The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-12-13
CONQUERING CONKLING.
He Wins Two Rounds and
Gives Away the Third.
The Sena,e's Six Hours of Lively Debate
in Executive Session Yesterday.
The n. Y. custom House Nominations.

NdSElnSlOI, btC. IL hC 'chatc
was in executive session to-day nearly
six hours. The entire session was de-
voted to the New York Custom House
nominations, two of which, namely:
Those of Theodore Roosevelt, to be
collector, i'll place of Arthur, to be re-
moved, and 5. Bradford Prince as naval
officer, vice Cornell, to be removed,
were reported from the committee on
Commerce unfavorably. The third,
namely: That of Ed. Merritt, to be
surveyor of customs, i'll place of Sharp,
whose commission has expired, was re-
ported back with favorable recOmmen-
dation. No opposition was manifested
to the latter, but the contest in regard
to the two proposed removals was eX-
tremely animated and took very
wide range, covering discussion of the
rights, powers and duties of the Pres
dent in regard to removals from Office
and the subject of his civil service policy
in general.
Conkling, chairman of the committee
on Commerce, opened the debate with
brief statement of the reasons why,
in the opinion of that committee, the
two first named nominations should
not be confirmed.
Bayard followed, maintaining the
right of the Executive to make changes
which in his opinion would be for the
nc bn ln hui
responsible for the execution of the
laws, and entitled to select his agents,
subject to confirmation by the Senate,
but without being obliged to furnish
the Senate statement of his reasons.
Herman then delivered speech of
considerable length on the same side of
the question, defending the action of
the President. Gen. Gordon warmly
commended the civil service policy of
President Hayes, and regarding the
pending nominations, asserted emphat-
ically that the removals which they
contemplated were demanded by Il pro-
per regard for the purity of the service.
He charged that Cornell and Arthur
had disgracefully made use of the power
and patronage of tlieir offices for merely
partisan and selfish purposes, and he
intimated that it was time for the one
man power in New York to he
broken. The debate then became quite
general.
Ioar and Matthews spoke i'll favor
of sustaining the action of the President
in the exercise of his constitutional
power, and what they argued was his
sound public policy in removing the
civil service from the domain of par
tisan control.
Teller and others spoke briefly in re-
ply, arguing that in the present III
stance, at least, the President had
departed from the principle OF civil
service reform which he himself had
announced, namely: That faithful and
efficient services should protect an
officer from removal, etc.
Conkling closed the debate in Il peech
of considerable length, and great vigor
and earnestness.
A vote by yeas and nays was taken
upon the nomination of Roosevelt, and
it was rejected 10y majority Of seven,
the yeas being % to nays 81.
The nomination of Prince was re-
jected on another roll call by the same
vote In each case Senators Eaton,
Dennis, Whyte and MaXey, Democrats,
united with the great body of Republic
cans against the combinations, and
Senators Burnside. Christiancy, Como
yer, Davis, Hoar and Matthews, Re-
publicans, sided with the mass of DEM
ocrats in favor of confirmation.
The nomination of Merritt was con-
firmed without division.
The following is believed to he cor
rect statement of the votes actually
cast by those Senators who were pres
ent and not paired. The names of
several who are mentioned above rs
having separated from the majority of
their political colleagues on the question
of sustaining the Presidents action,
W III llOG De lOullu III lulo llsl. Dut tiltli
respective positions were made manifest
by the announcement Of pairs.
Those who voted in favor of contir-
nation were, according to the best in
formation obtained tonight: Bailey,
Barnum, Bayard, Beck, Burnside,
Christiancy, Coke, Conover, Dawes,
Eustis, Gordon, Grover, Harris, Here
ford, Hill, Hoar, Johnston, Jones
(Fla.), Herman, Lamar, McCreery,
Matthews, Morgan, Randolph and
Salisbury. Total, %.
Negatives-Allison, Anthony, Blaine,
Booth, Bruce, Cameron (Pa.), Cameron
(Wis.), Chaffee, Conkling, Davis (Ill.),
Dorsey, Eaton, Edmunds, Ferry, Ham
lin, Howe, Ingalls,, Jones New, Kel-
logg, Kirkland, Mcmillan, Mitchell,
Merrill, Oglesby, Paddock, Patterson.
Plumb, Rollins, Sargent, Saunders,
Spencer and Teller. Total, 80.