The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-12-15
CAPITAL POINTS.
Yesterdays Work in the Senate
The Presidential Succession Bill.
The Gist of Official Affairs at the
Nations Capital.
SENATE.

l oRRloDA okAOAio N4AS
considered the Sherman resolution for
the investigation and expenditure of the
contingent fund by various depart
ments. The matter was referred to a
subcommittee of Eve, consisting OF
Allison, Logan, Hale, Davis and Cock
rell, with instructions to collect facts,
take evidence, and have it printed.
This morning the senate committee
on territories directed favorable report
upon Saunders bill, to straighten the
northern boundary line of Nebraska on
the line of the forty-third parallel, also
report favorably upon the bill to legal
izs the present legislature of New Mex
leo; owing to noncompliance with the
act of congress the present legislature
is not legal.
The committee Of both houses on
memorial service, in honor Of Presi-
dent Garfield, are in joint session to fix
the day and hour of services in the
Capitol. Conger and Brown have been
added TO the committee.
By Plumb, Amending section 252 Of
the revised statutes, providing for the
issuance Of gold certificates. 1t sub
stitutes the word directed for author
lied, SO as to make it mandatory on the
secretary to issue certificates upon de-
posits of gold coin and bullion. Also
authorizing the president, whenever in
his Judgment the exigencies Of the
frontier service require it, to add
%, 200 enlisted men to the army, to
serve during such emergency, and not
longer than one year.
The senate committee on %appropria-
tions was briefly discussed, but laid
aside for further consideration. The
bill introduced by Senator Edmunds,
which proposes the appropriation of
100000 to defray the extraordinary
liabilities and expenses incurred in con
sequence of the assassination Of Gar
field. The committee then took up
Sherman's resolutions adopted by the
senate at the special session, which re-
quires the investigation by this COM
mittee of the accounts, and methods Of
expenditure of the contingent fund,
etc., Of several executive departments.
Senators Allison, Logan, Hale, Davis,
Of West Virginia, and Cockrell, were
appointed as subcommittee, and they
will begin labors Immediately.
Anumber Of bills were introduced, in
GLIDING one by Edmunds, for settling
private land claims in certain states
and territories. After the morning
hour the subject of the presidential
successor was brought up, and Beck
addressed the senate to illustrate the
urgency for action.
Beck spoke of the serious difficulties
and confusion likely to arise from the
enforcement of the act of March LIST,
1902, giving line of succession to the
president of the senate, or if there is
none to speaker of the house in con-
tingency therein provided for, and re-
ferred to many instances in which if
any contingency had arisen these diff
6culties would have been illustrated.
He said that while the word '~'oficer''
In the clause Of the constitution en-
towering the legislature to declare what
officer shall act as provisional successor
has been held to mean an officer of the
U. S. senate. The only existing pro-
vision of the law on the subject of the
act of 1892 designated officials not re-
cognized as officers of the U. S. senate
decided in 17oS in the Blount impeach-
ment that the senator was not a civil
officer of the United States within
the i%mpeaching clause Of the constitu-
ton and this decision has been fol-
lowed. There were many practical diff
fculties in the way of the execution of
law. The speaker Of the house ordi-
narily has no official ~existance for the
nine months Of every alternate year,
and the president Of the senate may
have no official existence at the same
time, a had repeatedly occurred, and
was a fact in the assassination of
President Garfield. In the life of the
vice president the office Of president
pro tenn Of the senate does not exist
except in the absence Of the vice presi-
dent, upon whose temperance the
president pro TEN becomes functus
oficio. The power given to congress
provides for the succession, being the
power to designate the officer already
existing. The latter must continue to
hold office, the possession Of which
qualities him for the designation as act
ing president of the United States.
Thus the speaker of the house or the
president of the senate, who acting as
president of the United States would
wield both legislative and executive
power in the government as he would
.ake part in the legislation and append
or withhold his executive signature to
that same legislation. Further, both
president of the senate and the speaker
Of the house may be Ineligible to the
presidency both by rea IN OF alienage
and homage. This was illustrated in
the case Of Clay in 1911, who was ell
ected speaker Of the house before he
was Of the presidential age, and under
the existing law II both president and
vice president had died sixty days be-
fore the first Wednesday of the present
month 1t would have been necessary to
elect a new president, who would be
sworn in on the 4th Of March next in
the middle of the long term of congress,
and IL he was to serve four years bis