Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-03-11

ed to'the Senate, with the resolution of tn
House in relation thereto, Mr. CRIrTESDEN
submitted the following resolutions, whicl
were unanimously adopted:
: Re,o'ued by The Senate of The United State.
mat me Senate and House. being of RICH
equally competent each to determine on tn
propriety and the constitutionaiitv Of it's owl
: action, the Senate has exercised said right il
Z us action on the amendments sent to tn,
& House, leaving to,the House its right to adop
or reject each Of said amendments at it
pleasure.
Resotued, That this resolution be communi
Gated to the House of Representatives. and
: the amendments aforesaid be transmitted
, Herewith. 4fea s sslf
The House having sent up a new bill 10 the
Senate. after some discussion as to the pro-
, per course to be pursued, Mr. STUART offered
the following resolutions: ga ~
The House of Representatives having In
the opinion of the Senate, departed from the
common parliamentary usages in the manner
OF Conducting business between the two
honscs, by its action in regard To the hill OF
the House enttl' d Gan act making appro-
priations for the service OF the Postoifice De
partm"nt during the fiscal year ending June
30.b. 1900" therefore
|
mlttce OF conference tn meet a ike commit
tee on the part OF the House of Representa-
uvrs, Tor The purpose ofcOn -ulting as TO what
action ought TO be had by the respective
houses respecting the said BILL
These resolutions we're adopted. ard Messrs.
sTuART, PEhEcE and FoOT appointed on the
part Of the Senate.
The committee of conference of the two
Houses, agreed upon a report, and message
was received by the Senate from the House
informing the Senate that the House had con-
CURED in the report. Whereupon the Senate
proceeded to the consideration of the subf CT
and Mr.. STUART submitted report on the
part of the Scnate's committee:
/, The report states that the committee, ".hav-
ing met after full and free conference, have
agreed as follows: that neither House is I'M
| derStood 10 waive any constitutional right
| which they may respectively consider to be-
| long To them. and that il be recommended 10
the House to pass a conference bill, and that
the Senate concur in the same when il shall
| be sent TO Them" Mr.. 5. explained that thry
agreed to abandon both bills. the one on the
table of the Senate and the other on the table
of the House, and report new one which
should be passed by the House and transmit
| ii was necessary to do something in order
that the service of the Postoffice Department
might go on until the next session without
| interruption. They believed there were over
| whelming public necessities which demand, d
| the passage Of some bill making these appro-
priatiOns; and they believed that their action
being unanimous did preserve the question of
constitutional right 10 each house untouched
and unyield d, and by 50 doing they adopted
mo ttl,i ah nt,iI q -.
two interests. Substantially it was the same
bill which was passed by the House in the |
first place, and which tne Senate returned |
with amendments. The committee had done |
as well as they could do, in as little time as |
they had 10 do it in.
MIR. Mason remarked that although there |
was reservation, vet it was manifest from |
tue result of that conference that the SEN
ate was forbidden to exercise its constitu-
tiOnal right
MIR. PEARCE said he had yielded TO this re-
port with very great reluctance, for he would
rather see the Post Office appropriation bill
stricken out of existence forever than aban-
don constitutional right. In the course the
committee had pursued, they had not given
up any such right, bat il had been vndicat, d.
1t was impossible that any other bill could
become law at this session, and they had TO
consider whether they wonld break up this
important and useful interest and reader it
necessary for Congress TO convene in midsunI-
mer, or oblige the President to stop all the
operations of that department. and leave the
country suddenly unprovded with any OF
those facilities 20 important TO commerce. He
yielded. therefore to a sort of necessity He
would admit also that be had very great
doubts VIII ther the committee were not tran
scending their powers-thcir authority heing
TO consider the resolution that was so obnox-
ious 10 the Senate; hut having no precedent
To guide them. he thought they might be ex
cused for stretching their powers as they did.
He would prefer the passage of this bill To
its defeat; but he would have preferred if it
were possible, To bave had some other propo-
siton which would have thrown the respon-
sibility more palpably md obviously upon
the House of Representatives.
Mr.. TOOABs considered this q question of
the greatest possible magnitude. On the one
side is great constitutional question which
no man has 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 had the constitutional rights and prerog-
atives of the Senate been lrampled on by the
House in the first place, but they had also
been surrendered by the committee of con
ference; ard he wished TO rebnke both the
one and the other. The House had usurped
the right of saying that the Senate was not
co6rd nate branch OF this government. He
proc, cd, d 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
onn Senator at least.
The bill was then read a first time by It's
title.
Mr.. TooMBs objected to its second reading
to day.
Mr.. STUART Observed that there was not
now time to discuss his questions; il must be
left for history to decide upon whom the re-
sponsIbility rested. Action in the House up
on the original bill was impossible at this
stage of the session, as any member of the
House had q right to demand that each
amendment which the Senate had made TO
the bill should be separately considered; and
il The Houses were To take il up, il would
take more time than remained in the session
to consider the amendments. Then there
was the alternative of taking up the second
bill which was sent 10 the Senate; and the
committee thought the Senate ought not To
r, de from its position 10y adopting that
conrse. They were lett to choose between
" aiving the constitutional right aud taking
that course which would substantially pre-
serve that right and give the Snate an
opportunity TO say what they would do.
Had they disagreed and broken up the con-
ference without doing anything, the Senate
would not have bad any opportunity of
deciding that question. They presented,
therefore, the only practicable mode of
getting that appropriation bill through.
With every disposition to maintain their con-
,iituIional rights. the committee had done
The best thing they could by presenting new
Iill which contains such appropriations as
sili keep this department moving until the
next session OF Congress; and il was now sub.
M Id To in.. indnIneni of ih.. S..nat. Il, sa