Dakota farmers' advocate. (Canton, S.D.) 18??-1890, 1890-07-18
FOOTPRINTS OF CORRUPTION.
An Illinois Republican Congressman Uncon.
sciousIy Exposes 4 Piece Of
croohedness.
indisputabie EUidence That An Important
y. 8. Statute Has Been a Victim
ofthe Forgeyer.s 3 Handyworh.
WAS 1T 4 FORGERY.

WAS 1T A FORGERY.
Several illusions have been made in
certain reform papers. challenging the
legality of the issue of large part of the
present United States bonds. For the
purpose of giving the facts as near
as possible in regard to this matter.
that portion of Hon. Ralph Plumb's
speech which treats Of this bond issue is
quoted below. Mr.. Plumb was a repub-
lican member of congress from Illinois,
and delivered this speech in the house,
March 5, 1888. Previous to this, he had
carefully and thoroughly investigated all
the details connected with this issue OF
bonds, and gives the result of the exami-
nation and the laws bearing upon the
subject in a most logical manner He
said:
In the act of 1860 the text reads, ssbut
none of said interest-bearing obligations, .
etc, referring, no doubt; to bonds then
outstanding; whereas in the Revised
Statutes "sasd" and insert 'the' so that
it reads, ''none of the interest bearing
obligations, ETC.; which must refer to all
such as were issued, or to be issued under
any law that had been or might be passed
by congress.
l come now, Mr.. Chairman, to the con-
sideration of the act passed July IA, 1870,
known as the refunding act, under which
the per cent bonds, so called, were is
sued, and with the indulgence of the
committee L will make brief statement
Of facts, such as desired to make some
days ago in respect to the variance found
to exist between the law Us passed By
congress and as it is published in the
statutes at large. An editorial in prom-
inent public journal, which claimed that
the law as found in the statutes authoriz-
ed the secretary of treasury to call for re.
demption outstanding bonds in, the order
otrscribed. By law scausesiif L assf'
gate that question, and in doing SO de.
termined to examine carefully the refund
ing act of July IA, 1870, and all the facts
attending its passage. In thus pursuing
the investigation noticed that the report
Of the committee of conference between
tie two Houses on the funding bill. and
which was agreed to in the House Of Rep
resentatives BY a yea-and-nay vote in
providing for issuing one thousand mil
lions Of per cent bonds, declared that
said bonds were ''rcdeemable at the pleas
ure of the United States for thirty wears
from the date of their issue, "while in the
act as published in the Statutes at Large
the proposition "for' is omitted and ..af-
ter is inserted in its stead. This essen
tial variance between the act as voted up
Oh and as printed i'll the Statutes at large
50 interested me that determined to as
certain, if possible, which was correct
and for that purpose went to the State
Department and there examined the en-
rolled bill as signed by the Speaker of the
House, the President of the Senate, and
as approved by the President. To my
great surprise found that the word s.for"
as above described had been erased and
the word ''after' inserted in it's stead. so
that the enrolled bill reads ::after' in
stead of ''for.'
Thinking it possible that the enrolling
clerk had found that the record made by
the Secretary of the Senate contained the
word after and had made the erasure
and alteration in the bill before it was
signed, next had recourse to the records
made by both the secretary of the Senate
and the clerk of the House in the original
daily journals of the proceedings of their
respective bodies, certified CODY of
which is before me, and in both these
unaltered, just as it was when the yeas
and nays were recorded on the final pas
sage of the bill, and presumably as it was
when the enrolled bill was signed.
MI. Chairman, it would be difficult to
find in our language two words with more
opposite definitions than these preposi-
tions for and AFTER" Webster says,
1.-The radical sense of for is to go. to pass
to advance, to reach or stretch" and that
it signifies during and Worcester
adopts the same definition. On the other
hand. the same authorities define the
word ''after' to mean following, or later
in time. 1t follows, then, that as the
law stands now upon the record Of both
Houses Of Congress the bonds commonly
called 4 per cents are redeemable at the
pleasure Of the United States at any time
during thirty years.
Mr.. Chairman, the proposition I main
tain is that in cases where there is an I'M
portant variance between the records
made of the wording of the law by the
proper officers of the two Houses of Con-
gress and the published records Of the