Birmingham state herald., 1896-06-06
RICH, RARE, RANK DECISION
How a Quorum Be Made to Serve Partisan
 Plv ses Indefinitely.
MIR. MoRGfs aADE THEM CLOSE DOORS
His Rem on the Cuban Resolution Hither j15 1 ,ffered by Him Were So Wig or Ss That MT. Sherman Didn't
 Wish the Galleries to Hear.

l Dy lH6 T6puDlcdnS III IHe house III Iu6
 Fifty-first congress was equaled today
 in one regard, and in another Speaker | Pro Tempore Payne, republican, of New | York, established an entirely new one. | As on the famous occasion in that con- gress when two democrats, Messrs. Vena- | ble and Elliott, were unseated at one ses- | sion, so today two democrats were voted out of their seats and their places filled | by their opponents at the congresslon- | al election in 1894. As on that occasion
 also, the democrats sought to prevent ac- 1 tion, abandoning their places on the floor
 so as to break quorum. Th.s was in
 the case of MT. Martin, popullst, vs. MT. Lockhart democrat, from the Sixth dis I trict of North Carolina which was dis cussed today Upon a preliminary vote l the democrats, after voting, left their | seats, only half a dozen remaining.
 Subsequently, when MT. Bailey, demo- | crat, of Texas, who was in charge of the minority interests, made the point of no quorum, pointing to the vacant seats as | evidence of the fact, Speaker Pro Tenn pore Payne overruled the point holding | that on the last recorded vote quorum | had answered to their names, and de- | clined to entertain an appeal from his de- c.sion. He declared that the resolution of | the committee that Mir Martin was enti- tied to his seat had been adopted by a vote of 113 ayes to nays, and MT. Martin was sworn in
 This was followed by the consideration of the report of elections committee No. 1 upon the contest of Messrs. Rinaker vs. Downing, from the Sixteenth Illinois dis trict, which had been sent back to- the committee for a recount of the ballots. This recount was completed yesterday, and today Mr. Moody, republican, of | Massachusetts, fin charge of the case, re- ported a resolution declaring MT. Rlnaker entitled to the seat by plurality of 5. Upon the face of the returns MT. Down. ing had a plurality of 40 and received the certificate of election. Mr Moody stated | that in his opinion MT. Downing was en- | titled-to~retein. slas- -ssat, but his xiew of l the law was not accepted by the other republican members of the committee, | and he frankly confessed that he d.d not expect the house to adopt this opinion. MT. McMillin, democrat, of Tennessee, unavailingly endeavored to secure post ponement, but failed He did succeed, however, in consequence of colloquy between himself and Mir Grosvenor, re- publican, of Ohio, in bringing about the most violent and disorderly scene of this congress, being declared out of order and compelled to take his seat by the speaker pro tempore, and certain remarks of his which had not been understood at the desk on account of the confusion were stricken from the Record. MT. Rinaker's right to the seat was affirmed by vote of 167 to 51-Messrs. Evans of Kentucky, Moody of Massachusetts and sherman of New York, republicans, voting with the democrats in the negative-and he was also sworn in. This wiped out the demo- cratic membership in the Illinois dele- gation and reduced the democratic membership in the house to ninety-five. The house struggled over resolution by MT. Grosvenor of Ohio calling upon the heads of the executive department for a statement in detail of all the re- movals and changes in their departments since March 4, 1893. The democrats en- deavored to have the scope of the resolu- ton enlarged so as to include the changes
 made under the Harrison administration, but failed.
 At 4:55 o'clock the house adjourned un-
 til tomorrow, the evening pension ses-
 sion being dispensed with.
 The Senate.
 The resolution offered in the senate
 last Tuesday by MT. Morgan request
 ing the president to communicate to ths
 senate all the facts and proceedings rel
 alive to the trial by court-martial, sem
 tence and imprisonment of citizens of
 the United States who were captured on board the American vessel Competitor in Cuban waters was taken up In the
 senate today and its adoption urged by MT. Morgan. The resolution omitted the usual phrase, If not incompatible with the public interest" and was based upon section z001 of the revised statutes, which makes 1t the duty of the president, when- ever any citizen of the United States has been deprived of his liberty by any for eign government, to demand forthwith
 the reasons of such Imprisonment; to
 demand the release of such citizen If his
 imprisonment is wrongful; to use such
 means, not amounting to acts of war, as
 he may think necessary and proper to
 effectuate the release, and to communi-
 cate all the facts and proceedings to con
 gress as soon as practicable.
 Mr. Morgan was very emphatic In ex-
 pressing his views. He considered 1t ab-
 solutely necessary before congress ad-
 journed to aid the president in sending
 ships of war to Cuba to secure the release of those American prisoners He was so earnest in this and other declarations of like character, and the matter itself was such a serious international one, that MT. sherman, chairman of the com
 mittee on foreign relations, suggested that the debate should not be continued
 in open session. The galleries were ac- cordingly cleared and the doors closed and MT. Morgan finished his speech in
 secret session. He spoke until the morn- ing hour expired. and then, under the
 rules. the resolution went to the calen-
 dar, from which it cannot be taken with
 out a majority vote of the senate.
 The immigration bill was taken up
 with the understanding that final vote
 should not be taken on 1t before Monday,
 as it's most active opponent Mir. Gibson,
 democrat, of Maryland. was absent on
 official duty as one of the visitors to the Annapolis Naval academy.
 The proposed constitutional amend ment to have United States senators elected by the people instead of by state legislatures was taken up informally and discussed by Senators Mitchell, re- publican, of Oregon, and Perkins, repub- lican, of California, and Palmer. demo- crat, of Illinois, in favor, and Hawley, republican. of Connecticut. and Chan