The Indianapolis journal., 1897-01-23
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR TALKS.
Dfgnihed Reply Made to the News
paper Attacks,

In the Senate, Immediately after the
opening proceedings, Lieutenant Governor
Haggard arose to address the Senate i'm de-
nial of the attack made upon him in the
Sentinel yesterday morning. Although
clearly enraged at the imputations made
against him, the president of the Senate
spoke calmly, if with considerable feeling.
His remarks We're brief. At their conclu-
sion he was loudly applauded. He said:
Il desire to rise to a question of the high
est personal privilege in this body this
morning. 1 saw headined in leading daily
paper this morning certain charges against
the presiding officer in this Senate, which
L deem it necessary at this time to an
swer. / will not take up very much time
in doing it. L want to say in the begin
ming that every line and every word that
reflected upon the presiding officer of this
body which appeared in the columns of
that daily this morning was untrue. 1t re-
lated to the action taken by the Senate
on the concurrent resolution sent over
from the House on Tuesday relating to the
Vandalia railroad investigation.
Il want to state briefly and pointedly
exactly the history of that transaction.
That concurrent resolution, together with
two others, laid upon this table.
| knew nothing of the contents OF either OF
them. Before this concurrent resolution
was reached Senator McCord came to me
and said that the Nandalla resolution
had named Attorney General Ketcham as
one of the committee, and that the attor-
ney general had requested him To offer a.
substitute for that resolution; that he did
not think il was proper for him tketcham)
TO be on that committee. L said TO Sena-
| tor McCord: Prepare your substitute and
l will not hand this resolution down until
you get your substitute.
Il did that as L would do il for any other
| senator on this floor with resolution of
that kind. If a senator desired to file res
olution l would withhold it for the purpose
| of allowing him 10 DO IL. 1 knew nothing
| of the contents of that resolution further
| than that the resolution provided COM
mittee of which the attorney general was
| a member
ION Wednesday we entered upon the reg
| ular order, and the matter escaped my
notice. AT any rate the resolution was not
handed down. i do not know whether the
substitute had been prepared or not. But
| in the afternoon il occurred to me that
| had overlooked the matter. and / handed
| the resolution TO the file clerk i'm the after
| noon. with instructions TO place 1t where
| j could get il in the morning, and with the
/ further instruction that Mr.. McCord should
| be ready with his substitute.
Something has been said in this article
about the statement that i made that the
resolution had been sent back TO the House
| for proper Endorsement. The resolution
| was sent to the House on Wednesday aft
ernoon or yesterday morning, and was in
| dorsed TO the effect that IL passed the Sem
| ate. That was mistake of the filing
| clerk. Nnen we missed III from tne nieS
We instituted a search and did not cease
that search until we had possession OF the
| resolution.
Now. that is all there is to il. The
| crime, IL any has been committed, was In
allowing Senator McCord the time neces-
asry TO prepare the substitute.
AS 10 the appointment OF the committee,
| il has been suggested IN this article that
| 1 conferred with persons in interest as to
| who should be this committee. | want
| TO say here that | conferred with no per-
| son outside of this Senate about the COM
position OF that committee. The attorney
/ general Is the only person 10 whom | spoke
/ on the subject. and that was when he was
sitting here. / asked him what he thought
| OF La Toilette. He said that Senator La
| Toilette one of the best lawyers in
| the State, and he would make good men,
| ber of this committee. | had nothing TO do
with Mr.. McCord. or any suggestion OF his