The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-09
PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS.
THE SENATE.
Debate on the Question of Legislation on
Appropriation Bills.

duced was one by Mr.. Allison, relating to fees of
pension-olaims agents and attorneys. He said
he did not wish to be responsible for all its pro-
visions, but they were identical with the provis-
ions found in the pension bill recently passed by
the House. 1t was general legislation. he said,
and repeated all the legislative provisions con-
tanned in the pension appropriation bill of last
year. There was now great complaint that the
legislation of last year was hasty and unjust to
the soldiers of the country and it had been indi-
rectly charged that the Senate was responsible
for that legislation. The fact was that the legs-
lation of last year came from the
House on a regular bin. Under the
rules of the Senate there was possibility
of having well considered legislation on an ap-
preparation bill. because amendments could not
be offered nor debate had with respect to it. He
introduced this bill in order that it might be
ferred to the committee on pensions and care
fully considered in committee and in the Senate.
1t was said that under the legislation of last year.
claim agents were depressing pension applicants.
If so, the fact should be ascertained at the ear
hest moment, and remedy applied He ex-
pressed the hope that the pensions committee
would be able to report speedily on the subject
If the present bill did not reach the evil, the
Senate should be informed of the fact. Mr.
Allison deprecated the whole practice of putting
general legislation on appropriation bills.
Mr.. Beck agreed with Mr.. Allison as to the
improperly of attaching general legislation pro-
visions to appropriation bills; but the pension
appropriation bill was not the only bill to which
such provisions were attached. The Senate was
obliged either to adopt that legislation lose the
bill. The remedy. Mr. Beck said, was in an
amendment to the joint rules which would pro-
hibit the Senate from agreeing to provisions OF
general legislation on appropriation bills.
Mr.. Harris thought the Senate should strike
1..Ae ~1,~ H.
every feature of the character referred to. He,
for one was prepared not only to so strike out,
but to stand firmly by the striking out.
Mr.. Dawes explained that the Senate eonferees
had objected to the legislation last year, and re-
jected it; but the House refused to pass the bill
without it,
Mr.. Hale said the remedy suggested by Mr..
Harris was the only remedy, and no matter how
important the legis lative provisions might be,
when found on appropriation bills it should be
struck out.
Mr.. Ingalls, said he had listened with interest
to the Senators who had roared so loudly, and
Numbered in the index upon the improperly
Of general legislation upon appropriation bills
He admired the vigor with which the Senator
from Tennessee [9lr. Harris], with resounding
clamor, smote his desk and declared that he for
one, was willing to stand up in solid phalanx,
and declare the House should be resisted, if
necessary, to the death. That amusing comedy
had been repeated over and over again, iterum
iterum que, for the past five years. We had
repeatedly resolved that there should
be no legislation on appropriation bills;
we had declared that the practice was
vicious; we had withdrawn ourselves and gone
up into high mountain, and declared we would
have nothing to do with it. Mr.. Ingalls, criti-
cised the action of the appropriations committee
and the conference committees OF the Senate,
which always yielded, he said, to the House on
this point, no matter what merits the question
involved. In the twelve years of his presence in
the Senate he had never heard Senate conferees
report that House committee had yielded.
The Senate, he said, was the only body which he
knew that had voluntarily cast itself into q
dungeon, and loaded itself with chains, and let
its adversary go free The Senate needed no
joint vote on the subject under debate; it only
needed to take stand and adhere to it.
Mr. Hale said it was easy to claim that another
body had more backbone than this body but the
Senate was liable to be confronted any moment,
in such bill, with legislation so inherently and
strictly just that the Senate would hardly feel it
ought not to pass. The pension bill was case
in point. Hundreds of thousands of worthy
people were interested in that bill, and if the
House should put in it provision intended to
remedy grievance against which those people
have been loudly protesting, senator would
feel like disregarding it if confronted with such
provision in the last days of the session, and
with the danger that the bill might fail if that
provision was not agreed to-
Mr. Allison thought the appropriations commit
tee should thank Mr.. Ingalls, for the implied COM
mittee. If Mr.. Ingas's statements were true,
that committee was able at its will and pleas
uPe, to lead seventy six members of the Senate
He would remind Mr.. ingalls, that when he Mr..
lngallsl was engaged, toward the close of the
session, in packing his trunk for trip to Kan
sas the committee on appropriations was still
diligently at work in effort to reach a con-
cusion regarding that same appropriation bill
The government had to go on; it could not go on
without money; and so the differences between
two hOuSnG in 10 ha
posed. Mr.. Allison cited many instances in
which Senate conference committees had sue
ceeded in getting house committee to with
draw provisions to which the Senate had
objected. 1t may be, he said, that
the 4th of next March. would be upon us before
the completion of the pension bill, and an i'm
mediate session of the Forty ninth Congress
might be necessary. For his part. he was per-
fectly willing to remain and let the men who
were to come i'll on the 4th Of March deal with
that question. The navy was now being run
without any appropriation, because the two
houses were at disagreement on an appropria-
ton BILL 1t was easy Mr. Allison continued,
for senators to stand up and scold the com
mittee on appropriations, and with genial and
courteous phillippic talk of its surrendering to
the House. The senator from Kansas Mr.. In
gals should bear in mind that the members of
that committee were mortal men, not such men
as the senator from Kansas. They had
more infrmities than he but they did
the best they could; and when the
committee did not do what the Senate
thought the proper thing, he Mr. Allisonl
wanted the entire body of senators to tell the
committee SO.
Mr. Mitchell said, in regard to the complaints
about the pension law, that difficulty would have
been avoided if the bill reported last session
from the Senate committee on pensions had be-
come law.
The bill introduced by Mr. Allison was then
referred to the committee on pensions
Mr.. Hawley offered resolution, which lies
over one day, requesting the President, if not
incompatible with the public interest, to COM
munlcate to the Senate an historical statement
concerning the public policy of the executive
department of the Confederate States during
the late war, reported to have been lately fled
in the War Department by General Sherman
Mr. Lapham then addressed the Senate on the
subject of commercial treaties, and controverted
the argument that they were unconstitutional.
On conclusion Of Mr.. Laphan's remarks Mr.
Morrill,. in moving to refer TO the finance COM