Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-19
REAL FUN IN THE SENATE
Caused by Senator Vests HUI
morous Speech.
He STARTED ON H0KE SMITH
And Wound Up on the Presidents Recent
Missionary Speech.
RESOLUTION CsNSURING Mr.. BAYARD
Was Debated in the House-Mr. Cousins
Speech Advocating the Adoption of
the Report Was the Feature of
the Occasion.

today's proceedings in the senate was
short debate upon a joint resolution di-
reeting the secretary of the interior to
execute the law for opening to settlement
some 1000, 900 acres of land in the eastern
part OF Utah, which have been part of the
Uncompahgre Indian reservation.
Severe structures upon the secretary of
the interior for his attempt to nullify the
act of congress were made by Messrs.
Cannon, Wolcott and Vest. The latter
inveighed with much vehemence against
the secretary, declaring that the time
had been when the secretary would have
to answer to the bar of the senate for
such an attempt to trample upon the leg
islative branch Of the government
Mr.. Vest also caused much amuse-
meDt by his witty and caustic criticisms
of President Cleveland's recent speech
before the Home Missionary society in
New York
The Dupont election case was taken
up after the morning hour and Mr.
Thurston, republican, of Nebraska, made
three hours speech in advocacy of Mr.
Dupont's right to a seat
Mr.. Vest began with the remark that
there was time when a cabinet officer
who deliberately failed to execute an act
of congress would be brought before the
bar Of the senate because he had
trampled upon the legislative department
OF the government and had violated his
oath or office. He happened to know all
the. facts in regard to the matter He
said that some years ago a company had
been organized in st. Louis for the pur-
pose OF opening up certain asphalt de-
posits in the Uncompahgre reservation
In the eastern part of Utah and had in
vested large amount of money. The
st. Louis company had not gone into the
reservation. 1t had bought land outside
and wagoned the product down
to the Union Pacific railway, by
which 1t was sent to the different cities.
The company did not want the lands be-
cause the asphalt existed in such enor-
nous, quantity that there. could be no
monopoly in 1t. There was also. Mr. Vest
said, a. New York asphalt corporation
which came on the scene last summer
ana which made some adjustment with
the st. Louis company. The question
was, whether congress knew what 1t was
doing when 1t passed the act to open the
lands. Congress did know, and it knew
very well that there were great asphalt
deposits there.
What sort of right, Mr.. Vest demand
ed angrily, had the secretary of the in
terior to nullify that act of congress?
That practice had grown up until it de-
manded apprehension of congress, and at
once. The action of the secretary of ag-
riculture Oh the seed question was an
And now" said he, comes the secre-
tary of the interior and says congress
did not know anything about these enor-
nous deposits. and he takes the respon-
sibllity of saying to the president of the
United States that the proclamation
opening these lands to settlement shall
not be issued. Here is a positive statute
nullified by the head of the department
with no other excuse except the paltry
one that he assumed that congress had
not the information which 1t has had for
the last seven years There seems to be a
disposition on the part of the administra-
tion to treat the western people as if
they were in a condition of pupilage; as
If they do not know their own rights or
their own interests, and as if they must
be Informed ex cathedra from the east
in reference as to what Is best for them.
and what should be done for them.
Even the president of the United States
lately, on a missionary occasion Iaugh-
teri. spoke of the west as a land of i'm
morality and crime. He stood with the
fght-the ghastly light of the hellholes
and rum cellars of New York-blazing on
him and cantingly said that home mis-
sions must be used to civilize, to Chris
tianize the men who have left their
homes in the civilized east and gone out
among the mountains and valleys of the
wild and woolly west. cloud and gener-
al laughter).
"Our president stood with Dr. Talmage
on the one side and the Rev. Sheldon
Jackson on the other, and gave us a new
version of that beloved old missionary
hymn:
"'From Montana's sinful mountains,
From Utah's wicked plains
They call us to deliver
Their land from errors chains
Continued laughter).
I'VE are told upon ecclesiastical au-
thority that his exceilency has lately
laid down his honors at the feet of Je-
sus. l am glad to know 1t. 1t has been
the general impression of democrats
that the mugwumps and incense burn
ers had gotten those honors and in
tended to keep them. l have great re-
spect for the Christian religion and for
missions at home and abroad, but this is
a slander upon the men, who, with rifle
in one hand and ak in the other, have
gone out and blazed that pathway of CIV
ilization in the western wilds. I went
to Missouri when 1t was frontier state
roamed by the Indian and buffalo. I
have lived with those people nearly fifty
years, and Il say to our president now
that IL he will pretermit hunting ducks
in North Carolina and silver democrats
in Kentucky long enough to come out
west we will show him churches where
there is real and unaffected piety. We
will show him happy and Christian
homes where the sons the fathers and
the husbands pray. Our spires may not
go as near to heaven as those In east
ern cities. We may not have organs that
roll dolorous tones along fretted aisles,
but we have a people who fear God and
observe the law and the commandments
"In connection with this humble but
real religion am tempted to quote those
beautiful lines of the Scotch poet:
Compared with this. how poor religions
pride,
In all the pornp of method and of art,
When men display to congregations wide
navofi0p,S eXceDf the beqrf -
"This, Mr.. President, is what we have
come Ia at last--that the president of the
United MATES in his Official capacity says
of the people of the whole world that in
one portion Of this country the surround