The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1888-01-05
Senator Riddleberg er Exnlains.


of December:
AID TO COMMON SCHOOLS
Mr.. Blair.-I wish to make suggestion in
! reference to the order of business. The educa
| tional bill is the unfinished business. l have
been notified by several senators that they de-
sire to make speeches some what at length. and
it is obvious that to enter on its discussion to-
morrow would be OF very little service to the
ultimate disposition of the bil and the
! Senator from Oregon desires to make speech
| tomorrow on another matter, of which he has
/ given notice, ask unanimous consent of the
! Senate that the education bill be postponed
and be made the unfinished business for jan
| uary i. the day to which the adjournment is to
| take place.
any motion the Senator from New Hampshire
may make in respect to that Dill. expect him
want to be heard for a few moments this even
| ing wish to make u statement, and not a
statement alone, butte produce some records
| lhat Will verify the statement make, While
am not rising now to oppose the motion,
| am simply doing what other Senators have
| done this afternoon taking advantage Of the
| situation to make a few remarks.
Mr.. Sherman.-Mr. PRESIDENT
The PRESIDENT pro tempore.-The Senator from
New hampshire asks unanimous consent.
| ! oes the Chair understand the Senator from
i Virginia TO yield the floor?
| Mr.. R1ddl eberger.-No,s Sir ; do not.
| The President pro tenlpore.-1he Chair begs
! the senator's pardon.
| Mr.. Riddleberger.-Asa an earnest advocate of
this bill from the time the Senator from New
| Hampshire introduced it l desile to state to
him again that cannot indorse this book
| which he has had laid on our desks. see it is
| copyrighted. Of course the Senator had q
| right to copyright it. 1t ought to have been q
| kind of a Know-Nothing blue book. In it here
called the Blair educational bill. which indorse-
ments We're made two years after the bill had
\ passed and by Senators who had earnestly OPP
| posed II from different standpoints on this
| floor object to that going to the country as a
most the form of the Congressional Record save
and except the back of it. l will take Tor in
@ oiie ENDORSEMENT OF one OF the senators
ana 90 This Tor reason which Is not to be at
| trlbuted to any malice my part, but be-
| cause of recent occurrences III my own State
ana among the representatives that are there
! IN It's General Assembly. l cannot read 1t in
this light; but it is the endorsement of Senator
! Malone, of Virginia.
/ The Senator from New Hampshire knows
| that Senator Malone, of Virginia, opposed that
! bill. and that this Endorsement which is in hts
| passed the Senate. If there be any doubt about
It, have the Record here. l want to call
| IN the Virginia General Assembly a few days
ago an accusation was made that statements
"Hicn mad made on this floor Were untrue.
| II nave here the Congressional Record, volume
~, part 2, of the Cong ess. In which that Sena-
| Tor appeared as absent, when the Senator from
New Hampshire and other Senators on this
| moor asked me go into his committee room
and get him TO vote for or against the bill. L
| met him in his committee room He was alb
| itol.
| have here the ConoressionnI Record OF two
| Years later, in which the words appear that are
copied into this pamphlet or bill of the Senator
from New Hampshire. l do not propose to
| stand in this senate Chamber under an asper-
sion of that sort coming from my own State and
| verified here by what appears to be record
with whom live If we are to have bills IN
| troduced and passed here, let us have bills, but
NOT such statements as are made III this book
| TO bear out the records of men that contravene
the records of the Congress itselfas is SHOWN by
| these books.
! Inever have paraded any record of my own in
| |
and hope never will. l have never had the
| opportunity, should rather say, to occupy a
committee room from which to issue personal
document and personal record after my term
| had expired In the Senate; and do object to
sending out this which as far as 1t can be is a
statement made That goes to a question OF
veracity between me and represen tat1ye Vir-
g:nian IN the house ofdelegates, put inta doc.
| ument OF The Senate. 1 do not think the Sena-
| tor from New Ham psh ire will ask to have it
remain there until he shall have stated on this
| 1loor that this statement made here is taken
| from the Congressional Record made Two yea rs
after the opposition of my former colleague to
| this bill.
| am willing to rest my statements on the Re
cord, and Will be pardoned by Senators and
| by gentlemen everywhere for making this
statement, when they read In the journals of
| the house of delegates of Virginia not only
what has seemingly appeared to be record
here. but that my word was not good because
OF the fact that the record was against me. 1
| say that this is no record Here is the Congress
saonal Ree9T oa OF 1852 here 1s the Congressional
hampshire now on this floor to say which one
OF these records is right. will carry the books
| to him, Will show them, will read to him The
| remarks from each one of them and let it 90
| back 10 Virginia whether have told the truth
| or Whethef the statement there made against
| me correct.
Mr.. Blair.-Mr. President, the pamphlet to
| which the Sena or has alluded contains brief
statements, selected sentences of the views OF
Senators as delivered on this floor touching the
merits OF what is known the educational
Dill. Ihat h11l as is known, has passed the
Senate on two different occasions, once in the
| year 1884 and again IN the year 1856.
During the vacation, knowing that this bill
would pc again pending. and there being vast
amount of matter accumulated in the way of
argument and data bearing upon it, performed
the labor of making some selections for the
| purpose of calculating the subject in such way
as 10 save the time of the Senate; and the
| passage to which the Senator refers is one of
| the results Embodied upon its covers is
some other additional matter. The body of
| the book Is simply copied from the CONGRESSIONAL
Record ITSELF the record of the two de bates pre-
cedipg the passage of the bill in 1854 and 1886.
VI course 1t never occurred to me that there
| ever was any OCCASION in taking from the re-
marks OF Senators in reference to the merits of
the OIL to make designation of the occasion
tered, whether in 1854 OF 1885, they being on the
| same measure The remarks of Senator Ma
none In favor of the bill are taken from the de-
cate OF 1856, the last debate, when, as / under
| stand, he favored the measure voting for it,
nave no knowledge in reference to the circum-
stances Wh1ch are averred by the Senator with
reference to the action of Mr.. Malone on the
trst occasion when the bill was pending in and
| passed By the Senate Incommittee he favored
| the original bill as introduced in 1881. as re-
ported IN the e. Forty-seventh congress The
l can not say that Senator Malone favored
those notifications. think he did not. L am
ao5 aware whether he opposed the bill on its
nnal passage, and cannot say.
islncerely take great PLEASURE in stating
What think 10 man who knows the Senator
vetaeity, so far as know is not to be cues
t taoned anywhere. take him to be man of
has stated nothing on this floor or elsewhere
put What ne sincerely believes to be true; but
so far as the record goes it bears out any cita-
ton which has been made in this pamphlet.
Mr.. Riddleberger.-Mr. President I am
greatly obliged to the Senator for saying that
he never heard me tell a story. I should like
also, to know why the Senator cannot recollect
that he asked me to 60 to the committee-room
| vote My persistence in this statement l
think, is justified by the fact that l have been
assaulted ed in my own house of delegates in Vir-
glnla The Senator from New Hampshire and,
think, Senator Cameron, then of Wisconsin,
asked me to go. Now there is this distinction
want 1T done on Wis f.oor. where it will answer
| the allegation brought against me down there
II e, my o 5Ss, state among my own people. The
| Dill OF 1881 that the committee agreed upon was
| Dill providing that the money should be dis
! bursed through Federal officers. The last
Blair educational bill. as it came into the Sen
ate and was perfected. opposed because
the money was to be dsbursed by state school
boards. want the distinction clearly drawn
and want 1t to &C into the Congressional Record
that make it. The journals of the house of
delegates of the State OF Virginia will be re-
| sponsib1e for what is said there.
When the change was made the Senator from
New Hampshire does not recoleot. am sorry
| for it, know change overcame the mind of
my colleague, and that ls the cause of the ac.
eu3atsen brought against me In Virginia. That
is the change, and from that time on he was
! opposed to the bill until, as this book shows
| two years after 1t was passed, he gave voice to
| the world, appearing in new Congress siOndt
| Record made up by the Senator from New
| Hampshire and copyrighted. l want 1T under
| stood, and intend to have 1T understood. that
the Congressional Record and the recollection OF
| Senators here bear me out so far as L am con-
cerned and show the verify of my statement,
and let that which goes out through others rest
| upon their recollection and upon record made
| up two years after date.
Mt. Blair--Mr. President. | wish merely to
! correct slight lnaccuracy of the Senator from
| Virginia. The difference between the original
| bill as 1t stood In 1881 and the bill passed in
1881 and 1886 was this that by the bill as origi-
| nally introduced in 1881, the funds were to be
dsbursed upon the joint approval of the State
authorities. and of the Federal commissioner
or authorities, and without the approval OF
| both there was to be no disbursement in the
! States 1t was not bill providing that the dis
| bursement should be made by Federal ati-
| thority, in any wise disregarding the author.
| tiles of the State. Che bill as it passed in 1884
and 1856 is before the Senate, and it provides
| substantially that the disbursement be at the
| will OF the State. subject to certain conditions
| and reports, as the Senate understands.
| Mr.. Kiddleberger. The papers state exactly
| what said or intended TO say, that as long
| there was Federal hand in the distribution
| of the money the committee were a unit; that
| when the Federal hand was Withdrawn and it