Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-03-02
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.
MESSAGE TO THE SENATE From
THE PRESIDENT.
Ofice-Seeker Rebuked-Preside
AppOintments-Mor
Chinese Bill.
ESPECIAL BY TELEGRAPH TO THE nncoED UNION
United STATES Senate.

Aoiity VI the RESOLUTION referred 10 That
committee concerning the Office of District
ATTORNEY for the Southern District of Ala
bama.
1t was ordered printed in the Congress
siondt Record and also in a separate form.
The report is three or four times as long
as the majority report. 1t embodies no res
olutions.
Pugh asked that the report be printed
and placed on the calendar
1t was not read in the Senate. The report
says:
When President Cleveland came into Office he
found about % per cent. of the offices filed by
Republicans appointed as a reward for party
services. The party to whom the President
owed his nomination and election had been ex-
lied from all participation in the civil admins
tratlon of the government for nearly one-quar-
ter OF century. The friends and supporters of
the President made application for a redistribu-
ton of the public trusts No other President
has ever been subjected to such a severe trial
or had to meet SO many grave difficulties and
no other had such an abundant supply of valid
| reasons and causes urging him to the free exer-
else OF the power of removal from Federal
| Office and no other ever resisted with more
iirlnness less, the just claims Of his supporters
or used his power of removal more
| conscientiously, cautiously and sparingly
! Notwithstanding these facts $50 nominations
sent to the Senate in suspension cases have
been allowed to remain before the committee
without consideration and final disposition
| Dustin has made no complaint to the Judiciary
Committee, the President or the Attorney Gen
| eral that he was wronged by suspension. The
committee was fully informed that Burnett was
| recommended to the President by all the mem
| bers of Congress from Alabama, on personal
! knowledge of his high character. Stripped to
| the naked truth, without any special pleading
the case, made for the Senate, on its resolutions
and the answers of the Attorney General, is
whether the Senate has the right to demand of
! the Attorney-General the transmission, against
the order of the President, of any paper or doc
ument of the description mentioned in the reso-
I 6.f nr,f fc tr1
/ in the request TO relate exclusively to the re-
moval of Dustin, by the President, and for that
| reason alone is not transmitted.
In conclusion. the minority of your commit
| tee are gratifed at being able to state that in
| the Forty sixth Congress, when the Democrats
| had majority in the Senate, no such spectacle
! as that now exhibited to the country was ever
! witnessed in the history of its proceedings
| Signed by James l.. Pugh Richard Coke
Geo. 6. Vest Howell E. Jackson.
The following message from the Presi-
dent was read
To the Senate Of the United States Ever since the
| beginning of the present session of the Senate,
| the different heads of the departments attached
| to the Executive branch CT the Government
! have been piled with various requests and de-
| mands from committees of the Senate from
members of such committees. and at last from
| the Senate itself, requiring the transmission of
| reasons for the suspension of certain officials
! during the recess of that body, or for papers
touching the conduct of such officials or for all
! the papers and documents relating to such sus-
/ pensions, or for all the documents and papers
| filed in such departments in relation to the man
| agement and conduct of the Offices held by
| such suspended officials. The different means
f, from time to time adopted in making these r,-
succeeded each other, and the fact that when
made by the Senate, the resolution for that
| purpose was passed in executive session,
which to WIFI the roSds
| admitted, that from the first to the last
| the information thus sought and the papers thus
s %eIs es by a senate ss
| propriety of the suspension referred to. Though
these suspense ions are my executive acts, based
on considerations addressed to me alone and for
which | am alone and wholly responsible l
have had no invitation from the Senate to state
| the position which l have felt constrained to
| for myself my actions and motives in the prem
| ises In this condition of affairs have fore
| borne addressing the Senate upon the subject
! lest might be accused of thrusting myself un-
| hidden upon the attention of that body but the
| report of the Committee of the Judiciary of the
Senate, lately presented and published. which
States for his refusal to transmit certain papers
| relating to the suspension from Office and which
also, if correctly interpret it, evinces misap-
| prehension of The position of the Executive
! upon question of such suspension will, hope
J justify this communication the more.
! THE President refers to the resolution of the
/ Senate calling for the Dustin papers, and the re-
/ ply of the Attorney General ther, to- and says i
| Upon this re olUtion. and the answer thereto
! the issue is thus stated by the Committee ON
! Judiciary at the outset of the report. The i'm
! portant question. then, is whether it * within
| the constitutional compete nee of either house
of Congress TO have access to the official papers
and documents i'll the various public places of
/ the United states created by laws enacted by
! themselves. do not suppose that - the public
officers of the United States" are regulated or
controlled, i'll their relations to either house of
| Corgres. by the fact that they were created
| by laws enacted by III msclyeS." IL must be
that these instrumental ons were created for the
4 katNnl s
| purposes Of the Government under the Cjnsti-
| tuition and the law. ard that they unncum-
! bered 10y aas lien ii favor of either tranch of
Congress growing ort Gf their CO.'S tuition, and
unembarrassed by any obligation to the Senate
as the price OF their creation.
! The complaint of the committee that access
| to official papers in public office is denied the
| Senate, is met by the statement that at III time
has it been the disposition intention o, the
| President or any department c. the executive
| branch of the Governmental Withhold from the
| Senate official documents or papers filed in any
OF the public Offices, while it is by no means
| conceded that the Senate has right III any case
| to review the act of the Executive in removing
or suspending public officers. upon official doc
| uments or otherwise 1t is conceded that docu-
| ments and papers of that nature should-be-
| cause they are ofieial-be freely transmitted to
/ the Senate upon its demand trusting the use
| of the same ior proper and Legitimate purposes
to the good faith of that body, and though no
| sIch papers or rdocuments have been specifically
demanded in any of the numerous re-
quests and Gem trds made upon TIE de-
partments, yet as often as they We're
found in public offices they have been furnished
! in answer to such applications. The letter of
the Attorney General, in response to the esol,i-
| tions of the Senate in the particular case men
toned in the committees report was written at
| my suggestion, and by my dictation. There has
been no official papers or documents filed in his
i department relating to the case within the pc
! Rod specified in the resolution. The letter was
intended by its description OF papers and docu-
mentS remaining in the custody of the depart
ment, to convey the idea that they were not
official, and it was assumed that the resolution
called for information papers and documents of
| the same character as were required by the re-
| quests and demands which preceded it. Every
I thing that has beeu written and done ON behalf
| of the Senate, from the beginning, pointed to
all letters and papers of private and unofficial
nature as The objects sought, If they were to be
| found in the departments. provided that they
| had been presented to the Executive with a
| view to their connection with the question of
| Suspension from office. against the transmits
| sion cf such papers and documents have inter
! posed my voice and direction. This has not
| been done, as is suggested in the committees
| report. upon the assumption on my part that the
Attorney General, or any other head Of depart
| ment, is servant OF the President, and is to
give or withhold copies Of documents in his Of
| flee according to the will of the Executive and
not otherwise, but because / regarded the papers
OF intended for my use and action. purely unofi-
cial and private, not infrequently confidential,
ana having reference to the performance
| slider them in no proper sense as
upon the files Of the department.
! but as deposited there for my convenience re-
manning still completely under my control. |
| suppose, if desired 10 take them into my Gus
| tody, might do SO with entire propriety and if
saw fit to destroy them, no one could CON-
| plain. The papers and documents that are now
| the objects of the Senate's questions consist of
| letters and representations addressed to the
Executive, or intended for his instruction. They
| are voluntarily written and presented by private
| citizens. who are not in the least instigated
thereto by any official invitation, or at ali the
subject of official CONTROL. While some OF them
| are entitled TO executive Consideration many of
them are so irrelevant, or in the light of other
facts so worthless, that they have not been
| given the least weight in determining the oues-
| ton to which they are supposed to relate
Are all these, simply because they are pre-
served, to be considered official documents and
| subject to the inspection of the Senate or not?
| Who is to determine which belong to this class?
Are the motives and purposes of the Senate, as
they are day by day developed, such as would
| be satisfied with my selection? Am / to SUBJ
init to theirs, at the risk of being charged with
making suspension from Office upon evidence
which was not even considered? are
these papers TO be regarded official because they
/ have not only been presented but preserved in
public Offices? Their nature and character re-
main the same, whether they are kept in the
Executive Mansion or deposited in the depart
ments. There is no mysterious frausmutafiou