Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-05-07

cupyinu much of the time of the Senate
a month ago, was very imperfectly re-
ported at the time in the telegraphic sum-
mary which is all that the general public
get in the way of report of Congress
sional proceedings.
AS the issue is still an open one, it is
perhaps not too late to look back to the
full reports given in the Congressional
Record, with especial reference to the
part taken by our Vermont Senator'S
The debate, as our readers remember,
was opened by Senator Edmunds in
speech which was accepted by all except
the extreme partisans of the administra-
ton, as a calm, dispassionate, able and
convincing argument. Its key note was
the idea embodied in a remark quoted by
the Senator from speech of Senator
Hayne of South Carolina, made sixty years
ago: "rhis new doctrine of confidence
in rulers is not the ground, | apprehend,
on which the Senate ought to act in full
filling their constitutional duty of giving
advice to the president. If we are to act
by faith and not by knowledge we have
no business to be here" Mr. Edmunds
showed. by quotations from the statutes
and by citation of long line of prece-
dents, the right and the practice of the
senate to call for any papers it desired and
needed from the files of the departments
and the practice of previous presidents to
furnish such papers to the Senate and he
demonstrated, in way which proved to
be unanswerable the folly and inconsist-
ency of the position assumed by Mr..
Cleveland, that the Senate was entitled to
the papers upon which he made his dp-
pointmentS, and which thus related to
matter exclusively within his control I;
but was not entitled TO the papers relating
to the suspension of federal officers who
by law and the terms of their commits
sions were to hold their commissions until
the Senate agreed to remove them. AS
pretty full abstract of the speech was
given in our columns at the time, we need
not further describe it.
Senator Morrill, first took part in the
discussion about week later Referring
to some statements made by Mr.. Kenna
of West Virginia in his reply to Mr.. Ed
munds, Mr.. Morrill, brought out the quite
significant fact that the decision of the
President to withhold papers relating to
suspensions was an afterthought. This
administration began on the principle of
supplying papers of this sort to the Sen
ate, like other administrations before it ;
and the discovery by the President that
the Senate had no right to call for, and
that it was his privilege to deny such pa
pers and that he might burn them or
take them to his home at Buffalo if he
chose, was later affair. Mr. Morrill, said :
When we arrived here early in Deem
Der last, it was promulgated that this adj
ministration and especially the treasury
department was to be administered on
hlSiDpSS DrlnclDlpS. and. therefore. the
committee on finance pursued their usual
routine of business and sent a letter, as
they had long been in the habit of doing
to the secretary of the treasury in rela-
ton to the suspension of a collector of an
internai-revenue dlstrict-it is no matter
where-aud we received from he depart
ment of the treasury the following re-
SponSe
TREASURY DEPARTMENT.
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
WASHINGTON, ID. C., Dee. 1888. J
My DEAR SIR: have the honor to ac-
knowlcdg" the 'ccc pit of your letter of the
18th instant, making inquiry rs to the reH-
sons for the suspension OF from the Office
of collector of internal revenue for the TWEEN
ty-iirst district of --, and asking that any
papers IN reference thereto he forwarded to
the finance committee Of the senate.
have to say, in reply, that Mr.. -- was
appointed collector Of Internal revenue for
the district named on the 29th dry of July
1882. During the recess of the Senate the
president and this department, became salts
ned that MIR. --- was not dschargng the
duties of his Office efficiently, or in accordance
with proper business methods. As evidence
of his unttness a letter written by him TO the
private secrettry of the president is hereto
annexed.
There are no other reasons for such suspen-
sion in any papers on file IN this d parJmcnt.
Yours, respectfully,
DANIEL MANNING.
HON. JUSTIN S, MORRILL,,
Chairman OF the committee on finance, L. 5.
Senate.
Int, latta f,ix oh, do, 4
satisfactory reasons for the suspension of
this man, and there We're also other pa
pers sent, and received and wish to say
that the papers III support of the reasons
given by the secretary were satisfactory
to the committee on finance
1t would seem that here was an ex-
ample set that we might very well be al
lowed to follow and did follow and it is
the same policy we have pursued ever
since have been member of the com
mittee on finance, and we have never had
refusal until recently of full and salts
factory replies to any application to the
treasury department for papers or infor-
nation.
Mr.. President, when man is proposed
for an Office it has always been the prac-
tice of the committee on finance, if there
were any charges made against his char
acter, official or personal, to give his
friends and the person himself an oppor-
tunity of making proper defense. We
have even at this session gone so far in
two instances as to permit the parties
themselves to appear before the commit
tee on finance to make any explanation of
the charges or any argument in their de
Tense that to them might seem proper.
Let me say that it would seem to appear
as justice and equity to all parties that
the parties who are about to quit office, to
be turned out, if they are worthy of it,
should 90 with as clean a bill of health as
the parties that are to succeed them That
is the only point in the controversy so far
as the committee on finance have made it :
that is to say, if there were charges or
reasonable grounds of suspicion that there
were any charges against any parties sus-
pended, they had a right To know it, or
they had n right to know it if their record
was clean and correct one. The reputa-
ton of a man going out of Office is as pre-
cious as that of the man coming in
-. e. Il.