Connecticut western news., 1877-02-02
UNITED STATES CONGRESS.
Senate.

I
 Mir. Patterson (Rep.), of South Carolina, pre- sented petition of D. H. Chamberlain, R. H. Greaves, F. L. Cordoza and others, of South Carolina, setting forth that many of the state ments in the petition of Wade Hampton and others, recently presented in the Senate are untrue, others calculated to mislead the Senate, and important facts are omitted. The petitioners then review at great length the condition of affairs in South Carolina, and claim that they were legally elected to their various offices. Ordered printed. Mr. Patter- son submitted resolution declaring that the State government now existing in South Caro- lima, and represented by D. H. Chamberlain, is the lawful government of said State that it is republican in form, and every assistance should be given to it by the United States, to the end that the laws may faithfully executed. Re- ferred to the committee on privileges and elec- | tions.
 1 MT. Sherman (Rep.), of Ohio, from the com nittee on finance, reported back the House bill authorizing the coining of the standard silver dollar and restoring its legal tender character. Placed on the calendar.
 Mir. Withers (Dem), of Virginia, called up the message of the President in regard to the occupation of Petersburg, Va, by the military | on Nov. T. and submitted 8 resolution relative to the construction of the laws touching the elective franchise promulga ed in general orders by the attorney-general, and for an examination of the same by the committee on the judiciary. Resolution agreed to.
 MT. Morton called up the Presidents mes sage in regard to the occupancy of Peters burg, Va,, by troops on election day, and replied at length to the remarks of Messrs. Johnston and Withers, of Virginia. He defended the ac ton of the President, and argued that, under the law, the President had the right to send troops to the polls in any State for the purpose of keeping the peace MT. Johnston (Dem ), 1 of Virginia, said that if he was satisfi- ed that outrages had been committed | in Petersburg he would be as quick to denounce them as the senator from Indiana
 but he denied that violence existed in that city, | and as detailed by MT. Morton. The matter after further discussion was laid aside.
 The members of the special committee of seven appointed to devise means for satisfac- tory count of the electoral votes entered the Senate chamber. Mir. Edmunds (Rep) ), of Yer mont, the chairman of that committee, said | I am directed, MT. President, by the select committee raised under the resolution of the Senate on the subject of counting the electoral vote, to submit report in writing, with an ac- companying bill. The report is signed, am | happy to say, by all the members of both com mittees, with one exception and all that wish | to say on this occasion-after stating that we desire to take it up at the earliest possible day, possibly Saturday, but certainly on | Monday, to press it to determination in some form steadily from that day forth-is that the committee are of opinion that the measure we recommend is not what is called compromise in any sense of the term, but is 8 measure in aid of the exercise of constitutional government, and that in no sense of the term will anybody have just right to say that anybody opinions | or views have been surrendered in any substan- tial respect. It is not measure of policy or contrivance, but measure of constitutional justice for the preservation of the peace and l order of the government.
 The report of the committee and the accom- panying bill then read by the chief clerk, | and it was ordered that they be printed. The report is signed by George D. Edmunds, Fred erick D. Frelinghuysen, Roscoe Conklng, A. G. | Thurman T. F. Bayard and M. W. Ransom On the part of the Senate, MT. Morton being the | only one who declined to sign it. On the part l of the House of Representatives it was signed by the seven members, namely H. B. Payne | Eppa Hunton, A. s. Hewitt w. M. Springer,
 George w. McCreery, George F. Hoar and
 George Willard. After the report had been read, the bill was read a second time by title
 and placed on the calendar.
 In discussion on the Louisiana question
 Mr. Bogy Oem.) of Missouri, made charges
 against Gov. Packard which were applauded by the galleries, and these were at once cleared by the sergeant-at-arms. MT. Sherman (Rep ), of Ohio, and Morton (Rep.), of Indiana sustained Gov Packard.
 THE COMPROMISE ELECTORAL BILL.
 In the Senate Mir. Edmunds (Rep.), of Yer
 mont, made the opening speech on the bill for
 counting the electoral vote, or. as it IS now known the Compromise bill. The galleries of the Senate chamber were crowded and every senator in Washington was present in his seat. The speech was listened to with strict attention.
 The speaker entered upon an explanation of the several DrOVlSlODS Ol Llle Dlll, ueSCElDlIlS
 them at some length. He made an onset against
 the allegation of the right of the president of
 the Senate to exercise judicial power ln the
 counting of the vote, and his denunciation of
 those who alleged this right was strong. His
 point against those who declare the bill uncon-
 stitutional was this That there is not & single
 section of the Constitution save one, which has
 enforced itself without Congressional lesislation.
 The excepted section is the one which recog
 nized slaves as property, and in a notable case,
 cited by the speaker, this constitutional pro
 vision was decided by the supreme court
 to allow a master to recover slave
 as property wherever he could find him.
 AS to the matter of precedent the senator de-
 clared that in point of fact the votes had been
 counted by tellers at the clerks desk after each
 Presidential election for period of forty years.
 No such crisis as this had ever arisen necessi-
 tate the action of Congress in the matter, and
 the Congress was now called on to exercise
 right which had merely lain dormant. He
 urged senators neither to stimulate doubts in
 their own minds nor to let their wishes outrun
 their deliberate judgments, and exhorted the
 chamber in behalf of the country, nos to leave } it in danger of tossing anarchy, resembling
 mountains tumbing evermore into seas without a shore.
 MT. Morton (Rep.), of Indiana, followed Mir. Edmunds in the discussion. MT. Morton was the only member of the Conference committee that did not sign the rerort and he did not ) ton to the bill. He knew that there was great ) uneasiness in the country and apprehensions
 are felt of violence The bill, he declared, was presented for the reason that members of the , two houses believed that danger threatened the l country He did not believe in the reality of 5 the danger. The real danger to be appre- :; hended was in not standing up and doing our 5 whole duty. For one he was not afraid that if : this vote should be counted as it was for the first seventy-two years in the history of our . government there will be any revolution He 7 believed that any who attempts it will be X utterly destroyed. He regarded the bill as : compromise, and that it should take it's place ] alongside the notable compromises in the his 2 tory of the countrywide compromise of 1920 6 and the compromise of 1850. He believed that Rutherford B; Hayes was fairly elected
 President, and if counted in he would be a inaugurated without violence and there 7, | would be no revolution. He closed abruptly }, after holding the floor only fifty minutes. MT. }, Morton maintained that in the absence of legis- l. lation the president of the Senate must count "a the votes to prevent deadlock. He did not if hold that this power should be exercised in op- @ position to the will of the two houses, but its l. exercise he held to be no more of usurpaton e than had been committed in every count down ii to the adoption of the twenty-second joint rule e His chief objection to the bill was that it gives d the commission power to go behind the re- l. turns and ascertain what electors were duly ap- ?. pointed, which he held to be unconstitutional e and regarded besides as change of the exist IA ing status in favor of the Democrats. Mir. Ere } lnghuysen (Rep.) ), of New Jersey, followed Mr. Q Morton in written speech in favor of the bill E, He denied that it gave the commission power tc IF go back of the papers submitted to 1t to sec e how returning boards performed their duties l. Here were two diverse Republican opinions al , tha o11tset tO the most imDOrtant feature O1