The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1886-03-06
TO THE GREAT TRIBUNE.
President Cleveland Defends
], His Recent Official Action.
SPECIAL MH55AdE
To the Senate---The Rights Of the Ex-
ecutive Under the Constitution
An Able Document.

i judiciary, submitted Cne views oI une
minority on the resolution referred to that
Committee concerning the Office oi District
Attorney for the Southern District OF Ala
bama. It was ordered printed i'll the Con
greysiOnal Record and also in a separate
form. The report ia three or four times as
long as the majority report, but it embodies
no resolutions. Mr. Pugh asked that the
report be printed and placed on the calen-
Sdar. It was not read in the Senate. The
| report says: When President Cleveland
came into Office he found about IS per
cent. of the offices filled by Republicans
| appointed as a reward for party service.
| The party to whom the President owed his
| nomination and election had been exiled
from all partlcipat ton in the Civil Admins
!; tration of the Government for nearly Il
| quarter OF century. The friends and sup
! porters of the President made appli-
| cation for redistribution of the
public trusts. No other President
had ever been subjected to such d severe
/ trial or had t., meet SO many grave diff
| culties, and no other had such an abund-
ant supply of valid reasons and causes
urging him to the free exercise OF the power
| of removal from Federal Office. and no
other ever resisted with more fairness and
| justice the claims OF his supporters or his
power OF removal more cOnscien-
! tiously, cautiously and sparingly. Not
! withstanding these facts $50 nominations
| sent to the Senate in suspension eases have
| been allowed to remain before the commit
! tees without consideration and final dispo-
sition. Mr.. Austin mas made no COM
plant to the Judiciary Committee. the
! President or the Attorney General that
L. f>r,o Hho( (r,p,
| mittee was fully informed that Mr..
Burnett was recommended t., the President
| by all the members OF Congress from Ala
bama, on Il personal knowledge ci his high
character Stripped to 'he naked truth,
! without any special pleading, the case
made for the Senate on the Committee
resolution and the answer of the Attorney
General is whether the Senate has Il right
to demand Of the Attorne. General
transmission, against the order of the Presi-
dent OF any paper or document mentioned
in the resolution, ii that paper or document
is sta ted il the request To relate exclusively
to the removal oi Austin by the President,
and fer that :"aScn alone is not trans.
mitted.
THE pkESIDENTs POSITION.
The following special message was re-
| ceived from the President in regard to the
Seni te = ueHtit'Ni lOt tie EdPt.i 'cSdINiuS
! the removal from Office:
Ever since the beginning OF the pres Mt
session OF the Senate the different heads of
| the departments attached to the Execu-
| tive branch OF the Government nave been
piled with various requests ana demands
| from the committees OF the Senate and
! from members Of such committees and at
last from the Senate itself requiring the
transmission Of reasons for the suspcn
T.,
| OF that body or for the papers touching
| the conduct OF such officials, or for all
| papers and documents relating to such
| suspensions or for all documents and
papers filed in such departments in relati'
! to the management and conduct OF the
offices held by such suspended officials. The
! different terms from time to time adopted
in making these requests and demands
and the order in which they succeeded each
other, and the fact that when made by the
Senate the resolution for that purpose
was passed in an executive session, have
led to the presumption, the correctness of
which will, suppose, be cancidiy admitted,
that from the first 20 the last, the informa
tion thus sought and the papers thus de-
manded for use by the Senate and it's COM
mittees in considering the prOpriety OF tire
suspensions are my executive acts based
on Considerations addressed to me alone
and for which l a,il alone wholly RESPONSE
BILE. | have had no invitation from the
Senate to state the position which have
felt co strained to assume in relation to
the same or to.
INTERPRET FOR MYsEir
my actions and motives i'll the premises i'll
this condition OF affairs. have foreborne
addressing the Senate upon the subject
lest might be accused OF thrustng myself
unbidden upon the attention OF that
body. but the report OF tn. Committee OF
the Judiciary OF the Senate lately presented
and published. which censures the Attor-
ney-General of the United States for his re-
fusal to transmit certain papers eating
to the suspension from Office, and which
also, if correctly interpret it, evinces a
misapprehensiOn Of the position OF the
Executive upon the question Of such sus-
PENSIONS will hope justify this rommuni
cation The President then refers to the
resolution OF the Senate calling for the
Duskin papers and the reply OF the Attor
ney- y-General thereto, and says upon this
resolution and the answer thereto, the
issue is thus forced by the Committee On
the Judiciary. At the outset of the report
the important question then is, whether it
is within the constitutional competence of
either House OF Congress to hav access to
the official papers and documents in the
various public places Of the United States,
created by laws enacted by themselves.
l do not suppose that the public
officers Of the United States are
regulated or controlled in their relations to
either House OF Congress by The fac: that
they were ''created by laws enacted by
Themselves It must be that these instru-
nentations were created for the benefit OF
the people and to answer the general
purposes OF the Government under the
constitution and the laws and that they
are unencumbered by any lien ill favor OF
either branch OF Congress growing out OF
the constitution. and unembarrassed by
any obligation to the Senate s.s
THE PEICE OF THEIR CREATION.
The complaint Of the COMMITTEES that
access to official papers in public offices is
denied the Senate is met by the tatement
that at no time has it been the disposition
or intention OF the President or any depart
ment of the executive branch of the Gov
ernment to 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 a right in any
case to review the acts of the executive il
removing or suspending public officers upon |
official documents or otherwise, it is con-
sidered that documents and papers OF that |
nature should, because they are official, be |
freely transmitted to the Senate npon it's |
demand, trusting the use OF the !
same for proper and legitimate pur
poses to the good faith OF that |
body, and though no such papers or docu- |
ments have been specifically demanded in |
any OF the numerous requests and demands |
made upon the departments. yet is often |
as they were found in the public offices |
they have been furnished in answer to such !
applications. The letter Of the Attorney |
''eneral in response to the resolutions OF |
the Senate in the particular case mentioned |
in the committees report was written at |
my suggestion and by my dictation. There
has been no official papers or documents
filed in his Department relating to the case
within the period specified in the resolution.
The letter was intended by its description
of the papers and documents remaining in
the custody OF the Department to convey
the idea that they were not official. and it |
was assumed that the resolution called for