The New York herald., 1871-12-21


In tho House.
The Senate spent the greater part of yester-
days session in debating bill which should
be passed without moments discussion, and
which all the Senators who spoke seem In
favor Of We allude to the bill Of general
amnesty, passed by the House at the last ses-
sion, and ever since awaiting the action Of the
Senate. There appears to be such unanimity
of opinion in the Senate in regard to the pro-
priety and policy of passing the bill that it
looks simply absurd to take up time in dis
cussing it. But, then, the Senate has an In
curable tendency to talk; and, besides that,
Senator Sumner wants to tack on as an amend
ment his Civil Rights supplementary bill and
Senator Morton wants to make 1t absolutely
certain that the effect Of the bill will not be to
give validity to the prior election of persons
now Ineligible to hold Office, the object being
to shut out Zebulon Vance, of North Carolina,
from seat in the Senate. It has been agreed,
however, that the torrent Of talk shall be
damned up at four o'clock to-day, and that
then the Senate will proceed to vote on the
bill and pending amendments.
There appears to be no end to the subjects
that the Senate is disposed to throw open to
the investigation of the Select Committee on
Retrenchment. Senator Sumner trotted ont
again yesterday his own pet grievance in re-
gard to the St. Domingo job, and no objection
was made to its being inquired into to his
hearts content. Garret Davis, of Kentucky,
proposed, In resolution rivalling in
verbosity one of his own speeches,
to set that committee at work inves-
tigating all the stale charges and insinuations
against President Grant in regard to his inter-
nepotism, his acceptance of gifts and bestowal
of offices upon the givers, his absenteeism,
and that of heads of departments, for pur-
poses Of pleasure and politics. and his other
derelictions of duty. Mr.. Morton, who ap-
pears to be the Presidents chief spokesman
and champion in the Senate, avowed his will
ingness and anxiety to have the investigation
60 on and all such ISLANDERS senced; but Mr.
Edmunds, of Vermont, who fills the same
role in secondary sense, interposed an objec-
tion, which threw over the resolution for the
day.
A resolution was adopted authorizing SUBJ
committee of the Committee on Investigation
and Retrenchment to sit in this city and take
testimony here; and an important bill was
reported from the Committee on Finance
to reorganize the customs service, and to reg
ulate the disposition of fines, penalties and
forfeitures. Its provisions, which will doubt
less prove very interesting in the region OF the
Custom House, will be found in our regular
report Of the proceedings.
The House deysted all its session yesterday
to discussion and action on Mr.. Hoar's bill for
the appointment of commission on the SUBJ
ject of the wages and hours of labor, and the
division Of profits between labor and capital
in the United States. The debate was opened
by Mr.. Campbell, of Ohio, formerly member
of the republican party, but now cooperating
with the democrats. He favored the general
idea of the proposed Investigation, only that
be wanted it conducted by joint committee
of the two houses, which would embrace rep
resentatives of all sections and of all inter-
ests, is5tead of by commission appointed
by the President, which, he supposed, would
be selected from purely partisan or other in
appropriate considerations. Indeed, he went
SO far as to figure out the personnel Of the
picture of it, with Borle, late of the Navy De-
partment, at its head; Tom Murphy, late Of
the New York Custom House, at its tail, and
a Harvard or Yale philosopher sandwiched
between them, who would give his attention
to the vermin-the bugs and the lizards that
might get mixed up in the question. Mr..
Biggs, the Representative of Little Delaware,
continued in the same line of argument, and
seems to have contributed largely to the
amusement of the House, if not to the
elucidation Of the subject, by soma sly
and humorous hits at Massachusetts men
and manners. His picture Of the Commission
showed the White House besieged by
three or four hundred broken winded
republican politicians, beseeching the
President for the appointment. The rhe-
torical Mr.. Bingham, of Ohio, brought
his grand powers Of defamation into the dis
cussion, and supported the idea Of the inves-
tigation, no matter how made, in order to
show to the downtrodden sons of labor ia
foreign climes the great attractions held out
to them by the free institutions and unbounded
resources of the United States. The debate
was closed by Mr.. Hoar in an able and dig
nifed presentation of the question in its
various aspects. He rather demolished
Mr.. Campbells proposition, by showing that
that would necessarily result in referring
the matter to mere politicians, for
all Senators and members of Congress
belonged to that category, while the ori ginal
measure would admit Of persons being se-
hnf who would renresent The indu strial in