The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-04-22
SENATE.
WASHINGTON, A

WASHINGTON, April 81.
Mr.. Carpenter called up his resolu-
ton calling upon the several heads of
Departments for information as to the
| where they came from, who recon-
mended them, &c. The resolution gave
rise to lively debate about the gen.
eral question of appointment. Mr..
Trum bull said 1t was time something
was done to correct the abuses which
had grown up relative to Office seeking.
We had witnessed for the past six
weeks the melancholy evidence of this
fact. Senators and members had be-
come mere solicitors for offices for their
constituents, and can be seen hanging
around the doors and ante.rooms ofSec-
retaries like so many beggars. He gave
notice that at the next session he would
introduce bill making 1t penal Of
fence for any member of either house
to solicit Office or attach their names to
papers recommending persons for po-
sitions.
Mr.. Fessenden did not know there
was anything unusual in the pressure
for office. He had been here thirty
wears ago, not in the Senate but in the
House. and it was the same thing at
the change of an Administration. He
would like to see the evil stopped, but
he did not see how 1t was to be done.
For himself, he made it a rule to sign
very few papers OF recommendation,
and those only such as were known to
him. He never went near the Depart
ments except when he could not help
it, and he disliked as much as the Sen
ator from Illinois to be hanging around
the doors and ante-rOoms OF the heads
Of Departments.
Mr.. Cameron deprecated the appoint
ments of persons 10 Ctfice without the
knowledge and recommendation of the
State
from which the parties came, that had
been done to great extent under this
administration. There had not been a
single man appointed from Pennsylva-
MIA at his solicitation or of his recon-
mendation; he had no doubt nine
tenths of all the persons appointed
were his friends, for they could not
make un appointment from Penusyl-
vania out OF the Republican party
without appointing his friends.-
[Laughter.) The course pursued by the
administration in this respect was a
bad one nevertheless. The Senate and
country had had tangible evidence of it
within a few days. One man had
been sent Ia from Pennsylvania
for foreign mission, referring
to the nomination of A. l.. Russell as
Minister TO Eucador, who was u con-
stitutional drunkard. Neither himself
nor his colleague had beeu consulted
dDOul IuIo NNN - 49,
with difficulty they could convince the
Committee of Foreign Relations that 1t
was an unfit appointment to be made.
Another man had been nominated as
Consul, who was constitutional thief.
These were the kind of appointments
that were made from his State, when
the Senators were not consulted. In old
times, it was the custom for the Presi.
dent and heads of departments to send
for Senators and consult them about
the appointments; there were fewer
blunders made. Bad men did not stand
as good chance of getting places.
Mr.. Abbott offered an amendment
providing that appointments to depart
ment positions shall be made according
to State populations. which opened
wider range of debate and caused dis
cussion of the relative rights of the
North and South.
Mr.. Sawyer asserted that the Demo-
cratic State of Kentucky had received
more appointments in the departments
than the entire Republican South, and
said he had been told by member of
the Cabinet that the Senators from the
reconstructed States must remember
that the white Republican vote of the
South was very small.
The Senate at 1:30 went into executive
session.