The National tribune., 1888-05-31
CONGRESS.
An Abstract of the More Important
Proceedings in Both Houses.
THURSDAY. MAY 81.

D3iQi IN New 0rE was presented ana IGIcIfGds
Mr.. Stewart called up the joint resolution /
offered by him on the 18th instant for con-
stitutional amendment reducing to q simple I
majority the vote necessary TO override Presi- |
Dental veto, and addressed the Senate on the /
subject. No man ever lived, he said, who |
could be safely intrusted with tho liberties of /
the people, and no people had ever surrendered /
their liberties to one man without losing them /
eventually. If the people desired liberty they |
would have to preserve it in their own keep /
ing. IF they deposited it with another it was |
sure to be embeZzled The veto power was the |
most striking illustration of the irresistible |
desire of human nature to appropriate the lib |
critics of the people when confided to the keep !
ing of one man. The whole number of Presi- |
Dental vetoes up to the incoming of the present
Administration had been only 49, In a little |
over three years President Cleveland had ve- |
tOed 172 bills and had poCketed or refused to |
sign 80. The objection that many of them were /
individual pension bills was not satisfactory |
reason for the exercise of arbitrary power
against the deliberate judgment of q majority |
of Congress. None of the vetoed bills could
be cited as within the range of cases proper
for the exercise of that extraordinary power.
Nor were any of them of partisan character
The people did not realize the growing power
of the Executive. The President had more than
100000 offices at his disposal, and Member of
Congress was not even allowed to give evidence
as to the qualifications of an applicant for Office
The President alone determined all questions
relating to the appointments to Office, either by
himself or by board called the Civil Service
Commission, appointed by him and removable
at his pleasure.
Mr. Stewart referred to the purchase of bonds
at the enormous premium of over % per cent,
g from persons unknown to the public, but pre-
sumaby we'll known TO the Executive" to the
discretion lodged with the Executive (but not
properly exercised) to purchase and coin not
RI ttyp M hon IL
lion dollars of silver per month, and to the
ruling of the Treasury Department in the mat
ter of the importation of lead ore under which
ruling lead ores were admitted that were mixed
with gold and slver-the Government thereby
losing a vast amount of money that somebody
was gaining. 1t would be interesting, he said,
to exhibit for the consideration of the people,
the various rulings and determinations Of the
Treasury Department, " whereby special privi-
| leges were granted and merchant princes were
created in the great city of New York and else
where at the expense of the people,"
| These things. he said, might be Temedied or
! checked by legislation, and the liberties OF the
people might be guarded by law if Congress had
| power to legslate against the will of the EX
| ecutiye. A large majority In each House was
| to-day in favor of honest money opposed to
| delegating the sovereign right to issue money
| to private corporations, and in favor of the free
use of both gold and silver as money; and yet
/
| the power to speculate in bonds, under the pre-
| tense of supplying the people with money by
! discussing the surplus in the Treasury, the
! Senate, by vote of IS to Is, consented to this
| request, with the condition that there should
! be no further contraction of the currency, the
| President refused to grant that small favor to
the people. No one denied Mr. CIeyeland's alb
/ sOlute ownership of the Democratic party. Be-
| fore reaching Washington he had sent word to
! the Democratic Members of the House TO dis
/ card one OF the precious metals and in all things
| to do the bidding of Wall street. The refusal
| Of patriotic Democrats to abandon their con-
| stituents and join the golden bondholding ring
| had challenged the admiration Of the country.
| The House of Representatives had seemed TO be
| an impregnable fortress against any assault
| from Wall street. But it had fallen With
wave of the hand of Grover Cleveland / that
| body was paraiyzed so that it could not even Utt
| ter the word silver" when the Senate SEN
it the Beck amendment on the nd-puTchasing
bill At that rate the growing power of this
! man Of destiny had but to continue unresisted
| for another term of four years to so intrench
! Grover Cleveland | in the White House that
/ nothing but revolution could remove him.
| The most alarming feature connected with the
/ exercise of the veto power by the President
| was that it no longer attracted attention; on
the contrary, the people were fast being edu-
| Gated to regard the Executive as the source Of
power. The vetoes Of the President were
treated by the press as no more remarkable
than the passage of bills through either House
of Congress, while in the earlier and better
DAYS of the Republic the exercise of the veto
power had been regarded as most eXtraord-
mary. 1t was absurd to suppose that one man
in the White House, charged with the multfari-
Gus duties of the Executive office could more
| deliberately examine legislation than the ma
jority of Congress, aided by its committees,
| with no other business but to perfect and pass
/ 1t,~r II 70
the one man ia the White House absorbed and
monopolized all the honor and integrity of the
Eation
The presiding officer announced the appoint
ment Of the select committee to examine into
all questions touching the meat product of the
United States, as follows: Senators Vest, Plumb,
| Henderson, Cull0m and Coke.
The conference report on the Pension Appro-
priaton Bill was presented and agreed to.
The Senate then proceeded to executive bust
ness.
In the House. on motion of Mr.. Taulbee, a
Senate bill was passed authorizing the coustruC-
ton of bridges across the Kentucky River aud
its tributaries by the Louisville, Cincinnati 81
Virginia Railroad Company.
On motion of Mr.. Lee, bill was passed
making Inauguration day a holiday in the Dis
trict of Columbia.
Mr. Spinola made an Intellectual effort to Sc
cure the passage of joint resolution appro-
!
anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg by the
survivors of the Army of the Potomac and the
Army of Northern Virginia; the objection COM
ing from Mr. Kerr.
The House then went into Committee of the
Whole on the Postoffice Appropriation Bill.
On motion OF Mr.. Blount the appropriation
for mail messenger service was increased from
100000 to $950,000
Mr. Cannon attributed the ineficiency of the
service in the West not to a lack of sufficient
+ appropriations but to the fact that competent
men had beendischarged and incompetent per-
sons put in their places. He contended that
the positions of railway pOstollice employees
should be made permanent.
| Mr. Blount said that the record would dis
close the fact that the changes in the railway
mail service had been gradual. There were a
large number of employees in the service who
had been there during the previous Admins
tration, and to-day the rate Of merit was higher
: than it had ever been before.
desultory discussion on the question oil
subsidies and free ships was brought about by
Mr.. Dingley with a criticism as to the compen-
sation which was allowed to American steam
ships for carrying foreign mails Mr.. Dingley
said unless the Government speedily encour-
aged American steamship lines, within five
years they would be driven from the ocean and