Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-05

pose of finding out if there was any way of evading the order. He issued no orders to his officers, but he decided with himself not to move at 1 o'clock but at three. I will not say Porter had no informa- tion of the necessity of his being at Bristow Station at daylight. His duty was single one, and that obedience. Neither will darkness excnse If man had heart in the cause, he could not be deterred by such difficulties, Mr. Logan cited portions of the evil dence of Captain Mckay and others con- cerning this part of the case. He read @ letter written by Porter to General Burn : side, in which he says of the army of Virginia that the strategy is good and tactics in the re- verse order. He begs to be taken away and reflects upon the management of Pope. MT. Logan then discussed the manner and time when Porter received the order to go into the battle. He also defended the yeracity of the witness Douglass Pope, and traced to the minutest detail the actions of Porter during the day, which tended to show that Porter had in view the retreat and defeat of the Union army, and only awaited this event before giv- ing an order for the retreat of his own corps. Before MT. Logan had concluded the Senate went into executive session and at $40 D. m adjourned.
 HousE.-The regular order was the bill regulating the removal of causes from State to Federal courts. Several amendments a vote of 163 to 75. Committees were called for reports and MT. Aiken, of South Caro- lima, reported a bill to make the Depart ment of Agriculture an executive depart ment, and pending its consideration the morning hour expired. After struggle Fernando Wood got the House in Commit tee of the Whole on the funding bill Mr. Wood said he had pressed this bill because it was the most important measure now be- fore Congress. He believed the time had come when we should only pay three per cent. interest, He attributed many of our evils to financial blunders Instead of there being decrease there has been an increase of the public debt. He was aware that the Secretary had placed on the market large number of bonds sold, as it was alleged, for resumption purposes. He was also aware that the Secretary had either forgotten or had purposely withheld from Con gress real and true account of bonds sold MT. Wood sent up and had read an extract from a report made to the Forty sixth Con- gress, first session, by the Secretary in refer ence to his arrangement with the syndicate. He desired to call attention to certain state ments in that document. He states that the whole amount of bonds sold for resumption purposes in 1878 to be $11O, 900, 900. In his annual report for 1878 he states the whole amount to be $95, ,5O0,000 He charged that the Secretary had sold bonds earlier than was necessary for the purposes of resumption, thereby increasing the rate of interest. But why begin to sell bonds four years before it was required? The act was passed in 1875, and the Secretary immediately sold 4, } and per cent. bonds, put them on the market and took the coin received and placed that in the vaults of the Treasury. The interest on bonds has been promptly paid by the Govern ment, but the fruits of the bonds are lying idle in the Treasury without being of the least use. No law authorized that officer at his discretion to negotiate bond bearing high CT rate of interest He practically ac- cused the Secretary of placing bonds at a higher rate of interest than was necessary to benefit the syn dicate and First National Bank of NeH York. He denied that the policy of the Sec retary had been conducive to the advancement of the public interest He asserted that the placing of the 4 per cent. bonds had resulted in loss of $115, 1000, 900 to the Government and advantage to the syndicate.
 Before MT. Wood concluded his hour ex- pired, and the House, at 1:45 p. m. took a re- cess till 7:30.
 The session of the House this evening was for the consideration of pension bills only A large numbere were passed, but not without opposition, the opposition being that these pension claims should not come to Congress, but should be settled by the Commissioner of Pensions under the law.
 The House adjourned at 1O:5O.