St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-13
FITZ JOHN PORTER.
Senator Wilson Takes a Novel Posi-
ton in Discussing the
Bill,
And Holds That There is no Such Thing
as Military Discretion While
Under Orders,
Wherein He Differs From Napolean, the
Duke of Wellington, and Other
Great Captains.
[special Telegram to the Globe. ]

+ WASHINGTON, March 12.-When the hour
of two was reached in the senate to-day Sen
ator Coke was making the well1in ring in a
speech antagonizing the pleuro-pneumonia
bill. Senator Edmunds cut him short and
announced that the special order for
that time was the Fitz John Porter BILL
Senator Miller of New York, moved to lay it
aside and go on with pleuro-pneumonia The
yeas and nays were called and Mr.. Miller's
motion was voted down by vote of % for
it and "a against it. This was not test vote
but it affords some indication of the way the
vote will stand on the passage of the
bill. Six Republicans voted against
laying aside the Porter bill. 1t is true that
they cannot be assured from this to be
favorable to the bill itself but on the other
hand Messrs. Williams and Walker voted to
go on with the cattle bill. Mr.. Walker voted
for the Porter bill last year and Mr.. Williams
was paired on that side. OF the six Republic
cans who voted to take up the bill, Hoar,
Peak and Sewell will vote for it in its passage;
Blair and Platt voted against the bill a year
ago and it is not known that they have ex-
perenced any change of opinion. Mr.. Porter
has great many friends in New Hampshire,
and Connecticut and they may have been do
ing some missionary work. Mr.. Blair may re-
member that the Porter question had some
thing to do with the election of his colleague
Pike over Rollins, who voted last year against
the bill, and Gen. Terry has good deal of
influence in Connecticut. Mr.. Riddleberger,
the last of the six is known to agree with
Malone that the Porter question should be
settled by the northern members, but he is
believed to be friendly to Porter and may vote
for the passage of the bill. Besides these
six there are two Republican senators whose
votes are confidently claimed for the bill and
one of these senators, Jones of Nevada, has
been expected to speak in favor of the bill.
Last year Mr.. Jones was paired against the
bill and if he has changed his mind his
friend Gen. Grant must be credited with ac-
comprising it. The other of these two is
Senator Sabin. Senator Jones is not here
but is probably paired whichever side he is
on. Senator Cameron, of Pennsylvania, is
also absent but said to be paired
with an opponent of the bill.
Senator Sherman declined to vote
last year. If he and the two Virginians de-
cline, there will be left to vote the thirty
seven Republicans and thirty-siX Democrats.
If the bill gets the votes of all the Democrats
and five Republicans, as it is likely to, the
vote will stand forty-one for, and thirty-two
against. A majority of ten to twelve has
been hoped for by the friends of the bill.
The only speeches made to-day, we by Sen
ators Sewell for the bill, and Wilson
against it. Mr.. Sewell unfortunately has
SO poor a voice that he could
be heard only by persons close at hand. His
voice scarcely reaches all parts of the Repub
lican side of the senate chamber and is all
lost by the galleries which were crowded to-
day, as they always are whenever this bill
comes up. Senator Wilson made very able
speech. 1t was read from manuscript, but
with such freedom that it had all the force
of an Grafton. He confined himself entirely
to the military and constitutional law
involved. He took the ground that Porter's
delay in moving from Warrenton junction
to BristoW was a disobedience of orders and
he maintained in the most positive manner
that under no circumstances was there ever
such thing as discretion in the execution of
an order In this he overruled the Archduke
Charles of Austria, the duke of Wellington,
Napoleon Bonaparte, Duparcg's treatise on
military art, and Grant, Schofeld, Terry and
Geety, but with this triiing qualification he
made a strong argument.
curious thing in this controversy is that
the greatest sticklers for absolute and mechan
zeal obedience by everybody and under all cir
cumstances are men like Senator Wilson, of
Indiana, and Representative Horn, of Michi-
gan, who never had either military education
or military experience. Senator Wilson took
occasion to make the common fling at West
Point and its associations as explaining the
friendship of certain officers for Porter,
though Pope and Mcdowell are West Point
graduates, and Terry is a volunteer officer.