The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-02-20

JOURNEYS never performed, and never expected TO
be performed. This the single and simple
proposition; and he hoped the House would act ON
the bill whilst il had il in It's possession. He should
consider IFS commitment an abandonment Of il
for the session, and saDctioning construction OF
the law which, in his opinion, ought never TO have
been given 10 il; but which, since il had been given
called for the iBterposition ofthis House
Mr.. DOUGLASS said that the object he had in
view In moving the commitment Of the bill was
not to defeat IL. He 10 favor Of its general pur-
pose. He did not think that member of either
House ought TO receive pay fer constructive travel
in cases where one session might run into another,
And he would be willing now to vote for
a bill 10 prohibit double mileage in such
| case. But when 1t was proposed as by this
bill, TO declare that member of the Senate
should not have pay, unless he had actually
| travelled to his home and back again, the result he
thought might be this: that If the business or the
health of the senator required that he should travel
in any other direction, that he should remain at
another point, (some six months intervening,) he
would still be cut off from his mileage because he
had not actually travelled TO his home and back
again. Surely, in such case, the senator ought
not to be deprived of his mileage. He thought the
proper provision would be this that asenator should
not be entitled to double mileage in any case where
one session ran into another, he being member Of
the preceding session. He repeated the expression
of his belief that to make the bill just, and still to
make 1t meet the object for which il was designed,
that he in favor of commitment
| Mr. ISAAC Z. HOLMES said the first question
which presented itself TO his mind was this; what
immediate necessity was there for thus presslnga
bill through, the provisions Of which in all proba-
blity would not be called into operation for four
years to Gomez The gentleman from Virginia Mr..
HorKISs had said that the bill was one of great
simplicity, and therefore il ought TO pass. Now, II
there was any one thing which more than another
he (Mr. HoLNEs) dreaded in legislation, il was this
akay,st 9tn IL ,i1ht
might not embrace very simple proposition; but
| the result ultimately would be injurious, the gen
tleman from Illinois Mr.. DoUGLAss had shown
| All that was asked was that the bill should go to
the Committee Of the Whole on the state Of the
Union, TO take Its chance with another bill ofa kin
dred character, TO which a similar disposition had
yesterday been given; and that thus when the sub
ject came up, II should be considered in all its
parts. He hoped the House would proceed with
more circumsPectlon on all these propositions Of
| Comprehensive simplicity"
| Mr. HENLEY desired only to say that to refer
this bill now, to defeat it, 1t would be reco-
lected that at the last session Of Congress bill
passed this House regulating and reducing the
mileage of members Of Congress. That bill was
defeated in the Senate, perhaps for want of time-a
very convenient apology, in many He
would say to the House that as reference would be
delay, and as delay would be defeat, and it
a very simple proposition, and obviously right and
proper IN every point of view, and could well he
decided now as at any other period, he trusted that
the motion to refer would not prevail and that the
bill would be Immediately put upon lis passage.
The necessity for this bill based upon the fact
that some senators drew at the last session what has
usually been called constructive mileage, by a
structon put upon the law by the Vice President Of
the United States, az the presiding officer of the
Senate; and he had been told-though he did not
vouch for the fact-that this was tie nysriabe con-
struction which had been placed upon it in the SEN
ate; and that portion of the senators had,
at each successive executive session, drawn
mileage in conformity with that construction.
He was certain that about one half the senators
in attendance at the executive session commencing
the 4th of March last, did claim and receive this
extraordinary mileage. What, sir, (sad Mr. H.
Ia this constructive mileageI IL is an imaginary
trip which those senators supposed to have ia
ken from this capital to their homes, and back
again, between the third and fourth of Msrch. They
were here and in their places the third of March,
and late in the night of that day the twenty-eghth
Congress terminated. Upon the next day the Sem
ate commenced session for the consideration of
executive business, and those senators were
then present; and the Vice President says the legal
construction OF the law is, that they are supposed
In this short space of time to have visited their
homes and returned That any such construction
as this could have been intended by those who made
the law, to have been placed upon it, he could
not for moment believe. Nothing could be more
absurd; and not even In the days Of the Arabian
Nights could anything be more fabulous The pos.
session of the celebrated lamp of Aladdin could
scarcely have enabled these senator's 10 have
performed this extraordinary journey. He was
no lawyer, and could not, therefore, say that the
view taken Of this law by the president of the
Senate wrong. He did not think, how
ever, 1t was common sense-even though ii
might be ["commonl law" hence the importance of
the passage of the bill now under consideration.
This was an abuse which had grown up under that
universal tendency to extravaganza and increased
expenditure which attaches itselfto all governments,
and which 1t is our duty at all times to guard against
with great vigilance and care. II was measure of
retrenchmen, which, though small in itself, might
be the entering wedge TO others of greater import
If this bill should be referred and defeated
he should then have no hope Of carrying any meas
ure of retrenchment hereafter.
Mr.. WHEATON, from the Committee on En-
rolled Bills, reported that the Committee had exam
ined enrolled bill of the House entitled An act to
enlarge the powers of the several orphans courts
in and for the District Of Columbia, and found the
same to be truly enrolled; when the Speaker signed
He trusted the bill would be Immediately passed
and sent to the Senate; and that it would shortly be
followed by the other bill now in committee to reg
ula,e the mileage Of the members of both houses of
Congress-; and that that these would be the FORE
runners of other salutary of retrenchment
and reform, running through all the departments of
the government, from the highest to the lowest. |
This was beginning at home. 1t the true COM |
mencement of reform. |
nc Wouio tell gentlemen who had any curiosity |
about 1t, that there was no political capital to be
made out of this question, for there was about an |
equal number Of wing and democratic senator's who |
received this extra mileage, though he believed the
democrats had got trihe the most money, having
he supposed, been little the swiftest on foot, and
consequently travelled the greatest distance.
Mr.. MCKAY said he did not think the bill would |
pear the construction which had been placed upon it |
by the gentleman from Illinois, [Mr DouGLAss1 |
II certainly did, by its terms, entitle any senator
who might actually have travelled to distance to |
the allowance authorized by law. There were, as
gentlemen knew, two classes Of senators-the old |
and the new. The senators who came here |
for the first time would have travelled the distance
and would of course be entitled to their mileage !
The law, therefore, would apply only to the class OF
Older senators who here at the close of the le-
gislative session of Congress, who did not return
home, but who took their seats at the commence. |
ment of the extra session. He proposed, therefore,
that the bill should be made the special order of the