942 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. FEBRUARY 8, 

bribes or gifts mi~ht have been accepted, such ~as his sterlingintegrit.y he was placed. beyond the reach of temptation. As a Senator he 

had a clear conception not only of the duties but the responsibilities 

of the position, and was fearless in the discharge of tho e dutie . When he spoke, he spoke as a statesman, and not as a politician; for 

politician he never was, nor could he be, certainly not in that sense that makes politics a professiou, where by offices of honor or profit may 

b e obtained. Nor wa-s he in any sense an office-seeker. He would 

neither seek nor ask for any office of honor or profit, nor did he crave. . any. But, oh the contrary, had he been governed bybis own impressions, regardlessof the opinions of others, he would have continued in 

the practice of his much-loved profession, and which would have been 

greatly to his pecuniary advantage. But from a sense of duty he ac- cepted the high and honorable position to which he was elected by 

his fellow-citizens, having but one object in view, to discharge the 

duties of the same in such a manner as would conduce to the best 

good of his State and country. 

Mr. FERRY, from disease and bodily infirmity, had been a very 

great sufferer for several years, which would l1ave completely discouraged a less determined man; but he stru~gled on, and by his indomitable will continued in the discharge of the duties of his office of 

Senator up to the close of the last session. But, as time rollefl on, his 

pllysic::tl vigor became paralyzed. Suffering bodily pain and a;<rony, 

with the fact of approach.ing death before him, he still continued 

faithfully to discharge every duty, until at last his physical strength 

gave way; but his mental power held out until the end. 

It may not, Mr. President, be inappropriate for me to allude to the 

Christian character of Mr. FERRY and the esteem in which he was held at home among his friends and fellow-citizens. He was a man of an emotional nature and in tinctive reverence for spiritual truth. 

In his decided religious impressions he showed grea~ energy of mind 

and independence of character. His political life had given.him a rapid growth of reputation for intellect and capacity. At home, among 

his fellow-citizens, he had obtained great influence, not only as a public man, but in the church, of which he was a devoted member as well. 

He taught a Bible-cia s, and..out of his efforts to do good to his charge 

he prepared a course of lectures in support. of the divine origin of 

Christianity, which was numerously attended and produced a profound impression. 

Struggling against infirmity, which sapped the springs of life, he 

held on brav~ly to the end, sustained by a noble ardor and indomitable 

pluck, by his Christian faith aud heroism, and died the death of a Christian patriot, deeply lamented by all of his friends and fellowcitizens. · Mr. President, I beg leave to offer the following resolution: 

&solved, That, as an additional mark of respect for the memory of Mr. FERRY, 

the Senate do now adjourn. · 

The resolutio~ was agreed to unanimously; and the Senate (at two 

o'clock and thirty-five minutes ,p.m.) adjourned. 

HOUS.E OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

TUESDAY, .February 8, 1876. 

The House met at twelve o'clock m. Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. 

I. L. Tow ' SEND, D. D. · The SPEAKER. Before the reading of tbe Journal is begun the 

Chair will state that, the Jomnal of yesterday's proceedings being 

lengthy, he will, unless objection be made, direct the Clerk to abbreviate somewhat the reading, so as to save a quarter of an hourormore. 

There was no objection. 

The Journal of yesterday was read and approved. 

ENROLLED BILLS. 

Mr. HARRIS, of Georgia, from the Committee on Enrolled Bills, 

reported that they had examined and found truly enrolled au act (H. 

R. No. 1053) providing for the payment of judgments rendered under 

section 11 of chapter 459 of the laws of the first session of the Fortythird Congress; when the Speaker signed the same. 

ACTIONS IN CASES OF DEATH FROM WRONGFUL ACTS, ETC. 

The SPEAKER. The morning hour begins at twenty-three minutes 

to one o'clock, mid the regular order of business is the call of com- mittees for reports of a public nature, the call resting with the Committee on the Judiciary. The pending quest-ion is on the bill (H. R. 

No. 1210) authorizing actions in ca es of death resulting from wron~­

ful act, neglect, or default, reported from the Committee on the Jndl-

. ciary on Thursuay morning last by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 

LA WRRNCE] and pending at the expiration of the morning hour. 

:Mr. TOWNSEND, of Pennsylvania. I ask that the bill be read as amended by the Committee on the .Judiciary. The bill was read, as follows: 

That whenever the d eath of a p rson shall be caused in the District of Co1nmb.ia by the wrongful act, nt- ect, or default of any person or corJlora.tion, and the act., neglect, or, default i such as would (if death had not nsned) have entitled the 

party injured, or, if she be a manied woman, her husband, either separately or to- geth~· with her, to mflintain an action antl recover dwnages in respect thereo'f, then. and m every snch case, the person who or corporation which would have been 

liable if death had not ensned shall be liable to an action for damacres for the injuries resulting from snch death, notwithstanding the death of the person injurl'd 

an!\ although fut- death shall have been caused under snob circumstances as amount in law to a felony: Provided, That in llO such case shall the recovery exceed the sum of $5.000. 

SEc. 2. That every such action shall be brought by and in the name of the per- sonal represent .tive of such deceased person, and wlthin twelve calendar months 

!1'fter his or ~ death: Tho j nry in :l;DY s~ch action may a. ward such dama~es a. to It may seem tau andJn t, and may direct m what proportion they shall be distributed to the wife, husband, parent, and child of the deceased. 

SEc. 3. That the amonnt recovered in any such a.ctiou shall. after the payment 

of .costs and reasonable attorneys' fees, be paid to the wife, husband, parent, a.ad child of the deceased, in such proportion as the jury may have directed, or if they 

have not directerl. MCOrdin;:J to the tatute of distrl.bntions, and shall be fr!ee from 

all debts and liabilities of tile decea ed; but, if thore be no wife, husband par nt or child, the amount so recovered shall be a ets in the hands of the pewnal rqp: re entatives, to be disposed of MCOrding to law. 

SEc. 4. That the rights of action under this act shall not determine, nor shall such 

actions when brought abate, by the death of the defendant. 

Mr. LAWRENCE. Mr. Speaker, this is the bill which I had the 

privilege of introducing on the 18th of January. It has been con idered by the Judiciary Committee, and in the form in which it is rec- ommended by them has already been 1·ead to the House. 

I will state in a few words what this bill is, the necessity for it, 

aml its purpo e and effect. To tho e who are familiar with "Lord Campbell's act," pas ed in 

England in 1846, and similar statute in many of the States of our Union, it. will be sufficient to say this bill is in most respect-s sub tantially the same as those. 

There is no statute in the District of Columbia similar to anv of 

those I have mentioned, and this bill is reported simply to proYille 

the same remedies here which now exist in England and many of our States. 

The bill simply gives a right of action for the benefit of tho e who are most aggneved and injured when" the death of a person shall be 1 

caused by the wrongful act, neglect, or default of any person or cor- porat.ion," and it authorizes a recovery of damages "for the injuries 

resulting from such death, notwith tanding t.he death of the party 

injured." The amount recovered is by the terms of the bill to ~o '·to 

the wife, husband, parent, and child of the deceased;" or, if t.here be none such, then it is to" be assets in the hamls of the personal representatives, to be disposed of according to law," for creditors and 

distri butees of the decea,<oed. 

This, then, in brief, is the bill. 

The necessity for it is well understood by lawyers and those familiar with the statutes to which I have referred. 

The "common 'law" gel)erally is in force in the District of Columbia, and the statutes of Maryland existing on the 16th of July, 17UO, 

(1 Statut.es at Large, 1:-iO,) except so far as sincerepealedorchange by 

competent authority iu the District. But neither the common law, nor these statutes of Maryland, nor any act of Congress or other law of 

the District gives a remedy for the injut'ies provided for in this bill. 

It is to be carefully noted that. inca es of death re.'lulting from t,he 

"wrongful act, neglect, or default of any person or corporation" there 

may be tu o cla.sses of injuries. 

First. If the person injured survives for a time and finally dies in a longer or shorter period he may suffer in the interruption of his business, in his feelings, and in the impaired power or loss of the faculties 

of his body and mind. The e are injuries to him. While be yet sur- vives he hasoy the commo-n law a right of action which be may prosecute to judgment, and if hesnbsequent1y dies it is assets in the hands 

of his personal representatives as other chattel property. 

But by the common law, if the part.y injured dies either before snit 

brought or after suit but before final judgment, the right of action 

is gone, and the personal repre entatives cannot commence an action or proceed with one already commencAd. 

This all rests upon a maxim of the common law: "Actio personalis 

nWJ'itut· CU1n persona." 

This rule applies only to personal actions for torts, whether re- sulting in death or not. Hence, if a party dies from natural can , his personal actions for tort determine, and pending suits on ncb 

causes of action abate. 

In many of the States this rule of the common law is abrogated by 

st.atute as to all or some classes, of personal rights of action and p ncling actions for torts, and suits may be commenced, or, if commenced, 

may be revived, in favor of the personal representatives. 

This rule of the common law ha..s been abrogated ifi: Massacbusett.s, 

and by express statute such rights of action survive. Hence in D~ucroft vs. The Boston and Worcester Railroad Company, 11 Allen (Massachusetts) Reports, 34, the court held thatAn action at la.w to recover ·damages for an ininry whlch canses immediate insen- sibility and death in fifteen minutes survives to the administrator of the estate of _the 

deceased. 

That case was twice before the supreme court, and was argued 

with great ability by my distinguished friend from Massacbn etts, 

[Mr. HoAR.] The result was that the court held that, although the 

injured party survived but fifteen minutes, he during that time had a right of action at common law, and this was preserved by the statute to his personal represen,ati ve. · In this class of cases damages are given only for the injnry to the 

persmt in his life-time, not including anything on account or by 1·eas01~ 

of th~ death. · 

In this District the law in this class of ca-ses is rather in an anomalous 
__. 

1876. CONGRE~SIONAL RECORD. 943 

and certainly very unsatisfactory condition. If a pa~y who suffe~s a p ersonal injmy by the tort of another can, befor~ e1ther party die~, 

c01mnence a suit, it then can be prosecuted by or agamst the proper personal representatives. But if either party dies bejo1'e the suit is cmn- 'IIWnced, the right of action determines, and no suit can be prosecuted. 

This is clear from the language of the statutes. The Mary land .statute of November, 1785, in force in the District of Columbia, provides: 

That no action brought or to be brought in any co~ of law in th?-s f?tate shall 

abate by t.he ueath of e1ther of the parties to such action. {See compilation of laws 

in force in District of Colnmbia., April1, 1868, page 432.) 

The statute of November, 1798, relating to wills, executors, and 

administrators provides that- · 

No personal action shall abate by the death of either party, but executOrs and 

administrators shall notice and conform to the directions of the act of 1785. {Compilation of 1868, page 64.) 

The same act provides thatExecutors and administrators shall have full power and authority to commence and prosecute any personal a.ction whatever in law or equity which tne testator or inwstate might have commenced and prosecuteu, except actions of slander and for 

injuries ·or torts done to tho person ; and they shall also be liable to be sued in any court of law or equity in any action {except as aforesaid) which might have been 

maintained against the doceased. {Page 52.) 

This is so manifestly unjust that a remedy should be provided, as in 

many other States, by express statute. 

So much then for the right of action for damages resulting to the 

party injured in his life-time. 

Second. But in cases of death there is another or second class of 

injuries. If a husband suffer a p~rsonal injury by the· wrongful act, 

neglect, or default of another, and death be thereby caused, either immediately or as a direct effect after a short or longer period of time, 

serious damage may result to the wife a,nd children a8 a consequence 

of the death. These injuries may be pecuniary or social or personal in their character or all of these. 

If the death of a wife be caused in the same way the same injuries 

may result to husband and children. 

If the death of a child be caused, similar injuries may result to 

parents. 

If there be neither wife, .husband, parent, nor child, an injnry may 

still result to creditors or distributees of the deceased, though in a less degree. - In all these ca~es the injury or damages I have referred to result 

from the death, and are wholly distinct from those to the person injured in his life-time. · The hill now under consideration gives an action for the injuries 

which result hom the death. The actions it authorizes do not em bra-ce 

personal injuries or damages to the decea~ed in his life-time. It tloes 

not bar or exclude a pro ecution for those as in the case I have re- ferred to in .Massachusetts. This must be clear from several consid.:. 

erations: 

First. If in the life-time of the party injured he commence his 

common-law action, the suit, in Massachusetts and many other States, 

by force of express statutes would not abate. It would proceed in 

the name of the personal representatives. And yet when an action is 

given by express statute for injuries resulting from death, that right 

of action is not .by any express provision of law, or by any inference 

barred or excluded. On the contrary it is an express statutory right 

in England and in the Stn.tes where such ~:>tatutes exist. 

Second. The common law action for tho iujury to the person in life 

is for a wholly diftereut cause t.han that resulting from the death. Third. By the provisions of Lord Campbell's act, and other simila.r statutes, the recovery will generally go to different pa1·ties. 

Fourth. By way of analogy to a well-known rule for the construction of statutes, these two rights of action are separate and distinct; 

the statutory right of action is additional or cmnulative to the com- mon-law right. Where a mode of pursuincr a remedy exists ·at common law, and a 

statutory mode is given with no words to negative the common law 

remedy, the statutory remedy is cuntzd-ative. Tbe authorities for this are numerous. 

The circumstances which make the death a source of suffering to 

the parties in whose behalf the action is brought would be proper to 

consider when the statute does not limit the damages to pecunia1·y 

considerations. 

The explanation of this bill which I have now given, as it seems to 

me, answers an objection to it made by the gentleman from 1\fa.ssachusetts [:Mr. HOAR] when it was first reported to the House from the 

Judiciary Committee. 

And now a few words as to a particular feature of the bill. 

The New York statute declares thatThe jury may give such damages as they shall .deem a fair and just compensation, not exceeding $5,000, with reference to the pecuniary injury resulting from such 

death. . 

Lord Camp bell's act does not have the word "pecuniary," and saysThe jury may give such damages a-s they may think proportioned to the injury 

resulting from snob death to the parties, respectively, to whom and for whose benefit 

snch action shall be brought. _ 

The bill under consideration is made puq)osely to exclude the word 

"pecuniary," to make it clear that evidence of pecun1ary injury is not 

required, aml so that the damages may not be limited to such irijurv. 

I will state one further reason, in addition to the four already.given, 

why this bill does not bar or exclude the common-ln.w action for injuries to the deceased party in his life-tim('\. 

Fifth. The remedy for these different classes of injuries may be in 

distinct courts, and by widely different judicial proceedings. 

In Massachusetts the common-law remedy is by civil action at law. 

The remedy for injuries resulting from death are by indictment and 

fine, to be "paid to the executor or admiuistmt.or for the use of t.lle 

widow and children of the decea ed." (.Ma-ssachu etts General Statutes, 1860, page 794, chapter 160, ~ 34; Shearman and Redfield on Negligence, § ~4..) 

There are cases where it ha be~n held that the jury mn.y consider 

the sufferings of the decea ed, and may give exemplary damages. 

(Bowlervs. Lane, 3 :Metcalfe, Kentucky, 311; Chilesvs. Drake, 2 idem., 146; Goodsell vs. Hartford Railroad, 33 Connecticut, 51; M.urphy vs. New Haven Raih·oad, 29 Connecticut, 496; same case, 80 Connecticut, 

184; Soule vs. New Haven Railroad, 24 Connecticut, 575.) 

If the .Hsufferings" be considered nterely as evidence of the extent or character of a wrong resulting frClm gross or willful misconduct, 

it may be well only as furnishing a reason for exernpla1·y danwges in a case where damages are. not limitecl to mere pecttniary considerations. But, as a substanti1.1e ground of damages, they belong to the 

c01mnon-lau actio-n, and not to that furnished by the statute. (Shear- man and Reufieltl on Negligence, ~ 610; Blake vs. Micliand Raih'oad, 18 

Queen's Bench, 93; Safford vs. Dr\3w, 3 Duer, 627; Lehman vs. Brooklyn, 29 Barbour, 234; Telfer vs. Northern Railroad, 30 New Jersey, 

Law, 18a; Chicago 'l!s. Major, 18 Dlinois, 349; Chicago vs. Morris, 26 

Illinois, 400; Pennsylvania Railroad vs. IIenderson, 51 Pennsylvania 

State, 315; Kresler t•s. Smith, 66 North Carolina., 154; Pennsylvania 

Railroad vs. Zeebe, 33 Pennsylvania State, 318; Pennsylvania Railroatl vs. Keller, 67 Pennsylvania State, 300.) 

The bill follows the statute of Virginia, Kentucky, and Connecti · cut in not limiting the damages merely to pecuniary loss or inJury. 

(Shearman and Redfield on Negligence, 611; Bowler vs. Same, 3 .Metcalfe, Kentucky, 311; Chiles 1.'8. Drake, 2 .Metcalfe, Kentucky,. 146; 

Goodsell vs. Hartford Ru.ilro:td, 33 Connecticut, 51; Murphy vs. New 

Haven Railroad, 29 Connecticut, 496; same case, 80 Connecticut, 1 4; 

Soule vs. New Ha veu Railroad, 24 Connecticut 575.) The evidence of 

pecun·im-y loss is not essential to maintain the action for 1w1ninal damages. (Oldfield vs. Harlem Railroad Company, 14 New York, :no; 

Quin vs. Moore, 15 New York, 432; Lyons vs. Cleveland Railroad, 7 

Ohio State, 336; Chicago vs . .Major, 18 Illinois, 349.) 

But I need not further discuss the bill. It is one which common justice requires us to pass. The protection of life and the safety of 

pel ons require it. Its policy is now universally recognized as one 

to be maintained. 

This bill has the sanction of the Judiciary Committee, and, as it is 

substantially in the form in which similar laws have been adopted in 

the States~ I apprehend there will be but little objection to it, and 

therefore demand the previous question. 

:Mr. TOWNSEND, of Pennsylvan4t. I ask the gentleman to yield 

to me for five minntes. 

Mr. LAWRENCE. I will yield to the gentleman from Pennsylva,-

nia for that time. 

Mr. TOWNSEND, of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I hope the gentleman who has charge of this bill will be willing to strike out the 

proviso in the first section, that in no case shall the recovery of dam- ~ges exceed the sum of ~ ,000. I desire to give him a little information concerning the experience of Pennsylvania with re~ard to such a. law. In 1!:351 the State of Pennsylvania pas ed a law allowing 

compensation for damages ari ing out of injuries of this character. In lo5f> it provided the manner in which damages when recovered 

should be distributed among the parties who might have been aggrieved, namely : the husband, widow, hildren,orpar~nts, as provided 

in case of intestate personal property. In 1868, the damages then 

being left entirely to the discretion of the jury, a railroau influence 

which pervaded the Legislature of Pennsylvania caused a law to be 

pa ed limiting the damages for injuries to the person not producing 

death to the amount of ;j,OOO and in case of death to the amount of 

$5,000. This was found to be exceedingly injudicious, and in many ca~es unequal and unjust. There were cases occurring continually in 

which the amount of damages thus limited was entiTely inadequate. Men were mn.imed and rendered helpless for life, and the income 

arising from such a small pittance was no amount of consideration for 

the kind of injllry they sllstained. A constitutional conventio.n was 

held in Pennsylvania in 1R73, and recognizing the inadequacy of the 

law providing for cases of this kind, where the cases were aggravated, 

it put into the constitution of the State adopted in 1874 a provision 

of this kind: ARTICLE III. 

SEC. 21. No a.ct of the General Assembly shall limit the amount to be recovered 

for injuries resulting in death or for injuries to persons or property; and in case of 

death from such injuries the right of :wtion shall sunive, and the General Assembly shall prescribe for whose benefit such actions shall be prosecuted. . 

There was at that time existing in the law a limitation as to the 

time at which the action should be brought, limiting it, as in the 

pre ent bill, to the period of ·a single year, but the convention proceeded to remove that limitation by the following a-dditional para- gmph : · · 

No act shall prescribe any limitations of time within which such suits may be 

brought against corporations for injuries to persons or property. or for other causes different from those fix:ed by general laws regulating actions against natural 

p rsuns, and such act.s now existing are avoided. 
I 

944 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. FEBRUARY 8, 

.Ai3 the constitution and law now stand in Pennsylvania., there is no Jimita.tion as to the amount of damages that may be recovered for 

injuries to the person not causing death or to injuries causing death. 

The whole matter is, as it ought n.lwaysto be, left to the discretion of 

the jury, and I trust that the gentleman who has charge of the bill will consent to strike out that proviso which limits the ::trnount to $5,000; 

for it can readily be seen injuries may result to persons which would 

be inadequately compensated by $5,000. The death of an individual 

might to his family be a loss equal to twenty or thirty thousand dollars. I therefore think it is exceedingly injudicious to restrict the 

amount of. damages, but that it should be left entirely to the discretion of the jury, who, after hearing the case, would decide justly and 

\· equitably between the plaintiff and defendant. 

Mr. LAWRENCE. Mr. Speaker, when I introduced the bill I fixed 

the amount of the recovery which might be authorized by the act at 

10,000, just as it is in Ohio, Virginia, and some other States. In New 

York the limitation is $5,000. The Judiciary Committeethought it 

judicious to limit the amount in this bill to -,000. There is danger 

that if the amount be left open there may be unjust and exorbitant 

verdicts rendered, and it has been thought advisable in many of the 

States where the e laws exist to fix some limit to the amount of the v erdict. Now, if the gentleman from Penn ylvania thinks i! desirable to move to strike out $5,000 and insert $10,000, I am perfectly 

WI11ing that he shall take the sense of the House on that point. But 

I do not'feel authorized to consent to any change, because this is the 

report of the Judiciary Committee, and not of myself. 

Mr. TOWNSEND, of Pennsylvania. Then I move to amend the bill 

by striking out $5,000 and inserting 10,000. 

The SPEAKER. Does the gentleman from Ohio withdraw the demand for the previous question f 

Mr. LAWRENCE. I do, to enable the gentleman from Pennsylvania to offer llis amendment. 

The question being ~aken on the amendment of Mr. TOWNSEND, of 

Pennsylvania, there were- ayes 59, noes 39; no quorum voting. 

So (further count not being dem:mded) the amendment was agreed 

to. 

Mr. LAWRENCE. I move as an additional section to the bill the 

provision which I end to the desk. In this District personal rights of 

action do not survive. It is to remedy that defect and make the law 

here conform to what it is in some-perhaps many-of the States of 

the Union that I offer this amendment. 

Tlle Clerk read as follows : 

Add to the bill as a new section the following: 

SEc. 5. That no personal action or rirrht of action shall determine or abate by the 

death of either party, whether such rig'litof action be authorired by this actor otherwise. 

Tlte amendment was adopted. ~fr. LAPHAM. Will the gentleman from Ohio allow me to make a single sug"esr.ion f 

Mr. LAWRENCE. Certainly. . Mr. LAPHAM. I am opposed to that portion of this bill which 

gives the jury the power of dist.ributing the damages to the wife, 

husband, parent, or child of the dece::l.Sed. 

Mr. LAWRENCE. It is impossible to get the bill into a shape in 

which it will snit everybody. I must insist on calling the previous 

que tion. Mr. LAPHAM. I desire to submit a motion that the bill be referred 

back to the Committee on the · Judiciary with instructions to amend 

it with reference to the point I have indicated. 

Mr. LAWRENCE. I cannot agree to that. The bill has been care- fully considered by the committee. 

Mr. CONGER. , Then we .can vote it down. 

Mr. LAPHAl\I. Yes; I hope the House will vote it down. 

Mr. LAWRENCE. I hope not. Tlle bill has been carefully con- sidered. 

The SPEAKER. The Chair is informed by the Clerk that the amendments reported by the Committee on the Judiciary have not yet been 

concurred in by the House. 

The amendments reported by the committee were-as follows: 

In section 1, line 12, after the word" <lam ages" insert "for the injuries resulting from such death;" so it will read, "the person who or corporation which would 

have been liable if death ha-d not ensued shall be li:1ble to an action for damages for the injuries resulting from such death notwithstanding the death of the per- BOD injured," &e. In t~ection 1, line 15, after the word "no" in ert the word" such;" so it will read, 

"but in no such case Rhall the r ecoverv exceed," &c. 

In section :3, line 8, strike out" received" an•l insert •• recovered ;" so it will read, "the amount 80 recovered ·shall be assets in the Land of the personal representa- tives," &c. 

The amendments reported by the commit~ were agreed to. 

Ml·. LAWRENCE. I call the previous question. 

The previous question was seconded and the main question ordered; 

and under tlle operation thereof the bill, as amended, was ordered to 

be engrossed anrl read a third time ; and being engrossed, it was accordingly read the third time . .. The SPEAKER. The question recurs on the pa-ssage of the bill. Mr. LAPHAM. I call for the yeas and nays. 

The yeas and nays were not ordered. 

The question being t.aken on the passage of the bill, there were- ayes 68, noes u9 ; no quorUID voting. 

The SPEAKER. Is further count required f 

1\lr. CONGER. I think we had better have tellers . Tellers were ordered; and Mr. LAWRENCE and Mr. CONGER were appointed. 

The House again divided and the tellers reported-ayes 97, noes 62. 

So the bill was passed. 

Mr. LAWRENCE. I move to amend the title of the bill by adding the words "and for other purposes." ' 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. LAWRENCE moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed; and also moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. 

The latter motion was agreed to. 

SECTION 856 OF REVISED STATUTES. 

Mr. HUNTON, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported back, 

with the recommendation that it do pass, the bill (H. R. No. 555) to 

amend section 856 of the Revised Statute . The bill was read. It proposes to amend section 856 of the Revi ed 

Statutes by a-dding thereto the following: "And :W. the adjustment of 

the accounts of said officers an appeal sba,ll lio from the clecision of 

the accounting-officers of the Tren.stiry to the Attorney-General, whose 

determination shall be final." 

Mr. HUNTON. That the amenclmept may be understood, I ask the 

Clerk to read section 856 of the Revised Statutes, of wlllch it is an amendment. 

The Clerk read, as follows : 

Tho fees of district attorneys, clerks, marshals, and commission('lrS, in cases where the United States are liable to pay the same, shall be paid on settling their accounts at the Treasury. 

The "bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time; and, 

being engrossed, it wa.s accordingly read the third time. 

The question was on the passage of the bill. 

Mr. HOLMAN. I ask that the bill be again reported. The bill was again read. 

Mr. HOLMAN. There was some confusion in the House when the 

section of the Revised Statutes which it is propo ed to amend was read. I do not think it was distinctly heard, and I ask that it be 

again read. 

Section 856 of the Revised Statutes was a~ain read. 

Mr. HOLMAN; Will tho gentleman from VIrginia inform the Ron e who is the accounting-officer who has the settlement of this cla of 

fees; whether he is one of the Comptrollers or tho Fifth AuditorY It 

does not seem to be well understood what particular officer of the 

Treasury has the adjustment of these fees. 

Mr. HUNTON. It is one of the Auditors. 

The bill was passed. 

Mr. HUNTO:N moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed; and also moved that the motiop. to reconsider be laid on the 

table. The latter motion was agreed to. 

SUITS AGAINST CORPORATIONS. 

Mr. LYNDE, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported back, 

witll the recommendation that it do not pass, the bill (H. R. No. 1250) 

extending the jurisdiction of tlle circuit courts of the United States 

in suits against corporations ; and the t>ame was laid on the table. 

B.ili.TKRUPT CASES IN THE TERRITORIES. 

Mr. L!NDE also, from th~ Comm~ttee on the Judiciary, reported 

back, w1th the recommendatiOn that 1t dopa s, the bill (H. R. No. 356) 

concerning cases in bankruptcy commenced in the supreme courts of 

the several Territories prior to the 22d of J nne, 187 4,.and now undetermined therein. 

The bill was read. It provides that in all cases in bankruptcy com- menced in the supreme courts of any of the Territories of the United 

States prior to the 22d day of June, 1874, :md now undetermined 

therein,· the clerks of the said several courts shall immediately transmit to the clerks of the district courts of the several districts of aid 

Territories all the papers in, and a certified transcript of, all the proceedings had in each of said cases; and the saiu clerks of the district 

courts shall immediately file the said papers and transcripts as papers and transcripts in the said district courts. 

The second section provides that the clerks of the several supreme 

courts shall transmit the papers and transcripts provided for in sec- tion 1 of the act, in each case, to the clerk of t·he district court of 

the district wherein the bankrupt or bankrupts, or some one of them, 

resided at the time of t~e filing of the petition in bankruptcy in said 

case; and as soon as the said papers and transcript in any case shall 

have been transmitted and filed, as herein provided, the di trictconrt 

in which the same shall have l>eeu so filed shall have jnri diction of 

the said case, to llear and determine all questions arising therein, and 

to finally adjudicate and determine the same in all respects as con- templated in other bankruptcy cases by the act entHled "An act to 

establish a uniform system of bankruptcy throughout the United 

States," and approved l\larch 2, 1 67, and amendments thereto. 

1\fr. LYNDE. 1\fr. Speaker, I will state that the uill merely n_pplies 

to the trying in the Territories of cases commenced previous to the 

passage of the law of 1874, conferring on the district courts juri diction in bankrup~ca es. Before that time the supreme courts of the 

Territories had exclusive jurisdiction in bankrupt Cc , but some of 

the district courts of the Territories have decided that their jmisdic-

----
1876. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 945 

tion only extended to bankrupt cases brought before the passage of 

that law, a.nd as to cases brought previous to the passage of that law 

they say that their jurisiliction is taken away. The object of this bill 

is to confer on the ilistrict courts in the Territories jurisdiction in cases which occurred before the passage of the act of 1674. 

Mr. MAGINNIS. I believe that this bill is satisfactory to all the 

Delegates from the Territories. - . l'tfr. HOLMAN. I hope the gentleman will allow an amendment to 

the bill for the repeal of the bankrupt law. I hope he will consent 

that the bill be so a}TI.ended a to repeal that law. 

Mr . .MAGINNIS. I hope the gentleman will not raise that question 

in connection with this bill. 

Mr. LYNDE. I would inform the gentleman from Indiana that I 

have a bill to report to repeal the bankrupt law; that this bill is in 

relation to cases pending in the supreme courts of the Territories, and 

it is desirable that those cases should be disposed of in some way or other. 

Mr. HOLMAN. It seems to me that the repeal of the bankrupt law 

would be in harmony with this bill, but as the Committee on the Judiciary having charge of the subject prefer that it should be reported 

in a separate bill, of course I have no wish to embarra-ss the passage 

of this bill. 

The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time ; and 

being engros ed, it was accordingly rea-d the third time, and passed. 

Mr. LYNDE moved to reconsider the vote by whi~h the bill was passed; and also moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the 

table. 

The latter motion was agreed to. 

MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. 

A message from the Senate, by Mr. SnfPSON, one of its clerks, an- nounced that the Senate had agreed to the amendment of the House 

of Representatives to the bill (S. No. 53) fixing the time of holding 

the circuit courts of the United States in the districts of Ca.lifornia, 

Oregon, and Nevada. 

The roes age further announced that the Senate had pa-ssed bills 

of the following titles; in which the concurrence of the House was requested: · 

A bill (S. No. 259) for the benefit of the Louisville Baptist Orphans' 

Home; and 

A bill (S. No. 269) for the relief of John A. Torrence. 

REPEAL OF THE BANKRUPT LAW. 

Mr LYNDE, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported back 

with ail amendment, and with the recommendation that it do pass, the 

bill (H. R. No. 390) to repeal the act entitled "An a.ct to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy throughout the United States," approved 

March 21, 1867, and all laws and part-s of laws amendatory thereof. 

The bill was read. It provides that the a.ct entitled "An act to 

establish a uniform system of banln'uptcy throughout the United 

States," approved March~, 1 G7, and all other laws and p:.trts of laws 

amendatory of said act and npplemental thereunto, and all amendments thereto, be, and the same hereby are, repealed. 

The second section provides that a.ll suits and proceedings now pending in the courts of the United States wherein an adjudication 

in bankruptcy has been made shall be proceeded with and governed 

by the provisions of existina- laws, which are hereby continued in 

force only for the purpose of closing up snits and proceedings now • pending. 

'l'he third ection provides that this act shall take effect from and 

after the 1 t day of April, 1876. 

The amendment reported by the committee is as follows: 

Strike out the words "April, 1~6," and insert in lien thereof ••January, 1877." 

The amendment was agreed to. 

Mr. LYNDE. I call the previous question on the bill. 

The previous question was seconded and the main question ordered. 

The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time; and being engrossed, it was accordingly read the third time. 

Mr. LAWRENCE. Will the gentleman yield to me for a suggestion' 

l'tfr. LYNDE. I will yield to the gentleman for a suggestion. 

Mr. LAWRENCE. This bilJ, if I understood it coiTectly from the 

1·eading at the desk, provides for the repeal of the bank1·upt act by 

its title. It will be remembered that that law was embodied in the 

Revised Statutes, and I doubt if the bill is passed in this form it would 

accomplish the purpose designed. The clauses of the Revised Statutes relating to bankruptcy should be definitely repealed; otherwise 

tho e sect.ions might continue in force if the bill is left in its present 

condition. 

Mr. HOLMAN. I hope the bill will be reported again. The objection urged by the gentleman from Ohio hM undoubtedly been consideret.l by the Committee on the Judiciary. But it seems tome that the 

bill as it now stands repeals the bankrupt law and all laws touching 

the subject. 

The bill was again read. 

l'tfr. HOLMAN. If there can be any question of this language being 

explicit enough to repeal the bankrupt law, I would suggest to the 

gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. LYNDE] that the first section be 

amended by inserting after the words, "amendments thereto" these 

words, "and all laws and parts of laws on the subject of bankruptcy 

embraced in the Revised Statutes of the United States under the title 

IV-60 

•. 

of 'bankruptcy' and all acts amendatory thereof;" so that the sec- tion will tten read : • · 

That the act entitled ;, .A.n aet to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy 

throughout the United States." approved March 2, 1867 and all other la.ws and 

parts of laws amendatory of aid act and supplemental tbereunt.obanll all amend-

~!~~ t~~:~· ~~:~ ~~~~~ Er:e oir:J~ 8~~: ~~::\~! tiu;-r::l~fi!'t rnptcy" and all acts amendatory thereof, be, and the same are horeb:r, r epealed. 

lli. LYNDE. I would be very glad to accept the amendment of 

the gentleman, but this is a report from a committee. 

The SPEAKER. The bill is amendatory at this stage only by unani- mous consent. ~Ir. HOLMAN. Then I ask unanimous consent to have incorporated in the first section the words I have suggested. 

.Mr. ·KASSON. That would repeal all tne laws upon the subject of 

bankruptcy, and I object. . Mr. HOLMAN. The purpose of the bill is to 1·epeal the whole legislation upon banlnllptcy. 

Mr. FORT. Let us take what we can get; a part is better than 

nothing at all. 

Mr. STOWELL. I object also to any amendment at this time. 

The question was upon the passage of the bill as amended. 

Mr. RANDALL. On that question I call for the yeas and nays. 

The leas and nays were ordered. 

The question was taken; and there were-yeas 18G, nay 58, not 

voting 45; as follows: 

YEA&:-Messrs. Adams, Ainsworth, Anderson, Ashe, A.tkins, Bailby, George . Bagley, John H. Bagley, jr., John H. Baker, William H. Baker, ..tsa,nning, Bas, 

Beebe, Bell, Blackburn, Bland, Boone, Bradford. Bradley, Bright, John Young 

Brown, William R. Brown, Buckner, Horatio C. Bm·chard, Samuel D. Burchard, 

Bw·leigh, John H. Caldwell, William P. Caldwell, C_11mpbell, Candler, Cannon, 

Cason, Caswell, Caulfield, Chittenden, John R Clarke of Kentucky, John B. Clark, 

jr., of :Missouri, Clymer, Collins, Conger, Cowan, Cox, Crounse, Culber on, Cutler, 

Darrall Davy, De Bolt, Denison, Dibbrell, Dougla-s, Durand, Durham, Eden, Egbert, Ellis, Evans, Farwell, Faulkner, Forney, Fort, Foster, Franklin, Frost, Fuller, 

Glover, Goodin, Andrew H. Hamilton, Hancock, Haralson, Harden bergh, Benjamin W. Harri , John T. Harris, Harrison, Harttidge, Hartzell, Hatcher, Haymond, Hen- dee, Henderson, Henkle, Hereford, Goldsmith W. Hewitt, Hoar, Holman, llooker, 

Hopkins, Ho kins, Honse, Hunter, Hyman, Thomas L. Jone , Joyco, K hr, Kimball, 

Knott, Franklin Landers, Lapham, Lawrence, Lewi , Luttrell, Lynch, Lynde, Levi 

.A.. Mackey, Magoon, Maish • .McCrary, McDill, McFarland, McMahon. Meade, Met- calfe, :Miller, M.illiken, :Mills, Mone.y, Monroe, Morgan, Morrison, Neal, New, Nor- ton, Pa-cker, Page, Parsons, Phelps, John F. Philips, \Villiam .A.. Phillips, Piper, 

PoP.pleton, Potter, Powell, Rainev, Randall Rea, Reauan, John Reilly, Jame B. Reilly, Rice, Riddle, Robinson, !:iampson, Savage, Sc:'iles, Schleicher, chnmaker, 

Seelye, Sheakley, Singleton, Sinnickson, Smalls, A- Herr Smith, Southard, Sparks, 

Springer, Strait, Stenger, Stevenson, 'l.'arbox, Terry, Thompson, Thoma , Throck- morton, Martini. Townsend, Tucker, 'l.'ufts, Turney, Waddell, Waldron, .Alexander 

S. ·wallace, Walsh, Eras·tns Wells, Wheeler, White, Wiko, Willard, A.lphens S. Williams, Charles G. Williams. James D. Williams, Jeremiah N. Williams, Willis, Ben- jamin Wilson, James \Vilson, .Alan \Vood, jr., Woodburn, and Yonng-186. 

NAYS-Messrs. Ballou, Banks, Blaine Blair, Blount, Cook, Crapo, Dunnell, 

Eames, Felton, Freeman, Frye, Gadield, Gause, Gunter, Robert Hamilton, Henry R. Hartis, Hathorn, AbramS. Hewitt, Hubbell, Hunton, Hurd, Hurlbut~ Kas on, Kelley, Ketchum, King. Lamar,Leavenworth, Erlmund W. M. Mackey, MacDougall, 

Mutchler, Oliver, O'Neill, Pierce, Plaisted, Platt, Pm-man, John Robbins, William 

M. Robbins, Slemons, \Villiam E. Smith, Stowell, Tee e, \V:u!hingtGn 'Iown. end, Van Vorhes, John L. Vance, Robert B. Vance, John W. Wallace. \Valling, Ward, 

Warren, Whitehouse, Whiting, Andrew Williams, William B. Williams, Jl'crnando 

Woocl, and Yeates-58. . NOT VOTING-Messrs. Barnum, Blis , Cabell, Cat , Chapin, Cochrane, Danford, 

Davi , Dobbins, Ely, Gibson, Goode, Hale, Hays, Hill, Hoge, Jenk , Frank Jones, 

George M. I_:.anders, Lane, ""f--evy, Lord, Morey, ash, O'Brien, Odell, Payne, Pratt, 

R.oberts, Miles Ross, Sobieski Ross, Rusk, SavlerJ... tone, Swann, Thornburgh, 

Charles C. B. Walker, Gilbert C. Walker, Walls, u. Wiley \Vells, Whitthorne, 

Wigginton, James Williams, Wilshire, and Woodworth-45. 

So the bill was pa sed . Mr. LYNDE. I a k unanimous consent of the House to correct a clerical error in the first section, in order to make it conform to the 

statement in the title of the bill. The first section of the bill a printed contains these words ''approved March 2, 1867." It should 

be March 21, 1867, and I a.sk consent that that correction be made. 

The SPEAKER. If there be no objection the error will be corrected. 

Mr. KASSON. Will the effect of that correction be to make the 

bill perfect and effective which is now imperfect and ineffcctivet 

The SPEAKER. Is there objection to the proposed amendment' 

Mr. KASSON. I object if that is the case, for this bill, if it should 

pass and become effective, will place all the debtors of the country at 

the mercy of the creditors. 

The SPEAKER. Objection being made, the correction is not uow in order. 

Mr. LYNDE moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed; and also moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the 

ta.ble. 

The latter motion was agreed to. 

DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR AP.PROPIUATION BILL. 

Mr. RANDALL. I move that the rules b!:' suspended and that the 

House re~olve itself into the Committee of the Whole on the diplomatic and consular appropriation bill. . The motion was agreed to. . . 

The House accordingly resolved itself into the Committee of the 

Whole on the state of the Union (M:r. HosKINs in the chair) andresumed the consideration of the bill (H. R. No. 1594) making appro- priations for the consular and diplomatic service of the Government 

for the year ending June 30, 1877, and for other purpo es. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. DuNNELL] 

is first entitled to the floor upon this bill. 
946 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. FEBRUARY 8, 

Mr. _DUNNELL. Mr. Chairman, some remarks that fell from the 

gentleman from :Mississippi, [Mr. SINGLETON,] who has chru·geof this 

bill, and some of the statements which were made yesterday by the 

gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. HOLMAN,] incline me to ask the n,ttention of the committee for a short time. 

I concede that an appropriation bill should undergo a severe exn,mination. I think it is the duty of the House to bring each 

appropriation bill to the lowest limit consistent with the honor and 

prosperity of the country. I concede, moreover, that the democratic 

majority in this House has the right to seek the largest possible !"eduction. But I deny to that majority, the right and priVilege to reach . that reduction by a disregard of the honor, dignity and prosperity 

of the Republic. 

I am opposed to the retrenchments embraced in this bill; and yet I 

rlo not indicate by anything that I may say upon this bill that I shaH 

be opposed to reductions w hlch may be found in other bills; for I do 

believe, as I have believed in former sessions, that reductions were and are pos ible, reductions which would be for the good of the country 

and result in a large saving to the Treasury. 

The remark of the gentleman from Mississippi, to which I first 

allude, the utterance of which especially attracted my attention, was that "when we came here at the commencement of this session we fo~d an exhausted Treasury." I do not believe that it is the privilege 

of any man, either of the majority or the minority in this Honse, in a discussion of a question of this nature, the discussion of which will 

not aud cannot be confined to the limits of our own coUlitry, but must 

make its way to all the countries whither we send our ministers and our consuls, to stand up here and represent that we have to-day an exhausted Treasury, and that therefore it is necessacy to make this re- duction. 

Mr. Chairman, while our financial matters may not he precisely 

what we would have them in many respects; while our circulating 

cmrency-our paper money-may be at less than par, yet it is a matter of satisfaction and pride that, after we hn,ve passed through such a war and expended such vast sums of money, we were officially informed at the commencement of this very Congress that we have in 

the Treasmy of the United States $125,000,000, wherewith to respond 

to any and every demand which may be made upon that Treasury. 

Yet the gentleman representing the Committee on Appropriations 

stn,nds here in his place and says that we came here to find an ex- hausted Treasury. 

There was a time when we had an exhausted Treasury. It was in 

1861, when the party now in power in this Government took possession of it. When Mr. Buchanan went out of power we had indeed 

and in truth, an exhausted Treasury; worse than that, we had not 

only an exhausted Treat3ury, but we had lost credit at home and 

abroad. As was said here the othe1· day in debate, we were unable to secme a small loan, although offering therefor the high rate of 12 per 

cent. interest. An exhausted Treasury and a damaged public credit were what we inherited as a party when we came into power. 

I therefore repel here the declaration that we have an exhausted 

Treasury, and are under the necessity of reducing the pay of our foreign ministers, and of dismissing our consuls because we have not the 

ability to pay them. Having called the attention of the gentleman 

and of the House to this point, I will pass on. The appropriation bill now pending, is of a kind tha.t I suppose we are to receive from the Committee on Appropriations, affecting all the 

other Departments of the Government. I understand that it is the 

detei'mination that all our appropriation bills shall seek a larger or smaller reduction. It is understood by the House and by the country 

that there is distinctly an objective point in this procedure: a reduction with a view to the campaign that is upon us. Irrespective of the 

wants of the Government, a reduction is to be made, arbitrarily and 

by force of numbers, disregarding the honor And prosperity of the 

country. 

I said a moment ago, sir, that I did not believe we could reduce our diplomatic expenses Without bringing upon ourselves dishonor abroad. 

There are those who fancy that our ministers abroad are over paid. I hold here in my hand an extract written by an American traveler 

in Paris; and he commenced by saying that Paris furnishes strange 

contrasts. He walked down one of the streets and passed the English 

embassy, a house built by the British government, where Lord Lyons 

resides. What is the pay of Lord Lyons' Fifty thousand dollars a year, with contingent expenses. The traveler passes on and i~:~ com- pelled to turn into a side street, go up three flights of stairs, and there 

find the American minister livrng upon a compensation of $17,500. 

And now we are told that it is necessary to reduce his compensation to$1~000! · J\.lr. Washburne is the peer of Lord Lyons. I am not saying that 

we are to have our representatives abroad bedecked in the tinselry of 

monarchical representative . I do, how~ver, insist that the representative of this proud Republic at the court of Saint James, at Paris, or elsewhere, shall not be compelled to wind his way through those 

cities with his head bowed down with shame at the failure of his Government to have himself properly cared for at_ the seat of his dignified and important labors. 

It is true that in regard to many of our important missions to-day, 

the poor men cannot well afford to accept them. It is said publicly, 

that only such and such a man, because of his great wealth, can reprel;!ent the country at this and that comt. I insist that it is not for 

the interest of the Republic that we should be compelled to pass by, 

perchance, the man of no fortune and find the man of large fortune. We are not compelled thus to limit ourselves in seeking out anu obtaining the ~reatest public integrity, the highest virtue, and the 

largest possible talent that we can employ. 

I will now allude to a single other remark made by the gentleman 

from Mississippi, who has this bill in charge. He says that we are called upon to pass this bill in order that we may set our faces against 

present wasteful extmvagance. The present pay of our foreign ministers is precisely what a democratic Congress and a democratic administration made it. We have not appropriated a dollar beyond 

what the democratic administration of 1\Ir. Buchanan led us to appropriate for minist6rs and consuls at that day. If it was not wasteful 

extravagance under Pierce's and Buchanan's administration, whereforedoes it become wasteful extravagance under a republican administration' Our foreign intercourse last year cost us only $1,165,418.23. 

Has that amount ever been exceeded T In turning back, in the.finance 

report which I hold in m.Y hand I finu that in 1853 and 1854 our foreign intercourse cost us·$7,763,812.41; and in the succeeding democratic administration, in 1855 and 1856, ouT foreign intercourse cost us $3,642,615.39. We have already reached a limit far below the aver- age sum which was expended by the preceding administrations of l\1r. 

Pwrce and Mr. Buchanan. It was not wasteful extravagance then. 

How is it wasteful extravasance now Y 

Although our foreign qnnisters, a-s I insist, are even now poorly 

paid, we ru·e now told, and for the first time in these twenty-three 

years, that we have overpaid these men who represent us abroad. If 

gentlemen will look at the tab1e furnished by the gentleman from 

Ohio [Mr. GARFIELD] yesterday, as part of his very able anu convinc- ing argument, it will be seen there, along with Great Britain, with 

France, and with Germany, in a column which tells the amount paid 

to ministers and consuls, that in almost every instance the American 

ReiJ ;:.:;2c stands at the foot of the list, with her ministers and consuls 

the most poorly paid and the most scantily furnished. Yet they are representatives of a republic more ()'rand, more powerful, with a sublimer and grander his~ory than either of the other countries. Yet, 

sir, our ministers, with $125,000,000 in the Treasury, are to be told, not 

for any goou rea-son, but only for campaign purposes, simply that and 

nothing more, that their pay is to be cut down. Forty-four consuls are to be set adrift andAmericn,n commerce is to be alloweu to dwindle still more, to be neglected in the portions of the world where we have been fostering it carefully and sedulously now these many years. 

Just as we are about to realize largely from that fostering care, the 

Government proposes to draw off these five ministers and forty-four 

consuls. 

Mr. Chairman, I wish to call attention to a remark made by the 

gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. HoLMAN.] It is a remark which has 

fallen from his lips more than once, as well as from other gentlemen, as though it was reilly worthy of consideration, and therefore could 

bear repetition. It is this: we are asked to compare the net ordinary 

expenditures of the Government in 1860 and the net ordinary ex- penditmes of the Government in 1875. We are asked to do that as though there were no existing reasons why our current expenses now should not necessarily far exceed those of 1860. We are told here on this floor that we have grown extravagant because om ('lxpenses ru·e now more than they were then. Nothing is said about the great 

events which have transpired during the intervening pe1·iod. No 

intimation it; made of the waste and wreck of the great civil war. • No allusion is made to the pension list, which has grown to $29,000,000. ·Not the slightest ~:eference is -made to any of the elements going to 

make up that difference in expenditures. They are all passed over in silence. Now, it might do for some demagogue, addressing a crowd 

of ignorant people in some retired place, but it is not manly debate, 

it is not fair discussion, it is not an honorable way to consider a public question which takes hold of the honor and vitality of the Republic, thus to allude to the difference of expenditmes then and now. Tne other day in debate, a gentleman called attention to the ex- penses of :Mr. Jackson's administration. Another alluded to the small- ness of expenditure dming the administration of John Quincy Adams. 

The pension appropriation bill passed this year is twice as large as the expenditures o:f Mr. Adams's administration during any one year. 'Ve have expenditures now unthought of, undreamed of, at that day; 

and yet some people seem to farrcy it is because we have become 

wasteful that we are now compelled necess:trily to appropriate these 

large sums of money. 

It would be very easy, Mr. Chairman, to fill up the differences hetween theexpensesof 1860andthoseof 1875. We could fill up the space 

with but little difficulty. I have already thrown out one item, that 

of $29,000,000 appropriated to pay the pension list. In addition, we 

know that the expenses of the War and Navy Departments have been 

doubled. We know that there is not a branch or a Bureau of this 

Government that has not had its expenditures swollen, as· the result 

of the civil war. When Hon. Ezra B. Fmnch became Second Auditor, 

he found in that Office twenty-one men as clerks, and they all came into a little room to congratulate him. Since then he has had fom 

hundred and eighty-five clerks at one time, now one hundreu and 

seventy-five. In th~ Pension Office then there were but twenty clerks, 

and then .fifty, owing to the bounty-land bill, while since then there 

have been foUl' hundred and twenty-five; now three hundred and 

eighty-five. In the different Comptrollers' and Auditors' Offices of the 
1876. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 947 

Treasury Department, in the Adjutant-General's, Surgeon-General's, 

and other Offices of the War Department-indeed, in every branch 

and Bureau of the Government-ten times the force has been required 

since 1860 as was needed before the war. New Bureaus have been added, calling for more clerical force than 

the whole Treasmy Department in 1860; the Office of Comptroller 

of the Cmrency, calling for an appropriation of half a million of dollars annually, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, receiving between one and two millions, the Internal Revenue, having last yeal' an appropriation of above five millions, the life-saving service calling for a fourth of a million; but I cannot linger to increase the list. 

I will just add that it is simply folly to suppose that an expanding 

and growing Republic of forty millions of people can get along with as little governmental expenditure as one of twenty or thirty millions. Till our vast war debt is paid off and our pension list is ex- hausted, we cannot hope for figures which shall resemble those of 

1 60. It is better to be honest with ourselves than to delude the people. Some seem to think that we are wasteful and extravagant be- cause we are meeting these inevitable results of the war. Now, for one I am willing to admit that there may be a reduction 

of force in some of the Departments of this Government, and perhaps 

in all. As one gentleman said, this is a poor place to begin; let us begin with some of these Bureaus here in Washington, where force 

may have been crowdedinmorethanwa absolutelynecessary. Let us not strike at the honor of the country, as we do when we strike at our foreign intercotuse. Let us not strike at the commerce of the cotmtry, as we do when we strike down these men who are sent abroad to 

gather commercial statistics, to wateh for and look after the interests 

of American seamen. It is poor ·policy, it is a stingy policy, it is a policy that will never reward the party that seeks to adopt it, and a • policy which will damage the country at large. 

1\Ir. Chairman, I desire now to call attention to a remark which wa-s made yesterday by the gentleman from Indiana, [:t.Ir. HOLMAN,] and 

would be glad if he would give me his attention while I allude to it, 

because I certainly do not wish to do him an injustice; and yet I am very free to admit that he has been led into a very great error and 

macle an unfair representation here to the House. He said yesterday, 

reading an extract from the Boston Journal of Commerce, that republican America, or the United States, was a more expensive government than monarchical England; yes, that it was more expensive to 

the tune of 125,000,000 a year. 

Mr. HOLMAN. The gentleman from Minnesota misunderstands me on that point. In my remarks yesterday, I called attention-and 

if the ~entleman will look at them he will see that I did so-to the ex- traordinary statement published in the Boston Journal of Commerce on that subject. And I said that I indulged the hope, as the gentle- man will see by looking at my remarks, that the allegations there were overstated. I simply wished to call attention to the fact that at least 

it was asserted upon tlw part of a Scotch paper that the expenses of our Government exceeded the expen es of that of Great Britain. I did 

not have occasion to say, nor did I think the statement was itself 

well founded, although the gentleman will perceive that the statement I also referred to, taken froru the Boston paper, would show that 

the local and l!'ederal expenses of the Government would exceed ~he 

sum mentioned by the Scotsman, which is copied by the Boston Jomnal. The gentleman could not certainly have understood me as affirming that that statement was correct. 

Mr. DUNNELL. I am glad that the gentleman withdraws the 

statement which he made yesterday. 

Mr. HOLMAN. I do not withdraw a word of it. If the gentleman 

will look at my remarks be will find that I am stating now just what 

I stated yesterday. 

Mr. DUNNELL. I quote from the gentleman's remarks of yesterday: 

"Thus," says that journal, . "it unhappily appears that our Federal and local ex- penditures exceed the corresponding expenditures of Great :Britain $125,000,000 a ye;u-." I am glad that the Scotsmansomewhatoverestimatesourexpenditnres, but 

still it is in f:Wt so great, and the tendency and motives to increase the volume are so fearfully pressing and growing year after year, that the friends of free govern- ment may well take the alarm. 

Now, sir, the gentleman left the impression upon my mind, as I 

think be left it upon the House, that our expenses exceeded the ex- penses of the British government. I bold in my hand a book in which 

I :find the expenses and the receipts of the English government for 

1874 and 1875. In round numbers, the receipts of the home government are put down at £73,000,000 sterling; the expenses of the home ~overnment at £73,000,000 sterling. The receipts of local adminIstrations amount to £38,000,000 sterling, and the expenses nearly to same sum. Nowitwill be seenthatthereceiptsof the whole empire are seventy-three millions plus thirty-eight millions, making£ 111,000,000 

sterling, or 550,000,000. Also the expenses of the British government are giYen to us as £111,0000,000 sterling, or $550,000,000, ascertained 

directly from the best authority in the world. And, by the by, I 

will say to the gentleman from Indiana that I propose to answer his 

remarks about what he calls local taxation. Thia is the expense, 

550,000,000, which it costs the British government to conduct its 

great affairs. We appropriated 271,009,000, and out of that come $100,000,000 interest upon the national debt, to say nothing about the 

pension item and the other items to which I have referred. I am un- willing that an American Representative shall stand here in this 

House and proclaim to the world that republican America ~ more 

expensive than monarchical En~land. It is not true. This book 

shows a double expenditure on tne pa:t:t of England. 

Now, sir,· where the gentleman allowed himself to be misled is 

when he undertook to talk about local taxes. The English government furnishes no data as to local taxation, except so far as it refers 

to Scotland, Ireland, and Wn.les; and it is there called local taxation, and what misled the gentleman was in calling that taxation 

local which is just such taxation as we subject omselves to when we appropriate money to support the Territories. But the gentleman 

from Indiana dragged in what is known here at home as local taxation. What is local taxation here at home 'f It is State taxation; 

it is county taxation, city taxation, town taxation, school-district 

taxation. And the gentleman get up some figures fUJ,d shows some $700,000,000 of local taxation in the United States and then compares 

that $700,000,000 with this aggregate of governmental expenditures on the part of Great Britain. · · Mr. HOLMAN. My friend must notice that I did not get up any 

figures at all. I was simply calling attention to the assertions of the 

press of America with reference to the comparison between our taxation and that abroad ; and I may say that I have seen figures some- what different from those the gentleman from Minnesota has presented . . The object of the Scotch paper quoted by the Boston Journal 

of Commerce was manifestly to group together all the local and Federal taxation of this country, and compare it with the local anfi na- tional taxation of England. But I did not get up any figures at all. 

I simply reported what was said in the public journals of America. 

Mr. DUNNELL. 1\Ir. Chairman, I call attention to the fact that 

local taxation was brought in here and the gentleman brought it in 

considering the expenses of our Government and the government of 

Great Britrun. Now local taxation, as we understand it in America, 

has no place here on this floor. This House has nothing to do with 

the discussion of such a question. Whether the great State of New 

York be building a State-house costing 7,000,000 or the great State 

of Illinois one_eosting $5,000,000, whether the great States of this 

Republic are expending !J.rge sums of money in building State-houses or whether counties are building court-houses and jails, or whether our cities are building school-houses and constructing bridges, and • developing this young Republic, has nothing whatever to do here. 

This matter of local taxation is something entirely outside of Congress and ought not, and cannot properly, be dragged in here in instituting a comparison between our expenditures and the expenilitures 

of any other government on the face of the globe. It must be remembered also here, in discussin~ local taxation, that we are not 

in the same condition as Eng lana, thank heaven; we are not old. 

We are a young nation; and to suppose that we can get along with an expenditure in local matters as cheaply as can older countries, 

is not supposable. We are in the formative period of our existence; we are growing. We are expending money, not simply for the present but for the grand future, and if the American people unde1· local 

laws see fit to go into local expenditures they understand what the reasons are, requiring them to do it, and they are alone responsible 

for them and must bear the burdens they impose upon themse~ve~. 

Sir, it is not fitting to bring into the House of Representatives this 

discriminating and uDfair comparison between our Government and 

the government of Great Britain. Our expenses are far less than 

those of foreign governments of the same importance. Every intelligent reader of history the world over knows that fact, aud be1·e I 

protest against ·the declaration that we have an exhausted Treasury, or that we are compelled to dishonor ourselves at home and abroad, or that as a Republic we are to admit the truthfulness of an com- parison as between our expenditures and those of monarchical governments which place ours in advance of theirs. 

Everybody knows that official salaries all through the country are vastly below the salaries paid under monarchical governments. We 

have no high salaries in America. We have none under the Federal 

Government; we have no high salaries. Sir, I am not advocating 

high salaries, but I insist that the salaries we give to om foreign 

ministers to-day are no more than they ought to have in order that 

they may live respectably and without a sense of home neglect, and 

continue in the discharge of their great duties as .American ministers 

wherever they may be. • 

I promised not to detain the committee, and I shall reach a conclusion very soon. The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. HOLMAN] said 

yesterday that we need not ministers but consuls. Now, I will admit that in some localities a consul might be more serviceable to 

the Government and to the commerce of t)le country than a minister; 

and yet I do not believe that any fair-minded man could have heard 

the speech of the gentleman from Ohio [:Mr. MONROE] without being compelled to giv~ assent, not only to his propositions, but to the 

conclusions to which he came. It W3.'3, sir, a manly, noble, statesmanlike speech. And here let me add what I wa about to say. How comes it that these gentlemen in getting up this bill. have di charged 

forty-four consuls if they are thus mOl'e valuable than ministers. 

Why is it that forty-fom consuls hav~ been stricken from the list, 

and in many instances where those consuls are just now needed to 

bring to the Government the fruits of its long-continued efforts made 

to secure a successful commerce with those countries. The English ~overnment has to-day, in every known port of the world, a consul; 

It is known, it is a matter of history, that the commerce of England 

is a-s extensive as the representation of England. 
• 

948 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. FEBRUARY 8, 

. You may go into any port in the world, and you will find at once an English consul there and y01rwill find the English flag afloat. You 

will find, also in very many of the ports, indeed in ~11 the large ports ·of the world, that an English consul is awaiting the arrival o.f an English steamer to carry off the products of the country. It was my for- • t une to spend one yea1· in the republic of 1\iex.ico. I went there, and was compelled to go there, on an English steamer, subsidized by the 

English government and under an English flag. When I reached the 

port of Vera Cruz, where I landed, I found there an English consul and a vice-consul and a clerk; I wa.s there in the presence of the repre- sentatives of the English government. I was carried there on an English steamer. Upon the wharf I found the products of 1\iexico, 

and they were soon taken into the ~Steamer and she took them away. 

They were products that ought to have come to our markets, prouucts 

that we ourselves should have fostered and taken care of. But we -had no steamer there to take them away. 

It is now proposed to cut down the pay of the.consul at that port. 

Within the last twelve years, we have had there as consUl an Ameri- can merchant from the city of Brooklyn, who had so well watched 

the commercial interests of the United States at that port that fortunately we now have a teamer once a month going into that harbor. 

But there is to-day not a considerable port in Mexico into which an Euglish steamer uoes not go. At Acapulco, Tehuantepec, Vera Cruz, 

Tampico, Matamoras, into every port of the Mexican Republic, there 

goes first an English consul, and then English steamships go there 

and carry away the products of that country. ~. 

Sir, we are not half liberal enough in our legislation for American 

interests. There are men who have been frightened to death by the 

word "subsidy." The gentleman from Mississippi, [Mr. SINGLETON,] 

who told us in reply t o a question from the gentleman from Mai.ne 

[1\ir. HALE] that he had certain schemes in hls qwn mi.nd, some of 

which were good, yet he wa so terribly alarmed at the idea of gov- ernmental aid for anything that he voted for the resolution of the 

gentleman from Indiana [Mr. HoLMAN] agai.nst granting subsidies to any conceivable object. He voted for that resolution, and yet tells 

the House and the cotmtry that he has a number of these schemes on hand which he propo. es to vote for. Then why did he not stand up 

here and vote " no" upon that resolution, and Jet that class of reso- lutions be treated here as they ought always to be f · I voted against 

that resolution. I do not propose to vote for any subsidy which my 

constituents will not sustain me in voting for. But I will never put a cord about my tongue; I will not vote a gag upon my tongue nor a gag upon this House. 

We are told that we must pass this appropriation bill because the 

people are burdened with taxation and because we must relieve the 

people from that burden of taxation. What are our taxes t We un- derstand what they are; they are i.ndirect, both the internal revenue and the imposts. Suppose the present tariff remains unchanged, what aro these poor tax-burdened people to get out of this reduction! They are to get this, that we have paid off that much of the national debt; 

that our receipts ha,ve enabled us to reduce the national debt. What a grand relief that will be to these tax-bUl'dened people! The reduction of the national debt is worthy, but that will not relieve the peo- pl~. They will rather at this time desh·e a relief from the burdens of 

taxation tha,n a reduction of the debt. 

It may bo said, however, that we propose to remodel and revise the 

tariff. After I have made a few remarks upon that subject ~ will 

close. It is said that we are to have less expenses, and I presume it 

is intenued that we shall have less receipts, beca,use if we do not have 

less receipts then I ask the gentleman from New York, the chairman 

of the Committee on Banking and Currency, [Mr. Cox,] how will we relieve the burdens of the people t I understand we are to have less 

receipts, and I hold in my hand a. copy of the proposed tariff' bill. 

That tariff bill has some funny things i.n it. If it pa,sses I shall have a first-mte campaign document for next summer and fall. I would 

not want a better one than this tariff bill which the gentleman from 

Illi.nois, the chairman of the Committee on 'Vays and Means, [Mr. 

MORRISON,] has introduced. 

When I go to my constituency a,nd say to them, "Gentlemen, we have reduced the expenses of the Government," they will say to me, 

"That is a,ll very well; but have you reduced this i.ndirect taxation ' " Of course I will answer, "0, yes; we clid reduce it." They 

will ask me how, and I will tell them the simple story how we did ittho democratic House, I mean, for it will not have my vote. I will 

t ell them that we have cut down the tariff on silks and silk dressgoods from 60 per cent. ad valorern to 40 per cent. ad valorern. They 

"\Yill sit in silence, but will ponder i.n theh· mi.ncls how that tallies 

witb. the theory that the luxuries of life shall pay the higher duties. 

Then I will further tell them that in order to make things level, we imposed upon their tea and coffee a taxation equivalent to fifteen or twenty millions of dollars a year. Now, I very respectfully say to the 

gentleman from illinois [MI·. MORRISON] that I want no better cam- paign document than that. If that is the result of this much-pro- claimed economy, my constituents will sa.y ''Away with it; we have 

had enough of it." I hope to see this tariff bill brought before the 

House, and I want some one to demonstrate, if he can, how the price 

of tea and coffee will not be affected when you impose upon coffee a duty of five cents per pound and upon tea a duty of fifteen cents per 

pound. I shall ha,ve my ears open and my mind, directed to the subject; I will ili·ink in from the lips of the eloquent gentleman from 

New York [Mr. Cox] what he may say. I will endeavor to be coll.~ 

verted, but I fancy I shall not be. . In conclusion, let me say this : The present appropriation bill is 

unworthy of this House in that it strikes at American commerce, 

and at American honor. I hope there are more than one upon the 

other side of the House who will stand to the precedents of the democratic party and insist that we hall give to our present ministers· what we gave to the mini ters who were sent out by Mr. Pierce and 

Mr. Buchanan. We are not bankrupt; we have the ability to do it; we aro rich i.ndeed in yet undeveloped power. Let us not, therefore, 

hring dishonor and damage to the Republic. 

Mr. HEWITT, of New York. Mr. Chairman, I would not detain 

the committee with any remarks upon this bill if I were not convinced 

by the examination which, as a member of the Committee on Foreign 

Affah-s, it has been my duty to make that serious if not irreparable 

i.njury would be done to the commercial interests of the country, and more particularly to those of the city o.f New York, unless some of its 

omissions are supplied by judicious amendments, which can only follow full discussion of its provisions. In saying this I do not nece - sari.ly imply any censure upon the committee, who, charged with the 

duty of reporting the vast and complicated expenditures of the Go\7 -

ernment, cannot be expecteu to do more than pre ent a frame-work 

upon which the experience and the suggestions of the individual mem- bers of the House shall build the complete structure. Moreover, in 

reference to the commercial interests of the country the committee n.re entitled to ~eat indulgence, because it so happens that there is no member of 1t who represents a constituency lru·gely engaged in 

foreign commerce, unless it be its chairman, who, with all his accom- plishments, cannot be expected to carry the whole fabric of our na- tional interests upon his Atlantean shoulde1-s. The errors and omis-, 

sions which it is my duty, not altog~ther agreeable, to point out, . would, I am sure, have been avoided, as they will be cheerfully cor- rected, with a better knowledge of the facts to which I shall ask your 

attention. RETRENCHMENT. 

In what hB.s been said in regard to the necessity of retrenchmeut in 

the public expenditure I a,m in entire sympathy with the members of the committee, and no one will go fa1·ther with them in the direction of real and thorough reform ; but I a,m sure that it will not be 

necessary to remind the committee that statesmanship does not con- sist in retrenchment only; that enonoiny may easily be carried within 

the limits of parsimony, and that reform may be pushed beyond the 

limits of prudence and justice. 

DIPLOMATIC SALARIES. 

I shall ask them to remember these axioms while I discuss the bearing of this bill upon the commercial intel'ests of the country. I s&1.ll 

have but little occasion to differ with the committee as to that portion of the bill which reduces the compensaJ;ion of our diplomatic 

repre ntative~:~ in Europe. In fact, if the committee had gone farthor 

n.ntl abolished or consolidated several of these missions they would 

have had my hearty concurrence. I fully approve of the discontinu- ance of the mission to Greece. and if that to Switzerland had in like manner been terminawd I cannot see that any public interest woulu 

suffer. And if the committ.ee had seen fit to withhold appropriations 

for the payment of the salaries of other ministers· whose names have 

been connected with unpleasant scandals, I should have felt that a patriotic citizen might visit foreign lands with g~·eater satisfaction, 

and escape the humiliativn which, ,when once felt, will not down 

until the cause is removed either by retirement or investigation. 

I have said tb.at I shall have no difference with the committee in re- gard to the reduction in the diplomatic salaries. At the same time can- dor compels me to state that they are certainly inadequate to meet the 

legitimate expenses of our ministers, under the circumsta,nccs anu in 

t.he style in which they are compelled to live. But this has always 

been true of our representatives abroad, and yet the positions hav;e 

been eagerly sought after, and ge.nerally filled by gentlemen fully 

competent to the duties. They offer collateral advantages of such a desirable nature that incumbents of sufficient culture and private means can always be found to take these positions even at considerable cost to themselves. Except, therefore, tha,t the cost of living be 

generally advanced in Elll'ope of late years, as in this country, the 

committee might very properly have returned to the rule of compensation which prevailed prior to the war, and the public service would 

nut have been thereby injured. 

CONSOLIDATION OF SOUTH AMERICAN MISSIONS. 

I find myself, however, unable to agree with the committee i.n the 

policy of consolidation adopted in regard to the South American missions. From the best information which I have been able to procure, 

it will simply be impo ible for the ministers so accredited to the combilled powers to reside long enough i.n any one yeru· in one place to ac- quire that knowledge and social position which are essentia,l for the 

proper discharge of the duties confided to them. The actual time con- smned in traveling often of the most difficult and even dangeroUR character, will amount to several months in the year, while the ex- penses of the journey will absorb the greater part of the sal.uy allowed. 

Practically, therefore, the recommendation of the committee will, if 

approved, result in the abolition of ·au but one in each con olidation 

of mis ions. The question therefore is whether it is wise to abolish 

these missions and abandon the policy which for so ma,ny years, and 

. 
1876 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD~ 949 

with the approval of our wisest and most conservative statesmen, we have pursued in regard to onr sister republics of South America. 

Aside from the commercial interests involved, with which I shall 

deal hereaftm·, we occupy a peculiar relation to these republics, so to 

speak; that of a mother, who is ahke an example, a guide, and a protector. They came into life and got their shape and fashion, a.s the 

result of our struggle for independence .and our success in free government. 

In the hour of trouble they have always appealed to us for advice 

and moral aid, and we are the standin&' and respected arbiter to whom 

their differences with each other ana the governments of t.he Old 

World are constantly submitted. They cherish a romantic attachment to our Go-yernment and our people which is perhaps at variance 

with the cold maxims of political philosophy, but which touches the 

springs of the human heart and commends itself to the "plain com- mon sense" of the American people, in whom I am glad to say the 

"touch of human nature which makes the world akin" is not yet ex- tinguished. Shall we do aught to repress the flame of liberty which, now burning so feebly, will urely, if fed by our own experience, en- couragement, and friendly counsels, grow into a brilliant illumination, 

spreading over the whole South American continent aml lighting up 

the homes of millions of happy and industrious freemen, w ho::;e sympathies and business will be mainly with us, who have been their friends 

and their exemplars T 

STATISTICS OF SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE. 

I apologize, 1\Ir. Chairman, as a man of business, for indulging in 

what may be characterized as mere sentiment, but I feel that if it be 

sentiment, it is "brea~ ca.st upon the waters," which will after 

many days return an abundant harvest. A few figures will substantiate this as ·ertion. From the Government returns, I find that our .;.. business with these countries in 1874 was as .follows: 

Countries. 

Peru . .. _ ....... _ ... _._ .. _ ................... - Ecuador . ................................... . Colombia ................ : .................. . Argentine Republic ............ _ ... _. _ .....• 

~~a~d ~~vR~~~-~~ .: :::- ·:: ::::::::::::: 

Imports. 

1, 256, 286 2, 896, 012 7, 749,433 

4, 537, 670 2, 515,563 

666,560 

Exports. 

$2,518, 404 1, 3EO, 515 5,123, tl45 2, 478,513 

1,115, 042 2, 730,617 

COMP AEED WITH EUROPEAN COMMERCE. 

Total. 

$3, 774,680 

4, 276,527 

12,873,278 

7, 016,183 

3, 630,605 

3, 397,177 

Comparin(J' these figures with our trade with some European coun- tries with which the committee deem it wise to maintain direct diplomatic relations, we can find no valid reason for abolishing these 

South American missions except that of Bolivia. 

Countries. 

Austria ..•••• ·--- ........................... . 

~~~~~~i:::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::: 

SwedenandNorway ........................ . Turkey.: ................ -..... -..... -.-.... . 

Imports. Exports. 

$488, 642 $1, 6~. 249 577,742 1, 768,335 

485, 508 2, 4ao. 791 2, 037,914 2, 385, 088 786, 877 2, 549, 493 

Total. 

$2,170,891 

2, 346,077 

2, 916,299 

4, 423,002 

3, 336,370 

A proposition, therefore, to abolish the mission to Portugal, and to 

consolidate the mission to Denmark with that of Sweden and Norway, 

and to consolidate the mission to Turkey with that to Austria, would 

be quite as reasonable on the score of business relations,. and far more reasonable on the score of accessibility, than the consolidation of 

these South American missions; and of the two alternatives I should 

greatly prefer the consolidation of the European missions: first, be- cause of the peculiar sympathy in political views existing between us and our South American allies ; secoiJ.d, because they offer to us virgin markets and unlimited possibility of trade for the future; third, 

because we have but little to expect from our European allies, either 

in the way of yolitical progress "or the extension of business, the 

channels of wh1ch are fully occupied by rivals older in the race and 

better equipped for success. I am therefore driven to dissent from the committee in all their 

recommendations for the consolidation of the South American missions, except that of Bolivia with Chili; but in this case the House 

must understand that it will amount to a practical abandonment of 

the mission to that isolated republic. If in the judgment of the House 

the condition of the Tr~asury and of the country demands the saving 

of the money expended in maintaining the South American missions now independent of each other, then I am equally clear that it will 

be better to effect the economy by dispensing with some of the lesser 

European missions, which are more expensive and less fruitful to the 

business of the country. No American sympathies, no time-honored 

traditions founded on t-he fellowship of fi·eedom, on ge~raphical con- tiguity, on convictions of the future greatne s of the western Hemispbere, will thus be violated, while commercial relations with our sister-republics, already so important and of such hLrge promise in 

the future, will be preserved, fostered, and steadily enlarged. . 

STATISTICS. 

The total number of consulates maintained by the United States at 

this time is two hunllred and seventy-seven. Of these the bill proposes to 11bolish fort.y-four, being about 15 per cent. of the whole 

number. Now, th~ consular serVIce of all civilized countries is the 

outgrowth of th~ necessities of trade and commerce, and the sound 

policy of their maintenance is no longer an open question. It is a-dmitted t.hat where a country has no consuls it can have nQ trade, and 

the trade is developed and increa es just in proportion as its consu- lar service is effective. The rule with all enlightened governments 

has been to establish and maintain consulates not merely where they 

have an existing trade, but wherever there is a rea-sonable pro pect 

of either developing a possible interchange of commodities or of getting a shnre of the trade already enjoyed by other nations. 

POLICY OF GREAT. BRITAIN. 

The policy of the government of Great. Britain has in this respect 

been most persistent and admirable,· and attended with the most sur- prising results. She maintains in all two hundred and seventy-three 

consulates, of which :til but eleven are outside of the United States. 

We maintain in all two hundred and seventy-seven, of which sev.entytwo are in the. British dominions· leaving to us two hundred and five 

consulates in the rest of the world against two hundred and sixty-two 

maintained by Great Britain. The bill proposes to drop thirty-six 

consnlates not in the British dominions, leaving us with one hundred 

and seventy-nine consulates againsttwo hundred and sixty-two maintained by Great Britain in the countries with which we compete with 

that country for trade. Of course the result is obvious, that so far as the business controlled by eighty-three consulates, nearly one-half 

of our whole number outside of the British possessions, we give up 

the struggle and abandon the business to Great Britain. Before this 

serious and possibly fatal step is taken, it will be well to take pause, 

and examine the relative position of the United States and Great 

Britain in reference to foreign commerce. 

COMPARISON OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN TRADE. 

In 187 4 the aggregate imports and exports of Great Britain amounted 

to £667,733,165. Her population was 32,412,010. Her foreign trade, 

therefore, was at the rate of £21 or $100 in gold per hea-d of population. In the same year the aggregate imports and exports of the 

United States amounted to $1,265,719,964, which, allowing a population of 40,000,000, gives a foreign trade of 30.66! per head, or less 

than one-third of the British per capita rate. Those who "know tho 

natural resources of this country will not require to be told that we have a better basis for foreign commerce than Great Britain, and that 

if she can maintain a trade of $100 per·capita, .,.Te shall surely arriv& 

at the same result if we take the same means to secure it, and remove all artificial impediinents from its growth. The figures may be bewildering, but they may be realized, and would amount to ,000,000,000 

per annum. The foreign trade of Great Britain already exceeds 

$3,000,000,000. Few persons, howeverrrealize the rapid development 

of our foreign commerce since 1840. Prior to that date its growth was very slow. 

1790-•• -....... - .•••••• -...... -. • •• -- ....... -••.. --- •.. --. . -.. -.-.. $42, 626, 844 1800 .•••••••••••.•.. ·····-............ ···-··.-..•.••....••• --.. .. . . . . 83,962,794 1810 .................. ·······---·· ··-··· ............ .•..•. ......... .. 103,375,370 

1820 ............ ············-·················-······· ·••··•···•••··· 108,125,611 11!30 .•.••• --···· .••••••••••..•••.••••••.••••••••••.••• -· ·-.... -. . .•. . 115,951,570 1840 .••.. -- .. -·· ................ : .••••••.•.• -....... -.••••• ·--- -·... 202, 846,841 

1850 ..•... -· ····-· .•.. ------ ................. ··-···. ·-· ..... -. . ----.. 300, 133, 472 1860 .. -. •••••.•.••••• -• -....... - . .; .••••• - -•.••••••. -.••••••. -.. -•• -. . 70 ' 42'2, 506 

1865 •••••••• --- ........... ·••••• .••••• --···- ··-··· ··-···-·-- .. ---. .• . 640,184, 62'2 1870 .......................... ··-· .••••••• ·--· ••. ·····-...... -.... -.. 875; 708,616 

1874 ............ ··:··· .••• -· ---·-----·- ·-· ·- -·. -· ·····-· .......... -. . 1, 265,719,964 

Those who have been accustomed to talk of the decay of American commerce can study this table with profit. There has in fact bee~ 

no development in any age or in any country comparable to it. Compare it for example with the increase in Great Britain since 1865, an era of unexampled prosperity: 

Year. 

1865- .......................... .. 

1870- ··--·· ............ ·-······· · 1874 ....................... · .... .. 

Imports. 

£271, 072, 28..'i 

303, 257, 493 . 370, 082, 701 

Exports. 

£258, 831, 516 244, 080, 577 297, 650, 464 

Total. 

£489, 913, 861 547,338,070 

667, 733,165 

Between 1865 and 1874 British foreign commerce therefore to creased 

about 40 per cent. while that of the United States inorea.sed nearly 

'too per cent. 

In the face of these figures he must be a bolu and :t dangerous man who will undertake to circumscribe the are:t of American commerce by closing up to it a single one of the ports in which it is now carried on and to which it looks for extension. 

HEALTHY AKD UNHEALTHY TRADE. 

But there may be a.n unhealthy as well as a healthy development 

of foreign commerce, and in this respect I am sorry to admit that the 

growth of British commerce is far more satisfa<ltory than our own. 

CONSULAR SYSTEM. BRITISH Al\"D AMERICAN COMMERCE. 

But it is in reference to the consular system as affected by the pro- A study of the British table of imports and exports above given visions of this bill that I find the most serious grounds of difference demonstrates the remarkably favorable character of her exchanges. with the committee. As she is always a creditor nation she paid in the three yea~·s quoted, 
950 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. FEBRUARY 8, 

1865, 1870, and 1874, and the statement is true of all the intermediate 

years, for the value of imports, by a value of ex~orts far less in amon~t, 

on the average over £60,000,000 per annum, which represents the mm- imum of net annual gain from her foreign trade. Her trade {s therefore an eminently healthy and profitable one. With us, we have reason to know that the contrary has of late years been the case, and 

that we have paid the difference by remittances of national, State, 

and corporate bonds, estimated by the highest financial authorities to 

amount to at least 2,000,000,000. 

RETURN TO SPECIE PAYMENTS. 

To meet the annual interest upon this indebtedness is the burden 

which weighs us down, and, in the face of our production of the precious metals, is the only real obstacle in the way of an early resumption of specie payments. The :~;emedy is plain, but unpalatable. We 

must spend less money; less money in carrying on the Government, 

less money in foreign luxuries in our homes and in the daily walks 

of life. This money must be devoted to t.he repurcha-se of the debt 

held abroad, until, if not a creditor nation, we shall at lea t not be 

called upon for more of the precious metals to meet interest on debt 

held a.broa{} than we produce at home. But it is of equal importance that that portion of our trade which consists in sending our products into foreign markets should be carefully cultivated, fostered, 

and encouraged, because in that way and that way only can we pay 

for the foreign products which we must have as the raw materia.ls in 

part for our industry. And just•here is my grievance with the provisioDB of the bill under consideration. Instead of enlarging the mar- kets for our products, it actually closes np many of the avenues for 

their sale, thus inoreasin~ the difficulties in the way of return to a system of sound finance-difficulties so great as to demand the highest 

order of skill and statesmanship for their successful solution. 

VOLUME OF COMMERCE MAINTAINED. 

In spite of many obstacles, some natural and others artificial, we have succeeded in maintaining a large foreign trade in our manufactured goods, and this trade is, I am glad to say, steadily and surely 

growing. With tile removal of the impediments to this healthy 

growth, which will be accomplished by some of the ameliorations in 

the ta,riff contained in the bill introduced by the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and now pending before that committee, 

and especia.lly by a judicious increa-se in the free list, this trade will 

receive an. enormous expansion, and without such expansion it is safe 

to predict that specie payments, even if resumed, could not long be 

successfully maintained. In the face of this enlightened policy, to 

which the democratic party ~s committed by every pledge of honor, 

by its time-honored traditions, and ~y every consideratidn of sound 

policy, I cannot conceive of any greater mista.ke than to close up the 

markets into which these products of our indu try, revived as it will 

be by the removal of the restrictions on production, would otherwise 

enter and. gradually monopolize. 

COTI'ON GOODS. 

It is known to all who study the question that our exports of domestic cotton goop.s are steadily increasing, and in 1875 amounted to 

28,817,743-yards, a larger quantity than any year for the past fifteen 

years. HARDWARE, ETC. 

Our axes, spades, and hoes are steadily driving out the English arti- • cles in all the new settlements of the world. Our sewing-machines 

fairly monopolize the business of the civiliz d globe, while our agriculturlll implements have maintained their superiority wherever they 

have been introduced. CIIIT-L 

The recent international exhibition in Chili has opened an entirely new field for these products, of which advantage is being taken by our enterprisin~ citizens just as the Committee on Appropriations is 

preparing to aoolish a consulate and to consolidate the mission to 

that country, to which we sell 2,730,617 of our products and from 

which we take only 666,560, with that of Peru, t.o which we sell 

2,518,404 and from which we purchase only 1,256,286. The men of 

business of this country will greatly prefer that the committee should 

rather direct its attention to the opening of new markets than to the clo~ing of old ones which have been secured by so many years of wise ann patient effort. 

I might pursue this subject at greater length, but content myself 

with reciting three instances of the mistakes 'Of this bill, due of course to w~nt of sufficient time to investigai.e the subject with that care whi('.h it deserves. • CHINESE CONSULATES. 

The first consulates abolished are Chin-Kiang, Ningpo, and Swatow, in China. Let it be remembered that China is a most important 

market for our manufactures, in which we have the very best reasons to expect a lar<Tel and immediate increase of business, especially 

after the cost of roiling American printed cotton goods is reduced by 

the enlargement of the free list in the proposed tariff bill. 

I have no means of knowing the reasons which moved the comdrittee to recommend the ab.olition of these consulates, but I suspect that 

they examined the re!rister of the State Department and, finding the 

fees received at Chin-:Kiang are reported at $371.84, at Ningpo $57 4.84, 

and at Swatow $316.84, concluded that these consulates were dear investments at 3,GOO per annum, and therefore concluded to dispense 

with them. Of course they did not know that by this act they were also practically dispensing with the main interior trade which we do 

with China. These consulates, and especially Chin-Kiang, which is on the Yang-tse-Kiang, a river with more miles of navigation than the 

Mississippi and Missouri Rivers combined, are placed at the points 

where the "transit-pass system" of Chinese trade has been fixed by 

the Chinese government. All foreign goods are here transferred to 

and from the boats and steamers which navigate the river or coast 

along the shores, and no goods can be so transferred without the cer- tificate of a forei~ consul resident at .these points of transfer. Of course the committee did not know that this trade is mainly in the 

hands of American citizens, that the steamers which trade on the 

river are American steamers, owned and navigated by American citizens, who, if these consulates are abolished, must either abandon the 

business or their nationality. Of course they did not know thM Great 

Britain, hungering for this trade, mainta.ins at Ningpo a coOBulateat 

the cost of £1,000 a year, at Kiu-Kiang at the cost of £825, at NewChwang at the cost of £975, and at Swatow at the cost of £900. Shall 

it be surrendered to them f HAYTI. 

Again, we have now a mini ter at Hayti, who is also consul-general 

and resident at Port au Prince, the principal port of that country. 

The bill abolishes the legation and with it the consul-general. But we have also in the same country an unimportant consulate at Cape Haytien at a salary of $1,000ayear, which is all that the bu iness of the place . will warrant. The committee, doubtless feeling that a country with 

which we have a commerce amounting in 1874 to $5, 35,038, of which 

$4,265,6 6 consisted of exports from us to it, and only 1,"569,352 con- sisted of imports from it to us, have reported in favor of doubling the 

salary of the coOBul at Cape Haytien, where there is little or no business, and have left us without a commercial representative at Port au Prince, where the main business is done. Of com'Se they will be glad 

to correct this error. THE BLACK SEA. 

Again, we have but one consulate on the Black Sea1 at Odessa. Our 

trade with the Black Sea amounts to $1,338,030, and 1s one of the few 

regions to which we sell more than we buy, our exports being $792,942 

against imports to the value of $545,088. No doubt the committee, in 

ignorance of the value and importance of this trade to the country, 

especially in view of our critical financial condition, were misled by 

finding that the fees collected at Odessa amounted to only $189J?5. 

CONSULAR FEES NO GUIDE. 

They do not appear to have known that the fees received are no proper criterion of the volume of business and that a cargo of 1,000,000 

may be cleared by a consular certificate costing $2.50. On the question of establishing or of abolishing a consulate the amount of fees re- ceived is a minor consideration, as the trade may be of such a nature 

that a very large volume of business may yield very few fees, or a very small volume of business, but made up of numerous petty invoices, may yield a large amount of fees. The true governing principles are, fiTst, whether the existing business is considerable and, 

second, what capacities for the development of future business the 

region may posses . To these considerations the committee do not 

appear to have given sufficient attention. I forbear, however, to adduce further instances of the neglect of these sound rules of legislation on the consular system, but will, when I move the amendments 

restoring most of the consulates proposed to be abolished, endeavor 

to present good rea-sons for their retention. 

CONSULAR AGENCIES. 

It has already been intimated by the chairman of the committee that 

the evils which I" predict will not occur, because the State Department 

may, under the existing statutes, appoint consu1ar agents at these 

abolished consulates who will attend to the business for the fees. 

There can be no doubt that the evil may be mitigated in this way, but 

it will not be cured by the return to an old and vicious system from 

which we have been for many years trying to extricate ourselves, as manifestly not conducive to the best interests of the country in its trade 

and foreign commerce. In the first place it is not alway po ible in 

these remote and seml.:civilized regions, just openin~ their ports· to our trade, to secure the services of American citizens, an<! it has been found 

that to place our interests in the bands of foreigners is practically to 

subordinate them to other and more controlling considerations of na- tionality. In the next place no commercial house, whether American or foreign, will take an unproductive consular agency except for the · collateral advantages of business which it may thus be able to secure. Public interests are thus subordlnatea to private profit, and that com- petition which is the life of trade is thus made difficult if not impossible. It is plain, therefore, from pa-st experience a.s well as from the 

slightest reflection, that unpaid consular agencies should not be resorted to except in the last emergency. 

CONDITION OF THE TREASURY. 

But you have been told by the honorable gentleman from 1\fississippi who has charge of this bill, and doubtless it will be repeated, 

that the condition of the Treasury and the sufferings of &n over-: taxed people imperatively demand this retrenchment. 

THE CO · sULA.It SYSTEM SELF-SUPPORTING. 

I presume that it is not generally known to the · members of this 

Hou e, although I am bound to believe that the members of the com-
_._ .. . .. 

1876. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD . . 951 

mittee were not ignorant of the fact, that the fees receivecl from our consular system are sufficient to defray its entire expense, including salaries~ exchange, and all incidental expenses, and to pay over a con- siderable balance to the Treasury. The people of this country are ther~fore not taxed one dollar for its direct support; so that instead 

of cutting off consulates we can and should actually create new ones without burdening the Treasury with a single additional dollar of 

expense. Prior to 1861, when the consular system was reconstructed, 

this was not the case. Some consulates. were enormously paid by fees, 

while others received only a scanty pittance, which manifested itself. in a languishing trade. By the new and well-considered legislation 

which required all fees to be paid into the Treasury and moderate 

salaries paid to the consuls the consular system became self-supporting, and thus gavf' life to the Rmaller consulates in remote regions 

where business was just beginning to spring into existence. The 

system was never designed to pay a profit into the Treasury, and the 

people do not desiJ:e and will not sustain such a policy. 

TltUST FU~. 

They expect and prefer that the profit-s of the system shall be re- garded as a trust fund, to be expended in extending the area. of trade 

and in opening new ports to our ships and our merchants. 

REDUCTION OF SALARIES. 

There is, therefore, no good reason for reducing the compensation 

of the consuls, unless they are overpaid. But I venture to assert that 

this is not the case. If they are men :fit for their places-and as a rule 

they are men of large experience, whom a{lverse circumstances have 

forced to a-ccept these positions-then the compensation provided by 

the existing law is as low as they deserve or can afford to take. They are not as a rule so well paid as men of capacity filling positions of 

equal responsibility in private corporations and in mercantile houses 

in this country. DEMAND OF NEW YORK. 

The alaries are not so large as I pay to men of equal capacity in 

my own business, and therefore I deem the reduction as uncalled for 

by any considerations of expediency or of justice, and I shall vote 

against it. What my constituents desire is, not that other men shall 

be deprived of a "fair day's wages for a fair day's work," but that ail 

the avenues of business shall be kept open; that new avenues shall 

be provided as fast as possible, and, above all, that no blow shall be 

struck at the commerce of the port of New York, where the suffering 

is already too hard to be borne with patience, if any movement is 

made here or elsewhere to obstruct the channels of business. 

COMPARISON OF COST OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN CONSULAR SYSTEMS. 

Finally, Mr. Chairman, the House should know that we are the. only 

nation whose consular system is thus self-supporting. The amount 

of fee collected by our consuls in 1874 was $715,202.94. The amount 

collected by Great Britain in 1872-'73 was £30,282, or auout one-fifth 

of our collections. On the other hand, the salaries paid by.the United 

States in 1874 were $409,000, while the salaries paid by Great Britain were £187,205, or about two and a half times greater than we pay. The inciilental expenses for office rent are about in the same propo1:-

tion, making their loss oil the consular business at least $1,000,000 per 

annum, the uonus which they offer to British merchants to compete 

with us in the markets of the·world. Our merchants ask no such 

extraneous aid, but they may well demand, and in their name I make 

the demand, that the money actually collected from them, reducing 

the profits of their business by just so much, shall be to the last dollar expended in extending and protecting their business. To make 

any other application of it is not only unjust but unwise. If there be a surplus which cannot be thus expended to advantage the ouly proper course is to reduce the consular fees, and thus bring nearer to an equality the conditions of the competition with our great commercial 

rival. NECESSITY OF ENLARGED FOREIGN li1ARKETS. 

Does the honorable member from Mississippi suppose that the res- toration of the Mississippi levees, the throwing out of the jetties at 

the mouth of the river, and the. construction of the Southern Pacific 

Railroad will provide him with a market for the ten mi.llion bales of 

cotton which he promises as the annual result f Unless the foreign avenues of consumption are enlarged by every possible effort the only 

effect of his great crop will be to destroy its value and reduce his 

people to starvation, for be knows very well by bitter experience that 

they cannot eat their cotton. Does be not know that the capacity for 

the production of raw material and almost every form of useful manu- factured product bas reached such proportions in this country that 

the profits of business have disappeared, and that unless we can get 

foreign markets_for our products we are likely to perish in the midst 

of our abundance, our very wealth being the cause of our ruin ' One 

of the most intelligent of the workingmen of thi:s country, who has 

had very extensive opportunities from personal olJ ervation of forming a correct judgment, has lately asserted that one-third of the 

laboring-men of this country are practically in a state of enforced 

idleness. Does the gentleman from Mississippi expect to set them at 

work by closing up a portion of the avenues for the distrjbution of 

the surplus products of the country in order that be may save the sum of $93,000 in salaries out of a fund expressly raised to keep these avenues open? 

The time selected for this innovation is singularly infelicitious. We are just enter~g on the second centm·y of our existence. After a 

hundred years devoted to the development of our resources and the 

opening of our channels of communication-a century in fact of 

preparation for the supply of the world with the cheap and abundant 

fruits of our industry- we have succeeded in proving our ability to 

maintain a position in competition with that great power which has 

absorbed so much of the commerce and the capital of the world; we have arri_ved at that point of development in the great staples 

of industry that we can safely begin to strike away the barriers with 

which they have been protected~ We wisely propose to enlarge the 

free list of articles essential for the production of the commodities 

required by our Oriental and South American customers; when, by a proposition which can only be excused on the plea of haste and 

atoned for by the voluntary amendment of the bill, a deadly blow is 

aimed at our expanding commerce, at our gi'Owing industry, at our commercial ports, and at the welfare of the whole country, against w bich as a democrat anxious for the reputation and success of the 

party, as a representative of a commercial constituency whose int.erests are imperiled, as a patriot proud of the past achievements of my 

country ancl confident that the second century of its exist.ence will, 

unless retarded by unwise legislation surely place it first among the 

nations in political and commercial importance, I enter an emphatic 

protest; and especially upon the_ ground that the fund proposed to 

be economized is in the nature of a trust fund, raised not by taxes on the people, but iJnposed upon commerce for the express purpose 

of its protection and expansion, and therefore in equity applicable 

only to the objects so essential to the prosperity of the whole people. 

Mr. WQOD, of New York. Mr. Chairman, I propose to detain tho 

committ.ee but a very few ininutes. I had not auticipated addressing 

the committee in any general remarks upon this bill, though I had ex- pected to say something upon the particular items as they may come up for discussion. I am only induced to speak briefly at this time by the 

reminder of my colleague [Mr. HEWITT] in his reference to the con- duct of our foreign afi'airs in relation to the continuance of our foreign commerce. In my opinion, Mr. Chairman, in the consideration of a bill of this 

character there are but very few propositions to be determined by 

the House. First, is this a mea-sure looking to the proper, economical 

administration of the conduct of our foreiO'n affairs Y Secondly, in 

view of our diplomatic and commercial re~ations with the governments of Europe and elsewhere and in the official representation of our country there, will the measure impair to the least extent eHher our political or commercial interests Y Thirdly, in view of our past 

and our prospective history, is it wise and politic to make a departure 

from the well-established and regular order of things Y Of course in 

the few minutes allotted to me I cannot attempt to do more than siJnply state these propositions, leaving to the intelligence of members 

of this House the deductions and conclusions to be drawn from them. 

I commence at the lower order of our official representation, the 

consular system of this country. Have gentlemen studied it Y Havo 

they looked into its historyf Have they searched the records and 

examined the archives of the Government, so as to know that the con- sular system of the United States bas been brought into existence by 

the ablest statesman of this countryf Of our various Secretaries of 

State, from the administration of Washington down to that of Lincoln, it may be said, I believe, that they were without exception gentlemen of the highest order of statesmanship- comprehending Thomas 

Jefferson, John Adams, Daniel Webster- pure-minded men, above the 

low influences of patronage distributed to oblige parti an followers. 

They were men who, from a broad, comprehensive, elevated view of 

the interests of our country, gave to the representation of our Government abroad not only a respectable status, but one looking to the 

development of our commerce and the protection of our diplomatic 

and commercial interests. 

Our consular system has grown up, not by the enactment of anv law of Congress. to meet an emergency in advance of a presidential 

election. No modification of any of the different col}sular systems 

that have existed within my day, covering a third of a century, has 

been ma-de except upon the recommendation of the State Department-a recommendation founded in every instance upon the com- mercial necessities at the particular time at which it was adopted. As our commerce expanded, as our interests were more and more extended in competition with other nations, especially with England, 

which always rivaled us in the trade with other people , under the advice of our State Department we extended our consular agencies. 

Thus consulships were established and have beon maintained. Congress of course fixed by law the compensation of the various consuls; 

but the representation of our Government abroad was regulated by a broad view of what was desirable for the welfare and interest of our own people. . Therefore, sir, in dealing with the question of consulships, established not for the purpose of diplomacy or tho determination of international questions, but looh"ing especially or exclu ively after the 

interests of American commerce, instructing our Government as to the 

necessities of that commerce and protecting it from foreign encroachment or aggression, I ubmit 'vith great deference to the able patriotic gentlemen who constitute the Committee on Appropriations that 

to touch an institution of this character should uo a. work of great 

care, of careful examination and thorough deliberation, looking not 

only to the question of dollars and cents involved in the stipend to 

be awarded to any particular official, but having regard to th"' con-
.. 

952 .CONGRESSIONAL nECORD. FEBRUARY 8, . 

sequences to follow the withdrawal of the officer from any special 

post. . Sir, this is a commercial country. The gren,tness and power of this 

uation have grown up 38 the result of our foreign commerce. Until 

withiu the last few years the whole expenditures of this Government 

have been maintained exclusiv..ely by duties deriv~cl from foreign imports; and those imports have come to us by means of our foreign commerce a,nd our foreign commerc~ alone. From the days of the 

Continental Congress, down almost to the present moment, direct taxation ha been unknown in this country; the entire support of our Government has been derived from foreign commerce. If this has been 

true in the past, if the commercia,} n.d v:tncement of the country has 

been so essentin,l an element of its prosperity when our grea,t ag-ricultural and mineral resources were as it were undeveloped, and mdeed 

not begun to be developed, bow much more is the n.dvancement of our commerce a que tion .of import:1Dce·with reference to the great 

future which shall open to us when our vast plains hall be cultivated, when our products shall be a hundred-fold in excess of our power of consumption, when we must find foreign markets for tl·em, 

when we must reve1·se th pre ent order of things and bring all Europ and Asia to our feet as debtors tons. Then will our foreign com- merce be recoguizeu a.nd appreciated more than I fear it is now by our friends far removed from the seaboard. We cannot dispense with the carrying trade of this nation. No 

people ca.n dispense with the mea,ns of t>rausit by which they shall 

be able to dispose of the excess of their own production. This is to 

be the source of our wealth and power and greatness when in the 

future, in tead of a popnlation of 40,000,000, we sha.U ba.ve two, 

three, or four hundred million people upon the continent of America. 

Shall we not want foreign commerce then Y 

Shall we not want foreign marlrnts then, shall we not want toestablish friendly relations with all the people of the world then, when our vast Pacific po es ions shall open up to us a trade and commerce twenty times greater than thn.t now enjoyed by us with Europe across the Atlantic Y 

Sir, let us do nothing to impair, let us do nothing to retard, let us do nothing to injure in any way whatever, the foreign commerce of 

this country. If this bill saved $20,000,000 to the Treasury; instead 

of only $400,000, I wonld not vote for it if by so doing I diu anything 

to lessen the efficiency, derogate from the integrity, or embn,rrass the 

progress of our commercial intercourse with nations abroad. 

As to our diplomatic I look upon that as secondary to the consular 

sy tern. You know, sir, in your day and mine the regnlation of our foreign affairs ha-s been conducted by our Government at Washington, 

and not by our diplomatic agents abroad. William L. Marcy, a Secretary of State, was the first to initiate and maintain that all our diplomatic negotiations with foreign power should be conducted 

originally from this capital, and not by our ambassadors and representatives at foreign courts. Therefore, so far as the repre entation of our country abroad is concerned, as embodied in our embaasadors and ministers-resident, I am not one of those who attach very 

much importance to the necessity on the part of this Government of 

their making any great display. 

We are told, Mr. Chairman, Americans u,re traveling constantly, 

and that it is nece sary we should be represented abroad by some competent person who can properly entertain them, but in my opinion this is no important duty, requiring the appropriation of the public money. 

I remember, as does my distinguished friend, General BANKS, once chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, that we have listened 

frequently upon this :floor to the crit1cisms of the pre ent American 

minister at Paris in denouncing as usoless and extravagant many of 

the expenditures for foreign intercourse. That gentleman is now our minister to France, and bas been for many years in the enjoyment of 

the alary. I think I am able to say, without violating any personal 

confidence, for. Mr. Washburne told me, that his salary of $13,!)()0 a year was not more than enough, n,nd that at the end of: the- year be 

ha,d nothing out of it to pare. Yet that gentleman while a Representative upon thisfloorwas amostrigid economist. Hewa.sthefriend 

of the honorable gentleman from Indiana [Mr. HoLMAN] and a disciple of the s:tme school of economy. . But let that pass. In my judgment, we should allow our ministers a broad enough for them to be respectable-re pee table in the European 

acceptation of the term, respectable by their exterior presentation at 

court, .respectable by their ability to appear on all public occasions in · a proper way. I do not think it is incumbent upon them, in the maintenance of their national and personal character, that they should 

give large and splendid entertainments. Our Government is not of 

that sort. Benjamin Franklin, one of our :first embassadors, insisted 

upon presenting himself at court in his Quaker gn,rb, in that plain :tnd 

simple apparel which he wore upon all occ:tSions. But let us make 

them respectable. By all means, I wish to impres upon both sides 

of this House, upon my democratic friends, upon the rigid economists, 

upon those who wish to curtail expenses-with whom, indeed, I lntend to vote for every possible reduction of the pro:fligate expenditures 

which I think have recently crept into the public service-! wish 

especially to impress upon the members of this Hon e, on bot-h sides, 

the necessity for our beiug exceedingly careful how we do anything 

to impair the efficiency aml integrity of the commerce of this country, .as represented by our consular system. 

:Mr. SPRINGER obtained the floor. 

Mr. RANDALL. I move that the committee rise. 

The motion was agreed to. 

The committee accordingly ro e; and the Speaker having resumed 

the chair, Mr. HOSKINS reported that the Committee of the Who~e on the state of the Union had, according to order, boo under consideration the bill (H. R. No. 1594) making appropriations for the consular 

and diplomatic service of the Government for the year ending June 

30, 1877, and for ~ther purposes, and had come to no resolution thereon. 

1\IESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. 

A message was received from the Senate, by .Mr. SYMPSON, one of 

its clerks, announcing the proceedings of that body on the death of 

ORRIS S. FERRY, late a Senator from Connecticut. 

DEATH OF THE LATE ORRIS S. FERRY. 

The SPEAKER. The Clerk will read the message just received 

from the Senate. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

lN SENAT.F: OF THE U ITED STATES, FebrUO.T'IJ &, 1876. 

&solved, That, _as a mark of :espeot to ~he memory of ORRIS S. FERRY, late a Sena- tor from Gonneotiout, the buSIDess of this body be now suspended, that his form r as ooiatea ma.y pay proper tribute to his publio and private virtues. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communioa.te this resolution to the House of Rep- resent:ltivea. • 

Mr. PHELPS. 1\Ir." Speaker, the sudden decease of my colleaO'ue 

[Mr. Stark~!e~ther,] who had the matter in chn.rge, and the req~est of my remamrng·collea.gues have unexpectedly devolved upon me the 

duty of moving the adoption of the resolutions which have just been 

transmitted from the Senate and of supporting them by such remarks 

appropriate to the <?cca ion as. I may be able to. make; and I regret 

that I have bad nmther the tune nor opportumty to make a fittinO' . preparation for the discharge of such a delicate and important dutY. 

Sena.tor FERRY was born at Bethel, in the State of Connecticut on the 1-5th day of August, 1823. A portion of his early years was sp' nt 

in manual labor in the manufactory of his father, but.he soon developed such a desire for knowledge and such uncommon indications of 

int.ellectual superiority that helaid aside the implements of a trade 

he was ra.pidly acquirin~ and, at the age of fourteen years enter d 

upon th~ necessary studies preparatory to admission""in Yale' College, 

from whwh he was gradnated at the age of twenty-one. His collegiate career was brilliant, and the hi~h distinction which he afterward at- t~ined was clearly foreshadoweCI. at his graduation. & had a. peonbar fondness as well as a special aptne s for forensic effort which 

naturally led him to adopt the profession of the law, and, as a ~tudent in the offices and under the per onal instruction of two of the mot 

eminent jurists of his native State, he mastered with great facility the 

intricn.te science of jurisprudenc . He waa admitted to the bar in 

1846, an~l immed!ately commenced a succe sful practice at Norwalk, c.onue~tiCut, ~~ch ~e ~few years later .a~owed to be interrupted by 

his active participatiOn m the earnest political contest which was then 

going on. He was at that time an ardent partisan, and was elected 

to the State senate ~ 1855 an~ again in 185.6 as a member of the party 

then known as Amm·ICan. His party waa m the ascendancy and his t~l~mts gave him a <:onspicuous position among its len.ders. As a tactwia:n be was sagacwus, and as a debn:ter had all the weapons of logic 

at his command and wielded them with surprising power. Re was inde.Pendent in thought and po itive in action. He shun.n l all artifice and indirection and fearlessly advocated what he believed to be 

right, and wlth equal boldness opposed and unsparingly denounced 

what he thought to be wrong. It would have violated hls nature to 

have been tmtrue to his hone t convictions, and he was the1·efore utterly uncompromising between right and wrong. 

llis fame as a local legislator gave him such prominence that he 

became a. candiclate of the republican party for Congres in 1857, but was then unsuccessful. He was again placed in nomination in 185!> 

:1nd elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress, and in this intellectuai arena of the nation, which was at that time throbbing with excitement and numbered among its prominent actors many of the most 

distinguished minds of the country, he acquitted himseli with marked 

distinction. Among the important positions assigned him in that 

Co:J?gress wa..~ a J?lace on the_ celebmted c<.n~mittee of thirty-three, 

which was orgaruzed to. cons1de the conditiOn and relatio:Qs of the 

seceded States. 

Upon the breaking out of tho late civil war, all the enthusiasm of 

his nature was aroused for the pre ervation of the Union, and he 

entered the army as colonel of the Fifth Regiment of Connecticut 

Volunteers. On th~ 17th of 1\Iarch, 18G2, he was commissioned a brigadier-general by President Lincoln, and served in that capacity 

in different divisions of the Army until near the clor:;e of the war. 

In 1866 he was elected by the Legislature of Connecticut to the 

Senate of the United States, and was re-elected in 1872. His last public effort there was t-o pronounce an elegant tribute of respect and affection to the memory of his decea.s d colleu.gue, Senator Buckingham. With what commanding ability he discharged his duty in that body 

I need not repeat. It is sufficient to say that by his emin nt service 

he acquired a national reputation as a.n able, faithful, anu conserva- tive Senator, who loved his country more than he loved his party, 

and in his election honored his State more than it honored him. 

As a lawyer he possessed a remarkably clear, discriminating legal 

mind, which thoroughly understood aml intelligently digested th<' 
1876. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 953 

principles of the common law. He was a conscientious a-dviser, ln.-

uorious and careful in the preparation of his causes, and skillful in their 

management, and before either court or jury had not many competitors 

who could meet him on more than equal terms. In his deportment 

ho mn,intained the dignity of his profession and cherished its honor 

with true devotion. 

In the later years of his.life he was the subject of strong religious 

convictions, and publicly and with his whole heart professed a belief 

in the fundamental doc~ines of the Christian religion, ancl made 

their prn.ctice a sincere ancl constant part of his daily life. 

Ho was a man of unbending integrity and deeply imbued with the 

true spirit of manhood. He scorned everything that was base and 

despised everything that was mean. Corruption never tarnished his 

bonor. He h ad no it.ching jjtlm for dishonestly-O'otten gold, and was at all tintes above all suspicion of complicity in 1egislative jobs and 

sul> idies. He received no compensation or emolument except what 

he was by law clearly entitled to take, and it is the noblest tribute 

that can be offered to his memory to say that he entered the public 

service poor and continued many years in the civil and military departments of the Government, and, without extravagance ip living, 

died in his senatorial robes as poor as he entered tha.t service. 

He expired at his home on Sunday, the 21st day of November last, 

after a long and suffering illness. The bestmedicalskill was unavailing to heal his malady and restore his health. The highest type of 

womanly excellence and devotion existed in hi& household, and their 

blessed ministrat.ions, often more potent than the physician's reme- dies, were, by those every way wortby his companionship, const.antly 

and with cheerful fidelity exerted to the last. 

In his death the country has lost one of its purest .and ablest states- men ; the Commonwealth of Connecticut, which proudly reckons many 

distinguished sons among her jewels, the peer of the most gifted of 

them; the legal profession one of its soundest counselors and most 

eloquent advocates; the community iri which he lived, an accom- plished Christian gentleman; and his family such a husband and 

father as only such a husband could be to a loved and loving wife 

and such a father to an affectionat.e and devoted daughter. 

It is said, sir, that death loves a shining mark. This cannot well 

be more strikingly exemplified tha.n in the fa.ct that since the adjournment of the last Congre s we have lost an Ex-President, a Vice-President, and a Senator of the United Stn,tes and six members electe<l to 

this House. The State which I hn,ve the honor in part to represent 

has been especially bereaved. Within the short space of less than one year she has been deprived of two Senators: Buckingham, who had 

rendered most distinguished service and been loved and honored as a State rarely loves and honors a son however eminent, whose decease ~ave expression to some of the most touching eulogies ever delivered rn this Capitol; and FERRY, no less worthy and distinguished, whose 

privatl8 virtues and public services we n,re now endeavoring to com- memorate. Their fame belongs not alone to Connecticut, but to the 

country; but we cherish with a just St:1te pride the fn,ct that they were 1Jorn and lived and n,re buried on our own soil. Their good names are indelibly engraved on the hen,rt of the people of the State 

and their graves are shrines which virtue and patriotism n,ndreligion 

will forever venerate. She has also been deprived of a distinguished 

Representative who has just been borne to his last resting-place in 

the bosom of her soil and in the presence of his mourning constituency. 

The event we are considering is 1Jut the reiteratjon of the solemn 

and oft-repeated lesson of mortality-another impressive r~minder 

that" man walketh in a vn,in shadow." Public honors and high position 

furnish no exemption. The all-wise and almighty Power· who decrees 

the mandate, and the messenger who executes it, respect no distinctions 

of rank or condition. The mocker at human prido follow-s man into 

the high places of the ln,nd, and there, as well as in the lowliest, repeats 

to him the startling messn,ge, n,ud the sadness with which its utter- ance SOII!-etimes falls upon our ears cannot be more forcihly illustrated 

than by ::j,·recurrence to the f..'tct thn,t I am now addressing the House 

in the place of a lamented colleague who but a few days since was in 

the enjoyment of his accustomed health and had prepa.red himself 

for n,nd expected tQ perform the duty, but has himself been cn,lle<l to 

his final rest. At the proper time in the course of these proceedings . thn,t voice from the dead, speaking in language much more beautiful 

and eloquent than any I can express, will be read as one of the addresses on this occa-sion. It will help to remind us that we are con- stantly living in the shadow of the grave, and, abs l too often allow 

ambition &nd covetousness n,nd pride to conceal the sba.dow or drive 

it from our thoughts; and to teach us that it will be true wis<lom to 

pane in our career of worldliness and remember there i::; something 

within our reach higher than earth's highest honors, which, if attained, will take away the sting of ·death and crown us with immortal 

life. In his last yea·rs Sena,tor FERRY, trusting in the divine promise, 

earnestly and humbly sought that hn,ppy and exalte<l end. I offer the following resolutions: 

Resolved, That the House has received with profound sorrow the announcement of the death of ORRIS S. FERRY, late 11o Senator from the State of Connecticut. . Resolved, That as a m::u-k of respect to the memory of Mr. FERRY the business of 

the House be now suspended, that proper tributes may be paid to his public ancl 

private virtues. 

Mr. SEELYE. Mr. Spen,ker, I am quite certain that the relations 

of no other one here with Senator FF.RRY were the same as my own. 

The gentleman who has preceded me, and those who are to follow, as also those who listen, knew him only in the varied relations, public 

and social, of mature life, but he and I were boys t.ogether, sharing 

with one another the gladness of childhood and the a pirations ::m<l 

purposes and hopes of youth. From the little village where his father 

and mine were near neighbors· ancl friends, and where he and I were playmates and schoolmates, there is no other Representative now here, 

and it is upon this a-ccount that I have been requested to say a few 

words respecting his early life. It was spent in Bethel, Connecticut, 

where he wa-s born August 15, 1823. He was a restless, eager, daring 

boy, not fonder of work than boys usually are, but a leader in all 

boyish sports, from which no one of his companions was wont to go 

home with a dirtier face or with hair more tan~led and clothes more torn tha.n he. But exubern,nt as ho was of life and vigor, he was neither rough nor rude nor coarse even as a boy. I never knew him, as he grew ln,rger, to tyrannize over smaller boys, though I have often seen him show a sort of chivalric adherence t'O the weaker side. 

Generous, high-minded, and a universal favorite, the boy wa-s father 

of the man. In school he always had his lessons, though no one ever knew when or where or how he got them; he was not early fond of study, but, if 

he ever worried his teachers by his restless inattention, he never wea- ried them by obliging them to repeat their instructions. · If, however, not an early student, he wn,s as a boy a great reader 

of books, especially in the line of poetry and history and romance, of 

which his father's library furnished the largest collection then in the 

village, and from whose stores he was as fond of bringing feasts for 

the fancy of his boyish friends as they were of feeding upon them. 

His earliest a pirations were for a literary life; a.nd I doubt if he ever dreamed of his later achievement in the Senate and the administra- tion of public affairs. With unwonte<l freedom, even for a boy, he 

told his day-dreams, and the boys who heard them, and over whom 

his words could throw a spell like that felt by all who listened to him 

in his riper years, never doubted that they would all come true. 

But his lot was cast where other occupations than play or reveling in romances or building castles in tho air were soon pres eel upon 

him. In that little village there was no dolce f<w nie.nte view of life. 

Everybody had something to do and was expected to do it. HarcUy 

any vice seemed more repugnant to the busy workers there· than idleness, n,nd a.bout the most condemning epithet among them which 

could be applied to man or woman was lazines or shiftlessne . There were no rich people ; and hn,d there been, I hardly seo how they could 

have lived a life of leisure wi~hout being stung like drones by the 

busy bees around them. A child's world of fancy there soon found 

itself intersected by the hard world of bet, and ORRIS FERRY soon learned that the actual present had a work for him no less than the 

far-off future. While in the dreamy fancies of his childhood there 

might have been prefigured, had there only been. the eye to see the 

picture, that far-reaching meditativeness iri which "the heaven 

which lay about his inbncy" still stretcheil before the vision of his 

later years, I think he owed also whatever persistence of purpose and 

energy .of work he afterward revealed as much to the e early conditions which surrounded him as to his original endowment. But the 

fearlessness with which he exercised hjs purpose, the courage of his 

convictions, the bravery with which he could throw n,side all arbitra.ry domination and be a freeman n,nd a hero,. this was not dependent upon any circumstances of his early life; this was his original 

possession, as conspicuously his in the earliest revealings of him elf aH 

in the latest, and would have been revealed a his wherever he had 

been born or however bred. 

But there were other traits prominent in his later life which were, 

doubtless, partly due to his early surroundings. The relibrious faith, 

which was the ever-brightening crown of his matm·est ye:J.rs, was, I 

cannot but think, greatly aided by the associations of his childhood. 

In the center of the village where was his childhood's home-central alike in location and in the power it represented-wa-s the Congregn,tional meeting-house, where the only chmch then in the place 

gathered with its congregation for public worship, and to which were drawn and from which di.spersed the currents by which-as 

originally was the case in almost every New England town and village-the life of that community was directed and sustained. · Hard 

workers as were the men and women there, sharp, too at a bargain as they were, and eager to get gain, no one with much howleuge of 

them but would soon discover that in their thoughts and questionings the next world bad no less prominence than this. The warmest 

discussions ever held among them were on the highest themes of 

theology, discu sions which, however wide their range, were always 

brought for ettlement, in the last n,ppeaJ, to Scripture and to common sense. It was quite natural that the children breathing such an air 

should early learn to talk about these things, and to think about them, 

also, for themselves, and quite to 1Je expected, also, that one like ORRIS 

FERRY, always unwilling to havd his thoughts constrained, and always 

unable to have them concealed, should in his freedom of inquiry find 

things where common sense and ScriptuTe seemed to clash, and in his 

fearlessness o.f expression should declare this seeming contrailiction 

without proviso. He en,rly avowed his skepticism respecting all re- ligious things, though he always bad a certain seriou ncs of soul 

which never suffered him to be a. scoffer. In later years, wheu by a further and profounder exercise of this same freedom of inquiry, he 

became a. sincere believer-showing n,gain that it is only the shallow 
954 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. FEBRUARY 8, 

draught at the fountain of free thou~bt which intoxicates and tbe 

deep draught which sobers one agarn-it was not strang~ tha.t the 

living faith with which his soul was penetrated should find its fitting 

expression and liveliest exercise in that form of doctrine and mode of 

conduct which, though for years repugnant to his convictions and his 

habits, were yet the earliest, as they were the latest and most intimate, associations of his life. 

I do not speak of him as a man, so :tffectionate, so trnthful, so farsighted, so courageous, with his commanding presence and controlling 

speech; for as such be baa already been and is to be aptly portrayed 

by those who knew him only aa a man. And I trust I shall be pardoned for dwelling at such length npon these thoughts of his boyhood, 

which make his memory very tender tom~ and which awaken a sense of persona.lloss beyond my power to express, as I think of the hopes we both had cherished of reviving here the intimacy of our boyhood 

and of the expectation which had been to me very bright and dear, 

that I m_i$ht find from his superior wisdom and wider knowledge of 

public anairs a much-needed aid. · 

Mr. GARFIELD. I have never in this House performed a duty 'so sad and so sacred as that which is devolvedupon me to-day. Two 

weeks ago last Friday our late beloved friend and associate, Hon. H. H . STARKWEATIIER, of Conn·ecticut, came to my seat and urgently re- quested t.hat I should address the Honse on the resolutions in refer- ence to the de::tth of Senator FERRY. After speaking with me for a. fow moments, he was called to the chair to preside and remained 

there perhaps half an hour; but, not feeling well, he soon passedout, and never entered the Hall again. The very evening when he was stricken with his mortd disease he 

had completed or very nearly completed the remarks which he pro- posed to offer to the Honse on this occa~ion. I have not had the heart even to keep my promise to him. I could not think of this subject 

without being overwhelmed with the sense of the double loss; but I am sure the Honse will permit me, in place of any remarks of my 

own, to do what our departed friend can no longer do for himself, to 

read the speech as he left it. I have :filled a few blanks and added 

here and there a word to supply the final revision which his own hand would have made; and thus the dead speaks for the dead friend 

whom he soon followed. I read, and ask that it may go into t he REcoRD as his speech, the following 

REMARKS PREPARED BY THE LATE HON. H. H . STARKWEATHER. 

Mr. Speaker, since the adjournment of the last Congress, God in 

His sovereign wisdom has removed from the service of the nation 

Senator ORRIS S. FERRY, one of its distinguished and trusted coun- cilors. At any time the death of a Senator in the midst of his labors, so conspicuous for a"Qility, for patriotism, and for a conscientious devotion to duty as was Mi. FERRY, is a great national loss. His depar- ture from us, preceding but a few hours t hat of Vice-President Wil- son, and following so closely that of Sumner and Ex-Senator Buckingham, and others illustrious in the national councils, heightens and 

emphasizes the bereavement. The death of Mr. FERRY is a peculiar. loss to the State that he served and honored, and whose- memory she 

cherishes with an affectiona.te admiration. Throughout the Common- wealth, among the l~arned, the founders of our academies, universi- ties, in our common schools, among the ministers of religion, and the 

humble worshipers of God- along all its hills, in the Sunday-schools 

that he loved, amoJlg learned j udges and eminent counselors, among 

the sons of toil for whom he spoK:e, among the good and the-great, 

and in every cottage of the poor- there is great sadness. 

Twice within a few months death ha~ invaded the sanctuary of our hearts, and taken from n.s our trusted public servants and most hon- ored citizens. No two men of this generation, among all the honored names of our Commonwealth, could touch so many homes with a sense of personal loss. While their work here is finished, there is left to ns the reflection that for this life our plea~ant relations are severed for- ever. Around us each dissevered chain 

In sparkling ruin lies, 

And earthly bauds can ne'er again 

Unite the broken ties. 

Mr. FERRY was born in the town of Bethel, in Fairfield County, on the 15th of August, 1823. His father, Starr Ferry, waa an enterprising business man of that town- a citizen known for his good sense, 

integrity, and social position in a community remarkable for its intelligence· and culture. . He was early apprenticed to his father's trade, and in after-life he 

had a just pride of his proficiency in his calling. An incident occurred 

at the last session of Congress that illustrates his character. As an advocate was explaining before the Committee on Patents the mys- teries of a certain invention, he was surprised to learn t hat the chair- man of the committee had learned the art when a boy and was still 

in advance of the advocates and experts in the thoron<Yhness of his 

knowledge of the subject. Early, however, the love olbooks and of 

study took possession of him and he left his trade to enter on a course of preparation for colle~e. But of this the learned and distinguished 

gentleman from Massacnnsetts, [Mr. SEELYE,] the companion of his 

boyhood, can more appropriately speak. In passing, it is sufficient 

to remark that as a boy h~ gave high promise of success. 

At the age of seventeen he entered Yale College, and here, says one well qualified to judgeHis fine powers of mind soon found appreciative recognition, particuln.rly in the 

department of lit.era.ture and debate. · He early became one of the editors of the 

Yale Literary Magazine; was also a successful competitor for the Townseud literary prize; and rilliformly stood among the very highest in anything that required 

elaborate or extemporaneous addre. s. His prestige thus gainediu letters, together with his hearty social qualities, and his fine personal appearance, secured for him a marked popularity as wall in circles without as within the college. 

He graduated in 1844 at the age of twenty-one, and after a year he 

entered the office of the late Chief-Justice Thomas B. Butler a~ a student ~t law, was soon admitted to the bar, and became hiS partner. 

Here his associations were mot fortunate. Judg~ Butler was re- markable, not only for his legal learning, bnt for his varied acquirements, hi~ love of justice, and his ge~rons sochl qualities. Mr. 

FERRY's advent to the bar was in other respects fortuna.te in its sur- roundings. The bar of Fairfield County and the adjoining counties 

of New Haven and Litchfield at this time had many eminent lawyers. There were the venerable Charles Hawl~y, Roger Sherman Baldwin, 

the Ingersolls, Judges Butler, Seymour, Dutton- all learned in the 

mysteries of jurisprudence, the first two becoming chief-justices of our high court. Besides these there were a score of younger men, 

Minor, Beardsley, Loomis, White, Carter Beach, Harrison, and others, near his own age, of rare ability. At no time in our history has there 

been a greater array of talent at the bar than this. It is a sufficient 

commendation of Mr. FERRY, and not a little remarkable, that within a few years from his a-dmission to the bar he placed himself at the 

head of his profession. . Soon after his admission to the bar Mr. FERRY married the daughter of Governor Bissell, and the daughter and wife, in womanly virtues, in social culture, and in the sweet graces of charity and religion, 

is worthy of her illustrious father and husband. . When yet a young man he was early honored at home. He waa successively chosen j udge of probate, State attorney, and State sena- tor. Each of these positions he :filled well. It was my good fortune to be a member of the Legislature of Connecticut in 1856, and to be a member of the judiciary committee of 

which he was chairman. It wa~ then often a subject of remark among men eminent at the bar that Mr. FERRY, (then but thirty-two,) not 

only as a debater, bnt a legislator, had the rarest ability, and at that 

early day he gave full promi e of those great qualities which have for 

sight years past been the admiration of his colleagues in the Senate. He was then a ever, brave, true, great. . We are greatly-indebted to Mr. FERRY for his public addresses before the people of our State. His logic and his eloquence were irresistible on these occasions. Mr. FERRY was elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress from Connecticut and took his seat in this House in 1859 amid the stirring scenes immediately preceding the rebellion. This body then em- braced many men of-marked character and ability. Here were the 

great leaders of the South, men schooled in politics and accustomed 

to rule; and from the North came also many men of great ability, hut 

mostly new to the public service. 

Mr. FERRY from the first took a conspicuous part in the discussions 

of the Honse, and was one of the committee of thirty-three appointed by the Speaker on '' o much of the President's message as relates to the perilous condition of the country." Early in the de- bates he delivered a speech which was regarded by his associates as very able and effective, and expressing at that time the true position 

of its most thoughtful statesmen. His analysis of the state of the 

country at that trying epoch and his views of the duty of the Government now read like prophecy. 

At the close of his two vears in the House he raised and commanded a regiment, and served irhhe Army with honor to the close of the war. His whole heart was in the work; and he devotedhisentiretimeand 

ability to its duties. When the war was over he resumed his profession; bnt the next year, 1866, he was elected to thQ Senate and served a full term, and waa re-elected in 1872. The public career of Mr. FERRY while in the Senate has been so faithfully delineated in the main by his distinguished associates that 

there is little need to recount them here; and, besides, I feel how inadequate are any words of mine even to express my reverence and · admiration. He entered the Senate at the commencement of the Fortieth Congress. Great questions, among them the problems of reconstruction, were on our hands; with these, new relations of the dominant and 

tbe late subject classes as they emerged from a state of war. I have seen it suggested by those who have failed folly to apprehend the position of Mr. FERRY that he was unduly conservative in 

his tendencies on questions of reconstruction. On the contrary, it can be said to his credit that on these mensures he led the advance. His 

speeches in the Senate and in the conventions at home show that 

from the outset he maintained with masterly ability not only the 

right of the nation, but its duty to secure liberty, enfranchisement, 

and civil rights to those who had been slaves. It is true, in connec- tion with many leading men of the . party, he early favored a l:trge 

amnesty to those who ha-d been in rebellion a.gainst the Government. But in all his work in the Senate his noble utterances in regard to 

the power of the nation to suppress rebellion, his denunciations of se- cession, his appeal for justice for the sla>e, ally him indissolubly with 

the great republican leaders whose fame is immortal. 
1876. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 955 

It would be a. pleasant service to quote from his speeches andrehearse his acts as proofs, if they were needed1 of his fidelity to liberty 

andbisfa.ithin theindestructibilityoftho Umon. There are no nobler 

acts or utterances on record. But I must ot detain the House longer 

with this sketch while others wn.it to unfold with better chosen words 

his cha.ra.cter and services. 

Before cldsing, however, let me refer to the crowning glory of his 

life. Mr. FERRY had a strong religious element in his character. 

This was with him a great controlling force, and not a sentiment. It 

added greatly to his strength and upheld him not only in great emer- gencies but in the daily labors ·of life. He loved to contemplate and 

discourse of the Infinite God and the glory of His reign. He dwelt 

with mpture on the majestic prophecies of Isaiah and the grand poems 

of the Hebrew minstrel king. His discourses on religion became a part of his beautiful life-work in his home. 

It was most beautiful and grand, amid failing strength and long 

years of pain, to hear him discourse ofRest a.t last, 

Repose complete, eternal; 

Love, rest, and home. 

No cloud obscured the effulgence of his hope or dimmed his vision. 

Clear and high his intellect a-nd his faith rose above all storms and 

darkness, and sustained him in sweet companionship amid the unre- vealed mysteries of pain. As his end drew nea.r he came back to his 

home, after a brief 9-bsence. There, under his own roof, with the 

angels of his household a bout him, he paesed to his rest. 

' Thinking of trials past, and knowing as we do how well he had 

wrought for the future, trusting in the merits of his den.r Lord, he 

could repea.t the sweet lines of BonarBeyond the parting a.nd the meeting 

I shall be soon ; Beyond the farewell and the greeting, 

B yond ?s~aftte~~~~er beating, 

Love, rest, and home! 

Sweet hope! Lord, tarry not, but come. 

Beyond the frost-chain and the fever, 

I shall be soon; Beyond the rock waste and the river, 

Beyond the ever and the-never, I shall be soon. Love, rest, and home ! 

Sweet hopei Lord, tarry not, but come. 

Ay, the sweeter words of inspiration-in the volume of the book 

it is written: "Lo, I come quickly. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." 

The resolutions offered by Mr. PHELPS were agreed to una.nimously. 

And then, on motion of Mr. PHELPS, (at four o'clock a.nd forty 

minutes p. m.,) the House adjourned. " 

PETITIONS, ETC. 

The following memorials, petitions, and other papers were presented 

at the Clerk's de k under the ru1e, and referred a.s stated: 

By Mr. AINSWORTH: The petition of Carter & Mills and others, 

for the repeal of the check-stamp tax, to the Committee of Ways and 

Means. • Also, papers relating to the petition of Mrs. Ann M. English, for 

pay for supplies taken by the United States Army, to the Committee on War Claims. 

By Mr. BAKER, of Indiana: The petition of Mary Ba.r, for a pension, to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

Also, the petition of Columbu8 C. Bennett, of India.na, for pay for 

property taken by the United States Army, to the Committee on War 

Claims. · 

By Mr. BELL: The petition of E. W .. Harrington, and other citi- zens of Manchester, New Hampshire, for the repeal of the checkstamp tax, to the Committee of Ways and Means. . By Mr. ELLIS: A paper relating to the contested-election ca-se of 

J. A. Breaux vs. C. B. DarraH, to the Committee of Elections. 

Also, papers relating to the petition of Jerome A. Eisenlord, for pay 

for services rendered the United States as a surgeon in the United 

States Army, to the Committ;ee on War Claims. 

Also, papers relating to the petition of Henry Olive, for commutation of rations while in the United States Army, to the same com- mittee. 

By Mr. GAUSE: Papers relating to the petition of Dabney Walker, 

for pay for services as scout and guide in the Army of the Potomac, 

to the same committee. 

By Mr. JONES, of Kentucky: Papers relating to the petitions of 

JohnS. Wadsworth and others, of Pendleton County, Kentucky, to 

have refunded 300 each on account of the same having been alleged 

to have been illegally collected from them under color of commutation money, to the same committee. 

By Mr. KELLEY: Resolutions of workingmen of Harrisbmgh, 

Pennsylvania, against any subsidy to the Southern Pacific Railroad; 

in favor of the repeal of the resumption act n.nd funding the natiiona,l 

debt into 3.65 bonds, to the Committee on Banking and Currency. 

By Mr. MAcDOUGALL : Papers relating to the payment of ferriale nurses during the war, to the Committee on War Claims. . By Mr. MONEY: Papers relating to the claim of W. G. Harwood, 

to the same committee. · By Mr. MORGAN: The petitions of Sarah B. Wilson and Elizabeth 

Ward, for pensions, to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. . By Mr. PAYNE: The petition of Morgan, Root & Co. and 52 other 

wholesale merchants and business men of Cleveland, Ohio, for the 

repeal of the bankrupt law, to the Committee on the Judiciary. 

Also, papers relating to the petition of Mrs. Julia S. W. Evans, for a pension, to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

By Mr. POPPLETON: The petition of Professor F. Merrick, Charles 

Neill, B. Murphey, T. C. O'Kame, B. Dickinson, J. Waterman, Mrs. H. 

C. McCabe, Mrs. W. T. Constant, Mrs. A. S. Clason, Sarah Van Deman, 

and 1,5u0 others, citizens of the city of Delaware, Ohio, for a commission of inquiry c0ncerning the alcoholic liquor traffic, to the Committee of Ways and Means. 

By Mr. POTTER: The petitions of Graham, Morton & Co., of H. 

C. Morton and 68 other citizens of Benton Harbor, of S. R. Hughes 

and 500 other citizens of Benton Harbor, and a joint resolution of.the 

board of supervisors of Ben'ien County, Michigan, favoring an appropriation for the improvement of the Saint Joseph River and harbor, 

to the Committee on Commerce. 

By Mr. JOHN REILLY: The petition of 1,563 citizens of the seven- teenth district of Pennsylvania, favoring the grantin~ of aid to a southern Pacific railroad, to the Committee on the Pacific Railroad. 

By Mr. ROBB_INS, of Pennsylvania: Papers relating to the claim 

of John Hatfield, for military services, to the Committee on ·war Claims. . Also, papers relating to the claim of Charles B. Holbrook, for pay 

for loss of a barge while in the United States service, to the same committee. · 

By ?tir. THROCKMORTON: The petition of citizens of Bosque, 

Travis, and Hood Counties, ':fexas, for the extension of a post-route 

from Meridian to Granbury, to the Committee on the Post-Office 

and Post-Roads. 

By Mr. WALDRON: Petition of J. S. Kellog, attorney, for the names of certain soldiers to be entered on the records of the AdjutantGeneral, to the Committee on Military Affairs. . By M,r. WALSH: The petitions of Susan Ellen Stewart and Ellen 

Morrow, for pensions, to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

By Mr. WELLS, of ~souri: Memorial of a large number of mer- chants of Saint Louis, for the repeal of the ba.nkrupt law, to the Committee on the Judiciary. . By Mr. WHITE : The petition of Elizabeth Murphy, for a pension, 

to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

Also, papers relating to the petition of Jackson Roberts, for arrears of pay as a United States officer, to the Committee on Military Affairs. · By Mr. WHITEHOUSE : The petition of Stephen Hull, for an ex- tension of his patent on harvester, to the Committee on Patents. 

Also, tbe petition of citizens of Red Hook, of Greensport, and of 

Rhinebeck, New York, for the repeal, of the stamp tax on safety 

matches, to the Committee of Ways and Means. 

By Mr. W. B. WILLIAMS: The petition of Henry Willis and 2,000 

citizens of Michigan, for an !tppropriation for a survey for a ship-canal 

!!.cross the State of Michi~a.n, to the Committee on Commerce. 

IN SENATE . . 

WEDNESDAY, FebrU~Lry 9, 1876. 

Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. BYRON SUNDERLAND, D. D. 

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

PETmONS AND MEMORIALS. 

The PRESIDENT pro ternpm·e presented a joint resolution of the 

Legislature of the State of Wisconsin, instructing her Senators and 

Representatives in Congress to oppose so much of the bill introduced 

by Senator SARGENT in the Senate January 10, 1876, to restore the 

lands conditiona,lly granted, the conditions of which h:.we lapsed, to 

the public domain, us will affect grants of hinds ma-de to the State 

of Wisconsin; which was referred to the Committee on Public Lands. 

He !tlso presented concurrent resolution of the Legislature of the 

State of Kansas, requesting that Congress provide for the organization of a territorial government and the estabJ..tshment of courts in 

the Indian Territory; which wns referred to the Committee on Territories. 

Mr. BOOTH presented the petition of A. S. Clark and 140 other citizens of Ventura. County, California, pmying for the re urvey of the 

Rancho Rio de Santa Clara, now in the county of Ventura, formerly 

in the county of Santa Barbar!t; which was referred to the Committee on Private Land Claims. ~1r. WALLACE pre en ted fifty petitions, signed by 5,000 citizens of 

Pennsylvania, artisans and workers in iron and coal, praying Congre to guarantee the interest on bonds issued by the Southern Pacific Rllilroa-d Company; which were referred to the Committee on Railroads.