The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-29
CONGRESSANDTHESOUTH
THE ABERDEEN AFFAIR GIVEN
ANOTHER AIRING.

ton Dy Inc hepuOICanS-S9n
spooner Improves the Opportunity
to Make a Political Harangue.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 2S.-In the Senate to-
day among the memorials presented and re-
ferred was one presented by Mr. Chandler
for the establishment of republican form
of government in the state OF Mississippi.
Mr.. Morrill,, i'll introducing bill author
izing the issue Of treasury notes for deposits
of silver bullion, and having it referred to
the committee on finance, said that that
committee had addressed a communication
10 the Secretary of the Treasury asking
him to formulate bill in accordance with
his recommendation in relation to sil err
He said that the bill had been received
Without committing himself or any men,
Der to 1t, he asked to have it printed and
referred.
RELIEVING THE TREASURER.
The Senate bill to relieve the treasurer of
the United States from the amount now
charged TO him and deposited with the sew
eral states was taken from the calendar aud
passed 1t au horizes the proper accounting
officers of the treasury to credit 10 account
of the treasurer of the United States with
the amount of money standing to his debt
u
now unavailable by reason of the deposit of
three instalments of surplus revenue with
the states authorized by sections 13 and "A
of the act of June %, 1886, chapter lis, the
amounts to be charged to an appropriation
hereby created for that purpose, amounting
in all to SIS, 1854
THE DIRECT TAX.
The bill to credit and to pay to the sew
eral states and territories and to the Dis
trict of Columbia all moneys collected under
the direct tax act of 1861, was taken from
the calendar. After a short debate, Mr..
Vance offered as an amendment a propo-
sition to refund thu cotton tax. This was
rejected by vote of l5 yeas to 81 nays
The bill was then passed by a vote Of Al to
Z. The senators voting in the mega i've
were Messrs. Berry, Blair, Call, Coke,
Plumb, Vance and Vest. The bill makes it
the duty Of the Secretary of the Treasury
to credit to each state and territory of the
United States and the District of Columbia
a sum equal to all the collections, by set off
or otherwise, made from said states and
territories and the District of Columbia, or
from any of the citizens or inhabitants
thereof, or other persons, under the act of
congress approved Aug. 5, 1861, and the
amendatory acts thereto, and it appro-
PIRATES the necessary sum to reimburse each
state and territory and the District of
Columbia.
ABERDEENs SENSATION.
The Senate then, at 2 o'clock, resumed
consideration of Mr.. Chandler's resolution
in relation to the maltreatment at Aber-
deem, Miss, of Henry j. Franz, and Mr.
George made an argument against it, de-
claring his belief that the adop ion of the
resolution would be a serious infracti IN Of
the constitution, and a very serious en-
~. -<NfN H. ,F
Mississippi. He took up the ause of the
constitution, section 2 of article 4, which
Mr.. Wilson of Iowa and other republican
senators referred to yesterday as
authorizing the resolution, and argued
that no decision of the supreme court and
no act of congress had ever given such
construction to it, He quoted a decision of
the supreme court which, he said, settled
the point that the only jurisdiction that
congress had under the second section of
the fourth article of the constitution was to
provide that the state laws, and state action
under state authority, should not be used
for the purpose of depriving any citlzsn of
his equal rights and privileges In any other
state.
ANOTHER DECISION QUOTED.
He quoted another decision of the su-
preme court, TO the effect that that provision
in the constitution was not a guarantee
against the commission of an individual
offense, and did not extend to the enact
ment Of laws for the suppression of crimes
within a state. There could be no doubt,
Mr.. George said, if the decisions of the su-
preme court were to be relied on, that the
Senate, as part of the law-making power,
had no right to pass a law to punish the
men who had committed the Aberdeen
outrage. If that were 80, then, he asked,
what right and what power had the Senate,
under the construction of the constitution,
to make an inquiry into the transaction for
any purpose!
THE ONLY SOURCE OF INFORMATION.
Mr.. George went on to argue that the
Attorney General could not have known
that the offense was a case of assault and
battery, except from the statutes of Missis-
sippi, and was interrupted by Mr.. Hoar
with suggestion (by way of g joke that
the Attorney General certainly could not
have got it from the common law
of Mississippi or from the customs
Of the country. Mr. George went on
to say that not only did he condemn
the hanging in effigy of any respectable
officer of the United States under any cir
cumstances or under any provocatlon; but
that in the case of Secretary Proctor there
was no provocation for the insult. He had
never heard from any other democrat any
y
Proctor for which that indignity had been
attempted to be inflicted on HIM, except
that he performed painful duty with con-
slderation to the feelings, prejudlces even,
Of the people of the south. The pending
proposition he described as an annex or ad-
Junct of the original offense, and another
violation of the law of Mississippi.
THE ONLY OBJECT.
The only end to be obtained was to
blacken the name and reputation of a state
whose sons had honored and served the
country. Among the distinguished sons Of
Mississippi, Mr.. George referred to Jefferson
Davis as a man who had never preached his
trust or failed in the discharge OF his full
duty, whether he served the United States
or the confederacy. He claimed in con-
clusion that he had shown that the pending
proposition was without any warrant in the
constitution, which the senators had sworn
to support. There was no need of it. If
the senator's were anxious to uncover the
nakedness of his mother, Mississippi, it had
already been uncovered. Why, then, pass
the resolution, except to show that where
good name of the people of the south were
involved, the constitution was nothing but
a rope Of sand. If the Senate was to go on
tais crusade against the white people of
mississippi for an alleged violation OF the
law and of the constitution, would it not be
well for the Senate to set an ex lmple to
tnat despairing people Of an observance Of
the constitution?
sPOoNER MAKES A POLITICAL SPEECH.
In the coursa of "A looor nolittnal snaach in