Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-02-17
LACKED SIXTEEN VOTES.
THE SENATE BILL FOR GEN.
GRANTS RELIEF.

]
The House Refuses to Give the Senate
! Bill the Necessary TwO-Thirds Vote
to Suspend the Rules and Pass the Bill
Some Blunt Remarks by ROsecrans-
Another Effort to be Made.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26.-FOr lack of 16
votes the original Senate bill directing
/ the President to place Gen. Grant on the
retired list of the army, with the rank and
pay of General, was defeated in the
| House to-day. 1t does not follow that
/ Gen. Grant will not be placed on the re-
tired list of the army before Congress adj
! jOurns. Els friends in the
| House will make at least
one attempt to get one of the Senate bills
through the House, even if they have to
make it on one of the last six days of the
| session. They think that at the next at
tempt one of the bills will pass. 1t is by
no means certain, however, either that
| the opportunity which they expect will
| come or that they will be able
to command the two-thirds majority
necessary to suspend the rules. There
| does not seem to be any way of reaching
| 1t except under suspension of the rules.
| The bill was defeated to-day as much by
/ the testiness of SlOcum and the frankness
/ of Bayne as by the blunt remark of Rose
! Grams. Had the bill been in different
| hands it weuld have passed. SlOcum is
not the man to manage delicate or diff
! cult undertaking. His speech, like those
| Of Bayne and ROsecrans, stirred up bad
| feeling. Samuel j. Randall delivered the
! best tempered speech.
sLOCUM's TRIBUTE.
In the course of the debate in the House
| to-day on the Grant retirement bill, Mr..
! Slocum said:
This bill proposes to place Gen. Grant in the
! same position which he would have occupied
| had he not lin accordance with the VIII of the
people OF the country accepted the Office of
! Chief Magistrate. In form and in language
| this bill was precisely like all bills passed for
purposes of this kind. 1t had often been said
| that much had been done for Gen Grant, but
! nothing had been done for him by the United
States Government beyond paying him his
| salaries, to which he was entitled by
! law. 1t was true that patriotic citi-
Zens had contributed to his support.
! 1t has been the custom of the English Govern
ment from time immemOrial to honor with
| high offices her military heroes, and, while he
! dld not commend to our country the example
| set by England, he did think that when a man
! had performed such services for his country
! as Gen. Grant had, 1t was right and proper
| that in his old age he should not be left to
| grapple with poverty. Gen. Grant had not
! been free from mistakes in his career, either
! as Il oOlulCf or Il ClVlIldn, Dub IN q leW years
| his late campaign in Wall street
| would be forgotten (as it ought
| to-, and the campaign which would be
remembered was the campaign from that day
| when he sent tidings which revived the
| hopes of the North to that other day when
/ he sent the news which carried JOY to every
Northern heart. All good would be re
| memDered and all mistakes would be and
| ought to be forgotten. The campaigns of
| Gen. Grant would live in history and COM
| pare favorably with the brightest and grand
/ ufh ar1fG - a
| nOblest heroes. The successful close OF the
| war under Gen. Grant made him the idol of
| the people OF the North. His generous and
noble treatment of Gen. Lee and the men
| lenlent treatment of the Southern
! people, had won for him the heart OF the
! South. He SlOcum) believed that to-day it
was the wish of the people of the South as
| well as of the North that the government
| should take care OF Gen. Grant and provide
| for HIM literally. The honor of the govern
ment at stake and he trusted that the
| bill would pass the House with the same
unanimity as it had the Senate.
OPPOSED TO THE PRESENT BILL.
Mr.. Horr said that he had demanded Il
second bill because he was opposed to the
Present bill, and not because he was opposed
| to putt! !ng Gen. Grant on the retired list. He
| would walk on his knees all over this city in
the snow IN order to accomplish that object,
was drawn for the very purpose Of preventing
Gen. Grant being put on the retired list
Mr.. Slocum suggested that the bill had been
drawn by senator Edmunds.
ATRAP FOR THE PRESIDENT.
Mr.. HOrr replied that when Senator Ed
munds had learned the bill was subject to OBJ
jections, which the President cOnscientiOusiy
| held, he had drawn another bill, which OBJ
waited those difficulties. That bill had passed
the senate, and the House Committee on Mill
tary Affairs had refused to substitute 1t for the
| pending bill. He had passed twenty years of
his life standing by Gen. Grant, who had been
/ in lls "a as M nfh har ma
was who breathed the breath of life, and now
an attempt was made to force the members
! into false position, to force them to vote for
Dill purposely (he said it designedly)
brought in here to put the executive of the
nation In tight place. If the second Ed
munds bill was substituted it would be passed
unanimously. Let not the House try to cast
stones before the people when they were de-
manding bread.
Mr.. Thomas, of Illinois, opposed the bill in
| It's present shape and expected to vote against
| II. He believed 1T was a trap to catch Re-
| pub lean votes and put the President in
| tight place. The President could not sign
| this blll and the Democrats knew that fact.
No man would go farther than he to aid Gen.
| Grant in the day of his distress, but he would
not allow himself to be placed in false pO-
sitiOn.
ROsECRANs ON GRANTS REPUTATION.
Mr.. Rosecrans, of California. regarded
the bill as plain proposition to re
ward Gen. Grant for distinguished mill
tary services, and it was his duty to
say lnaU ne could not vote Tor 1t. 1t not
his intention TO recount any of the historical
reasons why he thought Gen. Grants reputa-
tion had been exaggerated and msrepresent-
ed, and when his history came to be written 1t
would be pared down to very different di-
mensiOns; but he did not propose to 90 into
that. 1t had been to the interest of great
| political party to make Gen. Grants services
appear as large as possible for he was their
servant. Gen. Grant himself had prepared
the first two volumes of Badeau's
Life of Grant" upon which the students Of
history had placed the stamp of untrust-
wOrthiness. The public had been told that
ROsecrans would not vote for the Grant bill
| because of personal ill will. He did not
think any of his colleagues would believe he
was capable Of descending to the depth Of be-
ing governed in public duty by personal dis
likes. He did not oppose the passage of this
bill on account of any of these things to which
ne had alluded, or OF other things to which
he had not allUded-namely, the statements
made officially BY Grant which were false.
and which Grant knew to be false, and
which he (Rasecrans) had stated in his Off
clal reports to be false. 1t had been said
that Gen. Grant was poor, and that there was
nothing between him and the poorhouse, ex-
cept the income from S250,O0O, and 1t had been
circulated around by his family that the $780,
0G0 was substantially lost. That was not true.
There was another critical circumstance to
which he called attention. Congress by solemn
| act was asked to arrest what? Why the pro-
gress of public opinion for an investigation in
that confidence mill called Grant u Ward. If
the gentlemen could afford to put ligature
I
public mind, he could not
Mr.. Horr called attention to the fact that
on Feb. the President had sent to the House
message In which he a. ked that body TO act
upon a measure which would place Gen.
Grant on the retired list, and urged the pass
age of the second Senate bill.
CAUSE OF THE OPPOSITION.
Mr.. SlOcum said there had been time when
he was about as near Gen. Grant as the gen
tleman from Michigan, and intimated to the
gentleman that the opposition to the bill was
due to he fact that Gen. Grant had tried to
do justice to FItz John Porter. Even were
the pending bill vetoedit could be passed over
the veto. In the message to which Mr.. HOrr
had referred the President had given the
number of the bill which he would sign.
Suppose the President should veto this bill,
what would happenY Why in three weeks
time the house at the other end Of the avenue
would be occupied by a gentleman who would
not sticke so for his prerogatives as to threat
en- the House with veto message.
Mr.. Cox, of New York. in minute speech,
eulogized the services of Gen. Grant, and
supported the bill.
MR.. RANDALL FAYORS THE BILL.
Mr. Randall favored the measure because he
believed it to be the right procedure. Whether
1t was most expeditions he was not going to
inquire; but if this proceeding failed he was
ready to resort to some other that would be
more expeditions. [Applause.] II the friends
of Gen. Grant on this floor were divided they
would be sure to be overcome, and they would
not be free from blame. He invoked every
member who favored the retirement of Gen.
Grant to vote for the bill, and this failing, to
join with him in voting for some other I'LL
which would accomplish the result.
Mr.. Bayne regretted there were arrayed
against the bill the prejudices Of some of the
men he had conquered, the personal injuries
felt by certain persons. and the political re-
sentiment of some Republicans. This bill was
not saying to the Pre.ideAt ''you SHALL" but
Frvs hHnh haA