Morning journal and courier., 1880-12-14
FORTY-sIXTH CONGRESS.

! SENATE-After little debate concerning | the proper department to have control of the ! signal service, MT. Randolph succeeded In calling up for consideration the bill for the relief of Fitz John Porter, and offered his amendment making him colonel on the re- ! tired list without back pay.
 1 MT. Edmunds asked through how many administrations the power to appoint would run If the present Executive failed to ap- point, would the President elect appoint and so on through his successors for service Of terms He moved an amendment limiting the power to appoint to one year. Rejected, yess 21, nays 32; Messrs. Davis, of Illinois, and Mcdonald voting with the Republicans in the affirmative.
 The substitute for the bill offered by MT. Randolph was as follows
 That the President Is hereby authorized in his dis cretion to reinstate in the army Ftz John Porter who dismissed by the sentence of court martial
 January 19 1863 provided however, that such rein statement shall give no higher rank than colonel
 the retired list and provided further that said Porter time intervening between his dismissal and restora tion.
 Mir. Carpenter contended that Congress had no more authority to set aside the verdict of a court martial than 1t had to set aside the sentence of a civil court. The bill itself stated that Porter had been dismissed from the army, and he was no more a part of the army than any other citizen. Congress could as we'll enact that the President Is au- thorized to reinstate David Davis as justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He would content himself with pointing out the unconstitutional feature of the bill with out at present going into the merits of the case.
 Mir. Mcdonald said the proposition that the Senate should set aside the action of courts martial was not new one. There Iwere nu- merous precedents for it, and notably that of
 Surgeon General Hammond, where the sen tence was set aside by a vote of 55 to l. He did not understand the constitutional provis- ion relating to the confirmation of appoint ments of the President by the Senate to apply to military appointments, that he understood it to apply solely to civil appointments Mir Hereford said the ideas advanced by Mr. Carpenter were contrary to the theory of our government, which made the military subordinate to civil authority. The power of pardon vested in the President related solely to the sentence of the civil court. It a man was sentenced by court martial to be shot, Congress, being in session and being the superior authority, would have the pow CT to say whether or not that man should be executed.
 MT. Thurman said three better officers to examine the case than the three selected could not have been found, and their findings were so clear and emphatic that he could not see how anybody could hesitate to grant the relief He combatted the idea that this was an exercise of the pardoning power in the general control of the army given to Congress. It had the power to say who should and who should not compose the army. It was not an exercise of the appointing power by Con- gress for authorizing the President to make an appointment without confirmation did not deprive him of the power to nominate for confirmation another to the position. Mir Logan admitted the power of Congress to make rules and regulations for the government of the army, but Io1J hot of rT1la tons had been executed it could not | then set aside what had been done under it's positive directions.
 ! Mir. Thurman read number of acts passed | by Congress authorizing by names the restor ation of officers to the army, and one in l which the sentence of court martial was set ! aside.
 1 MT. Logan said with the exception of the case of Surgeon General Hammond, which was passed without proper consideration, all f the names cited by MT. Thurman had been 1 sent to the Senate for confirmation of rein 1 statement.
 l A protracted argument between Messrs. | Carpenter, Mcdonald and Eaton sprang up l as to the constitutional relations of Congress l to the appointing power, the two last named maintaining that appointments to the army | did not come under the same constitutional provisions as applied to civil appointments. On motion of Mir. Davis, of Illinois, the Senate at 4:3O went into executive session, 1 and when the doors were opened adjourned | HoUsE-Mr. Townsend, of Ohio presented the credentials of E. B. Taylor as Representa- | tive elect from the nineteenth district of Ohio l (Garheld's district.)
 l MT. Hurd. of Ohio-the credentials having been read-obiected to MT. Taylor's being sworn in and moved that the credentials be | referred to the Committee on Elections.
 l MT. Mckinley, of Ohio-On what grounds2
 MT. Hurd said that on the 18th of May, l 1878. a law had been passed by the Ono Leg islature creating the Nineteenth district
 MT. Butterworth, of Ohio, (interrupting).- ).- The certificate of election is regular on its face, is it not ?
 ceedino he said that General Garfield has been 1 elected from the Nineteenth district as 1t had been composed under the law of 1875 In 1880 the law of 1878 had been repealed, and
 a new district created. The ground upon
 l which Mr. Taylor rested his clam was that
 fine vacancy which had been created by the 1 restoration of MT Garfield from the old Nine-
 teenth district might be filled by the election
 held within the Territory which had
 formerly composed that district. This
 claim he submitted was with
 out foundation Mir. Gar6eld's reslgna-
 tion could not occasion vacancy ln that aus
 triet. and therefore on the face of the certIh-
 cate if was patent that MT. Taylor had no
 l right to sit in the House. The whole trouble
 was with the Legislature of Ohio, which had
 passed law whereby 380,0o0 people would
 have fifteen Representatives in the next Con
 oress while 36o. GOO would only have five
 Representatives without making provisions
 for vacancies. Let the Legislature of Ohio
 bear the blame, and let not the House seat
 man elected from district which has no ex
 istence.
 MT. Mckinley argued that assuming tha' there was any force in the objection made ol his colleague (Hurd) Mir. Taylor had Paiaat