The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-12-15
LATEST TELEGRAMS.
FORTY SEVENTH CONGRESS
REGULAR SESSION.
SENATE.

were introduced, including one by Ed
munds for settliI g private land claims in
| certain states and territories.
By Plumb, amending section 252 Of
the Revived Statutes, providing for the
issuance Of gold certificates It substi-
tutes the word directed for authorized, so
as to make it mandatory en- the secre-
| tAry to issue certificates upon deposits Of
| gold coin and bullion.
Also, authorizing the President, when
ever in bis judgment the exigencY of the
frontier service requires it. to add 25, 600
enlisted men to the army to serve during
such exigency and not longer than one
year.
After the morning hour, the subject of
the Presidential succession was brought
up, and Beck addressed the Senate to
illustrate urgency for action.
Beck spoke of the serious difficulties
and confusion likely to arise from the
enforcement of the act of March LIST,
1892, giving the line Of succession to the
President of the Senate, or If there is
none TO the Speaker Of the House, in the
contingency therein provided for, and
referred to many instances in which, if
any such contingency had arisen, these
difficulties would have been illustrated.
He said that while the word officer in
that clause of the Constitution, empower
ing the legislature to declare what officer
shall act as provisional successor, had
been held to mean any officer Of the
United States, the only existing pro-
vision in the Law on the subjective
act Of 1792-designated officials not
recognized as officers of the United States.
The Senate decided in 1898, in Blount
parchment, that senator was not q
civil officer Of the United States
within impeaching. There were
many practical difficulties 10
the way Of the execution of this law,
The Speaker of the House, ordinarily,
has official existence for eight or nine
months, every alternate year, and the
Preei6ent of the Senate may Lave no
official existence at the same time, as had
repeatedly occurred and was fact when
the assassination of PresidentGarfeldt took
place. The.ofice of President pro tenn of
the Senate does not exist except In the
absence of the President, upon
whose temperance the President pro
tam becomes ftt1actuS o6icio. The power
given Congress provides for succession,
being power to designate an officer al
ready existing, and the latter must con-
tinue to hold Office, the possession of
which qualities him for designation as
acting President Of the United States,
thus the Speaker of the House or Presi-
dent OF the Senate, while acting as Presi-
deat of the United States, would WELD
both legislative and executive powers of
the government, ss he would take part
in legislation and append or with
hold the executive signature. To
that same legislation, further, both
the President of the Senate and
the Speaker Of the House have some
times become ineligible to the presi-
dency by reason of aliensge and OF non
age. This was illustrated in the case of
Clay, in 1911. who WAS elected Speaker
of the House before 9e was Of presidential
age, and under the existing law if both
the President and Vice-President had
died sixty days before the first Wednes-
day Of the present month, it would have
been necessary to elect q new president
who weuld be sW, IN in on the 4th of
March next, in the middle OF the long
term of Congress, and il he was to serve
four years his term would expire in the
middle of the long Congressional term.
The introduction of new cabinet and
new machinery in the MIDDLE of Con-
gress would disorgsnize all the govern
mental departments, and ought to be
provided against. Beck regarded the
substance Of the bill reported by the
judiciary committee of the Senate in $50,
making the succession fall on judges Of
the Supreme Court, officers who had
qualifications required for the pres
idency and vice-presideney as
bridging over the difficulty, He denied |
the position taken by that commit |
tee and by able lawyers, that when in |
temporary disability Of the President the |
Vice President succeeds, the President |
cannot afterwards resume the place. II
Lincoln had been captured by the con-
federstes, it would have been necessary
for Bamlin to sign, &s President, the
legislation passed, to raise men and
money to carry on the war. But decla-
ration by Hsmlin that he intended to act
the remainder of the term would have
caused q revolution IN the north. Beck was
opposed to Garland's bill Vesting sue
cession in the cabinet officers, because in
the event of the removal of the President,
the cabinet might not only be implicated
with the President, but might be shown
to have advised the offence for which he
is removed. Then, too, the cabinet min
listers may not possess the requisite
qualifications for the Presidency in sge
and nativity. He then quoted FROM an
interesting letter by the official Senate
D. F. Murphy, in response to
one from himself. giving the record of
the insertion Of the clause of the Consti-
tuition and legislation on the subject.
Money followed Beck, holding that the
Viee-President does not become Presi-
dent, nor entitled to take the oath as
such, pending the ability or disability Of
the President, but.discharges the powers
and duties of the Office by virtue Of his
Office as Viee-President, pending the
disability and no longer.
Anthony followed and elucidated the
political difficulties in the way of the en-
forcement of the act of 1872 and the
necessity for remedy therefor.