Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-07-19
SENATOR MoRRILL,s SPEECH.

to tax the people for deficiency IN
the general fund.
SENATOR MoRRiLL'S SPEECH.
Senator Morrill,. of Vermont. made
a powerful speech in the Senate oil
the 9TH inst, exposing the fallacy of
the pretended revolution in govern
ment expenditure by the Democracy,
and also the revolutionary character
of the Democratic House in cndeav-
oring to force the Senate 10 come to
its terms by lacking on legislation to
the appropriation bills.
In the first place Mr.. Morrill, pro-
ceeded to state what were the points
of difference between the committee
on appropriations in the Senate and
that of the House. He said the prop
er duties of the committee on appro-
priations, as conceived by the Senate
committee, was to take The laws as
they found them, and decide upon
the amount to be appropriated that
their duty was not to go into a
general revision of the laws touching
subjects of appropriation, and tack
these on to the appropriation bills
reported by them, and so threaten
either House that if they did not
agree to the changes in the law, then
there should be no appropriations
made for the necessary expenses of
the government. Mr.. Morrillplainly
showed that the House committee
took the opposite ground. and that jim
this, they were sustained by the Dem
ocratic House. The upshot of this
position on the part of the House was
to say to Senators, ''you agree to our
changes in the law or we will make
no appropriations; the government
shall come to a dead lock unless the
Senate allows the House to dictate
what shall be the law" This is un-
precedented in the history of the
country, and amounts to quasi rcvo-
luton. II is virtual abnegation OF
the Senate, a coordinate branch of
Congress, if submitted to. Mr.. Nor
rill showed how the Senate committee
fairly and honorably proposed to the
House committee plan TO get out of
this dead lock. II will be remembered
that the bill came from the House to
the Senate at the end of six months
of the session: that the House com
mittee had consumed six months tig-
uring as to what they would place
the salaries of clerks at and then pre-
sentcd it to the Senate committee at
the close of the session. when it was
impossible for them to give the sub
ject proper examination, and the
demand was made of the Senate that
it should accept it. Ofthe plan pro-
posed by the Senate committee ia
avoid the difficulty Of the situation
Senator Merrill says: t..4..
"The Senate confcrees. in order 10
relieve the House from the appropri-
alton of any more money. and in
order to relieve the Senate from the
embarrassment in which the House
amendment, changing the salaries
had placed it, and maintain its own
character and independence as CO.
ordinate branch of the government.
said 1--WE will do this we will take
what You will appropriate, but on the
question of what the salaries shall be
for this particular year and for all
the future, we will remit that aues-
ton TO committee of four appoint
ed by the respective presiding officers
4 OF the respective branches of Con.
gress who shall revise and adjust the
whole question of compen sation, and
this being reported on the first day OF
the next session, Congress then to en-
act it into law" j
This the House refused to do but
demanded that It's establishment of
the amount of salaries after the six
months labor should be acted upon
at once by the Senate and accepted
at the close of the session as final. or
else the Government should come to
a dead lock for want of funds.
Again, in another part of his speech,
he shows how these salaries which
are sought to be reduced were estab-
lished by the democratic party itself
in 1856, when we were on gold basis,
and which, for political buncombe
alone, they now seek to cut down
when the purchasing power of dol
lar Is not near equal to that of 1856.
Mr.. Morrill, further shows that the
claim on the part of the democracy
that they had reduced the appropria-
tons for the year 100000 was. a
shameless falsehood. and further he
shows how IN fact during three years
preceding the present, the repulli-
cans had reduced the appropriations
$33,OOO,OOO. He showed that there
was only $S,OOO,OO) difference between
what the Senate was willing to con
| cede and what the House demanded.
and that it was this amount about
which the democracy was in real
ity making so much fuss about. in
order to make buncombe for the par
ty. The Senator continued, however.
to show how the democrats went to
work to retrench in theirhypocritical
effort to lessen the appropriations, by
not appropriating at all for certain
things which had always heretofore
received appropriations. For i'll
stance, about $l,250,OOO had usually
been appropriated for the maintain
ance of the organization III the Navy
Yards. This was entirely omitted
The estimate for Notifications this
year was $3,3l5,OO0, and the House
bill only appropriated the thousands.
leaving out the three millions
That is to say, they simply
conclude in order to make dishon-
est showing of curtailing expenses to
cut down this appropriation so low
that the present Notifications can
hardly be kept in ordinary, repair,
and as they appropriate nothing for
the navy yards, they must go entirely
without even any repairs. Then they
proceeded to cut of two millions
.#
from the judiciary expenses. They