Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-09-18

tNO Hciu Aof tcNA1AOHIJ tcdsc W pIAubf ~.
By this "leave to print" man has his
speech printed instead of speaking il, and he
then circulates it; because you can see that
if all the speeches printed were spoken, it
would take & whole session to discuss q few
bills; you can make the count of the speak
ers yourselves.
THE OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT.
OFFIcE OF PUBLIc PRINTER, l
WASHINGTON, D. c., Aug. ., 1854.
Hon. =. d. Taylor, M. c., WasAisgtOs,
d. c.:
DEAR SIR-In compliance with your re-
! quest of this date, have the honor to hand
/ you herewith q statement from Mr.. Aven
Pearson, foreman of the Congressional Rec
ord, In regard to the number of 'leaves to
print" and those withheld for revision" in
the 45th, 18th, 47th and 4Sth Congresses, as
shown by the records in his office. / have
examined and compared the statement with
the records, and find the same to be correct.
Very respectfully yours,
8. P. ROUNDS,
Public Printer.
| Following IL Mr.. Pearson's transcript:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE,
OrFIcK OF CONGRESSIONAL RRcoRD,
WARRINGTON, D. c., Aug. q, 1884.
Hon. S. p. Rounds, Public Printer:
DEAR SIR-In compliance with your di-
rection to examine the book kept in this
office showing the names of members of Con-
| gress who made speeches which they with
held for revision, and of those who obtained
leave of the House to print in the Record
speeches which had not been delivered in
the 45th, 46th, 47th and 4Sth Congresses, and
report the number to you, / have the honor
to say that have made careful sxsmina-
ton and find the following:
Forty-ffth Congress-Speeches withheld
for revision, 240; leaves to print, 247.
Forty-sixth Congress Speeches withheld
for revision, 303 Of this number Hon. A.
J. Warner had two. Leaves to print, 90.
| OF this number Hon. A. J. Warner had one.
Forty seventh Congress-Speeches with
held for revision, 3S2; leaves to print, 156.
| FOrty-eighth Congress withheld
for revision, 258. [Of this number Hon. A.
]. Warner had two.] Leaves to print, 76
1t will be understood that "leaves to print"
are speeches which are not spoken in the
House, and speeches withheld for revision"
have been in part at least. Sometimes
member of the House delivers a portion of
q speech and asks leave to print the remain
| der.
In these four Congresses over twenty gen.
eral leaves to print were given on different
| bills, on which any member of the House
had the right to have remarks printed in
| the Record.
On May 8, 1879, Hon. A. J. Warner de-
livered q speech in the House which was
printed in the Record May 8.
On January IS, 1881, he had leave to print
remarks on the funding bill, which we're
printed on the 9th of the same month.
On February Is, 1881, he spoke on the
river and harbor bill. The speech was print
ed on the 18th of March.
On April 1, 1884, he delivered speech
on the Trade dollar, which was printed on
| the 18th.
On April 80, 1884, he delivered speech
on the tariff, which was printed on the 4th of
May.
Four of these speeches were withheld by
| him for revision, and were set up from the
manuscript returned by him.
Very respectfully,
AvEN PEARSON,
Foreman Congressional Record.
I will say another thing, that had done
anything wrong about this thing / would
have been just as frank to own it as Gen.
! Warren is to accuse me.
| 1 carried these interrogatories to the
highest authority, Hon. Edward Mcpherson,
for many years member of Congress, four
teen years Clerk of the House, student of
parliamentary law, and the editor of many
| political books. And / have here a long
letter from him, which l will publish, but
| which will not take time to read, in which
he endorsed every step that l took, and
every step that I claimed, as you will see
when the letter is published. Mr.. McPher-
son also cites the fact that the Hon. S. S.
| Cox, who has been eighteen or twenty years
| in Congress, and than whom no man is more
| familiar with parliamentary law, that Mr..
| Cox spoke only five minutes in the House
and obtained 'leave to print" and that then
he had printed in the Congressional Record
a speech he had delivered before the Tam
many Society, and which had been published
| in the daily papers, he only putting in a few
| paragraphs after the introduction, and add
ing one paragraph when he closed. And [
have here whole bundle of speeches (but
| l have not the time to go over them) that
were printed on leave; and among them are
the productions of the most distinguished
members, and some of the finest speeches
that ever read, speeches that will be printed
and pointed to when Gen. Warmers speeches
are forgotten and gone out of sight entirely
| Mr.. Mcpherson makes the further point
| that there is nothing personal in this speech
| of mine. Mr.. Mcpherson says that mans
| public acts are open to criticism, and that a
| member of Congress can not get rid of
criticism by running off; even if he does go
| to Democratic convention. If l had said
something rejecting on his personal charac-
ter, rejecting on his personal honesty, that
would have been personal.
| will read the following extract from Mr..
| McPherson's letter:
| Third. / have examined with consider
able care your speech printed in the Record
of the lst of August, and do not think there
is ANYTHING in it which violates the rules or
practice of the House. If you had incor-
| porated in your speech anything personally
offensive to a member of the House it would
have been an abuse of the privilege to print;
but criticism, parliamentary in terms, of
the action of any portion of the House, OF
any member of the House, is always per-
missible, whether in the absence or presence
| of the person affected. If this were other
wise, all that would be necessary for mem
| Der who desired to avoid criticism on his
public acts would be to absent himself from
the sitting until the opportunity for making
| the criticism had passed"
The gentleman has given out the idea,
however, as took it in his letter-and it is
SO understood all over the country-that it
would be contemptibly mean thing if
man should circulate speech that he did
not deliver in the House. Why l have
heard of Democratic justice of the peace
who said that he had intended to vote for
me. but that if he found out that l had not
| spoken that speech he would not do it. He
was honest, but he was msled in his con-
clusions by this letter of Gen. Warmers.
| The testimony of members of Congress
which have produced here, as well as the
Record itself, proves that l did deliver the
| speech in the manner / have heretofore
stated. How is it with General Warner1
| want to show you how much he changes.
| He made speech on the trade dollar last
session, since he became a great man and
! great statesman. As the reporter took It down
there were SO pages in that speech. These
reporters write on every other line so as to
| give the speakers in revising plenty of room
to write. l went to the government print
| ing Office the other day because was not
coming here with my finger in my mouth)
and saw the original manuscript of that
speech. have letter here from the fore
man of the Congressional Record, Wash
| ington, d. c., which will read:
OFFICE OF PUBLIC PRINTER,
| WAsHINeToN, d. c., Aug. %, 1884,
Hon. =. d. Taylor, N. C., WaShington,
ID. c.:
r.. 4 l4t...