Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1886-02-25
THE EDMuNDs REPORT.

THE EDMuNps REPORT.
Report Of a Majority OF the Senate Judi.
ciary ComDittee Upon the Matter oi
Furnishing Papers I'm Regard to Removals
and Suspensions From ONCE.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 19.-In the Senate
yesterday Mr.. Edmunds, from the judiciary
Committee, submitted the following:
Resolred That the Senate hereby expresses
its condemnation of the refusal OF the At
torney General under whatever influence to
send to the Senate copies Of the papers
called for BY its resolut on Of January rs and
set forth in the reports Of the Committee on
udiciary in violation of his Official duty and
N subventiou of the fundamental principles
thereof.
Resolved, That It is, under those circum
stances. the duty Of the Senate to refuse its
advice and consent to the proposed removals
of officers, documents and papers in refer.
ence to the supposed official or personal mis-.
conduct Of whom are withheld by the exec
utive or any head of q department whe n
deemed necessary by the Senate and called
Tor in considering the matter.
Another resolution declares that the sec
ton of the Civil Service rules in regard to
honorably discharged Union soldiers ought
to be faithfully aud fully put into execu-
ton.
The report is signed by Messrs. Edmunds,
ingalls,, Mcmillan, Hoar, Wilson and Evarts.
1t reciteS the circumstances of the removal
Of 1. 6tin and the appointment of his sue.
eessor as United States Attorney for the
Southern District Of Alabama declares that
1t has been the Uniform practice of the Ju-
dietary Cow,mIttee since the passage of the
tenure OF office act to call upon the heads
of departments for all papers and informa-
lion in the possession of the department
lira,r 4h.. l.. a.
Of the officer proposed to be removed and
the character and conduct of the person
proposed TO be appointed. This has been
Gone with tho unanimous approval of all
the members, although the composition of
the committee had been during that period
some times Of one political character and
some times of another. One of the appen-
dces OF tie report contains a list showing
the numbers Of officials of various ranks
who were suspended or removed by the
President during the first thirty days of the
present session of Congress.
The report quotes the resolution adopted
by the Senate calling upon the Attorney
General for the papers i'm the above men
toned case and his reply thereto. and con-
tinues:
This letter, although In response to the
direction OF the Senate that copies of any
papers bearing on the subject within a
given time be transmitted, assumes that the
Attorney General OF the United States is
the servant of the President and is to give
Or withhold copies of documents i'm his Of
flee according 10 the will of the Executive
and not otherwise. Your committee is un-
able to discover either in the original of the
act creating the Office of Attorney General
or in the act creating the Department of
vsin palyx fho A .
torney General OF the United States in any
sense the servant of or controlled by the
Executive in the performance of the duties
imputed TO him by law or the nature of his
office. The Executive is bound by the Con-
stitutioD and by his oath to take care that
the laws be faithfully executed, and he is
himself as much bound by the regulations
of the law as the humblest officer in the
service of the United States, and he can
not have authority to undertake to faith
fully execute the laws whether applied to
his own special functions or those of the
departments created by law, otherwise
than by causing, so far as he lawfully and
by lawful methods can, the heads OF depart
ments and other officers Of the United
States to perform the duties which the law
and not his will has imputed to them.
The important question, then, is whether
1t is within the constitutional competence OF
either house of Congress to have access to
the official papers and documents in the
various public offices of the United States
created by laws enacted by themselves 1t
may be fully admitted that except in re-
spect OF the Department of the Treasury,
that there is no statute which cOn-
mands the head of any department
to transmit to either house Of Con-
gress Oh its demand any information con-
corning the administration of his depart
ment, but the committee believes it to be
clear that from the very nature of the
powers entrusted by the constitution to the
two houses of Congress that it is neces-
sary incident that either house must have
at all times the right to know what officially
exists or takes place in any of the depart
ments of the Government.
The committee feels authorized to state,
after a somewhat careful research, that
within the foregoing limits there is scarcely
until now any instance of a refusal by a
head of department. vi even of the Presi-
dent himself. to communicate official facts
or information as distinguished from pri-
vate and unofficial papers, motives, views,
reasons and opinions to either house of
Congress when Internationally demanded.
Indeed, the early journals of the Senate
tons to the heads of departments, as of
course, to furnish papers and reports upon
all sorts Of affairs, both legislative and ex-
ecutive.
'The instances of requests to the Presi-
dent and command of the heads of depart
ments by each house of Congress from the
early days until now for papers and infor-
nation on every conceivable subject of
public affairs are almost innumer-
able. For it appears to have been thought
by all the Presidents who have carried on
the Government now for almost century
that, even In respect to requests of them by
an independent and coordinate branch of
Government they were under a consttu-
tionai duty and obligation to furnish to
either house the papers called for, unless it
has happened in rare instances when the re
quest was coupled with an appeal to the
discretion of the President in respect of the
danger of publicity to send the paper, if
in his judgment it should not be incompat-
ible with the public welfare"
The precedents to establish this propo.
sition are cited and discussed at great
length, and the report continues as fol-
lows:
'The committee feels safe in stating that,
from the research it has made. the course of
the Government has been constant and con-
tinuous and unchanged from the beginning
until now, and that in its belief. no in
stance within the principles and limitations
before stated has occurred, i'm which calls
for official papers and flies, addressed either
to the President in the form of requests or
to the heads of departments in the form of
commands, have not been complied with,
but it has sometimes happened. where the
request to the President was merely a con-
ditional one, leaving it to his discretion
whether the papers should be communica-
ted or not, that they have not been com.