\ . 1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE: 825 

By Mr. 1\IcCORMICK: Of citizens of Sinnamahoning, Cameron 

Qounty, of Myrtle, of Potter County, Pennsylvania. 

By M:r. McCREAH.Y: Of citizens of Buck Creek, Ky. 

By Mr. NEWTON: Of citizens of Macedonia, of Clayton, of Marion, 

of Mount·Pleasant, La. 

By Mr. OSBORNE: Of citizens of Top, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. 

By Mr. PUGSLEY: Of Adam Reed and 23 others, citizens of Ross 

County, Ohio. 

By Mr. RICHARDSON: Of R. H. Odom and others, of Auburn, Can-

' non County, Tennessee. 

By 1\fr. ROWLAND: Of citizens of Goodman, Anson County, North 

Carolina. 

By Mr. STONE, of Kentucky: Of citizens of Melber, McCracken 

County, Kentucky. 

By Mr. E. B. TAYLOR: Of citizens of Giddings, Ohio. 

By 1\Ir. E. .T. TURNER: Of C. J. Lamb and others, of Dr. Z. F. 

Burt and others, of Crow, Phillips County, Kansas; of Harry Hodges 

and others, of Paul Ream and others, of Glenwood, Phillips County, 

Kansas; of D. L. Pratt and others, of Germantown, Smith County, 

Kansas. 

By 1\ir. WALKER: Of citizens of Bessville, Bollinger County, Missouri. 

. By Mr. WHITTHORNE: Of R. A. North and others, of Willia~on 

County, Tennessee. 

By Mr. WILKINS: OfWilliam White and others, of Jones' Corners, 

Holmes County, Ohio. 

By Mr. WISE: Of citizens of King William, Va.; of Licking, of 

Meadow Station, Va. 

The following petitions, asking for the passage of the bill prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and importation of all alcoholic beverages 

in the District of Columbia, were severally referred to the Select Committee on the Alcoholic Liquor Traffic: 

By Mr. DAVIS: Of 137 citizens of Massachusetts. 

By Mr. FELTON: Of 98 citizens of the Fitlih district of California. 

Also, of 125 citizens of the Fifth district of California. 

By Mr. FUNSTON: Of228 citizens of the Second district of Kansas. 

By Mr. GROUT: Of 103 citizens of the Second district of Vermont. 

By Mr. GUENTHER: Of 171 citizens of the Second district of' Wisconsin. 

By Mr. HOUK: Of205 citizens of the Second district of Tennes..~ee. 

By Mr. LAIRD: Of 52 citizens of the Second district of Nebraska. 

By Mr. SAWYER: Of 202 citizens of the Thirty-first district of New 

York. 

By Mr. SHIVELY: Of Selden Webber and 149 others, citizens of 

Kosciusko County, Indiana. 

By Mr. E. J. TURNER: Of 116 citizens of the Sixth district of Kan- sas. 

By Mr. V .A.NCE: Of 104 citizens of the First district of Connecticut. 

By Mr. WILLIAM WHITING: Of citizens of the Eleventh district of Massachusetts. 

SENATE. 

TUESDAY, January 31, 1888. 

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

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

PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore presented the petition of Joseph NeuIP.ann, of San Francisco, Cal., praying for the preservation of the flag 

made of American silk presented by him to the Government, and 

deposited in the Smithsonian Institution; which was referred t() the 

Committee on the Library. 

He also presented a petition of citizens of Nebraska, praying that 

the Indians of the Indian Territory be located on the eastern portion 

of the same, and that the western portion, including Oklahoma and 

the Cherokee Strip, be opened to settlers under a Territorial organization; which was referred to the Commi~tee on Indian Affairs. He also presented a petition of -the Board of Trade of Greeley, 

Colo., praying that an ·appropriation be made to construct a system of 

reservoirs in the State to irrigate Gover11ment lands, and that Govern- ment land be reserved for reservoirs, Kansas and Nebraska to be also 

benefited; which was referred to the Committee on Public Lands. 

He also presented resolutions adopted by the American Shipping and 

Industrial League, January 18, 1888, favoring the proposed celebration 

of the centennial of the Constitution of the United States, etc.; which 

were referred to the Select Committee on the Centennial of the Constitution and the Discovery of America. 

Mr. COCKRELL presented resolutions adopted by the Cigar-~akers' Union, No. 44, of St. Louis, Mo., remonstrating against the repeal of 

internal-revenuet..'lxes upon tobacco and cigars; which were referred to 

the Committee on Finance. 

He also presented resolutions adopted by the board of directors of 

the Merchants' Exchange, of St.·Louis, Mo., in favor oftheinter-A.merican antlinter-republiccelebration of the centennial of the United St.:1.tes, 

etc. ; which was referred to the Select Committee on the Centennial of 

t11e Constitution and the Discovery of America. 

Mr. SAWYER presented a petition of members of the faculty of 

Ripon College. in Wisconsin, praying for the enactment of an international copyright law; which was referred to the Committee on Patents. Mr. BECK presented the petition of W. J. Moberly, late first lieutenant Fourth United States Cavalry, praying for certain relief; which was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. 

M:r. HARRIS. I present the petition of Charles Murphy, stating that 

at a former session of Congress a bill for his relief was adversely reported, setting forth new evidence that has been discovered, and with 

it are filed the affidavits of the parties. 1 ask that the petition be re- ferred to the Committee 9n Claims, and that an order be made that the 

papers in respect to his claim, on file in the Secretary's office, be also 

referred to that committee. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It will be so ordered, if there be no objection. 

Mr. QUAY presented a petition of the faculty of the Western University of Pennsylvania, praying for the passage of an international 

copyright law; which was referred to the Committee on Patents. 

1\-Ir. TURPIE presented a petition of 124 citizens of the Fifth, Sixth, 

Eighth, and Tenth Congressional districts of Indiana, praying for prohibition in the District of Columbia; which was referred to the Committee on · the District of Col urn bia. 

Mr. VEST presented a petition of the faculty of Drury College, 

Rpringfield, Mo., praying for the enactmeflt of an international copyright law; which was re1erred to the Committee on Patents. 

He also presented the petition of E. L. Martin and other citizens of 

Kansas City, Mo., praying that the compen""Sation of post-office clerks 

be placed on the same basis with that of railway postal clerks and .letter-carriers; which was referred to the Committee on Post-Offices and 

Post-Roads. 

He also presented a petition of citizens of the First, Second, and Third 

Congressional districts of Missouri, praying for prohibition in the District of Columbia; which was referred to the Committee on the District 

of Columbia. 

Mr. BLAIR. I present a petition of the Lombard Street Yearly 

Meeting of the Society of Friends, held in the city of Baltimore, Md., 

composed of representatives from its various subordinate meetings in 

Maryland and the adjacentpartsofVirginiaand Pennsylvania, through 

its committee on philanthropic labor, praying for an amendment to 

the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified, will pro-. 

hibit henceforth the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage in the United 

States, and in every place subject to their jurisdiction. I move the ref- erence of the petition to the Committee on Education and Labor. 

Mr. BECK. The petition prays Congress. to prohibit imports and to 

regulate the revenue. I do not know what the Committee on Education and Labor has to do with that subject. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The indorsement of the petition will 

be read. 

The CHIEF CLERK. A. petition for a national prohibitory constitu-· tional amendment fmm the Lombard Street Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, Baltimore. 

Mr. BECK. The object of it seems to be to prohibit imports of cer- tain sorts, and I supposed that to-be a financial matter. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore, The body of the petition will be read. 

The Chief Clerk read as follows: 

The Lombard Street Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, held in the city of Ba ltimore, Md., composed of r epresentatives from its various subordi- nate mee tings in 1\'laryland and the adjacent parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, 

through its committee on philanthropic labor, most respectfully and e a rnestly ask you, by an appropriate j~t resolution, to adopt a n d p ropose to the several St.'t tes an a mendment to the Constitution of th e United States, which, when 

ratified, will prohibit hencefo.rth t-he manufacture, importation, exportation, 

transportation, and sale of all alcoholic liquors, as a beverage, in the United 

States, and in every place subject to their jurisdiction. JONATHAN K. TAYLOR, 

Chairman of Committee. 

1\fr. BECK. I think the petition ought to be referred to the Finance 

Committee. I move that reference. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. That reference will be ordered, if 

there be no objection. 

Mr. BLAIR. I will say that similar petitions in almost this exact 

phmseology have been sent for a long time to the Committee on Education and Labor. I should be glad to have one sent to the Committee on Finance, so as to see what they will do with it. 

The PRESIDENT pre tempore. In this connection the Chair will 

state that it would greatly facilitate the transaction of business if Senators presenting petitions will comply with the rule which requires 

that a brief statement of the contents shall be made by the Senators 

presenting them, or indorsed thereon, so that it can be read at the 

desk. 

·Mr. BLAIR. Ifthe Presiding Officer had·observed, he would have 

noticed that I did so when I presented the petitiou. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The petition will be referred to the 

Committee on Finance, if there be no objection. 
826 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATEo JANUARY 31, 

11r.. BLAIR. I present another petition from the same bod~ addre :ed to the Senate and House of Rwresentatives of the United States, 

in which the petitjoneJ:S say: 

Realizing the !earful and distressing effects produced b;y the use of"intoxie:.:.ting drink.., sueh as the in~reaseof pauperism, disea..<oe, crime, and taxation, the Lombard Street Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, held in the city of 

Baltimore, :\fd., through its committee on philanthropic labor, most respectfully 

but earnestly ask you to enact laws prohibiting the manufacture and sale, and 

imp rt11.tion, exportatiou, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for be>era;;cs 

in the District of Columbia., and all other portions of the United States under 

the control of the General Government, thus absolving the Government from 

being acceEsory to the alarming eifects of intemperance in the United Stutes. 

Mr. HARRIS. I should like to ask the Senator from New Hampshire if be regards that as a. brief statement of the wntents of the petition. 

Mr. BLAIR. That is tolerably brief, I think, Mr. President. I 

move that the petition be referred to the Committee on Education and 

Labor. 

The motion was agreed to. . 

Mr. BLAIR I prese.p.t, from -the same organization, n. further petition of which I will endeavor to make a brief statement. The petition · comprises about half a page of written matter, in which the petitioners 

most respectfully and earnestly pray for the enactment of a Jaw which 

will authorize the appropriation of money from the Treasury of the 

United States fo:r temporary a.id in the establishment and maintenance 

of free public schools, in order that the number of illiterates in the 

United States may be reduced to a. minimum, thus strengthening the 

foundations of our civil a.nd religious liberty. I move that the petition 

lie on the table. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. BLAIR presented a petition of the Lombard StreetY early Meeting of the ociety of Friendsr held in Brutimore, :Md., praying Congress 

by appropriate legislation to provide exemplary penalties for the seduction, with or without promise of marriage, and for the defilement of 

the persons of young girls; which was referred to the Committee Qn 

the .T ndiciary. 

Mr. ~!ANDERSON. I present the petition of a. large number of citizens of 1\IcCook, Nebr., praying for the establishment of a system of 

postal telegraphy. I move the reference of the petition t{) the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads. 

The motion was agreed to. . J'ifr.1IANDERSON presented a petition of citizens of Greeley, Weld 

County, Colorador praying that an appropriation be made for the con- struction of stora!re reservoirs for the purpose of irrigation in Colorado, 

Kansas, and Neb;aska; which was referred to .the Committee on Public 

Lands. · 

Mr. SPOONER presented the petition of A. R. Devine and 127 other 

citizens of the Eighth Congressional district of Wisconsin, praying for 

prohibition in the. District of Columbiai which was referred to the 

Committee on the District· of Columbia. 

1\Ir. P A'DDOCK presented a petition of citizens of West Distri€t, 

Hays County, Nebraska, praying for certain amendments of the postal 

laws; which was referred to the Committee on Post-Offices and PostRoads. 

He aJso presented a petition of the Board of Trade of Greeley, Colo., 

praying for an appropriation to aid in the reclamation of arid lands in 

that State through increased irrigation facilities; which was referred 

to the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry_ 

Mr. WILSON, of Iowa, presented the petition of Hiram Parker, of 

1fount Pleasant, Iowa, praying for the passage of an act granting him a pension· which was referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

Mr. DANrnL presented a petition of citizens of Franklin County, 

Virginia, praying for certain amendments of the postal laws; which. was referred to the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads. 

He also presented a petition of citizens of Franklin County, Virginia, praying for the enactment of a. law providing for. the reissue ot 

fractional clllTency; which w:as referred to the Committee on PostOffices and Post-Roads. 

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 

1\Ir. VANCE, from the Committee on Finance~ to whom was referred 

the bill (S. 70) to provide for warehousing fruit brandy, reported it without amendment, and submitted a report thereon. 

1fr. VANCE. I am instructed by the Committee on Finance to report back the bill (S. 1067) relating to imported liquors to this body, 

and to ask tha.t the committee be discharged from its further consideration, and that it be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, as it 

involves questions which we think that body should pass upon. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. That change of reference will be 

made, if there be no objection. 

Mr. PAD DOCK, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom 'Y'as re- ferred the bill (S. 293) granting a pension to Mr.:~. Arabella Coddington, 

reported it with an amendment, and submitt€d a report thereon. 

ITe also, from the same committee~ to whom was referred the bill (S. 

433) granting an increase of pension to' General S. W. Price, reported. it 

without amendment. and submitted a. report thereon. 

Mr. VE.ST, from the Committee on Commerce, to whom was ref~n-ed 

the bill (S. 1139) for the construction of a bridge across the St. Croix 

River, reported it with an amendment, and submitt~da. report thereon. Mr. FAULKNER, from the Committee on Pens1on:s, to whom was referred the bill (S. 752) to grant a pen ion to ]\1rs. Elvirn.L. Johnson, 

widow of Commodore Philip E. Johnson, reported it with an amendment, and submitted a report thereon. 

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

1086) granting a. pension to Jacob Kintz, a.li;,ts John Walter-; 1·eported 

it without amendment, and submitted a report thereon. 

He also, from the sa.me committee, to whom was referred the bill 

(S. 695) for the relief of R. C. :Martin, submitted an ad,·erse report 

thereon; which was agreed to, and the-bill was postponed indefinitely. · He also, from the same committee, to whom was referred the bill (S. 

234) gra.nting a. pension to Julia A. Ross, submitted an adverse report 

thereon; which was agreed to, and the bill was postponed jndefinitely. 

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

466) granting a pension to William R. Blevins, submitted an adverse 

report thereon, and moved its indefinite postponement. 

11-Ir. COCKRELL. Let the bill be placed upon the Calendar, please. The PRESIDENT pro tempore .• The bill will be placed on the Cal· en dar with the adver8e report of the committee. 

Mr. FAULKNER, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom was re- ferred the bill (S. 691) for the relief of Henry Bellion, submitted an 

adverse report thereon; which was agreed tor and the bill was pot· ponM indefinitely. 

. Mr. SAWYER, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom were re· ferred the following bills, reported them severally without amendment, 

and submitted reports thereon: 

A bill (S. 819) granting a pension to Christopher Wisemiller; 

A bill (S. 821) granting a. pension to John Vertessy; 

A bill (S. 815) granting a pension to Angerone P. Cole, mother . of 

George. H. Cole, private Company B, Twenty-fourth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers; 

A bill (S. 174) granting a pension to lHa.ry Martin; 

A bill {S. 172) granting a. pension to Abbie M. Hay; 

A bill (S. 173) granting a pension to Henry B. Very; 

A bill (S. 170) granting a pension to Mary.!._. lykins; 

A bill (S. 806) granting a. pension to William Healy; 

A bill (S. 801) tO!' the relief of :Basile Champagne; and . 

A bill (S. 820) granting a. pension to David A. Servis . 

Mr. SAWYER, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Ida May Welton, of Grotonr Vt., praying to- be 

alloweda pension,submittedareportthereon, accompaniedbya biJI (S. 

1784) granting a pension te Ida. May Welton; which was read twice 

by its title. 

~fr. SAWYER, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom were re- ferred the following bills, submitted adver .. e reports thereon, which were agreed to, and the bills-were postponed indefinitely: 

A bill (S. 810) granting a pension to Irs. A. L. Collins, guardian; 

A bill (S. 804) granting apen8ion to James Conto; 

A bill (S. 81 3) granting a. pension to Charles Wilkinson;! 

A bill (S. 390) tor the relief of Ida M. Howell; _ 

A bill (S. 818) granting a pension to John :Morgan; and 

A bill (S. 431) granting a pension to Emma. S. Free, widow of Thomas 

S. Free, late major of the United States Army. 

l\fr. BLODGETT, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the bill (S. 838) granting tt pension to lYJ:uy Sullivan, reported 

it without amendment. and submitted a report thereon. 

He also, from the same committee, to whom was referred the petition of Hugh Costello, praying to be allowed a pension, submitted an adverse report thereon; whi_ch was agreed to, and the committee were discharged from the further consideration of the petition. 

Mr. DAVIS, from the Co-mmittee on Pensions, to whom WP.re referred· 

the following bills, submitted adverse reports thereon; which were agreed to, and the bills wexe postponed indefinitely: 

A bill (S. 756) granting a pension to Argent Causdell; 

A bill (S. 336) grunting a pension to Isaa.e N. Osborn; 

A bill (S. 176) granting a pension to William 11!. Houghton; 

A bill (S. 414) granting a pension to Lyman F. Hodge; and 

A bill (S. !77) granting a pension to Asa. Wilson. 

Ur. DAVIS, from the Committee on Pensions. to whom was referred 

the petition of James M: UI1)hy praying to be allowed _a pension, submitted an adverse report thereon; which was agreed to, and the com- mittee were 'discharged from th•e further consideration of the petition. 

Mr. DAVIS, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom were referred 

the folknving bills, reported them severally without amendment, and 

submitted reports thereon: 

A bill {S. 404) for the relief of:M'argaret S. 1\Iurray; 

A bill (S. 335) granting an increase of pension to C. R. Thomas;. 

A bill (S. 679) granting a. pension to Henry Stafford; 

A bill (S. 334) granting _ an increase or pension to Charles F . .A.llgowe1·; 

A bill (S. 333) granting a. pension to Reuben Brownmiller; 

A bill (S. 737) granting a pension to Berry Day; - A. bill (S. 450) for the relief of Thomas S. Hopkins, late of Company 

c .. Sixteenth Maine Volunteers; 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL ItECORD-SENATE .. -s27 

A bill (S. 1506) for the relief of Addie Bell; 

A bill (S. 753) granting a pension to James D. Whaley; 

A bill (S. 733) granting a pension to Abbie S. Hutchinson i 

A bill (S. 944) increasing the pension of Mrs. Elizabeth G. Scott; and 

A bill (S. 337) granting a pension to Mary E. Johnston. 

Ur. DAVIS, from the· committee on Pensions, to whom was r eferred 

the petition of Stephen D. Redfield, praying to be allowed a pension, 

submitted a report thereon, accompanied by a bill (S. 17 .J) grn,nting 

a pension to Stephen D. Red.field~ which was read twice by its title. 

Mr. TURPIE, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom were referred the following bills, reported them seve.rally without amendment, 

and submitted 1·eports thereon: 

A bill (S. 749) granting a pension to Louise Paul; 

A bill (S. 738) granting a pension to guardian of Enos J. Searles, of 

Clermont, Ohio; and · 

A bill (S. 286) granting an increase of pension to Stephen R. Smith. 

Mr. TURPIE, from the Commit tee on Pensions, to whom were referred the following bills, submitted adverse reports thereon, which 

were agreed to; and the bills wer:e postponed indefinitely: 

A bill (S. 75) granting a pension to Francis W. Strickland; 

A bill (S. 693) granting a pension to William Weist; and 

A bill (S. 694) for the relief of George H. Washington. " 

-Mr. STANFORD, from the Committee on Public Buildings and 

Grounds, to whom was referred a resolution of the Boa.nl of Trade of 

Chester, Pa., r emonstrating against the continuance of the quarantine 

station in its present location near that city, and recommending the 

establishment of a national system of quarantine, asked to be discharged 

from its furt-her consideration, and that it be referred to the Committee 

on Epidemic Diseases; which was agreed to. 

1\fr. ALDRICH, from the Committee on Finance, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1328) for the relief of Betts, Nichols & Co., reported 

it without amendment, and submitted a report thereon. 

Mr. RIDDLEBERGER, from the Committee on Naval A.:ffairs, to 

whom was referred the bill (S. 1226) touching the grade of commander 

in the Navy, and to correct an euor in relation to an appointment 

therein, reported it with an amendment, and submitted a report thereon. 

_ J ACKSO:Y, MISS., MUNICIP .A.L ELECTION. 

1\fr. JONES, of Nevada. I am instructed by the Committee to Audit 

and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate, to whom was referred a resolution for the payment of the expenses of the Judic~ary 

Committee in the investigation of certain matters alleged to have 

occurred at Jackson, 1\Iiss., to report it with an amendment in the 

nature of a substitute. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The original resolution will be read. 

The Chief Clerk read the resolution reported by Mr. EDMUNDS from 

the Committee on the Judiciary, January 23; 1888, as follows: 

Resolved, That the necessary expenses of the Committee on the Judiciary, or any subcommittee thereof, in making the inquiries into certain matters alleged to have occun·ed at Jackson, fiss. , and as directed by the resolutions of the Sen- ate of the 12th instant and of the 23d instant, be paid out of the appropriation for the misce llaneous items of the contingent fund of the Senate upon vouchers to be approved by the chairman of said committee. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The amendment reported by the com- mittee will be next read. • 

The Chief Clerk read the substitute proposed by the committee, as 

follows: 

Resolved, That the necessru-y expenses of the Oommittee on the Judiciary, or any subcommittee thereof, in making the inquiries into certain matters alleged to have occurred at Jackson, Mi.<>s., and as directed by the resolutions of the Senate of the 12th instant and of th.e 23d instant, be paid out of the contingent fund of the Senate upon vouchers to be approved by the chairman of the Com- mitte e to Audit and Conh·ol the Contingent Expe::ses of'the Senate. 

The Senate, by unanimous consent, proceeded to consider the ~es:olu­ tion. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on the adoption of 

the amendment reported as a substitute for the original resolution. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I have not the slightest objection myself to the 

chairman of the Committee on Contingent Expenses auditing the expenses incurred T>y the Committee on the Judiciary, except for the inconvenience of it, and the fact that it has not been uSual in such investigation, for the reason that it would be difficult for the chairman 

of the Committee on Contingent Expenses, as all the expenses in respect 

of the quantum of witnesses, etc., are left in the discretion of the Committee on the Judiciary. I do not see how the chairman of the Committee on Contingent Expenses could be officially informed of what 

those expenses properly h..~d been. 

I have not the slightest objection to the Committee on the Judiciary 

getting rid of the duty of auditing these accounts anil expenses, but I 

do not want the business placed in such a condition that the witnes;es 

and other peo-ple will have difficulty in getting their recompense when 

it is due to them. 

Mr. HOAR.. Let the amendment be again 1·ead. 

Mr. ED::UmTDS. It makes the chairman of the C-ommittee on Contingent Expenses audit the accounts, and not the committee. 

The PRESIDENT p1·o tempore.. The amendment reported by the 

committee -will be again read. 

The Chief Clerk read the amendment. 

Mr. HOAR. I moTe to nmend that by substituting "approved by 

the chairman of said committee.'' 

1\Ir. EDMUNDS. This is an amendment reported..Jrom the Committee on Contingent Expenses, and the original resolution makes that 

prwision. I suppose by the rules, however-! have always so understood-il.fler the vouchers have once received the imprimatur of the Committee on the Judiciary they then have to be r evised and go through 

the approval of the chairman of the Committee on Contingent Expenses: I think I haT"e understood that to be the cn.se, bnt I am not 

sure about it. 

But the practical difficulty is in the committee having charge of the 

business being one committee, and of tlle expenditure aml the auditing 

committee being a different one, upon the separate vouchers of each 

witness,or stenographer, or whoe>er be maybe, as to what is to betbe 

means of proof that shall satisfy _the Committee on Contingent Expenses that the expenditure has been regular and ought to be paid. It 

is not a question of dignity, so far as I am concerned. between the two 

committees, but only of convenience. . The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair understands the Senator 

from Massachusetts to call for the reading of the original resolution. 

1\Ir. HOAR. YE-s, sir. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The original resolution will be read. 

The Chief Clerk again read the resolution. 

:.M.r. ULLOM. The original resolution is about right. 

Mr. JONES, of Nevada. There seemed to be two committees-a. 

subcommittee and the Committee on the Judiciary-mentioned in the 

resolution, and the amendment to the resolution simply states in precise words what always occurs. E>eu if these voucllers should bo paid 

upon the approval of the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, they 

would haYe to pass through the Committee on Contingent E...xpenses 

for the approval of its chairman and the approval of that committee. 

Of com"Se t"4at committee can not make this approval except upon the 

approval of the chairman of the Judiciary Committee~ So, after all, 

it amounts to about the same thing; but it would be more in order to 

adopt the amendment than the original resolution. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. That bas not been the course heretofore. 

Mr. JONES, of Nevada. The only other change that the committee 

made in t!J.e original resolution is that the expenses should not be taken. 

out of the miscellaneous items of the contingent expense furrd, but simply out of the contingent fund. . 

Mr. HARRIS. I should like to ask the Senator from Nevada if expe.nSes similar to these that are now being provided for have not heretofore been invariably paid upon the approval of the charrman of the 

committee which made them? · 

Mr. JONES, of Nevada. They have been paid upon that approval 

and also upon the approval of the Commi.ttee on Contingent Expenses. 

~Ir. HARRIS. Why depart in this case from the usual custom of 

the Senate? Why not let the resolution provide for the approval of the 

chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and then so far as is necessary 

the voucheiS would go to the Committee on Contingent Expenses as 

usual? 

Mr. HOAR. I will state what I understand to be the present practice. Perhaps I may be mistaken, but certainly I have so understood it, 

and I have had the charge of quite a number of such ~tters as chairman of the Committee on Privileges and Elections. I understand that 

the usv.al resolution is to have the expenses paid on the voucher of the 

chairman of the committee, so that when a witness wants his pay he 

gets a certi.ficate from the chairman of the committee that summoned 

him and that knows all about him; and he goes to the Secretary's office 

and gets his. pay. So with· the stenographer or any other special expense. If the investigation is out of Washington, it is the custom for 

the Secretary of the Senate to deliver to the clerk or the deputy sergeantat-arms who goes with the committee a sum of money sufficient to cover 

the expenses for halls, stationery, or whatever may be the expense ot 

the transportation of the committee, and so on; and when the committee returns its charrman certif.ies the detail of that expenditure to the 

Secretary's offi<re, and the account then is made. 

Now, if this resolution passes, every witneSs who wants his pay will 

have to hunt up my honorable friend, the chairman of the Committee 

on Contingent Expenses, and get his voncher in addition to the "i"oucher 

he has already got from the committee making the investigation. I 

suppose when the Secretary has paid the vouchers hethen submits his 

account to the chairman of the Committee on Contingent Expenses for 

his approval. This amendment will require for every dollar that is 

paid to get a voucher from the chairman of the two committees. 'l'he 

person who will be the most annoyed by it will be my honorable friend 

from Nevada himself. So, I think, the original resolution is best. 

il. EDMUNDS. It is certain that the original resvlution follows 

the practice of the Senate for a good many years, for I framed the 

original resolution myself upon the precise model of one adopted by 

the Senat-e in the last Congres for an investigation by the Committee 

on Foreign Relations or any subcommittee thereof into the fisheries 

question; and the resolution of the last Congress on that subject was founded upon precisely the same modus opemndi of preceding resolutions of the Senate. 

The law provides, however-and all resolutions such as onr original --
828 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 31,· . 

one do not contravene the law-that when these accounts are finally 

settled they have got to receive the imprimatu1· of the Committee to 

Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate. That is 

the final revision; just as the board of directors of a b;mk revise the 

discount and deposit accounts, etc., that the cashier lias lJeen running 

for the week. The law is found in section 76 of the Hc\ i~ed Statutes. 

The originalresolution is not designed to diminish the authority or interfere with the power of the Committee to Audit and Control the 

Coni:lngent Expenses of the Senate, but ihe committee which the Senate chooses to trust with expending money for an inwstigation is - thought to be the best committee, then and there, to be the first to 

certify and appro•e or to disapprove claims lor expenditures and fees, 

etc., that are made upon it. That is the state of the case. As to the other part .of the amendment, the difficulty is that t.he con- tingent fund of the Senate in question is divided into various and separate parts, and, as has been held in the Treasury Department, if you 

have an expense account, for instance, for the investigation, as I was told a Congress or two ago, of an affair like this or an affair like the 

fisheries, no matter what, by the Senate, and you pay it and charge it, 

not against the appropriation for the miscellaneous items of expense, 

the unforeseen ones, etc., but charge it to some other account, it will 

.be disallowed. Therefore it has been the custom in the numerous cases that I have known for years gone by; and on the advice of the 

cashier of the Senate, who is in constant communication with thet;omptroller of the Treasury, in order not to have the accounts held up and a disturbance with the accounting officers of the Treasury, it was necessary to put into tne resolution a provision that the payment should 

be from the appropriations for the miscellaneous items, unless there 

should be a standing appropriation for the investigation which was not 

exhausted, and in that case, of course, it could be paid from that. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on agreeing to the 

amendment reported by the Committee to Audit and C'.ontrol the Contingent Expenses of the SEhlate. 

Mr. HOAR. I will ask the Senate to allow the res.olution to remain, 

with the leave of my honorable friend from Nevada, the chairman of 

the committee, for a few minutes, to be taken up again. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The report of the committee will lie 

on the table for the present. 

POSTAL TELEGRAPH INVESTIGATION. 

Mr. JONES, of Nevada, from the Committee to Audit and Control 

the Contingent Expenses ·of the Senate, to whom was referred the 'following resolution, reported it without amendment; and it was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to: 

Resolved, That the Recretary of the Senat.e be, and he hereby is, authorized 

and directed to pay the stenographer authorized by the resolution of the 19t.h 

instant· to report the arguments, evidence, etc., for the COmmittee on Post-Offices 

and Post-Roads on the subject of the postal telegraph, out of the contingent fund 

of the Senate. 

MESSENGER FOR PRESS GALLERY. 

1\Ir. JONES, of Nevada, from the Committee to Audit and Control 

the Contingent Expenses of the Senate, to whom was referred the following resolution, reported it without amendment; and it was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to: 

Resolved, That the Sergeant-at-Arms be, and be is hereby, authorized and directed to appoint a special messenger, who shall attend upon the Press Gallery 

of the Senate, and be paid out of the miscellaneous items of the contingent fund. 

STATEMENTS ON PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 

Mr. PALMER, from the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 

submitted evidence taken by that committee in support of the bill (S. 

945) to extirpate contagious pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, 

and rinderpest among cattle, and to facilitate the exportation of cattle 

and t:qe products of live-stock, and for other purposes, and moved that 

500 copies be printed for the use of the committee; which was agreed 

to. :MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE. 

A message from the House, by Mr. CLARK, its CleJ'k, announced th.at 

the House had concurred in'the amendment of the Senate to the bin 

(H. R. 4881) making an appropriation to carry into effect the provisions 

of an act approved March 2, 1887, entitled "An act to establish agricultural-experimental stations in connection with the colleges established 

in the several States under the provisions of an act approved July 2, 

1862, and of acts supplementary thereto.'' 

The message also announced that the House had passed the bill (S. 

274) authorizing the construction of a bridge across the Missouri River 

at some acce.-.sible point in the county of St. Charles, in the State of 

Missouri, below the city of St. Charles. 

BILLS INTRODUCED. 

Mr. FRYE introduced a bill (S. 1786) t{) regulate appointments in 

the Marine-IIospital Service of the United States; which was read twice 

by its title, and referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

Mr. EVARTS introduced a bill (S. 1787) to provide for the erection 

of an Army gun-factory at the Watervliet arsenal, and for other ·purposes; which was read twice by its title. 

Mr. EVARTS. I ask that the bill may be referred to the Committee on Mili taq Affairs. 

Mr. DOLPH. I suggest to the Senato~ from New York that that · 

subject is now before the Committee on Coast Defenses. The Committee on Coast Defenses has had that question under consideration and 

reported a bill at the last session, which was passed by the Senate, providing for a gun-factory. There is also a bill on the same subject before the Committee on Coast Defenses at the present session. 

1\fr. EVARTS. I consent to the change of reference. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The bill will be referred to the Committe-e on Coast Defenses, if there be no objection . .Mr. WILSON, of Iowa, introduced a bill (S. 1788) granting a pension 

to Hiram Parker; which was read twice by its title, and, with the ac- companying papers, refened to the Committee on Pensions. , Mr. STANFORD introduced a bill (S. 1789) for a supplemental ap- propriation for the erection of a public building at Los Angeles, Cal.; 

which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. 

Healsointrodncedabill(S. 1790) to carry into effect the recommen- dation of the Board of Admirals convened under the joint resolution 

approved February 5, 1879, in the case of Commander Henry Glass, 

United States Navy; which was read twice by its title, and referred to 

the Committee on Naval Affairs., 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1791) for the relief of John Williams; 

which was read twice by its title, and, with the accompanying papers, 

referred to the Committee on Claims. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1792) for the relief of Charles Willey; 

which was read twice by its title, and, with the accompanying papers, · reterred to the Committee on Claims. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1793) releasing the title of the United 

States in a certain parcel of land to J obn D. Thorne, assignee of John· 

Cutler; which was read twice by its title, and, with the accompanying 

papers, referred to the Committee on Public Lands. 

Mr. DAVIS introduced a bill (S. 1794) granting to the Aberdeen, 

Bismarck and Northwestern Railway right of way across a p rtion of 

the Sioux reservation! in Dakota Territory; which was read twice by' 

its title, aud referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs. 

Mr. ,ALLISON introduced a bill (S. 1795) for the relief of the First 

National Bank, of Marion, Iowa; which was read twice by its title,• and 

referred to the Committee on Finance. . 

.Mr. STEWART introduced a bill (S. 1796) to establish a United 

States land court, and to provide for the settlement of private land 

claims in certain States and Territories; which was read twice by its 

title, and referred to the Committee on Private Land Claims. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1797) to enforce restrictions on Chinese 

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

Mr. STEWART. I should like to call the attention of the chair- man of the Committee on Foreign Relations to this bill. I am in favor 

of a more extensive exclusion bill, but this bill is necessary to carry. out the provisions of existing laws. It gives the Secretary of the 

Treasury authority .to make regulations to carry out the existmg laws. 

It also cuts off after ninety days the entry of Chinese on previous permits. In that respect there it; a great abuse, which has existed now· for six years and over. The courts are overloaded with cases. If we conld have this measure immediatelyitwould be a matter of greatre-· lief. The public papers have shown to some extent the difficulty that 

exists on the Pacific coast. 

Mr. BUTLER introduced a bill (S. 1798) to amend an act entitled 

"An act relating to vessels not propt:llled by sails or internal motive 

power of their own, and for .other purposes,'' approved June 30, 1879; 

which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

Mr. PLUMB introduced a bill (S. 1799) to authorize the approval of 

certain leases of Indian lands; which was read twice by its title, andreferred to the Committee on Indian Affairs. 

M:r. MITCHELL introduced a bill (S. 1800) authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to permit miners and companies and corporations 

organized. for mining purposes to prospect, develop, le~e, and own the 

mineral portion. of any Indian reservation upon such terms and .conditions as may be agreed upon by the Secretary of the Interior arid the 

Indians on any such reservation; which was read twice by its title, 

and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1801) making an appropriation for the ' 

removal of obstructions in the Columbia River; which was read twice 

by its title, and referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

:M:r. VEST introduced a bill (S. 1802) granting the right of way 

through the Flathead Indian reservation to the Missoula and Northern Railroad Company; which was read twice by its title, and referred 

to the Committee on Indian Affairs. 

Mr. QUAY introduced a bill (S. 1803) in aid of the Centennial and 

Memorial Association of Valley Forge, and to secure the Washington 

headquarter mansion and grounds occupied by the Continental Army 

of 1777-'78; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on the Library. 

Mr. MANDERSON (by request) introduced a bill (S. 1804) to au~ 

thori.ze the Cheyenne Street Railroad Company to build its road on and 
.' 

1888. I CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 

across the Fort D. A. Russell military reservation; which was read 

twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. 

Mr. HARRIS (by reques1.) introduced a bill (S. 1805) to incorporate 

the Washington and Highlands-Street Railroad Company of the District of Columbia; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the 

Committee on the District of Columbia. 

l\1r. STOCKBRIDGE introduced a bill (S. 1806) to regulate the salm·y of the judge of the district court of the Unit-ed States for the west- ern district of the State of Michigan; which was read twice by its title, 

and refen-ed to the Committee on the Judiciary. 

Mr. FAULKNER introduced a bill (S. 1807) t<> refund to the State 

of West Virginia the money paid to officers of the One hundred and 

thirty-third Regiment West Vhginia :Militia, for services rendered 

during the rebellion; which was read twice by its title, and referred 

to the Committee on Claims. 

Mr. DANIEL introduced a bill (S. 1808) for the relief of Isaac Davenport and others, citizens of Virginia; which was read twice by its 

title, and referred to the Committee on Claims. 

Mr. RIDDLEBERGER. I introduce a bill drawn by the presiding 

officer of this body, regulating the sale ofliquor in the District of Columbia. It is far from my purpose to say that I offer it by request, because 

I promised not to do that. · The bill (S. 1809) regulating the sale of distilled and fermented 

liquors in the District of Columbia was read twice by its title, andreferred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. - Mr. CHANDLER introduced a bill (S. 1810) authorizing the President to place Lieut. Commander Charles A. Schetky, United States 

Navy, upon the retired-list; which was read twice by its title, andreferred to the Committee on Naval Affairs. 

Mr. COCKRELL. I present a,tthis t.ime the petition of Judge A. L. 

Gil strop, of Macon, Mo., accompanied by a joint resolution, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. I introduce 

it by request, and I ask that the petition be printed in connection with 

the resolution. 

The joint resolution (S. R. 45) proposing au amendment of the first 

section of the second article of the Constitution of the United States was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on the Ju-

(liciary, arid the accompanying petition wa.s ordered to be printed. 

Ol\IAHA RESERVATION LANDS. 

Mr. DAWES submitted the following resolution; which was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to: 

Resolvecl, That the Secretary of t.he Interior be directed to report to the Senate 

what amount of lands upon the Omaha reservation have been sold pursuant to the statute approved August 17, 1882, and the statutes amendatory thereof; how 

much of the money due as proceeds of such sales has been paid into the Treas- ury, and how much, if any, is due anQ. unpaid, both principal and interest, and 

what steps, if any, have been taken to enforce such payments as are due, or to recover possession of the lands so sold, payments for which have failed according to the terms thereof. 

TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 

Mr. RIDDLEBERGER. I offer the following resolution': 

Resolved, That the treaty b~tween this Government and that of Great Brit~n, now before the Senate in executive session, be considered in open session. 

I ask that the resolution be now considered. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. That belongs to executive business, I should think, 

Mr. President. · 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Virginia asks that 

the resolution be now considered. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I object, Mr. President, for the time being. I 

suggest to the Senator that it is a matter which should properly be con- sidered in executive session. -

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont objecting, the resolution goes over under the rules until the succeeding day. 

Mr. RIDDLEBERGER. I beg pardon, sir. The Senator from Vermont says that he thinks it ought to be considered in executive session. 

The Senator fails to--

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator will suspend. _The 

Senator from Vermont having objected to the present consideration of 

the resolution it ha..<; gone over until to-morrow, and is therefore not now the subject of discussion. 

Mr. RIDDLEBERGER. I did not mean to discuss it, but I say the 

Senator from Vermont has failed to apprehend that the object of the 

resolution is just exa-ctly to do the opposite of what he thinks ought to 

be done. Here is another resolution that I propose to put in, which 

necessarily will go over, proposing to alter a rule of the Senate. I did 

not rise for the purpose of debating the matter, but getting such a change of rule that I thought would stop objection. . 

Thft PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolution will be read. 

The Chief Clerk read the resolution, as foll9ws: 

Resolved, That Rule XXXVll be so amended as to allow the treaty now pending between the Government of Great Britain and the Government of the United 

States to be considered in open Senate. 

Mr. RIDDLEBERGER. That, I believe, goes over one day. That 

is a notice. ' 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It goes over one day under the rules. 

PAPERS WITHDRAWN AND REFERRED. 

On motion of M:r. VANCE, it was 

Ordered, That the papers relating to the claim of G. l\1. Woodruff, filed in the 

Forty-sixth Congress, be taken from the files and referred to the Committee on Claims. 

CONTRACT WORK ON RIVERS AND HARBORS. 

.M:r. MITCHELL submitted the following resolution; which was con- sidered by unanimous consent, and agreed to: 

Resolved, That the Committee on Commerce be, and they are hereby, instructed to consider the advisability of inserting a provision in the bill making appropriations for the improvement of rivers and harbors requiring all work to be don~ thereunder to be let by contra c~ to the lowest bidder. 

CHARLES R. WESTBROOK. 

:Ur. HALE submitted the following resolution; which was considered 

by unanimous consent, and agreed to: Resolved, That the Secretary of t.he Treasury is hereby directed to report to the Senate the facts attending the employment of Charles R. Westbrook as an ass;stant to the district attorney for the southern district of New York, together with copies of all correspondence on the subject, the emolument paid to him, 

and the appropriation from which paid, and if the said Westbrook received also extra compensation for any tirn,e previous to such employment, he not being a. sworn officer of Government .. 

Mr. HALE submitted the following resolution; which was considered 

oy unanimous consent, and agreed to: Resol'l:ed, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to report to the Senate the evidence taken by t.he stenographer's notes in the issue of Curtis vs. Schell before Judge Lacombe, so far as relates to the testimony of Charles R. 'Vestbrook, and which issue wa.s t-ried in November, 1887. 

THE MAIL SERVICE. 

The PRESIDENT p1·o tempore. The Chair lays before the Senate a resolution coming over from a previous day, which will be read. 

The Chief Clerk read the resolution submitted yesterday by Mr. 

PLUl\fll1 as follows: 

Whereas there have been for many months serious complaints as to the inefficient character o f the mail service, especially in the West and South, and the same continue, indicating that the trouble is of a permanent character: 

Resol'l:ed, That the Comll!'ittee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads be instructed. to make thorough inquiry into the cause of such inefficient mail service, and re- port to the Senate theil" conclusions thereon, with suggestions aa to remedy. 

:M:r. COCKRELL . I suggest an amendment about which I spoke to 

the Senator from Kansa.<; [Mr. PLUMB] not now in his seat, and I am satisfied it will be accepted. The preamble is: 

'Vhereas there have been for many months serious complaints as to the ineffici ent character of the mail service, etc. 

I wish to insert '' alleged'' before ''inefficient.'' 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Kansas has entered 

the Chamber. 

Mr. PLUMB. That change is entirely acceptable. 

The PRESIDENT pt·o temp01·e. The amendment will be st.ated. 

The CHIEF CLERK. In line 2, before the word "inefficient," it is 

proposed to insert the word "alleged;, so as to read: 

"Whereas there have been-for many months serious complaints a.s to the alleged inefficient character of the mail service, especially in the West and South, 

and the same continue, indicating that the trouble is of a permanent character. 

Mr. MANDERSON. I do not object to this amendment, which I _ 

understand is accepted by the Senator from Kansas, although I think 

the evils referred to in the resolution have passed beyond the domain 

of mere allegation and b,.we become well-known and ascertained facts. 

I feel a pe1-sonal sense of gratitude to the Senator from Kansas that he 

bas introduced this resolution, and I hope that investigation will quickly 

follow. Those of us who Jive in the mpid~y advancing States of the 

West have suffered very greatly within the last two years because of 

inadequate postal facilities. I am in receipt daily of letters calling my 

attention to the facts. In my own State there have been built within 

the last year ove:r: a thous:.tnd miles of railroad-1, 100 miles of railroad, 

Lam informed by my colleague [Mr. PADDOCK]-and along these 

newly built lines of road new communities have sprung into existence, 

thriving villages, that are actually deprived of adequate postal facilities. Where the fault is I do not know; but I do know that the attention of the Post-Office authorities has been frequently called to these 

complaints by myself and other members of the delegation of the State 

that I have the honor to represent in part on this floor, and that a rem- edy for the evil has been demanded. I have here letters received on other subjects, but referring incidentally to this. one from a gentleman 

well known to this body, late the effic\_ent Public Printer of the Government, Ron. S. P. Rounds, now deceased. He wrote me on October 

261 1887: 1 

Without any disparagement of our present posk>ffice officials, everybody 

knows and complains of the mail service here. Especially is this true as re- gards our paperMr. Rounds then editing the Omaha-Republicanand, we presume, the others in this city, and we are in constant receipt of com- plaints from subscribers of the non-receipt or irregular and late receipt of their papers. 

I read also an extract from a letter from the editor of the Omaha 

World, a daily newspaper published in Omaha: Let me add my voice- • 

Says Mr. Hitchcock, the editor- to the storm of complaints against the inadequate post-office facilities of Omaha. 

with which your ears have doubtless been assailed. 

I 

, 

• 
830 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENA'JIE. J.ANU.ARY 31, 

Not Omaha only, but the whole tributary country, with a. population of two millions or more, su:ffe:-s because the post-office building and the post-office force in Omaha are wholly inadequate for the needs of business in this section. Take the case of a newspaper. lt is almost of daily occurrence that the World faits to reach hundreds of readers outside the clty promptly bec.mse the force in the post-office could not handle the work in time to catch the train. Not only is t·his often the case with .a portion of our outgoing mail, but the postmaster is obliged constantly to require of us that the papers be delivered at the office long before train time, which would not be necessary if his force were large enough to dispatch work promptly. What is true of the newspaper is true of bankers, wholesale merchants, and others having heavy mails. The service is abominable, but the postmaster is not to blame. He and his force are up to their ears in mail-b.ag:s, overwhelmed with work, and crowded into inadequate quarters. The result is that all Ne- braska suffers. 

be taken intoconsiderationandliberallytreated. I was opposed to large 

contrncts for carrying the mail on what are called star routes. The 

swindling in that matter did the West a great deal of harm. It prevented the use of money for small routes to do the necessary se1·vice 

that would accommodate the people. The reform in cutting off extravagance in star-route contracts is a great reform and a thing to be commended, and the scandal ought not to be renewed again. 

What the people want is to have their necessities provided for. They 

want mail service .cheap, economical, and efficient, and an inquiry into 

this subject, so that the mail service can be extended to them without 

any unreasonable expenses, is what is important; and with tba.t view I 

am cord.ially in fuvor of the resolution presented by the Senator from 

I select these letters out of numerous others received simply for the Kansas. - purpose of showing the magnitUde of this evil. The calls for relief Mr. MORGAN. I am very glad this resolution has been introduced, 

come not only from those who are publishing newspapers, but from the and I hope it will be adopted, especially because I think the Commitpublic at large and even from the postmasters themselves. tee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads need to have some little stimulant 

I knowit isverymuch easier to find fault than it is toappiyaremedy; administered to them to cause them t.o form some statute or amendment 

it is easier to criticise than it is t<> reform, but certainly a reformation to the statutes which will make the postal service of the United States 

is needed here by which these people who have suffered for the last two correspond with its growth. 

or three years should have some remedy for the evils that now exist This country is growing very rapidly in every direction, extending 

and under which they have suffered for years past. . territorially, and increasing very rapidly in population. We are re-

:Mr. STEWART. 1\Ir. President, the same condition of things de- ceiving a great acquisition of foreign people in this country, of somescribed by the Senator from Nebraska exists throughout the West. thing like half a million people a year. 

The mail service has been cut down and the expenses are curtailed to There is also one fact connected with this service that is an imporsuch an extent that the service is altogether inadequate. It is so in tant one to be considered. By the reduction of postage upon all classes 

Nevada and so throughout the Territories. I have received a vast of mail matter made a few years ago we have increased the volume and 

number of lettets on the subject going into great ~etail about it; and weight of the mails immensely. The number of packages for mailing, 

there is a universal complaint in the new countries, the cause of which the number for distribution, the number fqr transportation, have enormust be removed or great injury will be done them. The mail routes mously increased. The clerical force to do this work has not kept pace 

have been cut down. Where they had daily mails they are reduced with the increase of all mail matter carried over our lines, nor have the 

to tri-weekly, sometimes to weekly, and then the force is often inade- salaries that belong to the inferior officers in the service of the Governquate to deliver letters promptly or carry them promptly. The com- ment of the United States been increased su.fficiently to enable them 

plaint is general. ·I hope the matter will be looked into and that we to do this additional amount <>f work. 

shall have some relief from an evil which is generally felt by the whole We have been grading the postal expenditures almost within the 

Western community. postal revenue. We have been very successful in bringing _the postal 

Mr. SAULSBURY. 1.Ir. President, I do not know anything about expenditures within postal receipts, but I think we have done it at the 

the particular delays in' the mails which have been spoken of. The expense of that very faithful band of people engaged in handling the 

complaints may be well founded, or they may be mere reports without mail matter that passes through our post-offi.ces. I think they are the 

proper foundation. But what I rose to say is that, while I l1a.ve no ob- hardest-worked set of people in the world. They are certainly the 

jection to the investigation proposed by the resolution of the Senator most faithful of men, take them all in all. Take the numerous numfrom Kansas, I do think it is unfair when a resolution of that character ber of persons who are concerned in the posta.l management of the 

is offered for the purpose of inquiring whether certain complaints are United States, and I think they are the most faithful set of men that 

well founded, to spread upon theRECORDandsoputbeforethecountry, have ever had a record made in history. We ought to increase their 

n ot the statements of Senators, but extracts from ne-wspapers, charges pay; we ought to provide for the increase of their number. 

of delinquency somewhere in an Executive Department in regard to , A great many things are needed to be done to bring the postal servwhich an investigation is proposed. That kind of dealing with an ex- ice up to the necessities of the country. What we need to-day is to 

ecutive officer does not commend itselfto my judgment offuirness and take up our postal Jaws and reform them. Now, if that committee 

justice. L should want a guide for this reformation they have nothing t<> do but 

I was pleased to hear the Senator from Kansas say-and Ihaveheard to consult the report of the Postmaster-General, a most carefully-prenobody dispute .the position- that he was satisfied the Postmaster-Gen- pared paper, in which every evil of the postal system as it now exists 

eral had acted honestly and endeavored to act economically in the man- is portrayed, and the remedy is indicated, and is earnestly brought to 

agement of his Department. That is a comment very favorable upon the attention of Congress. If that committee will take up that report 

the present administration of postal affairs, because we know that it and examine-it they will find that the late Postmaster-General has 

has not been long since there were grave charges of fraud and defulca- covered the whole ground, and I should think they would not fail if 

tions in the management of the postal affail.'S of the country. I am they adopted every single recommendation he made. He complains 

pleased to know that no charges of that kind are brought forth against more loudly of the postal system than we complain here of his adthe present administration of the Postal Department. ministration of it, and be says that the difficulties by which he has 

We all know that we cut down a few years ago the rate of letter- been environed grow out of deficiencies in the law. I have been 

postage from 3 cents to 2 cents, and reduced the postage on other matter. here several years in the Senate, and I think we have made fewer 

The Postmaster-General has been compelled to carry on and support efforts to amend our postal laws than any· other system of laws we 

his Department with the appropriations made by Congress. He has have got. 

not done what was done a few years ago under anoth~r administration, It seems t.o me that if the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads 

when we were informed by the Postmaster-General that the ap"{)ropri- have contented themselves with a. system that belongs to the past of 

ations which had been made to the full e,:xtent which .he had estimated this country twenty or twenty-five years back, we had better move our 

would be exhausted by the fll-st of ::M:ay, and that there would be two statutes up to correspond somewhat with the progressive advancement 

months of the year when the mails would be stopped, because he was of our people. 

n ot able under the act of Congress to carry on the Department for the Mr. TELLER. Mr. President, if the purpose of this inquiry is to 

want of funds. find whether there is defective mail service, in the West at least, it is 

The late Postmaster-General, who has recently left that Department, not necessary. That is admitted by everybody, by the post-office o:ffi.-

has endeavored to keep himself within the limits of the appropriations 'cials as well as the public. I do not propose to criticise anybody, bemade to meet the deficiency in the re,enues of the Department, and cause I am of the opinion myself that the complaint largely grows out 

he may, perhaps, have had to ($COnomize m·ore than his own judgment of causes beyond the control of the Executive Department. 

would have justified, from the necessity of the case. . The evils alleged by the Senator from Nebraska. undoubtedly exist; 

I hope the investigation will be instituted, and that it will be and what he read in reference to the post-office at Omaha shows that it 

dealt with fairly, and that the true cause of any delay, or any want of is beyond the po-wer of the Executive Department to remedy the dimproper facilities, may be ascertained and a proper remedy pointed out. culty unless they are improperly withholding from that office force that 

What I rose to say was that I do not think it is fair, when it is pro- they are giving improperly to others, of which I have heard no composed to investigate the management of a. Department, to put upon the · plaint. The fault is that there is not an appropriation sufficient to 

r ecord compJaints of newspapers and others without having even a , meet the wants ·and demands of the postal service. There may be, and 

verification of their accuracy by the Senator who introduces them. I undoubtedly is, something to be attributed to the change in officials of 

say I think it is unfair to an executive officer thus to be dealt with in the Department from skilled and competent men to men who are un- t he Senate of the United States. skilled, and it takes time for them to a-cquire the knowledge and the 

Ur. STEW ART. Mr. President, in the remarks I made I reflected skill that their predecessors had. But the real trouble is that there is 

upon no officer. I simply stated a col!tlition of things that ought to be not money enough. You go to the Post-Office Department for an ad- inquired into. It may need further appropriations and further legis- ditional assignment for clerical force at. Denver or Omaha or any other 

lation. I think the necessities of the people in new countries should pla-ce that is rapidly growing, and you e told that if they should give 

• 
:.. 

1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 831 

what you demand, there would be a deficiency which they have no right 

under the statutes to make. 

This is an evil that is not entirely to be charged to the Administration. It has been going on for years. As the Senator from Alabama 

[Mr . .M:oRG.A.N] sayE~, we do not keep pace with the growth of the coun- try. That is what is the matter. We do not realize that towns which 

had not any existence when the last census was taken contain large 

numbers of people, and that it requires thousands of dollars t.o carry on and keep up their postal aifuirs. I have seen a post-office from a $12-a-year po~t-office _jump to where the clerical foree required cost 

$7,000a year ill one smgle twelvemonth to keep itgoino- and the man who put his 1mnd in his pocket and paid the $7,0UO f;; clerk-hire is 

still waiting for the Government·to reimburse him. 

I have seen another instance of a town that sprang i.Uto existence at once where the postmaster gave his services for a twelvemonth where 

he gave the rent of a building that was worth $lOU per month 'and he 

_paid out every dollar that be received from the Government for the 

cle~ks t.hat w.e~e absolutely necessary to accommodate the public, and 

be lS still waitmg for the Government to repay him the money that he 

h~ expended, and I doubt whether the Governmenii will ever pay 

him. . . The Western country is full of such instances within the last ten 

years; and as the prosperity of the country increases and the public 

demand is greater 1or these ti:wilities the complai:nt becomes louder. I 

do not propose myself to attribute it entirely to the official-; but I do 

attJ;ibute it in p_art to the lack of that department of the Go~ernment which appropnates the money, not this branch of Cono-ress· but there 

is the trouble largely. , l:) ' 

I do. not donbt t~at there has been a lack of celerity in putting 

~he ma.1!-s on new railroads when they have been built. and the fact IS that ill the West th~y have b~ilt railroads with such facility and 

such_ unexampled celenty that It takes more than an ordinary ex- ecutive officer to take notice of the fact that the railroads are built. 

Wh~n in one section of the country they can build 600 miles from 

April to November, and when in another they can build in a summer 

200 _!!liles through a mountain range suppo~ to be impassable it is 

not to be supposed that .th.e officials living here, hampered a.<l they are by the .notwn tb_at th1s lS the whole country where they are, will 

keep up w1th the t1mes. One of the great difficulties we have had 

to encounter in ?~ilding up th~ West~ b~en a lack of a knowledge 

here of our conditiOn, a lack of an appreciation of the necessities of the 

people, an~ a lack; of appreciatio~ of ot;tr gro':t-h and of our enterprise. 

M1'. President, m the country m which I livethepeople donotwant 

any '!eekly mail; they would ju~t about as lief not have any; and ther~ lS m~re than one settlement m Colorado to-day that is paying for a dmly mail because the Government declines to give them more than a weekly mail, sending their special messengers to depots at a distance 

and bringing the mail in and distributing it by a tax put upon themselves, and when the Department is applied to, the officials tell us that 

they have not the money,andlaminclined tothinkthatthat islargely 

true .. 

.I beard it said yesterd~y-and I refer to it now because pei·haps it 

will be the only opportumty I shall have-that it was not worth while 

to put postage at 1 cent, because it was proposed to make the PostOffice Department "'self-supporting. I have on various occasions ex- pressed my disapprobation of that sentiment. There is no reason why 

the Post-Office should be self-supporting any more than the Army or the Nav:y, and there are~ thousand reasons why it should not be selfs~pportmg where ~her~IS on~ why it should be. Free comm"t!.nication between the different.sectwns of the country, cheap literature that 

can .be sent to the p~op~e 1~ all sect~ns of the country, is almost a ne- cessl't~ no': for the c1 v_1hzation of thiS age, and we c.an not in vest money 

anythmg like as we~lm any other branch of the administration of government as we can m the postal service and that too without refer- ence to its income or its revenue. ' ' ' 

Ur. BECK. .Mr. President, I should like to say a word if I may be 

allowed. I have looked into this matter with some care of late and I 

am gl~d .that. the resolution is offered and hope it will be adop~, be- cause It xs gomg to develop a great many things. 

In an effort which I made some time ago to see whether a bill could 

be dmwn to reduce the rate of charge on letters, I found that I could 

not understand the matter, and therefore sent itto the committee who 

reported it back .yesterday, to see what they could do. We ar~ told 

that the matter illvolves a reclassification of all the service the pay of 

th~ cle~cal force in the v.arious postmasters' offices, and very'many other 

things, and one of the diffic~l tieS w~ are laboring under now, it is very 

w.ell fo~ Senators to Ja:low, Istbatrallroadsarebuiltwith suchrapidity, displacm~ star-route lines, and so much time under existing laws must 

elapse before contracts can be made, that the changes involve great em- barrassment. 

I have read with great care the report of the Postmaster-General which 

was referred to b.Y the Senator from Delaware [Mr. SAULSBURY]. He 

~ed the at~ention of Congress to the legislation needed very clearly 1n tbe followmg language: ' 

To such as thus receive ~.ooo or more the full salary is bestowed without 

abatement., an~ adeG.~te provisioD: made of an office, with all its accessories, an~ of all clencal assistance. supplies, and -other expenses of equipment and mamtenance. The second-class posl.master especially is the favorite of the stat- ute; charged generally with duties which exact but a.-moderate share of a com- petent o.f?.cer's time, and sustaining no drawback in any necessity of applying 

pa1·t of hl3 salary to the expenses of his office. Ye~ from the tJ:ird-class postmaster, who has so much less than the others in nommal salary, 1s taken "even that which he hath." To him no allowance (~xcept in a ~se whic;h is no ~xception, that of the separating office) for rent, 

light, fuel, clencal sel'Vl.ce, stationery, or other outgo whatever is made but all must be defrayed from his miscalled salary which thus proves too often in- stea.d ~f the apparently promised reward of l~bor, but the weak: residuum 'of a well-nigh exhausted. cup. "_The consequences are, first, injustice, more or less, to al~ postmastex:; of tJ;e thud class~ and frequent instances of grotesque ine- · quahl~ and unf:urness m the proportion of labor and responsibility to net com- pensatlOn; and, secondly, a resulting tendency t-o poorer provision and service 

~ffi~~~~· offices, only counterbalanced by the pride and .sense_ of duty of the 

And so all through the Postmaster-General calls attention to those thing~ which the law-~'lking .power must regulate, and he can not. 

Whil~ I am o~ my i.eet I. tylSh to state t~t. the:e is another thing I 

hope this resoluti~n w1~ ehc1t. We are distribntmg the p1ails now·by 

perhaps the m~t mtelligent body of young men in the service, known as the postal-railway clerks, all along the lines of railway- and yet we 

have great o~ steru;ners co?D-ing in every d~y from all parts of Europe ~aden down ~tb foreign mails, many of them of great jmportance, and 

mstead. of bavmg ~ postal clerk on those great mail steamers arranging 

the mails and haVIng them ready for shipment as soon as they land at 

New York to San Francisco, Chicago, Louisville and everywhere else 

they are dumped into the New York post-office: and from fifty ~o on~ . hun~ed clerks. are kept th~re ~om twenty-four to forty-eight hours ar- rangmg, assorting, and adJusting them before they can start for their 

places of destination. Why do we not re,uulate that? 

If the young men on railroad trains can adjust the mails so that they can be sent off, why can we not in some way or other have the same 

~rra~ement ~n the ~cean steamers? There is no difficulty in arrangmg mth foreign nations by extending our postal treaties; and yet the 

Postmaster-General can not do all that. 

There are a thousand things to be done and that is one of them. If we go into the difficulties of the service,' its needs and the improvements ~bat can be mad~, we may find that while the office may have 

been a httle too economical, or too desirous to make itself self-support-

~ng-wh~ch I a~~.it ought not to be looked at, but the good of the serv- Ice ana .Its facil1tJ~ ought t? be .looked after-while they may have 

gone a httle f:oo f~r ill that drrection the Congress of the United States 

bas not exerCISed_ I.ts power nor done its duty in furnishing to that Department the facility and the power to meet the requirements of the 

country. 

I ho~e all tJ:is w~l be gone into and developed, and then let us do 

somethmg which will make the service good and efficient. I do not 

blame the.Cm~nnittee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads; they are burdened 

I know With 1m;'llense work; but still, as one Senator said, we may well 

se~ve tb.em notice that ~.mething should b~ done. My friend from 

WISconsm [l\Ir. SA WYERJ lS capable of doing any amount of work and 

be has good backing as I know. ' 

Mr. CHA~E. Mr .. President, I. bad not expected to say anything in re~~ud to this resolutiOn because It seems to me that this discussion is a ltttl~ premature. If there is to be an examination of the manage- m~t of the Post-Office Department, it wouldseem better to get in the 

t:estimony before we make the argument; bnt inasmuch as the Senat.or fro~ Alabama [Mr. M:ORGAN] has proposed to spread out the investigatiOn from the Department itself to the Committee on Post-Offices and 

P?st-Roads, and has proposed to administer to that committee a dose of 

sttmulant, I thought I would respond that the commitwe would prefer 

to b~ c.onsulted perhaps somewhat as to the character of the dose to be 

admmiStered. .. 

It ~not, I apprehend, by any possi~ility to be laid at the door of that 

committ~ that t~e. e.vils of which complaint bas been made exist. I 

d? not wish to cntJc1se unduly or unfairly the Postmaster-General or 

his Department, and I know very well that some of the beads of the 

subordmate departments are very efficieut; excellent and competent m~ ' 

. My friend .from Delaware [M:r. SAULSBURY] attempted to draw a, . 

httl~ companson betweerrthe service under the present Administration 

and m the past. I th~nk tha~ is not exactly fair, for there was no such 

great g~eral complamt durmg the 1a8t Administration as there has 

been durrng the present one, nor does the complaint come entirely from 

the West, as has. been sugg~ted. It is not alone that railroads are being 

extended so rapidly; that lS not the difficulty in this matter. The difficulty ar~es from two sources: the first source, and probably the greatest one, IS tbe fact that the Department has attempted to chanue the 

clerical force too rapidly. In the short space of two years and ~ half 

n~ly 90 per eent. of the whole force of the Post-Office Department in 

thiS country has OOE:n changed. It is impossible that that number of 

new men should be mducted so suddenly into the service and perform 

the duties successfully and efficiently. -

My friend f:om Nebraska [~. MANDERSO:N] asked a q&stion in re- gard to ~he rail~y postal serVIc~. It is true that there has been less change~ the ra~V!ay postal service than in any other department of 

the semce; and Lt lS also true, and bears directly on this_question, that 

• 
832 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE, JANUARY 31, 

in no department of this service has there been so little difficulty as in ments in the Post-Office establishment have intended to give us a goo 

the service on the postal cars. and efficient service; but they have been placed in a very paradoxical 

In the ~Jity of Philadelphia, where the most radical change has been position. The question with them is, how to do the service with new made, it has become notorious, everyhody knows, th'at if a man is men, selected, not with reference to their special qualifications for the 

really in a hurry to get a communication to anybody in the city of service, but solely and entirely on account of their vn.lue as political 

Philadelphia he either sends it by express or by telegraph. Numerous servants. How, under such circumstances, can a Department secure a instances are on record where letters have been traced that have been good and· efficient service? It is impossible. 

one, two, and three weeks reaching their destination in the city of I do not expect to go on with this discussion now, because I hope we Philadelphia. What is the reason of this? It is very patent. The -shall have a careful and thorough investigation in response to this res- clerical force in the city of Philadelphia bas been almost entirely olution, and then perhaps we may discuss it more at length. 

changed, and new men have been selected, not with reference to their Mr. REAGAN. Mr. President, I am in hopes the resolution will be 

qualifications for office, but especially with a view to political services, adopted, so that if there are deficiencies and insufficiencies in the postal 

and we have seen the fruits of it only a few weeks ago in the efforts of ·service which a.re inexcusable, that fact may be developed, and if there 

the present Administrat,ion to capture a convention and secure the elcc- are not, that the action of the Pust-Office Department may be vindition of a chairman of the State Democratic committee of Pennsylvania. cated. I should be glad if the resolution were so amended as to em- This is notorious; everybody knows it. The men in the post-office in brace t:P,e point suggested by the Senator from Rhode Island a few mothe city of Philadelphia acted as the political heelers and strikers to ments ago, when he charged part of the alleged inefficiency of the postal 

bring about that movement, supposed to be looking to the appoint- service to the appointment of new and inexperienced clerks. l'l:Iy un- ment of delegates to a convention that may sit during the coming derstanding on that subject is that there have been fewer changes from warm weather. the past administration to the pre3ent than have usually been made on 

But I wish to say furth'er in regard to this matter of difficulty in the a change of administration within the sa~ party. I think that fact 

West, that itisnot confined to the West. The businessmenofmycity will be developed if the Senator will amend the resolution so as to 

are suffering every week and every day from delays in the handling of make the necessary inquiry. 

the mail, until it has become to be averycommon matter for a man who Mr. CHACE. Do I understand the Senator to say that there. have 

is engaged in business to find that his samples have come in before his been fewer changes by this Administration in the Post-Office Departinvoice arrives, and when he is in a hurry to get the invoice he directs ment than by former administrations? 

that it be sent by express. This did not occur former]y. 1\ir. REAGAN. Yes, sir; that is it. 

Thereisanotherdifficulty. ThisDepartment,incommonwithothers, Mr. CHACE. The Senator is very much mistaken. 

has attempted to carry the theory of economy to an excessive extent. Mr. REAGAN. I hope the Senator will let us settle that by amendThey have cut off expenditures to an extent unwarranted by law or ing the resolution so as to dmw out the facts in that respect. The 

usage; the decisions of the Department have been against efficiency Senator suggested that 90 per cent. of the postal clerks were new apand good service; and this policy has been carried on notoriously in re- pointments. 

gard to the printing and writing upon wrappers on second and third Mr. CHACE. Nearly. 

class matter. Mr. REAGAN.- That is news, I think, to the Department and to 

So also the decision of the Department in regard to an appropriation the country. The official report of the Postmaster-General discloses 

made in the Forty-eighth Congre~ to convey the water-borne mails. no such fact, but, on the contr·ary, it shows a much less proportion of 

Congress, supposing it possessed the authority to make the·appropria- changes than that. I have only read the report once, without reference 

tion, provided by legislation that bids should be called for under certain particularly to that subject,. but it discloses the fact that there have 

prescribed conditions, and made the appropriation, expecting the Post- been no such number of changes as the Senator snpposes. 

Office Department to carry out that provision of law; but the Postmas- Mr. CHACE. The Senator will allow me to interrupt him. He will 

ter-General, taking. upon himself the right and the authority to decide remember that I was alluding to the whole service in the Post-Office 

upon a supposed law binding on hiiilSelf, declared that he would not Department. I think if the SenatQr will look it up he will find that 

carry out the provisions of that stn.tute the changes in the whole Post-Office Department are, as I said, very 

Mr. BECK. What does the Senator say, may I ask him? nearly 90 per cent. The Senator fi·om .Uaine [M:r. HALE] the other. 

:M:r. CHACE. I was alluding to t.he appropriation of $400,000. day ga.ve us very valuable statistics in regard to that matter, and, if I 

Mr. BECK. I desire to ask the Senator what he said about the Post- am correctJy informed, lie did not have information as to the whole 

master-General. number of changes made, but--

Mr. CHACE. I said j;he Postmaster decided that he would not carry Mr. REAGA.N. Will the Senator change the resolution so as to call 

out the provisions of that law. out an investigation of that filet? 

Mr. BECK. We discussed that matter before. I ask what the Sen- l\Ir. CHACE. There have been nearly· two thousand Presidential 

a tor said about merqhant~ having trouble about their invoices. post-offices changed out of twenty-four hundred. 

Mr. CHACE. It is a matter of commdn notoriety in my city that Mr. COCKRELL. Will the Senator permit me to make a little 

pn.rties buying merchandise at a distance receive their samples by ex- statement in regard to postal clerks in Missouri? If 90 per cent. of 

}Jress before they get their invoices by mail; and it has come to be the changes had been made there the service would ha;ve been decidedly 

case that when they are in a hurry to get their invoices, so as to be able improved, and I regret exceedingly to say that no such percentage of 

to examine them before the arrival of the samples, they have them changes has been secured. 

sent by express. Mr. REAGAN. Nor has any such percentage of changes been made 

Mr. BECK. Samples from other parts of this country, or from in any other Department, and I invite investigation on that point. 

abroad-which? Mr!.CHACE. I think there is a ver.v broa' "if" in the st..'ltement 

11fr. CHACE. I am speaking now of my own State and of different of the Senator from Missouri. · parts of the country, all about. I am simply mentioning this fact to Mr. REAGAN. The Senator from Colorado [Mr. TELLER] and my 

show th.at the difficulty is not confined to the West. It does not arise friend, the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. BECK], as some other Senators on account of the construction of new railroads or the change in the did yesterday perhaps, or recently at least, have called attention to the 

carrying of the mails from star routes to railroads. question of making the Post-Office Department self-sustaining. The 

Mr. BECK. I can not understand how invoices from one part of the Senator from Colorado says there is no more reason for making the Postcountry toanothercan be delayed; but, as tothosecomingfrom abroad, Office Department self-sustaining than there is for making the Army 

I understand that perfectly well from the examinations the Committee and the Navy self-sustaining. It seems to me, with all respect, that 

on Finance have made in regard to that matter. there iB a very broad difference between the two. The Army and the · Mr. CHACE. I am not speaking about foreign mails. Navy are for the protection and defense of the conutry. They are not 

111r. BECK. We are not so particular about the invoice from abroad for the purpose of carrying out any private wish, enterprise, or scheme. 

now. It is rather 1n·o jo1"11!a. On the contrary, the Post-Office Department has for its main purpose 

l\Ir. CHACE. I am speaking now about the qomestic mail service to carry the private correspondence of the people, their social corre- within our own country and from one State to another, and not con- spondence, their business correspondence, to 1acilitate them in their prifined to any particular State or any particular locality. It is a. noto- vate affairs; and when they are thus fa-cilitated in their private affairs, 

rious fact that the mails are slower, that they are not so well handled, is it right that those who enjoy its benefits should pay for those benethat they are not so well distributed as formerly. It has always been fits, or are you to tax the people generally for the benefit of those who 

the case that second and third and fourth class mail matter has been use the Post-Office Department? 

delayed longer than letters, but that is aggravated at the present time, I make this suggestion because it seems to me strange that the stateand the explanation is a very simple one. Here are new men, an im- ment should be so often repeated that there is no reason for mn.king mense borde of them, more than forty-six thousand out of fifty-odd tile Post-Office Department self-sustaining. thousand changed suddenly, introduced into a new business with whicll The PRESIDENT pro tempm·e The hour of 2 o'clock having arrived, 

they had n•previous acquaintance, and it is not to be expected that the Senate resumes the consideration of the unfinished business, being 

those men on entering the service can perform the duties wit.h the the bill (S. 371) to aid in the establishment and temporary snpport of 

promptness and facility of old and faithful officers. common schools. 

I did not rise to criticise the Administration. I have no doubt the Mr. REAGA....li~ I have a single remark more to make, if I am per- Post.maste~-Genern.l and his subordinates at the head of the depart- mitted. 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 833 

The PRESIDENT P'ro tempore. The Senator from Texas asks unani- mous consent to conclude his remarks. Is there objection? 

Mr. BLAIR. I hope that the Senator's remarks may be postponed. 

Mr. REAGAN. Only a sentence or two. 

Mr. BLAIR. Then I will not object. 

Mr. REAGAN. Mr. President--

Mr. CHACE. I hope the Senator from New Hampshire will permit a few minutes in regard to this resolution. 

Mr. BLAIR. I do not feel at liberty to give way. The resolution 

will come up to-morrow. There will be a long discussion on it .. Mr. REAGAN. The only additional remark I have to m:;tke is that 

the report of the Postmaster-General shows great intelligence and a thorough comprehension of the various needs of the postal service, and 

he has pointed to those elements in the service where there are deficiencies to be supplied, and asks the assistance of Congress in perfecting the service. The whole report shows a most careful and useful 

condition of the service of the Post-Office Department, and I have not 

heard any complaints anywhere where I have been about the defects in 

the service that we hear from .Senators on the floor. 

So I shall be glad to have the resolution adopted, and I shall be glad 

if the Senator from Rhode Island would amend it so as to investigate 

the point to which he has drawn attention. 

Mr. CHACE. I ask the Senator from New Hampshire to give me 

just one moment. 

Ur. BLAIR. I can not. 

Mr. CHACE. I wish to have printed in the RECORD in connection 

with the remarks I made--

1\Ir. BLAIR. 'rhe resolution 'II ill be discussed to-morrow. 

Mr. CHACE. Just one moment. I want to put in a few figures that 

I wish to go into the RECORD in connection with the remarks I made 

and the Senator from Texas [Mr. REAGAN] made. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Hampshire 

has the right to call for the regular order if he desires. 

Mr. BLAIR. I will waivtl it for a moment. 

Mr. CHACE. I wish to say that it appears by the report of the PostOffice Department that under this Administration out of 2,359 Presidential postmasters, 2, 000 bad been changed up to the time of this re- port, and out of the 52,000 other officers 4.0,000 had been changed up 

to the date of the last report. 

Mr. REAGAN. Many of those are appointments and reappointments. 

Mr. GRACE. No; I beg the Senator's pardon. There are exceedingly few of them that are reappointments, not 1 per cent.; and further, 

since that time there have been a large number of changes besides. 

RAILROAD RECEIVERS. 

Mr. CALL. I ask unanimous consent to offer a resolution-morning business. 

'.fhe PRESIDENT pro te1npore. The Senator from Florida asks unan- imous consent to present at this time a resolution. Is there objection? 

There being no objection, the resolution was read, as follows: 

ResoZved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to report, by bill or otherwise, sugh legislation a.s may be necessary to prevent the courts of the 

United States, in managing railroads through receivers, from depriving creditors of their liens on said railroads nnd corporate properties by the sale of the 

properties under receiver's certificates, issued under the order of said courts, 

whereby the title to great railroad properties and vast bodies of the public land 

of the people of the United States, carrying with them a power of taxation over the people, is vested in fA.vorites and combinations of persons selected and ap- proved by the receiver and his confederates. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolution will lie over under 

the rule. 

Mr. CALL. I give notice that to-morrow morning I will ask consent of the Senate during the morning hour to address the Senate upon 

this resolution. 

THE PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL MESSAGE. 

Mr. KENNA. I give notice that on Thursday, as soon as the morn- ing business is concluded, I shall desire io make some observations touching the resolution to refer the President's annual message, and in reply to the Senator from Ohio [Mr. SHERMAN]. 

MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. CLARK, its 

Clerk, announced that the House had passed the following bills; in 

which it requested the concurrence of the Senate: 

A bill (H. R. 436) for the relief of James Barnes, J oab Williams, and 

William Titus; and 

A bill (H. R. 5352) to grant an American register to the foreign-built 

bark Nordstjernen. 

ENROLLED BILLS SIGNED. 

The message also announced that the Speaker pro tempore of the 

House had signed the following enrolled bills; and they were thereupon 

signed by the President pro tempore: 

A bill (H. R. 4271) making appropriations to supply deficiencies in 

the appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, and for 

prior years, and for other purposes; and • A bill (H. R. 4881) making an appropriation to carry into effect the 

provisions of an act approved March 2, 1887;-entitled ''An act to establi.!ili agricultural experimental stations in connection with the colleges 

XIX-53 

established in the several States under the provisions of an act approved 

July 2, 1862, and of acts supplementary thereto." 

RIVER AND HARBOR BILL. 

1\:Ir. HOAR. I wish to offer a resolution to be l'eferred to a committee. 

The resolution was read, and referred to the Committee to Audit and 

Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate, as follows: 

Re.so~ved, That the Committee on Commerce be directed when they report the 

bill making appropriations for rivers and harbors to report as to each item thereof, 

whether the same be contained in the bill as it came from the House or he pro- posed by way of amendment, the facts tending to show the importance of the 

work for which the appropriation is proposed to commerce with foreign nat.ions, or among the States, and for that purpose be authorized to employ an additional 

clerk to be paid from the contingent fund of the Senate. 

L. B. TOWNSEND AND OTHERS. 

Mr. P ALMEH. I should like to ask the forbearance of the Senator 

from New Hampshil'e while I move to take up Senate bill 388, Order 

of B~siness 48. It is a bill that should be considered now, from the 

fact that if it is :bot considered at once great harm may result to many 

honest men. It passed the Senate unanimously at the last session, but 

did not get through the House of Representatives. If the Senator 

from New Hampshire makes no objection, I have no doubt the Senate 

will accord me the privilege of calling up this bill out of ordel'. 

Mr. BLAIR. I can not accede to the request. The Senator must see that the pending bill involves matters of great interest to the coming 

generations of this country, and I ask him not to make the request 

under the circumstances that now confront us. I want the regular 

order to go on. l\fr. PALMER.. ·I appeal to the gentleman by stating that this will 

lead to no debate, and if his bill merely refers to com.ing generations I 

think that the p1·esent demands a little of our consideration. 

Mr. BLAIR. I can not consent to a postponement of the bill which 

is the regular order. 

Mr. PALMER. I move to lay the pending business aside tempomrily. 

The PRESIDENT pro ternpo,.e. The Chair can not entertain that 

motion. 

Mr. PALMER. I move that it be laid aside. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempm·e. The Chair can only entertain a mo- tion to postpone either to a day certain or indefinitely. 

Mr. PALMER. I move, then, that it be postponed for half an hour. 

The PRESIDENT p1·o tempore. The Senator from Michigan moves 

that the pending order, being the bill (S. 371) to aid in the establishment and temporary support of common schools, be laid aside for thirty 

minutes. The question is on that motion. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. PALMER. Now I move to proceed to the consideration of Senate bill 388. · 

'.fhe motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the 

Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. 388) for the relief of L. B; 

Townsend, Louis S. Lovell, W. C. Page, Alonzo Sessions, Hampton 

Rich, Han-ey Harter, Benjamin Harter, and Peter Hackett. 

The bill provides that L. B. Townsend, Louis S. Lovell, W.C. Page, 

Alonzo Sessions, Hampton Rich, Harvey Harter, Benjamin Harter, and 

Peter Hackett, of Ionia., Mich., sureties upon the severll.l bonds of the 

late-J. C. Dexter, given as security for the faithful performance by him 

of his duties as receiver of public moneys and disbursing agent of the 

land office at Ionia, Mich., from 1861 to 1867, be released and discharged 

from all obligation and liability whatsoever on account of th~ bond. 

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to 

be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed. 

TIT~E TO CERTAIN LANDS IN KANSAS. 

Mr. PLUMB. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration 

of Order of Business 122, Senate bill No. 1022. 

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the 

Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. 1022) to relinquish the interest of the United States in certain lands in Kansas. 

Mr. McPHERSON. Does that refer to what are called the New 

York Indian lands in Kansas ? 

1\lr. PLUME. No. This is a bill which respects one quarter-section of land which was originally entered by a person under the preemption laws. After its entry it was sold by him and went into the 

bands of several persons and finally became a town site, oc~upied now probably by a tbousand people. Some years after the entry, long after 

the sale, the Department determined that the party was not entitled 

to enter the land, though they had taken the money, because he had 

made a previous entry. This is simply to relinquish the title of the 

United St.ates to the occupiers of the land. 

The bill was l'ead at length. By it all the interest of the United 

States in and to the southwest fradional quarter of section 31, township 16, range 16 east of the sixth principal meridian, Osage County, 

Kansas is relinqui')hed to those persons, their grantees and their successors in interest, who purchased from Samuel C. Gilliland, who entered the same on the 7th of J nne, 18i0, but which entry was thereafter canceled. 

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to 

be engrossed for a third l'eading, l'ead the third time, and passed. 

# l 

• 
834 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JA~TUARY 31, 

COLUMBIA.. RIVER BRIDGE AT DALLES CITY. 

Mr. DOLPH. I move to take up Senate bill No. 23, Order of Business No. 54. It is a bridge bill reported favorably from the Committee on Commerce, and it is important that it should have early consid- eration. 

The motion was agreed to; and the bill (S. 23) to authorize Dalles 

City to construct a bridge across the Columbia River, in the State of 

Oregon and Territory of Washington, was considered as in Committee 

of the Whole. 

The bill was reported from theCommtttee on Commerce with n.mendments. 

The first amendment was in section 2, "line 19, after the word ''city,'' 

to insert "and approved by the Secretary of War;" so as to read : 

Provided al~o, That said bridge, at the option of the said Dalles City, by which it may be built, may be used for the passage of wagons or vehicles of all kinds, for the transit of animals,Lmd for foot-passengers, for such reasonable rate of toll as may be provided from time to time by the common council of said city, and approved by the Secretary of War, or the same shall, at the option of said Dalles City, be a free bridge. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The uext amendment was in section 41 line 4, after the word "expense" to insert the words: 

And in the event of litigation growing out of the provisions of this act, the same shall be had in the circuit court of the United States within whose juris- diction any part of said bridge may be located. 

So as to make the section read: 

SEc. 4. That such alterations or changes as may be required by the Secretary of 'Var or Congress in the bridge constructed under the provisions of this act shall be made by the said Dalles City, at its own expense; and in the event of litigation growing out of the provisions of this act, tlle same shall be had in the circuit court of the United States within whose jurisdiction any part of said bridge may be located, etc. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendments 

were concurred in. The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the 

third time, and passed: 

CRIME IN THE I~DIAN TERRITORY. 

l\Ir. JONES, of .Arkansas. I move to take up House bill No. 1213, 

which is Order of Business No. 105. 

The motion was agreed to; and the bill (H. R. 1213) to punish robbery, burglary, and larceny in the Indian Territory, was considered as 

in Committee of the Whole. 

The bill wa reported from the Committee on Indian .Affairs with 

amendments. 

The first amendment was in section 1, line 6, after the word ''mule,'' 

to strike out the words ''or other domestic animal;'' so that the section 

will read: 

That any person hereafter convicted in the United States courts h.·wing juris- diction over the Indian Territory, or part"! thereof, of stealing any horse, mare, gelding, filly, foal, ass, mule, when said theft is committed in the Indian Terri- tory, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by imprisonment not more than fifteen years, or by both such fine and imprisonment., at the dis- cretion of the court. · 

. The amendment was agreed to. 

The next amendment was, in section 3, line 2, after the word "repealed1 '' to strike out the words ''but said act,'' and to insert ''Prot:ided, 

Jwweve1·, That all sach acts and parts of acts;'' so as to make the section 

read : 

SEc. 3. That all acts atld parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby re- pealed: Provided, however, 'rhat all such acts and parts of acts shall remain in force for the punishment of all persons who have heretofore been guilty of the crime of larceny in the Indian Territory. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The bill was reported t) the Senate as amended, and the amendments were concurred in. 

The amendments were ordered to be. engrossed and the bill t.o be 1·ead 

a third time. 

The bill was read the third time1 and passed. 

PUBLIC BUILDING AT O::I!AHA. 

Mr. MANDERSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 

the Senate consider Order of Business 159, being Senate bill No.-182. 

- By unanimous consent, the bill (S. 182) to provide for the purchase 

of a site and the erection of a pub] ic building thereon, at Omaha, Nebr., 

was considered as in Committee of the Whole. 

The bill was reported from the Committee on Public Buildings and 

Grounds with amendments. 

The first amendment was in section 1, line 4, after the word "purchase, '' to insert the words '' or acquire by condemnation proceedings, 

in accorda.nce with the laws of Nebraska;" in line 11, after the word 

"city," to strike out the words "the plans, specifications, and full estimates for said building shall be previously made and approved according to law, and," and insert the words "at a cost which;" in line 14, 

after the word "million," to strike out the word ''five" and, insert 

"two;" in line 32, after the worq "million," to strike out "five" and 

jnsert " two; " in line 36, after the word " building," to insert "and 

the erection of said building shall not be commenced until after plans, 

specifications, and full estimates for the same shall have been previously 

made and approved according to law: And pro1:ided furtMr;" and in 

line 43, after the word "million," to strike out the word '':five" and 

insert '' two;'' so as to make the section read: 

That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and di~ 

rected to purchase or acquire by condemnation proceedings, in accordance with the laws of Nebraska, a suitable lot of land in the city of Omaha, in the county of Douglas and State of Nebraska, and cause to be erected on the ground so pur- chased a building suitable for the accommodation of the courts of the United States,of the custom-house, post-office, internal-revenue office, and other Govern- ment offices in that city, at a cost which shall not exceed for the site and build~ 

ing complete the sum of$1,200,000 : Provided, That thesiteshallle::wethe build~ 

ingunex:posed to danger from fire in adjncent buildings by an open space of not less than 40 feet, including streets and alleys; and no moneys appropriated for this purpose shall be available until a v-alid title to the site for said building shall be vested in the United States, nor until the State of Nebraska. shall have ceded to the Uniled St.ates exclusive jurisdiction over the same during the time the United States shall b~ or remain tho owner tllereof, for all pur- poses except the administration of the criminal laws of said State and the serv- ice of civil procesS therein: Provided, That it. shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, after the site for said building shall have been purchased, to cause a plan and specifications of said building to be prepared, which said plan and specifications shall not involve an expenditure in the erection and comple- tion of said building and approaches thereto cxceedingthe portion of said $1,200,· 000 remaining after the site o( said building shall have been paid for; and no plan for said building shall be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury in- volving an expenditure exceeding the sum so remaining after paying for the site of said building, and the erection of said building shall not be commenced until after plans, specifications, and full estimates fol· the same shall have been previously made and approved according to" law: And provided further, That nothing herein contained shall be construed in any event to increase the cost of the site and building. including approaches, when completed, beyond the sum of $1,200,000, as provided in this section. 

The amendments were agreed fo. ~ . 

The next amendment W:lS in section 3, line 1, after the word "million," to strike out "five" and insert "two;" so as to read : 

EC. 3. That the sum of$1,'200,000 is hereby appropriated forthepurposeofthe 

purchase ofroid sit-e and the erection of said building thereon, out of any mon~ 

eys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 

The n.mendment was agreed to. 

Mr. BECK. Does that bill appropriate $1,200,000? 

Mr. MANDERSON. That is the maximum limit for both site and 

building as recommended by the Supervising Architect. 

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendments were concurred in. 

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the 

third time, and passed. 

HOUSE BILLS REFERRED. 

The bill (H. R. 436) for the relief of James Barnes, Joab Williams, 

and William Titus was read twice by its title, and referred to the Com~ 

mittee on Claims. 

The bill (H. R. 5352) to grant an .American register to the foreignbuilt bark Nordst:jernen was read twice by its title, and referred to 

the Committee on Commerce. 

RIGHT OF WAY FOR IRRIGATION PURPOSES. 

Mr. TELLER. I move to take up Senate bill 425, Order of Business 32. 

The motion was agreed to; and the bill (S. 425) to grant the right 

of way through the public lands for irrigation purposes was considered 

as in Committee of the Whole. 

The bill was reported from the Committee on Public Lands with 

amendments. 

The first amendment was, in section 1, line 11, before tl1e word 

''thereof," to strike out "center" and insert "marginal limits;" and 

in line 13, after the word ''stone,'' to strike on t '' and timber; '' so as to make the section read: 

That the right of way through the public lands of the United States is hereby 

granted to any canal or ditch company, formed for the purpose of irrigation and duly organized under the laws of any State or Territory. which shall have filed with the Secretary of the Interior a. copy of its articles of incorporation and due proofs of its organization und,er the same, to the extent of the ground occupied 

by the water of the canal and its laterals, and 50 feet on each side of the mar- ginal limits thereof; also the right to take, from the public lands adjacent to the line of the canal or ditch, material, earth, stone, necessary for the construction of such canal or ditch. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The next amendment was, in section 31 line 4, after the word '' individ nals," to insert " on the filing of the certificates and maps herein 

provided for;" so as to read: 

That tho provisions of this act shall apply to all canals and ditches heretofore or hereafter constructed, whether constructed by corporations, individuals, or association of individuals, on the filing of the certificate~ and maps herein pro- vided for. 

The amendment was agreed to. Mr. '.VELLER. I wish to offer an additional amendment. In line 

4 of section 1, after the word "granted," I move to insert "to any 

individual or." I offer the amendment at the suggestion of the Senator from Kentucky [Ur. BECK]. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempo1'e. The amendment will be stated. 

The CHIEF CLERK. In section 1, line 4, after the word ''granted,' ' 

it is proposed to insert "to any mdividual or;" so as to read: 

That the right of way through the public lands of the United States is hereby 

granted to any individual or to any canal or ditch company formed for the pur- pose of irrigation, and duly organized under the laws of any State or Territory. 

The amendment was agreed to. 
I 

I 

1888. CONGRESSIQNAL RECORD-SENATE. 835 

The bill wae reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendments 

were concurred in. 

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the 

third time, and passed. 

• PUBLIC BUILDING AT JACKSONVILLE. 

1\Ir. PASCO. I ask that the bill (S. 217) to change the limit of appropriation for the public b)lilding at Jacksonville, Fla., be taken up 

for consideration. 

By unanimous consent, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, 

proceeded to consider the bill, which had been reported from the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds with amendments. 

The :first amendment was in sec-tion 1, line 4, after the word ''Florida,'' 

to insert "approved July 29, 1886;" so as to read: · 

.That the act entitled "An act for the erection of a public building at Jacksonville, Fla.," approved July 29, li!S6, be amended by making the limit for said 

building $275, 000, and that sum is hereby fixed as the limit of cost thereof. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The next amendment was in section 1, line 6, before the word "thousand," to strike out "seventy-five" and insert "fifty;" so as to read: 

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. · 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The next amendment was in section 3, line 1, before the word "thousand" to strike out ''seventy-five" and insert "fifty;" so as to read: 

That the sum of $250,000 is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treas- ury not otherwise appl"Opriated, for the purposes of this act. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended and the amendments 

were conourred in". 

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the 

third time, and passed. 

CHANGE OF INAUGURATION DAY. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The thirty minutes having expired, 

the Senate resumes the consideration of the unfinished business. 

l!Ir. HOAR. I ask the Senator from New Hampshire to allow me to 

call up a matter that will take but a moment-the joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution. 

Mr. BLAIR. The Senator from New York [Mr. EVARTS] has the 

:floor on the unfinished business. 

1\1r. HOAR. I will state the reason why I ask the indulgence. This 

joint resolution was passed unanimously by the Senate at the last Congress. It proposes a constitutional amendment in regard to extendina 

the Congress, in order to have a longer session the second year of each 

Congress. If it is to be ?ealt with at all by the present Congr~ it 

should be done at once, m order that the Legislatures of the States 

some of which are in session this winter, may have time to consider it: 

I do not think it will lead to any debate, and I am sure my honorable 

friend from New York will yield. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New York is entitled to the floor upon the unfinished business. 

Ur. HOAR. Will the Senator yield to me? 

The PRESIDENT pro tempm·e. The Senator from Massachusetts 

appeals to the Senator from New York to yield. 

Mr. EVARTS. I yield for the purpose of that joint resolution. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New York yields 

for the purpose of enabling the Senate to proceed to the consideration 

of the joint resolution, which will be stated. 

The CHIEF CLERK. A joint resolution (S. R. 13) pronosing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. ~ 

Mr. BLAIR. I object to any yielding that displaces the educational 

bill. ~Ir. HOAR. It does not displace that bill, but merely puts ib over 

informally. 

Mr. BLAIR. If the Senator chooses to ask that the bill be laid aside 

informally, that is another matter; and if the Senator from New York 

chooses to consent to that being done, it is another thing. 

~h~ PRESIDE~T pro tmnpore. The Chair will have the parliamentary nght of the Senator from New Hampshire fully protected and the 

pending order will not be displaced by laying it aside infor~ally for 

the consideration of other business. The joint resolution is before the 

Senate as in Committee of the Whole, and will be read at length. 

The Chief Clerk read the joint resolution, as follows: 

• Resolved b1.[ the Senate artcl H_ouse of Representatives of the United States of America ~n G_o11!Jress. a.ssembled (two-tlnrds of each House concur·ri11g therein), That the followmg article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States as an amend- ment to the Constitution of the United States, as part of the Constitution 

namely: • 

"The term of office of the President and of the Fiftieth Congress shall continue ~~il the last Tuesday of April, in the year 1889, at noon. The Senators whose e:x:- lStmg term would ot~erw:ise expire o~ the 4th day of M~rch, in the year 1889, or !hereafter, sh;all ~on tin ue m office until noon of the last Tuesday in April succeed- mg s~ch e:x:puatwn; and the last Tuesday of April, at noon, shall thereafter be subs~Ituted for the 4th o~ March .as the c~mmence ent and termination of the 

official term of the President., VICe-President, Senators, and Representatives in 

Congress." 

The twelfth tu~icle of the amendments to the Constitution of the United State~ sb!lll J:;>e amended by striking out the words "fourth day of March " and 

subst1tutmg Instead ther.eof the words "last Tuesday in April, at noon."' 

The PRESIDENT pro tempo1"e. The joint resolution was reported 

from the Committee on Privileges and Elections, with amendments; 

which will be stated in their order : 

The first amendment was in line 8, to strike out the words "last 

Tuesday," and insert "thirtieth day;" so as to read, "shaH continue 

until the thirtieth day of April." 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The next amendment was in line 13, to strike out " last Tuesday, " 

and insert" thirtieth day;" so as to read: "the thirtieth day in April. " 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The next amendment was, in line 14, to strike out the words "last 

Tuesday," andinsert "thirtieth day," soastoread ''and the thirtieth 

dav of April." 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The next amendment was, in line 22, to strike out "last Tuesday," 

and insert '' thirtieth day,'' so as to read '' thirtieth day in A"'pril. '' 

The amendment was agreed to. · The joint resolution was reported to the Senate as amended, and the 

amendments were concurred in. · 

The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, 

read the third time, and passed (two-thirds of the Senator.:; present voting in the affirmative). 

Mr. HOAR. I suppose thefact ofthepassageofthejoint resolution 

by the necessary two-thirds will be recorded in the Journal. 

The PRESIDENT pro temp01·e. It is so journalized. 

MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE. 

A message from the Honse of Representatives, by Mr. CLAR.K, its 

Clerk, announced that the House had passed the following bills· in 

which it requested the concurrenee of the Senate: ' 

A bill (H. R. 615) for the relief of James B. Mitchell; , 

A bill (H. R. 19) for the elief of H . B. Wilson, administrator of the 

estate of William Tinder, deceased; 

A bill (H. R. 300) for the relief of the trustees of the First Baptist 

Church at Smithland, Ky.; ~ • 

A ~ill (H. R. 484.2) to remove the political disabilities of George W. 

Harrison, of Hoboken, N. J.; 

A bill (H. R. 2606) authorizing the construction of a bridge over 

the Missouri River at or near the city of Jefferson, Mo.; 

A bill (H. R. 1805) for a public building at Greenville, S. C.; 

A bill (H. R. 5874) for the relief of the heirs of the late Francis I. 

Wheeler; 

A bill (H. R. 1712) for the erection of a public building at Portsmouth, Ohio; and . 

A bill (H. R. 363) granting a pension to Mrs. Eliza L. Mace. 

AID TO COMMON SCHOOLS. 

The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed the consideration of the bill (S. 371) to aid in the establishment and temporary support of common schools, the pending question being on the amendment 

of Mr. PLmiB. 

Mr. EVARTS. Mr. President, the observations which I shall make 

upon this bill may be included within a. very brief statement of my 

views, and a. brief reference to such principal objections as I think are 

most worthy of the attention of the Senate. 

I can not conceal from myself any more than I can from the Senate 

that this bill at previous sessions has received ample illustration and 

elucidation, fnll argument upon the Constitution, and full discussion of 

the topics of prudence and expediency. I can not, therefore think it 

worth while at all to renew those agitations or those discussi~ns. It is 

rather that I would wish to state what I regard as the nature of the bill 

both in its principal purpose and in the safeguards and prudential regu~ lations which accompany the principal measure, that I now occupy the 

floor. · I am unable to distinguish this bill, either in the constitutional support for it or in the wisdom or regulation of its methods, from the 

method which was conducted in the examination by the trustees of the 

Peabody fund, which resulted in the memorial presented to the two 

Houses of Congress, and which had the support, in the constitutional 

and in all the considerations of the welfare of the country, of so competent an adviser and so competent a commentator as M:r. Alexander 

H. H. Stuart, of Virginia. 

So far as I can see, whatever may be thought of particular arrangements in applying so large an endowment, and whether there may or may not be embarrassments or impediments which should be avoided 

as far as possible in that benevolent distribution, I think it is entirely 

true that the purpose is precisely that which the great benefactor, .M:r. 

Peabody, had in his mind when he laid out the distribution of his 

wealth. I think the methods of distribution and the guaranties of its 

proper application are that when this endowment, proceeding from the 

General Government for the general welfare, falls into distribution in 

different States (which is but another form of saying in different managements for the same object, and to the sameend),·in these regards it 

is the policy which was the result of our experience for twelve years, 

bringing the managers of our institution into th* closest and most con- fidential and frankest relations with the governments, with the institutions of learning, with instructors, with guides, with teachers. Such 

was our experience a.J?.d the result, which we had the honor to present 
836 OONGRESSION AL RECORD-SEN ATE. JANUARY 31, 

to Congress as a guide and an. inspiration so far as Congress might re- gard it from a worthy source, and in this bill it :finds substantially its 

reproduction. • 

Now, for the outset, as the bill passed the Senate at the last Congress 

with only 11 votes _against it, which were nearly equally divided-6, 

I think, on the Democratic side and 5 on the Republican, or the reverse- ! can hardly think that we can treat the constitutional question as one that is to enter very largely into the minds and opinions of those who are to vote now presently upon this bill. It would be a hopeless task, 

if I held the measure unconstitutional, against such a front of security 

and cohesion as is presented by that vote, to attempt to change or over- - power that conclusion. So it must be regarded really rather as a con- scientious duty upon disputants here to lay out their own grounds and 

their own opinions, which are apparently so averse to the ~ettled and 

the soli(~ judgment of the Senate. · 

I shall have no occasion to defend my opinions, which concur en- tirely and as only one of the many who entertain the view expressed 

in the almost solid vote of the Senate. I believe indeed the argument upon the matter principally in dispute, and in which the Senator 

from Alabama [Mr. MoRGAN] took a principal part, and in which I 

had the honor to take some share in contravening his views, turned 

upon the point of a conceded right' on the part of this Government to 

apply the funds-which were derived from the sales of public lands to · just such a measure as this-! mean just such a measure in principle 

and in purpose of applying the resources of the nation to the educating of the illiterate children of the nation. 

Then the point was made thai that being a trust estate, and the description of the trust being for the common benefit and general welfare, 

it was a proper adherence to the trust. But when we came to the 

trust power in the Constitution itself applicable to taxation and the 

wealth that is colleCted by its means, we were told that the construction of a trust power was not controlled by the same considerations 

which had disposed of the fidelity of the trust estate. I was unable 

then, I am unable now, to make this distinct-ion. 

Whatever may be thought of the range of the power of taxation, the 

phrases '' for the common defense '' and ''general welfare '' are quite as extensive, and, for the purposes of the present legislation, the identical matter is covered by the phrase in the endowment of the Northwest Territory, the cessions from the States, and subsequent securities 

by which the public lands can be devoted to the purposes of education. 

I shall therefore dismiss the constitutional question there. Whatever place there might have been for a right to apply the wealth raised 

by taxation outside of the particular incidents and forms for the application of it given in tbe phrases of the Constitution in the separate 

clauses, whatever ma-y at one time have been thought as to the neces- sary rest.riction of the administration of the wealth of the country to 

those specific purposes, has long passed away, and now in manifold 

forms of the material welfare of the country we are able to distribute 

the common wealth among the different States in aid of their occasions, 

local or particular, in the incidents of their climate or of their exposur~ to mischief. 

There is nothing left for us to argue about the application of onr wealth for the general welfare in these various forms of distribution, 

except that it must be limited by some necessary logic, for certainly no such phrase of demarkation can be found in the Constitution. It 

must be limited to what is called material welfare in providing for 

rivers and harbors, for guarding against infections, for controlling interstate commerce, for determining the interests in the various forms 

by which this or that industry may be needed and may be favored. 

What is there in the Constitution, then, in any of its inferences, what 

is there in any logic that makes it for this country, looking in the face a great mor.ll, a great social, a great political need on one side, and a 

great political duty in regard to all of these on the part of the United 

Stares, by which we are withheld, that we must find this great conflict 

between ignorance and debasement confessedly arrayed against freedom and the perpetuity of freedom in this country? What is there 

that obliges us to bend our fr9nt before this rising invasion, and by 

which we must be overpowered because we have no opportunity and no faculty and no right to meet at the right time by appropriate, adequate, and seasonable remedies when our resources are abundant for 

that purpose? 

You must, after all, come back to the great work of our fathers in 

making a nation and providing it with a Constitution, and the later 

generation that has advanced and'purified that Constitution, and bas 

wrought out greater unity in the political bands and in the exercis~ of 

power to maintain it against all comers. You must hold that after all 

we must find as new occ~ions arise, new dangers threaten, new evils 

are to be redressed, and new means and methods are to be exerted for 

the redress; there is a halt and a limping step in this Constitu.tion of ours that sometimes never can ineasure by the need and necessity of 

the commonwealth the right and the power to redress it. 

I will agree that nothing is more important than that the lines should 

be well marked bet"'"een what can not .be traversed across the. lines of a State, the power of the Federal Government, and the integrity and 

security against such invasions by the State; but I can not suffer it to 

be put upon a distinction between moral, intellectual, social, political 

needs in the minds and the hearts of the peop16 upon whom the w bole 

fabric of this Constitution and of this free, strong, powerful nation rests. 

You must find some other line of demarkation than that. 

Certainly if you consult the opinions of the great founders of our- nation, if yon look to Washington, to Jefferson~ to AdaiDB, an<\ to Madison, you will find that all those great championsofliberty, those great 

founders of this great state, put at the bottom of it education, intelligence, integrity, virtue-not a ·creatnre in any of these elements of material prosperity, nor concerned with the distribution of bounty for the 

mouth of the Mississippi or the harbors on the Great Lakes; and yet 

confessedly in the great experiment that with faith and fortitude was thus launched upon the stormy sea of human passions and human interests, this was the very thing without which the life of the nation 

must succumb, without which freedom must be usurped by power, 

without which the fabric would totter to the derision of the philosophers of older schemes of government who derided our attempt when 

it was commenced. 

I will not repeat the terse, compact expressions of these great men. They appear selected by Mr. Stuart in the report which we made, and 

which was presented to the two Houses of Congress, and appear in the 

observations with which the Senator from New Hampshire has accom- panied his protection and advancement of this bill. 

Bnt there is no mistaking the answer if the question had been put to 

one of those men, when the Federal Government has ample resources and the immediate occasions and most pressing duties of the growing 

:pation are accomplished, when you all speak of this basis not only of our freedom but the only security for its permanence, would it be in 

the power of this great Government, rather than it should see virtue 

sapped before its eyes by ignorance and vice, that our material prosperity and our great wealth must remain in the Treasury before this 

remedial agency could be used to meet and reverse this incursion ? 

I think there is no mistaking it, for it is in every one of -the words 

used in those weighty phrases, in the solemn admonitions ~hich anation ought to have listened to, which it did listen to, and which, Senators, I persuade you, the people of this country, North and South, do 

listen tD and wear as a frontlet between their eyes in their judgment 

and in their purposes concerning the welfare of this country. 

I now come to the principal feature of this bill. In the first place, 

the bill adheres to the proposition that we are not to undertake the regulation of the instruction of the schools and their m;:tnagement inside the 

States. We are offering an endowment in aid of the resources and of 

the activities and of the desires of the different States. We are not 

tmdertaking to coerce in the least degree the acceptance or permission on the part of_ the States to meet and a'ccept this proposition or to reject 

it. Then we are careful, after this endowment is pressed upon them 

and is accepted by them, to effect no othercoercion, or persuasion, which 

is a better phrase for it, to use and employ these agencies and these re- sources which shall in the least enervate their domestic interests or 

break down the zeal and the virtue of their own endowments in the same direction. 

Beyond that, although they protect their funds, their principal being ~mpplemented or reduced by our added aggregate wealth, we also do 

not compel in the least that taxation for a dollar shall be pressed there 

beyond their present purposes and their present laws. We hold before 

them no compulsion that they shaH raise from their own resources, by 

taxation or otherwise, an equal amount to that which we offer them. 

We guard, then, on the one side and on the o'ther against .any en- croachment upon the freedom and the ease of the States in meeting 

this endowment, first, by saving tliem from any fear that our endowment may check, or nip, or divert the growing zeal, and growing duty, 

and growing performance of duty among their own people by their own 

taxation. We say to them, "You are to receive from us under this 

distribution no more than you raise yourselves." 

On the other hand, as I say, neither by undue excitement nor by any menace of withdrawing aid do we urge the taxation beyond the easy 

and proper assessments that may be laid. We say to the States, 

"Whatever you raise, and only that amount, you shall receive; and if 

you raise up to the amount that we offer, then you have a doubled 

fortune.'' So, if the Senator from Alabama will allow me, all this apprehension of the pressure on the people of Alabama., whom he so ably 

represents and defends in their institutions, in their policy, in their 

customs, in their tendencies, it seeiDB to me, swings entirely free of the 

measure of this bill. 

If the Senator should put it upon the ground that if a stimulant is 

offered to their activity, a support and aid to their own sacrifices and 

self-denials, and then comes in the double blessing of our endowment 

and their own stimulated activity, shall it be said for any State, shall 

it be Said by any Senator representing a State, that that is a dangerous 

insinuation, a sed~tive and beguiling influence to proceed from our endowment? · Indeed, 1\fr. President, I can see no other result to that method of 

reasoning than a serious conclusion that it is better that things should 

remain as they are-a little more slumber, a little more folding of the 

bands to sleep. Those who look at the situation of illiteracy produced 

by occasions for which the States most to be affected by these endowments are not responsibl(} in their voluntary action, it see~ to me that 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-- SENATE. 837 

those who look at the aspect that I do, should say that this is no time 

for anybody at the North or at the South to wish to fold his hands in 

sleep any longer. I believe that there is no time to deal with a discovered antJ a growing and a dangerous condition in education, in ignorance, in debasement, so good as the earliest time at which the mischief 

and the danger are appreciated. 

But it is said that in undertaking to see by the provisions of the bill 

that the money appropriated from the Treasury of the United States, 

though committed to the whole agency of the States themselves, it 

should be committed to an agency that is already engaged by solemn 

obligations on the part of the States that the management and administration shall be conducted according to the purpose of the appropriation and te accomplish the result of it. If we can do that aJ:>out a 

river and harbor bill, or any appropriation that we make for any ma- terial intexest distributed through this wide country, we can xetain the 

guaranties appropriate to the situation to secure the money that we appropriate at the points and in the manner and at the time suitable 

to accomplish the results. 

We are brought back to the old question then, and the only question, 

whether we can deal properly with this matter of enlightenment, of instruction, of securing the suffrage against debasement and against oppression and fraud. After aJJthe refinements of criticism which have 

fallen upon this measure, introduced and defended by the Senator from 

New Hampshire [Mr. BLAIR], it will be found, I think, in a candid 

judgment, that the objections go to the bottom of the scheme on the 

part of this Government to aid the States in relieving them fiom ~ oppression of ignorance which they are not themselves competent to deal 

with. Nor can we gather anyinstrnctionfrom the previous experience 

of this Government in leaving to the States the entire unaided administration of the subject of education. 

Undoubtedly if there is anything which can be properly applied in our distr~ution of power between the State and the Federal authority, 

the subject of schools, school management, school regulations, is within 

the domestic interests of the State. No doubt that is so, and no doubt 

there must come some situation where it ceases to be a subject only of 

domestic regulation and domestic control, where the General .!}overnment and its resources and its administration of the scheme are to be 

invoked. 

I will agree that outside of the genE:ral and liberal method by which 

to ever_y nascent State we have given the means of education freely and 

richly out of the public domain, as to the growing States certainly upon 

the line of parallel where free labor alone was maintained, there could 

be no need; for if settlers were rude and if they were poor, every one of them carried with him the hope of ceasing to be rude, and the hope 

of not growing poor lay in the educat,ion which in their cradles at home 

had been the nursery of the wealth and the strength of the people 

about them. So, as the progress of population overran from the Southern States into other populations and other fertilities comporting with 

their own, the same system, the same methods, the same distribution 

of what was possible! and the same denial of education that was not 

possible, would find its way in these progressive waves of population 

out from the Southern States of the original thirteen. 

But there have been some things done since then. Our Constitution, 

which adopted a.s its political citizens the citizens of the States, has now itself made by its original fiat the condition of citizens of the U nitecl 

States; and it has not only done so in that broad relation, but it has 

undertaken to fix the citizenship of every one within each State when 

it declares that the citizen of the United States, so pronounced by the 

amendments to the Constitution, shall be a citizen of that State in 

which he resides. There is a change at once at the basis of everything. 

Besides that, we have undertaken to change the social relations at 

the South by the power of this Government, as first shown in war, and 

again in the amendment of the Constitution, and that, oueofthe greatest 

changes which ever took place in human a.ffairs, ·and, as it were, after a long, and dark, and bloody struggle by force, peacefully now takes 

its place among the institutions of the country, to be cherished and defended and made vigorous and prosperous in the future. pathway of our fame and glory. · 

We stand differently to that from what we did to those purely domestic nurseries of education which could fitly be cherished and 

strengthened by such resources as they in their own population could 

supply. Here we have not children as nature brings them into life to 

draw their early nutriment from the mother's breast and the father's 

protecting care, and not less in their hearts and minds than in their 

feeble bodies, but we have thrown upon_ a community covering a vast 

area and counting an immen~e population, people of all the ages from 

infancy to declining age, and they are all ignorant in the sense in which we would wish to have them adequate to citizenship and the duties of 

citizenship. 

We see, too, that the great population to which I have referred is incapable of mingling in the streams of our posterity, however remote we 

may think of it, in the sense that they will be of the ~me blood and 

of the same nature; and now we are confronted with the proposition 

that either the communities upon whom these immense obligations and 

immense burdens are thus thrown are adequate to deal with them, now henceforth sufficiently full of them, and if that be so, thank God that 

no aid is needed from the general resources of the Government, or the 

alternative that this Government had power to accomplish so grave, 

so thorough, so universal, and so perpetual a change, and we have no methods and no weapons except those of war and of contumely, or of 

pharisaic preference of our superiority. 

If the Uonstitution drives you and me, Mr. President, to these con- clusions, let our consciences be clear; bnt we will appeal to the two 

Houses of Congress and we will appeal to the judgment of the people 

of the country w);tethex this great power of the Federal Government. towards these communities at the South has in it only the old-fashioned notions of hostility and of suppression. Senators must consider 

whether the old habits by which the old conditions of things made 

them tolerable and sensible remain tolerable and sensible under the 

changed aspect of this great population and great area of our common 

nation. 

For myself I do not look with any complacency upon either that 

political scheme or that personal or social feeling which treats the situation at the South as the situation of the South. It is the situation of 

the United States, and there is not" one near interest felt by those who are associat-ed in the neighborhood and in the co relations of local and 

of State obligations and duties that is really nearer in a constitutional 

point of view Qr in the love of this common country of ours-that is 

nel;l.rer to it than the Senator from New Hampshire, or the Senator from 

Connecticut, or the Senator from illinois who sits near me. It is our 

eountry, and while we talk about the superficial phrases of unity; let us understand that in bearing one another's burdens,. and in covering one another's infirmities and corroborating everything and disparaging nothing is that unity in America at which we aim on one side and 

the other of the old divisions between the North and the South. 

After all we must come back to it that somehow or other we are enchained by our Constitution, that we can deal only with material 

prosperity and not regard and not work at what is all material prosperity, all strength, and all power in this nation, in the hearts and 

minds of the first planters who landed on Plymouth,.and in the great 

statesmen of the Revolutionary period whose names I quoted, for you. 

have said and felt from the beginning that an this is but ''tinkling 

brass and sounding cymbal " compared with a great, elevated, instructive, moral, dutiful people. I must find, then; some higher barrier for me to surmount before I can reckon among the faculties, the opportunities, and the duties which belong to the people of this CO\lntry, 

that we shall be of one heart and of one mind; and that instead of being critical, instead of being supercilious, we are to hasten to bring 

gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and pla-ce them on this altar of our common country, that the prayers which ascend from it may have an assurance of acceptance from being attended by a spirit of selfdenial and of sacrifice. . As an impediment of an inferior character, and without offense to an 

opinion of the honorable Senator from Alabama to criticise his construction of the constitution of his own State, which, so far as I can see, he has raised as the principal obstruction, certainly of a grave character, to the acceptance by his State of the endowment which is offered by this bill, I will call attention to the phrase in the constitution of Alabama in which he thinks he finds an insuperable obstacle to 

producing any congruity between the provisions of this bill and therequil'ements of the Alabama constitution. His point was that we have 

provided that these endowments as they are supplied from year to year are to be distributed and managed and applied year by year, from time 

to time, under tbe regulations which are provided by the bill through 

the agencies of the State, and he thought he found iii the constitution 

of Alabama an abSolute and inexorable requirement that whatever came from the United States (and that covered in his judgment this 

form of aid that was administered) must be made an effectual and secure fund, not permitted to be distributed in actual enjoyment. If 

the courts of Alabama have passed upon this question, and have held 

in due form that the honorable Senator's construction Of this clause of 

that constitution is the right one, and my observations an·d criticism 

shall have been already adjudicated insufficient, I shall need to apologize; but in the absence of any such adjudication I beg to ask the attention of the Senate to this obstacle that he raises. This is the clause: 

The principal of all funds arising from the sale or other disposition of lands or other property-

'' Funds arising from the sale or other disposition of lands or other 

property." ·That is the subject-matter which is disposed by the con- stitutional clausewhich has been or may hereafter be granted or intrusted to this StateThat is, lands or other property, subject to sale- or given by the United States for educational purposes, shall be preserved inviolate. 

What is that but the ordinary provision, where a fixed property in 

land or otherwise has been donated by the United States of America, 

.that the fund must remain.inviolate and the income only be used? But 

does this bill carry to them ]and or other fixed property donated in the 

form of a fund to remain, and the fund to give income? Not the least. 

Neither trait applies to this measure. This money is not land or property in that sense, and it is not to draw interest, nor can it draw interest. The requirement of this bill, the measure of it is that not a 

.• 
/ 

838 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 31, 

dollar which is to flow into a State through this bill is to be put at interest, or is to gain for a State her education in the future; it is for the 

time, as an original flow, not into a reservoir, but for irrigation that is 

wasted unless it is well applied. 

So I must think this constitutional impediment in the State of Ala- bam::~t does not exist, and yet the honorable Senator thought that we were entangled in a result whioh might impoverish or reduce the en- joyment by Alabama of any portion of the money thus to be distributed. 

Beyond these impediments, I would ask the Senator from Alabama, or any other champion of opposition to this bill, if he would rather that we should ha>e made these appropriations without the safeguards I have 

insisted upon? Would he have us on constitutional grounds, or on questions of preserving the moral integrity of the various States, make this 

appropriation without the State in its autonomy accepting and agreeing 

to it? This is a novel criticism upon the independence of the States, 

which we acknowledge to begin with. Should we tllen require it to be 

done by bill or joint resolution, and not left to educational societies or organizations of schools to accept these driblets from time to time? 

No, we have respected to the very last letter the integrity of the States, 

and leave it to them as an original question whether they will accept 

any portion of this endowment or not; and if there are moral, if there 

are social, if there are sentimental objections, very well, we go on our way increa ing only the advantages which are given to other States 

that wish for them. 

But the honomble Senator finds great occasion for objectio~ to that 

clause. as ifthe State of Alabamawould bA coercedintotakinO' it when 

they thought it would ruin them, because they feared that Georgia 

would get more. If Georgia. is going to be ruined by taking more, w by 

should not Alabama be quite unconcerned about Georgia, if .AJabamo. 

had been virtuous enough to protect her population and her schemes of education from this corruption? 

Then we go a little further into the general subject of education and 

at the bottom, ill the exposition which very intelligently aud very re- spectfully the Senator from Alabama has displayed before the Senate 

he thinks there is nothing so bad to .the family as to have schools at 

the public expense. He thinks that it enervates the family circle and 

tie, and although he thinks that of the colored people is and has been 

looser than was and is desirable, yet there is some subtle way that· when you have got a family thus loosely held together, either in the 

sense of filial piety or of paternal protection, and when both parents 

and children altogether are in the very abyss of ignorance, the only 

safe way down South is for the old colored people to lift the young 

people up! 

Well, this family, moved out of sympathy and sentiment for the 

great relation of the family, seems to find no substantial support either 

in this" whimsy that the old man will educate his sons if he knows that 

he can spare something from his whisky and his tobacco, and see the 

children coming up under the mild radiance of education, and he may 

become himself a school visitor and a member of the board, and that 

reacting agency on the motives of the parent is to be found an adequate 

remedy for all these dangers, so great enemies to the family relation. 

But, Mr. President, we do not need to fear these chimeras, even if 

they were not impossible in the situation which I have adverted to as a need for agency of removing mischief. From the time that the Pilgrim Fatp.ers landed at Plymouth, were they not endued with all the 

duties and affections of family, and was it not the first thing in the 

institution of that nascent community to declare that it was the interest of the state beyond and over and above that of the family, that it 

wa.q the interest of the state, not that all should be learned, but that 

none should be ignorant? And they did not leave it to these senti- ments of affection between parent and child, though they were in a pions community in which all these affections had been developed in 

the strongest and clearest light. They said the state can not suffer 

anybody to be ignorant while there is in the power of the state the means of wealth and the means of education. And now are we to be 

told that this great principle which no community in which these ideas 

spread ever could reject, and that now is just as much a part of the 

strength, morals, Teljgious, intellectual love of liberty and knowledge of law, which can not fail, has caused us to run a terrible risk all 

these two hq,ndred and fifty years lest the family relation should be 

endangered by public education? 

Will you take Dakota or some remote, unsettled region that will make a new gospel of filial and paternal education that is to break down the common school, or will you take the hierarchical system of priestly edu- cation that shall break down the common school? I would not like 

to begin in any small settlement on the farthest fl'Ontier, I would not 

like to b~n it in Massachusetts, which ought to know best on the subj ect from her long experience. We ha>e arrived at a period where the 

people of this country have made up their minds that there shall be no ignorance where it is in the power of th~ State, and I may say the 

United St;ttes, to prevent it. 

To be sure, a superintendent of schools in Worcester, of all places in 

the world and of all positions in public confidence and in public admin- istration, has written a letter, has sent an arrow, a poisoned arrow, in 

favor of ignorance from tb.at privileged center, an arrowthat wouldhave 

been wholly harmless if it had remained in the quiver of a New York 

newspaper. But a Senator has raised it with an encomium upon the 

writer, an encomium on principle, and he has launched from his strong 

bow this arrow that would otherwise have fallen harmless. I will let 

this gentleman represent his own view of the topic about which he is 

writing, aud then see what his judgment is about that institution at 

home in which he prides himself~ I dare say, or at least finds the means of influence and support in being a superintendent of common schools 

in Worcester. These are the reasons which this enliglltened educator 

gives why it would do harm for us to give of our wealth towards public education at the South: 

In the first place, the people of the South have awake~d to the necessity of public education, and they are at work actively and successfully in the right di- rection. It is only through this public, active interest that a good system of schools can be either established or mai11tained. 

.Agreed, but is not a little money to be used in this actire and suc- ces8full?ursuit of knowledge? Is it not useful even in Massachusetts 

thata salary should be attached totheofficeofsuperintendentofschools? 

And is it not desirable that there should be some treasury from which 

these inftnences of material aid shall correspond with an active service? 

Why, Mr. President, that is the bottom of the movement where there 

is this actiYity, this desire, this hunger and thirst for educa,tion and 

knowledge, and we are to be told now by a superintendent of schools 

in Uassachusetts "leave them to themselves." That is :1 noble condition of mind. Well, how long before that activity and that hunger 

will fail for want of means to accomplish the result within this generation, within this day, 'vithin om time? But the next reason: 

Secondly, the people of the Southern States are as able to establish their schools- . · 

Listen, now, to this wise judgment of the great situation at the South 

and of the great and common condition of tlle ~orthern people: 

Secondly, the people of the Soullie rn States al'C as able to establish their schools as any of the n ew Weste rn Stutes have been or are t o-day, ftnd as well able also as any of the oldct· States were at the beginning. ·The argument that those States formerly slave are poorer than they w ere before the w a r by the value of the slaves is fallacious, since a free man is worth more, aud not les.'3, than a slaye to any community. 

These are the re..'lsons of a superintendent of common schools about 

the similarity in the situation between the great population of the 

South as it lies before us under the sodaJ catastrophe that precipitated 

both poverty upon them and needs and burdens of education not proportioned to a growing community either early in New England or late in a frontier State. These are the ideas that the honorable Senator from Alabama has sought to educe under the great name of :Mr. 

Marble to sustain his views about having the South let alone. But 

further: 

'l' hirdJy, I feel sure thn.t a large distribution of money from the surplus in the Treasury would not all find its way into llie school-rooms, but would be to a large extent frjttered away in the course of the distribution, and that instead o£ a healthy emulation to see who will do best in establishing schools of their own, and thus at.tracting business and population, as they do in theW est and are do- ing in the South, there will arise a pernicious strife to see who can gobble up the largest share of the loaves and fLshes. . 

Well, I leave that to be met by the 1·epresenta.tives of the different 

communities. 

Does the money drawn from the treasury of Massachusetts or of New 

York enervate or i3 it the subject of dilapidation? You talk of these 

great sums. The city of New Yorl· spends in education within its own city boundaries nearer four million than three million dollars a. year, 

and that ta.x -burdened community, despoiled in many respects by worthless or corrupt applications,.never grumbles about that school-tax. .Any 

efforts that are made in a mere notion of economy and reducing the 

people's burdens never affect the school-tax. There is no question in 

the public opinion of the honesty and the intelligence of that distribution_ When you have a condition of things where a State is impov- erished and has a bmden abnormal, wholly unsettled by the ignorance 

that is thrown upon it, are we to be turned off by namby-pamby talk, 

such as ' ' Why, you will get along just as well as they do in New England and just as well as they do in the West? '' It seems to me to be 

paltering with serious considerations to pre.'lent these ideas. But Jast: 

Lastly, I oppose this move, a.s I do other innovations of similar injurious char- acter, on the general principle that in t!Jis eountry it is the duty and the privilege of the individual to provide for himself and ke care of himself; and it is not fhe duty of the Government to act the fond parent towards the people of this country. If the people can not take care of the mselves, and if the Govern- ment must then take care of them, we reduce ourse lves to an n.bsunlity, since the Government is nothjng but the expression of tbe people's will. 

Look at the absurdity of such paltering from New England and a New England school and a New England superintendent, to say that 

the principle upon which this country has grown is that a man shall 

take care of himself, and that parental education is the proper mode to 

secure free and equal representation in politics and go>ernment. Good 

Heavens, what a fate, if we are to be crushed by paternal education 

through public schools! How have we ever nfanaged to get along with 

this cn1shing weight of paternal education upon onr shoulders for two 

hundred and fifty years ! 

No, Mr. President, the Senator has been too hasty in clothing with 

interest and dignity these strange lucubrations of a Worcester school superintendent . We shall not change our view about this bill on the 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 839 

argument'! of Mr. Marble, although we m~y do so upon those of the 

Senator from Alabama. 

Perhaps I have taken more time than I should in a somewhat discursive examination of the matter; but there was a question asked by 

the Senator from Texas, not now in his place, of the Senator from New 

Hampshire, when the credit-whatever it deserves-from the memorial 

of the Pen.body ti·ustees was the subject of consideration and question, 

whether this report under the eminent names of Mr. Stuart and the 

present Cliief-Justice carried any such notion as that this mode of the 

intToductiou of means and the distribution for its application to the 

St..'l1e was included in the observations of that report. Let me read 

from it: -

Missom-i.-Permanent fund, $10,284,000; annual interest on the permanent fund 

variable, sometimes reaching $800,000; minimum price of land, $1.25 an acre. Indiana.-Permanent fund, $6,32-8,690.89 ; annual interest, $665,262.11. The 

State bas borrowed and pays interest at the rate of 6 per cent. on $3,904,783.21. The remainder is loaned on real estate at 8 per cent., and is managed by the 

county auditors. 

Minnesota.-Permanent fund, $7,250,000; annual interest, $335,000; minimum 

prices of lands by statutes of 1878, S5 per acre; estimated future of fund, $18,-

000,000. 

Iowa.-Permanent fund, $4,127,510; minimum price of land, S6 per aero, but 

may be sold at an appraised value not less than $1.25 per acre; fund distribut~d 

to the counties, which pay the State 6 per cent. _ • Kansas.-Permanent fund, $4,000,000; estimated future maximum, $10,000,000; annual interest, $400,000; minimum price of land, $3 per acre. Michigan.-Permanent fund, $3,838,728.27; the annual interest amounts to 

$260,833.32 ; by the statutes of 1882 the minimum price of the common·schoolland 

The only remaining points which seem to demand a passing notice from your was fixed at $4 per acre; the minimum price of the university lands was fixed 

committee are, first, the mode of administering the assistance; second, the ex- at $l2. - tent to which it should be carried; and, llhird, the period for which it should be Ohio.-Permanent fund, $3,826,171.27; estimated future maximum, $4,000,000; continued. annual interest derived, $229,452.76. Wisconsin.-Permanent fund, $2,953,528.58. I take up the mode of administration: Tennessee.-Permanent fund ascertained and declared by law to be $2,512,000, • The experience of this board has demonstrated the propriety of using the offi- which constitutes an irreducible debt of the State and bears 6 per cent. interest. cers connected with the school system of the respective States as agents in the Col01·ado.-Permanent school fund, $151,457.53; unsold land, 2,500,000 acres; r t' fth f d fth p b db ardtothepu.-nosesofthetrus~. minimumpriceofland,$2.50peracrc; theStatepaysinterestattherateof6 app Ica Ion o e un so e ea 0 Y 0 "J:' per cent. on the permanent fund. . Now, mutatis mutandis, is not that, I appeal to the Senator from New Nebras!ca.-Permanent fund, ~.~,119.21; annual i~terest, $391,552.60; miniHampshire, the method by which the aids of this Government are to be_ _mum price of land, fll per acre i estimated future maxtmum fund, $ZO,OOO,OOO. 

used and applied under the bill? Precisely. Thi<J shows theextenttowhich thoseStateshavealreadybeenassisted 

AU the Southern States seem now to have awakened to a sense of the impor- by benefactions of public property. The senior Senator from Tennestance of a general system of free schools. Mostofthemhaveorganizedefiicient see [Mr. HARRIS] is not now in his seat, but I see the junior Senator 

systems of instruction so far as their limited means will allow them to go. [:Mr. BATE], and therefore I will call his attention to a circumstance Faithful and competent officers have in most instances been put in charge of 

them. These agencies are too important to be overlooked. Their .employ- that both will recollect. The other day, when I included among the 

ment, as means by which the bounty of Congress can be bestowed, is recom- States that had sanctioned this bill by legislative action their own mended by considerations of economy; and their use would tend also to avoid State, they both said it was otherwise, as they understood. 

localjealousics and promote harmony and unity of action. . I have just received a. ~etter addressed to myself, in which the writer 

And, now, as to the education, so far as it is entered upon in this bill says he saw what was said in reference to the Tennessee Legislature 

- and which bas been made a matter of comment, the Seun.tor from Ala- "having passed a resolution instructing her Senators and Representatives 

bam::t t'-lrpressing a wish that the people about him should not be so in Congress to vote for this bill, and goes on: super-educated as they are in New Hampshire, let us see how this report under the great name of Thomas Jefferson enlarges upon the topic 

and the method that this system of public education should pursue: 

Thomas Jefferson, who in the latter part of his life bestowed much labor and 

thought upon the subje~t of popular education, in describing the p:roper subjects and limitations of primary education, says: "These objects would be-

"To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business. 

"To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contract-S, and accounts in writing. "To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties. 

"To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with 

competence the functions confided to him by either. 

"T" know his rights; to exercise wah order and justice those he retains; to 

choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their 

conduct with diligence, with candor, and judgment. "And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social 

relations under which he shall be placed." To instruct the mass of our fellow-citizens in these their rights, interests, and 

duties as men and citizens, being then the object.s of education in the primary schools, whether private or public, in them should be taught reading, writing, and numerical arithmetic, the elements of mensuration (useful in so many call- ings), and the outlines of geography Rnd history. 

Will that measure of instruction super-educate the people of Alabama? Is there such a complacent and complete. assurance, as the 

thing now stands, that it is as dangerous to go a step higher as it would 

be to fall a step lower? I imagine we shall not hear much of any of 

the dangers which come from the degree of education that this bill 

undertakes to prescribe as conditions of the useful application of its 

funds. 

And now, Mr. President., the great population of the South does not 

stand still. It has not stood still for two years or more that I have had 

a. certain share of responsibility about this bill in this Chamber. It 

will not stand still for the next year. The tendency from gravitation, 

without resistance from reason and aim, will go on and on and on; and 

if education is not to dissipate this dark cloud of ignorance, then the 

cloud will grow darker and larger. If ignorance can not be lifted from 

that low level at which it now rests, it will not stay there, but go lower 

and lower, and it will become brutal and savage and hostile to society. 

· Mr. BLAIR. Mr. President, I do not wish to interfere with the 

Senator from Alabama [Mr. PUGH] if he desires to go on now. I wish 

the Senator to take the floor, but after he has taken the floor I desire 

to introduce a few figures hefore the adjournment. 

Mr. PUGH. Mr. President, I desire to address the Senate on the 

bill now before it, but I prefer to do so to-morrow, as we have nearly 

reached the usual hour of adjournment. 

Mr. BLAIR. I wish to supplement the statements of the Senator 

from New York by referring to some figures as to the increase of the 

colored population at the South. At the same rate of increase which 

took place between 1870 and 1880 the colored population of the South 

to-day is not far from 9,000,000, and it will be at least 10,000,000 by 

the time the census of 1890 is taken. 

In regard to the funds of the different States from which they now 

support their co'mmon schools, I read from the report of the superintendent of Nebraska, as quoted in the report of the Commissioner of 

Education for 1885-'86: 

I also noticed Senat.or liARRts'sdenial of the same. I thought at the time your position was correct and that 1\f r. HARRIS was wrong. So I concluded to see Col. A. S. Colyar on the subject. He told me yesterday that you were correct. 

Colonel Colyar is editor of the Daily American, published at Nashville, and is one of the most influential men in our State, and stands first as a lawyer at the 

Nashville bar. There are a large number of people in Tennessee who are ex- ceedingly interested in your educational bill, and would be very much rejoiced if you could get it through this session of Congress, etc. 

He says further: 

The Blair bill is gaining friends daily, and would be universally indorsed were it not for 1\Ir. HARRIS's influence, and only needs to be discussed to become so. He has great political power in this State, etc. 

That is undoubtedly true. The writer speaks very complimentarily 

of the influence of the Senator [Mr. HARRIS J, and he thinks the influence of that gentleman has had much to do with preventing expressions 

in favor of the bill. Further: 

I have heard men of some intelligence argue that the bill provides that 

"neg1·oes and whites shall be educated together." 

I merely call attention to the indot'Sement of the bill by the 'Legislature of Tennessee, which this writer states on the authority of Colonel Colyar. 

Mr. BATE. I think the Senator from New Hampshire will find upon 

proper investigation that my colleague [Mr. HARms] correctly stated 

the other day that that question has been repeatedly before the Legislature and no instructions given him. During the two.preceding Legislatures I had no opportunity, as the executive, to pass upon it, for the 

resolution did not pass the Legislature, although introduced. Furthermore, the gentleman referred to- Colonel Colyar, and from whose lett-er 

he reads-is able, and has been earnest and enthusiastic in his advocacy 

of the Blair bill. 

Mr. BLAIR. He states it on the authority of the Nashville American. 

Mr. BATE. Yes, but he is the editor of the Nashville American. 

If the Senator from New Hampshire desires to know accurately about 

this matter the best way is to refer to the record of the Legislature (). 

Tennessee. I am quite sure that my colleague is correct in his statement. As to his influence in the State that is deserved, but if I recollect aright Senator HARRIS never spoke on the bill, either against or 

in favor of it; but the people of their own volition have well defined 

their position on this measure, and during the lastca.nvass in our State, 

although in some counties it was made quite an issue, scarcely a Democrat was elected to the Legislature who advocated it, and in my opinion it would be worse off to-day than heretofore so far as the number 

of its friends in the Legislature is concerned. 

Mr. BLAIR. I have some information that does not seem to correspond with that of the Senator. • 

Mr. BECK. I move that the Senate proceed ro the consideration of 

executive business. 

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate proceeded to the consideration of executive business. After twenty-four minutes spent in 

executive session the doors \Vere reopened, and (at 4 o'clock and 40 

minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, Wednesday, 

February 1, 1888, at 12 o'clock m.