The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-03-10
FAILURE OF THE POST OFFICE APP
Preparation BILL.

The Washington Union is making a lame
and miserable effort to throw upon the Republi-
can party the responsibility of defeating the
Post Office appropriation bill. The Star, the
day of adjournment, with more candOr, fixed
the blame upon Senator Toombs. We give an
abstract of the proceedings in both Houses, in
relation to the bill, from which every reader will
see at once that Toombs was alone responsible
for the non-concurrence Of the two Houses.
The case in nutshell is simply this-that
Mr.. Grow, in the House of Representatives Of
fered a resolution, as follows:
" ReSolced, That House bill No. 872, making
appropriations for defraying the expenses Of the
Post Office Department for the year ending 30th
June, 1860, with the Senate amendments there
to, be returned to the Senate, as section l3 of
said amendment is in the nature of revenue
bill"
This resolution was adopted by a vote of III
yeas to rs nays; and among the yeas we're q
Democrats. A committee of conference be-
tween the two Houses, finding that they could
not agree upon the bill before them, proposed
to avoid the difficulty by reporting new bill,
embracing all the details of the one laid aside,
except the Objectionable feature. This confer
ence bill the House agreed to unanimously, all
parties concurring in it; and had the Senate
taken it up and acted upon it, as common sense
and patriotism dictated, the whole difficulty
would have been avoided. But Mr.. Toombs,
with his accustomed spirit of dictation and au-
thority, determined that the bill should be de-
coo+od W. ouota bic
Mr.. Toombs considered this question of
the greatest possible magnitude. On the one
side is great constitutional question, which no
man has a right to surrender if it exists on
the other, is the great inconvenience of not
having postal service performed during the
year 1860. Between duty and expediency he
would not hesitate whatever might be the
course of other men. In his judgment, not only
of the Senate been trampled on by the House
in the first place, but they had also been sur
! rendered by the committee of conference; and
he wished to rebuke both the one and the other
| The House had usurped the right of saying
! that the Senate was not coordinate branch
| of this Government. He proceeded to review
| the facts in the case, and said this bill, which
had just come from the House, must go through
! the regular course of legislation, and should be
considered by one Senator at least.
| F." The bill was then read first time by its
title.
" Mr.. TOombs objected to its second reading
to-day"
| Here was the end of the matter The obiec-
ton of single member under the rules of the
Senate is imperative, and Mr.. Toombs gratifed
his ambitious spirit at the expense of a suspen-
sion of the postal system, or an extra session
of Congress 1t is sheer audacity to pretend
that the blame belongs to the Republicans, and
to those who voted with them. There was am
pie time to pass the conference bill, but for the
mperious opposition of Mr.. Toombs. Sir Ora
Gle took upon himself the sole responsibility of
clogging the wheels of Government, by the in
terposition of his veto. Even with his consti-
tutional views, he shonld have deferred to the
opinion of the majority, and have permitted
others to do what he could not. But with the
spirit of the dog in the manger, he determined
that the great majority, including all the Re-
pubGcans, should be estopped from voting a
necessary appropriation bill, in obedience to
his own constitutional crotchet There is no
evading this plain statement. The Union and
its co-laborers dare not tell the whole truth.
They but make the criminal folly and presump-
ton of Mr.. Toombs their own, and hold the
Administration responsible for biunder and
a crime, the odium of which it might other
wise escape.