St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-03-11
PUNCTURED BY PUGH.
4 Flood of Light Thrown on the Motives
Behind the Famous Edmunds
Resolutions.
The Senate Majority Desires Boldly to
Revise the Acts of the Executive
on Removals,
Which, Under the Constitution, II
Has Not the shadow of
Right TO Do.
5arIand,s Interest in the Pan-FlectriC
Asserted by Vest TO Antedate
CIeveland's Nomination.
animus of Edmunds, Resolutions.

(leXelQnu7S n
Animus OF Edmunds' Resolutions.
Special to the Globe.
WASHINGTON, March 1O.-Senator Pugh
made his reply to Senator Edmunds to-day
to as full galleries, though not to quite as
full a senate chamber. as the gentleman
from Vermont had. Mr.. Edmunds had
done his best work in his general discussion
of the nature of our government and the re-
lations of the different parts TO each other.
Mr.. Pugh brought the discussion back 10
the real point at issue, and that is the right
of the senate TO revise the presidents eX-
erciSe of the power of suspension. He
confined the points TO be discussed
TO the narrOweSt possible limits. He
showed as thorough a familiarity with the
literature of the subject as Mr.. Edmunds,
and he used his matter with equal effective
ness in detail. AS the best point of the
Vermont senator was his citation of Thur
man as an authority. Mr.. Pugh required to
that early in his remarks. He quoted from
Mr.. ThuTman's speeches in 1869 on the pro-
posed repeal OF the tenure-of-Ofice act, to
show that he held most unqualifedly that
the power of suspension or removal was
vested by the constitution
ABSOLUTELY IN THE PRESIDENT,
without participation therein by the senate.
Then he showed that the official, the papers
regarding whose removal Mr.. Thurman
called for, was a territorial judge, and that
in the opinion of many eminent
lawyers, including Mr. Evarts, the
territorial judges are United States
judges within the meaning of the tenure of
Office act. who could not be suspended and
! h.- nf
the senate Mr.. Edmunds declared yester-
day that there were many other calls for
papers made By Mr.. Thurman, but he men,
toned only this one, and this one Mr..
Pugh easily showed was like most of Mr..
Edmunds' illustrations, aside from the par
tcular point OF issue. President Cleveland,
however, has suspended several territorial
judges. Mr.. Pugh said broadly that no
precedent for the present demand of the
senate could be found in the action of the
Judiciary committee during the time Mr..
Thurman was chairman, and he
NEATLY DISPOSED OF
all the argument made by Mr.. Edmunds
that the papers in the DuSkin case were
needed by the senate to enable it to make
up its mind whether he ought TO be re-
moved or not, by showing that his term of
Office expired in December last, so that he
udu CEdStO AllUEI HIS COllLllSSlOD W DC dll
official four weeks before Mr.. Edmunds
the attorney general was called on
for papers. Mr.. EdmundS cited Andrew
Jackson on his side. but Mr..
Pugh was able to produce messages from
old Hickory refusing papers TO the senate
on the express ground that they dealt with
matters that were beyond the jurisdiction
of the senate and with which, therefore,
the senate had no business. AS was gem
orally the case Mr.. Pugh's statements were
more nearly to the point than Mr.. Ed
munds'. When he added in a low tone,
and there were Andrew JacksonS yet alive,
applause began in the galleries.
THE ESSENCE OF MR.. PUGH'S REMARKS.
WASHINGTON, March 10.-The senate
session opened with tilt between Messrs.
Logan and Riddelberger over the publica-
ton in the Record of letter from j. B.
Eads to Mr.. Logan, denying having any
representatives on the floor of the senate
Riddelberger claiming that he was charged
with faSehOod in the letter. The Judiciary
resolutions then came up and Mr.. Pugh
addressed the senate. He said:
My views are fully expressed in the minor
Try report. l wish however, to prevent the
senator from Vermont from changing the
character of the question between the senate
and the president. When the senator from
Vermont is at the wheel he steers by his ow n
chart. He never runs in straight lines. He
never cousults other sailors, and loses his
temper when his seamanship is questioned,
and when the officer Of the ship undertakes to
select a crew to man ii without his advice and
consent, he instantly heads a mutiny. The
facts by which it is our duty to be guided are
few and simple. The papers called for in the
Duskin case were private, not public. Dus-
kins term expired four weeks before the res
olutions were offered. If the senate had de-
cided Duskin's removal was
IMPROPER OR UNwIsE,
it could not have restored Dusl1n. The
senate is turned into a moot court to discuss
purely abstract proposition. If the attor-
ney is guilty of acts subversiVe of the prin-
ciples of government, he should be i'm
peached. The senate is asked to pass a
resolution condemning the attorney general
for obeying the president, whose adviser he
is, standing in the relation of trust and con-
fidence to him. By this resolution the attor-
ney general is asked to disregard the positive
order OF the president, and thereby make
himself liable TO instant dismissal from the
cabinet. According to the speech of the
senator from Vermont on the tenure-ot-offce
act. Mr.. Cleveland would have been obliged,
out of self-respect, TO ask for the resigna-
tion of the attorney general. This resolu-
tion would break up their relations of conf
dence and trust. Mr.. Pugh read from the
presidents message the statement that there
Tuuu beeu no Cuucldi pdpeIS VI uOCuhehle
filed in his (the attorney generars) depart
ment relating to the case within the period
stated in the resolution. There is state
ment made by the president of a matter of
fact within his personal knowledge. and the
senator from Vermont controvertS the truth
of that statement, having no foundation
whatever tor the denial. There is
\ sCU IRE ISSUE
made in the report of the majority of the
judiciary committee with the president upon
aFNf II
knowledge. Has the senate right to have
these papers in the discharge of its duties:
The majority of the senate claims TO have the
power of revising the official act of the
president in suspending George NJ. Duskin.
There is no mistake about this being the
claim. Is there anything in the history OF
the government to support this claim? Nc
case of this kind has occurred for eighty
years. inoorse all the senator from Yer
mont has said about Allen q. Thurman
Yes, Mr.. President, Allen G. Thurman is the
greatest and the wisest and the purest
American statesman now living. Applause
in the galleries.. What has Senator Thur
man said on the floor of the senate in rea-
tion to this power of removal? He expressed
the conviction that the power of removal was
an executive power exclusively, residing in
the president alone. The Thurman letter
read by Mr.. Edmunds yesterday, was one
asking for papers in the case OF territora
judge, and in the provision comforting the
power of suspension on the president there
was
AN EXPRESS EXCEPTION
of judges of the United States. This is nov
a mooted question in the very committed
over which Mr.. Edmunds presides. Mr.Evart:
las expressed the opinion that these ter
itorial judges may not be suspended by the
president. Then why was it that Senato
Thurman sent that order or request to the
attorney general. He sent it under section
1861, making them subject TO removal, bu
only by and with the advise and consent o