620 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 22~, 

IN SENATE. 

WEDNESDAY, January 22, 1879. 

Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. BYRON SUNDERLA..l\'1>1 D. D. 

The Journal of yesterday's proceedings was read and approv.ed. 

HOUSE BILL REFERRED. 

The bill (H. R. No. 4810) to provide for the settlement of all outstanding claims against the District of Columbia and conferring jurisdiction on the Court of Claims to hear the same, and for other purposes, was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. 

EXECUTIVE COliM~"'ICATION. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate a communication 

from the Secretary of the Interior, transmitting, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 8th instant, the information in that 

Department x:espectii~g an arrangement made ~etw.een the Commissioner of Indian A.ffatrs and the Lawrence Umvers1ty, at Appleton, 

Wisconsin, for the education of Indian children; which, on motion 

of Mr. HowE, was ordered to lie on the table, and be printed. 

SUPPLY OF WATER ON CAPITOL HILL. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate a communication 

from the commissioners of the District of Columbia, in compli~ce 

with a resolution of the Senate of the 17th instant, directing them to 

report to tlie Senate "what action by Congress, if any, is necessary 

to secure to the residents of Capitol Hill, and other elevated portions 

of the city of Washington, a proper supply of water," &c. . The Secretary proceeded to read the communication. 

1\Ir. DORSEY. That is quite a long document, and I suggest, as it 

relates to a matter of much importance, that it be printed. · :Mr. EDMUNDS. It ought to be printed, but I should like to hear 

it read. . Mr. BECK. I hope it will be printed in the RECORD. The reading 

will take but a little. further time. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I should like to hear it read, as it IS a question 

which affects so largely the city. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. The reading will proceed. 

The Secretary resumed and concluded the reading of the commu- nication, as follows: 

OFFICE OF THE COIDliSSIO:SERS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUliDIA, 

Washington, January 21, 1879. 

Sm: In compliance with the following resolution of the Senate of the 17th in- stant "That the commissioners of the Di'\trict of Columbia be, and they hereby are directed to report to the Senate what action by Congress, if any, is necessary to ~ecure to the residents of Capitol Hill, and other elevated portions of the city of Wasbin~n, a.proper supply of water ;.what appropriation of moneY:, if any, is 

1·equiren for this purpose; and to transnnt to the Senate such facts relating thereto as they may deem important," the con1missioners have the honor to report: 

Numerous considerations enter into this question of water supply, to most of 

which anytbino- more than brief mention would invoh·e a length of report and 

degree of elaborntion for which there is no ti_me and probably D? occ~sion. The 

commissioners are not prepared to state details, and so reported m the1r report to Con!!!ress at the opening of the present session. 

E1ther of two measures for improving: the water supply may be resorted to: first, 

increasing the amount brought to the city; second, repressive measures designed to contror the waste of the supply already delivered. 

To !rive more than crude estimates of cost, or 9f the amount of labor and time invol·rea in carrying into execution any plan for an increase of supply that Congress 

mijZht adopt would call for extended examinations by competent engineers. • There are two methods of increasing supply: first, to lay an additional main from 

the distributing reservoir; second, to extend the conduit to the high lands north of 

th!}b~~~st of the main and proper distributing connections would be, say, .,400,000. 

The extension of the conduit and additional reservoir would cost much more, but 

would bring a. permanent supply to the immediate vicinit_y of the city. The first consideration presenting itself with a quest JOn of this nature is the 

financial condition and ability of the water department itself, which, under the 

present rate of water rents, bas a yearly income of about $94,500. derived. from a scale of rents which has remained unchanged from that ori~inally established at the time of the introduction of Potomac water. The Legislative .Assembly authorized the levy of a. tax for distributinJI mains amounting to one and a quarter cents per s~uare foot containe<l in each lot fronting upon the street in which such mains are laid payable in :five yearly installments. The same property can be taxed but once to pay for such mains. Of this tax there is now an uncollected balance of 

$112,284.82. 

The department is burdened with a bonded debt of $423,000, bearing 7 per cent. interest, the interest and sinking fund together involvin.~r a :vearlv payment at this 

time of $44 610. The debt was created by autbOiit:y of the ':LegiSlati'l'e .Assembly, July 20 187'1 to pay for the thirty-six-inch main, wh1ch has now been laid about six 

years. 'nedli~ing the amount of interest and sinkinJI fimd there remains of .water- rent receipts !bout $49,890 to pay all the expenses of the wat~r department, mcloding present payment of the greater part of the cost of distributing mains, and also 

all repairs and the cost of pumping water in Washington and GeorjZetown, &c. 

The water-main taxes are largely delinquenta!Jd therevenoesl!f thedepa~ent 

are inadequate· to meet current demands. It 1s therefore manifestly not m con· di tion to enter into an expensive outlay for an additional main, to do which would 

involve a large increase of the bonded debt of the water department and an addition to present water renta much beyond what the commissioners have bad in view. 

The main (not yet onc.:tifth paid for,~ laid but six years since1 has a capacity 

much lar~er' than ihe combi.Ded capacity of both tho e in use p~or to tha~ time. 

Yet withm six years the supply, then more than doubled, has agam becomo madequate not by a doubling of the population, for that bas not happened, but in larger 

part by increase in the lavish use and waste of water. Were an additional main now to be laid, it is evident from :past experience that within five or six years we would find ourselves in the same di.fficulty. .Another main would be required, and 

if laid tlie water debt would be increased a second time, some years even before 

th~aJ"M'ti~t~ is~f~~t~bi'sntt'! ~=!'serious one that the mains now laid are becoming old and must within a. limited time be replaced, involving an expense as great as their original cost. There has been no legislation in the past, as a. wise policy would bave dictated, to provide a fund to meet these recnrrillg heavy out,. 

lays. The Legislative Assembly imposed upon the water department many burdens withont making provision by change in the water rates to meet them. The 

commissioners now :find it absolut&y necet!sa~ to ask authority to do what was. thus neglected. They are of opinion that the foregoing financial statement shows 

that the time has amved to ado,Pt rather a repressive system, and by controlliDg waste remove the necessity for mcreasing the supply. They consider this a wiser policy than to enter upon an increase of debt whlch will, it is thou~ht • .rather 

encourage a greater waste and a corresponding increase per capita in the futuredemand. 

There are now pumped into the stand-pipe at the head of Sixteenth street two million gallons of water daily, or all the supply at present"reacbing the pumps. AlK>ut 

fifteen hundred houses are attaehed to the pipe. At present the two million gallons does not afford a sufficient supply. Thus between two hundred and three hundred 

gallons (say eight barrels) per capita is daily consumed in that section, and thesupply is inadequate to the demand. The best known authorities upon water up- p.,l: v estimate sixty gallons p~r capita as a liberal and ample allowance in a city. A' 

ilri8 rate the Rtand-pipe would supply thirty-three thousand people with water. Such a. waste is nnreasonable, and not to be justified upon any theory of health. comfort, or utility. The commissioners know of but one way to prevent this waste, 

and that is by measurement of the water used. They propose to test this system first upon the high service and do not doubt that then the stand-pipe will be fonnd to amply supply the two districts of the city for which it was designed, namely, the northwest section and Capitol Hill. 

It is contemplated to carry an additional supply to the pumps; and if the need 

arises additional pumps can be e~ without large expenditures. 

It will be thus seen that the commissioners favor the idea of checking the increasing tendency to waste, a tendenc. that experience shows to have been rapidly growing, to improve the present distribution of water within the city, and to husband the resources of the water department to enable it eventually, and when tbe 

actual need comes, to brinjZ the conduit itself to the high ~unds in the vicinity of the city, which is doubtless the best plan for the future increase of supply, but one that with its connections will involve a.n outlay probably of $1,000,000. 

The commissioners propose to have examinations and estimates made with a view to inform Congre s at its next session more fully and exactly in respect to the 

future water supply. 

Besides the connection of Capitol Hill with the stand.pipe, the ~eneral service 

of that section and Sooth WashinJ!;ton can be increased by running a twelve-inch 

main from the thirty-inch main on K street along Fifteenth street west to re.enfore& 

tbe Pennsylvania avenue main, and from Fifteenth street below Pennsylvania avenue to Ohio avenue, and thence down Fourteenth street, along South B s~ 

to connect with the twenty-inch main on that street from which South Washing- ton draws its supply, now coming tQ it by a circuitous route. This. will ena.bTe 

the department to cut off partially the twenty-inch main leading from the .inter- section of New Jersey avenue and North B street, which main is now relied upon· for the South Washington supply. At the junction referred to on New Jersey avenue a twenty·inch main (see map herewith) leads up to the hi~Zh grounds of 

East Washington for its SUJiply. The thirt;v-inch and thirty-six-inch mains unite· upon New Jersey avenue and extend in a smgle main along it to B street, where 

the two twenty-inch mains branch off as above stated. 

It is pl'Oposed also to cut off certain low ground in the north west section now drawing upon the stand-pipe. 

The estimated amounts required for the various pm·poses indicated are as follows: 

Twelve-inch main stand-pipe to CapitolHill .••••• -·---- ·--- __ ·---·· ·----. Twelve-inch main to re-enforce the Pennsylvania avenue main, &.c .. ____ _ Six-inch main to cut off low ground, northwest section, from stand-pipe. __ 

Two thousand meters, compfete and erected-----·--··---·-·----·-··---- .. Additional pumps·--··----·---···--·- ..•.. __ ··--·-·---·-- .....•....... --· Additional supply of water and pumps .•••••. _-·-·---·-----· .•..... __ .. __ . 

~'>5 0001 :ti500 

2,500 

20,00(). 

5,000 

5,000 

7P,OOD• 

The uncollected wate1·-main taxes, amounting to $112,284.42, represent the amoun8-

advanced from the water rent3 to lay water mains which have not been refunded 

from the taxes for mains. In addition to this deficiency there are large demands for new mains which the commissioners are unable to lay, and the expense of the department is increased by the pumps for the stand-pipe. So that an augmentation- of rents is necessary. 

It is respectfully recommended that Congres authorize an advance of the aboveestimated amount required for the purposes set forth to be refunded from the water- main ta.xes. The present water rents are based upon the width and heij1:ht of houses, mea.sure- ments that have no relation whatever to the consumption of water. A house six~ 

teen feet wide of two stories pays $3. Those of greater widlil and height pay twenty-five cents per foot of additional width and 1 for each story, a finished base- ment being regarded as a story. 

It is the purpose of the commissioners to fix rates dependent upon the use madeof water in houses--' in other words, that, as near as circumstances will allow, water- takers . hall pay in proportion to what they get. For these reasons, and because of" 

the need to increase the receipts of the water departmeht, the commissioners nsk.. that authority be ~iven them to regulate the water rates. · · The inclosed bill, as amended, is designed to cover the foregoin~ reeommendations. 

By order of tbe board. 

Hon. WILLIAM A. WHEELER, • 

President United States Senate. 

S. L. PHELPS, Presid~nt. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. The communication will be printed and,. 

with the accompanying papers, referred to the Committee on• the District of Columbia. PETITIONS A....~D "'IEMORIALS. 

~Ir. BOOTH presented the petition of W. T. Glenn and otHers, citi- zens of Fresno County, California, praying for an amendment to the· tiinber-culture act so as to give title to those who will keep ten acres of trees growing for five years not more than sixteen feet apart ea~h . 

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

Mr. ALLISON. I present the memorial of Fred. Litton and -a large 

number of others, citizens of Iowa, remonstrating against the passage· 

of the bill reviving the patent granted to John C. Birdsell for iinprov_ement in combined clover-threshers and hullers, so called. A's the btll1 

js on the Calendar, I move that the memorial lie upon the table. 

The motion was agreed to. . Mr. MERRil\ION presented the memorial of JohnS. Long and othel'BJ. citizens of New Berne, North Carolina, remonstratin{? against theremoval of the Federal courts from that city to the mty of GOldsborough, in that State; which was referred to the Commi~tae on thsJndiciary. 
1879. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 62t 

He also presented the petition of Edward Haile, surviving partner 

of H;aile & Savage, of Alabama, praying for t~e passage of a law 

referrinG" his claim for compensation for certam cotton alleged to 

have ~n seized and appropriated by United States military p.uthorities at Savall.Ilah, Georgia, in December, 1864, to the Court of Cia~ 

for adjudication and settlement; which was referred to the Committee on Claims. 

Mr. DORSEY presented the petition of William Forsyth, late sur- veyor of the District of. Co~umbia, praying C?ml?ensation for cert~in 

services rendered the DIBtrtet government while m that office; wh1ch was referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. 

.Mr. COCKRELL. By request of the Committee on Claims, I present a supplemental memorial in behalf of the heirs of the claimants 

of the late United States private armed brig General Armstrong, and 

I move that this supplemental memorial be printed for the use of the 

.committee and referred to the Committee on Claims. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. BAILEY. I presented a few days ago the petition of Landsford P. Yandell and wife, and othex:s, sureties on the bond of Henry 

iL. Norvell late collector of internal revenue for the second district of 

'Ten,nessee: praying.that theY: may be relieved fr?m respon.sibility as .snch sureties; and It was referred to the Committee on Fmance. I rnow present additional evidence in the case, and ~ove its reference 

to the same oommittee. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. WHYTE. I present the memorial of the Baltimore Yearly 

..Meeting of Frie~ds, signed by Henry Janney,_clerk _of that body, 

representing their concern on acc?unt of. the. evils of m~emperance, 

. and praying C~mgress, by appropnate legtslatiOJ?, to e:adicate perm~­

.nently this eVIl. Inasmuch as not only the evil of mtemperance IS 

to be grappled with in this inquiry, but a very important legal ques- •tion I think that it ought to go to the Judiciary Committee; and I ~he~fore ask its reference to that committee. 

lfr. EDMUNDS. I wish to suggest to my friend that I think-it is 

ltbe Committee on Finance, which is supplied with plenty of judicial 

talent, which has had this subject for a. session or two under consid- . eration by very numerous petitions; a.nd as the Co~itteeon the Judiciary is, to use a western phrase," swamped" With the number of .subjects which have already been sent to it, I hope the Senator will consent that the memorial go to the Committee on ~l.nance. 

Mr. WHYTE. The only objection to it is that the petitions heretofore have been directed to the traffic in alcohol more particularly, rather than the moral question of temperance, to see whether it can- :uot be eradicated by some legislation; and thereforo I think it is a v~ry important inquiry for the Judiciary Committee to take charge of. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. If my friend puts it upon moral grounds, I shall 

1have to submit. 

Mr. WHYTE. Precisely. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. The memorial will be referred to the •Committee on the Judiciary. 

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 

l\Ir. HARRIS, from the Committee on Claims, to whom was referred 

the bill (H. R. No. ~3) for the relief of William F. Wheeler, reported 

:it without amendinent, and submitted a report thereon; which was -ordered to be printed. 

He also, from the same committee, to whom was referred the bill •(.H. R. No. 5800) for the relief of Mrs. Julia Elliott, widow and admin- ·lstratrix of Newell D. Elliott, deceased, reported it with an amend- _ment, and submitted a. report thereon; which was ordered to be 

printed: .. 

Mr. GARLAND. I wish to submit from the Committee on Public 

lliands a minority report in tho matter of the claim of William ~fcGarrahan. The majority report was presented and filed in my :absence. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. The minority views will be received a.nd • ordered to be printed. 

Mr. GARLAND. When that order of business is reached I shall .. ask leave to introduce a bill to carry out the views of the minority 

report. ·· Mi:. COCKRELL, from the Committee on Claims, to whom was re- lferred the bill (S. No. 32) for the relief of J. N. Micow and others, 

nbmitted a report thereon, accompanied by a bill (S. No. 16i2) for 

the relief of N. C. Blonton. 

The· bill was read twice by its title, and the report was ordered to 

be printed. 

Mr. HEREFORD, from the Committee on Claims, to whom .was re- ferred the petition of Campbell County, Tennessee, praying compensation for the alleged use and occupancy of public property belonging 

to that county at Jacksborough by Unite(j_ States military forces 

during the late war, submitted an adverse report thereon, which was ordered .to be printed, and the committee were discharged from the 

further consideration of the petition. • He also, from the same committee, to whom was referred the bill 

(S. No. 716) for the relief of Huff Jones, submitted an adverse report 

thereon; which was ordered to be printed, and the bill was postponed 

indefinitely. 

Mr. MORGAN, from the Committee on Claims, to whom was re- . ferred the bill (S. No. ~l5<\) for the re::ef of W, 'P. Grace, ns the administra.tor of W. B. Gosa, submitted a report-thereon, accompanied 

by a bill (S. No. 1673) for the .relief of James Trabue. 

The bill was read twice by its title, and the· report was orc.lere<l to 

be printed. 

He also, from the same committee, to whom was referred the petition of Hen-ry F. Lines, praying compensation for serV:ces rendered as cipher clerk and military telegraph operator in the years 1864 and 

1865, submitted a report thereon, accompanied by a bill (S. No. 16i4) 

for the relief of Henry F. Lines. . The bill was read twice by its title, and the report was ordered to 

be printed. 

Mr. BURNSIDE, from the Joint Select Committee on the Reorganization of the Army, presented a tabular statement in relation to the 

present and proposed organizartion of the Army, to accompany the 

report of the committee on the bill (S. No.1491) to reduce and reorganize the Army of the United States, and to make rules for its govern· 

ment and regulation; which waa ordered to be printed. 

BILLS INTRODlJCED. 

Mr. COCKRELL asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave 

to introduce a bill (S. No. 1675) for the relief of Samuel A. Lowe; 

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

:Mr. DAVIS, of Illinois, asked, and by tmanimous consent obtained, 

leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 1676) to prevent and punish the 

counterfeiting within the Unit-ed States of notes, bonds, or other 

securities of foreign governments; which was read twice by its title, 

and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. 

Mr. HEREFORD asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave 

to introduce a bill (S. No. 1677) making an appropriation for the 

improvement of Bi~ Sandy River, in the State gf West Virginia; 

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

He also asked, aJld by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 1678) making an appropriation for continuing the 

improvement of New River, in the State of West Virginia; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Com- merce. 

He also asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill (S. Np. 1679) making an appropriation for the improvement of Elk River, in the State of West Virginia; which was read 

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

He also asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 1680) making an appropriation for ·the improvement of Guyandotte River, in the State of West Virginia; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

He also asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill. (S. No. 1681) making an appropriation :Cor continuing the 

improvement of the Great Kanawha RIVer, in the State of West Virginia; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

Mr. DORSEY asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to 

introduce a bill (S. No. 1682) relating to the rank of certain retired 

Army offiMrs; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the 

Committee on Military Affairs. 

Mr. GARLAND asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave 

to mtroduce a bill (S. No. 1683) in relation to the Rancho Panoche 

Grande, in California.; which was read twice by its title, and ordered 

to lie on the table. 

Mr. ALLISON asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to 

introduce a joint resolution (S. R. No. 52) to correct an error in the 

act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government forthe fiscal year ending June 30,1879, and for other purposes; 

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

COLVILLE lli."'DIAN RESF.RVATION • 

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

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Interior be directed to furnish the Senate 

with a statement of the extent of the present area of the Colville Indian R.eservation in Washington Territory, with the boundaries thereof, the date when such 

reservation was established, 'and in what manner, whether by Executive order or act of Congress; also the number of Indians now occupying such reserv~tion. 

REFUNDING THE NATIONAL DEBT. 

MJ.·. MORRILL. I desire to call up the bill (H. R. No. 5808) to facilitate the refunding the national debt. ' · The VICE-PRESIDENT. Is there objection to the present consideration of the bill f 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Let it be read for information. 

Mr. MORRILL. I will say that it has received the unanimous 

assent of the Committee on Finance. • The VICE-PRESIDENT. The bill will be read, subject to objection. 

The bill was 1·ead; and by unanimous consent, the Senate, as in 

Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider it. It authorizes the 

Secreta.ry of the Treasury: in the process of refunding the national 

debt under existing laws, to exchange directly, at par, the bonds of 

the United States b~aring interest at 4 per cent. per annum, authorized by law, for the bonds of the United States commonly known as _ five-twenties, outstauc1ing and uncalled.; and whenever they shall 

. ,/ 
·. 

.. 

622 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 22,. 

have been redeemed, the provisions of this section and all existing 

provisions of law authorizing the refunding of the national deb~ shall 

apply to any bonds of the United Stat~ bearing interest at 5 per 

cent. per annum or a higher rate, which may be redeemable. In any 

exchange made under tlie provisions of this section interest may be 

allowed on the bonds redeemed for a period of three months. 

Mr. MORRJlili. Mr. President, as I have already said, this bill has 

met the unanimous approval of the Committee on Finance. It simply 

provides that private parties may exchange their 5 and 6 per cent. 

bonds directly with the Treasury at par, and receive the interest for 

three mo:nths, the same as national banks and syndicates have done 

heretofore, which is a necessity under the existing provisions of positive law. I do not suppose there will be any objection in· any quarter 

to having a bill of this kind for the promotion of the exchange of a bond bearing a higher rate of interest for one of a lower rate of interest. 

The object is to facilitate the popular loan. 

Mr. CONKLING. What does the conclusion of the bill mean, if the 

Senator will state f It provides thatIn any exchange made under the provisions of this section, interest may be 

allowoo, on the bonds redeemed, for a. period of three months. 

Mr. MORRILL. It means to follow simply the practice of the 

Treasury ever since any loans have been refunded, for the last ten 

years. 

Mr. CONKLING. What is that practice, may I inguire f 

Mr. MORRILL. The pract.ice is that bonds must be called in ad- vance of their payment, and an interest of three months has been 

allowed in all cases except one. There was one loan, I think, under 

Secretary Bristow, that was negotiated at par; but at that time the 

loan itself, that is the bonds, were worth at least from lt to 2! per 

cent. premium. This bill will effect the same thing; or it permits an exchange at par with the loss of three months' interest. 

Mr. CON.KLL.'~'G. This is an allowance of lt per cent. Y 

Mr. MORRILL. Yes; lt on six percents and 1! on five percents. 

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered 

to a third reading, read the third time, and passed. 

THE CALENDAR. 

The VICE-J>RESIDENT. The business of the morning hour is con- cluded, and the Senate will resume the consideration of the bill (S. 

No. 720) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to deposit certain 

funds iil the United States Treasury in lieu of investment, under the 

resolution for the consideration of the general Calendar. 

Mr. ALLISON. I ask unanimous consent that that bill may be 

passed over for a moment. · The VJCE-PRESIDENT. To this the Chair hears no objection; 

and the Secretary will report the next business on the Calendar. 

The next business on the Calendar was the joint resolution (H. R. 

No. 47) authorizing Rear-Admiral John J. Almy, United States Navy, 

to accept a decoration from the King of the Hawaiian Islands. 

Mr. MITCHELL. The Senator from California [Mr. SARGENT] objected to that joint r<.>solution the other day, and I ask that it lie over until he returns to the Chamber. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. Thejoint resolution will go over without 

prejudice ; and the next business on the Calendar will be reported. · Mr. EDMUNDS. The same may be said of the next joint resolution on the Calendar. It is of a class to which the Senator from California has objected hitherto. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. It will be passed over, and the next bill on the Calendar reported. 

The next bill on the Calendar was the bill (S. No. 777) to organize a life-saving and coast-guard service. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. In t}!e absence of the chairman of the 

Committee on Naval Affairs, [Mr. SARGENT,] who reported this bill, 

it will be passed over without prejudiie; and the next bill on the 

Calendar will be reported. 

PACIFIC RAILROAD LANDS. 

The next bill on the Calendar was the bill (S. No. 195) to declare 

certain lands subject to taxation. It provides that all the lands 

granted by the act of July 1,1862, entitled·''An act to aid in the con- struction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to 

the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the use pf the same for posta.l, military, and other purposes," and the act amendatory thereof, approved July 2,1864, to the several railroad companies 

therein named, and to which the companies would have become entitled upon payme11t of the cost of surveying, selecting, and conveying 

the same, as provided by section 21 of the am'endatory act of July 

2, 1864, shall be subje9t to all legal taxes imposed under authority 

of any State or Territory in which such lands are located, to th~ same extent as t.hey would have been had such costs been paid and the 

lands conveyed to the railroad companies. But this is not to be con- strued as applying to lands already forfeited by the railroad companies, or either of them; nor shall it operate to relieve any such com- pany from any forfeiture heretofore incurred. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. This bill was before theSenate,April18, 

1878, and considered as in Committee of the Whole, and the amend- men~ of the Committee on Public Lands was agreed to, adding a prOVISO. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I should like to hear the report read'. It is a very 

important subject as respects the rights of the United States, and we ought to go a little slowJy about this business. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. The report will be read. 

The Secretary read the following report, submitted by Mr. BooTH,. 

February 25, 1818 : 

The Co~ttee on Pnl_)lic Lands,~ whom was referred the bill (8. No.195) to. declare certain lands subJect to taxation, have bad the same under consideration 

and submit the following report: • An ~ct of Congre~ of .Jul:y 1, 1862 (voL 12, p. 492, Sta~tes at Lar.get granted to. the railroad compames therem named five alternate sect10ns per mile;pn each side 

of theit respective roads. · An amendatory a.ct of .J~y 2, 1864 (voL ~3, p. 358, Sta.tntes at Large,) doubled' 

the grant of landS, but reqmred the compa.ru.es to pay the cost of surveying before 

receiving patents for the 11mds. 

It h~ been held by the Supreme Conrt of the United States that these lands are- not snbJe<_:t to taxation until the cost of surveying, selecting, and locating are paid. The railroad companies under this law, by declining to pay these costa, hold !:rfb=':' ht~~e~~~~ free from local taxation, converting what was intended 

The compai:Jies can and do mortgage their lands, sell them, and exercise abso· 

lute ownership over them, but they are exempt from taxes. In many instancesthey have sold them with the stipula.tion that the payment of the cost of snrvey sJ;t~uld be deferred, that ~be pnreha.ser i!~it hold ana improve them withont lia.- bili~ for the taxes to :wh.Ic~ ~ other s · r p~perty is subj ect.ed. This bill is ::s~~~~e~edy this IDJnstice, and the COID..ID.lttee recommend 1ts passage with 

The following table exhibits the amount of lands granted and the amount pat- ented or certifipd to the respective companies: . 

• 

Xame of road. 

Union Pacific .......... ____ .' ... _ ........... . 

Kansas Pacific ............. ·········-··._ .. .. Central Pacific ....................... . .. . .. . B.urlington and Missouri Ri er ...... . ...... . Sionx City and Pacific . ....... _. .......... ·--· 

Estimated quan- Nnm).>er of acre& 

tity embraced certified or pat;. in 'the grout. ented up t9.June 

30, 1877. 

12, 000, 000. 00 6, 000, 000. 00 

9, 100, 000. 00 2, 441, 600. 00 

60,000.00 

1, 857,792. 1 ... 531,261.71 

1, 116,757. 11 2, 374, 090. 77 40,678.~ 

1\Ir. EDMUNDS. There are two or three questions, Mr. President,. 

that naturally arise about this bill, to which the notice of the Senate ought to be called; and I refer to it particularly from the circumstance that the Committee on the Judiciary in exploring the subject; 

when it had under consideration what is known as the Thurman bill 

which was enacted into a law, had its ·attention drawn to the con- dition of these lands. I think there cannot be much doubt that the 

companies ought to be compelled to take their patents where they 

have become entitled tothem, and when they do, all responsibility on. the part of the United States as a public body toward tho States and 

Territories will have been discharged and the lands will be subjecttotmxation, as other lands are, undoubtedly, unless the statutory mortgage of the United States upon these lands, the condition of their 

sale, should have been broken, which would produce a forfeiture. 

I should be sorry to have the Senate led into taking a step which 

is going to cost hereafter; but it is open to some question inasmuch as these lands now are not taxable by law, being legally the property 

of .the United States; and inasmuch as the United States has by 

statute authorized a pledge of the lands while still the property of 

the United States, if we provide by an affirmative act, as th~ bill 

provides, that they shall be subject to taxation under the authority 

of the States and Territories, and they should be sold for these taxes. as against the railway and its first mortgages, whether we shall not 

have a claim presented to Congress by and by upon the part of thepeople who held a right. under the statutes of the United States to. 

these lands free from taxation to make good to them the lands that 

have been lost from under their securit.y by force of this affirmative. 

and direct tax act of the United States. I do not express any opinion as to what the law would turn out to be; I enly say that thet-a is. 

considerable danger of our getting into a difficulty upon that subject. 

Then, in the next place, as everybody knows, the United States has a lien upon these lands; and as long as the lands are in the United 

States, so far as the title goes, of coUFse that lien is perfect, subject. 

to the right of the prior mortgagee. When the lands are disposed of 

in pursuance of the mortgage, then there is a trust which follows th& 

proceeds of the lands into-the proper assets of the companies, so that. the United States and the prior mortgagee are secured on the money 

in the place of the lands. 

It is said, and it is not a.t all clear that it is not true, that the United, States need every acre of these lands and every dollarof money that. 

is to come from them to be applied to the payment of the prior mortgage and of the enormous mortgage, so to call it, that the United 

States has. Everybody remembers that no iuterest is paid to us upon 

these advances of bonds of the United States. 'The lfnited States.. 

pays the interest all the time. The companies d6 not return it; and 

the Supreme Court has decided that the companies, as the law then. stood, were not bound to return. the interest until at least the end of 

the time when the payment of the principal wonld be due, and it is. 

left an open question perhaps whether they are bound to return it 

then. In that way there is running up continually an augmentation 

to a tremendous amount of the interest of the United States in all; 

this property of these companies. 

Now, if we provide by statute that these lands, although not patented though they ought to be perhaps, shall be subject to State and 

te¢torial taxation as well, the result will be that a considerable part., of these Jands will be· disposed of for taxation, anfl the title and se-
. 

1879 . CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 623. 

curity of the United States will be gone unless we make a provision 

by law authorizing some Department of the Govei1lm.ent, an authority 

that probably no Department now possesses, to pay the taxes and so redeem the lands. 

It is a pretty grave question whether, when its own interests are so largely involved in these lands which it now has the legal title to, 

tlJe United States owes any duty by comity or good morals or friendship or justice, any Iq.nd of a duty to the States and Te'rritories in 

which these lands lie in respect of subjecting them to burdens, when 

the real interest of the United States for its.own security is greater 

than the whole value of the lands themselves. In that state -of the 

case, I should consip.erably prefer that this bill should not .be acted 

upon in a hurry, for it ought to be very carefully considered. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. It goes over under objection. 

Mr. BOOTH. Do I understand the Senator to make an argument 

against the bill and then object to its consideration f 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I do not object to its consideration at this mo- ment. 

Mr. ~OOTH. That is the ruling of the Chair. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I do not object at this moment to the consideration of the bill. My friend from California no doubt would desire to 

be heard. • Mr. BOOTH. It is not my bill, although I reported it, and I have no personal desire to be heard. There is no doubt, Mr. President, that 

there is a palpable wron~ and the only question in my mind is how 

the remedy shall be applied. This bill does not by any means render 

the whole of the land grants to these railroads taxable. It applies to a very small portion of them, only to such lands~ the United States 

Government has paid the cost of surveying, and for which the railroad companies refuse to take patents. Under the provisions of the 

law, if I understand it rightly, no further surveys will be made of 

these lands until these payments have been made by the railroad com- panies for surveys already perfected. 

The first decision of the Supreme Court that held these lands were exempt from taxation was in the case of the Railway Company vs. Prescot~16 Wallace, 603. It was there held that the lands sold by the 

United ~:States may be taxed before patents havo issued, but not until 

the right to a patent is completed, and that the right of the railroad 

company is not completed until the costs of surveying, selecting, and 

locating are paid. , Now, I undocstand the Senator fr~m Vermont to say that it would 

bo good legislation to compel them to take their patents; but you 

cannot compel them to take their patents until they choose to make 

payment of the costs of the survey, and this they decline to do for 

the reason that these lands m.a;y be held exempt from taxes; and, as 

is stated in the report, they have sold very many valuable lands which 

have passed into the hands of their assignees; improvements have 

been made upon them, the railroad companies simply giving bonds 

to perfect the title, so that these improved lands are held exempt 

from State taxation. 

I think a practical wrong of this kind ought to be remedied, even if the far-seeing Senator from Vermont can-see somo possible, remote, 

contingent, improbable injury· that may arise to the General Government. Nene such will arise· to bear any bomparison to the evils the 

States are sufterin~, even if the honorable Senator supposes there 

ought to be no conuty and no obligation on the part of the Untted 

States Government to do justice to the States. 

Mr. PLUMB. I desire to say a word. The United States, in rese!'ving to itself the legal title to these lands until the cost of surveying 

should be paid, certainly had no intention whatever, or if it had, that 

intention was not expressed by the stn,tute, thereby to exempt the 

lands from taxation. No such purpose was manifest. It not only did 

not intend td reserve them from taxation, but it did not intend to 

pPevent their bein~ sold, whereby it might, as the Senator from Vermont seems to indicate, retain the lien for the money which it had 

advanced to build the railroad. That is quite manifest from the fa<:t 

til at the Government stipulated with the railroad companies that the 

railroad compani.;;a .should sell the lands within three years of the 

time when they completed their roads. 'J.'herefore it did nQt intend 

to hinder the railroad companies from disposing of the lands, and by 

such disposition defeat the lien of the Government, but it intended 

to impose it on them as an obligation to sell the lauds, and that is 

stated specifically by the court in the decision of Railway Company vs. Prescott. At page 609 of 16 Wallace the court say : 

It is wisely provided thM these Ianda shall not be used by the company as a monopoly of indefinite duration. 

This undoubtedly, whatever the covert intention of the framers 

of the bill mi~ht have been, shows an intention on the part of the 

Government simply so to reserve to itself the right of receiving the 

cost of surveying these lands. Now, under the shelter of that sec- tion the railroad companies, as is stated by the Senator from California, sell the land on ten, twelve, or perhaps fifteen years' time, 

giving a bond for a deed, and do not pay the cost of surveying, and 

do not take out a patent, whereby these lands not only become un- taxable at present, bnt that quality of not being taxed pertains to 

them during all this long period of tin;te1 and some of the moRt valuable tracts of land in the State which I m part represent are to-day, as they have been for many years, exempt from taxation under this 

rule. 

The title of the General QQvernment is simply a naked legal title, 

without any beneficial interest except to the extent of about $3 to a quarter section which it reserves to itself the ·right to compel the. railroad company to pay before it narts with that legal title. That 

is the only beneficial interest the ~vernment has. For the purpose, 

then, of obtaining that $3 to a quarter section, it imposes upon the 

several States and Territories in which these lands lie an annual bur-- den amounting to many times that upon each quarter ~tion of land. by reason of this exemption from taxation. I claim witli the Senator 

from California, as I think every person must admit who has had this 

subject under consideration, that that is not only unjust, but was. entirely without the purview of the intention of Congress in reserv-- ingto itself this right to receive this amount of money, to wit: the cost 

of survey. 

The fact is, beside~:~, as to the possible interest the Government may- have in these lands, that they are mortga~ed fior all they are worth ... That is evident from the fact that they nave not only had a first . mortgage put upon them as a rule, but also a second mortgage, and 

those second-mortgage bonds are selling in the market for very much 

less than their par value1 which would not be the case if the lands. were of sufficient value, Jmowri. and recognized as being of sufficient 

valne to take up and discharge the mortgage. That is not the case. They are mort~aged for more than they are worth. This mortgage-

•title or claim IS a title which the Government has permitted to be 

made upon these lands. If the mortgagees do not want to have the. lands on which they hold this lien go to sale, then it is within their 

power, under the statute, t9 pay the taxes and thereby add to the· lien they already have the amount thus paid for taxes, and that is. what they ought to be compelled to do . . I do not think there can be any possible ground for saying that the: Government of the United States reserved or intended to reserve any 

interest in this matter for the benefit of the persons who might bold· the mortgage, so that they might come back at some future day and· say we had placed a burden on their property which we were obliged 

to respond to in damages. There could not be any purpose of that. kind. The whole purpose apparent on the face of the statute was. that the Government should have a right to receive the two three or- four dollars a quarter section which it cost to survey the lands, and. 

there was no other purpose; but under the shelter of that the railroad companies decline to take out the title and thus defeat the taxatiop of the lands. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. Does the Chair understand the Senator 

from Vermont to object to the further consideration of the bill 'I 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I dislike very much to object, but at the same time· in any aspect of the case this bill ought to be amended to protect the · interest of the United States, so far as that is a direct money interest,. 

at the very least. Now\ Senators say that this bill only applies to· lands that the railroad companies have got a title to except that they 

have not paid the cost of surveying, but in all other respects the title· of the railway has become perfect; the railway does not pay the oost. of surveying, which is the only step left to entitle them to the land. 

I am very much afraid that the first branch of this bill on reading it: over again, does not stand in such a way as to limit the operation of 

the act to that class of land. It says that all the lands granted by the· act of July 1, 1862, and the act of July 2, 1864, "to which said companies would have become entitled upon payment of the cost of surveying," &c. Now all the lands granted they would hawe become entitleQ. 

to on paying the cost of surveying. The grant was a. complete' one . upon the building of the road, which has been done. 

Mr. BOOTH. How could they become liable for the cost of the sur- veys before the surveys were made 7 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Most plainly they could not; but that is the langua~e. The bill says" all the lands granted that'the cQmpanies. would· nave become entitled to upon payment." It seems to me at 

first blush that there is not a single acre of the land· granted on the• first day that the act passed that the companies would have become 

entitled to on the payment of the cost of survey and the building of- the road, which has been completed. So there may be under that: language a lar~e mass of unsurveyed lands that would fall within 

the scope of this act, on account of the insufficiency of the exclusion. of that class of la.nds. Some words can be found undoubtedly that 

will exclude them and yet meet the purpose. 

Then I think also that it is plain-(and in that I feel sure the · Senator from K~ and the Senator from California will agree with me )-that if the States wished to sell these lands for taxes 

they ou~ht to pay the cost of the survey that the railroad ought t() 

have prud. It is very easy to fix that by inserting after the word 

"shall" in line 14 the wordsAfter payment to the United States of all sueh costsThat is the cost of surveying named before- I 

be subject to all legal t.axes. 

So that the. State and territorial authoritic3 can go and pay the costof surveying, and then dispose of the land for taxes. That it is easy 

enough to make secure; but the descriptive part of this bill, I sub-- :prit, with great respect to my honorable friends, is liable to a con- struction which will carry it over quite a larger area and class of 

lands than the Senators intend to have it go. I should be glad to have 

it laid aside for a few moments without prejudice until I shall suggest the necessary amendments. I dislike to object to a bill after discussing it. 

• 
• 

624 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 22, 

The VICE-PRESIDE~'"T. The bill will go over without prejudice. 

The Secretary will report the next bill on the Calendar. 

P. P. G. HALL. 

The next bill on the Calendar was the bill (8. No. 420) for the I'elief 

of Major P. P. G. Hall; which was considered as in Committee of the 

Whole. 

Mr. ALLISW. Let the report be read. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. 'The report will be read. 

The Secretary read the following report, submitted by :Mr. SPEXCER ·on the 28th of ~,ebruary, 1878: 

Tb~ Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred S. K o. 420, "A bill for .the relief of~or P. P. G. Hall," have hall the same under consideration, aml su\}-

mi t the following report : This is a bill directing the refundment to Major P. P. G. Hall, a paymaster in ·the Army, the sum of $3,141.39, being tho amount paid by him into the Treasury, 

January 15, 1872, in liquidation of a deficiency in hi~ accounts as paymaster, cansed 

by the criminal acts of a clerk named James Thomas, occurring in 1869, and of which >said Thomas was duly convicted. 

This matter was thoroughly in>est igated by the committee of tho second session 

of the Forty-fourth Congress, and a favorable report, accompanied by a bill for 

relief, made to the Senate. (See Report No. 604, second se11sion, Forty-fourth Con- ·III'ess, January 23,1877.) The bill was not reached before the final adjournment of 

the Forty-fourth Congress, and now comes u-p by identical bHI. Inasmuch as the 

.facts and record are the same as those submittetl to tho consideration of the com- :mittee heretofore, your committee adopt tho report of tho previous committee, as !hereinafter set forth, and 1·ecommend passage of the bill. 

"[Forty-fourth Congress, second session, Senate Report K o. 604.] 

" Mr. SPENCER submitted the following report, to accompany billS. No. 1175: 

" The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the petition of Major Peter P. G. Hall, praying to have refunded certain money he was obli~ed to pay in' 

-consequence of the embellzlement of a clerk, have had the same under consideration, and su bruit th_e following report: "The record shows that tho petitioner, a. paymaster in the Army of the United .States, was stationed in the rears 1868 and 1t!69 at Vicksburgh and Jackson, in the :State of Mississippi, where, m addition to his duties of payments to the officers and .soldiers of the Army stationed in the various parts of the military district, and 

whigh required him to travel o>er parts of the States of Mississippi, Louisiana, 'Teunusee, and Alabama to perform the same, hew as also charged With tho arduous 

and responsible payment of what is kno~n as "reconstn1ction vouchers, " the funds 

..,f which were separate from those furni.slted for the payment of the Army. 

" The additional duty imposed upon the petitioner a vast amount of labor, in tho 

perfoiJDance of which, in addition to his regular clerk, he was allowed by the 

proper authorities other clerks, and also enlisted men, from time to time, as occa- sion required, to the number of fifteen or twenty, for the purpose of assisting in 

the work of preparing for payment the said reconstruction a<:counts. Among the 

number of clerks so employed to meet the exiJtencies of this extra service was o~e 

.James Thomas. 

"The said James Thomas, while thus employed as a clerk, and engaged in tho 

preparation of the vouchers on which said reconstruction accounts were pai~ at vanons times between March 1, 1868, and Febrnary 1, 1869, without petitioner's 

knowledge, fraudulently and feloniously altered a lar_~re number of reconstruction · vouchers which bad been approvetl and onloretl paid by the proper military au- thorities, so as to lar~ely increase the amount of money due on the same, and raised .and alttlred checks signed by the petitioner for their payment, by means of which 

felonious/ractices he obtained tho money on said vouchers and checks, and em· bezzled o the money of the United States tho sum of 3,409.62 before he was dertectetl thereof. 

"During this period the petitioner was en_,gaged in the discharge of his repllar 

-duties of J.>aymaster, which necessarily- call ea. him frequently away from his nead- .quarters mto various parts of the military district where troops were stationedi 

and he therefore had no knowledge of the· frauds committed by said Thomas nnti 

they were discovered by the accounting officers of the Treasury. Upon the discov'ery of thesefacts, the said Thomas was, at the request of the petitioner, immediately arrested by order of General A. C. Gillem, commanding the military district, and on the 19th of October, 1869, he was arraigned before a general court- -martial convened at Jackson, Mississippi, by order of General Ames, the depart- ment commander, charged with the following crimes: 

"First. Making claims against the Government of the United States, knowing the same to be fictitious and fraudulent, in violation of the act of Congress of 

March 2, 1863. 

" Second. Making and using false vouchers, knowing the same to contain false 

.and fraudulent statements and entries, for the purpose of obtaining the approval of 

false claims, in violation of the same act. "Third. Knowingly and willfully appropriating to his own use money belonging to the United States, in violation of the same act. "Fourth. Conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline. · · ·' On the 28th of January, 1870, after a full investigation by the court-ma.rtial con- <vened for that. pDfPOSe, the said Thomas was declared guilty upon all the charges, .and sentenced to forfeit to the United States all pay then due or that may become 

-due, to pay a fine of $3,299.01, and to be confined at bard labor for tbo'period of five 

years; which proceedings were approved by General Ames, and the said Thomas was incarcerated in the penitentiary at Jackson, Mississippi. 

" In conse9.uence of this embezzlement, there was found to be due, upon settle- ment of petitioner's accounts by the proper officers of the Go\"ernment, a ueficienc;r 

10f 3,141.39, which amount was made a charge against him. Thereupon the pet1~ 

ioner was suspended from duty and -pay until he should pay over and reimburse .to the Government tho amount of srud (leficit, a refusal to comply with the same rendering liable to be court-martialed and dismissed the service as a defaulter. 

Accordingly the petitioner did pay over to the United States the said sum of $3, 141.39, 

-:the amount of tho moneys so embezzled by the said Thomas. 

"After the said payment and liquidation by said petitioner of the amount so -cb arged against him, he filed, on the 29th of October, 1873, his petition for relief in 

the Uonrt of Claims, under the act of May 9, 1866, by which said court is invested 

with jurisdiction to grant relief in cases of this character; and whenever said court ,shall have ascertained tho facts of any such loss to have been without fault orne~ 

.teet on the part of the officer suffering a loss of tho public funds, it is provide« 

hv said act that a decree shall be made, setting forth tho amount thereof, upon 

'vhich the proper ae~oun ting officers of the Treasury shall allow to flUc.h officer the .amount s• decreed as a credit in the settlement of his accounts. " On demurrer to the said petition, the Court of Claims held ' that petitioner could not recover, for tho reason that his liability for the defalcation bad been discharcred 

by the payment of the money. The court hehl that an officer entitle<l to the relief 

"OOntemplated by the act must not only have been, but must still be, held responsi· ble to the Government for that which is lost. If the responsibility has been <as- charged, he is no longer entitled to relief. His account bas by his own act been 

66ttled and closed, and there is therefore no unsettled account upon which a credit 

decreed by this court could be allowed.' · - . "Therefore the petitioner was denied the relief be sought, because he had under 

tbe orders of his superiors previously paid over the deticit char,e;ed against him. 'The record .shows that the petitioner had no time to present. his case to the Court 

of Claims previously to the payment of the deficit. Although petitioner made ap - plication for delay forth?! purpose of endeavoring to obtain relief, the record shows 

such delay was peremptorily refused, and by Special Order No. 189 of the War De· partment, dated August 4, 1870, which wa-s issued immediately upon settlement of 

his ailcount by the Second Auditor of the Treasury, the petitioner was ordered to repair without delay for duty in the Department of Texas. It also appears in the 

record that, bv letter of the Adjutant-General of date August 16, 1870, petitioner's 

request for delay was denied, and the order to proceed at once to Texas was reiterated. "A letter from the then Paymaster-General is in the record, from which it appears that officer, in suspendin rr petitionerand threatening him with court-martial unless he paid over the deficit, disclaims all intention of barring petitioner from his legal 

remedy in the Court of Claims. But it is proper to remark, tho effect of the Pay- master-General's acts was to ·debar petitioner, and therefore to force him to seek 

congressional relief. Had the exigencies of the public service and the considera- tion of his superior officers so permitted, there can be no reasonable doubt he would 

have been relieved by the Court of Ulaims under tho broad and equitable provisions of the act oi May 9, 1866, had he not in obedience to orders previously paid 

the amount of the deficit so char,e;ed against him. 

"Hon. E. n. French, Second Auditor of the Treasury, and the officer charged 

with the settlement of paymasters' accounts, certifies 'thitt, with the except-ion of 

the reconstruction accounts, wherein fraud was alleged to ha>e been committed 

by a clerk, the petitioner's accounts have been rendered in an acceptable and 

satisfactory manner, and his payments appear to have been made with care and 

ability.' 

"Thus far the case presents unquestionable merit, and tho remaining point for consideration is, whether the petitioner bad exercised proper care and caution and 

sncb reasonabte prudence as is re9.uired of a disbursing officer. The Secretary of 

War, being addressed on this sul5Ject, su.bmits the following report: 

" WAlt DEPART11IEKI', " Washington OitiJ, JanuaT'IJ 22, li317. 

" Sm: Returning your letter of the 19th instant, requesting information in the matter of defalcation of Major P. P . G. Hall, paymaster, United States Army, through his clerk, James Thomas, I have the honor to invite vonr attention to the 

report of tho Paymaster-General, date<l the 20th instant, (indorsed on your letter,) 

and accompanying papers. 

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"Hon. GEORGE E. SPEXCEn, 

" J. D. CAMERON, " Secretary of War. 

" Of Committee em Military Affairs, United States Senate. 

"U!o.'ITED STATES Sm>ATE CitlltBEll, 

"Wa-shington, JanuaT'IJ 19, 1877. 

" Sm: r..eferring to the petition of Major P. P. G. Hall. paymaster, United States 

Army, prayin;! to be reimbursed on account of certain defalcations occurring 

through the criminality of a clerk named James Thomas, while said petitiQnerwas char,e;ed with tho duties of paying vouchers under the reconstruction act, which 

petition is now pending before tlie Senate Committee on Milit-ary: Afi'ai..rs I have 

the honor to request such information as may be within thept'Ovwce of the War 

Department to afford, touching the question whether Major Hall exercised, under 

the attendant circumstance-s, such care and duo diligence al\ a disbursing officer as would be reasonably and j ustlr required by the precedents and practice of the Department. As the comlUlttee desh·e to deteonir.e this case on Tuesday n ext, please £lirect an early reply. '-' Very respectfully, 

"GEO. E. SPENCER, 

" Of &nate Committee on JJlilitanJ .Ajfai)·s, Acting Chairma n. " Hon. J.D. C..unmo:s, 

" Secretary of War. 

[Indorsement.] 

" Respectfully referred to the Paymaster-General for report. " By order of the Secretary of War. " H. T. CROSBY, 

" January l!J, 1877. " Ohief Olerk. 

LSecond indol'dement.] 

"Respectfully returned to the Hon. Secretary of War. " As these transactions occurred several years before I arrived here, I have to make a statement derived from a variety of sources~ mostly from the records of 

this office. These embezzlements by James Thomas, CJ!}rk to Major P. P. G. Hall, occurred when he was stationed at Vicksburgh, Mississippi, from September, 1868, to February 1, 1869, from funds on " reconstruction account" deposited with the a~sistant treasurer at New Orleans. The vouchers were paid by check on that 

depository, printed as payable to" bearer." It was customary to pay them (afte1· the approval of each voucher by Brigadier-General Ord, commanding the feurth 

military district) by chocks to tb:e order of the claimant. Thus th-e word beare1· on the check was erased, and tho word order substituted. It appears that Thomas would write the word order on the check by a black-lead pencil when presented to Major Hall, who has the misfortune to benear-si~hted, which facilitated the crime of the offender. With a robber he would erase tne pencil-marks, and thus as the check would becomo payable to bearer he was able to appropriate the money to his own use. As no compliLint of non-payment ever reached this office, Thomas must have first passed to Major Hall a correct voucher, duly countersigned by General 

Oru, anll obtained a correct check to the order of the claimant, which was sent to him. Afterward .be would alter and raise the amount of tbe vouoher and pre- sent a new check for the increased amount, as be performd tho duty of preparing the voucher and the check necessa1·y to pay it. 

"When these vouchers were critically exaDiined in tbit! office, these alteration 

became appa-rent, and were disallowed. 

"A careful overhauling in this offic~, and afterward in the office of the Second 

Auditor, led to a disallowance in this manner amounting to $3,141.39. This amoun t was made good by Major Hall, being deposited with the United States depositary at San Antonio, Texas. " I do not doubt that Ma,jor Hall, as stated in his report on the subject of tho 19th instant, ad<lressed to this office, was in t.he habit of comparin~ carefully thtl total amount of the voucher with the amount of the check before signing the lat- ter-his near-sightedness, as in case of the check, rendering less obvious to him 

than to most disbursing-officers tho changes and alterations of the vouchers. lie had severe work imposed upon him at Vicks burgh, being required to make these reconstruction disbursement-S in addition to liis ordinary duty of paying the troops. His dhtbursements on the latter account, during the five mouths from Sep- tember, 1868, to January, 1869, were 185,623.97 ; on ·account of reconstruction, $"79,445.60. . "The vouchers (true amount) were often small, varying from $10 up to ·$6o, and a few over $100. 

"The general reput.ation of Major Hall for industry, fidelity, and accuracy of 

his accounts has been very good; and he appears to have made these disbursemenh at. a time when extraordinary labor was imposed upon him. 

"I; inclose herewith Major Hall's letter of 1!lth instant, and copy of General Or-
18.79. C0NGRESSIONAL RECO,RD-SENATE. 625 

der No. 4, of February 5, 1870, from headquarters military district, by which it 

will be seen that James Thomas was tried by a general court-martial, found guilty, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment for the offense, and to pay a fine of 

$3,299.01. ..1 

"I also inclose a statement of Major T. F. Barr, judge-advocate of said court- martial~ whose duty it was to thoroughly investigate the case, and who expresses an opinion favorabfe .to the present claim of Major Hall. 

"BENJ. ALVORD, 

"Paymaster-GeneTal, United States Army. "P.~YMABTER·GEXEBAL'S OFFICE, 

"January 20, 1877." 

"W ASHINGTOX, D. C., Januarlj l1, 1877. 

" Sm: I am a petitioner to Congress for reimbursement in the matter of the 

embezzlement of Thomas, my clerk. As you prosecuted this case on behalf of the 

United States Government, and are conversant with it, will yon be so kind as to favor me with your views, based on your knowledge of the case, regarding the manner in which my business was transacted, and if tllere was the necessary care and diligence exercised on my part. "Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"P. P. G. HALL, 

"Paymaster, United States ATmy. 

"Col. THOMAS F. ll.iRR, 

"Judge-Advocate, U.S. A. 

[Indorsement.] 

"W ASBJXGTOX, Ja1mary~1, 1877. 

''Respectfully returned, through the Secretary of War. · "In the sprin_g of 1869 I was ordered by the Secretary of Warto proceed ttD Jack- son, Mississippi, in response to a. telegram received from General Ames asking for a judge-advocate to prosecute a case of embezzlement. 

"Upon arriving at Jackson, :L found that a Mr. Thomas, clerk to Major P. P. G. 

Hall, pa.~aster, was in the guartl-house in Vicksb}ll'~h, charp:eil with embezzlement 

of public funds, and that a writ of habeas coryus naa issued from the United States 

distiict court (Judge Hill) for his releaae. 

"I made an investigation of the case and satisfied myself of the man's ~uilt, 

and then made a return to the writ, and argued the case successfully, the petitioner being remanded to military custo<\Y. He was subsequently tried by military court for embezzlement of pnblio funds, and sent to the penitentiary for a. term of years. • ''I could not at the time conooi ve that Major Hall would be held responsible for 

the money embezzleil by Thomas. With the arduous duties imposed on him in the 

administration of che reconstruction laws, in addition to his regular officiallabars, the administration of his office appeared to me commendable in e•ery way. "That he should have been held pecuniarily responsible for the criminal act of a, subordinate has e>er appearell to me a great injustice. "THOMAS F. BA.RR, 

"Judge-Advocate, United S~ Army. 

''From these reports • appears that petitioner exercised such reasonable prudence and illligence as could be fairly required under the circumstances, and that the defalcation of Thomas was n~;t owing to any want of care or diligence on the part of t~ petitioner. . • Your committee also belie•e that where public funds ha>e been lost by disbursing officers by robbery, accident1 or the default of subordinates, without any fault or want of care on their part, it .nas been customary not to hold such officers liable 

for the sums-thus lost, or, in cases where the money. has been paid into the Treasury, as in the case of this memorialist, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to refund the same. Believing that this case comes within the principle established 

~l tY:ee J:~:~~~t!?ferred to, your committee report he~with an act for the relief 

Mr. PLUMB. I move to amend by strilrillg ont all after the enacting clause of the bill and inserting: 

That t.he proper accounting officers of tho Treasury be, and they are heN by. authorized and directed to allow and pay to Major P. P. G. Hall, of tho United 

States Army, such sums as they may deem just and equitable, not to exceed 

the sum of 3

1141.39, on account of a former deficiencv in his accounts as pay. 

master, causea by the crinlinal acts of his clerk, James 'Thomas, in 1868 and 186~. 

and of which the said clerk was duly comicted. 

M1. SPENCER. There is no objection that I know of to the amendment. 

The amendment was agreed to. . • The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendment was concurred in. 

Tho bill was ordered to be engrossed for a thlrd reading, and was read the third time. 

Mr. SARGENT. I understand the principle on which the bill is 

recommended by the committee is that the clerk was not selected by 

the officer but was assigned to him. It was .the clerk's default and 

he was punished therefor. On that principle I am willing the bill 

should pass_ without objection, if th!tt is the ground on which it is 

based. 

Mr. SPENCER. The Senator from California is correct about that. 

This officer was assigned to pay the reconstruction accounts inMississippi,,and this clerk was detailed to do that work. 

Mr. SARGENT. Were this otherwise, had the officer the selection 

of his clerk, for fear that collusion might spring up between a bad 

officer and a bad clerk, I should be opposed to the passage of the bill. 

Mr. MAXEY. On the principle stated by the Senator from California the committee recommended the bill. The clerk was not selected 

by the officer, bnt was a det.ailed clerk and he had to take him. 

The bill was passed. 

ROSA. VERTh'ER JEFFREY • 

The next bill on the Calendar was the bill (8. No. 819) for the relief 

of Rosa Vert.ner Jeffreys. 

Mr. McMILLAN. Let the report be read in that case. The Secretary pmceeded to read the report submitted b-v .Mr. McMILLAN, from the Committee on Claims, on the 27th of February, 

1878. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I think I my.st object,to that bill. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. Th~ bi11. goes over. Mr. EDMUNDS. Now I ask to have taken up ,the bill that was passed by at my request. 

VIII-- 40 

Mr. BECK. I did not hear wha~ the Senator from Vermont said. 

The VICE-PRESIDE~TT. He objected to the consideration of the 

Jeffreys bill. 

Mr. BECK. I will say to the Senat<rr from Vermont that it is only a question of amount. All agree that something ought to be paid. 

There was no war at the place where the property was taken. The 

Forty-third Congress passed a bill for $5,000, both Houses agreeing, 

and there is now no question except whether she shall have $800 or $5,000. That is all t.here is in the case. 

:l,Ir. M~TCHELL. There is no question in my mind that she is 

entitled to $5,000, and I examined it carefully. 

Mr. BECK. So I supposed. It is only a question· of the amount 

that onght to be paid. If the bill be passed over now, this lady will 

have no chance at this Congress. 

:l,lr. EDMUNDS. The Forty-third Con~ress was I believe a repub- lican Congress, and we ought to look w1th a little care to the acts 

it passed. I will look at this bill with the Senator's permission. 

In justice to Senators who had up a. previous bill they onght·to 

have their bill considered as it was laid aside for the moment. 

Mr. BECK. I have no objection to that, but I do not want it to 

lose its place. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I do not want it to lose its place. It may be con- sidered as a bill on the Calendar. I want the bill in regard to taxing 

lands taken up. PA.CTh'IC RAILROAD LA.l\~8. 

The Senate resumed the consideratio~ of the bill (S. No. 195) to 

declare certain lan.;ls subject to taxation. · :Mr. ED:MUJ\TDS. I move to amend by inserting after "named," in 

line 10, the words "which have been surveyed," and in the same line 

striking out "would," and in line 11, after the word "entitled," inserting "to patents;" so as to read: 

Which ha.~e been surveyed and for which said companies have become entitled ~c~atents upon payment of the-cost of surveying, selecting, and locating the same, 

The amendnlent was agreed to. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I move further to amend ·by inserting in line 1'4, 

after the word "shall," the words "after payment to the United 

States of all such costs by or under the authority of such State or Territory l' . The amendment was a-greed to. 

1\Ir. KERNAN. I desire to make an inquiry. As I am informed, 

whatever title is or ever was in the railroad corporations to the lands 

granted by the United States is covered by the two mortgages. Am I 

right If that be so, then it seems to me there is great danger that 

the United States, to protect itself under its large mortgage, which is 

the secoml one, if the railroad companies do not pay the taxes, will 

have to pay them. There will be, therefore, lands here which the 

States and Territories will tax, and the taxes will not be paid, and 

the Federal Government will have to pay them to protect its mortgag-e, which really covers all this property. It seeOl.S to me a mode 

o:f! having the money run from the United States Treasury into the 

State treasuries, because the railroad compames and the first mortgagees m~¥Y not pay the taxes, and then the United States will have 

to pay them. I may be wrong in the facts; but if not, the suggestion 

I make is entitled to consideration. 

Itlr. BOOTH. Does the Senator from New York contend that be- cause there is a mortgage on land in favor of the United States, or anybody else, that land ought to be exempt from taxation f The 

decision of the Supreme Court is expressly on the ground that this 

lien i8 reserved, not for the benefit of the mortgagee, but to compel 

the railroad companies to pay the costs of survey; which do not amount on an average to six cents an acre, and in the two decisions of the 

Supreme Court not a single reference is made to the lien held by the 

Government or by any ·other mortgagee. 

Kow is it to bo asserted here that because the Government of the 

United States holds a lien on land which may at some remote day be 

of value, the land shall be made exempt from taxation t As a matter 

of fact that lien has no real value. The lands are sold by the railroad companies under the terms of the act and pass out from nnder 

the Government mortgage. They are sold, and sold by wholesale. 

Scarcely one acre of valuable land in the original grant, except on the 

Southern Pacific line, remains in the hands of the railroad company 

to which they were granted. 

Mr. KERNAN. I am not in favor as a rule of exempting land 'that 

is subject to mortgage from taxation. In my State such lands are all 

taxect antl the mortgagee has to look out that he does not lose his 

title by paying the taxes himself if his mortgageor does not. But 

here is a case where, as I understand the bill, a title has not yet passed 

to the railroad companies, but they have an equitable right to ha+·e 

the lanc1 patented when they pay the co&ts of the survey. To some extent that is the condition of things. Bnt supposing they had passed 

to the railroad companies, should the Gm-erument be put in a position where to save its rights under the 1:!\ortgage it will have to 

pay the State taxation on the lands whioh it never got one cent for, 

which it holds only as a pledge from the railroad companies f If the 

Stutes can collect their taxes out of the personal property of the rail- .roau companies, or anything else but the lauds that the Government 

has as a lien on, I shall be very willing to see it done. · Mr. PLUMB. I think the Senator from Kew York is under som~ 

misapprehension as to the facts of the case. 
626 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- SENATE. JANUARY 22,-

Mr. KER~AN. That may be. I say that is the way I understand 

the facts, and I want to be put right if I am wrong. 

.Mr. PLUMB. The Government mortgage is as a rule not a second 

mortgage on these lands. 'l'h'ere are already I think two mortgages 

to private individuals, and whatever lien the Government has is at 

least a third lien; and it is a lien which the Government never heretofore bas attached any value to, because it imposed on the railroad 

companies the obligation to sell the lands, thereby discharging what- ever lien the Government might have upon them. 

In the next place, as soon as the railroad companies pay this $3 or $4 to tho quarter section, then the Government patents it, and that 

tlischarges the lien also. So that there is no lien reserved to the 

Government for any beReficial interest which the Government has or expects to have in the lands except as to the cost of the surveying, 

. and that we provide for the payment of. So the Government when 

this bill passes will be in precisely the same condition with referenc~ 

to its beneficial interest that it was bef<n"e. We only prevent the 

pqstponement of the taxation of these lands for an indefinite period, as is now the case. ~Ir. KERNAN. If the Senator is right, and I assume that he is 

because he is familiar with the subject, then we have really got no lien on these lands that is worth anything. 

1\lr. PLUMB. That is it. 

Mr. KERNAN. The Senate might as well k-now that t hese lands were got from us without pay and without security. If that is so, 

of c;!ourse I do not want to prevent them being taxed. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. There is one other amendment I should like to 

suggest which has occurred to me from this discussion. On the 

second page I wish to strike out the word " shall" where it says 

"shall be subject" and insert "may," so as merely to give the con- sent of the United States. 

1\Ir. PLlY.l\IB. There is no objection to that. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The bill was ordered to be engros ed for a third reading, read the 

third time, and passed. · ORDER OF B"CSIXES • 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I move lio postpone the present and all prior or- ders and take up t'he resolutions I had the honor to offer to the Senate some days ago on the subject of the constitutionnl amendments. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. The question is on the motion of the 

Senator from Vermont. 

The resolutions w~reread, as follows: 

Resolved, as t'he judgment of the Senate, That the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States ha\"e been legally ratified, and are as valid and of the same paramount authority as any other part of the 

Constitution; that the people of each State ha•e a common interest in the enforce- ment of the whole Constitution in every State in the Union, and that it is alike the 

right and duty of Congress to enforco said amendments, and to protect every citi- zen in the exercise ol' all the rights thereby secured by laws of tho general char- acter already passed for that purpose, and by further appropriate legiblation, so iar as such enforcement and protection are not·secured by existing laws; ancl that 

it is the duty of tho executive deJ.>artinent of the Government faithfully aDd with 

diligence to carry all such laws mto impartial execution, anu of Congress tO ap- propliate all moneys needful to that end. · . · Resolved ju1·ther, That it is the duty of Congress to provide by law for the full 

and impartial protection of all citizens of the United States, legally qualified, in 

the right to vote for Representatives in Congress, and to this eml the Committee on tho Judiciary be, and it hereby is, instrncte(l to prepare and report, as soon as may be, a bill for the protection of such rights, and the punishment of infractions 

thereof. · 

Mr. BECK. I desire to ask whether the naval appropriation bill 

does not come up as the unfinished business now, unless we set it 

aside! 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. It will come -ap as unfinished business 

at half-past one o'clock. The motion of the Senator from Vermont 

wil'l then be in order. It will be for the majority of the Senate to 

determine. . 1\Ir. BLAINE. The naval bill has been postponed a little on my 

request as a member of the Committee on Appropriations. I bad some obser•ations to submit on the bill before its passage, and I thought 

the understanding in the Senate was that I might go on at half-past one to-day. I will keep myself inside of an hour, and I shall not delay 

the public business ~nch by anything I have to say. I wish the 

Senator from Vermont would postpone his motion uutil I can ha•e 

that privilege. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. 1\Ir. President, when the Senator from Maine spoke 

of having the naval bill postponed yesterday for the purpose in(licated, I, ij I correctly remember, notified. him that I had informed our friends on the other side of the Chamber, some of them, that I 

expected to move this matter to-day, which b.as been lying a good. 

while-it is a matter of a good deal of public importance-and that I 

must do so. Of course it is for a majority of tb.e Sen a to to determine. 

I'bopo the consideration of these resolutions will not take long, and 

then we can take up the naval bill and hear my honorable friend and 

dispose of the naval bill by ·voting on his amendment , and so on, 

which will take some time. 

:sir. BL.All."\TE. I do :Bot know that it will. Of course I shall have 

to submit to the pleasure of the Senate. I hould be Ycry glad to go on now. 

Mr. THURMAN. If the Senator from Vermont e:x.pe.cts to speak 

upon his resolutions, of .course there will be none to object to his doing so. If, on the other hand, it is not his purpo e to speak at all, then 

it W:ill be a matter for the consideration of those tha.t ha•e to -.ot.e 

./ 

on the resolutions and on the substitute for them which has been laid ' on our tables te decide whether they will b'e silent or whether they 

will submit their views. I should not like myself, without any opportunity for consultation among Senators who favor the substitute of 

the· Senator from A.J,a.bama, to be compelled this morning to vote without debate. Therefore, I ask the Renator from Vermont whether he 

proposes to speak to the resolutions or whether he wishes to have a vote without debate f If he will state that, we can determine what course we shall take. I do not know that I shall take any part fu 

the debate, but there are others w,ho may wish to debate the question. I hope the Senator from Vermont will express his purpose. Of 

course, after we have beard him make his remarks'-and we shall 

listen with pleasure to his remarks-we can then determine what course we shall take . Mr. CONKLING . . 1\fr. President, is the naval bill the unfinished 

businessl 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. It is. 

Mr: CONKLING. And it will prevail· except for the motion of the 

Senator from Vermont f · 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. It wilL 

Mr. CONKLING. If I beaTd aright, the Senator from Maine (Mr. 

BLATh"E] said that be wished to speak upon the naval bill and was ready to speak now, and intended, when the hour came, to proceed 

with his remarks. I have heard no reason, absolutely none, why his 

convenience should not prevail, and, therefore, I shall vote against 

the motion to displace the naval bill. These resolutions are important, as the Senator from Vermont says, but I can conceive no possible 

advantage in considering them to-day rather than to-morrow: and I 

think it is a custom, as old as any. custom in the Senate, when a Senator has expected to address the Senate upon a topic actually pending, not to displace it when the time for it anives, and particularly 

in order to consider something else not drgent in time. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I ought to say in reply to the Senator from Ne 

York, that when it was proposed yesterday that the naval bill should 

go over for a speech of the Senator from Maine in respect of the 

amendments be intended to offer, I stated then that this matter had 

been lying so long that I felt it to be my duty to move it this morn- ing; but, nevertheless the Senate allowed the naval fiill to go over, and,.as I understood it, subject to the question which the Senate preferred to take up. So I do not feel that I am violating any understanding. 

Mr. BLAINE. Not at all; I did not so tate. Of course, it i a matter for the Senate to decide. 

The VICE-PRE~IDENT. Th~ question is on the motion of the Senator from Vermont. 

The motion was not agreed to. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. 'l'he Senate will proceed to the consideration of the unfinished. business, the naval appropriation bill. 

:}!ES .AGE FROli THE BOU E. 

A. message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. GEORGE 1\1. 

A.o.A.lls, its Clerk, announced that the Rouse bad passea 'the following bills; in which it requested tb.e ~oncurrence of the Senate: 

A bill (H. R. N<>. 6141) making appropriations to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to ca.rr:y out tho provisions of ection 254 of the 

Revised Statutes and to appropriate 40,000 for the miscellaneous 

expenses of the Honse of Representatives; 

A. bill (H. R. No. 5655) to amend an act entitled "A.n act making 

appropriations for sundry civil expenses oi: the Government for the 

fiscal year ending J nne 30, 1819, and for other purpose ," a.ppro•ed 

J nne 20, 1878; 

A bill (H. R. No. 6130) for the relief of Elizabeth ll. Higgins, Joel 

Higgins, and Brand Higgins, of Phillips County, A.rkan as; anti. 

A bill (H. R. No. G137) authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury 

to issue bonds to Albert V. Conway, substituted trustee f01: certain 

registered United States bonds redeemed or assigned by the Government upon forged assignment!"~. · The message also announced that the Hou e had passed the .. bill (S. 

No. 1242) to repeal section 1233 of the Revised Statutes, relating to 

company cooks in the Army. ' 

The message further announced that the Han e had non-concnrretl. 

in the amendments of the Senate to the bill (H. R. o. 55:H) making 

appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian 

Department, and. for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian 

tribes, for the year ending J nne 30, 1880, and for other purpose3. 

The message also announced that the House had concurred. in the re olution of the Senate for the printing of additional copies of the 

report of the Superintendent of the Coast Suryey for the year ending 

June 30, 1877, for the use of the Superintendent. 1 

The message further announced that the Honse bad pas ed a con- current resolution providing for tb.e printing of 5,000 copies of the 

report on the lands of the arid region of the United. States by J. W. 

Powell; in which it requested the concurrence of the Senate. 

ENROLLED BILLS IGXED. 

The message also announced tha.h the Speaker of the House had 

signe(l the following enrolled bills; and they were thereupon signed 

by the Vice-President: • A bill (S. No. 753) to confirm a certain private land claim in th&· 

Territory of New Mexico; 
1879. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 627 

A bill (S. No. 854) for the adjudication of title to lands claimed by 

Jose Apis and Pablo A pis, in the State of California; 

A bill (S. No. 1297) for the protection of dairymen, and to prevent 

deception in sales of butter and cheese in the District of Columbia; 

A bill (S. No. 1374) authorizing the chancellor of the Sm:ithsonian 

Institution to appoint an actin~ secretary in certain cases; and 

A bill (H. R. No. 613) subjectmg the Fort Wayne military reserva- tion, in the State of Arkansas, to entry as other public lands in said 

tate. NAVA.f. APPROPRIAfiON BILL. 

The Senate resumed the consideration of the bill (H. R. No. 5313) mak~~ appropriations for the naval service for the year ending,June 

30, 1~, and for other purposes. 

l\Ir. DAWES. Before the Senator from Maine [Mr. BLAINE] proceeds I desire to offer an amendment, which, I suppose, will not involve any debate.. The Senator from Maine prefers that it be adopted, 

if at all, before he proceeds. I offer this amendment to come in after 

line567: · 

Prwi&d, That if the amount appropriated for any item of the pay or quartermaster's de_partment of the Marine .Uorps for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1R79, l1all prove msufficient for its purpose, the excess in any other item or items of the 

respective departments may, with the written consent of the Secretary of the Navy be applied thereto: PrO'IJi&d, That the excess in the items of one department shan not be used for any insufficiency in the items of the other department, and that 

the tothl amount appropriated for the respective departments for said fiscal year shall not be exceeded. 

l\Ir. DAVIS, of .West Virginia. If I understand the amendment 

correctly we had just as well appr9priate all mat lB m the bill in bulk 

f-or general uses without any specification of items whatever. 

Mi. DAWES. The Senator does not quite understand the scope of 

the amendment. It only authorizes the transfer of any balance of one item in one department-to a deficiency in another item in that 

epartment of the Marine Corps appropriations, but not from one bureau or department to another. I will state that it is precisely the 

languase of the Army bill of last year, and it is not an unusual provision m an appropriation bill, as I happen to know. It has been considered also by the committee, and I believe meets with their 

approval. · 

Mr. WINDOM. I see no objection to the amendment. 

llr. DA VIS,,oi West Virginia. I certainly f)hall have to understand 

the amendment more correctly than I do now, or I must object to it. 

If I understand too amendment to the naval appropriation bill, it is 

to allow transfers from one department to another. I do not know 

whether it covers the bureaus or no~; I should like to have it read 

again and then the Senate will see what it.is. It is certainly objectionable to me to provide that when money is appropriated for a particular purpose it may be changed and so to some other purpose in a wholesale way. It is not right in prinCiple. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. The amendment will be read. 

'l'he Secretary read the amendment. 

Mr. EDl\.fUNDS. Wby is that necessary~ 

Mr. DAWES. I will read the provision of law as it exists in the 

Army bill of last year : 

P1ovided, That the appropriations under the head of ''Pay department" in this 

act, amountin~ 1!o $11,~9,287.18, shall be accounted for, .. * "' and in case any item of the sru.d appropriations shall prove insufficient for ita purpose, the excess in any other item or items thereof may, wiili &.e written consent of the Secretary of War, be applied theret{): Provided, however, That the total amount appropriated under this head shall not be exceeded. 

Precisely the same provision this amendment applies to the ~Iarine 

Corps of the Navy; so that, if there should happen to have been an insufficient sum appropriated for any particular item like the clothing, for instance, and more than enough for some other particular item 

in. the :Marine Corps, with the written consent of the Secretary of the 

Navy the balance over and enough to pay that particular item may 

lie taken to pay th~ other item without exceeding the whole for that 

corps. That is the provision. 

Mr. DAVIS, of West Virginia. I dislike to interfere with the Senator from Maine if he is ready to go on, and I therefore hope that this mil be laid aside until he has concluded. . 

Mr.DA WES. I have no objection. I do not desire to interfere with 

the eommittee on Appropriations on the Navy appropriation bill, but 

this usual provision seemed to have been omitted by oversight rather 

than intentionally. 

Ur. BLAINE. I should like to· h:1Ve the two amendments read of 

which I gave notice last evening. 

TheVICE-PRESIDENT_. TheSecretarywillreporttherunendments 

of the Senator from Maine. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

That a board of three naval officers, from either the a"ctive or retired list, be ap· pointed by the President, whose duty it shall be to consider anu report to the next !>eSSion of Congress the DUD ber of officers, line, staff, and warrant, needed for ana ry with 7,500 men; and that, until hereafter directed by law, promotion in the N"a.ry abo~e the gr~e of ensign shall cease: A,dfu:rther, That the same board of officers 

s.hall consiuer.aml report whether any of the present navy-yards may be dispensed with, and whether, in any other way, the expenses of the naval establishment may be decreased without impairing its efficiency. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. So as to save the point, I make the point of order 

that this is against the rule about legislation on appropriation bills; 

and so as to the other, I do not ask to have the point of order decided 

now, as I do n·ot wish to cut off the observations of my friend. 

· j 

. The Secretary read the other amendment of Mr. BLAD~E, as follows: 

That from and after July 1, 1863, only such number of the graduates ~f the United 

States Naval Academy in any one year shall be entitled to appointment as midshipmen in the Navy as are required to fill vacancies of that-grade existing on the 

1st day of July in each year; those entitled to :q~pointment to said vacancies to 

be determined by the academic board on tho basis of their standing in the grad· ua.ting class. And if the number of midshipmen shall not have been previously fixed and limited by law, it shall be the duty of the Secretary to so fix and limit it on or before July 1, 1883. 

l\Ir. BLAINE. Mr. President--

Mr. BECK. I desire to reserve the point of order on that also. 

Mr. BLAINE. It was reserved by the Senator from Vermont. I 

take no advantage. ~ 

Mr. BECK. The point ought to come froin the :Naval Committee, 

perhaps. 

Mr. BLAINE. In any remarks I shall make on the naval appropriation bill, Mr. President, I desire to say in advance that neither in 

word nor spirit do I intend to criticise the anministration of the Navy 

Department either present or past, and still less do I intend by the 

remotest possible implication to make any reflection upon the gallant 

corps of officers that make· up the Navy of the United States. I have no desire nor have I any grounds to reflect on either, and if I reflect on any department of the Government it will be on that of which I 

have had the honor to form a part for a considerable number of years. 

If there be any fault to be criticised, if there be any practice to be 

reformed, if there be any reorganization that is desirable ancl demanded, it is for Congress to do it; and if it should have been made 

before, it is the fault of Congress not to have made it, ancl not the 

fault of either Secretary, or bureau chief, or line, or staff, or warrant 

officer in the Navy. 

At the same time, Mr. President, I must speak my mind yery freely 

about what I consider the present condition of the Navy, and first 

and especially about the large number of officers the Navy contains. 

We have liinited the Navy by law to 7,500 men: and for tbose 7,500 

men, taking in commissioned officers of staff and line and warrant 

officers, and not counting the retired list, of course, which should not 

be brought into the discussion, we h~;tve a total of 2,020 officers, or we have to-day one officer to three men and a fraction in the Navy. That 

is excessive. I should infer so without any kBowledge on the subject, and of course as to the organization of the Navy I do not profess 

to know much; but I should infer on the mere statement that it was excessive; and to prove that it must be excessive, I have here the 

last register of the British navy. Our Navy, as I have said, is limited to 7,500 men. We have in all in the Navy to-day 91 vessels. We 

have 38 to-day, I believe, in commission, as the term is, and we have, as I have already remarked, 2,020 officers. Take the British navy, 

which has 320 steam-vessels of war and a total, including all that 

belongs to the navy, of 494 vessels. They have 4,990 officers, with 

something over 60,000 men1 in the navy. They have available for 

naval service more than five times the vessels in number and far more than that proportion in effective force; and while they have between 

nine and ten times as many sailors as we have, they have less than 

twice and a half the number of officers. Or, if you choose to take it 

in another form, throwing out the warrant officers and taking simply 

the offieers of tho line, rejecting the staff, we show a total of about 

800, and counting the. cadets, who are counted also in the British 

computation, we show about 1,000, and the British show against that 

about 2,300. · The comparison is quite as cliscouraging if we look at the Freuch 

navy, which has a total number of line officers of 1,529; and I also hold 

the French na>al register in my hand, or a book whicl?- contains the 

statistics. The }"Tench navy in point of number of vessels is almost a.s large as the British navy. Of course we all know that it is not so effective, but it is many times as large as ours, and yet the line 

officers of the navy of :France are not more than double the line offi- cers of the Navy of the Unite.d States, possibly a shade more than 

double. I infer that these facts are worthy-of our attention. I infer 

that we are having f.t navy far more numerous in the department of 

officers than we require to the number of ships or the number of men to which we have limited it by law. 

Take the navy-yards. For the immense navy of Great Britain, the 

largest and most effecti>e in the world, there are in the whole island 

two great navy-yards, Chatham and Portsmouth, a;td tw.o subordinate ones at Sheerness and Devon port, making in all four. The }"Tench 

navy bas three princip;"\tl yards, Cherbonrg, Brest, and Toulon, aml 

two subordinate ones at Rochefort and Lorient. We have on this 

coast, from latitude 37° to latitude 4:3°, on six degrees of coast latitude, seven navy-yards. We have one at Washington, one at Norfolk, one at Philadelphia, one at New York, one in posse if not in esstJ 

at New London, one at Charleston, and one at Kittery or Portsmouth. 

Of course that is beyond all possible requirement of our Navy. We 

have one at Pensacola, which it is presumed is necessary to retain · for the Gulf uses, and certainly the one on the Pacific coast is absolutely essential; but that any-person can infer that on six degrees o:f our coast latitude we need seven navy-yards is a vast stretch of 

imagination. . 

I nright have said when I was disclaiming any possible intention 

of either arraigning the civil department of the Navy or the line 

officers themselves, that I have no intention of making any partis..'l>n 

accusation, and still1ess any intention of ·making any partisan cun-
.· 

628 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. J~uARY 22, 

fession. I do not desire to inculpate either party or to exculpate 

either, and so far as all these navy.ryards except the shadowy one at 

New London are concerned, they come down to us from "the good 

old days of democratic economy." We inherited them, and we inherited one more which we have abandoned; that is the one at Memphis. 'l'hat was .a brilliant streak of economy, of course, to put a navy-yard at Memphis, 800 or 1,000 miles from the month of the Mississippi River. The old story went that the navy-yard at Memphis was pot through Congress because the two rival candidates for gov- ernor in Tennessee, preceding the great contest of 1844 between Mr. 

Clay and Mr. Polk, both came here, and the democrat said to a democratic Congress "if yon do not put this navy-yard through, I am dead," 

and the whig candidate said "if you whigs do not vote for it it will 

kill us a~ home." And so they got a pretty nearly unanimous vote 

for the Memphis navy-yard. They might as well have put one above 

the Falls of Saint Anthony. It went on in a sort of sickly condition 

for 10, 15, or 20 years, not being finally dismantled until the war. There is of course a vast and useless expenditure in the navy-yards, a very large and overwhelming expenditure in that department 

which we do not in any event need. 

And when you come to the pay of the Navy, of course it shows just 

this proportion. If you have officers you must pay them, and the pay 

of lllavy officers in the bill which is now before the Senate is for 

officers in commission $3,822,87!1, for retired officers 645,400, and for some other civilian attaches that come under the head of officers em- bra-ced in the fiUy-third line and lines following 475,000, making a total of $4,943,275, or in I'ound numbers five million dollars. Next as to the men. For the petty officers, seamen, ordinary seamen, lands· 

men, and boys, including men in the engineer force and for the Coast 

Survey sen ice, for all that are included in any form direct or indirect 

in the Navy, we pay $2,300,000; so that of what is called the pay of 

the Na'y more than two-thii·ds, nearly five-sevenths, are required for 

officers, showing of course the top-heavy condition that the register 

bows in regard to the Navy. 

From the Naval Academy for the la.st fourteen years since the war we have a.dded an average of fifty officers per annum to the Navy, 

and we are continuing to do it. The rule tlOW is the very same that 

it is at West Point or was until last year we bad some legislation 

upon the subject, that any boy who graduates at the Naval Academy 

after being duly appointed shall be commissioned as an officer in the 

Navy. That was so in regard to West Point until the legislation of 

last year. Congress by a pretty nearly unanimous vote in both 

branches has decided in regard to the graduates at 'Vest Point that 

those only shall be appointed to offices in the Army for which there are vacancies at the time of graduation. I think that ought to be 

the case in regard to the Navy. If not, you are liable to add from 

:fi.ity to seventy-five officers annually to your Navy, and there is no limit now fixed by law at all to the lower gra4e. We .fix the liinit 

down to ensigns, but for midshipmen there is no linrit at all, and you 

may pile in midshipmen until they are there by the thousand for that 

matter if you take time enough, and -at the rate at which retirement or death thins out the upper grades of the Navy you will find suc!I a ilispa.rity between the incoming and the_ outgoing as must lead to a steady annual increase in the officers of the Navy. 

Now, I ask sinlply that after 1883 graduatioD: at the Naval Academy 

shall 1;1ot of itself entitle a man to be commissioned in the Navy, but 

that ollly such number shall be commissioued for which there are vacancies ib. the Navy at the time; leaving the academic board to determine that on the merit of the graduates. I put i~ at 1883, jnst as last year the legislation respecting West Point was put at 1882, for 

the sinlple reason that the boys who have been appointed to the Naval 

Academy, just as those who were appointed to West Point, went there 

with the understanding, and, if you choose, with the pledge from the 

United States, that upon graduation they should be appointed to office, 

and I certainly would not break the faith of the United States to the 

naval cadet, but let every one who has been entered with that understanding under the law have its fnll benefit; but if yon make the 

law now for the next year, the naval cadet who enters understands 

from that day that his entrance upon the naval list of the United 

States depends upon the merit of his gradnation, and that only those 

shall be selected from the graduating class for whom there are vaca-n- cies at the tim~. · . It seems to me that this is entirely just, and in the case of West 

Point, and of the Naval Academy also, I do not think it will be any 

harm to graduate a very large number who are not entered in the 

Navy or Army. They will have no ~ound to find fault certainly. 

They will have recehted great edocat10nal advantages as a gratuity 

from their Government; they are equipped for the battle_ of life, and 

if ever the Government has need of their services, as it unfortunately 

did in a 1·ecent era, they will come in the fntore as they did in the 

past-for there was a very small number of graduates of West Point 

that did not find their way into the Army, on one. side or the other, 

during the late war-and so it will be. in the future. You will havs a. military knowledge s:pread throughout the country, and, no matter 

how many shall graduate there at the public expense under the present organization, let only those be put upon the regular Army list 

who stand highest, and who are for the time being needed to fill va- cancies actually existing. 

Mr. President, of course I would not do a harsh thing to the naval 

officers. I have no proposition to make except that a naval board 

Composed of officers themselves shall tell us what we ought to do. I 

'\YOuld not torn out an officer who had a good record, and who had 

devoted the best years of his life to the service of the United States, 

but by retirement, made larger than it now is by some form which i 

easily to be devised by men who taketh~ subject into consideration, we can bring down our Na.vy to the proper proportion of officers and 

men; and we can, by dispensing with the surplus number, and by 

dispensing with useless navy-yards, and in other ways, reduce the 

naval expenses of this count.r by a very large figure. 

And then, Mr. President, co nected with thi , and of more interest 

to me than any other part of i~, is the fact that we are trying the impossible experiment of building a. navy from the top. .Mr: EATO:N. If you build from the top it -will go down. 

Mr. BLAINE. I accept what my honorable friend from Connecticut says, if you keep on building it from the top it will go down .to 

the bottom. We are trying to build a navy from the top, I repeat. 

It never has been done, and it never will be done in this world. You 

cannot make a navy by graduating ca{lets at Annapolis. It is in that 

respect different from an army. Onr expedence in the last war, on both sides, shows that men make good soldiers in three months, and 

in a year they are veterans. That is not the case with a navy. You 

cannot iinprovise a sailor any more than yon can. improvise a mountain. He has to ~ow, and you cannot grow him as an exotic .. You 

.cannot grow a sailor in your Navy unless there is a surrounding com- mercial atmosphere, unless there is a great mercantile marine that 

shall continually repl~nish it and build it up from the bottom. There never has been a navy in this world worth anything that did not 

grow out of a mercantile marine. There never will be. 

And now in regard to our mercantile marine the contrast since some of us here entered Congress, the contrast since the beginning of the war with the present time is very starLling. When we needed a Llooka.de from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the capes of the Delaware we had 70,000sailors on board our ships. Eight thousand &ailors were enlisted in one town in my own State, the city of Portland; twentytwQ thousand sailors were enlisted at Boston. I should like any man to get 8,000 sailors enlisted at Portland or 22,000 at Boston to-day. 

They are gone. Our mercantile marine by a variety of causes is 

swept away, and of the causes leading to its destruction too much 

has been attributed, in my judgment, to the effects of the war. The war bad a. great deal to do with it; bot had that been simply the cause we would have·recoveredfrom it, for its effect was in its nature 

temporary. But the real cause was deeper and far more serious than 

the four years' war, however serious that was. The war only gave an opporttmity to our rivals. If there ha11 not 

been new conditions, we should have been able after th~ war to have 

recovered ourselves. But those new conditions were and are to-day, as has been repeated here over and over again on this side of the 

Chamber and on that, those conditions are that the commerce of the 

world has entirely changed, and you might just as well attempt to arm your soldiers with bows and arrows as. to rebUild the merc~mtile marine of the United States by a mere increase of sailing ves- sels. The marine of the future, more and more every day, is a steam 

marine, and we who stand here furnishing ~lar~er amount of freight 

than any other country in the world-! was gomg to say any othe~ 

two countries; I doubt if there be any two countries in th.e world 

that furnish as large an amom1li'of ocean freight as the U nrted State - we stand here to-day gaining nothing whatever out of that, o~ so little that it only serves to" point the moral." We furnished last 

year 13,000,000 tons of ocean freight, and the profit on carrying tha.t 

and the passengers that belong to the sea was $115,000,000. 

Mr. THUR)fAN. Does that include the coasting trade f 

1\lr. BLAINE. No; wholly foreign. It all went from our shores 

and came back. That which goes of course is more bulky when you measure i~ by tons than that which comes. Mr. EATON. Over 0,000,000 in ~old was paid into the pocket 

of foreign ship-owners. · 

Mr. BLAINE. My friend anticipates me in that. Nearly $89,000,000 

out of $115,000,000 was so paid into foreign hands; I believe only 

$26,000,000 into ours; and that has been going on and is going on anti 

will continue to go on unless the United States doea something that 

shall chan~e it. And we cannot afford not to change it. I say to the honorable charrman of the Committee on }1.oance that unless~onditions 

that we dare not anticipate should continue to fa•orus, i~ is not a possible thing in this country to ·maihtain over a long series of .years 

specie payment here with that d.ra.ught made upon our resources, and 

with- that dratrght s.topped specie payment will maintain itself. Gentlemen here remember the panic of 185i, bow i~ smote the country, 

how it weH.t. over fue continent with the force and violence of a t.ornado, prostrating great mercantile houses and manufacturing and 

commercial interests, and yet inside of ninety days from the sus- pemtion of specie payment the banks of New York, Baltimore, and 

all the great cities of the country resumed. Why wore they able to 

resume specie :payment after that disastrous· panic f Simply because 

the freight moneys that lay tb the credit of American oommerce)n 

London were gold to be called on byfthose who here needed it for the 

resumption of specie payments, and the gold that was deposited in 

London to the credit of American ship-masters and American ship- owners was the very gold on which the banks of this country re- sumed in 1858, and that is the gold that we do not have to-day. We 

should have had no need, we sh<mld have been onder no necessity o.f 
1879. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 629 

selling bonds to buy gold to resume specie payments if our fair share 

of the freight. moneys on our own commerce had been coming into our coffers. Eighty-nine million dollars went last year into the coffers of Europe on American freight; less than 26,000,000 came here. 

Give us our fair share, and specie payment, I l'epeat, will maintain 

itself. 

In the last ten years-and that seems a very short peliou to most 

of us-we have sent and brought, fetched and canied between this 

country and foreigu countries from eleven to twelve thousand million 

dollars' worth of products, and the freights Oii that with the passengers attached to the trade were over $1,100,000,000, and out of that 

$1,1CO,OOO,OOO the European nations got nearly $DOO,OOO,OOO, and that was drawn right from us, and we go on here appropriating for our ~avy to protect a commerce that does not exist. 

I am not :finding fault with this naval bill, understand me. The 

existing naval establishment requires that we should appropriate t he 

amouhts it contains. We can do nothing else but appropriate this 

money as we stand to-day; but I am asking·, for I can ask nothing 

else, in the name of American commerce that you will give to its re- vival'the sum you ru·e wasting on the Navy. You can take four to 

:five million dollars out of the naval expenditure, in my judgment, 

without impairing the efficiency of the 'Navy, and.if yo11 will give 

four or :five million dollars per annum to building up American com- merce in this countl-y yon will turn $50,000,000 per annum of gold 

coin into your coffers; you will employ countless thousands of men on the sea and on the land, and yon will change the whole commer- cial and mercaRtile character of the continent. Oh, yes, but, says 

my friend from Kentucky, [Mr. BECK,]" Let us have free ships; let us have a right to bring in free ships :md we will do it." How f 

Wbo.t possible advantage do you give to any man to-uay by enabling 

him to get an American register for a foreign ship f Mr. Vanderbilt, 

the great ca~italist and head of the New York Central Railway, is 

just establishing, in connection, it is said, with foreign capital, a. line 

Of steamships to run in connection with his road. The ships are foreign-built. Every spike that was driven, every hammer tha.t was sounded upon them, went to build up a foreign mechanic. Every 

sailor, stoker, :fireman, engineer on board, is a. foreigner; every officer 

is a foreigner; and that is a line of American steamships; and that 

is precisely such a line of American steamships a.s the Senator from 

Kentucky [Mr. BECK] and the Senator from Connecticut [Mr. EATO~] 

would ~stablish by allowing the free registry of foreign vessels. Why f 

:Mr. EA'J:'ON. At the proper time we will iliscuss that. 

Mr. BLAINE. This is the proper time. 

Mr. EATON. I do not think it is. 

llr. BLAINE. I said tha.t the bill proposed would enable jnst that 

thing to be done and nothing else, and I saytothehonorable Senator 

from Connecticut that he certainly would be departing from all the 

policy that has made his own little Commonwealth a great one if he 

advocates that policy. 

Why take a $500,000 ship; a. ship of about 3,000 or 3,500 tons, and a steamship of that size :first cla.ss, fully equipped for freight and passengers costs just about a half million of dollars. There is not a single 

thing that goes'into that ship from the time her keel is laid until she 

is ready for sea that cannot be produced in this country and that is 

not produced in this country except tin, the few dollars' worth of tin 

in her. · Mr. DORSEY. We have tin in California. 

Mr. BLAINE. I am corrected. I am told that California produces 

tin. But you may take all the hundred things that go into tha.t ves- sel and they are all produced in this country from the tree in the 

forest to the ore in the mine; and what does my honorable friend 

from Connecticut, who knows more of statistics than I do, say is the 

•alue of the raw mawrial, and when you get that $500,000 ship ready 

fbr the s~a what part of her repr~sents actual material and what part 

labor f There is :five thousand dollars' worth of material in her, and 

four hundred andninety-:fivethousanddollars'worthof labor. Begin 

with the iron in the ore and the wood in the tree, and you have only 

iive thousand dollars' worth of material in a thirty-:five-hundred-t.on 

ship, and every particle of the remainder has been produced and inwrought and upbuil~ by American labor, and I understand my friend 

from Connecticut to insist that we had better have that $495,000 ex- pended on the other side. 

Mr. EATON. I will simply say to my friend from Maine, that when 

the Committee on Commerce report, as they will very soon I trust 

either one way or the other in regard to free ships, I propose to dis- cuss that question, but not on the nav-al bill. 

Mr. BLAINE. Well, it is connected with the naval bill. Threefourths, I do not know but I may overstate it, but certainly one-half tli~ report of the Secretary of the Navy is devoted to the commerce of 

the country, and a very able report it is. It does him honor. I cer- tainly am not out of order in discussing on the naval bill that to 

which the head of the Department himself devotes so large a portion 

of his report. I say again, that what ~ay be saved out of the naval 

appropriation will do that which I have alrea<ly adverted to for 

American commerce. We do not show any of this, can I call it stinginess, in any other department. \Ve ha•e given 200",000,000 acres of 

public land to railroads; we have given $60,000,000 in money; and 

taking the value of those lands and the value of that money, and adding them together, it is safe to say that we have endowed railroads in this country with· $500,000,000. 

From l 846 to 1871 the Congress of the United States passed ninety- one acts for promoting the building of railroads. There has not been 

much legislation since 1871. There has been a reaction against the 

policy, but from 1846 to 1871, I repeat, a period of tWenty-five years, 

the Congress of the United States passed ninety-one different acts 

and endowed the railroad system of this country with $500,000,000 of 

money, and that $500,000,000 of moriey produced more tha.n $5,000,..: 

000,000 of money in this country. My judgment is that the Congress 

of the United States in everything they did in that respect did wisely. 

They cheapened freights. Clinton's ditch, as it used to be called, was sneered at when it was an experiment, but the minute the water was let into it it reduced the freights that had been $100 from Buffalo to New York down to $7 a ton; and it is not an exaggeration to 

say that at that day, before railroads were amonfl us; the water that was let in from Lake Erie to that canal addeo. ·$100,000,000 to the 

value of the farms west of it. · 

As individuals, cities, towns, countiei!, States, a nation, we have 

exerted ourselves to the utmosp point of enterprise and vigor to build 

up railroads. We have a system that outruns all the world, and 

with great trunk lines threading the continent north, south, east, and 

west, in every direction. The very moment we reach the ocean limit, we seem to think we have done our duty, and that when we have got 

transportation to t~at point it no longer interests us, and we can safely give that over to the foreigner:. Why, from Chicago to Liverpool is one direct line. I wonder how it would sound if Mr. Vanderbilt, who is running a line of steamships manned by foreign men, 

commanded by foreign officers, built in foreign yards, whose money 

earnings go entirely outside of this country, were to apply that to the 

New York Central Railroad and select all the brakemen and switch- men and conductors and tenders and officers on the Central Railroad 

from foreigners; to put all the locomotives on it that are made in 

England; to let all its earnings be exported. Such a policy would not 

be OJ;teparticle more detrimental and destructive to the in terests of 

this country than for us when that Central Railroad had tonchetl 

salt water with all the countless products of the fertile West to give 

up aU the profits of participation in the transportation of them 

beyond. From Chicago to Liverpool is a route of four thousand ~ · miles. \Ve operate one thousand miles of it and give three thousand 

miles to the foreigner. . Mr. President, our ancestors of the last generation were not so sequeamish on this subject. They .were not affiicted with theories; 

they were intensely practical, and after the peace of 1815 following 

the war of 1812 our commerce ran ahead of Great Britain's to such an extent that absolute alarm seized England. During the auministration of John Quincy Adams, in a single year of the commerce between 

this country and Europe, one hundred and forty-five millions were carried in American vessels and only fourteen millions in those of 

other nations. The commerce amounted to about one hundred an<l 

sixty millions, and American vessels carried one hundred and fortyfive millions of it; and I beg the Senator from Connecticut to remem- ber that then in Parliament, and then through all their chambers of 

commerce, and then throughout all the commercial agencies of Great 

Britain an agitation was made that they would import free ships from 

America. They did not do it. They concluded that that would be 

their utter and :final ruin, and that they never could catch up with us if they did that, and they resisted it, and they resisted it up to the 

point and until the time when they had got so far ahead by aid from 

Government, by the up building of a great commerce, that they could 

successfully defy and laugh at competition. Then c·ame in their free 

shipping act; and the policy which the Senator from Connecticut 

invites us to to-day i's precisely that which the free-traders in this 

co•.mtt-y on looking at England will :find that s~e took ~nto consider- ation and condemned and rejected iQI1!327 and 1828, and the English 

marine would never have been what it is to-day had they llOt at that 

time stood just where we ought to stand to-day. . I referred to 1817, to the gAneration that immeruately preceded us; 

and I address my remarks to that side of the Chamber, because they 

claim a more distinct inheritance from the Jefferson and Madison and 

Monroe era. Mr. Monroe in -1817 hM just come to the Presidency. 

We had passed an act which, if it were passed to-day, would revive 

American commerce with such a rapidity and thrill as would· astonish 

people on both sides of the water. We passed an act providing that 

the products of no country should come into the United States except in American vessels or in the vessels of the producing country, and we held it there for years and years. These triangular voyages that 

sap the life out of our commerce could not be made under that law. 

Mr. EATON. Will my friend allow me to state that there is now a bill befor:e the Committee on Commerce making differentia-l duties in favor of American shipping f . Mr. BLAINE. I am very much delighted to hear it, and I am sure the committee that should report that hill is in no possible danger of 

reporting that we had better abandon the art @f ship-building in this 

country and cret our s-hips in Europe. 

Mr. EATON. That is another question. 

Ur. BLAINE. !{ot at all; it is the arne question, if my friend will 

peunit me. :Yr. EATON. Not by any means. Mr. BLAINE. It is exactly the same question. If you intend to 

encourage American commerce by giving differential duties in favor 

of American ships it would be highly improbable that the bill should 
•• 

630 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 

say in the next section that we do not want ship-building in the 

country, and if anybody .sent over their old rubbish and trash and 

sold it at a low price we ;would take that and give it the benefit of an American register. Of course I do not nse the phrase in any oftensiva sen e, but I pannot conceive of a greater fraud than to call a ship 

of that kind an American ship. There is nothing in the history of 

the Government, there is nothing in any of its development8 in which 

pride inheres more tlum in tlle ship. It carries the flag before all 

nations of the earth. It is the manifestation of our national power 

and our national existence. 

.Mr. EATON. One would suppose from the present reasoning of the 

Senator from Maine that that gc;)Od ship over which the American :flag 

floated, comDUW~ed by Paul Jones, was· not an American ship because 

it had not been built in this country. 

Mr. BLAINE. Ah, necessity knows no law. Paul Jones was fighting, and he had to take whatever he could fight with. We are not. 

talking_ .about what is the necessity of war; we are talking about 

what ought to be the policy of peace. If we are in a fight with a nation and can seize any ship that will whip the enemy, of com-se we will take her; and that is what Paul Jones did. 

The Senator advocates the policy that should take up any ship built 

anywhere and put an American :flag on her and employ her as an American ship. I say, ancl I repeat without any intention of offense 

in using the word, it is a fraud. · It is against all the traditions and 

instincts of the American people. It is putting on a false trade-mark. 

The statute should be against it if the common law is not . .Mr. EATON. I am afraid my friend is not a lawyer. 

llr. BLAINE. It is a false trade-mark that you put on it. 

Then again, when you say that we are not able to build an American 

1:!hi. p in competition with foreign ships, and that we can get c;>tber ships 

cheaper if we will throw open .the registry, do not my friends from 

Connecticut and Kentucky both see that if that be the necessit.y of 

to-clay it will be far more the necessity to-morrow f It will be a much 

greater necessity the next day; and it will continue to be so much a necessity that in the course of a very short time the art of ship building in thi& country will have been lost. 

Senators talk to us about what the nations of Europe do, and say 

that Germany gets her ships from England and that other nations 

get them from ·abroad. There are but two great naval powers in 

the world, or able to be great naval powers. The United States and 

Great Britain are the naval powers of this world; and the idea that 

with a continent containing the resources we have, with a population possess~g the skill we do, with all the traditions and all the inducements that surround and govern the case, a Senator can rise in the 

American Senate and propose that the American flag be struck and 

that foreigners be invited to build our shlps, and that we ill turn 

agree to be dependent on them for a navy as woll as for commerce, 

is a most extraordinary spectacle, if I may use the phrase. 

I remind the Senator ~om Kentucky that the bill which I have 

read here was supported if not drawn by the illustrious man who 

then representecl Kentucky in the other House, and who was its · Speaker. I am not surprised, as the political developments have been 

made in the last few years, that from the Southwest this proposition 

should come, but my friend from Connecticut will excuse me if I say 

that I never expected to live to see the day when a New England 

Senator should uphold that policy. . Mr. 'EATON. I am glad the Senator has livecl long enough to see it. [Laughter.] · . Mr. BLAINE. I hope I shall still live long enough to see my .honorable friend repent and reform. [Laughter.] I hope his length of days 

will be sufficient to make him repent and reform, and even to forget 

that he erred . .Mr. President,. I will state mfviews on this ubject, and I shall 

take the privilege of bringing the Senate to some vote that will test 

its sense on that question. My idea is that the Government of the 

United States should give to any man or company of men aid from 

the Treasury of the United States if he or they shall establish and .maintain a line of steamships to any foreign port, or I mia-ht limit 

it to European, South American, and Asiatic ports. I would invite 

competition from San Francisco, from Portland, Oregon, from Galveston, from New Orleans.J.. from Mobile, from Savannah, Charleston, 

Wilmington, Norfolk, J:Saltimore, New York, Boston, Portland,. and 

ev6rywhere. I would let all come in who can sustain it. The touchstone is what will be sustained by the trade, and that you can safely 

leave to the ·instinct and to the knowledge of American commercial 

IOOn. 

If that sounds like unfriendly legislation, if it sounds like extreme 

legislation, if it involves some contradiction of the policy of the last 

twenty-five or thirty years, let it be sai~ that we are legislating for an extreme case, anu extreme cases reqmre extreme remedie . We carried five-:sevenths of the American commerce-when the war broke out. We do not carry one-quarter to-day, and if we come ont 

of the deep n,byss of humiliation that wo are in we will come out of 

it by vigorous and strong-nerved and daring legisla.tion, if yon please. 

I would open it to all the business of the country, but I would put 

the race between American skill and the skill of all the world with 

the ntmo tpossible confidence that, sustained by this Governm~nt in 

the race, we woultl win. It is in our people. With an equal chance we can beat them. But, with the present condition'of thi.no-, a hope 

for the revival of American commerce is as idle a hope as ev~· entered 

the brain of an insane man. Our trade is falling off 1 or 2 per cent. 

per annum as we stand to-day. It was less this year than it wa last. 

It was less last year than it was the year before. It will be less next 

year than this. · · 

I know no question that can in any manner engage the attention 

oftbe American Senate that is more worthy of their serious consideration and their deep deliberation than this. It is more fur-reaching than any question before us, for I repeat, as I intimated, that 

with this steady drain out of us, this drain of $85,000,000 a year in 

gold coin, this country cannot expect with confidence to maintaht a specie basis. An adverse crop, a bad year, a balance of trade a a-ainst 

us, and with the whole commercial mru·ine in the hands of fureiguer , we put specie payment nnd American solvency and .American pro~­

perity to a test that I shall grieve to see applied, and the result of 

which woulcl be, I fear, most disastrous. 

We Toted $1,500,000 for the Navy without thinking. Anything 

that gets in the rut of an appropriation goes easily. You voted money 

this year because you did last ; we will vote it next year because we did thi . Bayartl Taylor used to tell a funny story to the effect that 

in the Ru sian budget there appeared every year fifty rubles for 

goose-grease forth~ prince's nose. He said that one hundred and fifty 

years ago there wa · a sore nose on one of the princes, and goosegrease was prescribed for it, and so fifty rubles came into the budget; 

and although a sore nose has not since been known in the royal ~Iy 

the fift.y rubles have been annually: appropriated. Our appropriation run on in the same rut, and we need a stirring up from the bottom 

aJ!I.d a wholesome change. 

"When I speak thus I speak, I am sure, as a friend of the Navy. I come from the portion of the country that feels great interest in and 

great sympathy with theN avy. But a navy cannot be maintained. as a fancy attachment to the Government. The Navy must have uses. The United States steam-frigate Tennessee has just returned from a three years' cruise. I sent to the Navy Department, and regret that 

I cannot lL.·we it in time to read it here to-day, for a statement of the 

expenRes of that three years' cruise. I might be wild probably if I 

should venture to give the figures without the data; and i}lerefore I 

will not do w ; but I venture to say tho.t it will surprise every mem- ber of the Senate. And I venture to say that on all that long three 

year ' cruise, in aU the waters, in all the oceans, on all ~he shores, the 

rarest thing the.Tennessee met in her travels was an American ship, 

and almost the only flag she saw'·bearing the Stat·s and Stripes was at 

her own mast-heacl. · 

We want a navYif but we want something for it to do. We want a navy to protect the commerce, but we want a commerce in ·advance 

for the Navy to protect, anO. we want a commerce that shall not be one of favoritism; a commerce that sha.U not benefit -one &ection at 

the expense of another, but one 'that shall be equal and just and gen- erous anrl profitable to all. You will never get i~ by making this na- tion a tributary to Great Britain. Yon will never get it by banishing 

the art of ship-building from among our people. Yon will J:!ever get 

it by discouraging all po sible Mpirations f6r maritime and commer- cial supremacy, by a public proclamation from Congress that after 

nearly a century of gallant struggle, in which more than three.quarters of the time we were ahead in the race, on account of an accidental 

mishap that put ns behind we of to-day, not having the nerve or the 

S:locrucity of those who went before us, sank before the prospect and 

asked other nations to do for us what we have lost the manhood and 

the enero-y to do for ourselves. 

Mr. BECK. Mr. President, I confess to some amazement tha.t a bill 

which I introduced some time ago and which is now before the Committee on Commerce for consideration, which I have had no oppor-

.'tunity even to tate the r.ea on I had for introducing, hould have 

been made tl:).e text for such a. tirade as the Senator from Maine (1\h. 

BLAINE] has seen fit to indulge in to-day. But before I speak of ~hat 

let me sav as to the naval bill. He and I are members of the Committee on Appropriations. He is a member also of the CoiD.l2ittee ou 

·-Naval Affairs. He knows as well as I do that iu a bill Ilke that 

There is no reason in the world why Savannah, that caused the 

first ship by t~team to be sent across the Atlantic, I believe, going 

from her port and bearing her name, should not be a great sea-port. 

There is certainly no reason why a very great foreign trade should 

not be concentrated at New,Orleans. Some might try that could not 

probably sustain the enterprise, but there are various lloints throughout the country on our ocean front that would maintain with vigor, 

with success, and with pride to themselves and the country great 

lines of steamships to all the foreign ports of the world: I am radical on the question. I do not suppose the American Congress would 

go so far as I would, for I would certainly vote directly for the revival 

of the act of 1817, and I would write as the law of America for the 

}Jresent that the products of any country shoulu come to the United 

States either in the >essels of the exporting country or iu our own. 

now under consideration no new legislation can properly be had. It 

is because efforts are· often ma,cle such as he is making to-day to in- . sert new legislation into appropriation\ bills by Senator not on the 

committee tllat muoh of the confusion growing out of our appropriation bills so often follows. 

Althongh an influential member of the Nav.al Committee and fully 

informed as to all wrongs that may exist, he has failed .to lay before 

the Appropriation Committee any of the grievances of whroh he now complains. Therefore he has no right now to seek to introduce new 
1879. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 63·1 

legislation into this bill without giving the Committee on Approp.riations a chance to consider the questions. I made the point of order 

against his amendment on that ground; but I will now say to him that 

whenever he as a member of the Committee on Naval Affairs to which 

he belongs, or on his individual responsibility, introduces any meas- ure !coking to a reform of the Navy, looking to the reduction of ex- pend \t;ures, or looking to any of the improvements he seeks to attain, 

I will go as far as he will or can in seeking to bring- about all legitimate improvements and amendments of the present system of man- agement of naval affairs. 

I do not know why the present bill has been selected as the subject 

of attack. It i~t not my special province to defend either it or the 

Secretary of the Navy;.bnt I have this to say, that t.he Senator from 

Maine was a member of the House of Representatives during the same t ime that I was, for eight years, when flagrant abuses were being 

perpetrated in the Navy Department which were known to him and 

known to all his party; which were exposed by me and by others, 

yet he ne""er raised his voice against them. 

For example~ we had nearly six hundred ships in the Navy when 

the civil war. closed and they are reduced down to ninety-one. They were sold many of them as old scrap, sold under every pretext, disposed of in ways that Congress knew nothing about and the proceeds useu in all sorts of ways. If ihat action did not meet the approval 

of the Senator from Maine it never received his reprobation. I fear 

his trouble is that we have now, for the first time, a Secretary of the 

Navy who obeys the law, whether he likes it or not; a Secretary of 

the Navy who, in my judgment, is willing to unite with the good men of all parties in removing whatever wrongs can be found in his 

Department. The highest tribute that could be paid to the integrity 

of the Secretary is the fact that a democratic committee, a committee politically hostile to him, in the lower House of Congress, reported 

the Qill now under consideration almost word for word as he suggested 

it, and a uemocratic Honse of Congress passed it without crossing at or dotting an i. When he came before the Committee on Appropriations 

of the Senate and we had the bill under consideration, the few alterations that we made in it were made at his £mggestiou, because we were satisfied, upon fqll consultation, that there was nothing in it 

t.hat did not comply with existing law and which was not required 

by tlte good of -the service. · · The Senator from Maine was a member of that committee aa well as myself, and he could find no fault with what a democratic Honse 

had dorie and what the Secretary of the Navy had recommended. 

The Secretary, i~ is true, said in his report a great deal about our lost 

commerce, said it well, and said it truly; and when I come to speak 

relative to the bill that I introduced, which the Senator from Maine 

attacks so fiercely, by which I seek to allow our citizens to buy ships 

wherever they please, I shall ask the careful consideration of the 

Senate to what the Secretary says about our lost. commerce. Before 

touching that subject, however, I propose to show.that the Secretary 

is not creating deficiencies,; on the contrary, that he is endeavoring 

in good faith to comply with the obligations imposed upon .J:Mm as Sec.retarv. I will read what he says in his report about the workings of ilia bureaus; and I will say further that he is the first Secretary we have had that I know of in the last ten or fifteen years who 

bas been able to report balances of appropriations ready to be paid 

back into the Treasury, instead of coming in a-sking for deficiencies 

by the million which they themselves created. · 

It is dueSays the Secretary : 

It is due to the bureaus of the Department that special . attentiol) should be 

called to their several reports, wherein the details of the woTk done by them during the )'ear are given. They show an amount which could not have been accom· plished without the utmost .watchfulness and care on the part of the officers in 

charge of these bureaus. And the economy practiced in their disbursements can- not fail to arrest attention. The total balance standing to their credit at the close 

of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, as previously stated, was 501,272.10, made 

UP. in favor of each bureau as follows: · 

Yards anu Docks .•••...•• -.. • . . . • • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $40, 685 84 

Equipment and R~crnittng ..•.• ,. . • • . . . . . • . . . . .. . • • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . 238, 879 20 

~~~::~. ~::::::::::::::::: :::·. :::::::::::::::.::::::::::::::::::::::: ~ ~ ~ Construction and Repair ............................. .... --............ 37,863 73 

~r!=:-1!~~~~:: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::~::: ::: :~ ~~!i ~ Total .......... ................................................... 501,27210 

It is also due to the Bureaus of Constl'Uction and Repair and Steam Engineering to refer to the amonnt of work they have> respectively done in repairing ships, engines, boilers, &c., all of which is especially set forth .in their reports. Seventy- five ve els have been more or less repaired, accordin~ to their condition, and ten of them lla•e been thoroughly repaired, together w1th engines and boilers, and 

made ready for sea. Two others, the Nipsic a.nd Galena, are in rapid progress toward completion. The moohineiA' of every vessel repaired has been thoron~~:hly 

ovet·hanled and put in the best condition, aml the policy of substituting four-bladed screw propellers for the various types of two-bladed antl patent screws has been 

initiated. These changes have been attended with the best results, an increased s peed of from one to two·and a half knots per hour having been obtained, without 

increase of engine-power developed. It is -designed to continue these changes 

until ail ow· vessels are fitted with this type of propeller. 

Mr. President, it is gratifying to be able to state that with the smallest appropriation made in the last twelve years ·the present .Secretary of the Navy has a balance of over half a million of dollars in his banda 

instead- of calling upon us for deficiences. The present bill, that he 

is now content with, which the House passed and the Committee on Appropriations recommend, is smaller than any that has been passed 

since the war. Turn -to the finance reports. It is admitted that our Navy has been reduced down almost to nothing, that we sold hundreds of the ships that we had on hand and expended the money in 

ways that Congress knows nothing of, and we haYe be~n makinO" up 

deficiencies year by year in the face of enormous expenditures, ~ at 

least meeting with the silent acquiescence of the Senator from Maine. 

The annual expenditures for the Navy in 1867, (see Finance Report 

for 1877, page 16)-I read in round numbers-were $31,000,000; in 

1868, $25;ooo,ooo; in 1H69, $"20,ooo,ooo; in 1870, $21,ooo,ooo ; in 1871, 

19,000,000 ; in 1872, $21,000,000; in 1873, 23,000,000; in 1!::l74, $30,000,-

000; in 1875, 21,000,000; in 1876, $18,000,000; in 1877, the year to which 

I allude, 14,000,000; and we are now making an appropriation of 

$14,000,000. 

Therefore, there can be no serious fault, as I think, found with this 

bill. I have felt it necessary to say this much in regard to the action 

of the House of Representatives and of the Committee on Appropriations to show that, having no power to change the law, no right to 

cavil with it, in fact nothing to do except to pass_upon the laws as we find thorn, anu examine the workings of the Department ·to see that 

everything is fairly and honestly done, we are able to say, and men of all parties I think agree, that if the other Secretaries and executive 

officers of this Government should obey the law as carefully and be 

as economical in their offices liS the Secretary of the Navy is in his, a genuine civil-service reform would be inaugurated. So much for 

that. But the burden of the Senator's speech--

])fr. BLAINE. Before the Senator leaves that point, will he allow me to ask him, if I do not interrupt him, whether thetdeficiency bill, 

which was passed last year, and which cleared up all the points· in 

dispute· in regard to money, was not snppor~ed by him about as frank]y 

and aa cordially as by me ¥ 

Mr. BECK. What does the Senator say T 

Mr. BLAINE. Did not the Senator support the deficiency billef ·3,200,000 to pay all the deficits ' 

Mr. BECK. On that question I desire to say that the Senator from 

California [Mr. SARGENT] had charge of the Honse deficiency bill 

which embraced hundreds of items which I thought were of doubtf;J 

propriety, but they were payments to men who it was known had done 

the work; and, whether th6 former Secretary of the Navy had acted 

legally or illegally in making the contracts, the ~nator who had 

charge of the bill said to the committee that the men themsel""reS 

ought not to suffer. That official was under investigatidn in the 

House of Representatives, a bitter quarrel was going on there, as the 

Senator from Maine knows, the House had passed that deficiency bin 

and I did not ·want to drag the quarrel into the Senate. 

Mr. BLAINE. But the Senator seems to ha;>e dragged it in to-day. 

])fr. BECK. One word further. As the Honse of Representatives 

had acted upon and passed. those claims I consented that the Senator 

from California should report the deficiency bill as it carne from .the 

House without renewing the investigation, especially as it was obvi- ous that the men had done ihe work. · Mr. BLAINE. If ! _understand the Senator, not to interrupt him, 

be with me, and he and I, with every other Senator on this floor-for 

there was not an objection; the bill was passed without the dot of an i or the cross of a t-all voted that that money was due, and that 

if there was any dispute as to the precise legal authority for making 

the contra~t there was no doubt that the Governmen~ of the United 

States got all the benefit of the mone.y expended. He and I on 11hat 

ground voted to pay the money, and during our service in the Hogae 

of Representatives, to whloh the Senator ha~ referred, it would oo 

pretty har<l to find in the Globe or RECORD any particular vote o:n. which he and I differed--

Mr. BECK. Oh, yes. 

Mr. BLAINE. On this point. On a good many others I should 

hope there would be a great difference. 

Mr. BECK. My record in the·Honse is well known. I was explaining why the deficiency bill of last se sion was passed. I do not care to ta~e more time about it ; I only repeat that there is no ground of 

attack against the present bill. 

Mr. BLAINE. I have not attacked the present bill. 

Mr. BECK. And I have shown that it cannot be attacked success- fully under existing law, and that the proposed amendments er changes of law ought to come from tlle Committee on Naval Affairs as independent propositions, and cannot properly be tacked on to an appropriation bill. 

But what I wish to say more .particularly in reply to the Senator 

is that the bill which I introduced in order to allow the American. 

peeple to buy their ships wherever they see fit, to buy them as they 

have a right to buy everything else they need and must ha'Ve except 

ships, where they can get them cheapest, is in my judgment not ooly a bill that cannot be '' whistled down the wind," but the more it is 

considered the better the Senate will think of the measure. My 

proposition is not, as the Senator assumes, to have ships so pnr.ohaBed run by foreigners, owned by fore~gners, officeri>.d by foreigners, but t~ be nsecl under all the limi~ations of our navigation laws, which 

require every officer to be a citizen of the United States. I only 

seek to allow the men of this country who clo our carrying trade to 

buy their ships as they bny t heir wagons and everything else they use~ 

where tliey oou buy them cheapest, so that we ca.u compete sn.oooss-
632 CONGRESSIONAL RECOR:D-SENATE. J~TUARY 22, 

fully with the citizens of other nations for the great ocean-carrying 

trade of the world. 

'fhe Senator from Maine says that I seek to pull down the American 

flag when I advocate that policy. That is not true. It is because the 

American flag is now trailing in the dust, and because, as he says, 

that on a cruise of three years a ship-of-war of the United States 

failed to see the American flag except at her own masthead, when 

after years and years of sad and disgraceful experience we have been 

wasting $100,000,000 a year upon foreign nations for the use of for- ei~n-built ships, having none of our own, enriching them and impovenshing ourselves, I seek to enable our citizens to own their own · ship as all other nations of the world own theirs, buying them where 

they can buy them cheapest, so that they can carry on for·eign trade 

in tl1em as cheap a.s any other people. We must either do this or oease all efforts at competition. Is it more disgraceful to pay our own citizens for the use of a foreign-built ship than it is to pay foreigners 

for the use of it, as we are doing now. Is the ship less au American ship because she wru bought where 

she cou}d be bought cheapest' Are the ships now run by the Ger- mans and Italians ]&ss German or Italian ships because they were bought somewhere efse, beeause these nations found that some other 

people build ships cheaper than they can~ . No. Is the coat upon the 

back of the Senator from Maine less an American coat because it was made in Paris; as I have no doubt it was' No. The ships once bought would belong to our own peoplo, under the bill I introduced, 

and every dollar that they earned wot;tld be owned by American 

citizens, pent at home, and used at honie instead of going to build 

up foreign nations, as is now doing by obstinately refusing to allow our citizens to buy while we are unable to build the ship we are compelled to use. . The confession is made and mom·ned over by the Senator that our commerce is gone; that we are getting worse and worse off every 

year; and the confession is also made that the war had less to do 

with it than w_as generally supposed. The official record shows that 

there were but seven steam iron vessels built ln the United States 

during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877, and the total tonnage of 

those seven vessels thus built scarcely exceeded the tonnage of one White Star steamer, being under 6,000 tons. That is our condition. 

A more deplorable one could hardly be imagined. I am glad even the Senator from Maine realizes it. That has been substautially our condition for years past. We are, I admit, going on from bad to worse. Out of all the great ships that leave the port of New York for all 

nations beyond the Atlantic not one carries the A.mericn,n flag. Must 

not something be done Y What causes this' If we can build ships, 

why do we not build them Y All agree that we do not build, cannot 

build, and yet mtist use them. It is because everything is protected 

by an infamous protective tru:iff to such an extent that whatever 

goes into a ship, from the first nail that is driven to the bunting at 

her masthead, makes her cost a third more than if built ~nywhere 

else.in the world. 

1\ir. BLAINE. The Senator must be aware that everything going 

into a ship can be imported free, and, with all the variety of things 

that are used coming in free, with that privilege, the ship-builders 

have not asked for a hundred thousand dollars' worth a year. They 

find it more profitable and more advantageous to use American material. 

.Mr. BECK. The fact remains that with all those pri.-ileges we have 

built less than six thousand tons of iron steamships in the last year, 

and iron steamships alone can compete for European trade. The de- . lns\Pn, I was about to say the fraud, of the suggestion just made is this: · the ship built out of materials on which the drawback is allowed must 

be used in foreign trado forever; she never can enter the coastwise trade 

()£ the United States ; that is left .as a monopoly for the ships of ~faine 

and:NewEngland. Our people cannot afford to build a ship upon such 

terms, because her life as a foreign steamer will perhaps be five years, 

while her life as a steamer for all purposes would be twenty years, 

and the very moment she ceases to live as a foreign steamer she can- not run as a coastwise steamer, nor can she enter into competition 

with the ships that are run by the monopoly granted by Congress to 

the States along the New England coast. Hence the privilege of 

allowinO" free material bas never been worth anything; that fact is 

pro.-en,because none are built, although we need them so badly. The 

necessity for their existence is so great that the Senator from Maine 

is appealing now to Senators to put their hands into the Treasury 

and impose further burdens of taxation upon the people to subsidize 

every line everywhere, and help to build ships for everybody, because 

they cannot build them without subsidy. I should like to know 

where the money for all these subsidies is to come from. I should 

like to know where new burdens of taxation can be imposed, for subsidy means taxation and nothing else. Can yon increase your protective tariff and obtain more revenue f No man will dare to say so. 

Can you add more taxation by internal revenue 1 On what 1 You 

may put it upon the incomes of the rich; I think yon will find in 

the pension bill which yon passed the other day (the amount appro- priated was called twenty millions, but it will turn out to be a hundred millions, to be expended in paying back pensions) that 5 per 

cent. upon all the incomes of this country will hardly pay the additional pensions you have provided for. At what point or in what way 

is the Senator from Maine going to get in the pockets of the great impoverished mass of the people to obtain subsidies f He will not allow 

us to buy our ships where we can buy them cheapest. He will not 

alJ.ow us to do what every other nation on the face of the earth is 

doing, and none of them, so far as I ever heard, feel any degradation 

by having bought their ships any more than they would if they had 

bought their horses or wagons or anything else abroad. They are delighted at our folly ln giving up our great trade to them becan.Be we are too patriotic to do our own work in foreign-built ships. 

No, it is our restrictive policy which has prevented us from 'baviug 

ships on the ocean. True, the. distinguished gentleman alluded to 

by the Senator as from my State, who occupied a far more illustrious 

position than I or perhaps even the Senator from Maine does on this 

floor, favored in his early days the protective policy. There may 

have been some sense in it then. All other nations maintained it, 

and it may be that it was a proper thing for ns then to do. Now 

times are changed. We are no longer a feeble nation struggling into 

existence. We will never be again invaded by a foreign foe. England 

in the days of Cromwell maintained prohibitory navigation law , and, as the Senator from :Maine said, in 1817 refused to rep'eal them1 and suffered for her folly as we are doing now. Her commerce never increased and her shipsneverincreased until1849, when she did repeal 

her restrictive navigation laws; she even repealed her coastwise 

trade monopoly, going further than I propose, and did bny shjps from 

America and did carry on her tmffic in American ships from 1849 on. 'Vo sold ships to foreign nations.up to and during the year 1860. We 

had in that year a profit of $23,000,000 in the carrying trade of the 

country, much of it by selling ships to England. England never thought she had pulled down her flag and trailed it in the dust when 

she bought our ships and waved her flag from their mastheads. She 

bought them, as I said, from 1849 up to 1860, when we were her principal competitor, and when our tonna~e was almost as ·great as hers 

and was as great as that of all the otner nations of the earth com- bined. She bought them; she manned them with her own officers 

and sailors, just as I propose we shall do now; she pocketed the profits 

they made, because she could buy them cheaper from us than she 

could build them, and her commerce grew and doubled and quadrupled while she was doing so. There is no romance or foolish sentiment about business. En(l"land 

understands that. The illustration drawn by the Senator from Maine as to the action of England therefore not only falls to the gr6und 

but shows the fallacy of his argument, as during the most pr9fitable 

years of England's commerce we were furnishing England with ships. 

Now, when it is shown that we have no carrying trade, and have no ships, and do not, and of course cannot build them, and cannot 

impose additional taxes upon our people without breaking down .all 

their interests, neither by internal revenue nor by direct or indirect 

taxe, we are told that we mnstfurnish more subsidies. Give! give! 

give! is the patriotic cry. Who is to give l Who can afl"ord to give Y 

Why should we !rive~ when we are taxed to death already, when we can buy all the ships we need in open market for less t.han we could 

after all the taxation sought for as subsidies is imposed. · Mr. President, what I seek to do is not to trail the American flag 

in the dust; it is to make the American flag supreme on every sea. I would wipe out all the pro·tective tariff restriction rrpon trade and 

commerce, all restrictions upon buying ships or anything el e t.l.lat were obsta.cles in our way, and let our people do what every other 

people are now doing, sell where they can sell highest and buy what 

they need where they can buy cheapest. Until that is done substantially we will have no prosperity in this country, and every donation 

yon make, every subsidy yon give is simply a tax upon the labor of 

the country and an oppression upon the great indu,stries of tbe people. You cannot subsidize lines of ships anywhere without creating a monopoly. Yon destroy free trade and fair competition, because 

the subsidized corporations relying on their subsidy will drive from 

the ocean their nnsubsidized competitors. You cannot protect American labor in the present state of the law. Yon protect American 

ma.chinery by tariffs and by patents as the Senator•from New Hampshire [Mr. WADLEIGH] is now struggling by his patent bill to do, so as to compete on equal terms with tbe best machinery in the world. 

For that reason we pay to encourage inventors. He perhaps properly insists that inventors should be protected so that we may be 

equal to any country by increasing the power of machinery to create 

products cheaply. But who or what law protects labor f The Senator from Maine and aJl who are in favor of high protection will take a Chinaman or a man from any other part of tho world, and employ 

him to run that ma.chinery, and turn off the American native-born 

laborer if the Chinaman or other foreigner will do the same work for . one cent a day less than the American laborer demands. All the 

paupers on earth compete in American workshops on equal terlll8 · with the American laborer. There is no tariff for him, but there is a tariff piled mountain high upon everything that he eats, drinks, 

wears, tastes, or touches. That is the protection that the Senator 

from Maine and those who think with him are now clamoring for. 

Protection for machinery which belongs to the rich; free trade in 

labor from the Chinese up; with enormons taxes on property to protect wealth. · The Senator from Maino said in answer to the Senator from Connecticut that Paul Jones had a right to seize a ship wherever he could 

and fight an enemy with• it. We are fighting a great commercial 

\enemy now. We are in a fight where our existence as a groat com- mercial nation is at stake. Being in a contest with England, FrMJ.oe, 

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1879. CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-SEN~~TE. 

and Germany, I would, as Paul Jones did, seize the necessary ships 

wherever we can get them on the best terms, and run them to the 

best advantage to break down our opponents in that competition. 

There are other wars besides battles where blood is shed. The lifeblood of the nation is being drawn from us because we do not use the means at our command nor allow our people to go int a fair competition with other people, and this is done merely for the benefit of a iew men in one corner of the country. !!'he coastwise trade is an anormons monopoly to-day. That I do not seek to interfere with. 

Mr. BLAINE. If the Senator will allow me, why does he not seek 

to interfere with itt 

Mr. BECK. Because I am willing to give you that much to keep 

you quiet if I can. If I can only maintain the great ocean carrying 

trade I am w~g. to pay that tribute, _£r~at as it is, f<_>r we pa.:y ~ri-bute to everything rn that corner of the Umon. W~prud five milhons 

and a half the otber day for their fisheries. 

Mr. BLANE. You did not pay it at my request. 

Mr. BECK. I beg pardon, we paid it for the benefit of your people. 

Mr. BLAINE. You did not pay it at the instigation especially of 

N'ew Englanders. Do not charge that to us. Mr. BECK. U the fisheries we were protecting are not for the 

benefit of New England, I do not know for whose benefit they are. 'Ihey are not for the benefit of the balance of the country. I suppose the eight or nine millions now being. scram bled over from the 

Ge»eva award, is to go in the same way. One hundred per cent. has 

been levied on the salt of the western farmer and ~iven gratis to 

the fishermen to encourage that corner. The coastwise trade must 

be maintained, I suppose, for the same purpose, so that if a foreign 

ship, or a ship built here, even. with the privileges the Senator from 

Maine speaks of, should undertake to carry cotton from New Orleans 

to New York for a dollar a bale, and a ship from MJl,inellemanded $5, 

the man who owns the cotton is compelled to pay the ship from MainB · $5, because under the navigation law no ship built in a foreign conn- try can load in one port of the Unite<.l States and land its cargo in 

another. All these monopolies will have to be endured a while 

longer. We will be fortunate if we can only reach the gr~at markets of 

the world. The Senator may as well understand that the men of the 

West and of the South and of the great producing regions, insist that 

they have paid tribute to New England long enough, and if they can buy ships anywhere else cheaper, they insist that they have a rhrht to 

<.lo so1 and that Congress in the present condition of the world 1s not 

treatmg them jllStly if it prevents it. 

Something was said about the balance of trade. My friend [Senator DAVIS. of West Virginia] suggested, how about internal re>e·- nne t I turned to the finance report this morning, and I find that 

the St~te of Kentucky paid $9,800,000 of revenue last year. The 

State of Maine paid $79,000, Jess than i of 1 per cent. of what Kentucky paid. But Kentucky wants nothing exempt fair play and a free 

contest with other people, free Rhips, free trade, free everything, so that we can sell what we produce and buy what we need without 

being taxed to death for the benefit of a few. 

The Senator from Maine boasts of our present balance of tra-de. I 

have heard that before. The President of the United States at Saint 

Paul last snmme boasted that we were on th~ highway to prosperity becaus~ of the balance of trade in our favor; that seems to be the 

bobby now. The Senator from Maine says that the balance of tra-de 

is all that now saves us from being poor. I have thought upon that 

subject and beg the attention of the Senate for ali ttle -w bile ii1 regard 

to it, as I difter widely from the Senator from :Maine and the states- men of his school. 

I appreciate fully the importance of having an honest ·balance of 

trade in favor of the people of the United States in their dea1ings 

with the people oi. oLher countries. I understand that a man or a, nation whose expenditures exceed his or its income from production 

wi.ll in time become bankrupt; and I have steadily advocated all measures that tend to enable us to keep our means at home instead 

of enriching foreign nations. To that end I want our own people to own the ships which carry our commerce on the high seas, so that 

the . 100,000,000 now paid to foreign nations amtually for freights 

and passage money may be owned and spent at home. I desire to see all our bonds in the hands of our own people, so that the interest on our national -debt, like that of England and France, may be re- tained and spent here instead of abroad. Still I insist that the me~ 

who trade ant\ who ewn the bonds shall have the benefit of the prof- itE~;subject only to the portion they ought to contribute to the support of the Government which protects them and their property. 

The present balance of trade in our favor about which we hear so much, which is heralded in high places so ostentatiously as conclusive evidence of returning prosperity, is a forced and fictitious balance 

under eur pre.sent unjust, oppressive, and, I might say, iniquitous 

protective tariff. If we were allowed to sell what we produce where we conld sell it highest, and buy what we need where we could buy 

it cheapest, and retain the present balance of tr'ade unde these con- ditions in our favor, each citizen obtaining the benefit of his transactions abroad, we would be on the highway to prosperity; but when 

the balance of trade is in our favor as it is now ~;imply because our people are prohibited by law from buying what they need and must 

have where they can buy it cheapest, and are forced to pay at home 

to those protected by the tariff monopoly more than the people of 

any other country have to pay for like articles, the balance of trade 

thus coerced is a delusion and a fraud, injurio~ alike to the Government and the people. It only requires another step to be taken so as to make the highl~ protective tariff absolutely prohibitory, and 

not only the balance but all the foreign trade of the country will be 

in our favor. If that result could only be produced, the statesmen 

of N England- would be able to congratulate the country on the 

perfection of a system where trade was all profit and no loss. Theirclaim would be: exports, 700 000,000 ; imports, nothing; America 

the richest country in the worM-which means that afew men alongthe eastern seaboard who hav-e been invested by law with power to. 

compel forty~ix millions of people to pay them any price they see fit 

to demand for all that their machinery can produce, which the mass. of the people must have, have become the peers in wealth of the 

RothschilaB or the Marquis of Westminster, while the producers and consumers alike outside of the charmed circle have become paupers. 

and serfs. . Perhaps I can make my idea of the working of the present balance 

of trade clearer by illustration than by argument. Assume that a . Louisville or Cincinnati merchant or large western farmer ships a cargo of wheat to Liverpool; it is worth in that maFket $100,000; he 

meets there a ship from some port on the Meditermnean with which 

England has froo trade laden with a cargo precisely similar to ~is . 

own; he must sell in sharp competition with the European. No Ameri- can tariff helps hip! there. The Englishman puts his hand into t-hebags of each and finding them alike pays the same price for each. The· European pauper gets as much as the highly protected American, indeed has a decided preference over him. Why f Because he is willing 

to take in exchange for his wheat what the Englishman has to sellr 

and the American cannot. .All trade is barter. People must sell in 

order to be able to buy. Both owners of the cargoes of wheat need 

and must have equal supplies to carry on their operations for anotheryear; each needs machinery, clothing, and other things, and oach is offereda~hewantsfor$60,000. TheEuropeanbnysortakesinexchange 

sixty thousand dollars' worth of English products, loads his ship, and.. 

returns home to prepare for com petition with the American in the Li v- erpool wheat market next year; and, mark you, he brings his wheat. 

and takes back his supplies in his own or his country's ship, and has. the profits both ways to spend at home, while the American has topay freights to a foreign ship at such rates as combinations of foreign 

ship-owners may demand, as neither he nor his countrymen can afford. to build and are not permi-tted to buy ships to carry their produce to--

foreign markets. I said the·A.merican could not buy in Liverpool what 

he needed, though anxious to do so, at $i0,000. Why Y Because he 

would have to pay $40,000 more at the New York custom-house before 

be gould land his goods in his own country. He could buy the same· goods in New England for $90,600, as the protected American manu- facturer takes care t.o fix the price of his products lowet: than the foreign price with the tariff tax added. What is the result. The ship 

that carried the wheat of the American returne<.l back empty so far· as be was concerned. The Government of the United States received no revenue i that is, the people of the United States received no relief 

from taxatwn. The owner of the cargo of wheat had to pay $30,00U. more for the supplies be needed than his European competitor and 

had to enter into competition with him in the production of another 

year's crop for the same market with an outlay of $90,000 against an outlay of $60,008 by his so-~lled pauper competitor. Nobody is benefited but the tariff-protected monopolist, and he does not pay one cent more to support the Government because of the gains he has made bythe monopoly Congress has given him than his coaphman does. Indeew 

be may, invest his pl"ofits in United States bonds and escape all ta.ration, Federal, State, and municipaL 

Tbat is a plain illustration of the preRent system; each transaction 

is just Uke it. It must not be forgotten that seven-eighths of our· exports are agricultural products JVhich must be sent abroad and sold 

at whatever price they will bring. Our capacity for production is SO· 

great and our surplus is so large that it is impossible to consume it 

at home or retain it for higher prices; and, when ready for market, 

fat cattle, hogs, grain, cotton, tobacco, provisions, &e., cannot be· held for a higher price, nor can the producer of them change his busi- ness to suit the markets. He must produce and sell or his farm goes. 

to waste, and the foreign price regulates the price in the home market, as dt'lalers in cotton, wheat, tobacco, and other staples well know. • It 

is equally obvious that all freights, commissions, insurance, interest, 

and other charges, as well as intermediate profits, are deducted from 

the foreign market prices when the producer sells, so that each item 

of charge comes out of him, and be is the real oompetitor with the 

European pauper, without protection or the possibility ef protection 

under our tariff laws; so that he is robbed both ways bytheincreaaed 

cost of production and the still. greater increase of cost of all he 

consumes, while the men who get all the profits pay nothing ontoftheir· wealth thns. obtained to relieve him from the burdens of Government 

taxation. Yet the mass of the people are persuaded to applaud the- statesmanship which produces these results. In the c~ I have used as an illustration the custom-house books are produced with osten--

tatious parade, and make the following exhibit: "United States or 

America export from Louisville wheat of the value of $100,000 to.· Liverpool; import nothing; United States $100,000 richer by the 

transaction "-a glittering falsehood. The facts are, the United States 

have not received one cent, nor bas the tax-payer been relieved from, any burden. Foreign ships and commission merchants have.pocketed 

• 

• 
• 

. I 

I 

OONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 

·the profits of transportation. The American owner of the wheat 

.has had to compete at disadvantage with his European pauper com- pe~itor, and has been compelled by Con~ress to pay for the supplies 

necessary to carry on next year's· busmess $30,000 more than they were worth in open market- 30,000 more than his European rival 

paid for the same things. Nobody has made anything but the protected monopolist in the eastern corner of the Union, who pays nothi_ng for his privileges, haa ostensibly nothing to do with the transac- .t.ion, but is made by congressional tariff laws a secret partner who . absorbs aJ.l the profits. 

Bastiat, a very clever Frenchman, put two pertinent questions to 

the French m~try some years ago when they were talking the same ·nonsense about-the balance of trade under protection that our republican managers are now. He said in substance that he had a friend, a merchant in Pru:is, France, who shipped to New Orleans, Louisiana, 

$200,000 worth 9f French manufactured goods and sold them there 

for $250,000, after paying all expenses of th~ ventures. Ho invested 

the $250,000 in American cotton .as a return Cllrgo and solei it in Paris, 

after paying expenses, eo as to net him ,.300,000. The French customhouse books showed: France exports '200,000; imports $300,000; 

France $100,000 poorer by the balance of trade against her. But the 

Paris merchant had the $100,000 in his poc~et and was richer by that 

amount than he was before the custom-house books impoverished 

his country to the extent of his profits. That w the first conun- ·drum, which so far as I know the ministry never answered. The 

second was : The Paris merchant, encouraged by his success, in vested 

the $300,000 in another cargo of French manufact.ured goods and 

started them to New Orleans. Unfort.unat-ely for him the ship and ·Cargo were lost in a storm in the English Channel. The French cus- tom-house books made the following entry of the transaction : France 

.exports $300,000; imports nothing; France $3CO,OOO richer. But the 

Paris merchant was a bankrupt. That is a fair illustration of the non ense of our statistics as to the present balance of trade in our favor, which is so much lauded by our political sa vans. I might elaborate this view more fully, but I have consumed much more time than I intended. One word only on another subject: I 

.a.!!'ree with the Senator from Maine that all the money that has been -e~ended and the lands given for our great railways, as to which the 

Senator spoke so well, has been thrown away, sp .far as the country is -concerned, as long as the present condition of things exists. You may 

.extend the Southern Pacific to San Diego and the Northern Pacific ~ Portland, and y.ou may pay all the bonds issued to the Centml and 

Union Pacific, and do no public good. The people of this country .expected whe~ those roads were built that they would have a right 

to reach by the Pacific Ocean and by those roads the eastern world, .and have the products of China,J a pan, Australia, and the east bron~ht 

back to them cheaper than they could raise them at home, and in 

return send our products to them; but you have by your navigation 

laws and your high protective tariff absolutely excluded the people 

of this country from the benefit of all that great commerce almost as -effectually as if the Pacific Ocean were a sea. of fire instead of being, as it should be, a great free highway for all the nations of the eal'th. 

As long as we have such protection and such tariff laws our man- .ufacturers are compelled to sell only to our own people and cannot .reach anybody else. We cannot go upon the htgh.seas, either to South 

.America or to any of the great nations wh.ose trade actually belongs .to us, and sell our produc~ to them, for we are not permitted to buy ·what they have and bring it home to start our own manufactories 

.a.ncl keep· them at work. Our mechanics) our laborers, and every- 'bodv else suffer because of this restrictive tariff. We must learn to 

-work for small profits as other people do, and deal freely with all the .nations of the earth, giving them what we have and taking in return 

what they have. That done~ we will be what the Senator from Maine 

ays we ougb.t to be, and what I agree we ought to be, the greatest 

power in the world. It is to attain that position, it is in order to . •have our flag at the masthead of our own ships everywhere, with .our people owning and running them, spending their profits at home, 

that I desire our people to be allowed to buy ships, as we cannot build 

-;them. That conclusion is irresistible from the fact that for twelve 

years, ever since the war, we have been growing worse and worse and losing year by year more and more, and as we cannot afford to 

be taxed any more for subsidies, and ought not to pay such tribute if 

we could, I desire to do the only practical thing that rellla.ins to be . -d'one, what all other people do, buy ships where we can buy them to 

the best advantage, take our products iu them to the market where we can get the most for them, load them abroad with what we need, .and land them here, subject only to such taxation as is necessary t<J 

support the Govetnment. That done, we can manufacttu·e cheaply .and compete sharply with other n~tions; that alone can make us what we ought to be, a prosperous commercial people. 

-I oeg pardon of the Senate for this rambling sort of argument. I 'had no idea of speaking this morning.. I have been thinking about 

these questions, of course, and have been hoping they would come up 

.at· some time. I had no idea that they would on an appropriation bill, but I could not, after what "lvas said, especially as to my motives 

in introducing the bill referred to, allow the argument of the Senator 

!from Maine to pass without saying something. 

Mr . .BLAINE. Mr. President, I am sorry my friend from Kentucky •was surprised into an ex tempore speech from a manuscript, but he has 

gone off and carried the discussion into the regions of the tariff. I 

think, Mr. President, one of the happy thin~s that comes out of the 

distress of England, if any happy thing con1d come out of a misery so deep and so profound as afflicts that kingdom, i~ that it gives a crushing answer to what I ma,y call the free-trade rhodomontade of 

the Senator from Kentucky. England exists under every condition 

that he points out as" desirable for us. She has been there for thirty 

years. She has carried the. same notions about the balance of trauo 

that the Senator from Kentucky ha.s done .. 'rhere is not the sa.mo amount of tel'l'itory on God's green earth to-~ay that is sufferin~ so terribly and apparently so incurably as England-real suffering, 

suffering snob as we know nothing of in this country. There arc "\'"ery 

few people in the United States, even in the pressing stringency of 

the last fi~·e years, that have starved. Is there one'i! Does any man know of one human being that has been reduced tO death by starvation V If the accounts that come to us from free-trade England, which 

the Senator from Kentucky so lauds, be true, there are thousands of 

the a.rt.isans of Great Britain staring starvation in the face, or having 

starvation stare them in the face. I point to the Senator from Kentucky as a more conclusive answer than I can give to him, thi~ 

crushing reply to all his theories about the balance of trade and absolute free-trade in this country. 

More than that, Mr. President. The Senator ~ave us a fancy sketch 

about a wheat merchant ~hat found himself m an English market 

with 100,000 bushels of wheat competing with a wheat importer from some part of Europe, and showing how remorselessly the wheat-grower 

of this country was ground down in that competition. If the Senator from Kentucky means anything by his argument, if he is willing to follow it to its logical sequence at all and face its resuits man- fully, he means that if all the people of this country would drop 

mechanical pursuit.s, which have been built up under the protective policy and turn wheat-growers, that would be an immense advantage to the western wheat-grower to-day. He says we have 

stimulated the production in this country of mechanical products by 

protective tariffs. Then, have we not stimulated also an immense 

production of agricultural produotsY and I repeat if the Senator follows his argument to its legitimate conclusion, it is that the millions 

in this country who are enl?aged in mechanical pursuits should be 

turned into followerS' of a~rwultur:1tl pursuits, and if that were ·so, I 

should like his one-hundrea-thousand-bushel wheat or grain merchant 

to appear in London or Liverpool with his cargo, and have it com- peted with, not from simply the cargoes of Europe, but from an over- whelming over-production at home. • Now I drop tho general points and come directly to the amendments. Shall I understand the Senator from Kentucky to object to 

these amendments 'l · 

Mr. BECK. I said I thought they were not germane to the bill. 

Mr. BLAINE. I admit that. I admit that a single objection UI\der· tho rules can keep them out; but the Senator from Kentucky must 

not base his position on that ground, because there is not an appropriation bill scarcely of the last two years that has not contained very 

radical legislation from the House, and the Senator from Kentucky, 

in my judgment, speaking now from memory, has supported in every 

instance the legislation that has come up from the House. Therefore 

the Senator cannot take refuge in the fact that he objects to legislation ou appropriation bills. 

Mr. BECK. I only desire to say to the Senator from. Maine--

Mt-. BLAINE. I did not yield the floor, but I am ready to hear the 

Seuator. 

Mr. BECK. I thought the Senator asked for an answer. The PRESIDING OFFICER, (Mr. HoAR in the chair.) The Chair 

understood the Senator from Maine had yielded temporarily to the 

Senator from Kentucky. 

Mr. BLAINE. Certainly. 

Mr. BECK. The Senator from Maine said I could not with propriety make any objection because the amendments were not germane 

to the bill, I having at other times supported things that were not 

germane. I will say now that .the Senator from Vermont [Mr. EDMUNDS] objected 1lo one amendment because it was new legislation, 

and I objected ~ the other, and I think both objections are good. 

1\Ir. EDMUNDS. I objected to both of them in the lump ; to the 

first ono the moment it was read lest I should lose my point of order 

bj'" allowing it to be read. 

Mr. BECK. That relieves me. The appropriation bills a.re loaded 

frequently with so much outside legislation that it is very hard' to 

manage them or to get fair legislation. I know that, and desire now to say a.s to both propositions the Senator has made that if he wiJ.l 

introduce them or t•eport them from a committee they shall receive 

my support af once. Mr. BLAINE. 'Vhat I mean to say is, that while the Senator from 

Kentucky reserves his objection to. legislation here,hehas uniformly 

supported independent legislation that came from the J;Iouse on these 

bills, and that leads me to say that the present attitude of the two 

Houses in that regard is wholly to the disadvantage of the Senate . The Sena.te by its new roles has absolutely and peremptorily restricted 

its own discretion, and the House has ·vastly enlar~ed its discretion, 

and I am at liberty to speak of that because it ~s a joint ma.tter. 

Now, I maintain. that either legislation on the appropriation bills 

should be a matter of joint rule, so that each branch shall know wha~ 
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1879. CONGRESSIONAL RECO.RD-SENATE. 635 

~e power of the 9ther is, or we should not sit here and be spoon-fed 

by the House with whatever it chooses to administer to us, without 

.any power whatsoever to regulate ourselves or do aa we might wish to. 

What I offer in regard to the Naval Academy is just what the Sen- .ator from Kentucky supported himself last year in gard to West . Point . I want that read now, the ·first amendment in regard to t he 

naval cadets. U was supported la-st year unanimously by the Sen- ate, i ncludin(T the Senator from Verm<?nt. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. The Senator is mistaken as to me. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair understands that the att itude of this matter is that the pending question is ou the amendment of the Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. DAwEs.] 

Mr. BLA.I~TE. That was withdrawn·. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The amendment referred to by the .Senator from Maine, the Chair understands b~ has merely given 

not ice of. 

Mr. BLAINE. The amendment of the Senator from Massachusetts was withdrawn until mine should be disposed of. I merely want it 

~Tead now. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair understands the Senator 

from Maine bas given notice of his purpose to offer an amendment. 

Mr. BLAINE: Now I desire the first one read. , The PRESIDING OFFICER. It will be read. 

The SECRETARY. The amendment is to insert: 

That from and after July 11 1883, only such number of the graduates of t he 

United States Naval Academy many one year shall be entitled to appointment as ·midshipmen in the Navy as are required to fill vacancies of that grade existing on 1;be 1st day of July in each year, those entitled t{) appointment to said vacancies ro be detcrni:ined by the aca.dem,ic board on the basis of their standing in the _gradn · .ating class. And if the number of midshipmen shall not have been previously fixed and limit~d by la.w, it sball be the duty of the Secretary to so fix anlllimit it -on or before July 1; 1883. 

Mr. BLAINE. That, Mr. President, is literally a copy, 11tutatis ww- tandis, of the amendment which was adopted last year for the :Military Academy at West Point; and I think I am correct in saying 

that a-s a Senator consents to tha.t which he doe-s not object to, the 

Senator from Vermont was consentingt and sat in his seat and let it 

go without protest or disclaimer. . :Mr. EDMUNDS. The Senator is greatly mistaken both in his 

premises and his conclusions. 

Mr. BLAINE. In what respect! 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I will tell you presently. 

llr. BLAINE. I will wait now to bear. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Keep on waiting, then. 

Mr. BLAINE. I repeat that if the Senator made any objections to 

this when it was reported back from the Committee on Appropriations 

it ha e. caped my memory. · I repeat also that, I will not say every one, 

but a very large majority of the apprepriation bills of the past two 

year bavohadlegislationlll>on them from the Honse, whiohtheSenate 

llas concurred in; and when the Senator from Kentucky offers to support an independent bill of that kjnd,- he knows very well, and quite as well as I know, that the chances of an independent bill of that 

1.-ind going through are as one against a hundred; that the only way 

to make it at this stage of the session an effective piece of legislation, 

is to treat it as I propose to treat it here. 

The other has nothing in the world in it but a projet for some form 

()f reduction of the expenses of the Navy; and when the honorable 

Senator from Kentucky asks me where I will find the money to do 

Olllcthing for the encouragement of the American commercial marine, 

I point him to those two amendments. If be will give to that the 

amount which will be saved by those two amendments, I will guarantee him results far greater than he promises ns by following the 

free-trade .theories, which leave England to-day in deep and widet!nread distress. ~Mr. BECK. I hope the Senator from !.Iaine is not of opinion that 

tho repeal of the corn law, so that the English people conld buy our brca(l cheap, makes them now in a starving condition. Many of them 

may be starving, but their condition would have been much worse 

but for that repeal. 

Mr. BLAINE. I am not going into that. I only point out to the 

.Senator that the German Empire, w.hich is free-trade, and the British 

Empire, which is free-trade, are not as prosperous nations to-day by an incalculable distance as the French: Repuelic and the United 

tates, which are protective countries, and the Senator may theorize 

fo the end of time; I give him two large facts to chew upon and 

.contemplate. 

· Mr. EDMUNDS. Mr. President, I merely wish to say in reply to 

my honorable friend from Maine, that he entirely misapprehends the 

attitude that I have occupied in relation to legislative amendments 

upon appropriation bills. I think for more than ten years-! will 

not state the exact number because I (lo not study up my own record 

of actions as people do who are more justly prominent in affairs and 

who have larger expectations-I think for the last ten ·years, while the 

party to which I belong waa in a large majority in both Houses, the 

..Journals of the Senate and the records of debates will show that, in 

season and out of season, I have resiste(llegislation upon appropriation bills that did not relate specifically to the moneys expended. 

In saying that, lest it be found like other very virtuous people that 

I ha>e had an occasional slip in my behavior, I will add that it may ~e possible that in some time of emergency I may have been tempted 

4>y myself or by some unnameable persons into supporting some amendments on appropriation bills on the theory that they related directly 

to the expenditure of. the moneys appropriated, that on sober refiec. 

tion may hardly stand fire. There may be some occasions of that 

kind. 

Mr. BLAINE. Where yon proposed them yourself t 

Mr. 'EDMUNDs'. Very likely. I do not profess to be much more virtuous than other people. 

M.r. BLAINE. I thouif(Tbt as the Senator was making a confession 

be had better include a his sins in that regard. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Oh, no, ~Ir. President; there would not be time 

for that. [Laughter.] There would not be time to include all my 

sins. If ~e are to make a confession that can be terminated in a day 

and include very few sins, I must wait for the Senator from Maine 

to mako it. [Laughter.] 

But, Mr. President, apart from all questions of personal consistency, 

and which are of the smallest concern to me whatever they may be 

to other people, and I respectfully submit of very slight weight as an argument to the calm judgment of this body, is not the principle of 

the rule of the Senate" against loading bills for the mere appropriation 

of money to carry out existing laws with all sorts of legislation, be- cause it must be all sorts if you ha•e any, according to the views of 

various gentlemen who have it to move, a sound principle. Nobody can say no to that; nobody has said no. The Senator fi·om Maine says this puts the Senate at a disadvantage in respect to the Honse of Representatives. I do not see it; and 

if it rlid it would merely be a disadvantage in not being able to perpetrate so much mischief as the House of Representatives may be 

able to perpetrate. But it is competent for the Senate of the United 

States, if it believes in the propriety of this principle, to reject every 

clause in an appropriation bill from the House of Represensative 

that contains independent and general legislation, and to stick to that 

rejection, and to say to the House of Representatives, as we have often 

done, and with success," You propose to appropriate money to carry on this Government; you propose to add to that a provision changing 

the laws; we are not able to see that the laws ought to be changed 

in that respect or on this bill; you therefore must tako the responsibility of saying that you will not carry on the Government at all by 

appropriations of money under existing law unless a co-ordinate 

branch of the nationa;l legislature will assent to your views about 

importing into that bill new provisions of law;" and every time the 

House of Representatives in public opinion, which affects that body more suddenly than it does this, will go down. There is, therefore, no disadvantage in the just sense, and there is every advantage I 

believe for public interest, for purity in legislation, for consideratioa 

1n legislation that changes your organic law, in sticking rigorously 

and with fidelity to this rule of the Senate, which prohibits us from 

going int.o amendments of this kind. 

That is all I wish to say, :Mr. President. I did not get up to defend 

my own consistency in the past if it needs defense, but only tQ invite 

every Senator to consider how much better-it is to pass our appropriation bills as appropriation bills and nothing else, and• to pass our othor laws in the ordinary way as these propositions might have been 

passed, if .they should turn out to be good measures, if the Senator 

from :Maine had exercised his right on the first Monday in December 

to have introduced them as a bill, had them considered and reported 

by a committee, and taken the judgment of the Senate upon them. 

I insist upon the point of order, :Mr. President. 

Mr. BLAINE. Mr. Ptesideat, it would be all very well if the practice were such as the Senator from Vermont intimates. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Let us make it so. Mr. BLAINE. But it is entirely to the contrary. If the Senate will adopt a rule as rigid as the practice of the Honse is in another .particular, then it will be effective. If the Senate infringes in the 

slightest degree upon wlmt the House regards its constitutional right 

to originate bills of revenue, forthwith the bill -comes back here and we have to sit and contemplate on the folly of sending it down. 

Now, if we will pass· a rule here saying peremptorily and without 

exception that an appropriation bill that comes here from the Hous~ 

with any legislation upon it shall immediately be returned to the 

House, that will be effective; but, as a matter of fact, the Senator 

from Vermont knows as well as I do that such is not the practioo. 

Nearly every bill comes up here laden with legislation, some of it 

probably known to Senators, some of it probably put on a.t the re- quest of Senators down there. I have known snob cases, not in this 

Senate.1.of course, but in the earlier and better and purer days of the 

Republic, but within the memory of men still living, even within the 

time the Senator from Vermont has served in the Senate. When that comes here, if objection is made to it, it goes to the Appropriation 

Committee, and the courtesy of the Senate does not enable us to re- ject it, because that is the projet or proposition of the Honse. Kow, it is mere nonsense for the Senator from Vermont to say that the attitude we hold on this question is in the least degree tending tO prevent legislation on appropriation bills. I untlertake to say that there 

has not been in twenty years-and I wish th8 Senator from Yermont 

to hear me on that point--

Mr. EDMUNDS. I am hearing you all the time. 

Mr. BLAINE. I undertake to say that ln twenty years there has 

not been as much legislation on appropriation bills as has been put 

upon them since this rigid rule of the. Senate, because the Honse has 

it aU its own way. 

~ . 
I 

636 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. ""UAl'Y 22, 

:Mr. EDMUNDS. The Senator is mistaken about that. 

Mr. BLAINE. The Honse can propose· we can assent; and uniformly propositions have come from the House, legislati>e propositions on appropriathm bills, uniformly so far as my observation goesprobably the Senator from Vermont is an exception, t],le yeas and 

nays will show that-but uniformly, I repeat that legislation is decided here upon the judgment of the Senate whether it ~ good or whether it is bad legislation, and altogether regardless of the point of 

order. 

Now, if the Senator from Vermont means to be consistent on this 

matter, if he means that this shall be an actual verity in legislation, 

let him propose a rnle-he has proposed a great many-that shall 

make it imperative on the part of the Senate to send back with a respectful message every appropriation bill that comes here with a ·legislative provision upon it. Then we shall know precisely where we stand. As it is, I repeat the Senate is entirely at a disadvantage; 

it can only take that legislation which the House proposes. It has 

destroyed all power on its own part to propose any which it may think 

expedient. • Mr. THURMAN. Mr. President, I do not see the chairman of the 

Committee on Appropriations in his .seat. 

1\.Ir. WINDOM. He is here. 

:Mr. '.rHURMAN. If he wishes a vote on this bill I will withhold 

the motion I propose to make. 

Mr. WINDOM. Nothing would grat.ify the chairman of the Comm1ttee on Appropriations more. I think the discussion has closed 

and I have no doubt we can take the vote at once. ~Ir. BLAINE. I have no more to say. 

lli. THURMAN. If the chairman asks for a vote now I shall not 

make the motion I rose to make. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The pending question is on the amendment of the Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. DAWES.] ~Ir. EDMUNDS. I merely wish to say in answer to the Senator from 

Maine, and then I shall have done with this matter, that he does in 

my opinion injustice to the Senate when he says that every question 

of order is determined according to the opinion of individual Senators as to whether the thing proposed would be a right thing or not if it were not hampered with the question of order. That appears to me to be equivalent to saying that the minds of Senators are so incapable 

of performing their duties under the role that they allow the prejuilice of their wishes about a particular measure to lead them to violate 

the pla.in rule of the Senate. I have not such a poor opinion of Senat ors as to lead me to think that is a correct statement of the votes of 

Senators. 

Mr. BLAINE. Then will the Senator from Vermont permit me to . a k him how an exactly similar provision to that ~hich be makes the 

point of order on was put last year on the West Point appropriation 

bill 'I 

~Ir. EDMUNDS. I cannot tell because I do not remember anything 

about it. 

Mr. BLAINE. The Senator did remember enough about it to deny 

that he had voted for it. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. That I think was safe enough. I could speak for 

myself. I could deny. 

Mr. BLAINE. That requires a good deal of memory. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Not much, not half as much as the Senator from 

!\Iaine bas. The Senator from Vermont bas several other things to 

do besides watching eYery clause in au appropriation bill. Perhaps 

be is wrong in doing the other things; I am not going into that question. 

Mr. BLAINE. I did not know anything occurred · in the Senate 

that the Senator from Vermont did not watch. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. The Senator is mistaken about that. I do not even watch the Senator from Maine, because I know it is perfectl§ 

safe to let him rnn wild. [Laughter.] Whether in a particular instance 

there may be a clause in an appropriation bill as the one to which 

t he Senator from Maine refers, a.s to the method of administration or whatever it may be, that goes through without objection by unani- mous consent or when Senators are doing something else in com- mittee-room or elsewhere, Ida not care. :Mr. BLAINE. Does the Senator from Vermont have any recollection of the following provision on last year's Army bill: 

From and after the passage of this act it shall not be la'Wful to employ any part of the Army of the United States as a posse comitatus or otherwiseAnd the section running on ' 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I have a very strong recollection of that. 

Mr. BLAINE. Does the Senator from Vermont not agree with me that that was decided on the vote in the Senate by the supposed 

political predilections and judgments of 1tle Senate, and utterly re- gardless of the point of order! · Mr. BDMUNDS. I do not know for the simple reason that I was sick in my bed at my house w ben the thing was decided. That is the 

only answer I can give to that. The Senator must blame the proviclence that rules the universe--

lli. RLATh"E. The Senator was paired. 

:l-Ir. EDMUNDS. If the Senator will be ~ood enough to hold on until I am through, it may be a benefit to him if it is not to- me. If 

the providence that rules ilisea.ses more or less is to make a &nato1.; responsible for not speaking to :1 point of order when he is sick in bed 

at home, then I must take the conseiJ.uences of that; but the Senator 

from ~Iaine ought to remember that ,-vheu the question came up while 

the Senator from Vermont was able to be.here, he- with the Sena\o.r 

from Maine resisted' the proposition as bard as he could. 

Mr. ~LAINE. Yes, and the Senator from Vermont made a point of_ order against it and was opposed to the thing independent of the point 

of order. · Mr. EDMm'TJ)S. Yes. 

Mr. BLAINE. But what I wa.nted to call the Senator's attention to was that when the vote came-if he was not here I am sure he was paired, and if he was not paired he was guilty of great dereliction, because it only got into the law by one vote, and if he was not paired, 

his one vote mi~ht have saved the question-when the vote came, the 

Senate decided 1t without the slightest rega.r(l whatever to whether it was apposite ll.nd appropriate legislation. They divided upon it on the party line as they do on everything that comes up,. I repeat. If 

the Senator from Vermont wants further illustrations of this I could 

detain him until the sun sets to-day and rises to-morrow; and when be tells me the Senate here will reject House propoiitions of independent legislation on the ground of this rule of ours I point him to 

the practice against such a. high theory as that. The practice of the 

Senate is dir.ectly the 1·everse. The honorable Senator from Ohio I 

think, and all on that side which he so ably leads, stood up for thi:s 

part of the Army bill last year. 

Mr. THURMAN. Why, Mr. President-- · Mr. EDMUJ\TDS. Now if'both these Senators will be good enough 

to let me go on, it would be a great satisfaction to me. I cannot say 

how much the Senate has been demoralized since we- have had the 

pleasure of the presence of my friend from Maine, [laughter,] ·but 

I do say that with the exception , that I stated before of occasi<vJ.al 

gusts of prejudice aml of passion, the Senate has without regard to 

party stood up for holding on to its rules; and I say in addition to 

that-for it is useless to go into a discussion of how much deviltry 

the Senate bas perpetrated heretofore-the question is whether if we have been doing wrong heretofore we ought to do wrong now. That 

is the question. · Mr. BLAINE. No; the question is whether having-.- Mr. EDMUNDS. ':{'he Senator will be good enough to wait until -I am through. 

Mr. BLAINE. One moment right there. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Not one single moment. [Laughter.] I know, 

Mr. President, how much better my speech wonld be if it was all 

made by the Senator from Maine; but the little part of it that I am making myself I woulcl rather should stand by itself so that a discriminating public may see how much better what he says is~than 

what I say, and if it was all put in I might get the credit of the wlwle performance. [Laughter.] · Now, to leave joking apart, for my friend from :Maine well understands that it is the farthest from my purpose to ~et into any dispute with him about a matter of substance-the questlon is, not what the 

Senate has done heretofore, be it right or wrong, but whether sound 

principles of legislation are not embodied in this rnle that I invoke- on this point of order. That is what the question is; and if the Senate has been in the practice through party prejudice or any other 

kind of prejudice or misjudgment of violating this rule, I appeal t <> my honorable friend with considerable confidence that if the rnle is a sound one the sooner we abandon that practice the better, without 

regard to party lines or wishes about particular amendments. That 

is all there is to" it. The fact that this amendment is plainly in vio- lation of the role I be1ieve is not disputed by even my honorable friend from Maine, although I do not know that that particular statementis justified. _ Now I will yield to everybody, for I think I have said th~ last thing. Mr. THURUA...~. I am not at all disposed to interfere with th1s 

family quarrel or this encounter of wits; but as the Senator from 

Maine saw fit, without any reason that I can see, to allude to me and 

to say that I was leading the democracy on this side of the Senate into a violation of the rule to which he att aches so much importance,. I wish to remind him, for though he was not in the Senate t hen f. 

cannot suppose that it escaped his attention, that it is not very won - derfnl that we shonld not have paid much attention to this rule after 

the example set by the republican majority in this body in 1 71, if ! 1 am not mistaken as to the-year, in putting the famous election law on to an appropriation bill--

Mr. BLAINE. Of course again.st the wish of the Senator from Vermont that was done. 

Mr. THURMAN. I will not undertake to say, because the "'enator from Vermont can speak for himself. 

Mr. BLAINE. I infer that of course it was. Mr. THURMAN. And I am not fond of personal con rover . 

Mr. llLAINE. What I was going to say, without any personal coD-- troversy, was this: I had the honor of serving in the House for some· years while the Senator from Vermont preceded me in the Senate, and all the members of this body who were then in the House will 

remember that one of the things the House was continually ready to 

complain of was that the Senate would load the appropriation bills with \ery la:rge amendments. They persisted in doing it. The Sen:v 

tor from 'Vermont seems to intimate that he had no part or lot in, that; but be qualified that by saying that he had a \ ory bad memory,.. and I am afraid the files of the Congressional Globe and of the REC-'- ORD itself will show that the Sena.tor not only voted for the El, bub' 
1 ~;o 

• 

1879. CONGR.ESSIOXAL RECORD-· SENATE. 637 

-occasionally, to use a familiar phrase, took a large band in framing 

them and in offering them. . I have here another one right on the naval appropriation bill of 

last year, an amendment far more radical than either .one I have 

o()ffered now, which was supported by the Senator. I do not think any 

division was made upon it, and wherever there was n~ division ·made 

upon it I am sore that my friend from Vermont was JJm•ticepB criminiB. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. No. 

Mr. BLAINE. If he was not here to object he was a consenting 

party, and when he did object it will be found, I think, that his stren- uous points of order were moat loudly and persistently enforced upon 

those provisions which, on the merits, he was opposed to, as in the -case of the amendment to the .A:rmy bill. 

Mr. 'VINDOM . . Now, Mr. President, can we not have a vote on this 

bill' . 

Mr. D~VIS, of West Virginia. The question, I believe, is on the 

amendment offered by the Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. DAWES.] 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is•the pending question. 

Mr. DAVIS, of West Virginia. Mr. President, in my mind there are half a dozen objections to that amendment. First, the bill, I notice, 

gives four or five pages of details of how the money appropriated for 

the Marine Corps shall be expended, a million dollars probably; and 

in one sweeping clause at the end it is now proposed that it shall all 

be at the discretion of the SeCI·etary of the Navy. That is a ra.dical 

ehange and one that ought not to occur, in my judgment . . Another objection is that there ha.s been no necessity shown for t,he 

amendment. There has been nothing coming from the Department 

that I know of, nothing coming from the committee that I have heard 

of, and in no way is the amendment intended for good as far as I know. 

There is another question about H to me. I doubt very much 

whether it is in order if there is an objection made to it. A Senator near me asks that the amendment be read. I have no objection. 

The PRESIDING OF:I!"'ICER. The Seeretru.·y will read the amendment. 

The SECRETARY. · At the end of line 567 it is proposed to add: 

Prwided, That if the amount appropriated for in items of the pay or qnarter- maater's department of the Marine Corps for the fiscal year ending .June 30, 1879, 

shall prove insufficient for its purpose, the excess in any other item or items of the 

respective departments may, with the written consel!-t of t~e Secretary of the 

Navy, be applied thereto: Provided That the excess m the Items of ene depart- ment shall not be used for any inffirlficiency in the items o,f the other department, and that the total amount appropriated for the respecti~e departments for said 

fiscal year shall not be exceeded. • 

Mr. DAVIS, of West Virginia. While I believe it is subject to objection' on a point of order, I will not make the objection now, but 

will1 wait to bear from the Senator from Ma-ssachusetts whether there 

is an actual necessity for it. . The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is the Senate ready for the question! 

Mr. DAVIS, of West Virginia. I do not think the Senator from 

:Massachusetts understood what was asked, or certainly he would not 

treat it the way he does. 

Mr. DAWES. I am not here undertaking to interfere with the Committee on Appropriations. This proposition was before the committee, 

and I waa informed by a member of the committee that it waa agreed 

to by them. He requested me to offer it because he could not very 

well. attend to it himself. I went and submitted it to the chairman of 

the committee and he ~aid it was proper, and it did not occur to him 

just then why ~hey had not adopted it, but he consented to my offering 

it, which I did at the request of a member of the committee on the 

other side of the Chamber. I have had some experience in regard to 

apprgpriation bills, enough to make me dislike to have reembers who 

do not understancl much about them interfere with them, and I was reluctant to do this, and I did it only afiier having consulted with the 

members of the oommittee on both.sides, and offered the amendment 

at the request of a member ot the committee on the other side. 

The apparent necessity is this: a quantity of clothing of the Mal'ine Corps has been destroyed, burned accidentally. The officers were afraid that the item for marine clothing was not quite sufficient here, 

and there were other items for that corps which they said would leave 

a little surplus, and following precisely the same words that are in 

the appropriation of last year for the .A:rmy, copying them in so many 

words, it was suggested that, if the Secretary of the Navy consented 

in writing to take from a single item its balance to- make up a deficiency in another item, no infringement would be made upon that 

wise provision of appropriations that a sum appropriated for one purpose shall not be perverted to another. 

Mr. ED :MUNDS. Why do you put in the pay department f 

Mr. DAWES. The pay department of the Marine Corps. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Why pot that in Y 

:Mr. DAWES. I did not draw it; it was drawn in the committee- room of th~ Committee on Appropriations, -and I offered it as I have said 

before. I shall not stand here undertaking to make up appropriation 

bills a&ainst the committee; and if no member of the committee supports tne amendment the Sen:ate will, I trust, v·ote it down; and, although I have had some sort.of experience about appropriation bills, 

I will not undertake to help them make their appropriation bills 

again. 

Mr. WINDQ:M. The Senator will allow me a moment T I think 

the only object of this amendment is to save a deficiency for certain 

portions of the service mentioned in tbe amendment. There is enough 

money appropriated for the purposes; but there is a little balance 

bore and another there, and a little de:ficjency at some other point 

and it was desired to avoid a deficiency bill and to give the Department the use of this fund at onee. I ca.re nothing about it, whether 

it is passed or not. A deficiency bill cnn supply it hereafter if there 

be any sort of objection to potting it here. · Mr. EDMUNDS . ., ·That is the best way. 

Mr. BECK. The Secretary of the Navy and some of the officers of 

the Marine Corps, I am not sure whether it was Major Goodloe or Colonel McCauley, banded me that paper. which I handed to the 

chairman of the committee, who believed it could do no harm, J?eiug a vcrv small matter. We were about to recommend it when it was lost in some way or other. The Senator from West Virginia [Mr. 

DAVIS] perhaps asked to look at it. If it is any departure from the 

role I do not care about it, bot it is an extremely small ma.tter, some $7,000 or $8,000 at most. It is to make two things meet so as not 1!o 

call for a deficiency. 

Mr. DAVIS, of West Virginia. The offering of the amendment in 

the Senate to-day was the :first I heard of it. Therefore there must 

be some mistake about its having originated in the committee-room 

by the committee. I have attended all the meetings of the committee. It may be a small thing or may not. Of course, if the Senator 

from Kentucky or any other Senator says it is, I must a.ccept it as such ; but I think a million dollars under that provision might be 

tmnsferred from one object to another. I think there are about four 

pages of details of the !lppropriation of this money, and nearly a million dollars is covered probably. I take it, of course, there cannot be a transfer of anything like the full amount. If the members of the 

committee and the Senator from Massachusetts think it necessary, I 

shall withdraw all objection; but I believe that it is subject to the 

objection that it increases the amount, that· it takes from OI).e item 

and increases another, and therefore it is subject to a point of order. 

But as at least two.members of the committee, especially the chair- man and my friend from Kentucky, have said they have heard of the 

amendment before and believe it right, I shall withdraw all objection. 

But I think in principle it is wrong and ought not to be done. 

Mr. DAWES. The Senator from West Virginia is no more earnest 

than I have been heretofore, and am still, in con:finin~ appropriations 

to the specific object for which they ~remade. If tnere is a million 

dollars surplus in one particu.lar item in, say, the pay department or the supply department of the Marine Corps--

Mr. DAVIS, of West Virginia. The Senator knows that this involves about a million. 

1\fr. DAWES. For the pay and the supply departments of the Marine Corps! If there is any surplus of a million appropriated in this 

bill for any one of these items, the bill does not come from the eom- mittee with that care and scrutiny which I have given the committee 

credit for. I suppose there are a few hundred dollars (aud the Senator from Kentucky, who is better posted on it than I am, so a-ssures me) that may be taken in this way, just precisely as was done in the 

Army bill last year and put in under the eagle eye of the distinguishecl Senator from West Virginia. 

I wish, however, Mr. President, to relieve the Senator from all 

anxiety caused by my rashly rushing into this bill of naval appropriation, and I therefore respectfully ask leave of the Senate to withdraw an amendment which I rashly proposed to offer at th.e so~gestion of a member of the committee to relieve them of a little (iefietency hereafter. If the Senate will consent I will withdraw it. I have not the 

slightest desire to push it. No desire on my part wa~ inspirecl by the 

request 8f the committee that I should offer it rather than themselves. 

lli. DAVIS, of West Virginia. I hope the Senator has not taken . offense at anything I have said. 

Mr. DAWES. Certainly not . . 

Mr. DAVIS, of West Virginia. It was only the principle !thought was WTong; and that I now state to the Sena.tor. I ha-ve not the least _objection to him or any other Senator offering an amendment. He 

has a perfect right to do so. But I did state tha.t the :first I heard 

of it was to-day when it was offeted in the Senate. 

It appears to be right so far as the Senatora who ha.ve looked into 

it are concerned. I have not examined it. I shall not insist upon objecting to it; but I now say that all :future transfers of this hlnd I 

shall be particular in trying to prevent. I believe the principle a wrong one and it ought not to go out, and if it wa.s in last year's bill 

it was WTongly there. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on the amendment. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I thought it was withdrawn by the Senator from 

Massachusetts. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. He said he would withdra.w it if the 

Senate gave its I}Onsent. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. It does not require a.ny consent; no yeas and nars have been ordered on it. · :Mr. DAWES. I insist on my right to withdraw the amendment. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ma.ssachusett 

withdraws his amendment. 

Mr. WINDOM. Cannot the vote now be taken on the bill ! 

Mr. BLAINE. I hope that withRI'awal will operate as a warning 

hereafter to all members of the Senate not to meddle wfth the appropriation .bills. 

Tbtj amendments were ordered to be engrossed and the bill to be 

read the third time. 

The bill was read the third time, and passed. 
• 

638 CONGRESSIONAL· RECORD-HOUSE. 

BILL INTRODUCED. 

Mr. BLAINE. I ask leave now to introduce a bill embracing the 

-provisions I tried to get on the naval bill, and which everybody is in 

favor of. · By unanimous consent, leave was granted to introduce a. bill (S. No. 

1684) to regulate promotion in the N ~ vy, and for other pttrposes ; and 

it was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Naval 

Affairs. ORDER OF BUSTh."'ESS. 

l\lr. EDMUNDS . . Mr. President, I move that the Senate proceed 

to the consideration of the resolutions I had the honor to offer in 

regard to the constitutional amendments. Mr. THURMAN. I move that the Senate adjourn. 

Mr. DAVIS, of Illinois. I wish to have a bill referred fir t. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont moves to postpone the patent bill. · · · Mr. EDMUNDS. The patent bill <loes not come up by law. That 

bill was displaced ye terday by the naval bill going over as unfinished business. 

The PRESIDING Ol!'"'FICER. The Chair is informed otherwise at 

the desk, that the patent bill was laid aside temporarily. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. It was laid aside yesterday temporarily, and this 

other bill came over as unfinished business. The patent bill therefore has lost its place. · The PRESIDING OFFICER. The patent bill is the regular order, 

in the opinion of the Chair. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. Then I move to postpone the present and all 

prior orders and take up the resolutions. · The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Verment moves to lay aside the present and all prior orders for the purpose of taking 

up the resolutions he has indicated. 

Mr. THURMAN. I move that the Senate adjourn. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio moves that 

the Senate adjourn. . · Mr. PAD DOCK. I ask the Senator from Ohio to give way to a motion for an executive session. 

Mr. THURMAN. Let us try an adjournment first. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. It is mpved that the Senate do now 

adjourn. 

The question being put, there were on a division-ayes 23, noes 20. 

Mr. EDMUNDS called for the yeas and nays; and they were ordered, 

and the Secretary proceeded to call tho roll. • Mr. :MATTHEWS, (when his name was called.) I am paired on this question with the Senator from Indiana, [Mr. McDOYALD.] 

Mr. PADDOCK, (when his name was called.) On this question I 

::unpaired with the Senator from New Jers6y, [Mr. R~DOLPII.] 

Th£\ roll-call was concluded. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I wish to announce that the Senator from Michigan, [Mr.CIIRISTIANCY,] w"ho is absent on account of illness, is paired on all political questions, as he tells me, with the Senator from South 

Carolina, [Mr. BUTLER.] Mr. TELLER, and Mr. KIRKWOOD, a:nd Mr. 

C.AJillRON of \Visconsin are paired with certain Senators whose names I have in my desk, upon all political questions. 

Mr. GARLAND, (who had voted in the affirmative.) I suppose I 

have Toted im:tJroperly, as I am paired with the Senator from Iowa, 

[Mr. KIRKwooD,] who is now absent. If this is a political question, 

I ask leave to withdraw my vote. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas withdraws his vote. 

Mr. BUTLER. I am in the same predicament. I did not suppose a question of adjournment was a politica.l question, and therefore I 

Toted "yea.;" but if it is to be a political question, of course I withdraw my vote, as I am paired with the Senator from Michigan, [Mr. 

CHRISTIANCY. J 

Mr. MAXEY. The Senat-or from California [:Mr. S..rnGEXT] and my 

colleague [Mr. CoKE] are paired. ·I am requested to announce that 

fact. • Mr."MERRIMON. On all political questions I am paired with the 

Senator from Kansas, [Mr. INGALLS.] As this is treated as a political 

question, I shall not vote. 

Several SENATORS. It is not political. . Mr. :M,ERRIMON. I am paired with the Senator from Kansa . If 

the gentlemen on the other side of the Chamber think this is a political question, I feel constrained to keep my pair, but I hear one gentleman on the other side of the Chamber say that he <loes not regard 

this as a polit,ical question at all, and he has voted. 

:Mr. EDMUNDS. Did the Senator address himself to me f 

1\Ir.MERRI.MON. I am paired with the Senator.from Kansas when 

amy political associate of his shall request me to do it on a political 

question. If this is treated as a political question, I am ready to ob- erve that pair, but I find there is a dilference of opinion about that. 

One gentleman· on the other side of the House has sug(Yested that he 

does not regard it as a. political question, and has Toted for the motion. 

Mr. EDMUNDS. I certainly cannot interfere in a question of peronal pairs between the Senator from North Carolina and the Senator from Kansas; but a Senator of one party moved to take up what 

may be regarded as a political question ; a prominent Senator of 

another party moved immediately to adjourn, and thereupon the parties have apparently divided pretty nearly upon equal lines. I have 

nothl?g to advise of course on the question. Everybody must judg& 

for himself. 

Mr. MERRIMON. I believe I shall decline to vote. 

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Presiaent I should like to inquire of the Senator from Maine [Mr. BLAINE] if his colleague [Mr. ~~~}left with 

him any statement as to his pair. I remember that the senior Senator from Maine [Mr. HA.."ULIN] before he started for Texas asked me to pair with him upon a specilic question; I am not inclined to think 

that anything was said about political questions; but if the Senator 

from Maine has left a statement, or if he understood that I was paired 

with him upon political questions, I shall certainly observe it. 

Mr. KERN AN. Allow me to state that I have a memorandum given me by Senator BAYARD that he and the senior Senator from Maine 

[Mr. H.ur~] were paired on all political questions and they both 

went down to Texas together. 

:Mr. BLAINE. I was going to say that I knew nothing whatever 

about it. ~Ir. KERNAN. :Mr. BA'f"ARD said he was paired with some othergentleman on one particular question. . Mr. BAILEY. This question seems to take a political form, and a such I decline to vote. I am paired with the ~enator :from Wisconsin 

[:Mr. CA..liEP..O~] on all political questions. 

11Ir. ED.YUNDS. I wish to say in correspondence with the statement of the Senator from Tennessee [l\Ir. HARRIS} that l have been 

informed that Senator lli.."\ILI:Y and Senatm· BAYARD, who have both 

gone together, are paired on political questions, so that the Senator 

from Tennessee appears to be free from it. l\fr. WITHERS. I am aware of it. I was present when the ar- rangement was made. • Mr. CHAFFEE, (who had voted in the negative.) I am paired 

with the Senator from Louisiana [Mr. Ecsrrs] on political questions. 

It did not appear to me that a question of adjournment could be soreg~ded, and I voted; but as it is so regarded, I withdraw my vote. Mr. BOOTH. As explanation seems to be in order, I will say that 

I have voted in favor of the motion to adjoru·n becausA I understood 

the motion of the Senator from Vermont wouh\ supersede the patent 

bill, and I consider that practical legislation. However important 

the resolutions may be, it is at le:tst of equal importance, anll paramount in my mind to-day. . The Secretary read the list: of yeas and nays. . Mr. BAILEY. I announced a moment ago that I had paireJ. with 

the Sehator from Wis~onsin [Mr. CAMERO:Y] on all political questions; 

and as this question eemed to take a political shape, for -that rea sou. I withdrew my vote ; but I notice that the Clerk has recorded it. 

The PRESIDIKG OFFICER. The Senator's vote will be witlldrawn. 

The roll-call haTing been concluded, the result was anhOuuoad- yeas 24, nays 19; as follows : 

Barnum, 

Beck, 

Booth, 

Cockrell, 

Davis of illinois, 

Davis of West Va., 

AliLqon, Anthony, 

Blaine, Bruce, 

Burn 'de, 

Dennis, 

Eaton, 

Gordon, 

Harris, 

Hereford, 

Hoar, 

Dawes. 

D()rsey, . Edmunlls, 

Ferry, 

Howe, 

YEAS-24. 

.Jones of Florida, Kernan, 

Lamar, 

:llaxey, 

:lleCreery, 

McPherson, 

XA.YS-19. 

Kello~g, 

:Mc~liuan, 

Mitchell, 

Morrill, 

Patt-erson, 

A.BSE~ -T-33. 

Armstrong, Conkling, Jones of Nevada, 

Bailey, Conover, Kirkwood, 

Bayard, Eustis, • Matthews, 

Butler, Garland, McDonald, 

Cameron of Pa., Grover, Merrin.ton, 

Cameron of Wis., Hamlin, Oglesby, 

Uhaflee, Hill Padllock, 

Christiancy, Ing~ll.s, Plumb, Coke~ .Jolmston, Randolph, 

Morgan,_ P..a.nsom, 

Thurman ,. Voorhees, 

Whyte. 

Withers. 

Rollins, 

Saunder , Sharon, 

Windom. 

Sargent, 

Saulsbury, 

Spencer, 

Teller, 

Wadleigh, 

Wallace. 

So th.e motion was agreed to; and (at foaro'clock .md twenty-tw()-

minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned. 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

WEDNESDAY, Janua·ry 22, 1879. 

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

\V.P.EUuuuso~,D.D. 

The Journal of yesterday was read antl approved. 

CORRECTION. 

~Ir~ FREEMAN. I desire to ask a correction of the RECORD of 

yesterday's proceedings. When I asked permission to record my v.ote 

upon the motion of the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. ATKINS] to 

lay on the ta,ble the motion to reconsider made by the gentleman 

from Ohio, [~:Ir. GARFIELD,] I stated that if permitted to vote I 

would vote in the negative. In the RECORD I am represented as saying directly the contrary- that I would vote in the affirmative. 1 

would like to have that correction made.