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

w hat will he journal OF the Senate show
That the president of the United States
has invited the Senate to agree to remove
Mr.. Duskin, suspended. and to appoint
Burnett in his place. Now, supposing
this term has expired, and we are to vote
Eyes" for all time to come the journal
of the Senate will show that the Senate of
the United States has agreed to remove
Duskin and appoint Burnett, the profess
sions of the president of the United States
to the whole body of his countrymen hav-
ing been that Duskin ought not to be re-
moved or Burnett appointed unless Dus-
kin had been guilty of misconduct in his
office or unless, in the language of the
postmaster general, who says he speaks
for the president, Duskin has been can
offensive partisan" whatever that may
mean. That will he the record that will
be the vote that your name and mine, Mr..
President, in the journal of the Senate on
the yeas and nays would stand for
Now if in this time the period of Dus
kin's official existence has terminated,
why does not the president of the United
States tell us that the lapse of time has
changed the situation and that we have
no longer to consider what he has
asked us TO considerable removal of
Duskin-but have only to consider the
filling Of vacancy He has not done it.
Weeks and weeks have gone by since the
attention of one department of this gov
eminent has been called to a large class
of these cases and the suggestion made,
which is perfectly simple and which every
body understands, that if this term hav
ing expired you wish toput it so rs not to
force us to n false position on the records
and Journa. of the Senate, if you wish to
put it in the attitude of filling a vacancy,
we will consider that; and they say, 1--WE
will not do it," There is where they
stand. The Senate of the United States.
therefore, is compelled to act upon the
situation as the president himself presents
il.
So think am not out of place in saying
that so far as the circumstance that Mr..
Duskin is now said to be out of office by
expiration of term, is concerned, the pres
ident OF the United States and his attorney
general. who, according to his letter, con-
siders himself to be merely the obsequi
Gus servant of the president and not of
the law, say: 1--WE insist upon your decid-
ing upon the question of removing Dus
kin &; we are unwilling to change the stu
alton as history has changed it by the
vacation of this office by expiration of
term and ask you to consider whether
Burnett is suitable person to put in but
you must pass, and welnsist upon it, upon
precisely the question that the president
has submitted to you before he was out
of office, and we will not submit any new
question" Is there any honest Democrat
ic senator VINO believes in fair play who
would not say, eff you compel us to con
slider that question we must consider it
just as if this term had not expired -
There is where you stand.
Granted that the president of the United
States has the right to remove, when
he asks us to advise and consent to the
appointment of man who for six months
when this resolution was passed had been
doing the duties of that Office, and we ask
the head of that department to tell us how
that Office had been conduct ed before he
Quoted after he came in, where does
the head of that department or the
president of the United States, or
any other power get the author
ity to say that information shall be de-
MED to the Senate and by similar reason
ing denied to the House of Representa-
tives ? What the Senate has asked for is
not reasons , it is not motives it is official
facts concel ming the state and condition
of the public service, and nothing else
And when the attorney general responds
to this direction of the Senate, historic
consecutive, continuous, he does not put
himself upon the ground that Senators ON
the other side of this Chamber have put
him. They have put him into il position
that he did not choose for himself. He
does not say or intimate that we have
called for private or confidential papers or
confidential official papers he only says
that these public papers that we have
called lur-puhlic in the sense that they
are official and belong to the administra
ton OF the department-have been consid-
cred by the president of the | nited States
in making Il suspension that the law au
thorlzes INN to make, and having been
considered by the president of the United
States in doing what the law authorizes
him to do, it is not within the
competence of the Senate to know the
contents of these public and official papers
T hat is it. The attorney general tells us
| Z btt 1if.iu in,
which there is no hint or suggestion III hi
letter that they are other, having faller
under the eye of the president III respect
of.doing aduty that the law imputed to hin
they can tall under the eye of no othel
branch of this government that has duty
| in respect to the same subject. That j.
the proposition and how on anything eX-
cept the stress OF party, and, rs Demo
cratic senator Is said to have stated, the
stress OF party that depends upon some
thug to be got from the patronage of the
president OF the United States, can it be
| defended or excused
And that, sir, illustrates thing in re-
spect to which | should not quite agree
with my friend from kansas-the value Il
the infinite public interests, as this coun
! try grows more and more in population
and expansion and development, of get
| ting out from what constitutes the object
of political parties, the mere question OF
holding office. | think / am safe in say
ing-a good many better people than
have said it before, Democrats, Repub-
licans, Wings, everybody-that if you
took out of this very presence at this mo
ment the influence of executive patronage
10 be gwen to Senators and their friends
| there would not be five votes in this
Chamber against any one or all of the
resolutions proposed by the committee on
the judiciary. There is the crib, and the
OK, believe the Scripture says, knows
his masters stall.
Down toa certain day in this present
session of the Senate, following the ex.
perience of hundred years, various of
these departments following the experience
and the practice of a hundred years under
all administrations and of ali politics, had
sent to the committees of this body the
papers that touched the subjects we were
asking for. 1t was only when at last it
came to be seen that in nine cases in ten
of complaints and charges for removals
for cause, they were lies and sla nders and
! frivolous. rs the president in.his message
tells us himself, that the thing suddenly
stopped