News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-02-11
FROM WASHINGTON.
Correspondence of the News and Citizen.l
WASHINGTON, D. c.,
Feb, l, 1886,

The week in Congress has been an
one, though not marked by
any important legislation. Among
its salient features were debates in
the Senate on the admission of Dako-
ia to Statehood, obituary eloquence in
both Houses, and wrangle in the
lower branch over the DETACHMENT of
monuments in the Norfolk navy yard.
The Hendricks obituaries developed
another orator in the Senate. 1t was
the new Republican Senator from
Wisconsin, Mr.. Spooner. He is not
at all prepossessing in appearance,
being understood and insignificant
looking, with angular features, dish
eveled hair and sallow complexion.
But he is fluent, easy and natural, and
possesses in a marked degree all that
goes to make up the modern orator.
He made his maiden effort in the
Senate with the hardest of all SUBJ
iects, eulogy. He skilfully thread
ed his way past the pits of platitude
and exaggeration of encomium, and he
spoke without embarrassment, dealing
with his commonplace theme IN a
common-sense way that charmed the
entire Senate.
Half a dozen other Senators paid
tributes to the late Vice-President,
several of whom eulogized him for his
partisanship as if it were virtue.
1t is quite entertaining to hear U. S.
Senators read funeral orations. On
political questions one knows pretty
much what each Senator will say, and
on the floor of the Senate one hears
repeated, though often in bad En-
glish and with faulty elocution, the
same arguments that one has read
again and again in the papers. But
funeral Grafton is out of the usual
line. 1t is no easy transition from
or internal improvements, or
the electoral count question, to elegiac
oratory. Some Senators, powerful in
debate, and ready in repartee, appear
fiat and commonplace in this unfa-
miliar role.
The Pan-Electric sensation contin-
ues to grow. No publication has been
made for a year which has attracted so
much attention, or which has created
such widespread comment. And it
is difficult to understand how the tel
ephone scandal can pass away with
out compelling reconstruction of the
Cabinet, because Mr.. Garland, the
Attorney General, and Mr.. Lamar,
the Secretary of the Interior, are i'm
plicated in it. 1t is one of the great
est scandals by which any member of
any Presidents Cabinet has ever been
affected.
Since the President refuses the
Senate's late request for documents
bearing upon the official character of
certain removed Republicans, it is
thought that for some, at least, no ac-
ton will be taken upon his nomina-
tons in cases where persons succeed
suspended officials. Republican Sen a.
tors concede the right of the Presi-
dent to remove whomsoever he pleas
es, but they hold that Mr.. Cleveland
in his letter to Dorman B. Eaton, and
in his inaugural address gave up that
right. He stated that public Office
was public trust, and that no one
should be removed by him except for
cause. Republican Senators who have
had personal friends removed on in
sufficient grounds could not be expee-
ted to vote for the confirmation of
their successors.
Congress is disposed to help the
red man along in the path owards
self-support by liberal legislation.
Nearly all of the comprehensive Indi-
an bills of the present session aim to
assign land in severalty, and to en-
power the government to buy the sur
plus lands of the Indians at gener-
GUS price and to invest the proceeds
so that the various tribes will have
large annual income from this source.
Senator Teller, of Colorado, re-
marked to the Senate few days ago,
that if the Secretary of the Interior
had been empowered to take Indian
boys and girls and put them into man
uel labor schools, whether their pa
rents were willing or not, those chill
dren would have constituted hostages,
and would have prevented further In
dian wars. He thought so Apache
children placed in such schools would
save the nation millions of dollars.
Senator Logan took this occasion
to recall proposition of his own,
made to the Senate ten years ago,
saying if the Senate had agreed to it,
there would have been no Indian wars
after that time. His proposition then
was that it be made a penal offense
for any one to sell a gun or powder or
bullets to an Indian.
Sound Sense About the Newspaper
Business.
Parhanc tho wnrot nnnnlar 70 llaav