The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1878-06-14
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, D. c., Jane II, 1878.

There was real progress made on Saturday
in legislation. Speaker Randall said yester-
day he thought 1t would be possible to fin
ish up all important bu.ness 50 as to adjourn
on the day originally fixed, the l7th. 9th.
ers anticipate delays in the agreement of the
Conference Committees, aud think the oath
inst, will be a. s,on ~ the two House, will
be ready for adj)urhnent. 4 lyl
The House on sturdy agreed to Con-
ference report on form OF government for
this ID strict The Senate will doubtless
agree. Umler this form the higher District
officials will be appointed by the President
None will be elected, nor viii We have leg
islature or delegate in Congress The Cen
eral Government pays half our expenses.
The Senate passed the Army Appropria-
tion Bill, with an amendment referring to a
Commission the subject of transfer of the
Indian Bureau to the War Department. The
two principal points of disagreement between
the two Houses on this bill is the Indian Bu-
reau transfer and the Senate provision in
creasing the Army to 2j000 men.
The Senate also passed bill appropria-
ting five and half million d ,llars to pay the
Fishery Award. This the House will agree
to. The Senate, with hardly dissenting
vote, passed the bill advancing 100000 TO
Captain E,ds on his jetty contract.
A committee of Senator's has been ap-
pointed to investigate the conduct of Senator
Stanley Matthews in connection with Lou
isiana frauds. The Senator declines to ap.
pear before the Potter. Committee, though
summoned, and here will come very inte
resting question. General Butler and the
other Republican members Of the Committee
agree that the House, to which the case will
be submitted to-day, has the power to com
pei attendance. A bill to relieve Mrs. Ex.
Senator Sprague, daughter of the late Chief
Justice Chase, OF the payment of taxes on
an estate in this District left her by her
father, has escaped the attt ntion it deserves
because of the more startling and sensation
al topics supplied US by Congress since it
met last Oct ber. 1t was SNUG yled through
the Senate in a semi -candesliue way, seem
ingly, or at least without provoking much
discussion or comment, as though that body
had determined to do something that it was
ashamed of and hoped the public wouldn't
hear of it. The same or another bill of like
purport is now pending in the House. When
it is remembered that members of Congress
have stood resgnedly by and seen tw o. iths
of the private property of the citizens of this
District confiscated to pay the many millions
of dollars criminalfy wasted, or stolen by its
agents, their anguish over Mrs. Sprague $
hardship in having to pay her share of taxes
on properly worth many thousands of dollars
is extraordinary, especially as every dollar
abated from her assessments must come out
ofthe other taxpayers, many of whom lind
it exceedingly difficult to provide the neces-
sares of life for themselves and those de :
pending on them, let alone any of the luxu- =
ries which Mrs. Sprayue appears able to in.
dulge H.. 1t Also seems funny to hear re.
formers in Congress who talk in the most
lugubrious strains of tue wrongs heaped ou the
poor, get up in their seats and urge the
measure because Mrs, Sprague is the daugh.
ter of Chief Justice Chase--a man, by the
way many of them were never tired of abusing
when in political life and while on the
bench. There are hundreds of Taxpayer
in this District 50 lost to every chivalrous
sentiment and SO tinctuTed with communism
as to protest against the proposed abatement
of taxes at their expense. They appear un
able to comprehend the Justice of any such
determinations in favor of those who live
as though oply able TO pay their proper
tional part Il tue public burdens. Some o.
them are descendants OF an ancestry noted
for its services to the Government and tc
humanity; anS they are so unreasonable a'
to .de,nand that this kind Of class legsla
ton making flesh of one and fish of anot h.
er sh' I'D cease and receive no further en-
dorsenent under this Republican Govern
menI, particularly from eminent reformers
SEMINOLE.