saying the wrong thing on im- from his remarks then for the purpose of emphasizing what I have just 

portant occasions. Within the past week Senator VEST bas been called upon said about the results of his intercourse Wl.th the members of his party. to put forth his utmost influence to save Benton from a second and final sus- pension from office. Charged first with neglecting his official duties to bolster He goes on to say: 

up the Democratic party by making campaign speeches, Benton was rein- T~is occasion reminds me most vh·idly of the time when, a few years ago, I 

sto.ted on his own and Senator VEST's representations that he had attended received a message from my party similar to that which you now deliver, and 

strictly to the business of his office, and had always been a true and faithful w!th all that bas passed since that day I can truly say that the feelings of awe servant of the Administration. With which I beard the summons then is intensified many fold when it is re- Last week President Cleveland was surprised by the published report of a peated now. · speech said to have been·made by Benton, at Gallatin, Mo., in which the policy of the Administration was severely criticised, and the President himself personally When I got that far along I thought I understood the President thorattacked for his attitude on the silver question and civil-service reform. The ougbly; that in view of this pulling and haulin~ and this contention of 

President is reported to have been very angry when be heard of Benton's abuse the II dirty-socked Democracy," as described by Mr. Benton, in his of the Government under which he served, and it was generally believed at Washington that the district attorney would be severely dealt with. Senator presence, of this focusing and concentration of all the solicitations for 

VEST again rushed to Benton's rescue, and advices from the capital this morn- office contained in that party after its hunger of twenty-four years, he 

ing indicate that the President has again been convinced that the charges naturally must have been inspired with some fee1in 0a of awe at least, if •against Benton are untrue and that Benton is an ardent admirer and supporter of the Administration. A.. Post-Dispatch reporter, who visited Gallatin since not of absolute fear. He continues: ' 

the publication of Benton's speech, ascertained that the be.st of reasons exist Four years ago I knew that our chief executive office, if not carefully guarded, for believing that the speech was deli"vered as reported by Mr. W. T. Sullivan might drift little by little away from the people, to whom it belonged- and that it abounded in unpleasant reflections upon President Cleveland and That was before he had taken office- his policy. Mr. Sullivan has made affidavit to his report which charges Benton with having referred to the President's "civil-service bum buggery" and gives and become a perversion of all it ought to be. But I did not know how much 

Benton credit for having discovered that "Cleveland gets his fiuancial ideas its moorings had already been loosened. I knew four years ago how well defrom the gold bugs of 'Vall street." . vised were the feelings of Democracy for the successful operation of a GovernMr. Sullivan's affidavit is supported by the testimony of Judge Frank Ewing, ment by the people and for the people, but I did not know how absolutely of the Daviess County probate court, a prominent. Democrat of Gallatin, who necessary their application then was for the restoration to the people of their 

when approached upon the subject of Benton's speech reluctantly admitted safety and prosperity. 

that Sullivan's report was substantially correct. "I am afraid Benton made use There bad not been quite as many \etoes during the precedin0a ad- of the language attributed to him," said Judge Ewing. "I am a strong Cleve- · land man myself and I havegot no use for any son of a gun who will draw asal- mimstration as was necessary, as he seemed to say, in order to assert ary from the Government with one hand and rip it open with the other as Ben- the executive dignity and its relative importance. ton did. He said in effect that the President draws his inspiration on the silver I knew then that abuse and extravagance had crept into the management of 

question from the gold-bugs ofWallstreet, and referred to Cleveland's civil-sm·y. public affairsice policy as 'humbuggery.' Benton's remark~ were very ill-timed and inju- dicious. The Democrats of Daviess County brought him here to make a good, He probably had not then footed up the estimates and expenditures 

old-time, whoop-'exp-up Democratic speech, hoping by advertising him as a of his Administration during the three years since be came into power, nephew of old Tom Benton to d.raw out a. number of old Democratic voters. He d d · d t th k th b t ~100 000 000 · f th did not make the kind of speech we expected and threw a fire-brand in our an 1 no en now ey were a ou .., ' ' In excess 0 ose midst by attacking President Cleveland."· under his predecessor- ''Then Mr. Sullivan's report is correct?" but I did not know their numerous forms or the tenacity of their gt·asp. I 

"Yes, I believe it is." knew then something of the bitterness of partisan obstruction, but I did not Judge J. F. Hicklin, Democrat, ex-prosecuting attorney of Da.viess County, know how bitter, how reckless, and how shameless it could be. I knew, too, said: "I heard Mr. Benton's speech, and I believe that Sullivan's report of it is that the American people were patriotic and just, but I did not knowhow grandly in the main correct. Benton certainly criticised the President severely on his they loved their country nor how noble and generous they were. civil-service record. He claimed as a Democrat the right to express his own Th · di ·a 1 h ld · fr th te 1 ti f th fi opinions, and he did not hesitate to give utterance to them in a forcible man- e 10 Vl ua W O con riSe om e con mp a on 0 e east ner. I thought at the time that his language was somewhat inappropriate, which the President of the United States has bad before him for the 

coming from one of President Cleveland's appointees." last four years and say that until be bad entered upon that feast, until 

Mr. T. B. Yates, president of the Farmers' Exchange Bank of Gallatin, and a. h b d fi th fi tt• t th ·ty fW b" t db b prominent Democrat, had heard Benton's speech. "So far as I remember, Ben- e a come or e rs I me O e Cl 0 as mg on an een rought ton criticised the President'scivil-servicereformpolicy, and wasnotverychoice in contact with all this self-seeking, with this backbiting1 with this 

in his language, either. I believe he referred to it as civil-service 'humbug- defamation and everything of that kind which was voided upon can- gery.' While I hold practically the same views on this subject as 1\Ir. Benton, di~ tes d li ts t · h te · b il tb · still it struck me at the time that Mr. Benton might have found something else \•a arr app can . ' e c. • ln t e con nt10n a out spo s, at It took 

for discussion in a. Democratic speech. I do not think that be should have gone an atmosphere of that kind to enable him to know bow patriotic the out of his way to find fault with the President. I did not hear Benton's re- American people were, it seems to me must have lived in an hermet· 

marks on the silver question., . ll l d h fr 18 Mr. D. Harfield Davis, formerly editor of the Gallatin Democrat, said: "The lCa y-sea c vessel so mew ere om 61 to 1865. It is true the city 

impression produced on me by Benton's speech was very unfavorable to the of Buffalo was tolerably near the border, but I think there must baYe 

speaker. I thought that Benton should not have criticised President Cleve- been the sound of fife and drum in the streets there dliringthose peril-

!~~~~~j~i~l;~ti~~h:s j~~~~ c\~~~i!n~~-:inB!~~iJ ~~~~~!ft~~ ~~ :~~~s~!ea!,\f~ ous times. I think/ there must have been something to indicate that 

the President on civil service and the silver question, and expressed himself the great principles and the Government itself were at stake. I think 

very forcibly. He did not think that the President bad pursued the proper he must have seen, unless be closed his eyes, some one, father, mother; 

course, and, while I don't remember his exacJ; language, I think that Mr. Sulli- or brotber,w ho sent forth of the bravest and best of their household to van has reported it correctly." · be given as a sacrifice on the altar of their cotmtry. Mr. PLUUB. I do not really think it makes very much difference . I should hope that no one under the flag was obtuse enough to say to any Republican what the Democratic party or any member of it h · · d h 

may think, or even what any office-holder may think, about the Presi- that t at was not patnotic, an t at, after having gone through that, 

dent of the United States. I introduce this, however, for the purpose side-tracked as be was, out of sympathy, perhaps, with everything that was going on, he never had found in the whole course of his life any- of showing the contrast between the action of the President taken in thing which emphasized the patriotism of \he American people until 

the case of Mr. Benton, who abused his Administration, and the case be had come in contact with the so-called "dirty-socked" applicants 

of Mr. tone, who made a political speech, in which he did not abuse for office in the Democratic partv .. the Administration. This is a family quarrel, Mr. President, so far as it relates to Mr. 

At the time this wa; newmatt.er, current news, Hon. John M. Greer, Benton and the President. My only excuse forintrudingitat allis the 

of Pennsylvania-, made this certificate: BUTLER, PA., November 30, 1885_ fact that the spectacle of the President of the United States hold in~ an 

I wn.s present and heard the speech of Col. William A. Stone, at Butler, and even balance between a Republican district attorney and a Democratic 

he did not mention the President or his Administration. district attorney was paraded before the Senate yesterday as the reason JOHN M. GREER. why the Senate should visit condemnation upon one of it.s clerks who 

Yet the President of the United States in his letter in which here- bad ventured in hls off-hours to do exactly what be probably knew 

fused to reinsta.te Stone after be bad reinstated Benton, alleged as the wM done, what was at all events going on, by a fellow-clerk in the 

reason whv be did not reinstate Stone, that he (Stonej bad abused his House of Representatives who happened to belong to the other party. 

Administration. ~do not know what he would call abuse if he could There is more literature upon this subject which I do not care to bring 

not find something of that same kind in the remarks which Mr. Benton to the attention of the Senate, but there is enough to indicate that Mr. 

undoubtedly made, and which I have quoted. Be:nton was doing exactly what Ml'. Stone was accused of doing, but 

But, Mr. President, the Democratic party is evidently growing upon what Mr. Stone did not do; and that notwithstanding that under the 

the President of the United States since he got into the saddle. He influence of my friend from Missouri, who has a right to plume himhas seen here probably the greatest struggle for office, has participated self on his influence with this Administration, and is thoroughly enprobably in the greatest scramble for official place that has ever been titled to it in every respect, be was enabled to have Mr. Benton reinknown on this continent. More aspirants for office have interviewed st..<t.ted, while Mr. Stone wa.s not reinstated, and therefore the com- him, more have solicited him, more solicitations have been made in parison which be invited between the stem Roman virtue of Mr. 

behalf of applicants by Senators and members of tlle ·Honse than prob- Cleveland treating H.epublicans and Democrats alike and this act of 

ably ever vexed the eye, the ear, the nostrils of any other President partisanship manifested by a clerk of the Senate, it seems to me, fails 

since this Government began. I of its purpose. 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SEN ATE. -8241. 

Mr. VEST. Mr. President, I have simply to say in reply to that 

portion of the Senator's remarks in ·regard to an employe of the House 

of Representatives who has published a work, as I understand the Senator (for I have never seen it), over his signature as an employe of the 

H3use, that if that has been done the same rule should apply to him as to Mr. McKee. No employe of either the Senate or House has the 

right to publish a partisan work over his official signature. I stated 

it so distinctly yesterday that nothing but partisan misconstruction . could attempt to put any other meaning upon my language. 1\fr . .McKee has the most perfect right to publish what he pleases overhispersonal signature as a. citizen of this Republic, but I state now most emphatically, and I do not think that after the clouds of partisan combat 

have been removed there can be any doubt about it, that no employe 

of the Senate, Democratic or Nepublican, should use his official position 

to send partisan publications to the people of the United States. If it 

be done by one side it may be done by the other, and the dignity and 

fairness which have always characterized the Senate of the United 

States will most certainly be destroyed by any such proceedings. 

In regard to M:r. Benton, that is old stmw which has been thrashed 

time and again. I could detain the Senate for hours reading affidavits 

to the effect that M:r. Benton made no such utterances as those which 

have been read by the Senator from Kansas, and it is most astonishing 

that in all the debates we have iu this Chamber which partake of anything like a partisan character, Senators upon that side persist in bringing in the declarations of their own people tinged with partisan malevolence towards their political opponents. 

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is the most extreme partisan paper 

west of the Mississippi River, and notorious y so. The St. Louis PostDispatch is not a Democratic paper, but is an independent paper which 

opposes the Administration when it sees proper to do so and opposes 

the Democratic party when it sees proper. 

Mr. PLUMB. ·Allow me to ask the Senator in regard to the PostDispatch, if it is not published by Mr. Pulitzer, of the New York 

World? 

1\Ir. VEST. Yes, sir; it belongs to him. 

Mr. PL Ul\IB. The New York World is a Democratic paper. I will 

ask the Senator if the Post-Dispatch ever supported the Republican 

ticket? Does it not practically support in .Missouri at all tunes the 

Democratic ti~ket, although making short excursions in other dirclctions at times? 

Mr. VEST. The Post-Dispatch is an independent paper. It does 

not consider itself bound by party nominations, and when the Senator 

asks me if Mr. Pulitzer does not own and conduct that paper, I simply 

point to an instance in the capital of the country, where the Post is 

published, and although a majority of the stock is owned by an avowed 

Democrat, it is published to-day in the interest uf the Republican party, 

and notoriously so. 

Mr. BLAIR. The Washington Post? 

Mr. VEST. Yes, sir. 

hlr. DLAIR. I say if it is published intentionally in the interest of 

the Republican party, it certainly lacks ability to accomplish its own end. [Laughter.] 

1\fr. VEST. I do not question the right of the Washington Post to 

declare its sentiments upon one side or the other, but I state most emphatically that u· it be a Democratic paper it is the most complete 

failure politically that bas ever been known in journalism in this 

country. Heaven defend the Democratic party if that is a Democratic 

paper. [Laughter. J - fr. BLAIR. I did not wish to raise any issue of facts with the Senator, but 1-do not desire to be understood as assenting to any of his 

conclusions regarding the Washington Post. 

Mr. VEST. I ask nobody to assent to conclusions. I state notorious 

facts, and I state that the Democratic party is not responsible for the 

utterances of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch any more than it is for those 

nf the Globe-Democrat, and every Missouri Democrat knows what I say 

to be true. 

When these charges were made against :M:r. Benton he promptly and 

person:1lly over his own signature declared them to be false. Affidavits 

were obtained, and affidavits could be obtained to any allegation in a partisan canvass. Many of those affidavits came from utterly unreliable sources. Senat<>rs drag iu here the name of one ,V. T. Sullivan, 

whoedit..c; a paper iu Gallatin, Mo., that in partisan malevolence is a disgrace to journalism and to civilization; a man who when the President of the United States was accused of having committed a disloyal 

act in removing the Confederate flags, or in proposing to give them back 

to t.he States, used language in regard to the President that I will not 

pollute this presence in quoting; a mau who has falsified in every way 

possible, personally and publicly, the truth in order to defame Democrats and the Democratic organization; aman who manufactured a libel 

iu 1egard to me personally, without one particle of foundation, simply 

au<lsolely because I happened to beaDemocratandheamemberofthe 

opposite party; a man who would not be believed on oath as to any 

• p:uty matter in the State of :Missouri,· even by members of his own party. 

Mr. PLUMB. Let me he.·u what the Senator says there. He would 

XIX-. 516 

not be believed on oath? Does the Senator doubt the independent 

editor of the St. Louis Post? 

:Mr. VEST. That publication in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was made simply as a matter of sensational news, without any personal 

knowledge on the part of that editor. Mr. Sullivan, of this Gallatin 

paper, pretended to give his statement--

.Mr. PLUMB. But that paper alludes to Judge Ewing, in that 

county, and another Democrat of the county who made a statement to 

the effect that Mr. Sullivan had stated the matter about correctly . Mr. VEST. I have a bundle of papers which would take up the 

time of the Senate for two hours, showing tbat Judge Ewing was mistaken, and that :Mr. Yates, who made that statement which was read 

here, afterwards c.ame out in a public card and said be was mistaken. 

It was in the confusion of a large mass meeting, and we know with 

what facility men misconstrue the utterances of a stump-speaker in a canvass of great asperity and bitterness. All these facts were bid before the President pro and con, and I made the issue that Benton bad 

been misrepresented, that he had made no such statements, and I filed 

affidavits in addition to' Benton's own personal statement, and the 

President passed upon the matter as a question of fact and came to the 

conclusion that Benton bad not made these assaults up::m his admin- • 

i:Stration which were charged against him. 

The Senator from Kansas has taken a wide range in this discussion 

and comes back to the utterances of the President complimentary toward the people of the United States based upon his more intimate 

knowledge of them as their chief executive officer. .Is it to his discredit that after nearly four years of administration over all the people 

of the United States he gives this public testimony as to their patriotism and as to their zeal tor the welfare of this whole country? 

Is that a crime? Would the Senator put a lock upon the President's 

mouth and if he chances to say anything complimentary to the people 

of the United States, who have paid him the highest honor that can be given to any mortal man, should that be seized and distorted to his 

disadvantage? If the Senator wants to go into this whole can·vass as 

to the civil-service reform and the manner in which it has been conducted, I would be glad to know what Senator it was on that side of 

this Chamber ·who told Mr. Foster, the chairman of the club asso- ciation of the Republican party, that he wanted to fry the fat out of 

the Pennsylvania manufacturers in order to elect a Republican President. If we are to go into crimination and recrimination and crossexamination, let us know who that was, or let us know that Ir. Foster has stated a falsehood publicly over his own signature. The two 

Senators from Vermont deny emphatically that they ~adc any such 

statement. Who was it? And when that question is answered, I 

propose to go further into the details of this campaign. 

Mr. REAGAN. 1\:U. President, the Senator· from Kansas, in the course of his remarks, took occasion to refer contemptuously to the 

''dirty-socked Democracy." 

Mr. PLUMB. Oh, no Mr. President, I only quoted what a member of that party ~id about it. I did not say anything about it myself. 

Mr. REAGAN. The gentleman :first read that remark from a paper . and then repeated it on his own responsibility. 

Mr. PLUMB. I only repeated it as coming from Mr. Benton. If 

Mr. Benton is a United Stat-es district attorney, he ought to be good 

Democratic authority. If he is, let the Senator make his complaint of 

him and not of me. M:r. REAGAN. I only wish to say that, supposing the Senator from 

Kansas to be a kind-hearted and good-feeling man, I was inclined to 

make a suggestion that he ought to be more kindly disposed to those 

who have been so useful and so serviceable to his party for the last 

twenty-<>dd years. We have had a peculiar sort of legislation during 

the time the Republican party controlled the legislation of Congress; a sort of legislation which had for its object-at least it certainly had 

for its effect-to tax the laboring masses of the people for the benefit of ' · corporations, bondholders, and other holders of money. ''The dirtysocked Democracy'' have had a great deal of these taxes to ~ay; a very 

gre.'tt deal. 

Mr. PLUl\ffi. I might say that "the dirty-socked Democracy" were 

the means of creating all of those taxes themselves. 

Mr. REAGAN. The gentleman will not escape the responsibility 

of what he says by raising a question about the war. I shall not go 

into that with him and I am not going to 1-aise any question about the 

amount of debt that was imposed upon the country. I have no fimlt 

to :find with the action of the Government in its financial policy during the time that debt was created. I doubt not that the best policy 

which could be pursued under the circumstances was pursued, but the 

time came when the abundance of paper money anrl the redundancy 

of the circulation rendered it of less value than coin; indeed, at one 

time I believe it took about $2.60 of paper to buy $1 in coin. What I 

complain of is w bat occurred after that. The Democracy was not responsible for the fact that in 1869 the Republican party in Congress, 

with the approval of a Republican President, passed a law which took 

away from the people the right to pay off the public debt in the kind 

of currency in which it was created, for up to that time the bonds of 
·' 

8242 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. SEPTEl\1BER 4, 

the Government were payable in lawful money, in gold and silver coin 

and in legal-tender notes. Specie payment had been suspended and it 

was not resumed until nine years after that time, in 1878, and notwithstanding that in 1869 a law was passed by the Republican party 

in the interest of the bondholders and moneyed classes, under the title 

of ''An act to strengthen the public credit," declaring that the bonded 

debt should be paid in coin, gold and silver, alone. That reduction 

of the kinds of money out of which this debt could be paid, that reduction of the volume of the currency out of which this debt could be 

paid, was not a result of the war. It was the deliberate purpose toiucrease the value of the bonds and to increase the burdens of the people in order to make the bonds more valuable. 

Mr. HOAR. May I ask the Senator a question? 

Mr. REAGAN. Certainly. 

Mr. HOAR. I desire to ask th-9 Senator if he has the slightest doubt 

that President Cleveland ~nd every Democratic Secretary of the Treasury entirely approved the policy he now criticises? 

Mr. REAGAN. It is possible the Senator may be right. I have 

never agreed with the policy of the Administration on the subjeet of 

the finances. I have never concealed· the fuct that I did not agree 

with it. 

?t!r. BLAIR. May I ask the Senator a qu.estion? 

Mr. REAGAN. Certainly. 

Mr. BLAIR. Does he include the men referred to by the Senator 

from Massachusetts as among this "dirty-sbcked Democracy" that he 

is defending? , _ 

Mr. REA.GAN. I shall have to let the Senator answer his question 

for himselL I do not know what class of Democracy he would assign 

this to. But I desire to say in additiOn to what I was saying upon th..'l.t 

subject that while I do not approve the policy of the Administration 

upon the subject of coinage and currency, I do approve most heartily 

of the other policy of the Administration. 

Mr. HoAR rose. Mr. REAGAN. I shall be much obliged to ~entlemen if they will 

- allow me to proceed a little while. 

I do believe that Mr. Cleveland has given the country a faithful, 

honest administration that has shown great ability with that grandeur 

of moral courage which has enabled him under circumstances of great 

trial to defend the Constitution and under circumstances_ of greater 

trial to proteCt; the Treasury of the United Stat-es against planderers, 

and I feel as anxious for his success in this election as any Senator or 

any other ID.a:fl in this country, because I belie-ve it is for the best interests of the conn try that he should succeed. If he happens to agree 

with the Republican party upon the financial question, and there is no 

other question upon which be agrees with them. I would not surrender the opportunity of benefiting the country because I may differ with 

the Administration upon a single question and tu.rn it over to the very 

party which has enacted the legislation which it is my purpose to caJl 

attention to now. . , At the time this was done the public debt of th~United States was-

$2,5 8,000,000. It is difficult to realize what a billion of dol1.'tfs 

means. A single billion is more seconds than there have been since the 

birth of our Saviour. This enormous debt bas been hanging 'over the 

people, and when the Government found it necessary to improve its 

currency by a reduction of the volume of its notes,' by funding them, 

in order to induce the funding of them, and I make no question that 

it was the best to be done under the circumstances, it authorized the 

sale of bonds for currency at par, and a very large part of the bonds 

were taken that did not cost the holders more than 50 or 60 cents on the 

dollar. In 1869, when the currency had somewhat appreciated O\er 

what it was when they purchased the bonds, they ought to have consented to let the bonds be paid off in the same sort of currency; but it 

was the interest of the bondholders, the interest of the money-holders, 

that they should be paid in coin, though they were bought with paper 

worth 50 cents on the dollar, and the Republican party gave-them that 

opportunity at the expense of ''the dirt.y-socked Democracy'' of this 

country. 

Again, sir, in 1873 the bondholders found that ''coin'' was not good 

enough for them, not good enoughfor the payment of the bonds which 

cost them 50 cents on the dollar, and then a Republican Congress, with 

the approval of a Republican President, suspended the coinage of sil>er 

and declared it should not be recei>able in payment for any debt exceeding $5 in amount in one payment; so that half the metal money 

of the world was taken away from ''thedirty-sockedDemocraey,'' who 

had to aid in the payment of this enormous debt because of the action 

of the Republican party, and that, too, in the face of the fact that this 

country was the largest silver producing country in the world, producing at that time, as it does now, about 40 per cent. of all the silver that 

is mined from the earth, holding a boon in this respect which any 

other nation on the earth would have paid countless millions· to possess; that is, any nation consulting the interests and prosperity of its 

people; and we who were blessed with this boon of furnishing the conn- try with a metallic money, which had been the money of this country 

from the fou.ndation of the Government and a part of the money of the 

world as far back as we know its history or traditions, set aside silver 

as money in order to increase the value of the bonds held by the b~ndholders, the pets of the Republican party, and to benefit the bankers 

and other mol}ey holders. 

Not content with this, in 1875, when there were only fom hundred 

millions of legal-tender notes still outstanding, the Republican party, 

with the approval of a Republican President, passed a law requiring 

that after the 1st of January following the passage of the act they should 

be canceled, destroyed, and retired from circulation; and that, too, at 

a time of a financial crisis so appalling as to produce bankruptcy all 

over this country and caused debtors to be u.nable to pay their debta, 

citizens to be ·unable to pay their taxes; and the newspapers of e*ery 

county from .Maine to Californin. were filled with a-dvertisements of prop- erty, real and personal, forsaJefor taxe!'!. Why? Because of the dearth 

of currency; because of the contraction which had been produced in 

the in~erest of the bo)ldholders for the purpose, as Republicans alleged, 

of gettrng down to hard pan, which they seemed to regard as a panacea 

for all our evils at that t-ime. They passed this law in 1875. So that 

portion of our money waB to be taken away from "the dirty-socked 

Democracy," who did not hold the offices, who did not pass tho laws, 

and who did not control the public policy, but who had to help foot the 

bills and pay the taxes. An attempt was made to deprive ''the dirtysocked Democracy" of that means of aiding to pay the public debt and 

their private debts and taxes. 

When the Democracy got control of the House of R~presentatives in 

the Forty-fourth Congress they went to work to repeal the law, after 

some fifty or more millions had been retired under it, which authorized 

the taking up of this currency, and they struggled for that until they 

secured its repeal in 1878 and preserved to the people as currency three 

hundred and forty-six millions and orne odd dollars to aid in the industries of the country and to reward the labor of the country, and preserved it as money for the use of the people, instead of making it a 

bonded debt to increase the burdens of the people still more. . 

Mr. PLUMB. Will the Senator allow me to ask him a question? 

Mr. REAGA...~. Certainly. . 

Mr. PLU:M:B. I would ask, in the first place, whether he does not 

recall that Mr . .Manning, the late Secreta;ry of the Treasury under this 

Administration, in his report for 1886 recommended the retirement of 

all the greenback notes? 

1\Ir. REAGAN. The gentleman need not quote that authority upon 

me. He need not quote it upon the Democratic party. The Democratic party is not responsible, it never was responsible for it, as test 

votes in the two Houses of Congress for twelve or fourteen years have 

2hown conclusively, and I hope the gentleman will not put Republic.'Ul 

doctrine to me to know whether the Democratic party is responsible 

for it. 

l'lfr. PLU1.-1B. Inasmuch as the Senator says that the Democratic 

party is notre ponsiblEt for Mr. Uanning, let me ask who is responsible? 

Mr. REAGAN. The gentleman can have his opinion about that. I 

simply desire to add a few words to what I have said, if the gentleman 

will allow me. He can state what he pleases when I yield the floor. 

I will be soon through. 

I was showing that as soon as the Democrats got control of the Hou~e 

of Representatives they commenced the struggle to repeal that law and 

preserve the currency. I say the Democrats did it, because in the Home 

of Representatives the great body of the Democrats voted for it, while 

a good many Republicans, mostly W estem Republicans, did so too, 

but the majority was Democratic, and in the Senate-the same sort of 

public opinion, although it was a Republican Senate, aiding the Democratic policy, struck down this blow at the industrial interests of the 

country. 

Mr. PLUMB. The Senator will permit me to ask him who was the 

member of the House of Representatives who introduced the bill of 

which he has spoken? 

Mr. REAGAN. I can not call the particular name, but there were a great many bills introduced.· 

Mr. PLUl'IIB. The bill that was actually passed, I will say for the 

Senator's information, and he can easily verity it, was introduced by 

Mr. FORD, of Illinois, a Republican Representative from that State. 

Mr. REAGAN. There were some Western Republicans >ery earn- • estly in favor of this measure, but I say it was the Democratic party 

which repealed the Republican legislation on that subject; and when I 

speak of the Democratic and Republican parties, I mean the controlling 

elements of tho e two parties. At the same time the Democratic party 

undertook the work of trying to remonetize silver and make it again 

a part of the money of this country, and in 1878 the same class of Re- publicans, Western Republicans, representing agricultural and industrial interests in this country outside of corporations, aided them to so. 

cure the coinage of silver dollars in an amount of not less than $2,000,-

000 nor. more than $4,000,000 a month, making them a lawful tender 

in all payments and providing for silver certificates and making them 

a legal tender for taxes and dues of all kind 3 to the Go-vernment, thus 

restoring to the American people the use of the $346,000,000 of legaltender notes, and restoring to the people the use of the-ir traditional coin 

money. 

This was some of the work of ''the dirty-socked Democracy ' ' in try:. 

ing to help themselves into a position of some sort of capacity to-help 

pay the eno~mous taxes which had been imposed on them by theRe-
. 1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 8243 ' 

publican party for the purpose of aiding and enriching and making 

millionaires of bondholders and other money lords; 

Mr. PLUMB. The Senator from Texas seems to have got away from 

the line of discussion which preceded his remarks into what was a very 

interesting field, however, and all the more interesting because, if I 

understand him, the policy of this Administration, which be does not 

deny, is one which makes the difference between poverty and affiuence; 

and yet, if I understand him, not so much by what he said as by what 

be expects to do and what he is now doing, he is supporting the very 

Administration which makes this difterence, and that is a difference by 

which this Administration is put on the side of affiue:J;lce and against 

that of poverty. 

Mr. REAGAN. I want to tell the Senator that I would rather have one branch of the Government wrong than to l et the Repnblican_party 

govern, which is wrong all over. 1\Ir. PLUI\1B. The Senat-or found but one thing that was wrong, or, 

at all events, which be thought it was proper to characterize, and that was the question of dealing with the currency; and -now he confesses 

that this Democratic Administration is pursuing a policy in the in- terest of the bondholders which is against the pe-ople, which IIl!lkes for 

afiluence against poverty, which is in favor of classes against the 

masses, and yet on that very strong declaration he finds it in his way 

to very zealously support such an Administration. I think by the 

time he bas had some further eA.t:>erience of this Administration be 

will probably become as complacent as some others have become. I 

will call his attention to the fact that not only is this Administration so minded, but that the Senate at the present session, on one of the 

days of last March, passed an act providing for the issuance of silver 

certificates to take the place of retiring national-bank notes in order 

that there might be no further contraction of the currency, and the 

Democratic House of Representatives has not only side-tracked it, but 

made it absolutely certain that it will not be passed at least during 

this session. So it seems to me that the Senator must not quarrel only 

with one branch of the Government controlled by his party, but with 

both of them. 

Mr. STEW ART. Ur. President, I sympathize very deeply with my 

friend from Texas [Mr. REAGAN], concurring with him in much that 

he bas said. There bi~ive been serious mistakes in our financial legislation, and particularly in the legislation relating to silver. I appre- ciate the embarrassment under which he labors and the necessity for some excuse for supporting the present Administration and the re-election of M:r. Cleveland. Since Mr. Cleveland was elected President the 

price of silver has been depreciate4, ma}nly by his efforts, over 17 per 

cent. Two-thirds or nearly three-fourths of the two Houses declared that 

under the laws as they existed every dollar of public debt was payable 

in either gold or silver, after full discussion in the Senate and the 

House in 1878, and in the same year the Bland act was pa....<~Sed provid- ing for the coinage of a limited amount of silver. Notwithstanding 

all this, after the election of Mr. Clevelan~, but before he was inaugurated, he sent a message or wrote a letter to the Democratic members 

of the Forty-eighth C-ongress strongly urging, 1f I r emember correctly, 

the repeal of the Bland act and all laws providing for the coinage of 

silver, and assigning as a reason that if they were not repealed we might be driven to the humiliating position of paying in silver bonds 

which ought to be paid in gold, and h e predicted all sorts of ruin if 

that was not done. 

Further along in the summer! in July, 1885, be authorized a gentle- man by the name of George Walker, consul-general at Paris, to attend 

the monetary convention that convened in Paris at that time, and who 

informed them that the public sentiment in the United States had 

changed; that there was a. growing sentiment in favor of the repeal ot 

the Bland act, and that his administration would do all it could to ac- complish that purpose. When C-ongress assembled he informed us of 

what be had done in that regard. Not only that, but on the assem- bling of C-ongress in 1885 he repeated his urgent request. 

Mr. REAGAN. I want to ask the Senator if the President said 

that. 

Mr. STEW ART. Yes. 

1\Ir. HEAGAN. I had not heard that before. 

Mr. STEW ART. I am not quoting l1is exact language; I am giv- ing the substance of it. The President in his messag~ to Congress indor;;ed what George 'Walker had stated to the monetary conference and 

said that he had sent him there for that purpose. Then when C-ongress assembled in 1885, the President sent an urgent message demand- ing nearly, urging at all events, the immediate repeal of the Bland act 

and the discontinuance of the coinage of silver, and predictinO' ruin to 

the country if it was not done. 0 

Following that, in 1886 he sent a similar mes..~ge with a similar pre- diction. 

'J'b:tt is not all. The persons whom he selected to go to Europe to 

c01rnlt European financiers as to the silver question were monometallists-Manton Marble in 1885 and Edward Atkinson in 1887. 

The fact has already been adduced that we amended the bond-pur- chasing bill in the Senate b.Y a Yote of 28 to 13 by adding an amend- ment requiring the uecretary of the Tr~asury to purchase and coin suf- ficient silver to take the place of the national-bank notes retired and 

so to prevent further contraction. It is understood to·day, and it bas 

never been denied, that through the influence of the Treasury Department that bill was smothered in the Committee on Ways and Means in 

the other House, and the House has not had an opportunity to vote for 

it, because it is very well known that in that House probably three to 

one are reaJ.!y in favor of the free coinage of silver. When the Democratic national convention met it put nothing m its platform in regard 

to silver, although a large part of the party were in favor of doing so, 

bowing to the President's will in that regard. The election of President Cleveland with his disposition to use th~ 

veto power makes it almost impossible that there should be apy reliet 

in the next four r...ars from this oppression if he shall be re-elected. 

He is in favor of tne single gold standard and the payment of bonds 

in gold. All his Secretaries of the Treasury have advocated that policy, 

and the re-election of Cleveland holds out to the country that policy 

and only that policy, and going so fil.r as to ta.ke the legal-tender power 

from all greenbacks, to withdraw the legal-tender power of greenbacks, 

and to proceed to get to the single gold standard. The Senator well 

knows what effect that has produced upon this country. He knows 

very well that the prices of wheat and cotton have followed the price 

of silver down. Every fall in silver has produced a like fall in wheat 

and cotton. He knows very well that the purchasing power of silver 

in every country which has retained silver for its legal standard is tbo 

same that it ever has been, that a rupee in IndJa will buy as much 

wheat to-day as it ever would, and he k.uows -very well that that gi-ves 

the English operator the chance to come to America and buy cheap . silver, buy it at over 30 per cent. discount and invest it in wheat in 

India at par, and by means of which last year India exported to _the 

European markets about 40,000,000 bushels of wheat. She had no ex- ports of wheat at the time silver was demonetized. 

He knows very well that it is cheap silver that enables India anr1 

Russia and other wheat-producing co'nntries that retain the siher standard to undersell American wheat in a market where it has to be 

paid for with gold. He knows very well, if he has studied this ques- tion, that cotton and wheat are both lower than they ever were in the 

history of the world; they have reached a lower point in value. He 

knows very well how the property of the people of this country is 

mortgaged, how imposaible it is for them to relieve themselves from 

the pressure of these mortgages on account of the low price of wheat 

and cotton and the high price of money. He knows very well that 

Mr. Cleveland has the same view that the bankers have of good money. 

"Good money" with them means scarce money ; "good money" with 

the bankers means bard times. That is their definition of it, and still 

you hear them quoted as authority. 

Why do you not quote the various trusts? Why doyou not quote 

the whisky trust and the cotton trust and the sugar trust and the 

Standard Oil trust and other trusts? Why do yon not quote the dec· 

larations of ~hose con.-::erned in them in favor of trusts to prove that 

those trusts are proper? And why do we have constantly q notations 

from the money trust? Why do we have in the Treasury Department 

only those who are taught to believe that there can be no good money 

but scarce and dear money; that when money is sufficiently plenty so that the people can prosper, that is bad money. Why does this Administration continue to intrench in that Department people that only 

view one side of the question1 only view the interest of the bondholders? 

Why is it that the Senator is supp01·ting such an Administration as that? 

Mr. REAGAN. Will the Senator allow me to ask him a question? 

Mr. STEW ART. I would rather not be interrupted for a. minute. 

I have some other things to say. 

1r. REAGAN. I would like to ask the Senator a question at that 

point. Mr. STEW ART. I know the Senator from Texas at heart is in favor 

of the people; I know he is opposed to the oppression that the President of the United States is bringing upon his country; I know he sympathizes with the farmers who are being sold out; I know that he wants 

silver remonetized; but he has fallen into another trap which will be as severe on them as this. If he will read the history of the past, if 

he will use sound common sense, he will know that the more goods 

bought abroad the more money will be sent out to buy the goods and 

to pay balances. If h~ will examine the history of the tariff of 1833 

when it got in full operation, with a sliding scale as it had, when the 

full force of it was reached, it bore this country into that crisis of 1837 

which robbed every enterpriseofsucceEs, madebankruptcyeverywhere 

and distress univ~rsal, when all th~ money was taken from the country. 

It became dearer than by any other act of contraction, it became dearer even than by the demonetization of silver. Property was valueless because there was no money with which to boy it. The circulating me- dium was sent abroad. It was sent abroad to pay for the glut, as Lord 

Brougham called it. He &'lid the English could well afford after the 

war of 1812 to lose money by flooding and. destroying the American 

market and fOf'cing us to take their commodities. I say that glut too~ 

the money from this country in-1837. 

Will the Senat.or look a little furt.her? It is true the act of 1846 did 

not produce as bad effects as that of 1833, and there are very few who understand the reason why. It would have produced ruin but for two 
8244 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. SEPTEMBER 4, 

circumstances. The Mexican war made business. The people can stand almost anything in war. And then the gold from California came in time to save the country from bankruptcy, to furnish a con- stant flow of rold to be exported. It induced railroad building and 

enterprise, and the country endured that tariff for eleven years. - But 

it will be remembered at the end of eleven years the fatal tariff act of 

1857 was passed, and notwithstanding tl)e flow of gold continued that 

was the last straw which broke the camel's back. The glut came, the mo~ey went, and again came universal bankruptcy. And now at this 

crisis, when the money is contracted, and when this Administration is 

advocating its furtbeT contraction, when prices are lower than they have 

been in a hundred years, when the Western farms are covered wi1.h 

mortgages, when the loss of our circulating medium would be fatal, 

the Senator, I understand, is in favor-! hope be is not, but I fear be 

is in favor-of free trade, in favor of taking off our tariff, in faYor of allowing England and all the world to t,llrow their surplus in here again. 

Withdraw our currency and then you will have dear money. 

These I understand to be the c.:'trdioal principles of this Administration-the single gold standard, the withdrawal of our scanty circulating 

medium to buy goods abroad, whereby the people of this country will 

be deprived of money with which to do business; and the Senator con- templates with complacency the ];)icture that is before him here of inevitable bankruptcy from the po1icy of this President, and still his 

Democracy holds him to it. I know the Senator is a patriotic man; I 

know that he believes in the people. I have Apoken in his praise to my 

people for the efforts he made in behalf of silver and other great reforms, . but I am sorry to see him now following the lead of this man who is in 

sympathy with the single gold standard and free trade, the twin sisters 

of destruction to our people. The single gold standaxd contracts the 

currency; free trade withdraws what is left and leaves the country in 

ruin. Iamsorry, ltlay, thatmyfriendfromTexascancontemplatewith 

composure the spectacle that is before him with the election of :Mr. 

Cleveland, if that calamity can possibly happen. 

.Mr. REAGAN. Mr. President, I am obliged to the Senator from 

Nevada for his kindness and sympathy and sorrow for my unfortunate 

position. I simply ask him to reverse that picture and look through 

the other end of the glass. The Republican party, which brought 

ahout the condition of things which contracted the currency, which demonetized silver, and which is responsible for it, has no condemnation 

from him, and he is supporting that party when he knows that the 

great body of the Democratic party ag~ees in sentiment with him, and · the Democrats in both Houses of Congress hold the same views which 

be does, and yet he fails to act with them and acts and votes with the 

party that has produced the very condition of things which he laments 

and condemns. 

Mr. STEW ART. Will the Senator allow me a word? 

Mr. REAGAN. Certainly. 

Mr. STEWART. We know two things which reconcile me to my 

position. We know that Cleveland will veto any bill giving relief looking to the remonetization orrecoinageof silver, and we know that Harrison will not. 

Mr. REAGAN. I do not see how the Senator knows that. If he 

does, he knows that .1\ir. Harrison has changed his position since he was 

in Congress. I see np indication of it, and Senator Harrison, the Republican candidate for President, would not dare to avow what the Senator avows for him. If he did, he would lose the support of the very men who are mging his election, because he is a practical representative of those who favor cws interests at the expense Gf the public. 

But I have no speech to make. I simply want the Senator to reverse that glass and look at himself supporting and vindicating a party that 

brought these things about and refusing to act with the great body of 

the Democratic party in correcting them. I shall express no sorrow for it. He does not want that. If he does not mind be will express 

the sorrow for himself after a little while. 

.Mr. STEW ART. I like my condition. The Republican party has 

declared in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money-not as a depreciated coinage, but as money. The Republican party is the 

p:uty in fasor of the tariff and opposed to the withdrawal of what 

mouey'we have to buy goods elsewhere, which is the precipice over which if we ever step ruin is inevitable, because it has always followed. 

Like causes wm continue to produce like effects. Free trade will con- 1ract the currency, destroy business, and produce bankruptcy. We 

have as much contraction as we can stand. I will go with Democrats or Republicans for any measure of reform, but I will not fight under 

the banner of any man who I know is in favor of either free tracle or the contraction of the currency to further rob the people, and I will not 

act in conjunction with any clique in New Yor.k of importers, agents 

for foreign manufacturers, to enable them to getour markets for Europeans, nor will I act in harmony with their coadjutors, their partners, 

the money kings, who like free-traders because they are connected in 

business with free-traders, and also because free trade will make money scarcer in this country and enhance the value of their bonds and their 

money. I say that I will not fight under that banner, and I am astonished that any Democrat should fight under a chieftain who believes in eoutractin~ the currency by narrowing it down to a gold standard and 

• 

then robbing the people of what is left by sending the money abroad 

to buy commodities elsewhere. 

Ur. BLAIR. Mr. President, it is rather a difficult thing, at least I 

should imagine it would be, fur one to take part in funeral exercises 

with the corpse absent, which is my situation just now, for I intended to address myself to the Senator fr<'m Texas [Ur. REAGAN] 

for a moment, but he has disappeared, and I will say wbat little I 

have to say without any very special reference to him. 

M:r. STEW ART. Will the Senator allow me to call up the Chinese 

bill, and let him go on upon that? [Laughter.] 

I\fr. BLAIR Not now, though I may be able to say a word or two 

that will be appropriate to that. 

The Senator from Texas ought to be .sympathized with by everybody on both sides of the Cha.mber because of-the remarks which have 

been made by him which have grown out of the confusion of mind that 

evidently exists either on his part or on that of the rest of us. 

Mr. COCKRELL. The '' corpse '' is here. 

lli. BLAIR. -I see. That proves the doctrine of tpe resurrection: 

It does not sbowtbat what I said is not true, but simplydemonstrates 

the doctrine of the resurrection. I am glad to see him. 

The Senator from Texas is nothing unless ho is accurate, accurate in 

statistics; and so knowing that his figures would be true if anything 

he said was true, I listened to what be said in endeavoring to magnify 

the sorrows of the country, to give us an idea of the enormous pecu- niary burdens of taxation that we were suffering under, and especially 

that. mud-socked Democracy, who, it seems, are paying all the sum, · although unable to supply themselves with decent socks. In endeavoring to give us a correct mathematical idea of the oppression they were suffering under he sought to fasten in the mind ~ome notion of its enor- mous significance by the word "billion," and he said to us ''a billion, 

why, what is a billion?" Then he said it was a larger number than 

aU the seconds of time since the commencement of the Christian era. I knew that ta be true if anythinghe said was true, and so I went to 

work while he was delivering himself of the other matter which would 

be of le~::s importance I knew than these statistics-we can tie to sta- tistics; you know tnat figures will not 1ie, although those who make 

them can, but the Senator is not one of those who do lie about figures; 

he is accmate on figures if on anything-so I made the calculation, and 

I find, unless my figures lie-I have been over them twice-that since 

the commencement of the--<Jruistian era there hlllve been just 59,539,-

968,000 seconds of time. I take it that is about sixty times as many as the Senator says, an<l I think he has given us about one-sixtieth part 

of the truth in his general utterances making up the balance of his 

speech, certainly not more, because the figures, in which he was likely 

to be most accurate, are sixty times out of the way. 

Mr. President, the Senator should be sympathized with in another 

regard, and that is that be failed to draw a distinction between the two 

great divisions which exist in the Democracy. He spoke of that mudsocked Democracy that pays all the ta:Xation of the country, it seems, for 

the Senator did not in his remarks intimate at an that any Republican, 

North or South, contributed a dollar towards the taxation that has 

fallen upon the country, but itisaUtakenoutofthemud-socked Democracy; but when I intimated to him that there might be some other 

wing of the Democracy he would not answer my question, you recollect. 

He omits wholly the great silk-stocking Democracy to which his President and almost every leader of his party belongs that has anything what- ever to do with shaping its policy or dictating the condition or issues 

of this campaign. The Senator is, like myself, likely to be right, even to the extent of being sometimes called " a crank." 

I have before this time welcomed him to my spacious bosom as an advocate of the great doctrine of prohibition! and I have a sort of ieeling of sympathy for him in the minority in his clifficuUies in his own party in other directions in the lone and humble and humiliating r.o- sition which he occupies among this mud-socked .Democracy. I sym- pathize with him. When occasionally he does not see bow to appear 

in the campaign until a little too late, I do not blame him for assailing 

Cleveland and Bayard and Barnum and Brice and all those men con- stituting the silk-stocking Democracy, which dictated the policy of 

which he complains, and who are the only arbiters of the fate of the 

Democratic party, and unfortunately at the present time of the coun- try itself. I have a feeling of sympathy for him. I have found no difficulty in acquiescing in the most of what he said, because ,.,bat be 

said, if it were true, was more true than of anybody else of the silkstocking Democracy, which is seeking again to be elevated to power 

and to perpetrate and continue these outrages for at least four years 

more. Mr. President, this is a war of newspapers to some extent. The Senator from Missouri [Mr. VEST] a few days siuce mace some allusion to 

the New York Tribune, and I have an editorial from the New York 

Tribune which I wish to put in the RECORD, because it is so trne. I 

know the Senator\vill call it good authority. His partisan feeling oc- casionally may incline him to criticise what is said in a Republican 

newspaper and say it is a lie, as he did say very plainly and bluntly in 

reference to all the contents of the New York Tribune as a partisan 

paper. The New York Tribune, the Senator ought to know, is tb3 

.. .... 
1888 . CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-SENA'fE. 8245 

. only reliable newspaper in the city ofNew York of political character, ha•e presented the genial Senator from New Hampshire treats us to a except the Sun, to be sure, which is somewhat similar in its character chapter of wit. Perhaps that is the best escape from the consideration 

and position, I think, to the New York Post, so far as its political atti- of those great facts. He made his point of attack that I had made a 

tude is concerned. I must· make a reservation in favor of the Sun, ex- mistake about the number of seconds since the birth of our Saviour. 

cept so far as it attacks me, but so far as the World is concerned I have Th:1t shows the danger of guessing at billions; and he said that I was 

nothing to say. I believe the editor, proprietor, and inspirer, the great as nearly accurate in tlmt as in any other proposition which I have 

immaculate spirit of the World, had the benefit of a residence in the made. Now, I submit to the Senator that I wa.i not mistaken in sayState of Missouri and iu the city of St. Louis for a considerable time, ing that on the 18th of March, 1869, when the public debt amounted 

and no doubt has imbibed that sense of integrity and high honor and to $2, 588,000,000, the Republican party took away from the people the 

fidelity to party principles which characterize everything and every- right to pay that debt in the sort of money in which it had been erebody coming from that locality; but as for the New York Tribune, it ated. I do not think I was mistaken in that. Nor was I mistaken in 

is a truthful. newspaper, and the Senator and others should not im- saying that on the 25th of February, 1873, the Republican party passed 

peach its veracity simply because occasionally it is seYere upon the an act demonetizing silver and taking away from the people the right 

Democratic party. to pay the public debt in silver. I do not think I was mistaken in 

The Senator knows, we all know that the more profound and the that. Nor was I mistaken in saying that on January 14, 1875, the 

more conscientious and the more just a judge, the more certain he is to Repul}lican party provided for the taking up and cancellation and repronounce sentence of death occasionally. No guilty man escapes if tirement from circulation of nearly $400,000,000 of legal-tender notes 

the judge be what be should be. And occasionally the New York then in circulation. I do not think I was mistaken in that. Those 

Tnibune has good cause to pronounce sentence of death on the Demo- were the material facts which I presented and which have caused the 

cratic party. The sin is not in the Tribune but in the party that com- Senator such a labored effort at wit. 

mits the crime. I doubt not, I believe that a higher power than the Mr. BLAIR. May I ask the Senator a question? 

New York Tribune has ngain pronounced sentence of political death Mr. REAGAN. Just reserve the question for a moment. I want to 

against that party, and !trust we shall see its execution in November. complete this without interruption. 

But in regard to this duality which exists in the Democratic party, I The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The morning hour has expired. 

find an editorial in the Tribune, to which I have been alluding, which The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumes the consideration 

I think explains it all. It is rather personal to :i\Ir. Cleveland, and I of the bill tS. 12) to provide for the formation and admission into the 

will strike out the word ''Cleveland'' and insert the word '' Democ- Union of the State of Washington, and for other purposes. 

racy," because it will be such a ource of relief to my friend from Texas Mr. STEW ART. I ask unanimous consent that that bill be tempoto explain the whole thing in the future. These debates can go on, the rarily laid aside to proceed to the consideration of the House bill exSenator from Texas can detend his mud-socked Democracy and the silk- eluding Chinese. 

stocking Democracy, and we can hQve this confusion of persons, but all :Mr. REAGAN. I should be glad if the Senator would allow me to 

fall back on: this editorial of the Tribune, which is in this morning's conclude. 

publication, which I now send to the desk and ask the Secretary to Mr. STEW ART. The Senator can make his remarks when that bill 

read, because he will read it so much better than I could. is up. 

The Chief Clerk read as follows: The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nevada asks unanTIIE sEcRET OUT imous consent that the pending order, being the unfinished business, 

The explanation.of the extraordinary delay in Mr. Cleveland's letter of ac-1 may be _laid aside for the purpose of resuming· the consideration of 

ceptance is ea.sy. Like the rest of mankind the President is aftlict.ed, as we long House bill No. 11536. 

a.go made known, with a dual personality; but in his ~se t~e ordinar.y co_nd_i- 1\fr. HARRIS. I ask the Senator from Nevada to withhold his re- tlonsarereversed. TheJekyll,whofavorsreformandiSa.mmatedbypatriotJc t th t 1 th 1 · h" h h S fr and statesmanlike purposes, is feeble and small of build. The Hyde is large ques ' _or ra er 0 et e reso ntion u~on W IC t e enator. om und powerful und fat. When Mr. Cleveland was first nominated- Texas IS now addressmg the Senate remam before the Senate until the 

Mr. BLAIR. Tpatshou1d be" :Qemocracy." Insert" Democracy, ~~nclusil)n o~ his remarks. : I app_rehend the~e will be no objectio_n to 

in tead of • • Cleveland.'' [Laucrhter.] However go on and read it as e~ proceedmg to the cons1deratwn of the btll at the end of that tim~. it is in t.be paper. 8 ' Tne PRESIDENT pro _tempore. The Sen~tor from T~xas asks unamThe Chief Clerk continued the reaning, as follows: mo?s consent to be permitted _to co~clude ~Is observati?ns on the resoWhen l\Ir. Cleveland was first nominated be was touched by this mark of con- lutiC?"n, as ~hat w~ un~er consideration durmg the mormng hour. The 

fldence on the part of his fellow-men. Jekyll came uppermost. Hesa.w, know- Chair heals no Objection. . ing as he did the irrepressible wickedness of Hyde, that unless he were checked Mr. REAGAN. Mr. President, the hardest blow that t.he Senator 

at the o.utset he would use every cunnin~ and wicked device to bring. about his from New Hampshire with all his goodness inflicted upon me was in 

re-electiOn. SoJekyllwrotethepassagemtheletterofacceptancewhJChserved h' tte d f ' · h ks ·' , k · · notice on Hyde that he must not dare to think of a second term. But the ink ~s ~ ~pt to ra t me mto t e ran of cran s, of which _he_ IS so was hardly dry before that wily and unscrupulous character beg-an his evil rna- distmgmsbed a leader. The Senator bas under~aken the misston of 

chinati?ns, and.Hyde1 being by far the str1;mger personality of the two, invari- educatinP" all the American -neople. He bas undertaken the mi ion 

ablygamsthevtctorymtheend. Thesendmgofthatten-tbousand-dollarcheck f k" 0 h 11 ~ H h d · · to the Democratic national committee was a critical point in this tremendous O. ~a mg t em a temperate. e as un ertaken the miSSIOn of pro- struggle, of which no hint so far has escaped to the outside public. Jekyll knows v1ding that all women shall vole. I do not remember all the other ~hath": can not con;>istently or with any propriety accept the ~~omination, and missions he has undertaken or may undertake but if there i~ another 

IS makmg a brave fight for a clean record. Hut what are cons1stency and pro- b di h b · d h S '·11 J". h h priet y to Hyde ? When, therefore, be succeeded in sending the ten-thou!!!a.nd- ~ sur ty t at can e prese~t«; t e enator WI ~at er t at and ~rge 

dollar check it wa.s with a chuckle of ghoulish glee, for he knew then that he It. He bas a very large miSSIOnary field, enough for a very consJderhad committed Jekyll, and whil~ the final_acceptance might be lo~gdelayed, it able corps of statesmen and others. I am not a volunteer in his ranks 

must come sooner or later. It 1s even satd that the check was stgned by Ed- d I h ·1 d · · 1 

ward Hyde, and not by Dr. Jeky.l at all. But the national committee accepted an trust e WI l not raft me mto h1s ranks. I do not propose to. go it without question, because they know that Mr. Cleveland ha.s bank accounts that way. 

in bo~h t~ames, and draws on Hyde's much more frequently ~ban on Jekyll's. The Senator has this much to say that I did vote for prohibition in Thts dtsclosure must arouse a great popular sympathy wtth Mr. Cleveland. S Tb · '· · · · We can easily imagine now what fearful'struggles have been going on in the my tate.· e qu~stwn ~as submitted as a non-p~rtisan questwn, White Ho~se, a~ ~be dead of night, when Jekyll WRS str~ining everY: nerve to and I chose to exerciSe my JUdgment upon that questiOn as I do upon 

conquer his famil!~ de~n:on. I~ J~k:fll <:ould have h~d ~ts .way we mtght have others and I am not in the habit of askinu how others think about a had a. model admmtstratwn, wtthin Its mtellect.ual hrmtatwns, but Hyde's nn- . ' h f: - 0 • conquerable depravity bas kept his wretched victim continually in hot water. questiOn W en acts enough come before me to determme what I ought 

It was Jekyll who promised to be a civil-service reformer, but Hyde made the to do. 

a}Jpointmef:ltsl and so it was t~at about two hun~red persons directly connected !'11r. BLAIR. Will the Senator allow me to suuuest that those are wtth the cr1mmal classes got mto Federal office m three years. It wa.s Jekyll h . · . d b · . 00 

who wt·ote such beautiful letters to George William Curtis, but to what end? t e ~ost p_ositive ~n a solute characteriStics of a crank-a man who 

:Hyde had no sooner been inaugurated than he struck up a violent friendship exercises hiS own Judgment? [Laughter. J ~vith GoRMAN at?d sat up late n~ghts '¥ith him planning political. rascality. ~t :Mr. REAGAN. The Senator ought to know what a crank is as he 

ts Hyde who wrttes all the pens10n vetoes and sneers at the soldters and thetr · h · .

1 b · · ' widows. It was Hyde who wanted to return the rebel :flags but the outcry now enJOYS t e pnv1 ege of emg a crank and a leader of cranks; bnt I 

frightened even him. It was Hyde who, after a long and frightful combat, sue- protest against being drafted into his ranks. · · ceeded in getting possession of ~h": P1·esident's pe_n last DE;cember and wrote Mr. BLAIR. Why will not the Senator then ser\e as a yolunteer 

~~~ ~~e-i~a~:s~;~~g;~~c;~:eer~i~~h;h~~!h~~v:~sf~~~ hl~t::d~ f~~~~ if he will not allow me to draft him? ' 

Irish vote, and so w.rote ~he re~liut on t;nessag": in spite o.f Jekyl_l's wailing re- Ur. REAGAN. I shall not spend time in offering reasons why I ~o nst.rances that hts entire pohcy or~ thts qu~stwn was ~m~ revise? and made sh;._\ll not do that beyond referrinu to the absurdity of most of the meas- ndtctilous. It was Hyde, too, who dictated the new antt-Chmese btU. ' 0 

For ninety-one long days now this contest has lasted, and it can not continue ures ~e advocates. When he wants me to set out to educate all the 

mu.ch lo~ger. The sending of the $10,000 check wa;s a sign that Jekyll is fast American people--

losmg hts strength and mu~t soo? succu~b. I.t wtll n,ot be many days now Mr. BLAH<. The Senator onuht to be accurate. I showed him be or~ we shall have a letter 111 whtch nothmg wtll be sa.1d concermng "the al- . 0 • • 

lure~ents.of power" 9;nd '.'the temptation to ret ai~ public places once gained," about. figures awhile ago. I n~ver thought o~ ~rymg to educate all the 

but m which the uommaLton for a second term wtll be eagerly, even greedily, Amencan people as old as he IS. No propositiOn was ever offered by 

accepted. ':f.'he letter wi!l be signed by Jekyll, but.we shall all recognize be- me except to educate those between the ages of ten and twenty-one 

tween the lmes the cunmngand unscrupulous hand o~Edward Hyde. years. I always knew water ran down hill; 1 can not remember the 

Mr. BLAIR. I only want to say that I should like to have that time I did not know that water ran down hill, yet., being a crank, 

paper preserved. people have claimed that I have introduced a hill to have water run up 

Mr. REAGAN. Mr. President, in answer to the important facts I hill towards Canada. fLaugbter.] I know ·water will run down kill . 

• 
8246 CONGRESSIONAL REOORD~SENATE. SEPTEl\ffiER 4, 

:Mr. REAGAN. It is better, I think, for me and perhaps for the 

country that the Senator has not undertak en to educate me, and that 

on account of my age I am beyond the reach of his attempts at education. 

Neither could the Senat{)r help his sneer, which came also from others 

of his party, 'about the dirty, mud-socked Democracy, and he assumed 

that I alleged that they paid all the taxes. I made no such assumption; but I do not hold the Senaror responsible for not being accurate; 

he could not help it. I said they were charged with the bn:rden of 

having to aid in paying these taxes. 

:Mr. BLAIR. The Senator will permit me to make a suggestion, 

and that is, that he get an extension of time simply to conclude his 

own remarks, and if he will occasionaUy allow me to interject a question it would be a great deal better in the RECORD, and be will get 

through. However, I will not trouble the Senator. 

Mr. REAGAN. I was saying that he could not help a sneer at the 

mud-socked Democracy. 

1\fr. BLAIR. Before the Senator proceeds further will he allo'Y me 

tosay--

:Mr. REAGAN. I must deprive the Senator of that opportunity for 

ono minute. 

Mr. BLAIR. Very well; I will wait. 

Mr. REAGAN. I was saying that the party the Senator belongs to 

an!]. sustains oppresses the poor for the benfit of the rich, and he knows 

it as well as I do. They dare not do otherwise. Their chance tor promotion to power rests upon the idea of the support. of the corporations 

and the money power. They know it, and shape their policy to that 

end, and the Sena.tor knows it; and in promoting the interests of corporations and monopolies they oppress the mass o~ the people. 

It was these questions that I was calling the attention of the honorable Senator to and would have been glad to hear him on, as glad even 

as I was to hear the splendid wit he has exhibit.ed in order to avoid the 

real issue. 

Mr. STEWART. :Mr. Presidentll!r. BLAIR. If the Senator will allow me a moment--

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Hampshire 

asks unanimous consent to proceed on the resolution. Is there objection? The Chair hears none. 1\Ir. BLAIR. The Senator from Texas is quite mistaken about my 

feeling tQwards that mud-socked Democracy. There is no mud-socked 

Democracy in my belief; we are all .American citizens, and the mudsocked Democracy is as much a part of the great citizenship of this 

country, and their interests are as dear to me as they are to the Senator from Texas. They are as much, I say, a part of the citizenship of 

this great country as are "the mud-sills" of the North who saved it. 

I am one of those who belong to "the mud-sills," and they include 

the mud-socked Democracy, and they include the rank and file and 

the leadership of the Republican party, and they have done so from 

the odgin of the application of the principles which have vitalized the 

Republican party and saved the nation. 

Now, sir, the Senaror from Texas-he a leader in the rebellion which 

would have brought us intO a dishonored grave as a nation-undertakes to force upon the American people, and to enforce it here in the 

Senate of the United States, the doctrine that the Republican party is 

the enemy of the common citizenship of this country, and that it is under the leadership and control of the aristocratic and moneyed power. 

Why, Ur. President, the Republican party is-the savior of the country, 

and in it and in its platform and in its personn.el are embodied all the 

great principfes for which the fathers fought and in the victory of which 

alone is to be found the ultimate political and other salvation of this 

country. 

Now, l\1r. President, look at it for a moment. If the Democracy of 

which the Senator was. a leader, the Democracy which is led by the 

t>ame sentiment and the sameindividualshipto-day, if that Democracy 

had had its way, what sort of labor would have beon brought into this 

country? What would have prevailed here? Of what use your Chinese discussion ofyesterdayhad the Democracy thatadvocated the immigration of the Chinese in the first instance bad their way? What 

would have been the result? Chinese cheap labor and slo,very all over the great West, west of the Mississippi River, and now extending itself 

over and dominating that country. Either that or the Democracy, 

which was active a little earlier, would have filled every inch of Rpace 

west of the 1\IississippiRiverwithslavenegro labor, which would ha ve 

been cheaper and worse than Chinese labor itself. 

-.c:Is not that so? Did not the Democracy go to war in order that they 

might establish that style of labor, slave labor, all over this continent, 

or at least in every portion of this continent where under State control 

free principles had not already prevailed, and that beyond the power 

of the national action of the Democracy? Did they not go to war and 

undertake the destruction of the Government itself, in order that they 

might plant negro slavery all over every other part of the great domain of the nation? The Senator knows it. That is the record of his 

party within the recollection of every individual who listens to me today. And those men who were for Chinese labor, who were for negro 

slavery earlier-and Chinese labor is only another form of slavery- these men in the Senate Chamber hour after hour harp about the oppression of the Republican party, which was always their antipodes-:-

the oppression which the Republican party would exercise rowards the 

common citizenship of this country! If there is a free principle in 

the United States or in the world, the Republican party is alone in accordance with it and is its necessary ad vocate t9-day. The Senator 

knows it. I do not undertake to impeach his sincerity. His strong 

prejudices, his early training, his identification with the great organization that assumed but for a time a contingent nationality, enables 

him to utter sentiments on this floor in the utmost sincerity which are 

not in accord with the truths of history or the convictions of enlightened mankind. 

The Senator is all wrong about this. The mud-sills of the North and 

the mud-socked Democracy of the South are identical, and when that 

school bill, which the Senator has sneered at so much has done its 

work and educated, not the old men who are beyond hope and in whose 

political death alone lies hope for a great future-I say when tba.t school 

bill has done its work among the children of the mud-socked Democracy of the South, as it has already done its work by previous enactments of the same kind at least all over the North, then the SenatQr 

will find that the Republican party, which be undertakes to impeach, . 

will dominate not alone in the North but dominate in his own section; 

and there will be hope for the great State of Texas then. 

Mr. REAGAN. May I trespass upon the pn.tience of the Senate a few 

minutes longer? 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas asks unan- imous consent to proceed on the resolution. 

Mr. STEW ART. I hope the Senator will allow the Chinese bill to 

come up, and then he can speak. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection. to the Senator 

from Texas proceeding? The Chair hears-none. 

Mr. REAGAN. Mr. President, the last resort of a Republican politician when he is cornered is to appen.l to the sectional troubles which 

existed a quarter of a century ago, and to appeal to the passions and 

prejudices which g:rew out of those unfortunate troubles. The Senator 

from New Hampshire alleges that they grew out of a purpose on the 

pa.rt of those who favored the Confederacy w establish a system of 

negro slave-labor over all t\J.e territory west of the Mississippi IUver. 

If the Senator had read the history of those times he would know 

that he is very much mistaken in making such a statement as that. 

There was a controversy about whether the State of Kau as should 

have free or slave labor. There was never a controversy about any 

territory north of the State of Kansas being free territQry or being occupied by slaves. 

But the Senator can not help a sneer at the institution of slavery and 

at the action of men who sustained the Confederacy. He thinks it was all for the purpose of maintaining slavery. If the Senator were familiar 

with the history of the country he would perhaps feel more kindly 

towards that section, and he-would remember that slavery was <introduced into the American colonies by Great Britain, and France, and 

Spain, and by the Dutch merchants. 

He would remember that it existed in every one of the thirteen colonies at the date of the Declaration of Independence; he would remember that it was perpetuated by t.be Constitution and the laws of the 

United States and by the decisions of the highest courts; he would 

remember that Presidents and Senators and Representatives and governors of States and Congresses and Legislatures sustained the institution of slavery because it had been transmitted to our people as a heritage for which, whether for good or evil, they were not responsible. 

The Senator must have a very bad opinion of President Washington, 

who was a slaveholder; of Mr. Jefferson, of ~1r. Madison, of President 

Jackson, of President Polk, of President Taylor, all of whom were sl a >eholdel'S and all of whom were elected by the people of the United States. 

He must ha>e n. very bad opinion of the great and illustrious patriots 

who framed the Constitution of the United States, because they not 

only perpetuatell slavery but they provided in that great instrument 

to perpetuate tk1 African slave-trade for twenty years after the adoption of the Consu tution. 

Now, sir, it seems to me if the Senator would allow himself to read 

hist01·y, to understand facts, he would find that the people were placed 

in a condition with reference to that question which was not at that 

time in antagonism with the advanced sentiments of the most enlightened nations of the world on this subject. The institution of slavery 

was the subject of sectional agitation, which caused great anxiety to 

the people of the Southern States. 

The slaves represented, in the hands of their owners, three thousand 

millions of property, as was then estimated; and while the Southern 

people were not more responsible than the Senator. and his friends, all 

of them, for the existence and continuance of slavery, none of the latter 

proposed ro take any of the burdens upon themselves. If it was anational wrong, it had been entailed upon us by the Feder.tl Constitution; if it was a grievance, if it was a thing that ought to h ave been 

disposed of because it was a national evil, the way to di.:;po e of such a question was not by a bloody conflict, but by an arrangemE> ut for the 

purchase of tbe slaves and the freeing of them. No proposi tion of that 

kind was made. The consequences were all entailed upon the people 

who hn.ppened to have them after those of the Northern anti. Eastern 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE~ 8247 

'States had sold theirs to the South because white labor was cheaper, 

and got the money to build up their factories. 

The Southern people did not desire to propagate slavery-that was 

not their point; but the idea was to prevent sectional agitation, to prevent strife, to save themselves from the calamity of a war of races. In 

that condition, under an agitation that had lasted for thirty years, a. President and Vice-President were. selected representing the anti-slavery 

sentiment of the country as a culmination of the crusade against the 

institution of slavery within the States. Up to that time we had recognized that the States had their domestic institutions and that the 

Federa.l Government had no business to interfere with them; that each 

State under the Constitution had the right to take charge of and control its own institutions. But the Southern people were placed in a 

helpless minority under the pressure of the crusade against the institution entailed upon them by the mother country and other nations, 

and by the convention which formed the Constitution; they were unable 

to relieve themselves, and they believed that this crusade would expose 

them to a war of races and the desolation of the country. 

The Senator never stops to think of that. I know that generally he 

i:; a kind-hearted man and sympathizes with the wrongs of the weak 

and the oppressed, but be seems not to have thought of the condition 

in which that people were placed and of the factthattbeyfelt that rather 

than risk servile insurrection and a war of races, they had better, like 

true men, imperil their own lives in order to keep the control of their 

domestic institutions free from the intermeddling of others who were 

not responsible for them. I trust the Senator will look more kindly 

upon our people and will remember that there was no purpose of aggression. Self-preservation was all that there was in that movement, 

the preservation of the rights of the States, of the property of indiTiduals, and oftbelibertyofthecitizen, notthepropagationofslavery. 

The Senator ought to know that the people of that section of this 

country would not madly, foolishly, and weakly go into a contest in 

which the chances by numbers, by wealth, by material resources, were 

all against them; that nothing but the direst necessity of self-preservation could have induced them to accept a conflict in which the chances 

of success were, within their own knowledge, against them; but were 

impelled by a condition of things in which they felt that it was more 

honorable to die fighting for their rights than to live passive slaves to 

those who proposed to intermeddle with and control their rights. 

I have never made any expression before in Congress on this subject. 

I have desired to avoid referem:e to it. It can do no good. It may 

stir up evil passions, and any remarks which I have now made are not, 

so far as I am concerned, intended to a-ppeal w passion or prejudice, 

but to appeal to that Senator's better nature to inquire into the facts 

which brought about that struggle, and see if he i3 not mistaken in 

calling it, as he has so often done here, a wicked rebellion1 a causeless 

rebellion. Surely no one familiar with the history of the country and 

not blinded by passion and prejudice could assume that it was either 

causeless or wicked. There was no purpose to interfere with the liberties of others, but simply a purpose on the part of our people to try to 

take care of themselTes in the condition in which they found thero.-

·selves without their fault and without the power to relieve themsehes. 

I always regret when this question is made a subject of discussion 

here. I know how well calculated it is to revive passions that it were 

well for the whole country should cease to exist, and my own course 

has bean from the close ot that contest to do all in my power, in speech 

and in action, to allay the asperities of the conflict and to secure areturn of fraternal good will and link the destinies of the people of the 

South with those of the people of the North for the future, in the 

hope of maintaining civil liberty and in the hope of promoting their 

welfare and prosperity, accepting the dire calamities which fell upon 

them, such as have seldom been visited upon a people in any part of the 

world. Whether it was welcome to them or not, it was ine\itable, and 

their hope and their desire has been to do nothing which could stimulate pas ion or prejudice against them, but to do everything that reasonably and honorably they might do to secure the kindly feeling and 

fraternal good will of the people of other States with whom they are 

politically associated. 

Mr. BLAIR. Mr. President, I am aware that this debate is prolonging itself, but ruler the extraordinary loquacity which characterized the 

debate upon the fisheries treaty I think I may be justified in as1..'ing a moment to reply to tho Senator from Texas. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Hampshire 

asks unanimous consent that he may proceed. Is there objection? The 

Chair hears none. 

Mr. BLAIR. In fact, Mr. President, I have thought that the debate 

upon the scl10ol bill, about which so many Senators have said so much, 

which was characterized on account of its length so freely, might well 

be adopted as a model of brevity for the imitation of the Senate. in all 

time. 

Whenever the leaders of the Democracy are pressed in earnest, they 

immediately fall back upQn the pitiable condition, as they describe it, 

in which the Southern people were left by the war, and the suffering 

and wrongs and injuries which they endured in itB progress, and they 

seldom fail, as the Senator from Texas did not fail, to charge the ex- :istence of the institution of slavery to the Northern people and to claim 

that they only acted -in the great controversy which preceded the war 

in the most judicious way for the proper management of the institution. The responsibility was upon the money-getters. of the North, 

old England insisted on forcing it upon them, and perhaps some -other 

mercenary and piratical nations across the water! 

If the Senator had read my speeches on the school bill, he would 

have known that I sympathize more than I ought to, perhaps, somewhat more than my associates on the Republican side of the Chamber 

have always justified in their view of the subject. I have a belief that 

the Southern people to a great extentwere Tictimsoftheinstitutionof 

slavery; but I never believed and I never said, and I do not think the 

Senator himself will undertake to say, that they were not willing and 

anxious and affirmatively victitns. 

The Senator must remember that the national Constitution, early in 

its original provisions, made the way open, in fact effective, by provisions to t.:'l.ke effect in the future for the abolition of the slave trade. 

The Senator knows that the South was not for the adoption of that -provi ion, and he knows, too, that that provision was placed in the Constitution and made operative twenty years in the future, because there 

was a pecuniary interest in the North that, relying on the market of 

the South, would have been likely to oppose the ratification of the Constitution had the provision been made operative to take effect immediately, and it was postponed twenty years for that reason alone, because of that comparatively small pecuniary interest at the North invested in the slave trade which it was thought, in the extreme nicety 

of the balance in several of the States between Con'>titution and no 

Constitution, might be able to turn the balance in one or two States1 

and result in the rejection of the Constitution itself. 

But the body of the support for the institution of slavery and fort he 

slave trade was then at the South. This provision was adopted because taking effect in the futnre it did not seriously injure the pecuniary interests of those engaged in the slave trade at that time, and 

there was the ~eneral hope among the patriots of the South as well as 

of the North that the influence of republican institutions would re· 

sult in the gradual elimina,tion, without violence, of this accursed institution from the entire laud. There was that hope, but the cottongin was invented and the greed of ~ain took possession of the Southern 

mind. 

The Northern Yankee is not the only human being in whom the instinct for money-making is strong. The love of gain took possession 

of the Southern mind, and stimulated byittheSouthernmindfastened 

upon this wicked institution, determined to make it permanent; and so 

it became permanent, and as this nation could not continue to be half 

slave and half free, and they understood this great truth that we muit 

ultimately be either a slave country or a free country, they made war 

aggressively upon the Territories and the institutions of the North 

everywhere and in favor of the extension of slavery. 

I am not as old as the Senator, and I doubt whether my memory is 

any better, but yet I think I can remember when the owners of slaves 

at the South were demanding the constitutional right that theyshould 

take their slaves into every State in the North, to say nothing of the 

Territories, and they demanded as a constitutional right that they 

could carry the institution of slavery and locate it permanently in every 

Territory belonging to the national domain, as well north of the line 

of compromise as south of it. 

The Senator should go a little further back in his reading of history. 

He ohould not confine his recollection of history to the so recent past. 

He should remember the compromise of 1820 as well as that of 1850 

and the war, and if he will go back that far he will remember and acknowledge that the controversy settled in 1820 was the great controversy whether slavery should go north of the line of 36° 30', indefinitely north, indefinitely west, and was not confined to the localit_v of 

Kansas, where it became an earnest and a burning question in 1854. 

But the Senator seems to think it will not do to spend time in arguing 

historical questions. The Senator seems to think that I am one of 

those cold-blo.oded haters of the South. Why, I\Ir. President, I believe that many of the friends, the truest friends of the South, live 

north of the old line of division between the free and the slave States; 

and for one, if I knowmyself, while my sympathies are not with the 

Senator from Texas or such as he, my .sympathies are with the great 

mass of the Southern people, white as well as black, and more with the 

white than with the black. The difficulty with the Senator is, that 

expurgating from this debate everything down to 1.he period of reconstruction, he ignores the fact that the whole policy of the Republican 

party so .far as it has related to the South has been to reach, to benefit, 

and to elevate the masses of the people, and their great effort bas been 

directed nottothe colored man alone but to the white man as well, the 

mud-sill of the South, the mud-socked Democracy of the South, against 

whom the Senator fights, in alliance with the silk-stocking Democracy 

of the North and the whole leadership south of Mason and Dixon's 

~~ . 

When we come to the school bill the enlightened men of the South 

are for the school bill, and they are with the Republican party in re· 

gard to the school bill, because they know that is the true interest of 

the South. These enlightened men, these strong men of the South, 

many of them on this floor, know it is no use to fight agai~t the stars 
• 

8248 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. SEPTE:MBE~ 4, 

of God. They know that revolutions never go· backward, and that the virulence almost every time that affairs between the North and South 

last war decided that every man in America, every individual man, are alluded to here on this floor. 

the mud-stocking Democrat, the poor white of the South, as well as , The common schools of the South were :first written into the constithe mud-sill of the North, and the negro as well, every one of them, tutions under which they now live and prosper by the carpet-bag govshall ha>e that di_gnity, that position, that equality, that freedom ernments which were established through Northern agency. 

which is proclaimed to be his right by the Declaration of Independ- Senators would do well to stop and think whether there be anv feelence, written by the finger of God, who inspired Jefferson, the man ings, any susceptibilities north of Mason and Dixon's line, w hetber we who trembled for his country on account of slavery when he remem- are equals 'in this Chamber, or whether we are to be treated to the 

bered that God was just. crack of doom with comments which continually assail, and if they 

That great and holy declarati::m shall finally become a realized thing do not insult do worse than that, the motives of the people of the 

to every American citizen South as well as North. That is the policy Jorth, by which I mean the Republican party of the North; and the 

of the Republican party, and the fault I find with the Senator is that remaining portion of the people of the North are identified with the inhe ranks himself with those who have turned their backs upon the stitutions and with the policies of the Republican party of theN orth, so coming time, who are making progress back to old chaos, to dark night, that whatever of prosperity and happiness there is among that people 

to the Darwinian origin of the race, and if they have their own way is to be attributed to that political policy and those institutions. 

and can progress successfully according to their own polic.v, t hey will If the Democratic party has prospered at theN orth, if there are great 

reach that condition when Senators on this floor, it may be, will see industries and great wealth, if there are millionaires, if there is a gen- the time that in their demonstrations they will remind us of the ac- eml prevalence of comfort and prosperity among t.he Northern people, 

curacy of Artemus Ward's description of his monkey, which I do not it is because of Republican policies; and ifwe can maintain them, not 

need to quote. on1y will that status continue at the North, but it will come ultimately 

These men fight progress, and that is the fault I find with them. to prevail all over the South. 

When the North undertakes to enact a measure which reaches the I havli) one other suggestion to make. If the Senator does not wish common people, which gives to every individual that power and inde- us to make allusion to the war and to the cost it brought on the coun- pendence which knowlooge only can give, so that the man knows try, why is it that he is continually alluding to and parading before 

enough to defend his right at the ballot- box,-knows enough to·defend us the consequences of the war, the debts which resulted from the ne- his princi pies on the hustings, knows enough to make his way to the cessity of the great struggle in which we were engaged in order to mainSenate of the United States and to confront the distinguished Repre- tain the unity of the Government? The Senator will hard1y claim 

sentatives and Senators in argument and debate-I say that when the that the indebtedness of the country is not a result of the war. Republican party has advocated that policy, the Senator from Texas .Mr. REAGAN. If the Senator will allow me, I will s..<ty that I have 

opposes it and makes harangues against the citizenship and the insti- stated distinctly that the formation of the debt grew out of policies 

tutions and the motives of the Republican party of the North. perhaps the best that the Government could adopt. I never made any 

I call you to witness, Mr. President, that there bas been no sectional accusation, complaint, or arraignment about the creation of the debt. 

debate started in this Chamber during this Congress by any Republican My words were as to the method of paying the debt by discriminawhatever. If there has been a sectional debate started or suggested tions against labor and in favor of C..'tpita1. 

from the Republican side of this Chamber I have not obser¥ed it; but Ur . .BLAIR. The Senator would have done better to have thought 

if I am wrong in saying that no such debate has been originated by a in regard to the methods and causes which led to the contraction ot 

suggestion from this side, let somebody correct me who remembers it. the debt, and to have thought of that in· season. He seems to labor, 

No; invariably the Senator from Texas or some other Senator gets like other friends of his in debate, under the delusion that they are to 

up and in cold blood delivers himself of an impetuous and, as I have limit the topics to be suggested on this floor by whatsoever is plc ant 

sometimes thought, an insulting harangue against the laboring people to them to discuss, and so they take up this comparatively infinitesiand the masses of the people of the North, and complains of our in- mal consideration of the pecuniary obligation which resulted from the 

stitutions, of our aggressiveness upon their rights. They insult us war. The important things involved in the war were human rights, 

oftener than they think, it seems to me, not perhaps intentionally, but the perpetuity of this Union, the lasting of the American nation. Those 

it has so seemed to me as I have sat here. were the essential things. The war cost some money, and the SenaMr. REAGAN. Mr. President-- tor is continually harping upon the topic of the debt and the methods 

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ur. CULLOM in the chair). Does the of paying the debt; and yet when we go a little further back into the 

Senator from New Hampshire yield to the Senator from Texas? history of parties and charge upon the Democratic party the contracMr. BLAIR. I am not impeaching motives. tion of the debt and things a thousand times worse, he does not want 

Mr. REAGAN. I ask the Senator if he means to impute to me what to hear anything about it. 

be is now saying, and if he does, what single instance can he give to Now, Mr. President, let me close by saying to the Senator that I apjustify his remark? preciate his high character, and I should compliment him as he did 

Mr. BLAIR. As to insulting the people of the North,_ I did not sa,y I myself, and with vastly greater truth, if the lexicon furnished me with 

anything of that kind. terms in which to do it; but I complain of the Senator that when we Mr. REAGAN. As to making war upon the laboring people of the come to him and to his friends in the South with measures which would 

North? · produce homogeneous conditions throughout this entire country, which 

Mr. BLAIR. I appeal to the Senator's speeches here to-day. I would give to the poor man the opportunity to be poor in peace and 

appeal to his record every time almost that he has spoken during this the opportunity to rise in his position if he has that in him which may 

session. I appeal tu the record he made the other day, in the speech stimulate him to do it, the opportunity to seek the same general elevain which he quoted with such zeal and such apparent pleasure the tion all over this country, the knowledge which ~ives the power, so few remarks by Mr. Blaine. That is the speech to which I have spe- that he can defend his ballot and defend his right-when we come with 

cial reference. that policy and with institutions which must in_evitably have that re- Ur. REAGAN. If the Senator will produce my record to that effect suit at the South as at theN orth, he turns his back upon it and opposes 

I shall accept his statement; but! trust he will not put any gloss upon it with all of rhetoric and of ability that he possesses. 

it. Mr. STEW ART. I call for the regular order. 

Mr. BLAIR. I was not trying to gloss it. I will not put any more The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair understands that the reggloss upon it. I restrained myself a little, but I did not think I was ular order, being the Washington Territory bill, has been temporarily 

glossing the record. But, Mr. President, the rules of the Senate have laid aside for the consideration of the Chinese bill. The Chair will · p\lt a gloss upon it. t le.:we it there. So far as attacking the institu- recognize the Senator from Colorado [Mr. TEL.LER]! who took the floor 

tions of the people of the North is concerned, I do not undertake to say yesterday evening upon that bill. 

that the Senator is conscious of it. It may be something of the old-time 

training which survives and affects men, and which they can not eradicate from their mental processes. 

Mr. REAGAN. The Senator will allow me to state that I have never said one word (and he can not produce it and no man can produce it) against the people of the North. I have arraigned the Republican party, but they are not the people of the North; they are only a 

part of the people of the North. 

Mr. BLAIR. The Republican party are the vast majority of the 

people of the North. They are the people who built up the institutions of the North, who dictated the policy of the North, who established the protective tariff, who established the principles of liberty, 

first at home and then carried them when forced to do it by arms to 

the South, and along with arms and force the common schools of the 

North aml the carpet-bag governments, which do not fail to be as- sai~ed ith virulence-not with falsehood, but _misrepresentation · and 

:MESSAGE FROM TH"E HOUSE. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by M:r. T. 0. TowLES, 

its Chief Clerk, announced that the House had agreed to the report of 

the second committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two 

Houses on the amendments of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 10234) 

making appropriations for the support of the Army for the :fiscal year 

ending June 30, 1889, and for other purposes, still further insisted 

upon its disagreement to the thirty-second, thirty-third, and thirtyfifth amendments of the Senate to the said bill, asked a further conference with the Senate on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses thereon, 

and had appointed Mr. TOWNSHEND, Mr. MAISH, and Mr. SA YER.S 

managers at the same on its part. The message further announced that the House had passed the bill 

(S. 832) to provide an additional mode of taking depositions of wit- nesses in causes pending in the courts of the United States; with au 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 8249 

amendment, asked a conference with the Senate on the said bill and 

amendment, and bad appointed Mr. OATES, Mr. CULBERSON, and Mr. 

CASWELL, managers at the conference on its part. 

The message also announced that the House bad passed the bill (S. 

3234) to abolish circuit-court p•.wers of certain district courts of the 

United States, and for other purposes, with an amendment, in which 

it requested the concurrence of the Senate. 

The message further announced that the House had passed a bill (H. 

R. 9447) to restore certain money to the fund for erecting a public 

building at the city of Detroit; in which it requested the concurrence 

of the Senate. 

' E ROLLED BILL SIGl\ED. 

The message also announced that the Speaker of the House had signed 

the enrolled bill (H. R. 8310) to provide for the disposal of the Fort 

Wallace military reservation in Kansas; and it was thereupon signed 

by the President pro tempore. 

DJSTTI.ICT ELECTRIC WIRES. 

:Mr. F .A'.RWELL. I ask the Senator f1·om Colorado to yield to me 

for a moment. 

Mr. TELLER. I will yield if it is not anythin~ that will bring up 

a discussion. 

Mr. FARWELL. I ask the Senate to consider the resolution reported by me yesterday from the Committee on 'the District of Columbia., which is Ortler of Business 2206. 

Mr.. 'fELLEH. I reserve the right to call for the regular order if it 

should occasion debate. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. CoLLO.M in the cha.ir). The Senator from Illinois [Mr. FARWELL] asks the Senate to consider the resolution instructing the commissioners of the District of Columbia to 

re•Joke any permit granted for the erection of overhead electric wires; 

which was reported adversely yesterday from the Committee on the 

District of Colllmbia. Is there obj ection to the present consideration 

of the Tesolution? 

Ur. TELLER. I object, because the Senator from Vermont [Mr. 

ED.!IIUNDS], who bas taken special interest in the matter, is not here, 

and I am sure that the resolu tion will give rise to debate. 

The PRESIDING Ol<'FICEH. The Senator from Colorado objects. 

Mr. HOAR. I wish the Senator from Colorado would allow me to 

obser\e that these people have a contract under which they will lose, as I am told, very <'Onsiderably, unless they are permitted to accept it 

by the 15th of September, which is their obligation. I dd not insist 

on taking up the resolution at this moment, but I wish to point out 

to the Senator that it will not be fair to insist on delaying it until the 

return of the Senator from Vermont [.Mr. EDMUNDS] next ' Monday, 

which will reach almost to the 15th of September, when the ma.tter 

has been thoroughly heard and unanimously reported by the Committee on the District of Columbia. I do not ask to take it up now, but 

I do not think it should be delayed until the Senator from Vermont comes back. · 

Mr. 'fELLER. I shall not insist on its being delayed until that 

time, bnt I am \ery confident that there are other Senators who propose to be heard on the subject. As far as I am concerned I a.m opposed to the resolution, and I am willing to take it up at any time when 

it will not displace the Chinese bill. 

Mr. FARWELL. I wish to say that the committee had the matter 

under investigation, received testimony upon it, and directed me unanimously to report against the resolution. There was not a dissenting 

voice in the committee. 

M:r. TELLER. I shall not object to it when it comes up some other 

time. 

Mr. FARWELL. I give notice that I shall call up the resolution 

to -morrow. 

.lr. TELLER. I shall not object at any time after we get through 

with the Chinese bill. 

RECONSIDERATION OF LIGHT-HOUSE BILLS. 

Mr. PALMER. Will the Senator from Colorado yield so that I may 

make a motion to reconsider the votes by which several bills were 

passed? 

Mr. TELLER. I will yield for any purpose of that kind. 

Mr. PALMER. Yesterday there were several light-house bills 

passed by the Senate which I find are included in the sundry civil appropriation bill as agreed~ in conference. On that account I ask that 

the votes by which the bills were pa...c:sed may be reconsidered and the 

bills indefinitely postponed. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator give the numbers 

of the bil1s? 

Mr. PALMER. I will give them seriatim. The first is the bill (H. 

R. 1228) for establishing Jjght or lights and a fog-signal at or near 

Ballast Point, ~ntrance to San Diego Bay. California. I move to reconsider the votes by which the bi1l was ordered to a third reading and 

pa"8ed. 

The motion to reconsider was agreed to. 

Mr. PALMER. I now move that the bill be indefinitely postponed. 

The motion was agreed to. 

:Mr. P ALMEl{. I move to reconsider the votes by which the bill 

(H. R. 8750) for the establishment of a light-house at or near Tangie:t 

Island, Chesapeake Bay, was ordered to a thud reading and passed. 

'fhe motion to reconsider was agreed to. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be indefinitely postponed if there be no objection. 

.Mr. PALMER. I move to reconsider the votes by which the bill 

(H. R. 1912) for the establishment of a light-house at the mouth of 

Great Wicomico Hiver, Virginia, was orqered to a third reading and 

passed. 

The motion to reconsider was agreed to. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be indefinitely postponed unless object i~n is heard. 

CHINESE :U.IMIGRATIO~. 

The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed the consideration of the bill (H. R. 11336) a supplement to an act entitled ''An act 

to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese," approved 

the 6th day of May, 1882. . 

.Mr. TELLER. Mr. President, I expressed my satisfaction yester· 

day that this bill bad come to us for the purpose of modifying or abrogating to some extent the treaty made in 1880 with the Government of 

China. 

Before I proceed I wish to call the attention of the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. GEORGE] to the distinction between a nolation of a treaty 

and its abrogation. The viola.tion of a treaty carries with it the idea 

of misconduct; that is tO say, if the Government of the United States 

has made a treaty with Chin~, and the Government of the United 

States declines to carry it out without having abrogated it, that is a violation of the treaty. Every nation in the world when it makes a 

treaty with another nation reserves to itself without words the right, 

whenever it shall be considered necessary in the interest of the people crf 

that country, to abrogate the treaty. 

The distinction between the abrogation and the viol ation of a treaty 

is not one merely of words, as the Senator from South Ca.rolina [Mr. 

BUTLER] seemed yesterday to claim. When a treaty is abTogated by 

legislative action it ceases to be a treaty; it is gone, and then conduct 

would be perfectly proper for the Government which would be improper before. 

A treaty in this country can only be displaced or repealed or modified or abrogated by the legislative department of the Government. 

So, if the President of the United States should say "I decline to allow these people having certificates to land at the port of San Francisco" without any action of the legislative branch oftbe Government, 

without any modification of the treaty through the Executive and the 

~enate, that would be a violation ofthe treaty; but when he shall say 

that, as he will say it after we have passed this proposed ad, it will 

be no violation of the treaty, because the treaty will have gone, and 

gone in the way that we had a right to have it go, by legislative action. 

Therefore I insist that the term ''violating a treaty'' is not the proper 

term to be applied here. I have had occasion to discuss t hat question 

once or twice, and I think nearly ten years ago I discussed it in the 

Senate. While I would not violate a treaty, while I would not countenance the violation of a treaty, I would abrogate any and every treaty 

when in my judgment as a member of the legislative department of 

the Government it is in the interest of the great masses of the people 

of the United States so to do. 

You may ~brogate a t.reaty in such a. way as to get into difficulty, 

and so sometlmes it is not policy to abrogate a treaty. The na.tiou 

with which you are dealing may take offense. It may be that the 

character of the treaty is such that good faith requires that you should. 

give notice to the other nation that you propose to abrogate it. But 

the right to abrogate it has never been denied by any la.w-writer that I 

am aware of. I never heard it but once seriously denied in the Senat~ • 

and then by a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, who, I 

believe, finally corrected himself on that subject, and he sits on U.e 

other side of the Chamber. 

The question of the influx of Chinese labor into the United States is 

not a new question. I agree with' the Senator from Missouri [.Mr. 

VEST], who said yesterday that it was practically to-day a settled 

question. It is scarcely a burning question at this day, for we have 

declared our intention to prennt the general influx of Chinese. We 

have asserted our right to do so. We have modified the treaties in 

order that we might do it. I think whatever might have been the 

opinion ten years or twenty years ago, to-day H is the general opinion 

of the people of the United States·that Chmese immigration should be 

prohibited. 

So I am not going into a general discussion as to whether Chinese 

immigration ought to be prohibited. At all events the people have come to that conclusion. In 1878 the House of Hepresentatives sent to 

this body a bill to prohibit, limit, and restrict Chinese immigration, 

prohibiting it in part, curtailing it, and providing certain restrictions. 

That bill was antagonized in this body with rare exceptions only. I 

admit that a few Senators in this body said that it was a denial of a 

right which they insisted belonged to all men. They were right in tba 

general declaration, but wrong in its application. A few said that. I 

was a member of the body at the time and I can not be mistaken·, be· 
8250 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD---SENATE. SEPTE:MBER -4, 

cause it was a matter of interest to me then as it is now and has been for many years. The great objection was then that the bill was noL in 

accordance with the provisions of the treaty of 1868, the Burlingame 

treaty, which I will say, aside from the declaration which is contained 

in the fifth section of it, was not different from the treaty of 1844 or the 

. · treaty of 1858, negotiated by Democratic administrations and ratified 

by a. Democratic Senate. 

What was the distinction between the treaty of 1868 and the treaties 

of 1844 and 1858 ? Simply that we asserted that which has ever been 

the doctrine of republican nations-I do not speak of it as politics; I 

speak of it in the sense that we are a republican nation-the right of 

every man who saw fit so to do to flee from oppression and to go to any 

other country that was willing to open ita doors to him. That was the 

position which we declared in 1868 in the Burlingame treaty. Does 

any man sitting on that side of the Chamber deny it? I wait to hear 

any Senator, the Senator from Mississippi included, rise and say that 

he denies the correctness of that doctrine laid down in the Burlingame 

treaty. It was the doctrine upon which :J.\.Ir. Webster wrote his great 

letter which settled that question all over the world. It js the doctrine we have crystallized into treaties and statutes, that every man 

who sees fit t-o flee from the land of his birth has a right so to do, and 

can transfer his allegiance, with the consent only and always of the 

country to which he flees, what sh-ould be his condition when he got 

there being determined always by the law of the land where he went 

and not by the law of the land from which he came. It was that which 

enabled us to say to the European countries when our citizens went back 

to Europe, to Germany, to France, and to Great Britain," These men 

have by a natural right severed their connection with you and transferred their allegiance to us." There are nine and a half million of men 

in the United States who have come here within twenty years a.ssert-

'ing that right, and we have asserted it, and we have been ready to go 

to war at all times in defense of it. Yet sneeringly the Senator from 

Mississippi tells us that this was opening the door to Chinese immigration. 

Mr. President, that was all there was of the treaty of 1868. Irepeat, will any man on that side of the Chamber stand up and say he 

is opposed to that doctrine? If he is, then when an Irishman goes 

back to Great Britain, Great Britain can put him in prison for leaving 

• the country if it sees fit, and the German who flees fromGermanythat 

he may escape the three years' service in the German army may when 

he goes back be put into the army; and so with the Frenchman. It 

has been the prized jewel in the American crown; it has been the thing 

we have boasted of and glorified ourselves for, as we have for no other 

single principle; and yet the Senator says that simply an assertion in 

a treaty compelling China to admit that which she had denied for years 

was opening the door to Chinese immigration ! 

The Senator said another thing that I wish to notice. I think when 

- the Senator looks over his remarks, when he thinks of the application 

that can be made of them, he will take the. liberty, which every Senator ought to have, to correct himself on that subject. The Senator 

said that Chinese immigration arose out of the treaty of 1868. He is 

not familiar with the subject. He should have come to some of us 

who have had some acquaintance with the subject for facta_, I say 

without egotism we shonld be able to give him instruction in these 

questions. 

The Senator from Oregon [M:r. MITCHELL] showed him that when 

that treaty was made there were more Chinese in the United States 

than there are in the country to-day. Years before that treaty was 

made we had seen them in camps on the Pacific coast by the thousands. 

I saw myself 4,000 in one camp years before that treaty was made. 

They came here under treaties made by Democratic administrations, 

ratified by a Democratic Senate; and the Senator would now have the 

country understand that the Republican party have invited the Chinese 

to this country! The Senator is onlyexcusableon the ground that this 

has not been a question of importance to his people and his section, and 

therefore he has not studied it and has not read the historv of this 

Asiatic immigration. . -

In 1844 we made the first treaty with China. It was regarded as a 

great achievement. We were the first nation to break down the wall 

that had hedged around that great people for four thousand years. We 

were the first people, young as we were, to compel them to open their 

ports to our commerce. Other nations followed. 

In 1858 we repeated the treaty of 1844 in substance, with some 

changes. In those treaties was there any provision that Chinamen 

should not come to the United States? There was not any assertion 

at th-t time of the doctrine that a man has a right to change his allegiance and his home, but the Democratic administrations who negotiated those treaties were ready then, as all administrations have been 

ready, to go to war in favor of that doctrine, and if China would have 

then consented to its insertion in a treaty they would haYe been able 

to have inserted it. China would not agree to it then. It was only 

later when light reached them that they were willing to make that 

change. 

JI.Ir. President, I blame nobody that there was no provision made in 

1844 or in 1858 that the Chinese should not eome to this country, because up to that time .outside of California no attention whatever had 

been attracted to Chinese immigration. Nobody had supposed that 

danger lurked in it.. On the contrary, it was early snppo ed by nearly 

all classes of men that there was a benefit to be derived from this immigration. So the Senator from Missjssippi can throw n o sticks at this 

side of the Chamber, nor can he throw any sticks at the Hepublican 

party on this question. If, when questions of th1 character came bert>, 

some· of the gentlemen on this side of the Chamber were more c:uefnl 

of the plighted faith ofthe Government than others, it was because they 

did not see the great danger there was in Chinese immigration. 

Mr. President, I yield to no man living in a desire that when tbo 

Government of the United States makes a. contract with a rei~ uation o~ any kind it shall adhere to that contract until it is properly 

and With the consent of the other party, if possible, changed; but I 

knew the great need and the great necessity of legislation upon iliis 

subject, and I was willing in 1878, as I have been willing for many 

years, to do what I think we have a legal and a proper right to doabrogate by legislative action a treaty that was bearing hard upon the 

people and a treaty that was liable in the cour e of time to work great 

injury not only to the people of California and the Pacific coast but to 

all the country. I did not put it here on the floor nor have I put it 

anywhere solely upon the ground that it was the introduction of chenp 

labor. I put it upon a higher ground, that it brought American labor in contact with degraded labor and thus degraded American labor. 

The act passed in 1879 {perhaps it may have been in 1878; I h a >e not 

looked it up; but the act was passed during Mr. Hayes's admin istration ) was vetoed for the reason I have stated, and for that rea on only. 

Thereupon the Republican administration made haste to see tha t t he 

treaty was so modified that we could without any trouble, without apparently violating our good £.<tith, exclude these people from our mid t. 

When it came here I was still a member of this body. I •oted •ery ti~e, although the Senator from Mississippi said once it appeared I had 

not voted. I voted or was paired every time in favor of the cxclnsion 

of Chinese. Upon thatquestiQn I have never occupied two sides, either 

before I came int-o public life or since. I have not taken thi po ition 

simply because the Chinese were overwhelming my State or my section, 

for I believe there have never been over five hundred or six lJUnnred 

Chinamen in Colorado at any time, but I had seen the evil influence on 

other sections of the country and knew whereof I spoke. 

The Senator from Ailssouri [Mr. VEST] the other day arraigned the 

Republican candidate for the Presidency upon the ground that he had 

been in favor of Chinese immigration. He was unable to find a single 

jot or a single tittle in the discussion anywhere which indicated that 

Mr. Harrison was opposed to the restriction of Chinese immigration. 

Mr. Harrison was opposed to saying that for twenty years Chinese 

should be excluded. Why? Because be believed it was not consistent with the treaty of 1830, and very many men on this floor belie•ed 

the same thing. I so believed; and when the present occupant of the 

chair [Mr. lKGALLs] moved an amendment that the term should be 

put at ten years-! had made some remarks upon the subject at another time to the effect that I was opposed to Chinese immigration, and 

that I did not think twenty years was too long to exclude them-I rose 

and said: "I want to exclude them forever, but Senators on this floor 

say that they do not think that it is consistent with the treaty, aud as 

I am anxious for the passage of this bill I will vote for ten years.' ' So I voted for the ten years, as did many others, and among those was the 

present candidate of the Republican party for the Presidency. 

The Senator from Missouri said in· his remarks the other day that 

e•ery man who voted for that modification (which was not accepted 

and did not become a part of the law) voted that a fter ten years he was 

in favor of unrestricted Chinese immigration. No more monstrous as- sertion could be made, for no man on the floor had been more anxious 

than I was for the exclusion of the Chinese, as I had expressed in my 

speeches apd by my votes. The Senator's own colleague voted for that 

amendment, as did the Senator from Tennessee [Mr. HARRIS], u n- · 

doubtedly moved by the same reason that moved me. Anxious to ecure the passage of the bill, anxious to have some legislation wbkh 

would accomplish this purpose, we were willing to make the .bill aC·· ceptable to those who were then opposed to it, and if we bad made it 

so acceptable we should have avoided the sub equent veto. 

But when the Senate voted down that proposition, I •ot ed for th e 

bill with its provision of twenty years, and when tbePresident eut it 

back I voted to pass it over his veto, although I bad alreadythen been 

nominated a1.1d confirmed by the Senate as a member of his Ca.hinet. 

Six weeks later the Senator from Missouri voted for that very pro- vision himself in the new bill that came in, which ultimately r eceived 

the indorsement of the President, and which was identical in t erms 

save and except that it limited the period to ten years instead of twenty 

years. If men who voted for the first bill thereby declared they were 

in favor of unrestricted Chinese immigration after twent y years, then 

so did the Senator from Missouri and so did all who Toted in that ""ITay 

declare. 

Jl.lr. GEORGE. Will the Senator from Colorado allow me to interrupt him for a minute? 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from Colorado 

yield? 

Mr. TELLER. Yes, sir. 
. 

1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 8251 

1\Ir. GEORGE. The Senator from Colorado has alluded to some 

criticism or supposed criticism of mine upon his >oting. I wish to call 

the attention of the Senator to a remark in my speech in which I 

separated him from the opposing Senators and acknowledged fully 

and freely that he was on the side of the Chinese question in all these 

matters that I was. I desired to call his attention to that fact. 

Mr. TELLER. I did not understand the Senator to criticise me, 

but I understood the Senator to read from a paper, aud not to read 

from the record, in which it appeared that I did not vote. 

Mr. GEORGE. On one occasion. Mr. TELLER. There was one vote on which I was paued which 

the speech he read from, which had been delivered in the other Honse, 

did not show. 

}rfr. GEORGE. I am sorry if my readin~ from that record tlid any 

injustice to the Senator. It was very carefully prepared. 

Mr. TELLER. I wish to say that upon this subject I do not yield 

in zeal to anybody on earth, and I have had these ideas longer than 

the Senator from Mississippi. I had the!fl. years ago. It is no new 

faith with me; and on this question the Republican Presidential candidate voted just exactly as I voted. I believe that he is as sound on 

the question of American labor, whether it be of protecting it against 

the pauper labor of Europe or the pauper labor of China, as any man 

• in the world. The bill finally came here and was passed and was signed by President Arthur. I wish to say that all theeffortswhich have been made 

that have eventuated in any measure worth anything to the people on 

this question have come from Republicans and have had the sanction 

of a Hepuhlican Senate and a Republican President. 

So it will not do for the Senator from Mississippi to assume that the 

Democrats have been in favor of the restriction of Chinese immigration 

or its prohibition while they have been the other way. In 1876 at 

Cincinnati at our national convention we put in a provision on the 

motion of the Senator from Nevada [Ur. JONES] that Congress should 

investigate this subject with reference to legislation upon it. That 

was just what the Pacific coast people asked and all they asked. In 

1880 we put in our platform this provision, which I will read: 

Since the authority to regulate immigration and intercourse between the United States and foreign nations rests with Congress. or with the United States and its treaty·ma.lting power, the Republican party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese as an evil of great magnitude, invokes the exercise of those powers to restrain and limit that immigration by the enactment of sucll just, l1Umane, and reasonable provisions as will produce that r esult. 

Who wants anything more than that? It was satisfactory to the people on the Western coast, as it was satisfactory to the people everywhere 

who have studied this questiqn and who have had a special and direct 

interest in it. 

But in 1 80, justbeforethecampaign closed, there appeared in a New 

York paper the letter known as the Morey letter. I will read the letter. It was as follows: 

[Personal and confidential.] 

HousE OF REPRESI!:NTATIVES, Wa..shington, D. C., January 23, 1880. · 

DEAR SIR: Yours in relation to the Chinese problem came duly to hand. I take it that the question of employes is only a. question of private and cor- porate economy, and individuals and companies have the right to buy !abor where they can get it cheapest. \Ve have a treaty with the Chinese Government which shonld be religiously 

kept u.ntil its prorisions are abrogated by the action of the General Government, and I am not prepared to say that it should be abrogated until our great manu- facturing and corporate interests are·conserved in the matter of labor. Very truly, yours, J . A. GARFIELD. H . L. 1\IOREY, 

Employers' Unicm, Lynn, Mass. 

When that was published the then candidate for the Presidency, l'lfr. 

Garfield, made haste to deny that he had e\er written such a letter. 

All the Democratic press throughout the country asserted that he had 

written the letter. High and responsible Democratic authority was invoked as to the signature of t,he letter. 

1lfr. PLATT. It was lithographeil. 

Mr. TELLER. The lithographed letter wassent out. Itwa.saforgery of the basest kind, subsequently proved in court to have been a 

forgery, and what was more, itwas a clumsy forgery. Itwasaforgery 

that ought not to have deceived anybody, and it would not have deceived anybody if there had not been a. desire to misrepresent the attitude of the Republican candidate for the Presidency. 

The Uorey letter did not succeed, and this attack upon the present 

Republican candidate will not succeed now. Why? Because the people know it is not true. If that letter had been known by the people 

of the United States to have been the actual letter of James A. Garfield, I \enture to say, as I have said befor-e on this floor, that he would 

not have carried a State in this Union-not one- and he ought not to 

have carried a State in the Union if he had written aletterofthat1..rind 

or if be had declared sentiments of that character- a declaration that 

the great manufacturing and corporate authorities had a right, at the 

expense of the laboring people of the country, to get their labor wherever they could. 

But in this Congress, on the other side of this Capitol, in another body, the same sentiment has been uttered and declared which was contained in the Morey letter. A member of Congress declared re- cently, and the u tteran ces have b~en published broadcast, that it was 

our right to buy goods wherever we could buy cheapest, and when 

asked if that applied to labor he declared that it did. Th..'lt was the 

utterance of a Democratic member, aml no Democrat to this hour, 

either there or here, h..'lS risen to rebuke him for the logical statement 

that he made if his first r>roposition was true. 

Mr. BLACKBURN. Will the Senator from Colorado allow me to 

ask him a question? 

1\fr. TELLER. Certainly. 

Mr. BLACKBURN. . Will the Senator tell us whether, during the 

twenty-odd years that his party held po·wer in this country, it ever 

pu.t upon the statute-books, or ever proposed a law that would prevent 

a manufacturer or a miner from buying the pauper labor of Europe 

and_ bringing it into this country, tax-fi:ee, if he wanted to do so? 

Mr. ri'ELLER. I will tell the Senator all about that before I get 

through, and I will also say before I get through something about the 

claim made by the other siue of this Chamber that they are the patrons 

oflabor. I shall have time, I think, to. allude to some things in their 

history within the memory of men, and if they want to discuss that 

question for twenty years past I shall be quite prepared to discuss it 

with the Senator or anybody else on that side. If there ever was a 

fraud on the Americ.an people it is when that side of the Chamber talk 

about their fealty to labor and their interest for the laboring men. I 

challenge them now here to show in the long years that they had the 

Government, and they may take their time to look it up, one ~>ingle 

statute of commanding importance in the interest of labor. They can 

not show one. And I will show them that whenever any grea.t question in the interest of human rights came up they were always against it. 

We will compare records, Mr. President, the DemocratiC party and the 

Republican party, either before the war or since. 

It was forgery that they used in 1880; it is slander that· they hope to 

use in 18 8 to get tbemsel ves into power. It will not be amiss now, · 

sir, to look into the history of the Democratic party on this question 

of Chinese labor. 

Californi:l. was the first section to be cursed with Chinese labor. The 

Senator who sits by my side [Mr. :M:.rTCHELL] last night told us something about it. He told, us of a Democratic go\ernor who afterward 

came and sat in this Cbamber--

:M:r. UITCHELL. If the Senator will pardon me, I desire to say 

that I was mistaken in regard to that matter. The man, John McDougall, who was governor' of California, was not the Mr. McDougall 

who was afterwards Senator. He was governor of California, how~:ver, 

and was a Democrat. 

1\ir. TELLER. Well, I did not know about that. I suppdsed that 

the person of that name who subsequ.ently came here was the same 

man; but it does not make any difference w he~her he sat in this C umber or not, he declared, as the Senator from Oregon read yesterday, that 

Chinese laborers were desirable and valuable and most favore:1, or should be most favored, of all our immigrant.s. · 

At the risk of repeating what the Senator from Oretion said so well 

yesterday, I will go over this ground a little. I will first call attention, 

tor fear I may forget it, to the great number of Chinamen that bad 

come in on the Pacific coast as early as 1850, 1851, 1852, and sub equent thereto. I want to read a little of the record of the Democutic 

party in Calif-ornia, for that is the onJy place in which any record was 

made on this question at that time. 

In March, 1852, .hfr. Peachy, a Democratic member of the California Legislature, which was a Democratic Legislature, introduced a bill 

to legalize contracts for labor made in China, which provided that 

such contracts should be good for five years, and might be made assignable. Any laborer brought in under contract who should attempt 

to leave his master could be arrested and compelled to work out his 

contract of service. This was known as the Peachy bill, and passed 

the lower house. It was supported by Mr. Peachy, its author, and 

by 1\fr. Roach and Mr. Hager, all distinguished Democrats. Shortly 

a1ter this a bill was introduced into the C:1lifornb.Legislature for taxing Chinamen. This the Democratic majority refused to pass. Mr. 

Hager, who was afterward a member of this body, and is now collector 

of customs at the port of San Francisco, offered the following resolution: 

Whereas California is nearer China than any other State and a valWlblecom• merce has been opened up: Resolved, That a commission be appointed to go to China. 

And when an attempt was made to substitute South America for 

China the Democrats voted it down. 

In 1852 a Whig member of the Leg:i lature offered a bill known as the 

miners' tax, imposing a head-tax on all aliens working mining claims. 

It was incontinently laid on the table by the Democratic majority of 

the Legislature. At that time there were 25,000 Chinamen in the State. 

In 1856 there were 30,000 Chinamen in California. Labor demanded 

their exclusion. The Democratic Legislature appointed a Democratic 

committee of inquiry, which made a report on the subject from which 

I shall read a sentence. Now, mark this, you Senators who insistthat 

you ha>e been par excellence the defenders of labor as against Chinese: 

We say the tendency is not toward~ corruption . . They have done us no harm. 

In 1859 Mr. Weller, a Democratic governor of California, declared: 

We have cause to rejoice that this great nation (China) has been subjected to the law of nations. 
8252 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. SEPTEMBER 4, 

The cause of that rejoicing was that there had been a treaty concluded with China the year before, called the treaty of 1858, which 

did not provide, as the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. GEORGE] thinks 

the treaty of 1868 ought to have provided, for the exclusion of Chinese, but allowed them to come. 

Now, Mr. President, I want to contrast the Democllltic position 

with the Republican position on that subject. California had been 

ultra-Democratic. It was controlled by the most Bourbon-like of all 

Democrats. It was controlled by the class of men then in power in the 

country, who were managing and controlling the Democratic party, 

the ultra pro-slavery men of the country. 'l'hey had filled up California with able men from tha~ section of the country, and while they 

could not control it suffidently to establish human slavery as they 

tried to do, they controlled it sufficiently to get Democratic legislators 

and governors. 

But in 1862, in the midst of the civil war, when the patriotic love of 

theW estern people was stirred,· there were enough of them found voting 

with the Republican party to elect one of their number governor of the 

State-a gentleman now an honored member of this body, the Senator 

from Calliornia [Mr. STANFORD]. I wish to contrast his utterances 

with the utterances of those Democrat!) who preceded him, and to show 

the attitude ot the Democratic party that preceded his administration 

in that State, the only State then that had been called upon to take up 

this question where public sentimentha been crystallized at all so that 

it could be said there was a sentiment. 

Before reading what Governor Stanford said with regard to the immigration of Chine e, I want to read what he said on another subject; 

and I read it because the words are words that seem to me as valuable 

as gold. Th.is, mind you, Mr. President, was in 1862, when there was great trouble in this country and when it ~as uncertain whether California would be cut off from the rest of the country by secession. - He 

said: · 1 

Cnliforni~ bus nobly and wisely pronounced in fn.>or of the cause of the people. Let her proYe her deyotion to the cause of- the Uniorr and to civil l iberty by doing all in her power to mainta.in both. Let her part of the national tux be cheerfully assumed, and provision be made for its payment out of the State treasm·y. Every one of us should feel that we o.re but guardians, holding our Jiyes and our fortunes in trust for the protection of the Government, around whicl1 cluster t he anxious hopes and fears of millions who have grown with its gi"O\vth and strengLhened with its strength. Onr Government is emphatically one of the people, possessing all the power oft he people fur their p,rotection and defense, but powerles for their oppi·e

sion. It is not only the best, but the strongest form of go\emment the world has e\·er known. Let it remain unchanged. 

Tho e are patriotic words, Mr .. President, full of meaning, full of 

truth. In a government of the people there should be no oppression of 

the people. It is not strange that be who entertained that sentiment, 

when he saw these hordes from Asia competing with American labor 

and doing what I repeat again is a hundred times worse~ degrading American boor hy their association, pulling it down from the high position 

that it had occupied here as nowhere else in the world-it is not · strange that he should have turned his attention to getting rid of these 

people. Now hear what he said: · 

While the settlement of our State is of the first importanceThis is the governor's inaugural message. This is when he firstaddressed the people of the State that bad honored him with election. 

Mind you, Mr. President, this is from the :first Republican governor ot 

California. elected in 1 62-Governor Leland Stanford. He said: 

While the settlement of our State is of the first importance, the character of those who shall become settlers is worthy of scarcely less consideration. To my mind it is clear that the settlement among us of an inferior race is to be dis- couraged by every legitimate means. Asia, with her numberless millions, sends to our shores the dregs of her population. Large numbers of this class nre already here, and unless ''"e do something early to check their immigration t he question which of the two tides of immigration meeting upon the shores of the Pacific shall be turned back will be forced upon our consideration when far more difticult tllan now of disposal. There can be no doubt but that the prcsen<:c of uumbers nmong us of a degraded and distinct people must exercise a delet e rious influence upon the superior race and to a certain extent repel desirable irnmigration. It will afford me great pleasure to concur with the Legislature in any constitutional action !laving for its object the repression of tlle immigration of the Asiatic mces. 

That, Mr. President, was the first official utterance from any public mau anywhere against Chinese immigation. While there bad been 

protests in Cali!oruia and protests in other sections, the protestants bad 

not beeu in power; bnt as soon as the Republicans came into control 

in California that was what the Republican governor said. Of course 

it was a question beyond their control; of course it was a question for 

national authority and the exercise of national power; but it showed 

pln.iuly that the Republican party then, as now, has been opposed t.o 

this kind of immigration. 

I desire now, Mr. President., to call attention to some other movements that haYe been made in the interest of the repression of this 

class of immigrants. 

Mr. PAYNE. Will the Senator a1low me to ask him a question? 

Mr. TELLER. Certainly; I am always glad to answer questions. 

l\1r. PAYNE. \\ra.s not Governor Sta.nford at that time connected ·with the Union or Central Pacific Railroad officially and as a large 

stockholder? 

Mr: TELLER. 

Mr. PAYNE. 

What was the question? 

I asked whether Go~ernor Stanford was not at the 

time referred to connected with the Union or Central Pacific Railioad 

officially and as a iarge stockholder. 

Mr. TELLER. Not at that time. The company had not been organized at that time; it had not been formed at that time. 

Mr. MITCHELL. The charter was granted in 1862. 

Mr. TELLER. As the Senator from Oregon says, the charter of that 

company was not granted until1862, and was revivified by act of Congress in 1834, and up to that time there had been no organization of a 

continental road. 

Mr. PAYNE. Let me inquire of the Senato;, whether the Mongolians 

who were on the Pacific coast subsequently were not brougl1t there by 

that company? 

Mr. TELLER. No; not by that road nor by any other road. They 

came there of their own accord. A Republican administration had prevented them before that-prevented the introduction of cooly labor 

into the United States. · 

For fear I may forget it, I will answer the Senator from Ohio when 

be asks whether subsequently these railroads did not import contract 

l abor. Before the war, as early as the year 1852, there was an inquiry 

by theHouseof Representatives into the coaly trade. It did notcome 

to anything. The class of men who were in power, who were controlling the administration, were in favor of the cooly trade. It was a kin 

to their system of labor, and yon could not have hoped or have expected that in those days anybody who held that the bL'tck man ought 

to be a slave could not hold with equal propriety that the brow!! man 

might be a slave also. But on the 19th of Fepruary, 1862, when there 

was a. Republican admini<stration in both branches of Congress and a 

Republican Executive, there was passed this law which bas gone into 

the Revised Statutes, and is now in force: 

SEc. 2153. No citizen of the United States, or foreignercomiug into or r esiding within the same, shall, for himself or for any other person, either as master, 

factor, owner, or otherwise, build, equip, load. or otherwise p repare, any vessel, reg istered, enrolled, or licensed, in he United States, for the purpose of procUl·-

ing from any port or place the subjects of ChinR.,.Japan, or of any other oriental country, known as "coolies," to be transported to any foreign port, or plnce, to be di posed of, or sold, or transferred, ior any time, as servants or apprentices, or to be held to service or labor. 

That law, as I have said, was passed on the 19th of February, 1862. 

There is not a man sitting in this Chamber who came fi·om south of 

Mason and Dixon's line who would have voted for that bill; none of 

them would have done so then. They hold different ideas, I trust, now 

from what they held then. 

I will not read the whole statute. It provides penalties, and carefully guards the provision that they shall not be brought. Under that 

law there was no importation of cooly labor into any section of our 

country as there had been in some of the Southern States before the 

war. A Senator suggests to me that that was advanced ground. It was. 

It was breaking in upon what had beell: the opinion of a great many 

men in this country-the opinion, namely, that there was a riglft of 

capitalists to buy labor where they could buy it cheapest. The ruaxim 

that they had a right to buy labor where they could buy it cheapest 

was the corollary and proper logical deduction to that which maintained that you bad the right always, irrespective of the interests of 

the people, to buy goods wherever you could buy them cheapest. If 

the one is sound doctrine the other is sound doctrine. At that time 

everywhere in lhis country where the doctrine of free trade was rampant so was the other doctrine, involving the right to buy labor as to 

buy goods. 

When this legislation was passed it was supposed it would preclude 

or hinder the coming of great bodies of these people, who it was believed were contracted for by their own countrymen in many instances, 

and undoubtedly were. It did not have that result. 

I want to go a little further in showing up the record on this question. In 1 '69, when labor in California was distressed, there was pending before the Democratic Legislature of the State a bill granting a large body of tide lands to a railroad corporation. To this an amendment was offered prohibiting the employment of Chinese by the bene- ficiary. . Of the 42 votes recorded against this amendment 32 were c.-u;t 

bv Democrats. 

·On the 4th of December, 1861, Thomas D. Elliott, of Massachusetts, 

a Republican Representative in Congress, oJTered a bill prohibiting tho 

importation of coolies into the United States. It passed both Houses 

and was approved by Abraham Lincoln, and that is the bill I have rea.d. 

In 1877 Mr. STEWART, of Nevada, secured the passage of a resolu· 

tion calling for further information as to this traffic. Mr. Sargent, of 

California. in the same year also offered a bill in the House of Representatives on the subject. .In 1873 Mr. Page, of California, offered a 

bill prohibiting the importation of Chinese coolies and prostitutes, 

which passed in the House in 1875. In 1874 General Grant called at. 

tention to the same question, in these words: 

I call the attention of Congress to a generally conceded fact, that the grea ter proportion of Chinese immigrR.nls * K K do not come >oluntal"ily · * . * but come under cont•·acts with head-men, who own them almost absolutely. Jn a worse form does this apply to Chinese women. * * * lf this evil practice can be legislated Against, it will be my pleasure as well ns duty to enforce any regulations to secure so desirable an end. 

In 1874 and 1R75 Mr. Sargent and Mr. Page were both active in lie-
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 8253 

curing legislation on this subject and were both Republicans. Unto 

that time I have to find yet that any Democrat had taken any steps in 

this direction at ali. Now we are l\P to 1870, and the Democratic rec- ord in California, the only State to which Chinamen had come, showed 

that the Democrats were opposed to its restriction. 

Now I come to my own State, the State of Colorado. 

In the twenty-seven years that Colorado ha-s been an organized Territory or State she has had only once a Democratic Legislature. In 

1870 the Democrats had not only the Territorial council by a very re- spectable majority but also the bouse of representatives of the Territory by an equally respectable majority. Both bodies were small.- In 

the house of representatives there were twenty-six members, and of those 

sixteen were Democrats. In the council there were thirteen members, 

and of those nine were Democrats. So there was a Democratic working 

majority in both bodies. There was a Democratic speaker of the house 

and a Democratic president of the council, and there was a Republican 

governor. For fear I may forget it I wish to say now that that Republican governor has been training for a good many years in the ranks 

of the Democratic party. and is to-day a Democratic official under this 

Administration. 

·• Let us see now what the Democratic Legislature in Colorado did on this question as late as February, 1870. I have ·here the legislative 

proceedings of the Territory of Colorado and I find this: 

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION, 

For tbe encouragement of Chinese immigration into Colorado Territory. 

Resolved by the house of representatives of the Legislative Assembly of the Terri- tory of Colm·ado, the council concurr·ing, That immigration of Chinese labor to Colorado is eminently calculated to hasten the development E.nd early pros- perity of the Territory by supplying the demands for cheap labor. 

Resolved, That such immigntion should be encouraged by such legislation as will guaranty to said immigration security in their persons and property. 

Approved February ll, A. D.l870. 

I have been to the trouble to find out, by looking up the journal, 

who introduced that, and I find that it was a prominent Democrat of 

the house of representatives who introduced it, a Mr. Bevan, representing one of our mining districts at that time 'and another time in 

the Legislature. 

Now, what a degree of effrontery is required for the Senator from 

Mississippi· to stand up here, in view of the record I have read, in the 

only section of the country where a record could be made on this question at all, and tell us that we have bE!.E)n the party of Chinese labor, 

that we have been in favor ofit, when we are the onlypeoplethathave 

ever made an effort to secure the exclusion of Chinese. Why, we have 

had a Democratic House of Representatives here since 1875, and what 

have they done towards securing the exclusion of the Chinese? For two 

years of that time the Democrats had both the House and Senate. What 

did they do then? That is the time they passed the bill. Was it a party 

measure? When that was before the Senate the present Secretary of 

State declared that the bill ought to conform to and be in unison with 

the treaty, that it ought to be shaped upon the treaty. I do notremember whether he voted for it or not, but he certainly made that declaration, and declared that he would vote for the Ingalls ~mendment, 

although I believe he did not. 

I now call the attention of the Senate to another thing in connection 

with this question. In 1864 we passed what was called the contractlabor law. The other day when the Senator from Missouri [Mr. VEST] was speaking, or soon after he had spoken, on the Chinese question: 

the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. BECK] called attention to. the fact 

tbat this contract-labor law passed in 1864 was not repealed until1883. 

There was a law passed in 1864 tbat enabled citizens of the United 

States to make contracts with foreigners and bring them here to labor. 

Before we consider whether that was a wise law or not, we must con- sider the condition of the country at that time. What was it? There was an immense number of men, either in the Army or associated with 

the Army or engaged in supplying the wants of the Army, that is to 

say, people who were withdrawn from the productive industries of the 

country, and their labor applied to a destructive purpose, not to the 

creation of wealth. - How many men were there? I find the committee here saying a million of men. Why, Mr. President, that only refers to the men that we bad in the Army of the North. That does not refer to the great 

nnmber of people wbowere called from other pursuits to do things that 

necessarily grew out of the war. With a million of men in the Army 

and petitions coming here from farmers, from manufacturers, and from 

numbers of other people asking for legislation that would enable them 

to go abroad and bring labor-not Chinese labor, because that was prohibited by the act of, 1862-but to bring reputable Irishmen, Norwegians, Germans, and that class of men into the United States faster than 

they were coming, we passed the act of 1864 at that particu·lar time 

to meet a demand made necessary by the war. How ma.ny people ever 

came under it I do not know. It was not repealed until1883. It was 

not repealed because I venture to say up to that time there had ne,·er 

been any abuses under it. At least no complaint had been made by 

anybody that I am aware of. . In 1883 that question came before the House and the House passed 

the repealing bill. Let me go back a moment to say that in 1864 a committee was appointed consisting of three Republicans and two 

Democrats to take into consideration with reference to this, not only 

the petitions but the President's message, President Lincoln having 

recommended that some steps should be taken to increase the immigration because of the scarcity of Iabor. Two of the three were Republic- ans and two Democrats, one of the Democrats being from Missouri 

and one from Indiana, and the Democrats made a report with the 

three Republicans in favor of the bill, and it can not be shown that a single Democra,t voted against it. 

Mr. COCKRELL. Who was the Democrat from Missouri? 

Mr. TELLER. Mr. Rollins, a reputable Democrat and a man of a 

good deal of ability, as I recollect. That was a peculiar condition of 

affairs. We wanted labor. We had taken away the bone and sinew 

of the country and put them into the Army. We had to supply them 

with goods, we had to supply them with food, we had to supply the 

people all over the country with necessaries, and for that purpose we wanted the labor and we welcomed the laborers, and we took special 

pains to get them and to bring them here. 

1\fr. STEW ART. It was a war measure. Mr. TELLER. .AJ3 suggested by the Senator from Nevada, it was a war measure. It was a proper measure for the time. 

In 1885 a repealing bill came into the Senate, and one would suppose after hearing the Senator from Kentucky, who I am sorry to see is not in his seat, that he rose immediately when it came here and 

moved to do as was done yesterday with this bill-put it through without the formality of a reference to a committee. I supposed before I 

looked up the record that there was a scramble and rush on the part 

of the Democrats to get to this bill in order that they might pass it. 

Why, Mr. President, I assert here that when it passed the Senate the 

only opposition found to it came from the Democratic side of this 

Chamber. Of the nine votes against it only one was aRepublican, and 

he had declared beforehecame to that vote why he should so vote, hecause, as he declared, the bill was not sufficiently explicit. But the 

Democrats did not put it on that ground. The Senator from Alabama 

who sits nearest to me [Mr. MoRGAN] moved hostile amendments to 

it; and the Senator from Texas who sits farthest from me [Mr. CoKE] 

moved an amendment to exclude from the operation of the bill all 

agricultural laborers, as the old contract-labor bill was then about to 

be repealed; w bile on this side of the Chamber every man voted fori ts repeal save one, including our candidate for the Presidency. He not only 

voted for it, but expressed his desire that it should pass in a little colloquy that he had with the Senator from Texas. 

When they came to the question whether they would make a practical bill of this, and when an amendment was offered providing that it 

should be the duty of the United States attorney to prosecute infractions of the law as contained in this new bill about to be passed, which 

not only repealed the other but made it a penal offense to import labor 

under contract, when it was desired to make it effective by saying that 

the United States attorneys should be charged with its execution, I 

believe the only votes against that proposition came from the Democratic side of the Chamber. 

There was a long discussion on the bill. The Senator from Alabama 

spoke several times on it. Both the Senators from Texas spoke on it. 

The :vresent Republican candidate for governor of the great State of 

New York was one of those sit.ting on this side of the Chamber, and 

he brought to the support of that bill his great intellect, not simply 

by his vote, but by his earnest effort on this floor for its passnge as it 

had come from the House, without being deprived of its valuable features, as was attempted by the Senator from Alabama, the Senator from 

South Carolina, and the two Senators from Texas. 

The Senator from South Carolina moved a substitute for the bill-a 

substitute which, with the concluding section (section 4), would have 

absolutely nullified the bill, would have rendered it innocuous so far 

as concerned the accomplishment of the purpose for which it was intended, and would have opened the door for the importation of con- tract labor of nearly all kinds into this country. Such was also the 

practical effect of the amendment of the Senator from Texas. Such was the practical effect of the amendment of the Senator from Alabama, 

who desired to allow skilled labor to be introduced under the contract 

system. This amendment also was moved: 

And it shall be the duty of t.he district attorney of the proper district to prose- cute every such suit at the expense of the United Rtates. 

On that there were 43 yeas and 15 nays. Let me read who voted 

"nay" on that amendment. It wa! not an unreasonable thing when 

the Senate wa-s going to pass an act of this kind that somebody should 

be authorized to carry it out. Who voted "11a_y?" Mr. Bayard, the 

pi'esent Secretary of State; Mr. BECK, who' criticised the original bill; 

Mr. BROW.~:, 1\Ir. Fair, Mr. Garland, Mr. Groome, Ur. HAl\IProx, Mr. 

HARRIS, Mr. Maxey, Mr. MORGAN, Mr. Pendleton, Mr. SAUI.SBURY, 

Mr. VANCE, and Mr. Williams of Kentucky. The Senator from Texas 

[Mr. CoKE], whom I do not see in his seat, stated that be was paired 

with the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. HOAR.], and that if Mr. 

HOAR were present, Mr. CoKE would >ote ''nay." Mr. RANSOM, when 

his name was called, said be was paired with the Senator from Illinois 

[Mr. Logan], and if that Senator were present, 1\fr. RA:KSO~f would 

vote "na.y." So there were practic..'l.lly 17 votes from the Democrats 

against the enforcement of this law, and not oue Republican. 

, 
8254 CONGRESS! ON AL RECORD-SEN ATE. £EPTEMBER 4. 

I never like to mention a Senator who is not pres~nt, but I want to 

call the attention of the Senate to the fact that the Senator from Kentucky-I feel that I have a right, however, to do so, and I regret that 

he is not hero that I may call attention to his record in his presencethe Senator from Kentucky voted, it will be noticed, on-that amendment. It was then proposed to send the bill back to the Committee 

on the Judiciary with instructions to report, not later than the 20th, 

a bill that should more effectually reach the end desired. That was the motion of the Senator from Connecticut [Mr. HAWLEY], the only 

Republican who voted against the bil_l. He stated that in. his judgment the bill did not come up to what it ought to be. I want to say 

that by an examination of the record I find no Democrat basing his 

vote on that ground, that which everybody understood was a hostile 

movement; for its enemies would naturally vote to send it to a com- mittee. 

On that, the following Senators voted to send the bill back: Mr. 

Bayard, .Mr. BuTLER, Mr. Garland, 1tfr. GrnsoN, Ur. Groome, Mr . 

1IA WLEY, Mr. HAMPTON, Mr. HARRIS, lli. Maxey, Mr. MoRGAN, 

1\fr. Pendleton, Ur. SAULSBURY, lllr. VANCE, and 111r. Williams. Tbo-e are all Democracts but one; nobody voted with them from this 

side of the Chamber except the mover of the resolution. There was no debate intervening between the vote of the Senator from Kentucky 

to which I first called attention and 'Lhe last vote on the bill. On the 

passage of the bill the vote stood in the negative as follows: Mr. BLAIR, 

Mr. Groome, Mr. HAMPTON, lli. HAWLEY, Mr. Uaxey, Mr. MoRGAN, Mr. SAULSBURY, Mr. VANCE, and Mr. Williams. They all 

voted against the bill. The Senator from Kentucky and the Senator 

'from Delaware, 11Ir. Ba-yard, who had voted five minutes previously 

against the provision for the enforcement of the act, were absent and 

did not l"ote. The Senator from North Carolina (Mr. RANSOM] who 

had l"oted before against'the proposition turned around and voted for 

the bill. Neither the Senator from Kentuckv nor the Senator from 

Delaware, Mr~ Bayard, was paired, so far as the record shows, nor did 

_they make any excuse for not voting. In other words, after voting 

for all the amendments that were hostile to the bill, after voting as they had done repeatedly for things that would-destroy the bill, then, 

when it came to the final vote, they were so politic that they both 

dodged. 

And now, Mr. Presjdent, do you not think that it is .pretty cheeky 

for the Senator from Kentucky to read us. a lecture from that side of 

the Chamber on the labor-contract bill? Who passed the bill? Re- publicans passed it. Who signed it? A Republican Executive signed 

it. The Republicans went ont of power and the Democrats came into 

power, and they have not lifted a finger to enforce that law from that 

day to this. 

.Mr. BLAIR. Will the Senator permit me to make a remark in that 

connection? 

Mr. TELLER. Certainly. 

Ur. BLAIR. I desire to say that I have had sent to me at this ses- sion affidavits from citizens in my own State showing that they laid 

before the United States district attorney of their district affidavits of 

the clearest and strongest character, affidavit after affidavit, showing 

the importation of laborers from Canada to perform work in my State, 

and asking and urging prosecution, and the district attorney refused 

month after month to act, and never has acted. 

Mr. PAYNE. If the Senators will pardon me, I might mention a 

case arising under that act-the case of the pastor of Trinity Church, 

in New York. In that case there was a prosecution and a conviction 

a»d fine, as I understood. 

1.1r. TELLER. The Senator from Ohio calls my attention to the 

fact that the Democratic administration have enforced this law. I was undeT the impression that they had not; but when the Senator 

calls my attention to it I remember that there was a religious congre- gation in New York, Trinity Church congregation, a great church in 

New York City, a Democratic church, mainly. It is the high'' mucky- mucky," as they say out West, of the Democratic party that assemble 

at Trinity Church for prayers, and nothing would do them but to have an English minister, in accordance with the general tendency of this 

Democratic Administration. They desired to have ''something En- glish, you know" [laughter], and they sent abroad andgotanEnglish 

minister. They contracted with him before he came to this country as to how much should be his salary. And now let me say that the 

Democratic party did notmovetli tprosecution. Probably it is to their 

credit that they did not, because the law was not intended to cover anything of that kind. You could hardly deny to the rich and highheaded people that attend Trinity Church the privilege of going to 

Englansl or anywhere else to get a preacher if they wanted to do so. 

But some man in New York who thought he had a grievance against 

the church instituted a snit and gave them a good deal of trouble, and 

finally, I think, got this minister fined. I am obliged to the Senator from Ohio for this the only instance in 

which it has been attempted to enforce this law against a poor p reacher, 

and then they were unwilling prosecutors. Italians and Hungarians 

have been brought in, and according to the testimony produced by a committee of the House o:£1 Representatives the prosecuting attorney's 

attention has been repeatedly called to it, and I think the attention of 

the Attorney-General bas been called to it. 'l'he public bas at least 

beard of it, if the officers have not; and yet there has never been a single prosecution, and the only one tba.t the Democratic Senators can mention when they come to defend this Administration is the case of 

the Trinity Church preacher. 11r. GRAY. Will the Senator permit me to interrupt him? 

l\Ir. TELLER. I will. If the Senator from Delaware can mention 

another case I shall be glad to hear it. Mr. GRAY. There might have been a great many other cases, and 

I have no doubt that whenever a case has been brought to the attention 

of the executive officers it has been attended to; but there is one case as to which I can refresh the recollection of the Senator, a c:l.'le which 

is rather conspicuous. I refer to the case occurring in the past spring, 

where the owners of fishing vessels in Gloucester were bringing down 

from Canada by the ship-load Canadian fishermen to enter" the nursery 

of American seamen. " That thing was called to the att€lltion of the 

district attorney, and prosecutions were at once commenced, and a ship- load at least were turned back. Whether they got back by rail or otherwise I do not know. 

Mr. DAWES. Does the Senator say that anybody was prosecuted 

for that? · Mr. GRAY. Yes, sir. 

Mr. DAWES. I do not so understand it, 1fr. President. I know 

there was an announcement, a proclamation, but I never kne..- that it 

went further than a proclamation. 

1\Ir. GRAY. People are not indicted, tried, and convicted the same day, as the Senator knows. 

..Ur. BLAIR. If the Senator from Colorado will allow me to say a word, I shall be a trifle more specific about the case in my own State. There was a railroad chartered there and a leading Democrat of the 

State- the leading Democrat of the State-by his nearest business 

associate, undertook to build the railroad; and I have seen sworn copies 

of a dozen affidavits, I may say, in which the written contract is set 

forth by which th<1Se parties are shown to have brought Canadian 

laborers to the State of New Hampshire to do railroad work in com- petition with others who would have been glad to do it, the common laborers of that State, and the sworn affidavits being produced and laid 

before the district attorney and the prosecutions of the cases urged from 

time to time, the parties complaining were never able to accomplish 

the initiation of any prosecutions whatever. That is a clear instance 

. of the failure to prosecute a violation of the law. I will put those 

papers in the RECORD if I can put my hands on them. lli. PAYNE. •I understand the law was passed in 18S3. Were 

there not some transactions involving the violation of the law under 

the administration of 11Ir. Arthur which were not prosecuted? 

Mr. BLAIR. The law was passed in 1885. 

lli. TELLER. Yes; in 1885. 

Mr. PAYNE. I should like t.o inquire of the Senator from Colorado 

how many prosecutions we~e commenced during the administration of 

President Arthur? 

Mr. TELLER. This act was passed in the last days of Mr. Arthur's 

administration. Mr. PAYNE. I understood the Senator to say 1883. 

Mr. TELLER. I might ha>e said 18 3, but if I did I meant 1885. I was not aware that there was any fisherman on the New England 

coast prosecuted; but I am not surprised, because if there were any 

prosecutions anywhere it would be of that class of people. I have yet 

to learn that there hn.ve been any convictions of those persons or any 

others. When the Senator interrupted me I was about to say that the testi- ,mony in New York before a committee of the House of Representatives that is over there taking testimony shows that these matters have 

been repeatedly br u~ht to the notice of the district attorney of the 

United States, and1 as the witnesses have stated, he paid no attention 

whatever to them. 

Now, Mr. Presldent, what is the condition ofthis bill and what are the circumstances under which it comes to us? Yesterday, as the Sen- ate was proceeding with its business in the usual way, t here came in a bill which I learn now has never seen a committee of any body, 

of either this House or of any other. It never ran "the gantlet that 

every bill runs of criticism; it has never been printed. I do not know 

that I am at liberty to say who introduced it in the House of Representatives. I do not know how far I can go upon a question of that 

kind. I can state what I have seen in the public press, and I suppose 

I have a right to read what is in the RECORD, and if I have, perhaps 

I have, the right to say that this appears to have been introduced by a 

gentleman who is not a member of the committee that generally takes 

cognizance of these things, not only not a member of the committee, 

but I may say without offense to him, a gentleman that in no sense and under no circumstances h.'1S a right to speak for American labor. · Without going to a committee the bill goes through the House and omes here. Tlle Senator from ·South Carolina [Mr. BuTLER] said 

with great frankness that it was a political movement. I do not find 

in the RECORD that this bill was drawn in the Solicitor's_office, but I 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-· SENATE. 8255 

hear it outside. I hear that it was sent down from the executive department of the Government in hot haste to the House of Representatives to be passed. I do not know that that is so; I only say tP,at that 

is the rumor, that is the report. I submit to the Senate, however, 

that it does not take very much to make one believe that in the quick 

passage of this bill through the Honse of Representatives there was 

something more than a desire to protect American labor against the 

incursions of Asiatic labor. 

If I were to look over the whole House and select a man who would 

most fitly represent the American people who toil, I should hardly have 

thought of selecting the man who came hot haste with that bill and who 

succeeded in passing it through the House aaveryfewmen would have 

been able to do, and he succeeded only because be is a high priest in the 

Democratic church. It is a bill which could only have been considered 

by the unanimous consent of the House, the Speaker's recognition being first had. This occurred immediately on the reading and approval 

of the Journal He succeeded only because he represents the President 

of the United States more than any other man in the Democratic party, 

as he did at St. Louis and as he does everywhere, and who is reported 

to have contributed ten times as much money to the campaign fund as 

his Democratic President has given. I do not know whether that is 

true or not, but I know that so far as be is concerned if he chooses to 

give ~lOU,OOO to the Democratic campaign fund he has aright to do it. 

I hear that he is able to do it; that he has made his millions of money 

out of the laboring men of this country. It will not be amiss for me 

to rend what he .himself has said of himself in the Congressional Directory. 

I mayasktheSenatorfrom Texas [Mr. REAGAN], who is the special 

antagonist here of trusts, what he thinks of letting the Democratic 

House of Representatives be controlled and run by this great Democrat, who is conspicuous not for his great intellect, but for his great 

railroad interests, of "Which he boasts in the Congressional Directory. 

Perhaps the Senator from Texas has not seen the statement, so I am 

going to have it read from the Directory. I will ask the Chief Clerk 

• to read it, because, as Brother BLAIR says, he is a better reader than I 

am. 

The Chief Clerk rean as follows: 

[From the Congressional Directory.] 

TWENTY-SEVENTH DISTRICT, PENNSYLVANIA-COUNTIES: ERIE, VENaNGO, AND 

WA.RREX, 

WILLIAM L. ScoTr, of Erie, was born in the city of Washington, D. C., July 2, 18~8. his parents being residents of Virginia; he received a common-schooleducation ; served as page in the House of Representatives from 1840 to 1846; set- tled in Erie, Pa., in 1848, and was employed as a clerk in the shipping business; 

engaged, in 1850, in the coal and shipping business, owning and running several 

vessels on the lakes; subsequently became largely interested in the manufact- ure of iron and the mining of coal, as well a.s in the construction and operation 

of railroads, either as president or director of various lines, aggregating over 22,000 miles of completed road, the greatest number of miles of railroan probably which any one individual was ever an officer or director of; was a district 

deJeg!lte to the national Democratic convention held in the city of New York in 18 , and a delegate at large from the State of Pennsylvania to the Demo- cratic ua.tional convention held in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1880,and also represented 

the State of Pennsylvania on the Democratic national committee from 1876 to 188-i; was elected mayor of the city of Erie in 1866, and again in 18TI ; was elected to the Forty-ninth and re-elected to the Fiftieth Congress as a Demo- crat, receiving 14,787 votes against 13,574 votes for Mackey, Republican. and 2,140 votes for Andrews, Prohibitionist. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempm·e. The Chair will take this occasion to 

remark that while it is undoubtedly allowable to refer to the acts of 

the other House of Congress generally, it is, the Chair thinks, a violation of privilege to refer to the individual character or to the acts or 

conduct of members of that bodv. It interferes with the absolute independence which ought to exist between the two Houses ofCongress; 

and the Chair thinks that perhaps this debate has already ·gonefurther 

than it should have gone. The general parliamentary law on this subject is so well defined that the Chair thinks it is unnecessary to allude 

to it further. 

Mr. TELLER~ I shall not address myself further to any member 

of Congress. I think, however, that when I choose to speak of a person 

who has acted in another capacity I have the unquestioned right so 

to do. I will speak, then, of a member of this great Democratic committee which has been organized for the purpose of carrying on this 

campaign. I trust that what I have said, if it should look as if Ireferred to a member of Congress, will be understood and taken as referring to a member of the Democratic committee and not to a member of 

Congress. 

1H r. BLAIR. And also, if the Senator will permit me, if that is so, 

what is found in the Congression:il Directory should be taken out of 

the H.ECORD. 

Mr. TELLER. I have no fault to find with the Directory. 

n[r. BLAIR. It is an official document of the Senate. 

JUr. TELLER. I get my information from all sources 'POssible. 

I was referring to the hot haste with which this bill came here, the 

fact that it was not before a committee, the fact that it came here in a 

manner not usual for a bill of this character to come. I said, and Irepeat, that l'umor says th2t this was brought out for the purpose of effecting a revolution on the Pacific coast. I do not know whether that 

is true or not, and I do not care. · 

If I can :fiud something good coming out of this Administration, I do 

not care what the motive may be. I do not care whether the legislation goes on the statute-book because the chairman of_ the Democratic 

committee or a member of it is anxious to make political capital or 

otherwise. I am for the legislation; I welcome it, and I welcome it 

jnstasmnch as though itwere consistent with the past conduct of this 

Administration. Why, sir, when in March we received a. ·treuty from 

the hands of the Administration which was to be ratified by the Senate, and wasratified by the Senate, I wn.snotin favor of it. I twas proposed 

to do then by consent what now~e propose under this bill to do without any consent whatever, and in effect to abrogate a treaty; but, as I 

said yesterday, I have been in favor of that all the time, and I do not 

stultify myself when I vote for this measure now, as I have voted for 

bills of similar import on former occasions. 

It was rathe'r a singular charge on the part of the Senator from South 

Carolina [Mr. -BUTLER] that we were actuated by politif'.al motives 

over here in not opposing the bill. The Senator from Mississippi [Mr. 

GEORGE], seeing such an unusual proceeding as a bill <:oming in here 

in hot haste-a bill that might impair a treaty, might displace it, as 

I said yesterday-that Senator, ·with a good deal of hesitation, seemed 

disposed to object, but I noticed that the Senator from Uissouri [Mr. 

VEST] rose and said, "Why, the Senator from Mississippi does not 

object," and the Senator from Mississippi immediately sat down and 

said he did not obJect. He caught the twinkle of the eye of the Senator from :Missouri and saw that there was politics in the bill, !md he 

sat down, and then in order that he might recover from the blunder 

that he came so near making he got up and charged on us that we have 

been in favor of Chinese immigration. 

Mr. President, I do not know whether it is dignified or not for the 

executive department of the Government to play with great questions 

like this. I do not know that it will enhance our character or increase 

Qur dignity among the people of the earth to have it appear that on the 

eve of an election the Administration of this Government are anxious 

for the passage of a bill that they had been opposed to sixty days before-opposed to when they sent the treaty here; otherwise they did not 

needanytreaty; a treaty, as I said yesterday, that ought not to have come 

here, a. treaty that opened the door in my judgment for continued frauds 

by means of the certificates for which it provided. Every man knew 

that those certificates would be used for the purpose of keeping up the 

Chinese population in California. 

Everybody familiar with these people knew that there is not a man 

on this floor who, if twenty of these Chinamen were before him, and 

walked out into the ball and came back, could tell whether they wera 

the same twenty or a different twenty. They have none of the facial 

characteristics that our people have to distinguish them. They all 

look alike, and they are all alike, and the clause put in there that he 

who had a wife, he who had debts, .he who had property might con· 

tinne to come amounted to nothing but an increased immigration. 

Even death would not save them, for if a Chinaman got a ce1·tificate 

and went back and died another man took his place. They are a clas3 

of people on whom an oath has no obligation whatever.· 

The treaty, I say, was not fit to be made, but it was ma.de upon the 

theory that we could not legislate without a treaty. Here we ha-ve 

the bill now, ready to be passed, a-nd when it passes it will receive the 

sanction of the Executive, because it is hoped by the Democrats that 

they will get some advantage in California from this bilL I repeat, I 

am for the proposed legislation, and if it can only be wrung out of this 

Democratic Administration because they are in ext1·emis I submit I 

mean to vote for it, and I shall be glad to see it a law. 

I had expected something. I did not think they could try the U orey 

letter. That was played out eight years ago. That served its purpose to some extent. It lost us many votes undoubtedly. They had 

to have something new, and this is it. Mr. President, it will not win. 

Neither will the cry which comes up from the Democratic side of the 

Chamber that they are the special defenders of American labor because 

they propose to exclude the Chinese win. You would close the door 

against the Chinaman himself, but you would open the door to all his 

productions, to all the fruits of his labor, and all that he shall create, 

to all that grows in his land either with or without his assistance .. 

Yon would feed him and clothe him on Chinese soil, but yon would 

admit his productions. How much better is that than to allow him to come here? If he comes to California he buys some things of the California merchants; he contributes in some slight degree-slight, I admit-to th·a prosperity of the California people; but if he li •es at home 

in his own land he contributes nothing. 

Yon are in favor of free goods, but yon areopposed to free men. You 

want to keep the men out and to let their products in. If you can distinguish, the laboring people of this country can not, when you say that 

you will let in the rice that is raised by the Chinese-ah, you do not 

want to let in cheap rice; I had better take something else-when you 

say that yon will let in the labor of the Chinese mechanic. 

Mr. STEW ART. Boots, shoes, and clothing. 

Mr. TELLER. Boots, shoes, and clothing. The Chinese can make all sorts of wares that the America.n people use. When you say you 

will let those things in without a duty you give away your whole case. 
8256 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. SEPTEMBER 4, 

' '.rhe American laborer will not be fooled by that any more than he that in his section they purchased their slaves from Maryland and Viris by the declaration made by the Senator from :Mississippi over and ginia, which garve the people there a very profitable business, and he over again that he and his associates represent American labor; that was in favor of opening the slave trade direct, because they would get 

the .Americ..'tnlaborer's interest and happiness and welfare are dearer them a great deal cheaper. 

to them than to us. Is there anything in the history of the Demo- 1\Ir. TELLER. I have .not read that speec)t lately. When that 

cratic party, either North or South, which justifies that claim? Ire- speech was made I was a young man. I was watching public events. 

peat what I started out with early in this speech, they can not point .Although then engaged in my profession I had come from the laboring 

to a single great thing that they have ever done for labor. man's ranks. I had blistered my bands with honest toil to get my 

WeheartheDemocratssometimesclaimingtbattheactof1841 which education, and the words that went out from that convention were gave to us t.he pre-emption law was a Democratic law. It was a Whig blistered in my memory so that I shall never forget them. I said, 

law. I have heard ignorant Democrats on the stump declare that the •: here is the great Democratic party, in which I had been reared and 

homestead law was the result of Democratic administration, when by trained, in favor of degrading the American laborer by the side of the 

the vote of a Democratic Vice-President in the Senate one homestead African," and when General Butler rose in that convention and said, 

law proposed was defeated; by a veto of a Democratic Presidentanot.her ''I propose to leave this convention, for I shall never sit in a conven- homestead. law was defeated, and it was only when the Republicans tion where the advocacy of the slave trade, piracy by law, shall be rehad both branches of Congress and the Executive that they were able ceived with approval," he went up 100 per cent. in mi estimation, and 

to secure for the people a law w bich has given homes to a million men; I ba ve never forgotten him for that act. 

whicbhasgivenagainstDemocraticvotes, against Democratic influence, Mr. President, it was not the raving of a lunatic. When the Wanagainst Democratic opposition, a million of homes to .American labor- derer landed on the coast of Georgia the Government was not strong 

ers. One-fifth of the farms in the United Sliates come from a home- enough to punish the relative of a man since distinguished in this body. 

stead law passed by a Republican Congress and signed by a Republican The Government had not the power to punish him according to law, 

President. and he went scot-free. Senators on this floor from the South, if they 

How long is it since in this Chamber a distinguished member of this did not advocate it, declared that the Government had no right to prebody from South Carolina declared that the mechanics of the North, vent it. The press everywhere in the South was in favor of the slave 

styling them ''greasy mechanics," were the mud-sills of society and trade, because, they said, they wanted slaves to go into the new Terriunfit to associate with the body-servants of a gentleman in South (;aro- tories. l\fr. Gaulden, who made the speech of which I spoke, in the 

lin a? How long is it since Calhoun in this Chamber declared that the convention said, ''We can not make another slave State unless we have 

proper relation between capital and labor was the relation that existed free importations of Africans." I do not think the Senator from Ohio 

in South Carolina where capital owned labor? How long is it since, in wanted it, and Mr. Gaulden said the people of Virginia did not want a Democratic convention, a distinguished citizen of Georgia advocated, it.. Why did they not want it? He said it was because the people ot 

with the approbation of the convention, tne opening of the slave trade, Virginia wanted to sell to the new States or the Gulf States the slaves 

that they might have cheap labor in the South? Only twenty-eight they had raised. 

years have passed since that was heard with the approbation, I repeat, Does not the Senator from Ohio know, and do not all Senators know, 

of the Democratic members of that convention from the South and of that when thewarbrokeoutthe traffic in human flesh and human blood 

a great number also from the North. was $30,000,000 a year, and that that traffic found advocates in every • Mr. PAYNE. May I interrupt the Senator from Colorado? I hap- Democratic convention that was ever held; that it found advocates in 

pen to have had personal connection with that convention and I heard Democratic organs both North and South? Yet they propose to tell 

everything that transpired. I was upon the committee on resolutions. me that they are the friends of labor! \Vhen did you get this new 

I wish to deny that the proposition to which he refers was received light? When did you become all at once the champions of labor? . with applause. It was more of a burlesque than anything else, and I When did you want to elevate and lift up the laboring man? You never heard any person treat it in any other way except General But- proposed to put all who labored by the side of the ignorant negro and 

lcr, who, when be retired from the convention at Baltimore, declared to make the social position of the white laborer just what the social 

that he was shocked at the proposition of Mr. Gaulden. General But- position of the negro was. 

ler is the only person I ever knew who took it for granted that it was Have you forgotten the l etter that Cassius :M:. Clay sent to our con- a seri'ons proposition. It wa~ not a sincere proposition, nor did any vention in 1856 at Philadelphia, where he pictured the condition of the one receive it as such except General Butler, who claimed that it white man of the South who did not own slaves? His condition was 

shocked his conscience. absolutely worse than that of the slave himself-ignorant, degraded, 

Ur. TELLER. The repor~ shows not only what I have said, that afraid and ashamed to work. There can be no such thing as decent 

the proposition was received with favor, but it shows that Isaiah Ryn- respect shown to labor when it is brought in contact with a class of 

uers, ~Democratic worker of the great city of New York, a Democratic labor that it was proposed to bring it in contact with and to keep it 

United States marshal then, if I remember correctly, said in his place there. Slaves and freemen do not work side by side. 

in that body, "You will find plenty of sympathy for that proposition To-day the gentlemen on the other side are engaged. in attempting 

up in our section of the country." to enslave labor in the Notth as much as they were in 1859 and 1860. 

1\lr. President, it was not the raving of a Georgian. Does not the The claim that yon propose to open the markets of the world to our 

Senator from Ohio remember that in 1858 there was a commercial con- laborers, to our manufacturers, for the purpose of increasing American 

\ention at Montgomery which passed two resolutions in favor of open- labor, is but a pretense; it is not true. How can it be done? How is 

ing up the slave trade? Does he not remember that at Memphis, in the wages of the man who toils for his coat: r a pair of shoes or a yard 

1859, another commercial convention indorsed the action of the Mont- of cloth to be increased by bringing him in contact, wit.hon t protecgomery convention of 1S5B? Does he not remember that the most tion, with all the labor of the world? You deny the right of the Govprominent magazine that was ever published in the South, publicly ernment to protect labor. You declare that it is against the Constitnand openly, clear down to 1860, advocated the opening up of the slave tion; and there is where we part. We say it is not only the right but 

trade for the avowed purpose of filling the broad West with slaves? it is the duty of the Government to protect labor. You say yon can Does he not remember that Henry A. Wise, in a public speech in not do it by law. You do not propose a systE-m of economy that will 

Yirginia, which was world-wide at the time, in expressing hisdissatis- do it. It can not be done except by Jaw. 

iaction with the admission of California, declared that if they could have Ur. President, I do not like to refer to these old things, and yet it is 

put slaves into the mines of California they would have added 100 per ·perfectly proper when the Senator from Mississippi, who until witbin 

cent. in value to every negro in Virginia? DoesnottheSenator know, a few years believed in buying labor (and who l think to d .y will not 

and does not everybody know, that allover the South everywhere the stand in his place and say that he thinks it is wicke:i for one man t) 

public pr~ and in public conventions the sentiment was not only in own another), taunts me with not having in my heart tbe interests of 

tavor of buying men, but stealing them-that they were not satisfied the great masses of the people with whom I must have the close~t afto buy them, but they proposed to go to Africa and st.eal them? The finity. Is there anybody so damnably ignorant anywhere as to believe 

Senator knows it, and so do I. I was living and old enough to know, that labor would have been happier in this country if the rebel1ion ha<l 

and I was enough a student of history to read tben and not to have succeeded? Does anybody believe that if there had been no war and t he lorgotten now. I know the part the Senator from Ohio played in that old conditions still existed labor anywhere would have been better fed, 

convention in 1860 as well as any man can know who was not there. better clothed, better housed, and· would have occupied a higher plane 

1\fr. PAYNE. As the Senator refers to me-- than it does now? Does not everybody know that the great ad\ancel\fr. TELLER. Before the Senator proceeds let me say that I do not ment made by the laboring people of the country has been becan e of 

mean to charge that the Senator from Ohio had any sympathy with the fact that we made it impossible that they should be put by the sice 

those sentiments. He did not belong to that wing of the Democratic of the degraded serf? _ party. Mr. President, I might mention many otl1er things to snpport m_y 

Ir. PAYNE. The Senator asked me if I did not know it. I know position that it was cheap labor the Democratic party wanted and It 

. nothing about the matter referred to occurring at Montgomery. I was was cheap labor for which they went to wa1-. It is cheap labor that 

not there, but I was at Charleston; and in further explanation of the they want to-day. Mr. President, I do not want cheap labor. I know 

matter in that convention I wish to state the r~ason given by the man that cheap labor may be had from Chinamen; I know it may be bad 

who made the declaration in favor of opening t~e slave trade. He said 1 from slaves, but I do not want it, and I do not intend by my -vote to 
1888. OONGREbSIO~\-~L RECORD-· SENATE. 8257 

have it. I b~lieve that the American laborers all over this country are sufficiently intelligent to see that free trade means cheap labor, that it 

is akin to the old system which we abolished, and I do not believe that 

they will kindly listen to lectures given to me from the other side of 

the Chamber by the Senator from Mississippi or the Senn.tor from Alabama, or any other Senator who will stand in his place now, or who 

would a few years ago, and assert the right of one man to own and con- trol another. 

HOUSE BILL REFERRED. 

The bill (H. R. 9447) to restore certain money to the fund for erecting a public building at the city of Detroit was read twice by its title, 

and referred to the Committee on .Appropriations. 

EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore laid before the Senate a letter from 

the Secretary of the Trea-sury, transmitting, in compliance with a res- olution of the 28th ultimo, a judgment of the Court of Claims in favor 

of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company; which, 

with the accompanying papers, was referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and ordered to be printed. 

He also laid before the Senate a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting in compliance with a resolution of the 28th ultimo, 

schedules of certain claims allowed by the several accounting officers 

of the Treasury Department; which, with the accompanying papers, 

was referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and ordered to be 

printed. 

He also laid before the Senate a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting a supplemental estimate of appropriations required 

by the various Departments of the Government to complete the service 

of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1888, and for prior years; which, with 

the accompanying-papers, was referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and ordered to be printed. 

DEPOSITIONS OF WITNESSES. 

The PRESJDENT pro t.empore laid before the Senate the amendment 

of the House of Representatives to the bill (S. 832) to provide an addi- tion~! mode of taking depositions of witnesses in causes pending in the 

courts of the United State&, and the request of the House for a confer- ence on the bill and amendment. 

Mr. COKE. I move that the Senate agree to the request of the House 

of Representatives for a conference on the bill and amendment. 

The motion was agreed to. 

By unanimous consent, the President pro tempore was authorized to 

appoint the conferees on the part of the Senate; and Mr. COKE, Mr. 

EV,A.RTS, and Jl.!r. GEORGE were appointed. 

MESSAGE FROM -THE HOUSE. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. T. 0. ToWLES, 

its Chief Clerk, announced that the House had passed the following 

bills; in which it requested the concurrence of ·the Senate: 

A bill (H. R. 8344) to prevent cruelty to domestic animals; 

A bill (H. R. 9268) to punish dealers and pretended dealers in counterfeit money and other fraudulent devices for using the United States 

mails; 

A bill (H. R. 1018'2) to amend au act entitled "An act to make per- sons charged with crimes and offenses competent witnesses in the United 

States and Territorial courts," approved March 16, 1878; 

A bill (H. R. 10919) to make valid a deed to a certain tract of land 

iu Bibb County, Georgia, made and delivered by Brig. Gen. Davis Tilso.n, acting assistant commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau, to Samuel 

I. Gustin, his heirs and assigns; and 

A bill (H. R. 11258) for the relief of certain persons who paid additional taxes assessed against them under the act of March 3, 1875. 

AN:I\TIE GIBSON YATES. 

!.fr. SAWYER submitted the following report: 

The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 7708) to increase the pension of 

Annie Gibson Yates, having met, after full and free conference have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as follows: 

That the House recede from its disagreement• to the amendment of the Sen- ate and agree to the same with an amendment as follows, namely: In lieu of 

the word "forty" insert "thirty-five;" and the Senate agree to the same. 

The report was concurred in. 

PHILETUS SAWYER, 

C. K. DAVIS, CHAS. J. FAULKNER, 

Managers on the part of the Senate. 

J. H. BANKHEAD, 

JNO. E. HUTTON, Manage~s on the part of the House. 

THE LOUISIANA ELECTION. 

1\:Ir. PASCO. I gave notice that to-day I would call up the resolu.-

tion of the Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. CHANDLER], for the purpose of submitting some remarks upon it. I had intended to do so 

twice before, but I gave way to bm:iness which appeared to be more pressing. I now ask unanimous consent that immediately after the 

eoncl usion of the morning hour to-morrow that resolution may be taken 

1tp for the -purpose I have indicated. 

XIX-517 

:Mr. STEW ART. I suggest to the Senator to take the floor imme· ' 

diately after the routine morning business. 

Mr: PASCO. I will ask that the resolution be taken u.p immediately 

after the routine morning business. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Florida asks unan- imous consent that at the close of the formal morning business to-mor- row he may be permitted to take the floor upon the resolution offered 

by the Senator from New Hampshire [M:r. CHANDLER]. Is there objection? [''None."] The Chair he8!s Bone. 

OTTER CREEK LIGHT. 

Mr. PALMER. I move that the House of Representatives be requested to return to the Senate the bill (H. R. 5716) for establishing a light at the mouth of Otter C~ek, Lake Champlain. My object is, 

when the bill reaches the custody of the Senate, to move to reconsider 

the votes by which it was ordered to a third reading, and passed, with a view to its indefinite postponement. 

The motion was agreed to. 

ADMISSION OF WASHINGTON. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senate, as in Committee of the 

Whole, resumes the consideration of the unfinished business, being the 

bill (S. 12) to provide for the formation and admission into the Union 

of the State of Washington, and for other purposes. 

. EXECUTIVE SESSION. 

Ur. CAMERON. I move that the Senate adjourn. 

Mr. HARRIS. I hope that the Senator from Pennsylvania will 

withdraw the motion so as to let us have an executive session of a few 

moments. 

Mr. CAMERON. All right; I withdraw the motion to adjourn. · 

Mr. HARRIS. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration 

of executive business. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempo1·e. The Senator from Tennessee moves that the Senate proceed to the consideration of executive business. 

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate proceeded to the consideration of executive business. After five minutes spent in executive ses- sion the doors were re-opened, and (at 5 o'clock and 10 minutes p.m.) 

theSenate adjourned until to-morrow, Wedne&day, September 5,1888, 

at 12 o'clock meridian. 

NOMINATIONS. 

Executit'e nominations received by the Senate SepternlJer 4, 1888. 

CHIEF-JUSTICE, WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 

Charles E. Boyle, of Pennsylvania, to be chief-ju.stice of the supreme 

court of Washington Territory, vice R. A. Jones, deceased. 

COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS. 

William E. Bond, of Nortll Carolina, to be collector of customs for 

the district of Albemarle, in the State of North Carolina, to succeed 

Charles E. Robinson, whose term of service bas expired by limitation. 

PRO}!OTIONS L'i THE ARMY. 

Subsistence Depa1·tment. 

Lieut. Col. .Amos Beckwith, assistant commissary-general, to be as- sistant commissary-general with the rank of colonel, August 28, 1888, 

vice Simpson, retired from active service. 

1\faj. Michael R. Morgan, commissary of subsistence, to be assistant 

commissary-general with rank of lieutenant-colonel, August 28, 1888, 

vice Beckwith, promoted. 

Capt. Samuel T. Cushing, commissary of subsistence, to be commis- sary of subsistence with the rank of major, August 28, 1888, vice Morgan, promoted. 1 

Inspector-General's Depa1·tment. 

Lieut. Col. Robert P. Hughes, inspector-general, to be inspectorgeneral with the rank of colonel, August 31, 1888, vice Jones, appointed 

inspector-general, .with the rank of brigadier-gene.ral. 

Maj. George H. Burton, inspector-general, to be inspector-general 

with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, Angnst 31, 1888, 'Vice Hughes, 

promoted. 

PROBATE JUDGE. 

The nomination of George C. Viele, of 1\:Iillard County, Territory of 

Utah, to be judge of probate in said county, heretofore transmitted to 

the Senate, is hereby withdrawn. 

CONFIRMATIONS. 

Executive nominations confirmed by tlle Senate September 4, 1888. 

UNITED STATES CONSUL. 

William Gaston Allen, of South Carolina, now consul at Piedras Negras, to be consul of the United States at Kingston, Jamaica. 

INDIAN AGENTS. 

Thomas McCu.nniff, of .Alamosa, Colo., to be agent for the Indians of 

tbe Southern Ute and Jicarilla agency. 

Joseph W. Preston, of Monticello, Ga., to be agent for the Indians of 

the Mission Tule River (consolidated) agency.