Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-03-13
KENNA'S KEEN THRUSTS.
EDNTUNDs' POINT MADE En-
CEEDINGLY RIDICULOUS.


a New Building Would be Needed to
Hold all the Papers Ciassed az Ofieial
Documents by the Senator from Yer
mont-The Republican Object Fully
Exposed.
WASHINGTON, March 12.-The Senate
passed on the Iowa land forfeiture bill to-
day, and Mr.. Frye asked to be excused
from service on the committee to escort
the remains OF Senator Miller to Calitor-
mia. The CHAIR then placed before the
Senate the resolutions reported from the
Judiciary Committee on the relations be-
tween the President and Senate as to the
right OF the Senate to have papers and in
formation relating to suspensions from
office.
Mr.. Kenna took the floor and addressed
the Senate in opposition to the report of
the majority of the committee. He said
he was struck, as he had no doubt others
were, with the anomalies which charac-
terized the proceedings of the Senate on
March 8. The Senator from Vermont who,
whether it De a lact or not, was recognized
by the country as the father of this entire
movement of obstruction to executive
power had occupied the floor for some two
or three hours. He had done so with the
capacities all knew him to possess.
MADE THE BEST OF IT.
He had made, it was to be presumed, as
the country expected he would make, all
that could be made Of the issues involved
in this controversy. He had argued with
elaboration and great skill issues of his
own creation, and had come to confront
the membership OF the Senate as
well as the American people with
a proposition very candidly and frankly
stated in the early part Of his discourse
He Mr.. Kenna) would take the issue as
that Senator had stated 1t. Is this body
as part and parcel-a coordinate branch
Of this gOvernment-entitledt to call upon
the Executive Department in any one of
Its forms or divisions tor, and to receive
in return, such documents and papers as
come within the definitions of public and
official papers as laid down by the Sem
ator from Vermont? That as the primary
proposition was the issue involved here
Today.
PUBLIC PAPERS.
The speaker here read from the speech
Of Senator Edmunds-that portion which
declares in substance that any paper
written to an officer of the government
upon which official action is based or de-
signed to influence official action is a
public paper, and illustrating his theory
by suppOsIng the letter to have been ad-
dressed to the President pro tempOFe Of
the Senate. Continuing Mr.. kenna said
that "Drimarily the Senator from Vermont
on that definition of what constitutes an
official paper, had defined for himself and
the Senate and the country the issue upon
which we were now cOntending. If pa
pers were addressed to the President pro
tempore in his efficial capacity that fact
alone according to tise=28nator from Yer
mont, made it an official paper to which
every department official of this great
government was entitled.
EVERYTHING MADE OFFICIAL.
sit might come from Pottowattomie
Indian, signed in his native dialect in
VolViug the remote contingency OF the
scalping OF the officers and members of
the Senate, and yet according to the def
milton IL was an official paper. The Sena-
tor from Vermont had proceeded to de-
monstrate, assuming his theories to be
correct, that the Senate had right to go
into every department of the government,
to the White House, Treasury, War and
State Departments, whether acting in ex-
ecutiVe or open session, ransacking the
archives OF these various departments
and wriDging from them papers coming
within the definition he had read, and yet
the very mOckery of this situation seemed
by sole proVidential interp0sition to ex-
hibIt itself within moment after he had
concluded.
SECRET SESSIONS.
t'No sooner had the honorable Senator
taken his seat than. as Is customary in
tie Senate, some Senator moved that the
Senate proceed to the consideration OF eX-
tecutive business, and the bells which were
arranged for the convenience of the men,
bers Of the Senate began to tlngle through
out the capitol. A body of gentlemen,
composing part of the coordinate branch
OF the government, having listened to an
argument which undertook to say that all
mankind should have no secret from the
.saa- Al
of bells that the time had come that the
Senate would put on its robes of
royal purple. Five thousand brave
men and fair women were
expelled from the galleries. The eyes OF
the American press were closed the doors
ratified and the sentinels took their posts,
and as q fitting testimony at the cOnclu-
sion of the speech OF the Senator from Yer-
mont the Senate was resolved into its an-
cient secrecy and as the dies marched out
and the officers assumed their posts as
guards of the sacred privileges of the SEN
ate, and denied everywhere else, the
thought came now abundantly practices
may engraft themselves upon human
composition, and how little reflection per-
haps the members Of the Senate had given
10 the fact that for a hundred years or
more the body had been the star chamber
Of the American republic. Why, The Sem
ator from Vermont would deny privacy or
ment Of the government.
WHAT IT WOULD LEAD TO.
"Let It be seen where that might lead.
Suppose some respectable citizen or some
vile man, prohting by the suggestion OF
the Senator from Vermont, should choose
TO address a letter to the President pro
tempOre of the Senate declaring that the
question involved in this debate was
purely a moot question, that nobody sup
porting IL had any faith in 1t, that il was
Bnly a third or fourth suggestion OF a
change OF position and status occupied by
hose advancing IL since the beginning OF
;he controversy, and urging the President
pro tempore 70 advocate II, on the theory
hat 1t might prove TO be a profitable |
make-shift TO maintain In their present
positions a hundred thousand Republican |
Dhce-holders and TO prostitute TO party |
ends the present Executive Department |
of the government. That might be vile. |
u might come from vile source and yet, |
under the definition OF this issue laid |
down by the senator from Vermont, that |
would be an official paper, subject to any |
uses 10 which he chose 10 subject IT,
SOME sUPPosITIoNs.