Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-12-13
CONGRESSIONAL.
Proceedings Of the Second Session Of
the Forty-SecOnd Congress.

Proceedings Of the Second Session o.
the Forty-SecOnd Congress.
WASHINGTON, December l2.
The Senate bill authorizing the
National Bank of Lyons, Michigan, tC
change its name and location, passed.
Mr.. Dawes, from the Committee o.
Ways and Means, reported bill author.
izing the Secretary of the Treasury tC
issue coupon bonds in exchange for reg.
istered bonds; the expense chargeablt
to and to be paid by the owner.
Mr.. Dawes explained, that while the
Secretary had authority now to change
coupon bonds into registered bonds, on
account of their facility to transfer,
commanded higher prices in Europe
than registered bonds. This bill would
place the two classes on an equality
without making them interchangeable.
The only effect of the bill was to remove
the present obstacles to the negotiable
ity Of registered bonds.
Mr.. Burchard (Illinois) remarked
that the objections which were supposed
to exist to exchange registered bonds in
to coupon bonds, were proved by
experience to have no weight.
The Secretary of the Treasury, who
ought to know, was advising measures.
Coupon bonds to-day bore a higher mar
ket value than the registered bonds,
showing that there were not spurious
or counterfeit bends in circulation to
affect their market value. 1t, therefore,
seemed to him that both the people and
the Treasury Department confirmed the
views suggested by the Committee of
Ways and Means.
Mr.. Cox's New York objection to the
bill is this: onot want to oaggrandiZe the
powers of the Secretary of the Treasury,
and, further, ] do not want him to give
any greater facilities to people to go in
and speculate. After all our pickering
here about currency and bonds, we will
be bound in the end 10 come to the only
panacea, and that is, resumption Of
specie payment. Gentlemen, we ought
to meet it in the next Congress at
least, if not this. l see it stated
in the newspapers that the Secretary of
the Treasury intends TO put on the mar
ket five per cent. and four and a half
per cent. yet unpaid and that Roths-
child and the syndicate are to take the
rest of them without further legislation.
want to know why it is that iu this
bill mo restriction is placed on the
Secretary of the Treasury? He can
make any number of these coupon bonds
at his pleasure. He can keep stocks of
them on hand and they can be used at
any time in certain emergencies in the
money market. This bill will not stop
speculation it will not lead to prosperity
or health. The Secretary of the Treas
ury should be held to the legal restric-
tiOns and not be allowee to step over the
law as he has done in other cases.
Mr.. Beck (Kentucky)-I will vote
for the bill. do not see that it affects
at all the power of the Secretary of the
Treasury to issue new bonds, or that it
has anything to do with the syndicate. 1t
places two classes Of bonds on the same
footing and facilitates the negotiation of
these bonds.
The discussion closed and the bill
passed. Yeas l36, nays p.
Mr.. Beck, from the Committee on
Ways and Means, reported bill for the
relief of Scales d Manning, of Nash
vile, Tennessee, in reference to their
distillery.
The HoEse then took up the soldiers
Bounty Land Bill, which was discussed
by Coleman, Storms, Niblack, Holman,
and Shellabarger, who were
chiefly in favor of it. A vote was then
taken on motion of Mr.. Hawey QIl-
linois) to recommit the bill, which was
negatived. Yeas 90, nays SO.
a substitute offered by Mr.. Holman
was adopted. Yeas los, nays 81.
The substitute is as follows: That
every private soldier, musician and Off
Ger, who served in the army of the Uni
ted States during thelate wal, for ninety
days, and hOnOrablydischarged including
troops mustered into the service of the
United States by virtue of the third sec
ton of the act entitled an 'act making
for completing the de-
fenses of Washington, and for other
purposes approved February Is, 1862
and every seaman, marine and officer,
and other person who served in the navy
of the United States, or in the marine
corps, during the late war, for ninety
DAYS, and who was honorably discharg-
ed; or the widow of any such soldier
seaman or officer, or, if there
be no such widow, his orphan children,
under twenty-one years of age, shall be
entitled to enter quantity of the pub
lie lands-nOt mineral-nOt exceeding
one hundred and sixty acres. which
lands shall be composed of contin-
uous tracts, according to the legal
including alternate re-
served sections of the public lands along
the line of any railroad or other public
work, or other land subject to entry un-
der the homestead laws of the United
States, and receive certificate of such
entry without the payment of any Gov
eminent fees.
Section Second-That such entry shall
be made in the name of some person en-
titled as above, or by an agent, under
such regulations as the Secretary of the
shall prescribe; and the patent
for lands, so entered, shall be issued only
TO such soldier, musician, seaman or Off
GER, OF to his widow, or orphan children,
for in the first section of this act;
bEt no sale of such land, or any interest
herein, or power of attorney, authorizing
such sale or other contract or agreement
ln any wise affecting or concerning uch
land, made, executed or entered into
prior to the issuing of patent therefor
and actual delivery of the same to the
person to whom issued, shall be of any
effect whatever, but shall be null and
void.
Section Third-That the Secretary of
the Interior shall prescribe rules and
to carry the several pro-
visions of this act into effect.
The bill, as amended, then passed
yeas l16, nays 55.
Mr.. Garfield, from the Committee on
appropriations, reported the deficiency
bill appropriation of one million six
hundred and thirty-nine thousand dol
ars, which was made the special order
% come after the pension appropriation
oill.
The House then, at half-past three
l'clock, went into Committee of the
Whole on the pension appropriation
1ill, which appropriates three million
md forty-eight thousand dollars.
Mr.. Garfield gave some statistical in
ormation in regard to pensioners, and
stated, among other things, as a curious
act, that of the widows of Revolution
Try soldiers who were on the pension
oils less than ten per cent. had died
Turing the year. Over thirty-three
thousand persons We're put ON the pen
lion rolls during the year, of whom over
seventeen thousand were soldiers of the |