The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-22
SENATORIAL DIGNITY.

Tt Is Soreiy Outraged by Publication Of Pro-
ceedings Of Secret Sessions
WASHINGTON, March 21.--The publication of
the secret proceedings Of the Senate has, il the
opinion OF senators, grown to be intolerable. It
is not alleged that any mischief hasever resulted
from such publication, nor is it denied that much
good has at times grown out OF public
comments upon matters which were under dis
cussion, and Of the expression Of the country's
judgment in regard thereto; but the dig
nifty OF the Senate Is involved in the
matter To show the extent TO which
the practice of publication has grown, it
may be said that In executive session, few
weeks ago. when the subject was incidentally re-
ferred TO, Senator Sherman said he did not see
any necessity for attempting to conceal the pro-
ceedings inthe executive sessions, since they were
always published. He had read, that morning,
an account of the proceedings of the day before.
"And how straight they got it," remarked
Senator Cameron, of Wisconsin.
Eyes, rejoined Mr. Sherman; ''they publish
our secret meetings better than they do our pub
lie oness
R2G4eedings in senatorial caucuses. too, while
ii guarded by the penalties supposed to attach
to the publication Of those of the executive SEES
sions. are given TO the public when they
are important enough to warrant publication,
greatly to the annoyance Of senators. La o
recent caucus much time was spent in discus
sion OF the subject. The transoms and windows
of the rooms were examined to see if listeners
might DO hanging about, and suggestion
was made TO withdraw to the room of the COM
mittee on commerce. which, being in the up
per story. and having only a single entrance,
was h more easily guarded, was then af re-
the caucus was 70 decide upon the membership
of certain committees, which did not seem to re-
quire more than an ordinary degree of seeresy,
and which would, in the course of things, be
made public within a few days; therefore the
proposition for removal was abandoned.
The act which has most deeply disturbed sena-
torial dignity recently was the publication of
Secretary Bayards letter on the Barrios move
ment The document had been distributed to SEN
ators, and most OF them left their copies OH their
desks at adjournment The door keepers and
others rushed about from desk to desk,
gathering up the copies hastily, but
in some way the matter got out, and
was found in the papers the next day.
is said to have been unusually interesting. and
the committee privileges and elections
directed to take the matter into consideration,
and devise ways and meaus for preventing
proposition was made to arrest and
punish correspondents who should be
found guilty of publishing executive
secrets, but Mr.. Voorhees, called attention
to the experience Of the Senate on a former oc-
casion, when the suggested course had been re-
sorted to and resulted in failure. There was
no law under which itcoud be done, ne said
Then suggestion was made and discussed to
pass law making 1t a penal offense to publish
the secret proceedings Of the Senate This
suggestion that the House of Representatives,
which entertained some old fashioned notions
regarding freedom of the press and which had
its own opinion of the dignity of the Senate,
unsslxt a1t14. mt sv.
age of such law. Several other
propositions were then made and briefly
discussed. One was to deny access to the re-
perters gallery to representatives of any paper
which should publish the proceedings of execu-
tive sessions. Another was to employ detect
ings reached the ears of the newspaper
men, and for this purpose a suggestion was made
that the contingent fund be increased by s., 900.
Senator Mcpherson did not wholly con-
and said in substance, that he did
not see that any harm had resulted
from the publication of Secretary Bayard's
letter He called attention to the fact that its
writer was willing it should be given out,
and that the Senate itself would have
given the document to the press a few
hours later had such move not been rendered
unnecessary. Thereupon the whole matter was
referred to the committee on privileges and
elections, with instructions, substantially, to
spare pains TO ascertain how confidential
documents became public property, and the COM
mittee held its meeting next morning.
The committee on rules had the same subject
under consideration to-day. but nothing of its
proceedings has become known beyond the
fact that It took steps, to provide the
do not hesitate to say that they
have now devised plan by which senatorial
secrets will be so carefully guarded that it viii
be impossible for newspaper men to learn any