New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-07-15
A Scene In the Senate.

as oe natOr was report IRON the commit
tee OF conference on the dsagreeing votes
of the two houses upon the legislative, ex-
ecutlve and judicial appropriation bill.
This repOG. he followed with a remarkable
speech upon the relation of the Senate and
House OF Representatives to the apprOpria-
ton o,lls, with more especial reference to the
questions now standing as a barrier between
the two houses. Senator Morrill, analyzed
the claim of the Democrats of the House
that by the reductions effected by them
the appropriations tor the present fiscal
year would be $39,000,0 600 less than the ap-
preparations for the last fiscal year. He
showed that this claim was fallacious; that
if the House was credited with all the re-
ductlOns that it could really claim. the
aggregate would be $30,00O.000, and not
39,0oO,0O0. This difference of $9,O00,000
was made by adding the deficiency bill of
"a GOO,0OO On to last year, where it does not
belong, and emitting it from this year,
where it Goes belong, and BY entirely ignor-
ing the unexpended balances, to the amount
OF s. 600, 900, which have been reappropri-
ated. Certainly. economy is easily prac
ticed if 50 100000 can be saved in this
fashion to the treasury.
The Senator then went on to say that in
certain quarters the Senate was repre-
sented as ObstructiDg retrenchment. SO
Tar was this from true that he and his col
leagues upon the Committee on Appropria-
tions had given way time and again to the
House, even when they thought that the
service would be injured by the economy
proposed by that body. He said that the
Senate had agreed to reductions in all
branches OF the service, aggregating
$22,O00,O00. He said that without regard
to party the Committee on Appropriations
were unanimous in thinking that no further
reductions could be made without perma-
Eent injury to the public service. He re-
tuted the notion that the present House
was the first to practice retrenchment, and
pointed ont that the expenses of the gov
ernment had baen gradually reduced by
successive Republican Congresses siIce the
close of the war The balance in favor OF
the House on economy is appart ntly
$S,0O0,OOO. Senator Morrill, showed this
sum was made by systematically ignoring
certain wants of the public service. No ap-
preparation was made for paying the judg-
ments Of the Court of Claims; the govern:
ment did not contribute its share to the
support of the District of Columbia the
Indian Bureau was abolished, the army
reduced, the navy retrenched almost
out of existence 1t was easy. said
the Senator, with peculiar emphasis, to
be economical If one does not pay intelli-
gent heed to the wants of the public SER
vice. The Senator made it perfectly clear
that after all it is not the question of econ
omy that divides the two houses, or that
they are substantially agreed, but it is the
shotgun policy of legislation inaugurated
by the present ex-COnfederate House,
policy which says to the Senate, Repeal
legislation obnoxious to US, or enact
legislation desired by US, or we will
destroy your executive departments
by failing to pass the necessary appro-
priation bills That prevents the Sen
ate and House from agreeing. Senator
Morrill, characterized the claim of the House
to legislate in an appropriation bill on the
most delicate questions of public policy,
such as the transfer of the Indian Bureau
to the War Department, the reorganiza-
tion of the army and the abolition of the
necessary safeguards to the purity of cleo.
tIOns, as revolutionary. Senator Morrill's
speech was the strongest that has been
made in regard to the deadlock, and it GER
tainly seems as if, taken in connection with
the utterauces of Senators Morton and Lo-
gan, the Senate would refuse to be coerced
by the House.
Senator Morton, in following Senator
Morrill,, claimed that the action of the
House in insisting upon engrafting new
legislation upon an appropriation bill was
not only revolutionary, but it amounted to
notification. One house proposed to make
a new law or repeal an old law against the
wish Of the other, and in either case the
position was that taken by South Carolina
in 1881 and 1882. He warned the Senators
that it the present claim of the House was
once acceded to, the independence of the
Senate was gone forever, and that that body
would become what the English House of
Lords is.
Mr.. Thurman replied with great warmth
to Mr.. Morton. There was nothing revoIu-
tionary in the attitude of the House. TAX
ing an illustration given by Senator Morton,
he said that he could conceive of a case
where the House would be perfectly
justified in saying to the Senate, Take
One-halt the amount asked for the support
of the army and Of the navy, or let the ap-
preparations fail entirely"
Senator Logan characterized any such
proposition as that suggested by Mr.. Thur
man as revolutionary. He went on to say
that there was more in the retrenchment of
the House than mere economy. He sus-
pected the ulterior designs of the men who
had failed in subvertlng the government
by open violence had possibly hit upon a
safer engine of destruction in engrafting
and crippling legislation upon the appro-
priation bills. For one he was perfectly
willing that any party or any man should
have all the capital that could be made out
of destroying the public service.
A curious incident occurred while Cen
eral Logan was talking. Guerilla Black
burn started to leave the Senate chamber,
and had got as far as the door when the
speaker had begun to speak of the ulterior
designs of the Democrats. Blackburn
stopped and looked at Logan, whose seat is
in the last row, and three seats to the right
of the door. General Logan fixed his eyes
OF the guerilla, and went right on to illus
trate his argument. He said that if he had
his hands on the throat of man stronger
than himself he might, on reflection. con-
clude that choking would not succeed, and
that there might be some other way of
getting the best of his enemy. He left the
implication that this was the present at
titude of the rebel Democracy to the gov
ernment they had failed TO destroy in open
conflict. Logan and Blackburn faced each
other for three or four minutes, and when
Logan changed his subject Blackburn
walked out.-Vashington Correspondence
Clereland Leader.
Suspension of Work ON the Galveston
Uurupr