The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-18
PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS.
THE SENATE.
for the Suppression of the
Cattle Disease Passed.

repeal of the law authorizing the coinage of sill
yer dollars
Mr.. Allison presented a joint resolution of the
General Assembly of Iowa in relation to pleuro-
pneumonia, and urging the adoption of means
for extirpation.
Messrs. Mcmillan, Palmer and Henderson
presented petitions from citizens of their respect
i've States, praying that Congress propose six
teenth amendment prohibiting the disfranchise
ment of citizens on account of sex
Mr.. Vest, from the mercantile bodies of st.
Louis presented petition praying an extension
of the bonded period on whisky.
Mr.. Hoar offered resolution calling upon the
Secretary of the Interior to report to the Senate
the names of parties who have had pension APP
plications pending for more than two years, and
to show the condition of such applications and
the reasons why they have not been disposed of.
Mr.. Hoar said inquiries were very numerous
from all parts of the country as to pension cases
undisposed of. No tragedy could be put on the
stage, Mr.. Hoar said, which ought more to move
the feeling of right-minded men, especially
American legislators, than the stories which
come to us day after day, week after week,
month after month, and year after year, of
hopes deferred, of poverty, sorrow, and agony
of men who suffered wounds and privations and
gave up their strength and health for their
country, and the widow and orphans of those
who have given their lives for it. Mr.. Hoar
found no fault with the Pension Office. but
something could be done to help forward pen
sion eases.
Mr.. Dawes said the principal difficulty was in
the expansion Of claim agents, who gather in
pension claims by the thousands and tens of
thousands. If these agencies could be con
densed or obterated and the applicant deal di-
rectly with the government or member of Con
gress there would be more hope for claims.
Mr. salisbury said the chief difficulty was
with claim agents
Mr. ingalls, repealed the suggestion that large
numbers of just and proven claims were undis-
posed Of and that hundreds and thousands of
mon entitled to pensions were stravilig to death.
No government had been more liberal than that
OF the United States, and there was no
ground for charging it with negligence
III this matter. Such charges created
wrong impression in the country.
The difficulty was that large numbers of APP
plicants had not proved their right to pension.
Dir. ingalls, believed so few proven cases were at
present undisposed of in the Pension Office that
one weeks time would suffice for their disposal.
Mr.. Mitchell thought pension attorneys ought
to be called pension sharks" They were the
parties who were principally responsible for the
difficulties in the way.
The resolution was referred to the committee
on pensions.
Mr.. VanWycI offered the following resolution.
which was agreed to:
Resolved, That the committee on public lands be
directed to inquire in what manner large quantities of
public lands have become transferred to possessed
by foreign corporations or syndcates, and what if
any legislation is advisable to prevent such transfers
or possession"
Bills were reported favorably from the com
nittee and placed on the calendar:
BY Mr.. Hoar, from the committee on judi
eiary To fix the salaries of judges of United
States district courts at S. 600.
By Mr.. Doph, from the committee on public
l.. m. Il. IL
lands of the United States to the Lost Lake and
Mount Hood Improvement Company.
By Mr.. ingalls,, from the committee on jul
dietary: To compel the prosecution Of proceed
ings IN bankruptcy to final decree.
Mr.. Garland, from the Judiciary committee
reported adversely the bill providing for two
additional associate justices of the Supreme
Court of Dakota. The bill was indefinitely post
poned
Mr.. Plrpnb's joint resolution appropriating
$23 900 for the suppression of the foot and
mouth disease was taken up and Mr.. Rayard
addressed the Senate He said police powers
Lad always been exercised by the State and not
by the general government, and in his belief
there no authority in the Constitution for the
power sought to be bestowed by this measure. The
utter inadequacy of the appropriation proposed
$4,000, was very apparent, but, if Congress
We're authorized to make such an appropriation
at all this would be followed by claims for 81
800 900 for cattle slaughtered in order to accom-
plish the eradication Of diseases. Such wide
opening in the power of Congress were scarcely
calculable, to say nothing of the improper as
sumption Of the police power and local govern
ment If the measure passed there must in the
near future come the reasssrtion of the princ-
pies of local self government.
Mr.. Pendeton said he had not been able to
bring himself to full approval of Dir. Cokes
amendment, which would strike out the word
Kansas from the original resolution, so as to
make the fund applicable to all States affected
He thought he had seen in the debates on this
Sl1bJ a sITIt gbO
that there was i'll the United government a def
cheney of power to do thing contemplated, and
that this resolution would exc out that authority
II the Urited States government has the power
contemplated, there was no necessity and no
pPopriety in the pfoviso requiring the consent of
the State government. If Congress has not the
power contemplated, then no assent which the
State could give would come within the provis
glad to see the assent of the State government to
every action of Congress affecting it, yet he was
opposed to asking States for their assent.
Il am too good States rights man, said Mr..
Pendleton, too strict constructionist, to adj
NIT that in anything the action of a State (other
than in the prescribed form of making amend
ments to the Constitution, and other than in
cases expressly provided in the Consti-
federal government" There was no
power in the State to give
the consent provided for in this resolution. The
United States government had no original, in
hefehb power, and no power arising from ne
cessity, except what had been conveyed by the
Constitution. Massachusetts had always been
jealous of the power of the crown, and when she
came to ratify the Constitution of the United
States, she remembered the causes which had
led to Lexington and Concord, and ratified the
Constitution with the express understanding
thatno amendment should be adopted by which in
her own words, undue administration should
enlarge the powers given by the Constitution to
the federal government and pervert the purposes
for which those powers were given" and
under her leadership, declaring that all powers
not delegated to the United States or prohibited
to the States should be reserved to the States
and to the people The Constitution was a grant
and not a limitation. If man had no ewes his
want of sight would not be due to the obstruc-
ton to his vision, but to the absence of any
igin T.