Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-03-31


boquet of flowers adorned Senator
Kellogg's desk, while magnificent
floral ship railway, upon a sea of
violets and roses-a gift from the
ladies of Alexandria, Va, to Senator
Hill, of Georgia-ornamented that
gentleman's desk, and was greatly
admired.
On motion of Mr.. Cameron, of
Wisconsin, a resolution was adopted
authorizing the secretary of the
Senate to pay from the contingent
fund the necessary funeral expenses
of the late Senator Carpenter.
The pending business, being the
resolution for the election of the
officers of the Senate, was then taken
up.
A motion to go into executive
session was rejected-yeas 25, nays
25.
Mr.. Harris, stating that as it was
evident the Republicans did not in
tend to transact the business which
the Senate had been called here to
transact, moved that when the Sen
ate adjourn to day, it be to meet on
the first Monday in December. The
motion was lost by vote of-yeas
%, nays %.
Various other motions were made
and voted down.
Mr.. Pendleton called attention to
the inaugural address of the Presio
dent, in which he said he would ask,
in due time, Congress to fix the
tenure of minor officers Of the gov
ernment. In order that the Senate
might no longer present spectacle
of wrangling over petty offices, he
would move to go into executive
session.
Mr.. Dawes agreed that the tenure
of Office should be fixed by law, but
he did not see how an act could be
passed at this special session.
Mr.. Hill, of Georgia, read letter
issued from the Readiuster head
quarters III October, 1880, by William
Malone, in which he alluded to the
Republican party as the grip sack
party.
Mr.. Dawes replied that he did net,
but thought the Senator from Geor-
gia ought to know not only that but
every phase of every political party
that had ever come up, for certainly if
anybody had tried them all the
Senator from Georgia had.
He then proceeded to make
quite lengthy speech, in which he
said unless the untrammeled, un~
terrified and undismayed voice of
every voter in the land could tell
upon the policy and laws which he
was called upon to obey, the govern
ment of the country would be a
failure, and it was therefore a con-
fict of life and death Of this nation
that the Republican party was now
engaged in on this floor.
Mr.. Hill replying, said there was
not word in the Senator's speech
in which he did not fully concur. He
had been waiting patiently for the
appearance of the speech of the gen
tleman from Virginia (AIr. Mahone),
in order to make some reply to it.
He did not wish to misrepresent
that gentleman, but if he had un~
derstood his speech, he had made
use of some of the grossest misrep-
reservations upon the Southern
States that had ever been uttered.
He, however, did not intend to say
anything upon that subject until the
speech appeared In the Record.
There was one point to which he
! wished to call the attention of the
Senate, and to do it in no equivocal
language. He had noticed that in
nearly all Of the Republican papers
and in different speeches made on
this floor attempts to justify this
J coalition with the Senator from Vir~
ginia and his party by the charge
that they led off in favor of the rights
} of a free ballot and of a fair
count in the Southern States. No
man had had the face to say that the
Southern people were opposed to a
free ballot and fair count. de
risive laughter on the Republican
side.) They sought to imply that.
Whether stated or implied he stood
here to say that it was gratuitous,
false and untrue, and that the charge
that the Democratic party in
the South desired by force,
by fraud, by intimidation Or
by any other means to obstruct the
amendments to the Constitution, and
to prevent the enforcement of the
laws which guaranteed equal rights
to all men, without regard to race,
color, or previous condition, was
utterly untrue. He read extracts
from a speech delivered by his
colleague (Mr. Brown at At
lanta just previous to his election
to the Senate, in which he advocated
a free ballot and an honest count for
all men. In the face of that fact, he
was astonished that the gentleman
should assume that somebody must
move off in the South in favor of a
free ballot. The proposition of the
Senator from Virginia (Mr. Mahone)
was distinctly the position Of his
colleague, distinctly that of the Dem
ocratic party in Georgia, which
affirmed the approval of those senti>
ments nv a1ectino his COLLEAGUE bv