The New York herald., 1871-12-08
Congress Yesterday-The Ku KIux Bc,hcr-
The Senate Committees.

The Senate Committees.
Those confounded midnight raiders who
have obtained such terrible name and fame
as members of the Ku Klux Klan have got
the Senate into legal snarl which il appears
extremely difficult to unravel. A couple of
those worthless having had the audacity TO re-
fuse obedience to the summons of the joint
committee appointed to investigate their
doings, which required them to appear and tes-
tify before it, have subjected themselves to the
penalty which attaches to such contempt. But
the difficulty arises at the very threshold, by
what authority shall they be punished? Not
by the Senate, nor by the House, acting sepa-
rately, for tho committee represented them
jointly, and the offence was committed, not
against one, but against both. But, then, ON
the other hand, the idea of going through the
solemn formality of a joint convention of both
houses-which never takes place except once
every four years, to count the Presidential
votes of the Electoral Colleges-was not to be
entertained for moment. The matter was
too frivolous for that. Such course would
appear to be. and would be, too supremely
ridiculous In this dilemma Senator Scott,
chairman of the committee, invented medium
course, which was the Introduction Of a con-
current resolution giving the Senate full juris-
diction over the question. But other legal
luminaries in the Senate opposed that plan as
one of questionable legality, contending that
if the House had concurrent jurisdiction of
the matter it had not the right to delegate to
another body its judicial power. Senator
Carpenter got of witty aud sensible
remark in that connection, to the
effect that, while it was admitted that the
Senate could not punish any person for con-
tempt without the consent Of the press, he
was not prepared to concede that it could not
do 80 without the consent of the House. The
subject occupied the attention of the Senate
during the greater part of the session yester-
day, but no result was reached, and it is not
at all improbable that the legal hair-splitting
over this kuotty question will engage the
attention 9! !Aa! dignasg but jmpracticable
body for another week to come. The diff
Guilty which is thus raised ought, at all events,
to have the effect Of making Congress careful
not to organize joint committees of investiga-
tion-a thing which, it was stated in debate,
has not been done in the English Parliament
since 1896
The Senate standing committees were reap
pointed yesterday, as the result of caucus
of republican Senator'S. The changes are few
and unimportant. Mr.. Sumner gets the chair
manship of the Committee on Privileges aud
Elections, Mr.. Cameron continuing at the
head Of that Of Foreign Relations Various
bills were introduced in the Senate including
one to unite the telegraph and postal systems.
The proposition, however, has not the merit
Of simplicity in giving the control of the tele-
graph system to the government, but is simply
a modest scheme to invest sharp Yankee
named Hubbard with the exclusive privilege
of building aud working telegraph lines at
profit of ten per cent
In the House there was nothing done yes-
terday of the slightest interest or Importance.
Boh houses have adjourned till Monday.