The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1893-08-02
Extra Sessions.

Extra Sessions.
A writer in the New York World
has traced the history of the extra
sessions OF Congress (eleyen in ail9
convened by Presidents proclama-
tions from the beginning of the
Government to the present time.
All these extra sessions arose ont Of
some emergency, more or less grave,
in public affairs. President Adams
called the first extra session of Con-
gress to take into consideration
the strained relations between the.
United States and France.
The second session was convened
by President Jefferson on the oc,
casion of the Louisiana Purchase.
The Senate ratified tho treaty, and.
the House made the necessary ap-
preparation, whereupon Congress
adjourned. The popularity of that
measure and OF other acts of Jeffer-
sons first administration was DEM
oustratcd by his almost unanimous
election for second term. Jeffer-
SON called the third session o
take action upon the difficult )
with Great Britain which d
grown out of the affair of the II J.
ard and Peacock. The result was
the famous embargo, which did
more harm to the commerce of tho
United States than to the foreign
trade against which it was aimed.
Two extra sessions were convened
by President Madison, both in rela-
tlpn to the conflict with Great
Britain.
No extra session was called from
1914 to 1887, when President Van
Buren, was constrained to convene
Congress by the great commercial
crash which had prostrated public
and private credit.
The next extra session, and the
one or which there seemed the least
necessity, was summoned by Presi-
dent William II. Harrison fourteen
days after his inauguration. The
Wings were eager, to carry out
their political programme, which
included high tariff, United States
banks, distribution of public lands,
and internal improvements. But
before Congress met Harrison was
dead, and John Tyler stood ready
to stay the pet Wing measures with
a veto. This is the least fortunate
of all the extra sessions of Congress.
President Pierce was Obliged. to
convoke an extra session by reason
of a dispute between the two
Houses which caused the failure of
the Army Appropriation bill. The
House had put rider on the Army
bill to restrain the President from
the employment of the troops in
the interests of Sayery in Kansas,
and the Senate had rejected it.
Congress was therefore reconvened
before the members left Washing.
ton, and in a few days passed the
Army bill without the rider, and
adjourned.
The next extra session was called
by President Lincoln, three days
after the fall of Fort Sumptcr 10
meet on the Fourth of July, to con-
slider the state of the Union. At
this most important extra session,
which lasted a little more than a
month, Congress passed the neces-
sary bills to raise and provide
armies, ships and money to cary ON
the war.
The two extra sessions convened
by President Hayes because of the
disagreements of the Democrats in
Congress with the Administration
over the use of troops and Federal
Marshals at the pools) complete the
list. All these extra sessions, with
one or two exceptions at most, were
made imperatively necessary by
emergencies in public affairs.
Whether they helped or hurt the
party under whose auspices they
were summoned, it was enough for
the President who convened them.
that the emergency would not per-
NIT of delay till the meeting of
Congress in regular session. But
the evidence is that these extra
sessions proved anything but dfsas-
to the party in power.
Wheat and Tariff.
Here is one of the Rannhl;na, ~.