The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-07-02
Washington Letter.
ttrom our rcguIan corrcspondent.1

+ ron! Our ftSlliil correspondents
WASHINGTON, June 90, 1856.
The scheme for u permanent Exposition
in Washington seems to he making good
progress and taking shape. One of the in
tcresting things which came mp at the
last weekly meeting held in its behalf
was the statement that the project of cele-
bratiiig the 400th anniversary of the diseov-
cry Of America by Columbus Lad been dis
cnsscd III Spain for the last two years, and
that she proposed to send a duplicate
of the original fleet which brought the
adventurous mariners to these shores.
President Cleveland promised to give
his influence to the enterprise by call
ing the attention of Congress to the
matter in his next annual address. The
plan is being forwarded 10y private
contributions, and it is thought that Con
grcss will appropriate the needed money as
soon as il is proven that there is a public
demand for it, since members i'll both
Houses have spoken favorably of the
| scheme. The Governors Of States and
Territories have been made &c eBicio mem
bers of the committee having charge of the
proposed enterprise, and they will all be
invited to a conference in this city abont
the time of the rc~assembling of Congress.
When the history of the present Admin
i~stration is written, President Cleveland
will be called the champion vetoer of the
nineteenth century, or something similar.
All week long Congress has been hearing
from different ones of those hundreds of
private pension bills which were passed
with such reckless confusion several weeks
| ago. And yet the President can vctoa bill
much easier than Congress can pass it.
He has made a record of IS vctOcs since
his Inauguration, and indeed on one day of
the past week he was so much occupied in
examining pension bills that he denied
himself to all callers, and even postponed
the regular Cabinet meeting. II would
seem that he is not avefsc to the exercise
of his veto power either, for he allows a
little grim humor to crop OUT now and
then in his veto messages. For instance,
in notifying Congress of his %disapproval
of a bill to pension a man who claims that
he was injured by being thrown forward
on the horns of his saddle, he said: The
number Of such instances is so large as to
indicate that those saddles We're very dan
gcrons contrivanccs.
Up to Mr.. Clcvcland's time there had
been 100 veto messages sent To Congress
by the Presidents, Washington sent two,
Monroe and Lincoln one each, Buchanan
and Arthur four each. Tyler and Pierce
nine each, Madison six, Jackson twelve,
Polk three, Johnson seventeen, Grant
twcnty-ninc, Hayes twelve. No bills were
vetoed by either of the AdamseS, or Jeilcr-
son, or NanI}urcn, or Harrison, or Fill
more, or Garfield, and the only pension bill
ever vetoed until now was lone by Gen.
Grant.
Besides this wholesale slaughter of pen
sian schemes during the week, the Presi-
dent has INDUCED in several honeymoon
dinners rendered by members Of his Cabi-
net. He also went ON a yachting trip
down Chesapeake bay, thus leaving the
United States, which ofcnsc the Constitu-
tion tlisallows an Executive during his off
cial term. On his return he found that III
more pension bills had been sent from The
Capitol for his approval or veto. Besides
these, sixty miscellaneous bills are On his
desk awaiting his action, and if he has de-
termincd, rs is stated, to carefully examine
every item Of every bill before signing it,
his hands are full again tor the present
week.
No President has ever undertaken 10 do
SO much before, and | doubt If any i'rcsi-
dent, in justice to himself, can undertake
to do it now. Mr.. Cleveland cannot mean
literally that he will not sign 4 single bin
without reading it. He is opposed, how
ever, to Fastening the day Of the adjourn
mcnt of Congress, and has repeatedly
warned those members who call upon him
that he cannot be hurried with the exami.
nation of measures, and that he must de
vote time to those bills which require it.
Much interest is felt in the Presidents
disposal of the Fitz-Jolm Porter bill. which
is at last through both Houses of Congress
again. Cen. Logan WAS as earnest in his
fight against the measure ON Thursday
while making a three hours speech. as he
was when he talked for three days on the
subject as many years ago. Gen. Portcr's
friends express great confidence lila. the
President will sign the bill, and a good
many of his opponents are So tired Of a
twenty five years siege against him that