Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-04-04
THE APPOINTED SENATORS.
Mr.. Vest Makes an Extended Argument
Against Their Being Seated.

Against Their Being Seated.
No new morning business being introduced
the Senate resumed consideration of the re-
port Of the committee on privileges and cleo
tons in favor of the admission of the Senators
appointed by the governors of the states of
Montana, Washington and Wyoming
legislatures having failed to elect.
Mr.. Vest (Mo.) made an argument against
the admission Of the three Senators. Great
stress had been laid, he said, by the Senators
from Massachusetts and Alabama (Hoar and
fugh) OH the fact that the question was res
adjudicata. The doctrine of stare decisis was
invoked as absolutely conclusive. L. that were
true, 1t would be. as q matter Of course, an end
Of the controversy, but he denied it. He de-
MED that the doctrine of stare decisis applied
to the decisions of the Senate except when the
Senate was sitting q high court of impeach-
ment.
In the Kellogg case tina. contention had been
made, and seven democratic Senators had voted
with his friends on the other side Of the cham
Der against their own convictions and because
they believed that the doctrine OF stare decisis
applied to that case The majority OF demo-
cratic Senators, however. had denied that the
doctrine applied, and the proceedings of the Sem
ate since 1901 showed conclusively that that doc
trine had never been thought by the best
lawyers to apply.
DECISION BOTH WAYS.
1t was an acknowledged fact, however, that
the Senate had decided the question in both
ways. The first case had come up in 1898 from
the state Of Delaware and had been decided in
favor of the position which he assumed today
that the governor had no right to ill an original
term of Senator by appointment. The next
case had come up in 1901 and had been passed
upon sub silentio-the decision being that the
governor had the right.
Nine cases had been decided between 1901
and 1S25-every one of them without debate;
but in 1925 a case had come up and had been
debated for three days-the result being that
the Senate deliberately determined that gov
term of a Senator by appointment. In other
words, that the great original and primary
power OF electing Senators is vested in the leg
lslatures OF the respective states In the course
OF his argument, Mr.. Vest having remarked
that Mr.. Pugh had thought differently in 1885.
when he voted for the construction which he
Mr.. Nest) was now contending for, Mr.. Pugh
excused MS vote at that time by saying that he
had followed his friend from Missouri in the
msZes of his constitutional and metaphysical
distractions, in which they had both got lost;
but that on reflection he had convinced himself
that two and two do make four. There was an
other (said Mr.. Fest) Of the miraculous con-
versions, but he feared that the authority
which had changed tho mind of the Senator
from Alabama was not the same that had oper-
ated on ST. Paul. Laughter.
II the Senator from Alabama had got lost in
1885 1t had taken him till 1898 to find that he
was lost Anybody who took the ground con-
tended for by the Senator from Alabama would
have no difficulty in believing in the construc-
ton that was originally put on the general
welfare" clause Of the Constitution that Con-
gress could do anything. In order to come to
the construction commended for on the other
side Senators would have to be satisfied that
Mr.. Madison and his colleagues were gully Of
gross negligence by putting in the Constitution
the unnecessary words "by resignation or other
wise"
Mr.. Vest quoted from the debate in the Sem
ate in the case OF Mr.. WadIeigh N.H. J, IN
which Mr.. Dawes (the colleague of Mr. Hoar)
said: Every preceden: IN the Senate is against
the power of the governor to appoint to a full
term" and in which Mr.. Blaine said: '.Of
course the governor cannot appoint Nothing
is better settled than that"
For more than fifty years, said Mr.. Vest, no
Senator ever made any such contention as that
the governor could do that-never until 1879
At the close of Mr.. Vests speech, Mr. Chaad-
Ter, republican, Obtained the floor, but
yielded for an executive session. and the Senate
accordingly, at l:l5 p.m., proceeded to the
consideration Of executive business and soon
afterward adjourned till tomorrow.