Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-03-11
fORTY-NINTH CONGRESS-.
Etrst Session,
SENATE.

SENATE.
M, WASHINGTON, March 10.
The chair laid before the Senate M
Aogans resolution, offered Tuesday, to refer
70 tne committee on rules, for investigation.
t4e I ietter rom Mr.. Eads denying that he
S1aus nad any representatives on the floor
VI VI the senate In Mr.. Logan's absence Mr..
iu.'o ". moved that the matter go over.
Inc iowa land grant forfeiture bill was
tskeh up and Mr.. Mcmillan resumed his re-
MARKS IN support OF the amendment. Mr..
Mntsn amendment was rejected
MI Riddleberger then called up the Eads
maSter ana said he found in the Record a let
ter from }. b. Eads addressed to the senator
from Illinois Uogan). He would like to
Know now the senator got that letter into the
Record wiz
Mr. Logan, who in the meantime had ar
rived, said that he had nothing to do with
getting it into the Record.
After some colloquy between Mr.. Riddle
berger and Mr., Logan the former said that
ne was not as great a soldier as the latter.
out he would yet discover a conspiracy to
make the United States government an en-
aorser TOR the Eads Ship Canal Co. We all
knew, ne said, that ex-Secretary Window
was at the head of the company.
Mr.. Logan asserted that he had merely laid
the Eads' letter, which asked for an investi.
CATION OF charges, before the Senate as be
would have done in the case of any respecta-
pie citizen. He reiterated that he had moth
ing TO do with the letter getting into the
Record.
Mr.. Riddleberger said that the letter re-
hected upon his veracity and it was not
proper that it should 60 into the Record be-
fore he had an opportunity to meet it's
charges.
Mr.. Logan disclaimed any personal feeling
against the senator from Virginia in the mat,
ter and modified his resolution so as to pro-
vide for the reference of the Eads' letter to
the committee on commerce.
Mr. Riddleberger said that he would not
appear before the committee. What he had
to say would be said before the Senate. He
said he didn't believe in the Senate becoming
more English than the House of Lords. In
the course of his remarks Mr.. Riddleberger
alluded to Eads' representative who had got
his letter in the Record.
Mr.. Logan said that he had treated the sen.
ater from Virginia kindly, but if the senator
stated that he (Logan) was the representa-.
tive of anybody in amy sense except q per-
fectly proper sense he stated what was abso-
lutely untrue.
Mr.. Riddleberger said he merely though,
that he was Eads' representative to the ex.
tent of putting his letter in the Record.
At two O'Clock the matter went over with
out action.
The chair then laid before the Senate the
resolutions from the the judiciary committee
concerning the relations of the Senate and
the President.
Mr.. Pugh said that he had expressed his
T,,ll <L,o 81. Jal
the report made from the judiciary commit.
tee by the minority, and the main object he
had now in addressing the Senate in reply to
the Senator from Vermont was, if possible,
to prevent that senator from changing the
charater of the question between the Senate
and the President. The real character of
that controversy could not be misunderstood
or misrepresented. When the senator from
Vermont was at the wheel he steered BY his
own chart, he never ran on straight lines, he
never consulted other sailors and he lost his
temper when there was any question of skill
of his seamanship and wnen the
officer of the ship undertook to select a crew
without his advice and consent he instantly
headed mutlnv,
MIR. Pugh reviewed the suspension of
Duskin as district attorney of the southern
district of Alabama and the designation by
the President of John ID. Burnett to succeed
lin. The nomination of Burnett was sent TO
the Senate Dec. IA, 1885, being referrrd to
the judiciary committee where it lay for over
a mSnth. In the meantime, Dec. Goth, Dus-
kins term expired and he was no longer in
csmbent of office.
The senator here read the resolutions of
tine Senate calling for papers in the Duskin
case. The purpose of the Senate in asking
for these papers was to enable that body to
exercise the power of revising the act of
the removal of Duskin by the President. The
resolutions didn't ask for official documents
and papers but for "all documents and pa
pers," including private documents and pri-
vate papers relating exclusively to the official
act of the President in removing Duskin.
The inquiry proposed by the Senate was to
be made with the knowledge of the fact that
more than four weeks before the resolution
was presented to the Senate the term of Dus-
kin had expired. Then what possible use
could be made of the information sought in
this case. The report of the majority de-
clared that the information was wanted to
enable the Senate to discharge the great duty
imposed upon it of making inquiry as to the
propriety of all official acts by the President,
the power to do which was expressly con-
ferred on him bv law to be exercised within
his discretion. If they decided the removal
was improper or unwise what would have
been the effect of the decision? Could il
have restored Duskin? Was he still a sus-
pended office awaiting the adjournment OF
the Senate to be restored to the duties of his
office? The Senate was engaged today in
an inquiry about the matter for which there
could be no possible practical result 1t was
a moot onestiop merely and the Senate was
turned into moot committee for the purpose
of discussing purely abstract proposition.
Mr.. Pugh justified the refusal of the attorney
general five weeks after the expiration of
Duskin's term, in obedience to the express
order of the President, to send in private
documents relating to his suspension, and
said on the terms OF governmental relation,
stated by the senator from Vermont himself,
President Cleveland could not with self re-
snect have heve held the attorney general in
his cabinet a single moment after obeying
the resolution of the Senate.
Mr.. Pugh read at length from the Presi-
dents message. Among other things was
The statement that there chad been no ofl-
o;sl naners or documents filed in his (attor-
ney general's) department relating to the
case within the period stated by the resolu-
tion."
.There," said Mr.. Pugh, sis statement
nv the President of the matter OF fact within
his personal knowledge, and the Senator from
Vermont controverts the truth OF that state
ment having no information whatever lor
denial. The President had stated that the
napers we're private and unofficial. and re.
lated to nothing over which the Senate had
Jurisdiction. The majority of the judiciary
L,1 nhaS