Morning journal and courier., 1886-02-19
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. MIR. HDMUNDS REPORTS On The Rights Of The
 Senate. DEATH OF JOHN B. COUCH. The House Relieves Fiz
 John Porter. GLADSTONE PUTS OFF PARNELL. The British Fleet Watch
 ing the Greeks.
GLADSTONE PUTS OFF PARNELL.
THE ATTITUDE OF THE SENATE.

THE ATTITUDE OF THE SENATE l A Report From the Republicans o 1 the Judiciary Committee Which l Claims For the Senate the Right ol 1 Demand ding Information Concerning l suspensions.
 1 WASHINGTON, Feb. 1S.-The report accom- l panying the Edmunds resolutions presented 1 to-day in the Senate relates the suspension of District Attorney Duskin of the southern district of Alabama and the appointment o1 1 his successor, John D. Burnett. It then re-
 lates the action of the Judiciary committee in asking information from the Attorney l General regarding the suspension, and the tion. The important question, the report | states, is whether it is within the constitu- l tional competence of either house of Con- l gress to have access to the official papers and documents in the various public offices of 1 the United States created by laws enacted by | themselves. There is statute which com 1 mands the head ofany department excepting I that of the Treasury, to transmit to either house of Congress on it's d mand any information whatever concerning the administration of his department; 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 Con gress, it is a necessary incident that either house must have, at all times, the right to know all that officially exists takes place in any of the departments of the government. So perfectly was this proposition understood before and at the time of the formation of the constitution, that the Continental Con gress, before the adoption of the present constitution, in establishing department of foreign affairs. and providing for 8 principal officer thereof thought it fit to enact that all books, records and other papers in that office should be open to the inspection of any member of Congress, provided that copy should be taken of matters of secret nature without special leave of Congress. It was not thought necessary to enact that Cong ress itself should be entitled to the production and inspection of such papers, for that right was supposed And when, under the constitution, the department came to be created, al though the provisions that each individu al member of Congress should have access to the papers was omitted, evidently for reasons that can now be quite well understood, it
 
 tive provision should be inserted, giving to the houses of Congress the right to know the contents of the public papers and rec ords in the public offices of the country, whose laws and whose offices they were to assist in creating.
 The report expresses the opinion that there is no instance of civil governments which have bodies representative of the people of States in which the right and power of those representative bodies to obtain in one form or another information as to every paper and transaction in any of the executive depart ments thereof does not exist, even though such papers may relate to what is ordinarily an executive function, if that function in fringed upon any duty of the representative bodies, that in the very nature of things Congress is entitled to these papers. A qualification of the general right it is stated may under our constitution exist in the case of calls by the House of Representatives for paper re- lating to treaties, etc, under consideration and not yet disposed of by the President and Senate Tine committee after a careful research states that within the fore going limits there is scarcely in the history of this government until now any instance of a refusal by head of department, or even the President himself, to communicate off cial facts and information as distinguished from private and unofficial papers, motives, views, reasons and opinions to either house of Congress when uncontlitionally demanded. Indeed, the early journals of the Senate show great numbers of instances of directions to the heads of departments as of course to fur nish papers and reports of affairs both legislative and judicial. The instances of these requests to the heads of depart ments and the President upon every conceivable subject are almost innumerable. It appears to have been thought by all the Presidents that even in respect of requests to {1ar.o hty an in6a and ata branch of the government they were under constitutional duty and obligation to furnish to either house the papers called for unless, as happened in very rare instances, when the request was coupled with an appeal to the discretion of the President in respect of the danger of publicity to send the papers if in his judgment it should not be incompatible with the public welfare. Even in times of the highest party excitement and stress, as ill 1926 and in 1884, it did not seem to occur to the chief executive of the United States that it was possible that any official facts or in formation existing either in the departments created by law or within his possession could, except as before stated, be withheld from either of the houses of Congress, although such facts or information sometimes inyolv- cd very intricate and delicate matters of foreign affairs as we'll as sometimes the his tory and conduct of officers connected with the administration of affairs. An instance
 
 when the Senate was considering whether the United States should be represented in the congress of Panama. In this instance the President decided that the Senate itself should determine what should be considered in open session. Nu- merous like instances are given The jurisdiction of the two houses of Con- gress to legislation, and the power to advise or withhold advice concerning treaties and appointments, necessarily involves the juris- diction to officially know every step and ac tion of the officers of the law and all the facts touching their conduct in the posses sion of any department or even in the pos session of the President himself
 Appended to the report is statement show ing the number of suspensions by the Presf- deut as indicated by the nominations re- ceived during the first thirty days of the present session, being from the first Monday in December, 1885, to January 5, 1886, as follows: Judiciary 62; Finance T; Com merse 151; Public Lands 52; Territories 4; Indian affairs 16; Postofices PTS; Foreign Affairs 3: Pensions 6.