Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1856-09-03
The Army Bil, Passed.

AAc army BILL fasseu.
The contest between the two houses of Con
gress over the Army bill, was happily terrnin'
ated on Saturday last, by the passage Of the bill
without the Black Republican proviso. A brie
account of the origin and progress Of the difficult
ty may be interesting to some of our readers.
The Legislature Of Kansas Territory at an ear
ly day passed certain laws in regard to slavery
which were not only irritating to the Northern
people, but acknowledged by the Senate, ane
all reasonable men, to be unwise and unjust
One of these laws sentences man to hard labor
for not less than two years for discussing the
question whether slavery does or does not legal
ly exist in Kansas. Another requires test oath'
to support the fugitive slave law. The first
Senator Clayton declared was as tyranncal al
act as was ever passed by the Stuarts, Iudors OF
Plantagenets of England; and in regard to the
second he said, there were hundreds of honest
men in the Union, who while they never inten
ded to resist the law, would never take an oatt
to support it. Such laws Mr.. Clayton character
lied as infamous and oppressive, and the senti
ment was echoed by Messrs. Weller and Bayard
Some weeks ago the Senate at the instance
of Mr.. Geyer, of Missouri, passed a bill repeal
ing these laws, but the House suffered it to Lie
unnoticed on the Speakers table. When the
Army bill came up in that body, however, the
Black Republican majority tackled on to 1t al
amendment providing among other things that
the President should not employ the military
force of the country for the execution of the
laws of Kansas. The Senate refused to concur,
and the session expired leaving the Army bill
unpassed. r.aFe
The President Immediately called an extra
session, and the contest was renewed and main
tanned until Saturday. Every expedient known
in Parliamentary proceedings was unsuccessfully
tried. Mr. Weller introduced bill in the Sen.
ate for the repeal of the obnoxious laws, but
the fanatical Wilson sought to load it with a.
mendments, and finally the committee of con-
ference on the part of the House refused to &C
cede to the proposition as satisfactory COM
promise. 1t is obvious to our minds that the
Black Republicans had no desire to have the
laws alluded to repealed, but preferred to keep
them on the statute book as means of further
agitation at the North. ,r
Mr.. Weller's bill was also opposed in the Sen
ate by Messrs. Mason, Butler, Brown and Ben
jamin, on the ground that Congress had no right
to revise the laws of Kansas, but that the Su-
preme Court of the United States was the proper
tribunal for the adjudication of such questions.
To that tribunal Mr. Mason was willing to remit
them, but even this he would not concede I'M
til the House had receded from its factions at
tempt to coerce the Senate. We regard this
position as untenable and wrong. If Congress
have the power to repeal the Territorial laws,
which are confessedly improper, or in any way
to procure their annulment, the Senate should
have done its duty in the premises and the
whole responsibility of defeating the Army bill
would then have devolved upon the Republican
lower House. . ri
Owing to the delay of Congress to make the
usual provision for the support of the Army, the
Executive was compelled to discharge the work
men in the various armories and arsenals of the
United States, the appropriations for their en-
ployment having been exhausted. The telegraph
announces that two hundred mechanics were
discharged from the armory at Springfield, Mas
sachusetts, on the 9th, and that great excite
ment prevailed in consequence among the work
men and citizens. 1t was we'll done to let the
constituents of the Black Republican members
of Congress feel the first brunt of the inconveni-
ence arising from their contumacy; and thi s
judicious movement may have secured the pass
age of the bill.
At the date of this present writing we are
without the final proceedings of Congress, but if
received in time they will be inserted under our
Congressional head.