The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-03-08
THE DEFEAT OF THE POSTAL APPRo-
PRIATION BILL
A LETTER IRON SENATOR cLIScMAN
sEEAfr CaAMnrF. Mach 7, ls5g

session OF Congress 10 Is due 20 my constituents that
they should be informed of the of this extraord
nary occurrence aud request the of your columns 10
enable me TO present short statement Of the tacts IN
der the rules and usages of the two houses of Cogtes
the annual appropriation bills have invariably been orie
Hated Ia the House Of Representatives, and after passus
through thai body they have been acted Id the SEN
ae, and such amendments made to them as majority Of
the Senate thought proper TO direct They were tpep re-
turned TO the House and IL majority of that body
agreed to the amendments of the Senate no further
ton necessary TO the passage of the bills II, how
ever the House disagreed 70 any of the Senate amend
mens that fact being communicated 10 the Senate II
might reoede from such amendments, and It's so doing
the bills stood passed II often happened however
that the Senate insisted of its amendments and
asked for committee OF conference to consider the disa
greeting votes of the two houses This agreed to by
the House. aud there was a Joint committee composed
of members of both houses, who consultation de-
cded which amendments should stand and which be given
up When their report was agreed to by each house the
bills were considered passed. This has been the course
of proceeding at every session Of service in Congress
The Post Office appropriation bill came from the House
to the Senate at the present session in the usual mode
1t made appropriations to the extent of above twenty
millions of dollars, of which little less than four mil
lions to pay off deficiencies debts due before tho
30th of June next and the remainder for the postal
vice of the coming year The bill carefully consid
cred by the Senate for several days. and usual
Der of amendments made Among them
aboshing the Thanking privilege of senator's and repre-
sentatves and another raising the postage of letters from
three TO five cents &c. 1t sent back to the House
for concurrence in these amendments For some time
after reached that body, TIE majority refused to
slider it, though repeated attempts made to take it
up AT length the last night of the session, it
taken up but instead OF It's amendments being consider
ed usual, and agreed to or rejected resolution
moved declaring i'll substance that the Senate had viola
ted the constitution in PROPOSING to increase the rates OF
postage, and directing the Clerk of the Hoase to carry
back the bill and amendments to the Senate with copy
of their resolution This motion made by Mr.
Grow, noted abotionst from Pennsylvania and the
candidate at the late Congress of the back-repubcan
party for the office Of Speaker 1t supported by all
the members of that party, by certain individuals be-
longing to the late know nothing American organiz
on aud by several democrats and therefore passed
AS this violation of all parliamentary usages of all
Legislative propreties and course insulting to
ordinate branch of the Congress-, its supporters doubt
less thought that the Senate could not consistently
with its elfrespcct take any notice of the mat
ter, and thus the bill be suffered to die quietly 10
the detriment of the public service When the
sage brought In by their Clerk, however, the Senate,
feeling that the public interest ought to lie of paramount
consideration, determined TO overlook the insult how
ever gross 1t might be, and sent back respectful
sage to the House requesting committee of conference
| to consider the disagreement the bill This was
| coded to- and joint committee raised. When 1t
assembled, however, the members from the House
fused 10 consider this bill in any way Had they done
the Senate, feel confident would have receded from
all Its amendments rather than let the bill fall In
coiancc, however, with the views OF the House. they
would have nothing to do with this BILL but insisted that
the Senate branch of the committee should accept in
stead of it, entire BILL which represented to
be similar to the one which had originally from
the House The Senate branch of the committee seeing
that nothing else could be DONE agreed to report this
| bill to the Senate for its consideration.
Their report accordingly made to the Senate on the
last day OF the session, just forty minutes before IL
O'clock the period at which by the constitution the
sion necessarily to terminate. The bill
nounced and read by its title only for the first time
call was then made for the reading of II through but
it said that there would not be time to read it over
before the period of the adjournment II was new bill
to the Senate, had been printed but suppose
that the Secretary could probably have read it
before IL o'clock, though there certainly time to
consider its provisions.
1t said that either pass IL without reading
| il not ut all. Adebate sprung up which
haused the remaining minutes and the bill was thus left
Enacted
Ought the Senate to have passed this bill without its
being read once to let senators know what sort OF
measure it was Remember that by the rules of the
two houses all bills must be read three times in each
house and this done unless waived by general consent
| of all the members. Ought Legislative body to
pass bill without ut least reading IL to ascertain
what sort of measure it is This, however, was rep
resented to be bill appropriatng twenty millions of
| money Few persons realize how large sum this is
The taxes in State considered high by many of
| our citizens The amount raised last year think
about five hundred thousand dollars II would therefore
require forty years of such taxation the people OF
State are paying to raise sum equal to what this bill
said to appropriate If it existed in the shape of sill
coin it would require for its transportation three hun
dred wagons, each carrying four thousand pounds and
making tntee miles OiguU Tue DEN
ate to have passed such bill without reading it
to see what in fact il did contain 1t might have
violated any one provision Of the constitution.
But those constituting majority of the House arc en-
deavorng defend their by saying that the
exceeded its constitutional authority when proposed TO
raise the postage letters from three to five cents
But this not in fact proposition to raise revenue
by taxation The carrying letters is service done for in
divduas by the government and is competent for the
Senate to that ought to be charged for 1t than
is already provided by law just it has repeatedly
without objection heretofore passed propositions to in
the price of the public lands, &C. They also
complaining of increasing the rates of postage the peo
pie But since the reduction of the postage to three
this department has been unable to sustain ITSELF and the
deficiency for the next year estimated to amount TO
upwards of nine millions We must therefore do Of
three things either cut down the present postal service
increase the rates of postage or thirdly draw largo
from the Treasury to be replaced by high tariff
taxes Wewere opposed in the first place to cutting down
post routes generally believing better arrangcment could
be made 1t thought that the abolition of the frank
ing privilege of the two houses of Congress would direct
y indirectly be the Of saving not less than
millions annually, and that an advance proposed
letters and other postage would supply what might be
found necessary Let whether this would not have
been better than the last of the three modes The whole
amount paid last year for hostages in North Carolina
eigbtyo thousand dollars. II postage raised
letters from three to five cents and the number
sent through the mails formerly the increase
would amount to fifty three thousand dollars only. Our
people being mostly engaged in agriculture, do not write
many letters do many other classes of the
nifty Suppose however, that this deficiency should be
paid, not according to the number of letters written, but
out of the treasury and raised through the operation Of
t,nf nrM Al l,. ho ,,,;J