The record-union., 1896-02-25
PROCEEDINGS TN CONGRESS-
The Senate Passes a Bill Granting a
Pension to Mrs. Gresham.
One Hundred a Month to be Allowed
the Late Secretary's Widow.
Senator Morgan Continues His Speech
in Support of the Concurrent Reso-
luton for the Recognition of Cuban
Belligerency = Proceedings in the
House.

Bell1gerency - Proceedings in the
House.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24-The con-
tinuation of the speech of Senator Nor
gan of Alabama in the Senate to-day in
support of the concurrent resolution for
the recognition of Cuban belligerency
did not arouse a particle of the excite
ment and enthusiasm which the first
part of the speech last Thursday, to-
gether with the other speeches of that
day, aroused. 1t is too much histor-
ical review, and was interspersed with
the reading of too many letters and re-
ports, for the most part tedious, to at
tract attention or arouse enthusiasm.
The bill granting a pension of 5000 a
month TO the widow of the late Secre-
tary of State Walter @. Gresham, as
Brigadier- General, with an amendment
reported by the Pensions Committee
reducing the amount to 500, was taken
up, and Turpie (Dem.) of Indiana moved
that the amendment be concurred in.
He proceeded to address the Senate on
the subject. He said the appointment
of Mr.. Gresham as Secretary of State
by President Cleveland had taken the
country by surprise, as Mr.. Gresham
had never been known as a member of
the Democratic party. 1t had been re-
garded as quite singular and broad de-
parture from established usage. Mr..
Gresham had gone into the Office Of
Secretary of State as a stranger to those
of his own household, and his position
was at first one of practical isolation,
but not for long. The man himself was
never isolated. His modesty, his truth,
his moderation of character and his
uniform courtesy soon established be-
tween him and his colleagues and the
members of the two houses that inti-
mate and direct relation SO necessary
TO the successful administration of his
high office. His career had been from
the camp to the court, and from the
court to the Cabinet. He had received
high honors from both the great parties
of the country, as If nature had given
him some strange right of primogeni-
ture
The committees amendment was
agreed to- and the bill (granting Mrs.
Gresham a pension of $100 a month";
was passed.
Gallinger Rep) of New Hampshire,
Chairman of the Committee on Pen
sions, rising to question of privilege,
referred to correspondence in the New
York "Sun" rejecting upon that COM
mittee for the speed with which the
pension bills were rushed through the
Senate last Wednesday. He stated that
instead of 120 bills being passed in an
hour. there were sixty-seven bills
passed in two and three-quarters hours.
The total increase in those bills was ex-
actIy 81 ,006 per month, or S12,072 per
year He thought the article. with it's
scare headlines and its misrepresenta-
tions, was rather small business for a
great metropolitan journal. Such arti-
cIes. he said did much mischief. They
were wicked and uniustifiable exercise
of journalistic enterprise.
The resolution heretofore offered by
Lodge (Rep) of Massachusetts for in
vestigation by the Finance Committee
of all the facts and circumstances con-
nected with the sale of United States
bonds from 1894 to 1896, inclusive, was
taken up and a substitute for it was
offered by PETER (Pop.) of Kansas, en-
larging the scope of the inquiry and
directing it to be made by select COM
mittee of five Senators.
Lodge moved to lay the substitute on
the table.
Hill (Dem.) Of New York desired to
discuss the subject, but was cut off by
the motion to lay on the table, Lodge
remarking that he had made that mo-
ton to cut off discussion.
The motion to lay on the table was
disagreed to, and Harris (Dem.) of
Tennessee moved to amend the substi-
tute by striking out the provision for a
select committee, and allowing the in
1oa fa6 "a
Committee.
Hill Dem.) of New York said that, so
far as Lodges resolution was con-
cerned. it was not Objectionable in
form. It treated the Secretary of the
Treasury courteously, and was in other
respects unobjectfonable. But he did
not assume that it was the province of
the Senate to investigate every subject
that might be suggested by a Senator.
Before voting for such an investigation
the Senate should ascertain the motive
behind it and the objects to those sub
served by it. It was strange thing
that every act of a department was to
be investigated on the simple, bare sug-
eestion Of a Senator. He was opposed
to the resolution not because it attacked
2. Democratic Secretary of the Treasury.
He would oppose it if his worst political
enemy occupied that high office.
At the close of the morning hour the
Lodge and PETER resolutions went to
the calendar without action. and the
resolution as to the recognition of bel
ligerent rights in Cuba was taken up,
Morgan (Dem.) of Alabama resuming
his speech in support of the resolution.
Morgan reviewed the history of Cuba
for the last hundred years, dwelling
upon the instances of cruelty and op-
preston practiced by the Spanish rulers
and soldiers on the people of the island.
The atrocities of the Spanish troops,
he said. shocked the civilized world. He
ouoted the statement of IAN accurate
and able historian that in the last ten
years war in the island Of Cuba the
Spanish Minister admitted that in addi-
ton to the 1860 Cubans who had been
killed in battle. $500 prisoners had
been. mt to death. When he first read
that. he said, he inquired Of himself
what Christianity had been doing in
the world if in this age it was possible
that such things could be done on an
island like Cuba and that this grand,
free republic could sit Indifferent,
knowing the facts, and not unsheath
the sword and strike to death the brutal
monarch who inflicted it.
Frye fRep.) of Maine asked Morgan to
state his authority For that wonderful
statement-that horrible statement.
Morgan was sorry to say that ne could