Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-03-08
XxXIXTH CONGRESS.
Petitions for Copy Right Law.
CIVIL SUITS AGAINST OFFICERS,
The Prevention of Cholera
THE BASIS OF REPRESENTATION,
Reorganization of the Armv.
THE CANADIAN RECIPROCITY BILL
WASHINGTON, March 7,

THE CANADIAN RECIPROCITY BILL
GEM W. WASHINGTON, March,
=, - WASHINGTON CANAL
MI sorflll, from the Committee on the District of
ColumDa, reported favorably on the resolution to
PROVIDE LOT the Improvement of the Washington city
consent and agreed to.
EULGGY ON LATE HON. HENRY WINTER DAVIS
a resolution from the Committee Printing pro-
7ldng Tor the printing 5000 copies of Senator Cres
wells ellogy on FL. Winter Davis. was adopted
COPYRIGHT LAW.
HoptSs T 0 presented Pet.Sns . headed BY Bishop
Philadelphia, asking for the, passage of an inter
national copyright law. which were referred to the
committee on Foreign Relations.
=, w. CIVIL SUITS AGAINST OFFICERS.
= Mr.. wilson offered resolution, instructinc the
lsaon is necessary to protect officers of the United
states army from civil suits brought against them for
ooeyng the orders of their superior officers and re-
Mr. Wilson said that suits had been brought against
officers after they had left the army that several Of
them had been fined by Kentucky courts but Gen
Terry haf lately informed him (Wilson) that suit
had brought against MIN in this city for acts done in
Virginia.
The resolution was then adopted.
CHOLERA PREVENTION,
On motion Of Mr.. Sprague a resolution was adon+-
to inquire into the expediency of having commits
sion appointed of two medical officers one from the
army and one from civil lite, to INQUIRE into the
causes OF Aslatlc cholera and the best disnfect-
ants, &c.
COTTON FRAUDS
On motion OF Mr.. Davis the resolution providing
for an inquiry into alleged cases of fraud on the part
OF cotton agents, was taken up.
Mr.. Davis offered a substitute, providing that
special committee of five be appointed to INQUIRE
into the alleged frauds, the chairman of the commit
tee to be selected from the opposition.
On motion of Mr.. Sherman the bill to declare the
meaning OF certain parts of the Internal Revenue
act approved June 80, 1864, taken up and passed
1t is made obligatory all persons making income
returns, to state the amount of the in legal
tender currency and where returns stated in coin
the assessors shall reduce the its equivalent
IN legal-tender currency.
BASIS OF REPRESENTATION.
The Joint resoutlo fixing the basis of representa-
ton was then taken upi upon which Mr.. Sumner, of
Mass, was entitled to the floor.
= Mr.. sumner said he continued the debate with un-
telgned reluctance, and he hoped not to trespass
much upon the patience of the Senate. The ques-
ton now before them opened up the whole field of
reconstruction, and he proposed to consider briefly
the means. Treason must be made odiOus, and to do
this first, those who struck against the Government
must be denied participation for the present at least
IN the partnership and those who upheld it must be
admitted into the partnership. With these two sim
pie rules reconstruction easy. This was all that
ne should say at present on the question of recon-
struction. In discussing this question he would en-
deayOr to avoid all personalities, and thought the
moment too solemn to indulge in this.
saIhis proposition was the most important before
them perhaps, excepting the abolition ofSaYery 1t
was the most monstroqs attempt against the liberties
OF the people made, pregnant with ruin and
diSgrace 10 the country chatham had arraigned the
british Parliament for injustice towards hundred
thousand people in distant island. He arraigned
them for injustice to four million of our own people
at home, to whom we allied by eternal ties of
gratitude These men our benefactors 100000 of
them bore arms and saved the republic. In the very
heart of the rebellion flial trob beat from Them
The very name and honor of the republic is pledged
to them to their rights and Congress is about
to redeem this inviolabe pledge by another compro-
bad can be- Adopt it. and you will put millions of
fellow.eitizens under the ban of accommodation,
you will repeat the declaration that they have no
rights which white men are bound to respect
1t IS the paragon and masterpiece of ingratitude
The freedmen, ask for bread, and you give them a
stone You thrust them back unprotected into the
den of their former masters. Adopt this amend
ment. and you will fix stigma on the very name Of
the Republic; you will cover IT with infamy.
Mr. S. continued at length in his denunciation of
the proposed amendment. 1t would mike the Con-
stitution slap the Declaration of Independence in
the face. If he used plain language it was because
this enormity required it. He read from the Boston
Rseorder which he said taught religion at uncourt-
ed tresdes and was the most venerable and holy of
the religious sheets of New England, an article
against the amendment MIR. S. then resumed his
argument, and contended against representation
without taxation. and adduced early writers Of the
Republic in support of his position.
He demanded universal suffrage as the only plan
OF safety. This amendment uut another conces-
sion to State rights. 1t gave the States the power to
exclude from the franchise all they thought proper
Sir the freedman must be protected and only in
way, paper will not do it. Give him the strength
which cego7,iFom the ulEoss of citizens shin and bn
will tn 5ti be protected.
Mr. Sumner argued most earnestly in favor of the
resolutions introduced by him, and the right of Con-
gress to pass them.
in the Constitution providing the basis of enumera-
ton, they expected that slavery would soon cease
In this they were greatly disappointed, but now as
slavery has gone down in blood and revolution
caused by the action of its own friends new ques-
ton arises to whether it is necessary to change the
basis: Some say the South is guilty of a crime and
not that as consequence of her rebellion against the
Government slavery is over. brown; they ask shall
she reap the benefits of her crime,
oI,o
without foundation. that the South would not
have an increased representation. The mortali-
y there in the last four years had been fearful; in
1860 the male inhabitants q years of age were
about l6O0000 and he thought it a reasonable esti-
mate to say that onethird of them had pershed Of
the black population high officers of our army had
calculated that about one-fourth had pershed Gov
ernor Aiken, of South Carolina whose means of in
oIlation all will acknowledge to be great saws that
New Orleans, cCncurG in this estimate, It is not
that they have all pershed in hatla. but wherever
the armies have gone the plantations were destroyed
and the children left to perish. Disease has
also ragged among them from the Potomac to the Rio
Grand5.
Mr.. President-We of the North can have no idea
of the desolatiOn caused in the South by the civil
war. The Senator from Kentucky had estimated
that the amount of property destroyed was $1,OOO-
000G0. He did not know much about the South per-
| sonally In March last, With some friends he had
made visit to Hilton Head and from thence to the
harbor of Charleston and sail up the harbor nearly
mile from dock to dock. before they could make a
x,
hum like the city of the dead. and it then for the
first time that he had realizing of the desola
ton and ruin brought on the South by the war But
the question of property not relative to the sub
ject under consideration. lie only wished to prove
that the apprehensOns of increased representation in
the South on account of the abolition of slavery
were unfounded, unless great emigration nom Europe
| or the North should take place
| Mr.. D. then advocated the amendment introduced
by him. making voters the basis of representation.
On motion of Mr. johnson, the resolution was then
| postponed until tomorrow.
| COLORADO
| Mr.. Ramsey moved to take up the bill for the ad-
| mission of Colorado into the Union.
Mr.. sumner and several other Senators objected.
| Mr.. Ramsey thought It was due to the SEN
ators elect who had been waiting here some time TO
] Mr. Pomeroy said no Territory had ever before
been compelled to wait so long, after complying with
Mr.. Wilson said it was no use to take it up now, as
| there would be much discussion on it,
| Mr.. Irumbu hoped the motion of the Senator
| from Minnesota would De sustained.
Pending the discussion, Mr.. Wilson moved that
the Senate go into Executive session. which not
agreed to-
The motion of Mr.. Ramsey was then put and agreed
| On motion CT lir. Ramsey, the bill was then post
poned until Monday next and made the special order
| for one O'Clock.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
FREEDMEN.
| Mr.. Eliot, (repubican) of Massachusetts, intro
dueed bill on leave, to amend an act for the estab-
lishment OF Bureau tor the relief Of freedmen and
refugees ordered to be printed and referred to the
| Select Committee on that subject.
WAR EXPENDITURES.
| Mr.. Stevens republican, of Pennsylvania, intro
| duced, leave bill to reimburse the State of
| Pennsylvania for moneys expended during the war
for the United States Ordered to be printed and re-
| ferred to the Committee of the Whole.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The House resumed the unfinished business of the
morning hour Of yesterday, being bill to amend the
| act Incorporating the Mutual Fire Insurance Com
| pany of Washington and Georgetown, which was
| passed.
| Mr.. IngersoH from the DistnSct Of Columbia Com
mittee reported joint resolution giving the sufferers
by the late explosion at the Washington arsenal
$500 which was passed.
| AQUEDUCT..
Mr.. Francis Thomas, of Maryland, offered the fol-
| lowing, which was agreed TO:
Resotved, That the Committee on the District oi
Columbia be instructed to inquire into the expedieney
| OF providing for the construction of an aqueduct
across the basin at the mouth of Rock Creek to pass
the water from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal into
the " Washington Canal, and through the Washington
Canal into the Eastern Branch near the Navy Yard
| SO that cargoes from loaded boats from the Chesa
| peake and Ohio Canal may, with facility be unloadeG
| on the banks of the Washington Canal and at the
Eastern Branch and thus diminish the cost of coal
and OF other articles to the citizens of Washington
and to the Government of the United States.
| RECONSTRUCTION COMMITTEE.
| hr. Washburns, from the Committee on Recon
structlon, reported vast amount of evidence reat
ing to the States OF Florida, Louisiana and Virginia
| Ordered to be printed. =
NIB: CREswELLs EULoGY.
IL