Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-04-15
TELEGRAPHIC.
Mr.. Blaine Opens in the Senate on the
Army Bill, .- Fad
A Mastery Speech in Arrangement of
the Brigadiers.
The House Greenbackers Again Cheat
ed out of their Monday.
By the Sharp Tactics of the Other
Parties, --
En-. '-.--# Lstr .-
XLVI CONGRESS.
SENATE.
WASHINGTON. A

. WASHINGTON, April IA.
The Senate, after the usual morn
ing business, resumed consideration
of the Army Appropriation bill, and
Mr.. Blaine proceeded to address the
Senate.
Mr.. Blaine opened the debate.
He said the Democrats insisted on
striking out the eight words often
sive to them, viz: "or to keep the
peace at the polls" They repealed
the whole section of which those
words were part, and then re-en-
acted it, thinking to get credit for
originating it, but this law was
passed in time of war and signed
by Mr.. Lincoln when he had a mil
lion men under his control, and could
have controlled the elections without
any such aid. The purpose of the
law was to insure fairness in cleo
tions, and the Democrats now bore
witness to its fitness for that pur-
pose by trying to re-enact it. He
derided the idea of danger from
military interference, and said
there were only 2,797 soldiers east
of Omaha, and only LOO in the
Southern States, about 70 to every
million people. The Democratic cry
of military despotism would injure
the standing of the country abroad;
but European would laugh at it
if he knew that there was only one
soldier to every seven hundred
square miles of territory in the
South. This was not the real issue.
The ulterior purpose of the other
side was to prevent the General
Government from being represented
by its civil officers at elections in
which it was specially interested
and over which the Constitution
give it full control. He
would not profess to know what the
President would do when these bills
came to him, but it seemed to him
that the dead heroes of the Union
would rise from their graves if he
should consent to be intimidated and
outraged in his proper constitutional
power by threats like these. The
appropriate response from his lips
would be, SIS thy servant dog,
that he should do this thing %
HOUSE.
Immediately after the reading of
the Journal, the Speaker proceeded
to the call of the States for bills
for reference, beginning with the
State of Maine. The first response
was made by Mr.. Ladd, of Maine,
who introduced a bill to put the
coinage of gold and silver on the
same footing. A point of order
theron was raised by Mr.. Conger,
of Michigan, that the introduction
of bills requires one days notice,
and that no such notice had been
given.
The Speaker, after quoting sew
eral rules bearing on the subject,
overruled the point of order.
An appeal from the decision of
the Chair was taken by Mr.. Conger,
and a motion to lay the appeal on
the table was made by Mr.. Cox, of
New York.
The question was debated by Mr..
Stephens, of Georgia, who express
ed the opinion that the decision was
clearly right, and that at all events
the object of the bill could always
be attained by presenting petition
on the same subject, a course which
he himself had pursued this morn
ing in regard to all objects of legis-
lation which he desired to promote.
Mr.. Conger is now at noon] de-
batting the question, and thus indi>
rectly attaining his object, which is
the consumption of the morning
hour.
After a brief argument by Mr..
Reed, of Maine, in support of the
point of order, and by Mr.. Cox, of
New York, against it, Mr.. Conger
called for the tellers on motion to
lay on the table. Thereupon, Mr..
Springer, of Illinois, (remarking
that hs wished to expedite the de-
cisiOn of the question: called for the
yeas and noes, which were ordered,
and on which Mr.. Conger's judicious
comment was that he was glad to
see that delay was being occasioned
by the action of the Democratic
side of the House. The appeal
was laid on the table; yeas, 139
nays, rs; but the morning hour
was usad m, in the ohiectiva discus-