The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-02-20
CONGRESSIONAL.
SENATE.
WASHINGTON, February

Mr.Cameron presented the report G
Commodore Worden, OF the Naval AcaC
emy, in reference to the progress of tn
students in the Academy.
Mr.. Edmunds presented memorial G
the Burlington Board of Trade in favo
Of reduction of duty on lumber.
Mr.. Morrill,, of Vermont, from tn
committee on Public Buildings an,
Grounds, reported two bills in reference
to the construction OF Public Building
at Albany, New York.
Mr.. Frelinghuysen presented peti
tiou for the widening Of Kil-von-Kul
channel.
Mr.. Scott presented the majority re-
port of the Klu-Klux committee, aS
companied by the testimony and by a
bill to extend the operations of the la"
OF May, 1870, to authorize the suspen,
sion of the haJeaS corpus act till the end
of the next session of Congress. The
repo rt also recommends the passage ot
a general, but not universal, amnesty
bill.
Mr. Blair rrosented a minority re-
port.
Mr.. Scott read two extracts from the
minority report which, he said, did
injustice to the majority. The first he
understood to contain an assertion that
the minority would not have made any
report at all if they had had an
opportunity to see the report which the
majority were going TO give, and the
second did plainly assert that the
minority had not been allowed to see
the majority report, and, therefore,
were compelled to go into more
detailed discussion OF the testimony
than would otherwise have been neces-
sarv. The first implied assertion was
refnted by the fact that early in Decem-
bnr last the minority asked for clue
to aid them in preparing a report; and
as to the second, he thought that no one
would deny that the committee had
come together last week to examine the
majority report that it was then agreed
to have it printed privately for the use
Of the committee, and that 1t was SO
printed. -,
Mr.. Blair said the minority did not
mean to imply that if they had been
allowed to see the majority report
they would not have made a minority
report.
Mr.. Bayard said it was true that the
report Of the majority was put into the
hands Of the members Of the committee
on Thursday last, but it was so extern
siye n document that it was utterly i'm
possible to have read it and the accom-
p,nying testimony since that time, with
out attempting to prepares reply. Be
sides, the minority report had necessarily
been prepared before and was at that
time in press.
Both reports were ordered to be
printed. :,
The Senate then resumed the consId
Grafton of the resolution TO inquire into
the ALLEGED sale of arms to the agents
of France during the Franco'Prrsslan
war.
Mr.. Conkling said that five months
Of this Congress had already passed
and the business of the country waited
while debate for political effect went on.
The appropriation bills were made to
wait The revision Of the tariff which
would strike forty millions from the
shoulders of industry and reduce the
internal revenue department to q skcIe-
ton was made to wait while the Senate
was forced to waste its time in political
debate, but it could be avoided. The
rule was that Senator could not be
questioned elsewhere for words uttered
in the Senate and so a Senator might
by his presence and speech slandcr his
government and his country and place
them in q false position before the
nations Of the earth, and he might do
it either in plain words or by insinua-
tons; the last always the most deadly
Language in the slanderer virulent
vocabulary. The Senator from Massa'
chusetts (Mr. Summer WAS responsible
for this waste of time. He would not
have investigation; he would have de-
bate. He had himself asked when he
introduced this resolution that it should
lie over but this fact had not protected
the Senator from SANDER.
Mr.. Conkling continued at some
length, and at the conclusion OF his re-
marks, the Senate went into executive
session. and shortly after iourned.