Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1880-04-10
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Apr. s. 1880

Congress than the present-one more
ready to adjourn early and begin late,
or more impatient of business when
dinner time comes. Generally there
has been custom in Congress to
hold sessions on Saturday for debate,
on which occasions any member who
is spelling for speech may get an
opportunity to fire it off, or at least
to have it injected into the Record
for the benefit of his constituents.
This practice relieves the regular
proceedings of great encumbrance
in the way of CAB, and it is, there
fore, commendable. But the present
Congress adjourns over Saturdays,
and sometimes Fridays, while the
very suggestion of night sessions will
give the members cramp.
This Congress fell into easy habits
during the extra session. With a
political debate on hand and no 9TH
er business, members adjourned ear
ly, neglected committee meetings
and fell into indolent ways. More
solid work can be done after long
afternoons debate, during the hour
between 5 and 6 o'clock p. M, than
in all the rest of the day. Members
are savagely impatient of debate, ut
terly intolerant of points of order,
wickedly resentful of unnecessary
Interruptions, and will take more
votes and get through more business
in that ante-dinner hour than during
twelve hours of full-stumached caste
and tolerant humor. The commit
tee that rises and loses this precious
hour wastes its days work, for an
other morning will see a new lot of
takers start out for a brush over the
very ground on which the first lot
was exhausted the previous day;
and the hour of on the second day
will find that committee precisely
where it was at the same hour on the
first day. The House this session
considered twenty of the new rules
for two months, adjourning every
day about p. m. The committee
one day determined to hold the
House till O'Clock, and the mem
bers, fearful of losing their dinner,
adopted the other twenty rules in
that one afternoon. Were it not for
that extra hour the new rules might
have been under discussion yet.
Mr.. Weaver, the Greenback men,
Der from Iowa, who has been strug-
Cling for three months to "catch the
Speakers eye" succeeded at last in
getting recognized on Monday and
dropped his resolutions on the Clerks
desk. Considering their extreme
character the vote on these resolu-
tions was Unexpectedly large. They
declare the right and duty of the
Government to issue all money,
whether of coin or paper, and to
make it full legal tender for all debts,
public or private; they oppose the
refunding of the public debt, and
propose its payment as fast as posi-
BILE, according to contract" and,
for.this purpose, propose the utmost
practicable coinage of silver, as we'll
as such gold as the business of the
country may require. Mr.. Weaver
protested that he and his party did
not intend the payment of the bonds
in paper, so that the resolutions must
be accepted as for unlimited paper
money and the payment of the bonds
in silver. These propositions were
sustained by SIS Representatives, or
within fraction of 80 per cent. of
the entire House. OF these, 73 were
Democrats, 10 were Greenbackers,
and only 2-Messrs. Bedford, of Col
orado, and Kelley, of Pennsylvania
Republicans. The 73 Democrats con-
stitute one-half of all the members
of that party in the House, and with
those who were paired, make de-
cided majority OF the party. 1t is
not surprising that the Democratic
leaders of any degree of sense have
steadily resisted the presentation of
these resolutions. They knew that
the test vote would show that their
party was hopelessly divided on this
question.
Apropos of the Edmunds boom, of
which there las been some sly talk
lately, it may be said that the Yer
mont Senator does consider himself
candidate in the accepted sense.
But his party might go further and
fare a great deal worse. Senator
Edmunds is without doubt the most
critical man in Congress. 1t has
long been the practice of some Sena-
tors to take their bills to him for APP
prevail before introducing them.
Sometimes he will change comma,