National Republican., 1884-01-21

delay in doing an act Of justice to mertoriouss
with oll his heart, and II II went so iar rs 10
demonstrate In some substantial manner t9at tne
people OF the country would be neither UNJUST nor
ungratoiul tO the brave men, he would support II
still NOR heartily.
Mr. Browne, in opposing the bill, said that nc
know thnt the defense would find II necessary 70
atlrck the living and defumo the dead, but ne nhu
not supposed that gentleman 50 deseryedly qls-
'.nguishcd Il soldier as the gentoman from New
military tribunal which had been sustnined i0r
centuries by the intilligent Judgment OF all
civilized counties. Courts.martial were the
strong arm Of military power, aud without them
military discip plue would be nt an end, court
martial e wa wss good enough i9r PGGr sGue genIiemnD m
who wore epaulcts should be brought before q
justice Of the peace in order that he might DO
rescued from the clutches of the law by village
lawyer under q writ of hRbeas corpus. Here con
gress Wns called upon to overturn the solemn
adjudication OF curt, to ccnsure its Judgment
and 10 go TO the very verge of impugning It's M
| tcgrlty, when II was safe to say not one menDer
| in twenty mad ever attempted TO read the
| voluminous record on which the Judgment was
| founded. lie went into history OF tnn case
| quoting from the evidence at some lengih ana
| deduciug therefrom the conclusion that the de-
cision Of the court martial was Just. that Porter
| had williuly dsobeyCd the orders of his com,
mandng officer, and that tho excuses presented
| for the disobedonCe were shallow and groundleSs
Mr.. McAdoo, in advocating the bill, criticised
the language used yesterday by Mr.. steele, OF IN
diana, 10 the effect that Senator Randolph had cur
| pocket He had heard IT stated that by peculiar
methods Of soap" Indiana had ouce been carried
IN the 6reeches pocket but the state 0i New @ SS,,
man alive or dead. As Tor Scnator Randolph, he
| had never heen accused of doing by indirecion
what an honorable mau would do by direction.
| He did not believe the gentlCman's assertion: to
| be true, and he was constrained through charity
TO believe tnat the gentleman had been misI"-
| formed Of the making OF them.
| Mr.. MCAdOo then proceeded TO argue IN sup.
port of setting aside the decision of an ''Glesel
| honorable court martial" which had placed the
indeibe stain OF TRAITOR on an honorable ana
upright man. 1t was said that Porter hud con
Tempt for Pope. He did not SondGr at It, hS
soldier If he had not burned with contempt ior
Pope. Pope had played the part of an imbc,.
cile and by his want of generalship and want Of
| brains had allowed his army to be defeated. NO
military critic had been able to sustain the man
asement Of Gen. Pope. 1t was said thal Porter
| sacrificed his own honor TO be revenged upon
| P0ue. That was preposerous. a.
| Mr. Slocum said that he had no desire TO cut on
debate on this bill. IL would probably continue
chose u take some other action. He would make
no movement in that direction himself It was
painful for him to read in the papers that this dis.
cussion was distasteful TO the people and regarded
as unprUiitablc. He thought that the newspapers
wcrs entirely mistaken in this respect. the peo-
Pile for the last twenty years had been laboring
under the impression that Gems. Grant Schoheld,
and Terry and others of that class knew some
thing about military matters II had become ap'
parent from this discussion that the people were
mistaken. No more profitable thing could dc done
than for congress TO tell the world now much ~
knew about military affairs If congress could
tell Grant, Schofeld, and Terry all it knew about
military matters the army might be a9ollshed.
Mr.. T.. b. Taylor, of Ohio, inquired how, II con-
gress knew nothing about the matter, member'
were to decide how to vote.
Mr. Slocum replied that not ten men knew more
about the case to-day than they did yesterday
morning. There never was such an nbsurdity
perpetrated in any representative body as hat
Leen enacted here-tor Sgg gentlemen, knowing
a subject about what they knew nothing whatever
and never would know anything. lLaughter.
He moved that the committee rise
, Tile last remark of Mr.. Slocum was received
with Indignation by the republicans and as the!
were in the majority they voted down the noiiol
Mr. j. s. Wise asked Mr. slocum whether hii
statement was in truth and in fact his view OF the
case He lWisel was here as an utter stranger an gr =
to vote intGlligently OH the matter; u; If the gen
tleman was in earnest in saying that members di'
! not know anything about 1t, and never would, n
was disposed to vote to leave the Judgment of tn
court-martial stand, because 1t was supposed 7
know something about it. Laughter and applaus
,, Mr.. Socum said that what he meant by hi
! statement was simply that the house was com
! posed of men who mad never made study q
I military matters and were incompetent to unde.
! stand this questOn-utterly incompetent Tn
idea of man standing here and talking aoou
the effect of throwing brigade to the left or d
vision to the right, when ninety mine men out c
a hundred did not know whether brigade wa
. larger or smaller than divisionl lContemptuou
l laughter on republican side.
g MIR. IIorr OF Michigan. Then why did you brin
y this bill in?
: Mr.. SlOcum. We did not bring the bill her,
James A. Garfield. In the forty-hird congress, III
: : troduced resolution that brought tho Dill her
| lie Is the author of this bill. II comes from II
: own recommendation.
Q A republican. Go on. If you can't kill tn
! | bill we can't.
s Mr.. f. II. Taylor said that he had never thougl
y ! anybody could say that the members of the hou'
y were not competent, individually and aggregated
to dispose of busiuesS brought before it, But thu
Z was the statement of the author of the bill nm
g he left 1t for him and the house to consider ho
q much of respect or dsrespect TO the house was IL
o cluded Ill those words. He knew of no collecti'
" body which could arrive more surely AZ a just co
: cluson in relation to all the facts in this cnse tina
the house of representatives. When the gcntl'
u man from New York suggested TO him that
; was not competent to decide the question +
i himself he denied 1t. If he could not decide
o he would not make q mockery of his action nj
y vote upon 1t. Applause.
y Mr.. Taylor then passed on TO consideration
q the case but in Il few moments yielded to IN
y tion to arise, which was carried, aud the hou
% ut 3 o'clock adjourned.
|