The San Francisco call., 1896-02-16
rant that official in refusing to execute the


House was not to be the law of the land.
The danger to American institutions, he
said, was not that the representatives Of
the people failed to carry out their will,
but that some other power, after the rep
resentatives of the people had expressed
the will of their constituencies, nulllhed
that expression by neglecting or refusing
to carry out the law.
Boatner (D.) of Louisiana was the next
to attack the Secretary. His manner ex-
pressed the deep Indignation which he
said he felt over the fact that the refusal
OF the Secretary of Agriculture to expend
the seed appropriation made by the last
Congress was based upon sort OF false
pretense.
'Antecedent to his decision that under
the terms OF the law he was not author
lied to expend the appropriation SAID
Boatner, ''there emanated from the Agrl-
cultural Department reports derogatory
and discrediting to the Congress Of the
United States. The individual who has
found his way into the Agricultural De-
partment under this administration Qaugh-
teri considered it not inconsistent with the
dignity of his position to allow reports to
cast through the Union, that he had dis
covered great frauds and abuses in the
distribution by members of the seeds al
Iotted 10 them under existing laws. [ do
not know whether these statements were
true or false, but l do know ana I assert
that the publication of any such scandalous
charges against body of gentlemen with
out the designation of the names of the
individuals who lad been found so small
and so corrupt and so unit for the posi-
tions that they occupied was not only an
insult to the Congress of the United States,
but cowardlY attack that was inconsist-
ent with the dignity of any man who occu-
pied a cabinet position. Applause. 1t
seems to me, Mr.. Chairman, however
small and obscure any individual might
be, if by chance under executive favor
he was raised to the high position of a
cabinet officer the mere fact of his eleva-
ton ought TO raise him above any such
contemplate and cowardly littleness.
[Applause.l For one, as a member of the
Fifty-third Congress, I resent and de-
nounce as an Infamous slander the asser-
ton that that body as a body, or the
preceding Congress of which l was mem
Der, were addicted to the sale of seeds
which were allotted to them for distribu-
ton among their constituents"
Ray (R.) of New York said: Does not
the gentleman know the fact that the ha rd
heart of the Secretary of Agriculture has
relented, and that out of the abundance of
his heart-and of the appropriation-he is
about to make the most generous distribu-
ton? l received letter this week from
the Secretary of Agriculture announcing
10 me that he had complied with the law
that he had made an apportionment under
the appropriation act of seeds, plants and
bulbs, and that the pro rata coming to me
for my district of 2l6,O00 people would
be fifteen grape seeds and twenty-f FIVE
strawberry plants" [Laughter.l
Boatner-Jus tice to the Secretary of
Agriculture requires that that admission
should be made. l received a similar let
ter, advising me that there were forty
grape cuttings and 100 strawberry plan is
at my disposal for distribution in my dis
trict. 1 supposed the Secretary had
found some rare kind of grapes. The
refusal by the Secretary of Agri-
culture to execute the law to
expend the appropriation was in deliberate
contempt of the authority of the Congress
of the United States. l so construed it /;
and for one as a member of Congress, / am
tired-I am absolutely tired-of having
this body brought into discredit and its
authority despised by mere executive
officer. Why, it has got down to that
point that mere subordinate, a man who
is known as Comptroller of the Treasury
Qaughter) declares an act of Congress un-
constitutional, and refuses his roYal assent
to its execution. daughter and applause.) J
1t has come to that point that a second
veto power has been discovered-that while
Congress may pass law which, if the
President veto, it would be passed over his
veto, that clerk in the Treasury Depart
ment (snapping his tingers) may turn it
down, so that the parties who are inter-
ested have TO go to the courts and show
that this law is constitutional. 1 repeat
that this refusal on the part of the Secre-
tarv of Agriculture to expend this appro-
priation is in contempt of the authority of
this body that it is one of the very small
est economies, and that it takes away from
large class of our people the only thing
which connects them With the Govern
ment. (Applause.)
Livingston CD of Georgia followed in
the same line, but first criticized the Com
missioner of Agriculture, whom he said
the House and the country would hold re-
sponsible for the conduct of the Depart
ment of Agriculture. Referring to the
construction OF the bill. he said:
"You come back into this House with
the same verbiage in your bill as ambigu-
Gus as Mr.. Morton or anybody else would
like to have it. have no excuse to offer
for Mr.. Morton, and l want it distinctly
understood that he has gone long way
and certainly stretched his conscience and
stretched the constitution and the law q
great deal more when he refused TO expend
that money as the House directed"
Ray (R.) of New York-After March 4,
1897 we propose to have Republican Sec
retary of Agriculture, who will carry out
the law as written on the statute books.
Livingston-Well,le let the gentleman take
heed that his party does have such a
Secretary. Put a man there who knows
how to clean the mud off his own boots,
how to manage a farm, how to work a
farmland not politician, a man who
goes over the country singing either gold