Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-25
AT THE NATIONS CAPITAL
AID To SAVE NEW ORLEANS
FROM THE FLOOD REFUSED.

FROM THE FLOOD REFUSED.
A Long Debate in the House Preceding
the Action-No Vote Yet Reached on
senator BIaine's Educational Bill
Senator Vance's Minority Report on
Retaliatory Measures Against Foreign
Countries.
WASHINGTON, March 24-The- Senate
to-day was presided over by Senator Sher-
man, who had been designated under the
rule by the Vice President for that pur-
q pose. The Chair laid before the Senate a
communication from the Attorney Gene
raj asking for an appropriation of 10000,
to be applied to the defense of the United
States in cases referred by Congress
and the Executive Departments to the
Court of Claims. These cases, the After
ney General states, cover claims amount
( ing to $50, 600, although the act under
which the cases have been referred was
passed only last year.
Mr.. Vance presented the views of the
minority of the Committee on Foreign
| Relations relative to the action and report
OF the committee on the subject of the ex-
cluslon of American meats from foreign
countries.
The following bills were reported ia
yOrably from committees and placed on
the calendar:
BY Mr.. Morgan, from the Committee on
| Public Lands-Granting the right of way
over public lands in Alabama and FlOri-
da to the Alabama Diagonal Railroad
Company. Also granting a similar right
over public lands in Alabama to the Gulf
and Chicago Railroad Company.
The bill to regulate the salaries of
United States District Judges was taken
! up. Mr.. Coke offered an amendment max
| ing Ii unlawful for any relative of the Cir-
cult or District Judge of the United States
to hold office in courts with which such
Judges are connected, and making ii a
misdemeanOr for Judge to knowingly
appoint any of his relatives to office in his
court.
THE BLAIR BILL TAKEN UP.
The bill was discussed until O'Clock
/ without a vote being reached, when Mr.
Blair's educational bill came up. In the
! course of the debate which followed Mr..
! Vance spoke in favor of the bill. The col
Ored people, he said, had been freed and
/ enfranchised by the National Government.
! The Southern States had lost so much and
had been so bled by reptilian carpet-bag
! governments that they had not been able
/ to do as much as they otherwise could
/ have done for the education of those
| people; yet those States had been held bv
! public opinion of the North to as high a
| standard of advancement in educational
! and other respects as was expected of
states or people whose civilization and
! society had not been disturbed for one
! hundred years. Not only was this
expected Of them, but the world was
made aware of it on every occa-
| sion. The Southern States had
| been investigated. Now bill was brought
! in to aid those States in educating their
/ cOlored people, and the singular spectacle
! was presented Of opposition by gentlemen
who had been moving all the powers of
/ Congress in-Order that the sick calves of
Kansas might be dOctOred. Some Obiec-
! tion might naturally have been expected
| from strict cOnStructiOniStS. but il
| came with bad grace from the gentlemen
/ from Kansas. Mr.. Vance would not
/ withhold his sympathy from sick cattle
| but would not the gentlemen from Kansas
extend their sympathy to the illiterate? /?
| As to the basis of distribution Mr.. Vance
/ thought that there was no proper basis
| but that of illiteracy. Population, as a
/ whole, was no proper basis Did the
/ Senators wish to distribute money among
college professors or members of Con-
/ gresss 1t should be distributed where it
was needed, but Mr.. Vance did not eX-
| pect the bill to pass
REPURLICAN INCONSISTENCIES.
| He had long believed, and he now saw
confirmation of his belief, that the
Senators on the other side of the chamber
were louder in professions than in acts in
behalf of the celored people. While the
| party which they represented would send
| emissarIes among the cOlored people to
band them together for political purposes
and take them to the polls, he had
/ always thought that when it came to
really doing something for those people
! there would be a failure. Hence Mr..
| Vance was not disappointed. He had no
/ doubt that the Senator from Ohio Sher-
| mani attached more value to the negro
as an ignorant person, as fruitful source
Of investigation, than he would attach to
the negro as an intelligent man and an
/ intelligent voter. No doubt he answers
the purposes of that Senator better in
| ignorance than with intelligence.
Mr.. ingalls, congratulated Mr.. Vance
on the very adrOit appeal he had addressed
! to NOrthOrn sentiment on this subject
| He had said that while the people OF
North Carolina were not asking money,
they were willing to accept it as gratuitv
for the benefit OF the colored people The
/ census tables showed that the white ilit-
/ eracy Of North Carolina was thirtV-two
/ per cent, hence the gratuity would be
/ very largely to the whites as well as to
| the blacks. The blacks of that State, in
! Mr.. Ingalls, opinion, made Il much more
H
! cation than the whites.
The principal necessity for the bill, to
| Mr.. ingalls, mind, was to be found in the
white illiteracy rather than the cOlored
/ illiteracy of the South. He read from the
/ census tables of 1880 to show the figures
| of white illiteracy. In Alabama they
/ were nearly y per cent. of the white in
! habitants, in Arkansas % per cent, in
! Florida 20 per cent, in Georgia % per
| cent, in Kentucky - per cent, in Louisi-
/ ana lSl2 per cent, in Mississippi 16 $40
! per cent, in North Carolina 81 = per cent,
/ IN South Carolina y 9-l0 per cent, in Ten
! nessee y $40 per cent, in Texas 10 3-10
| per cent, and in Virginia Is 2-10 per cent.
! How could it be said that this money was
| required, because this nation freed the
/ slaves and gave them the right of suffrage?
| The fact was that the occasion for the eX-
| penditure OF the money grew out of the
| position of the Caucasian and not of the
| colored race.
Mr.. Vance, in replying TO Mr.. Ingalls,,
said that he Mr.. Vance, had said moth
| ing about the war. That was a matter of
! history. He had argued simply that il
was the duty of those who were fit to edu-
cate them. Mr.. Vance denied that the
money of the bill was needed by the white
people for themselves. They would be
able to take care of their own education
if they did not haye so large a colOred
| pOpuldJlOils
Mr.. Ingalls, said that in 1850. in the hal
cyOn days of the old regime, there were
over $4,000 whites in North Carolina who
could not read or write, and that was a
| larger proportion of illiteracy than even
at present.
Mr.. Vance said that North Carolina, a
| poor State, had paid into the Treasury
twelve times as much money as Kansas,
a rich one; North Carolina having paid in
! in 1880 s., ,372, ,226, while Kansas paid only
$239. 762.
Mr.. Plumb inquired how much of the
! North Carolina amount had been on dis
| titled spirits?
Mr.. Vance replied about one-half of il
on whisky that had been drunk in prOhi-
! bitiOn Kansas.
Mr.. Riddleberger wished that the SEN
ate would get back to the question in
| VOlved in the bill. 1t made no difference
/ to the children, who were affected by the bill
how the necessity for it arose. If it were
right for little children to give their pen
nies to missionary societies without being
asked what their fathers politics were,
| then the Senators should eliminate poll
| tics from this question, and vote for or
against the proposition on its merits.
Mr.. Butler said that it was clear that
the Senate was not prepared to vote on
the bill to-day, and therefore he moved
that the Senate go into executive session.
1t was agreed to and when the doors
were re-opened the Senate adjourned.
IN THE HOUSE.
In the House to-day Mr.. Ellis, of Louis
lana, asked unanimous consent to intro
duce joint resolution. reciting that the
waters of the Mississippi river have risen
I to the high Water-mark of 1874 at New