Morning journal and courier., 1889-02-12
Fiftieth Congressional Session
WASHINGTON, Feb. Ii.

mediately notified.
 Fiftieth Congressional Session
 WASHINGTON, Feb. Il.
 SENATE.-Mr. Dawes presented @ petition from 12O Indian students at Hampton, Va, against the continuance of the ration system to Indians as an encouragement to idleness, and recommending their equivalent in farming implements and stock. He said that the memorial was in the handwriting of one of the students, that it was signed in their own handwriting by all but three of the 12O, and was their own unprompted idea. He asked to have the petition referred to the committee on appropriations, and hoped that the committee would make the necessary recommendations. The petition was so re- ferred.
 The Senate went into executive session soon after assembling. The fact that MT. Sherman stated that he was directed by the committee on foreign affairs to ask for an ex- ecutive session has given rise to rumor that the Samoan conference at Berlin 1s the sub- ject under consideration.
 The doors were reopened at 3:15. After the transaction of of some routine morning business" the presiding officer announced the Union Pacific funding bill as the ''unhn- ished business" MT. Hale said that his col league (Mr. Frye) who is in charge of the bill had been called away by death in his fam- lily. He therefore moved that the bill be laid aside and that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the naval appropria- tion bill. The motion was agreed to and the naval appropriation bill was taken up. The amendments reported by the con- nittee on appropriations for installing or in creasing the electric light plants on the mon itors, cruisers and other vessels (appropriat- ing about $68, ,00O was agreed to.
 An item of $100,000 (to be immediately available) was inserted on motion of MT. Hale for the construction of building for use at the naval torpedo station and War col- lege on Goat Island, Providence, R. I. An item of $90, 900 was inserted on motion of Mir Hale for the purchase of land and the building thereon adjacent to the Naval academy at Annapolis.
 A few other amendments were agreed to. The amendment reported by the committee on appropriations for the construction or two steel cruisers or gunboats of 800 to ], 200 tons to cost in the aggregate Exclusive of arma- menD not more than $700, ,000; of one steel cruiser of about 2,0o0 tons st a cost of not more than $700, 900, and of one ram for hsr- bor defense, twas agreed to without discussion. This is in addition to the provisions of the bill as it came from the House under the heading Hincrease of the navy"
 MT. Chandler moved to strike out of the paragraph for the construction of one armor- ed steel cruising monitor the words "of the type and to be constructed according to plans and specifications to be fur nished to the Navy departments by Hon. John R. Thomas of Illinois, to be approved by the Secretary of the Navy He characterized as an anomaly in legisia- tion and almost ludicrous the provision that vessel of such size and cost ($1 ,500, ,000) should be constructed after the type and up- on plans and specifications to be furnished by a member of congress. Such type and plans and specifications ought not to be leg islated on the next Secretary of the Navy in that way. The present has had the disposal of S2S, ,OO0, GOO, but this bill contained Q proposition that Mir. Thomas, lawyer, not a designer of ships, should furnish the next Secretary of the Navy with one ship, and that the Pneumatic Gun company should furnish him with another. The whole thing was broad farce.
 Mr. Cullom opposed the amendment and read several letters from high naval officers endorsing and commenting MT. Thomas plans and specifications. The intimation made by Mir. Chandler that MT. Thomas was not the designer, but had got his ideas from naval officers and constructors was, he said an entirely grstuitous assertion on MT. Chan, dler's part.
 Mr. Chandler said he had merely desired to cali the attention of the Senate to the manifest impropriety of tying up tae hands of the secretary of the navy proposed. Mr. Call argued in favor of returning the words proposed to be struck out and Mir Hawley in faver of striking them out, re- garding such approval as mistake in legis lation and against public policy. Without disposing of the amendment the Senate al 5:30 p. m. adjourned.
 HousE.-After some discussion this morn ing the House determined-yeas 131, nays S& to consider the Smalls- Elliott contested election case.
 MT. Crisp took the floor for the presenta ton of the case and cited several instances of fraudulent voting in various precincts by the friends of Smalls. He then referred to the while State auditor, and contended that that conviction had injured him with the colored people.
 Mir. Dalzell, of Penn, inquired what rele- vaucy that had to the question of how many votes Smalls received at the election. MT. Crisp replied that gentlemen on the Republican side assumed that because there | was colored majority in the district the ma jority would vote for colored man. He proposed to show that among the colored people of the district there were some good men who rebelled against being dictated to and required to vote for man who had beer convicted of 6 high crime. It was true that Smalls had been pardoned by the governor | but in the minds of estimable men no par ' | the conviction. He quoted evidence to show ! that colored Republicans were opposed te l Smalls on account of the manner in whict \ he had been nominated and on account O. | his character.
 1 Further testimony was quoted by Mir l Crisp to show that the colored Democrats l had been ostracised, lntimidated and over awed by the colored Republicans, and tha 1 the contestant Small had taken leading | part in this action. The day was past wheI 1 the colored people would go up in body | like senseless machines, to record vote, a | they were told to do by people who ivel l away from them and had not their interest l at heart The day had come when they wer | satisfied with the people among whom the. | lived: the people who were their friends; tn
 people to whom they always appealed il | distress. As they became more intelligen they realized the impropriety of being repre- sented by Smalls and realized that they wer entitled to better representative.
 Mr. Rowells of Illinois said that the gen
 tleman from Georgia (Crisp) hal spent muel
 time in proving that Smalls had been guilt of bribery while member of the State legis lature, a proposition which had no nor
 bearing on this case than the question 0
 whether the moon was inhabitated. It hal
 been brought in, like the bull-dozing ques
 tion, for the purpose of justifying vote t
 keep a man out of seat to which he ha
 been elected. No lawyer understanding tn
 first principle of evidence would for nc
 ment contend that the question c
 Smalls' guilt or innocence illustrate
 a single proposition bearing on th right of either claimant to seal
 The governor of South Carolina had recent
 announced the paramount political questio in South Carolina to be the maintenance ( Apglo-Saxon control. The question was nc
 that the majority should rule or that legi
 voter might have his vote cast and counted
 but to maintain and preserve Anglo-Ssxo
 control. That was one patent fact in respet to the talk of intimidation.
 Pending further debate the matter wer over until tomorrow.
 The Speaker appointed Messrs. Caswel Seney and Oates as conferees on the diret tt tax bill.
 < The House at 5;10 adjourned,