The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-01-13
rrRou OUR OWN CORRESPONDENCE

-' --CoLUhBlA, .. w, JANUARY IL.
The expected battle in the Senate to-day
over the report of the joint special financial
committee, and the latest special
message of the Governor, which had been
made the special order for this afternoon, re-
solved itself into a simple sklrmIsh,betWeen
Messrs. Leslie and Nash on the one side, and
Mr.. Whittemore on the other. At the conclu-
sion of the mornings business, which had
been hurried through by general consent to
allow of the expected discussion, Mr. Nash
rose and moved to Indefinitely postpone the
consideration of the special order He satd
that the report of the committee had made a
variety of charges, but without proposing any
definite actlon-that he understood that artl-
cles Of impeachment were pending In the
House, or were shortly to be introduced In
that body; that at present everything IVES
vague and uncertain, and that therefore
the Senate ought not to waste lis time
In discussion which would be unsatis
factory and futile. This motion to inde-
fnitely pospone was put and carried BY q
few affirmative votes and without opposition,
when Mr.. Leslie, who had been otherwise en-
gagged during the remarks of the senator from
Virginia, jumped into the arena and "Hanted
to know, you know, about this thing.n He
seemed to ignore, with that high and lofty
contempt for everything parliamentary that
characterizes the senator from Brooklyn, the
fact that Nash's motion had been carried and
the vote announced, and he proceeded with q
lively and demonstratye argument upon the
things the Republican party could do, but
there were some others that they couldn't
afford to do, and this was one Of
them. They couldn't afford, after all
this slime and muss and mixture had
been stirred up, to .stfe the whole
matter by one vote as was then proposed. II
Whittemore desired to back down from the
consequences of his own report, as would
seem from his voting for this resolution, let
to the Democratic gentlemen on the back
seats that they would wake up some fine
morning and line the whole investigating ar
rangement up In balloon. and the morning
had at last come. The Investigators had made ea
great parade, and got up primer which had
cost the State at least $20, 600; every Demo,
cratic paper In the State had quoted II, and
himself and others with all manner OF stealing
and rascallIy, and then after all they proposed
by one vote TO hush 1t all up. It was c6wardly
and contemptible. It would have been more
manly In them to have come out and told the
truth-that they were ashamed OF the whole
thing, and wanted TO undo the blunder as fur
as they could. He had been abused, vllaed,
lied about In all manner OF ways ABOUT MS
connection with the land ommlsston, and
then they wanted to back down from their own
statements; but he knew there was not a sen-
ator who could rise In his place and accuse
him of anything dIshonorable, unless he lied;
and the senator that had done 30 was sneak
ing coward If he did not hold up to bis own
allegations he was not fnancler nor an In
vestlgator; he trusted he had too much good
sense to undertake TO develop all the
SHORTCOMINGS OF the Republican party in
this State. He had never taken that role.
but there were some who had, and
who then wanted to back down from
the tumult they had themselves raised. The
Republican party was In power, and grave al
legations had been made against lt, ana men 9nea
effort meant, If IL meant anything, that Inc
Republican party was powerless to correct Its
own abuse9, and he had strong present..
ment that that was the truth, but be didn't
think that was the way to do Ii. They had
dragged the animal out before the world, and
now they wanted to cover him up and hide
him, but they couldn't do 1t. The animal was
TOO lively and we was scratching and bl!lng
too hard. No man could tread on the tall OF
his coat In reference to the land commission.
he might have done mean things In that
Office, and he had done some things that he
would not do again, but he had not done any
thing improper or dishonorable. They had
got to back down on that proposition. He
was awfully strong on that point, and mighty
independent too, and he called upon The Dem.
ocratic gentlemen In the back seats to know
II he were not spunky thea, II he were not In
dependent, and II he were the man who had
shown himself coward.
Mr.. Nash then withdrew his motion. he
said he did 30 to allow Mr. Leslie to explain
about his land commission business. He
didn't object to those explanations, only they
were rather monotonous, and the Senate had
been entertained with them for the last three
years. He didn't believe in investigating
committees, anyway. Leslie had had one
himself that cost the State five or si1 hundred
dollars, and had only produced little DIT OF
primer. Then there was the committee to IN
vestlgate the Third Congressional Dlstrict.
That had cost the State twenty.seyen thous,
and dollars, and they had said that was all
right. because 1t would be Q good campaign
documen.; but he hadn't seen more than one
or two fellows going into the campaign Win
Its report under their arms, and they didn't
understand It, Then there we're the "higa
ioinis.n What that committee had COST the
Stale nobody knew but 'Kimpton, and ne
wouldn't tell. They had travelled In style,