Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-07-10
THE PRESIDENT REBUKED.

Inc response OF the senatorial COMMITS
tee to the Presidents wholesale veto of
pension bills is one of the most sarcastic.
incisive and forcible of papers. The COM
mittee, in advising certain bills to be
passed despite the veto of the Executive
takes occasion to say that the coarseness
and ridicule of the messages of the Presi-
dent on this pension subject would Justify
replies OF q singing and abusive character
and of 2 like approach to brutality, but the
committee does net propose TO make any
such precedent for a Senate body, no
matter what the President may do for the
writers of subsequent veto messages. Say
the committee
SO great has become the number of such We
toes imposed by the present Executive ali within
few weeks past, and extraordinary the
censure, sometimes rudely expressed. and in
nearly every instance severely implied of the
action of the two houses of Congress and of
their committees upon which has deyolved the
wearisome and generally unappreciated labor
of investigating these claims, accompanied in
many eases by such ridieule Of and evident dis
gust with, the claims themselves that your
committee feel that they are justified in q brief
| view of the circumstances Involved. In doing
this strong effort will be made to restrain not
unnatural feeling of Indignation, which, If per
mltted to assume the proportions which the
| proyOcatiOn justifies would wholly destroy
| those respectful forms of expression which must
| be maintained in official intercourse between
| the different officers and departments of the
| Government. This becomes the more necessary
in proportion as it is rendered the more difficult
| by reason OF the unjust and unexampled style
in which some of the message of the President
are expressed 1t shall be the effort of the COM
o writ nirt
violating the courtesies of official intercourse
| by initiating the example which, so far as we
are aware, is without precedent, and which, go
| far as we are concerned, shall remain so.
This is singing rebuke, and it must not
be forgotten that it is made by men who
are the intellectual peers of Mr.. Cleveland,
and who do not accord to him one whit more
OF patriotic devotion to the country and It's
laws, than they claim for themselves. The
committee also say that the Presi-
dent has misrepresented the Senate to the
country on these pension matters, but they
are kind enough-and in that kindness
| there is the bitterness Of stern rebuke-to
say that it was probably because of want
Of knowledge Of the facts on his part It
declares that it is unable to understand
why the finding of the two houses of Con-
gress should be discredited and attributed
to unworthy motives, Indifference and in
capacity, while the reassertion by the Pen
sion Clerk that he is right and Congress
wrong is accepted as the basis of fact. This
reference is to the fact that on receipt of
bills the President refers them to the Pen
sion Clerks of respective desks in the Pen
sion Office for examination, and the re-
port of an opinion, as to the justice of the
special claim. The committee defend
the methods of Congress in this pension
legislation, and declares that it has pro-
ceeded as has similar legislation in
previous Congresses, ever since Congresses
and Parliaments have existed. And on
this point the committee add
The people are misled by the unwsrranted
| statements of the President as to the manner
| in which Legislation upon pension claims and
the like is, and OF necessity must be, conducted.
| The pension business of the Senate has never
been better done than during this session.
| Those members of the committee who have
performed the most have been as careful as
| any, and derisiOn of their patient conscientious
and exhausting iabGrs TO help along these
| noblest and best portions of Gods poor and the
countrys benefactOrs can originate only in a
wise and noble nature which is misled, or in
one that if informed, sadly needs reconstruc-
ton or recreation.
We recall no instance in congressional
history in which more pointed arrow
has been fired from Senatorial bow at
the Executive, or more directly to It's
mark than this. In defense of the legisIa-
tion, the committee in conclusion say:
All through these vetoes there seems to run
the fallaey that the power OF Congress to grant
pensions is limited to what may already be
! done by the Pension Office under the general
law. 1t is difficult to write in that rudimentary
way upon the nature of pensions and the
various grounds of compensation, charity and
| public policy which is necessary in order to re-
| move this impression Ii is sufficient TO OBJ
serve that the jurisdiction of the legislative
| power of this Government is larger than the
| Commissioner of Pensions. and that sooner or
| later, although it may cost the country pro-
longed and steady effort, this truth will become
| apparent.