The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-02-25
THE EDMUNDS REPORT.

Report OF Majority of the Senate Judi
ciary Committee Upon the Matter of
Furnishing Papers in Regard to Removals
and Suspensions From ONCE.
| WASHINGTON, Feb. 19.-In the Senate
yesterday Mr.. Edmunds, from the Judiciary
Committee, submitted the following:
R,solUed. That the Senate hereby expresses
Its condemnation of the refusal of the At
torney General under whatever influence to
send to the Senate copies of the papers
called for b. its resOlut on of January * and
set forth in the reports of the Committee on
Judiciary in violation of his Official DUTY and
! n subyentlon of the fundamental PRINCIPLES
of the Government and good administration
thereof.
Resolved. That it is, under those circum-
stances. the duty of the Senate to refuse its
advice and consent to the proposed removals
OF ofhcers. documents and papers in refer
ence to the supposed Official or personal mis-
conduct OF whom are withheld by the exec
utlve or any head of a department when
| deemed necessary by the Senate and called
Tor IN considering the matter.
Another resolution declares that the sec
ton of the Civil Service rules in regard to
hOnOrably discharged Union soldiers ought
to be faithfully and fully put into execu-
ton.
The report is signed by Messrs. Edmunds,
Ingalls,, Mcmillan, HOar, Wilson and Evarts
1t recites the circumstances of the removal
of Dustin and the appointment of his sue
cesSOr as United States ATTORNEY for the
Southern District of Alabama; declares that
it has been the uniform practice of the Ju-
dietary Committee since the passage of the
tenure of office act to call upUa the heads
Of departments for all papers and infOrina-
ton in the possession of the department
touching the conduct and administration
of the officer proposed to be removed and
the character and conduct of the person
proposed to be appointed. This has been
done with the unanimous approval of all
the members, although the composition of
the committee had been during that period
some times of one political character and
some times of anOther. One of the appen-
dices of tile report contains list showing
the numbers of officials of various ranks
who were suspended or removed by the
President during the first thirty days of the
present session of Congress.
The report quotes the resolution adopted
by the Senate calling upon the Attorney
General for the papers in the above men,
toned case and his reply thereto, and con-
tinues:
This letter, although in response to the
direction OF the Senate that copies of any
papers bearing on the subject within a
given time be transmitted, assumes that the
Attorney General of the United States is
The servant of the President and is to give
or withhold copies of documents in his Of
lice according to the will of the Executive
and not otherwise. Your committee is un-
able to discover either in the original of the
act creating the Office of Attorney General
or in the act creating the Department of
Justice any provision which makes the At
tOrney General of the United States in any
sense the servant of or controlled by the
Executive in the performance of the duties
imputed to him by law or the nature of his
office. The Executive is bound by the Con-
stitution and by his oath to take care that
the laws be faithfully executed, and he is
himself as much bound by the regulations
of the law as the humblest officer in the
service of the United States, and lie can
not have authority to undertake to faith
fully execute the laws whether applied to
his own special functions or those of the
departments created by law, otherwise
than By causing, so far as he lawfully and
10y lawful methods can, the heads OF depart
ments and other officers of the United
States to perform the duties which the law
and not his will has imputed to them.
THE important question, then, is whether
Il is within the constitutional competence of
either house of Congress to have access to
the official papers and documents in the
various public offices of the United States
created by laws enacted by themselves. 1t
may be fully admitted that, except in re-
spect of the Department of the Treasury,
that there is 10 Statute which COM
mands the head of any department
to transmit to either house of Con- |
greSs on its demand any information con- |
corning the administration OF his depart |
ment, but the committee believes it to be !
clear that from the very nature of the !
powers entrusted by the constitution to the |
two houses of Congress that it is a neces- |
sary incident that either house must have |
al all times the right to know what officially |
exists or takes place in any of the depart |
ments of the Government.
The committee feels authorized to state, |
after a somewhat careful research, that |
within the foregoing limits there is scarcely |
until now any instance of refusal by |
head of a department. or even of the Presi- |
dent himself. TO communicate official facts |
or information as distinguished from pri |
vate and unofficial papers, motives, views, |
reasons and opinions to either house of |
Congress when Internationally demanded. |
Indeed, the early journals of the Senate |
show a great number of Instances OF direc-
tons to the heads of departments, as of |
course, to furnish papers and reports upon |
all sorts of affairs, both legislative and eX-
ecutiye.
''The instances of requests to the Presi-
dent and command of the heads of depart
ments by each house of Congress from the
early days until now for papers and infor-
nation on every conceivable subject of
public affairs are almost innumer-
able. For it appears to have been thought
by ali the Presidents who have carried on
the Government now for almost a century
that, even in respect to requests OF them by
an independent and coordinate branch of
they were under a cOnStitu-
tiOnal duty and obligation to furnish to
either house the papers called for, unless it
has happened in rare instances when the re
quest was coupled with an appeal 10 the
discretion of the President in respect of the
danger of publicity to send the paper, if
in his Judgment it should not be incompat-
IDLE with the public welfare"
The precedentS 10 establish this prCpO-
sition are cited and discussed at great
length, and the report continues as fol-
OwS:
'The committee feels safe in stating that,
from the reseaI Gil il has made. the cO"rse of
tho Government has been constant and con-
tinuOuS and unchanged from the beginning
until now, and that, in its belief. no in
stance within the principles and limitations
before stated has occurred, in which calls
for official papers and flies, addressed either
10 the President in the form of requests or
to the heads of departments in the form of
have not been complied with,
out it has sometimes happened, where the
request to the President was merely a con-
ltional one, leaving it to his discretion
whether the papers should be cOmmunica-
ed or not, that they have not been COM
nunicated. The practical construction of
he constitution in these respects by
III branches of the Government fnr |