The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1878-01-25
CONGRES 5 SIONAL
SENATE.

w ASHINGTON. u an. I'll ne Matthews
resolution being under consideration: Mr..
Lamar said he would vote against the
resolution and the amendment Of Mr.. Ed
munds because neither stated the case
fairly. He concurred as a lawyer that
these bonds by the act OF 1869 were paya-
BILE 10 greenbacks according to the literal
construction of the contract.
The question being on the amendment
OF Mr.. Conkling to make the resolution a
joint instead Of a concurrent one, Mr..
Conking spoke briefly in favor of that
amendment
Mr.. Thurman opposed the amendment
and said there were certain matters which
could properly be treated by concurrent
resolutions, and among them was declar-
alton OF opinion by the two houses of con-
gress when they might deem such decar-
alton proper. 1t was not his purpose to
| speak upon the silver question until the
bill itself should come before the senate,
but there was one thing to which he de-
sired to refer. Senator after senator had
| declared that the act Of 1873 demonetized
the silver dollar. Il does no such thing
The silver dollar was dcmonetzed by the
revised statutes, but they were not in
tended to change any existing law They
we're simply a compilation of the law as
they existed ct the date Of the adoption of
the situation. The silver dollar of 4l2!
grains was a full legal tender for all pur-
poses, and had not been legally demone-
! tized. Argument had been made that tho
silver dollars were not in existence at that
time aud therefore the bondhoders did
not expect to be paid silver. AS well
might such argument be made against
gold because there was but little of that
coin in use. The coinage act of 1873 was
step IN the direction of demOnetiZing
silver, but it was not actually demonetized
until the adoption of the revised statutes
in 1874.
Mr.. Herman said it had been argued
that our bonds were held by those who
were wealthy, He made no distinction on
account of wealth. Every man in this
country should have equal protection be-
. fore the law, be he poor or rich. He
(kernaD) denied, however, that the bonds
were held By the rich Statistics upheld
his denial
Mr.. Thurman said he had never in.
dulged in any remarks as to who held the
government bonds. No matter who held
them. They had right to be paid He
argued that the reconciliation of silver
would place it side by side with gold in
less than twenty four hours and no injus-
tlce would be done to any one.
The debate was continued in a colo
,, quial manner by Messrs. Edmunds,
: Thurman and Herman, and the senate,
on motion Of Mr. Davis, of Illinois, ad
journed.
WASHINGTON, Jan 24,-The steamboat
bill being before the house, and MIR. Town
send having concluded bis remarks, Mr.
: Beebe offered an amendment providing
that any person sustaining loss through
the carelessness or willful misconduct OF
the mate, engineer Or pilot, might sue the
owner for damages. He accused Mr.
Reagan of bringing into the house bill in
the interests of property.
Mr.. Reagan denied the charge, but
opposed demagoguery.
Nh. Beebe s amendment was rejected
l62 to 81.
On motion of Mr. Field, the words, "Or
+ the indictment and conviction of such care
lessness," were inserted aud Mr. Hooker's
amendment relieving owners from liability
+, If the explosion occurred without his fault
j was rejected.
Mr.. Townsend of New York, ,smoved tC
strike ont the whole paragraph regarding
tue liability of owners. Rejected-I37 tC
"a.
: Mr. Lockwood moved an amendment tC
the section fixing the salaries of steamboat
inspectors, classify ing them from 81, 700 a
year down to S700.
Pending discussion of this amendment
the house adjourned