Daily globe., 1879-06-03
FORTY-sIXTH CONGRESS-.
Extra SESSION.
Senate.


for payment by pre-emption on certain public
lands in Minnesota and Dakota.
Senator Blaine gave notice of the following
amendment proposed to be offered by him to
Mcdonald g resolution.
Resolued, That inasmuch AZ the third. sixth
and eighth congressional districts of Georgia,
the sixth and eighth districts of North Carolina,
the third, fourth. and sixth districts of Miss
issippi, cast at the last election An aggregate
vote Of cnly 3S,57l, almost entirely for oandi-
dates of the Democratic party, and inasmuoh
as at the preceding election, in 1876 candi-
dates Of the Republican party in these districts
received an aggregate vote of IS, ,739, the said
committee is instructed to inquire whether
within these districts, or any one of them,
there was fraud or undue influence practiced
against citizens at the last election, or whether
there was denial Of the right to vote to any
zens of the States respectively named herein,
and that in making these inquiries the COM
mittee shall have the right to send for persons
aud papers.
Senator Edmunds, rising TO debate the mo-
tion to postpone the resolution, called the at
tention Of the chairman of the committee on
alleged frauds in the late elections, Senator
Wallace, to the publication by the committee
of small pamphlet called number three, part
of which related to transactions alleged to have
taken place at the election in Bennington, VT,
in 1878. Senator Edmunds urgently requested
in that paper, because, if they were true some
body ought to be punished for misconduct.
He also wished to call tho attention of the
Senate to the odd way adopted by the commit
tee in putting before the public in printed
form, 10 as to be readily mistaken for estab
tablished facts, what were really only ex carte
charges. He thought this an unfair way to en-
Tighten the public judgment or to seek after
truth.
Senator Wallace said when the committee on
alleged frauds changed front at the beginning
of the present session, there were found certain
documents and papers which had been called
for by the former committee and furnished by
. leading Democratic Senator. They had not.
been printed and no notice had been taken of
them, while afddavits. etc.. taken in the South
ern States had been printed. Leave was
obtained to print the papers thus
not those obtained since. These papers con-
tain charges in reference to Vermont and
Massachusetts,. He did not pretend to say
whether they were true or not. The committee
had not Investigated them, Only 100 copies
had been printed for the use of senator's and
in advance of the committee report.
Senator Edmunds said his point was thatsthe
documents were in fact printed for public in
formation. It would have been proper and
customary to print them for use of the COM
mittee.
Senator Wallace said the same practice has
copies of testimony for distribution from the
document room.
Senator Dawes asked if Senator Wallace
spoke of the papers in reference to Massachu-
| setts as testimony"
| Senator Wallace said he intended to speak of
them as papers laid before the committee. He
would be glad to remove any erroneous i'm
preston shown in the newspapers in regard to
the documents.
. Senator Thurman, Senator Harris having
heen called to the chair, said he knew some
thing about the paper referred to. When the
kuklux committee went south and made up
from one kind of material and another, what
Was called testimony, not week passed during
| which the press did not TEEN with what
| purported to be testimony. He (Thurman)
had tried before the committee went south to
prevent that being done. To provide an elec.
tioneering document during q political cam.
| paign flaming articles apps a-sd to prove that nc
man if he was Republican in the south had
| his life safe for moment. The committee
report was not made until long afterwards
some time after Congress met, but tidbits Of
the testimony were selected and thus pub
lished 10 advance. He did not defend thi.
system but had denounced it as an attempt t.
make political capital; Senator Blaine interup
i ted Thurman to ask if the latter gentlema1
did not lend all his influence toward havin.
/ the committee hold its sessions with open door
and against any privacy in its proceedings. O
proceedings were telegraphed to the newspa
pers.
Senator Thurman said he had probably votet
for publicity If he had not made the motion
for it, for he never had favored any star cham
Der investigations, and he would no more try
whole people, or whole party in the darl
than he woulda . single man. But if any sue
proposition was made it was voted down i
the Senate, and = similar motion by Democrati
members in Congress was also voted down.
Il Senator Blaine said if any flaming proclama
tions had been published in the interest of th
Republican party, they were at least on wha
occurred before the committee, but the dis
patches from Charleston when the committe
was there, were notorious perversions of fac
not sustained by the testimony at all.
Senator Thurman replied that If there ha
been such misrepresentation it was IN add
tional argument for open investigation w;:el
8 such things could not happen. What he com
planned Of in the action Of the Kuklux con
, mittee was that portions of the testimony bea
I ing against the Democrats found their way int
D print and not the rest. He favored making a
: the te ,timony public and letting the peop
' judge for themselves.
|. Senator Dawes said that as Thurman was r
sponsible for the production before the con
mittee of the Massachusetts, document, whis
!, was forgery, he would like to have that gel
u tIeman explain the source from which obtaine
q Senator Thurman replied he did not kno
% that. He had never seen the document. Wht
d asked to produce evidence bearing on b
b amendment to the originul resolution appoin
q ing the Teller committee, he had responded
= sending quantity of information which b,
!. ). come to him from various sources, this amor
the rest.
Senator Cameron remarked that the doc
: ment offered by Thurman must have also be
8 furnished to the press, for the committee s,
them in the newspapers of New Orleans befc
the original paper got there.
z Senator Thurman-The letter from the Sc
ator from Maine appeared in the papers.
II course my letters got in the papers in the Sal
10 way.
Senator Edmunds said il would not do
9 hold . committee responsible for the public
: tion of what purported to be transaction
/ Similar reports appear in newspapers of WI
5 goes on in executive session, the secrecy
~ which no Senator can be supposed to viola
e0 But in the present instance this committee
officially published q certain document, all {
sided statement and one q forgery, as he
lieved was now admitted, though the commit