The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-04-21
CONGRESSIONAL.
SENATE

|
| ators Boutwell,, Cameron, Wise, Oglesby
/. Bayard and M'Donald. The Impeachment
p managers on the part of the house appeare
in the senate. Senator Ferry announced tina
the senate would take proper order on tn
subject of the impeachment, of which du
notice would be given. The house manager
= then retired. The chairman laid before tn
senate a message from the president of tn
United States returning to the senate, with
5 out his approval, a bill for the relief of G.
! Tyler and E. H. Luckett, assignees of w. 7
Chatham. The bill was for the purpose o
refunding to Tyler and Luckett, assignees a
aforesaid, the money paid for the salary of {
storekeeper in a distillery, in Kentucky
during the month of December, 1869, anC
January, 1870. The senate went into eXecu
tive session. After three hours session
the doors were reopened, and it was ordered
that the articles of impeachment against w
w. Relknap, late secretary of war. be printed
Adjourned.
In the senate, on the 5th, Senator
Sherman called up the house bill to enable
the secretary of the treasury to pay the
judgments rendered by the court of Alabama
claims. In explanation of the bill, he said
the money received from Great Britain under
the Geneva award had been invested in one
bond for the whole amount which bond was
subject to an order of congress. 1t was for
fifteen million dollars, and it was necessary
to change it, issue smaller bonds for it,
| TO pay the judgment. The bill passed. SEN
atOr Clayton reported favorably on the house
bill to provide for the sale of the Kansas
Indian lands, in Kansas, to actual settlers,
and for the disposition of the proceeds of
sale. Senator Window reported favorablv
on house bill authorizing the sale of the
Pawnee Indian reservation. Passed. At one
o'clock Chief Justice Waite, of the supreme
| court, appeared in the senate chamber, ac-
companied by Senators Edmunds..and Thur
man, and was escorted to a seat at the right
of the president pro tenn. The following oath
was then administered: "You do solemnly
swear that in all things appertaining to the
impeachment trial of w. w. Belknap, late
secretary of war, now pending, you will be
! impartial, and render justice according to
| the constitution and the law" Senator Ed
munds submitted the following, which was
| agreed to: "Ordered, that summons be is
| sued, as required by the rules of procedure
and practice in the senate, when sitting on
| the trial of the impeachment of w. w. Bel
knap, returnable Monday, the seventeenth
day of the present month, at one o'clock in
the afternoon" The managers then retired.
The senate then resumed the consideration
of legislative business, and took up the bill
liking the rate of postage on third-class mail
matter and for other purposes. Senator Ham,
lin stated briefly the considerations which
COHITOHeu Jn6 committee ana the 1actS upon
which they had acted. If the old law allow
ing two ounces to go through the mail for
one cent should be restored, the deficiency
would exceed ten million dollars, and in a
few years the deficiency would aggregate
hundreds of millions of dollars. Senator
Thurman inquired if the department should
be made self-sustaining would not the effect
be to make letters pay more than they should?
Senator Hamlin said that letters now pro-
duced a surplus of between four and five
million dollars per annum. There had been
a great deal said about the present law in
regard to third class mail matter. Two
amendments were prepared by the commit.
tee, the first reducing the weight of third
class matter, and the second increasing the
rate of postage. The postmf ster-general says
1T costs eighteen cents pOund to carry
newspapers through the mails as second-claSs |
matter, composed of newspapers and peri |
odicals sent from the office of publication to |
the subscribers. There were one hundred |
aud ffty-fve million pieces transported last |
year, weighing ffty-tive million pounds, and |
being fifty per cent. of the whole weight of !
the mail. They yielded a revenue of only |
nine hundred and seventy-six thousand dol |
lars while it cost the government seven mil |
lion nine hundred and sixty-nInc thousand !
dollars to transport them. The committee
proposed to follow this bill with other REM
edial measures to make the department self
sustaining. Adjourned.
man reported, with amendments, house bill
to correct an error in the revised statutes in
regard to warrants of arrest in extraditiOn
cases. The amendments were agreed to and
the bill passed. Mr.. Wright reported adj
verselY on senate bill to abolish caDital pun
ishment, and it was indefinitely postponed.
Bills were introduced and referred as fol-
lows: Making an appropriation to defraY
the expenses of the committee appointed by
the senate to investigate the recent elections
in Mississippi; to amend the act of congress |
creating the court of commissioners of the
Alabama claims, approved June %, 1874
After the expiration of the morning hour the
consideration of the bill fixing the rate of
postage on third class mail matter was re-
sumed and Mr.. Harvey offered substitute
for the bill allowing fOur-pOund packages in
mails at rate of postage of one cent for
each two ounces. After executive session
the senate adjourned till Monday.
In the senate, on the 10th, Mr.. Bout
well, from the special committee appointed
to investigate the recent election in Missis-
sippi, submitted resolution authorizing that
committee to employ a clerk or stenographer
and to send for persons and papers to take
evidence. Agreed to. Mr.. Morrill, reported
favorably on the bill apPropriating $4,000 to
defray the expenses of the special committee
appointed to inquire into the late election in
House bill to provide for the
deficiency in the printing and engraving
bureau Of the treasury department, and for
the issue of the silver coin of the United
States in place of fractional currency, was
taken up. Mr.. Sherman explained the pro-
visions of the bill and amendments proposed
by the senate finance committee at length.
In his opinion there were but two things
more needed to make this perfect financial
md fhnrr |
holder of greenbacks to convert them into
four per cent forty year gold bonds and to
our six per cent. bonds for four
per cent. ones; then specie payment would
come without q ipple. He said it was very
important that the first and second sections
of the bill be passed Immediately, leaving
out the third and fourth sections, with the
that the committee on finance
would consider the subject embraced in them,
and report it as an Independent measure
MIR. Sherman then, by unanimous consent;
withdrew the third and fourth sections of the
bill Mr.. Morrill, moved an amendment to
the first section, appropriating $4S,000 to
provide for engraving and printing of ma
tional banks, to be disbursed under the sec
retary of the treasury. The amendment was
agreed to. Mr.. Sherman submitted an amend
ment as follows: And fractional currency
redeemed under this act shall be held to be
a part of the sinking fund provided for hy
existing law, the interest to be computed
thereon as in case of bonds redeemed under
the act relating to the sinking fund" Agreed
to. The bill was then read third time and
passed. 1t is as follows: That there be and
hereby is appropriated out of any money in
the treasury not otherwise appropriated the
sum of $16S,O0O, to provide for engraving,
printing and other expenses of the making
and issuing of United States notes; and, fur
ther, the sum of S4S,OO0 to provide for en-
craving and printing national bank notes to
be disbursed under the secretary of tine
treasury. That the secretary of the treasury
is hereby directed to issue silver coins of the
United States denomination of ten, twenty,
twenty-five and fifty cents, of the standard
value in redemption of an equal amount of
fractional currency, whether the same be
now in the treasury awaiting redemption, or
whenever it may be presented for redemp-
ton, and the secretary OF the treasury may,
under the regulations of the treasury depart
ment, provide for such redemption and
issue by substitution at the regular SUBJ
treasures and public repositories until
the amount of the fractional currency out
standing shall be redeemed and the frac-
tional currency redeemed under this act
shall be held to be part of the sinking fund
provided for by the existing law, the interest