The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-03-08

auOH clAAd W Tue ldCtlOub course OF the save
democrats of the Senate, especially Mason of |
Virginia, Toombs Of Georgia, and Bayard Of |
Delaware, who, with their objections at the |
eleventh hour of the last day Of the session, de-
feated the conference bill which had passed the |
House, and thus left the department without |
supplies for the ensuing fiscal year. On the |
other hand, the responsibility in the premises |
is thrown by the Washington Union and other |
democratic organs upon Mr.. Galusha A. Grow, |
of Pennsylvania, and the republicans Of the |
House,
Let US recite the facts on both sides. The Sc |
nate had adopted all amendment to the Post
Office Appropriation bill, raising the postage on
letters from three to five cents and also pretty |
heavily increasing the postage on newspapers.
This amendment being reported to the House,
Mr.. Grow submitted resolution, that the
House bill, No. 872, making appropriations for
defraying the expenses of the Post Office De-
partment for the year ending the 30th June,
1860, with the Senate amendments thereto, be
returned to the Senate, as section thirteenth of
said amendments is in the nature of q revenue
bill" (All revenue measures, as the reader is
aware, under the federal constitution, must orr
ginate in the House). To this resolution Of Mr..
Grow, MIR. Jones, of Tennessee, offered an amend
ment sustaining the Senate, when
Mr. Grow said the amendment had been offered in vio
ation of the agreement between himself and Mr.. Phelps
when he withdrew his objection to taking up the bi,
Unless that arrangement should be carried out he should
object taking from the Speakers table the appropria
ton bills and the House would see whether or not they
could suspend the rules.
r,lo 10 tbrao 4bo NJ Mr. GrOuy
was forced upon the house, and being thus
| brought to vote, it was adopted by vote of
III to 76. Upon this pointed rebuke, thus ad-
ministered to the Senate, the squabble commenced
between the two houses, which only ended with
the expiration of the session and the loss Of the
bill On the democratic side, the responsibility is
charged upon Mr.. Grow, in raising this offensive
constitutional issue against the Senate, which
exhausted the remnant of the session. Nor can
| it be denied that had Mr.. Grow desired to save
the BILL while indicating the constitutional pre-
rogative of the House, he could have gained his
purpose by the simple rejection Of the obnoxious
| amendment, instead Of sending the bill back to
| the Senate with an offensive rebuke against the
| action Of that body.
| These simple facts in relation to the course of
Mr.. Grow and his partisans prove that they
were actuated by factious partisan motives, and
that they were ready to sink all the appropria-
tons if necessary to gain their party ends in the
premises But the Southern democratic ultras--
Mason, Toombs, and others of the Senate--are
equally guilty. AS the last chance to save the
Post Office Department from bankruptcy or the
alternative of an extra session, conference
committee was appointed between the two
houses, and the original appropriation bill,
as it first passed the Senate, was thus
adopted, and on being submitted to the House
it was passed. But on being submitted to the
Serate as it required under the rules,
the unanimous consent Of the body to consider it
forthwith, the persistent objection of single
member on the last day of the session was
enough to defeat it. And Messrs. Mason,
Toombs and Bayard did object, and would not
give way, because they held that the conferees
on the part of the Senate had made, in abandon
ing the postage amendment, humiliating ca
pitulation to the House. Upon this Southern
democratic plea of Senatorial dignity, there
fore, the Post Office Appropriation bill, which
could still have been passed, was lost with the
exhaustion Of the extreme constitutional limit of
the session.
Thus, we may fairly divide the responsibility
in this matter between the factious course of Mr.
Grow and his partisans in the House, and the
factious course of Messrs. Mason, Toombs and
Bayard in the Senate, in the way of retaliation.
Thus, for the first time in the history of the gov
eminent, the most important department of the
public service, scarcelyoexcepting the Treasury
itself, has been left without the means required
to sustain its vast and complicated machinery
In word, the factious politicians and Presiden-
tial schemers, North and South, of this late Con-
gress, responsible for all its heavy budget of
bluDders, failures and omissions in reference to
the necessities Of the government and the lead
ing measures of the administration, foreign and
domestic-a budget of blunders and bungling
which may yet compel the President to issue his
call for an extra session of the new Congress
when least expected
LTBEIIING MEMBER OF CoNGREss.-Accord-
ing to the records of one of our courts it appears