Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-03-12
CONGRESS- DIES WITH SONG
Scenes at the Expiration of
the Session.
REEDS DEFENCE AND FAREWELL
He keenly Feels the Snub
Administered.
First Speaker in Thirty Years Who Failed
to Receive Vote of Thanks Moved by
the Minority--Last of the Experiment
of Non-deliberatiye Sessions.

WASHINGTON, d. G., March 4.-To the
crowded galleries the striking facts in
the proceedings at the Capitol to-day
were the refusal of the Democrats to
thank Speaker Reed, the acknowledge
ment of the fairness and courtesy Of
Chairman Cannon, which emphasized
that refusal, and the re-enactment of
Father Time Bassetts biennial comedy
of turning back the hands of the Senate
clock, which this time he turned back so
far that he had to turn them forward
afterward. The informal concert which
followed the adjournment of the House
also interested them. But far more en-
| tertaining than any of these to the man
behind the scenes was the fact that Con-
gress had appropriated $650,o00 in prac-
tically five days.
The change of rules of which the
Speaker boasted, together with his
| yaunted attempts at political legislation,
had so deferred and embarrassed action
on the regular business of Congress that
the bills carrying the great appropria-
tions, aggregating q larger sum than in
any other year of peace were all
crowded through at the eleventh hour.
| No one can know just what their aggre-
gate is till they are all granted. Chair
man Allison and Chairman Cannon
could not give their respective houses
the usual exact statement of appropria-
tions for the simple reason that 1t was
impracticable to get at the amounts in
the rush and hurry, nor does any one
know the number of mistakes in the
bills. Some were discovered IN time
for correction, but the hasty and irregular
methods Of legislation peculiar to this
Congress leave doubt in the mind as
to any bills accuracy.
NOT DOLLAR LEFT UNAPPRoPRIATED.
All that anybody really knows about
the Appropriation bills Of this session is
| that they leave the treasury empty and
with deficit amounting to from $780,
100000 to 100000, which will ap-
| parently have to be met at the next
| Congress by new taxation. This does
not seem to trouble most of the Republic
cans much. They have an "after-us-
| the-deluge" air. Cannon is theonly Re-
! publican who has publicly expressed re-
1 gret. Most of them are quite content
with having got "slice of pork" as
some of them do not hesitate to put it.
Speaker Reed was troubled in spite
of his seeming imperturbability by the
solid dissent of the Democrats from the
declaration adopted by the Republicans
| that he deserved thanks for the impair
tial manner in which he had presided
over the House. Mckinley last night
tried to save the Speakers feelings by
actually going over TO the Democratic
side and asking the leaders not to object
to the vote of thanks, but the Demo-
cratic leaders replied that they could
not stultify themselves by seeming to
acquiesce in such mockery as the pro-
posed vote of thanks They agreed
among themselves, however, that they
could omit the proposed statement of
their reasons for their dissent, assuming
that the country knew and approved
them, and that the statement of them
might provoke an unseemly debate. Ae-
cordingly they contented themselves
with requiring the yeas and nays on the
| Mckinley resolution and recording
their votes against it.
REED FELT THE CUT.
Reed, who had left the chair to Bur-
rows, paced up and down the Speakers
room while the vote was being taken.
Later on, w. G. P. Breckenridge, by
way of bringing out the action of the
| Democrats in sharp contrast, went out of
his way to praise Cannon as chairman
of the appropriations committee for
courtesy and fairness. Reed WINGED
under this. His feeling about the Demo-
cratic dissent is well shown by the pub
lication, through Journal Clerk Harry
Smith, clerk of Reeds committee on
rules, of q list of twelve cases, all of
| l,n f1a lnta ,,,4 IN,
| Thirty-sixth Congress, when the
Speakers of the House did not receive
unanimous votes Of thanks. OF course,
he says nothing about the fact that for
thirty years there has been no Speaker
who did not receive what he desired but
was denied. Reed felt the denial all the
| the Senate forgave the lapses during
the Cloture-Force bill debate and gave
| Vice president Morton the usual vote of
thanks.
On top of everything else came the
Doxology, sung with fcrvor by the
crowded press gallery, amid the ap-
plause of the Democrats and those Re
publicans who voted for McKinley's
resolution of thanks against their will
and judgment.
The closing scenes of probably the
most remarkable and most extravagant
Congress in history were of a remarka-
bic character. This body has appropri-
ated more money than any ''peace" Con-
gress since the foundation of the govern
ment, the total reaching fully $1,000,-
| 100000.
When Speaker Reed had finished his
speech in the House to-day, announced
the expiration of the Congress and
stepped from the chair, the Democrats
burst out with loud cheer and bolster
GUS demonstrations OF joy. The Repub-
licans joined in the cheering, perhaps in
different spirit.
The vocalists of the House on the Re-
publican side of the chamber at once
gathered in u body near the front row of
desks, headed by Mr. Coleman Of Lou
isiana, Mr., Yardley of Pennsylvania,
Mr.. Slivers of New York, and Mr.. Wade
of Missouri, and started up the stirring
war tune, "Marching Through Georgia"
which was taken up by the great mass
of Republican representatives who made
the hall ring, to the great delight and
edification of the galleries, packed full
of people.
A Democratic chorus, headed by
Representative-elect John j. O'Neill of
Missouri, retorted with the "DoXology,"
but their voices were soon drowned by
the volume of sound from the press
gallery of the House, the reporters hav-
ing taken up the hymn. Republicans
and Democrats alike ceased their sing
ing to listen to that of their sometime
critics, whose full resonant chorus was