Omaha daily bee., 1907-01-12
SENATE ,lSSESPENSION BILL
TIVE ~ .IMsnth to All Soldiers Of
~ and Mexican Wars
7 SPEAKS ON THE sMoOT CASE
anOis Man Takes Position that Con-
stitution Limits Right of senate
to Pass on Qualification
of Members.

| WASHINGTON jan 11-After two hours
debate the senate today passed Senator
McCumber's service pension bill after
amending 1t at Senator Carmack's in
stance so as to make 1t apply to survivors
Of the Mexican war well as of the civil
war and so as to prohibit pension attorneys
from receiving fees for securing pensions
under the bill The words in the bill war
/ of the rebellion" were changed to civil
war" after some discussion as to what the
war of 81 to 'a really was.
Messrs. Money, Dacon and Patterson con-
tended that it was a war between the
states" while Mr.. Teller said it was either
civil war or a rebellion, and he saw no
opprobrium In the wore rebel"
The bill grants a pension of s12 a. month
to survivors of the civYr and Me7tican wars
who have reached the age OF 62; $40 to
those who are 70 years of age and $50 to
those who are 75 or over.
| Senator McCumber estimates that X the
bill becomes law 1t viii increase the PEN
sion expenditures about 100000 annually.
Hopkins Defends smOOt.
The first speech In defense of the right
of Reed Smoot to a seat in the senate was
delivered today by Senator Hopkins of I'LL
nois.
Mr.. Hopkins took the position that sem
ators were not federal officers to the ex-
tent that the senate could pass upon their
qualifications and eligibility or could inn
peach them for high crimes or misdemean-
| ors If a senator must be punished 1t must
be done by the state federal courts.
Only federal officers, he maintained, were
| impeachable and this impeachment must be
for acts committed such federal officers.
NH
effort to impeach Senator Bount of len
nessee, charged with reasonable corre-
spondence with a foreign nation, more than
100 years ago. The conclusion them Mr..
Hopkins said. had never been reversed and
that was that the senate had no right to
try the case as Senator Blount was not an
officer of the United States.
Qualifications of Senators.
Mr.. Hopkins said it was unnecessary for
him to multiply evidence to demonstrate
his point that individual steps have no
power to add any qualification to a senator
other than those prescribed by the federal
constitution. Referring directly to Mr..
Smoot, he continued: ut is conceded by
the chairman of the committee priv
ileges and elections that Senator Smoot
possesses all of the qualifications spoken
of in the constitution itself. 1t is also con-
cedod, not only by the able chairman of
! this committee, but l think by all who
are at all familiar with the case, that
Senator smoot is not a polygamist, that
| he has never married a plural wife and
has never practiced pOlygamy, that he Is
man in Ills personal relations as son. as
husband, as father and citizen above re-
proach that in all the relations of citi-
zenship he has lived a singularly pure and
upright life.
why them" he asked, should he be ex-
PEELED from this body disgraced and dis
/ honored for life, stigma placed upon his
children his own life wrecked and the hap
piness of his wife destroyed? He is a
Christian gentleman and his religious be-
lief has taken him into the church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints COM
monty called the Mormon church."
Mr.. Hopkins said he felt sure those rep
resenting the Protestants would not con-
tend that there was an apostolic oath
which had been taken by Mr.. Smoot which
would prevent him from discharging his
duties as senator.
Mr.. Hopkins sympathized, he said, with
the denuncation of polygamy made by
Mr.. Burrows in recent speech. 1t was,
! he believed, a relic of a barbarous age and
a destroyer of the ideal American homi
and he had no sympathy with the prac-
tice.
Proposition without Precedent.
Never before in the history of the gov
ernment," he declared with great emphasis
has the previous life career OF SEN
| ator been called in question to determine
whether he should remain in the senate
or not"
IF members of any Christian church
were to be charged with all of the crimes
that have been committed in its name,
where is the Christian gentleman In this
body who would be safe in his seat?"
An extended history of the Mormon
church was given by Mr. Hopkins, who con-
cluded that the testimony taken before the
senate committee demonstrated that it was
undergoing radical change for the better
and that Senator smoot represented the
higher and better Mormonism.
He denied that the Protestants had made
good in any of the charges against Mr.
smoot. After reviewing the charges and
the argument TO sustain them at length,
Mr. Hopkins concluded with the declara-
tion that he would be false to his oath as
a senator If he voted to expel Mr. Smoot
from the senate,
smOOt Not a POIygamist.
Mr.. Beveridge supplemented Mr. Hopkins
| speech by the statement that the country
should be informed Mr.. Smoot was not nor
ever had been a polygamist. Senator Full
ton asked Mr.. Hopkins whether the Nor
mon church had recognized the twenty
polygamous marriages. which the evidence
shows had taken place since the manifesto
| OF 1890
Mr.. Hopkins said the church had not
recognized these marriages, that under the
laws Of the Mormon church today such
marriages were not permitted and that the
parties contracting them knew they were
violating the civil law and the church law
and for that reason all of these marriages
| had been consummated In Canada
Mr.. Dubois asked If Mr.. Smoot had done
anything TO bring these persons to justice.
] Mr.. Hopkins held that there was no more
obligation on Mr.. smoot in this respect
than on any one else. He maintained that
Mr.. smoot had in his position in the church
done more TO stamp out polygamy than any
! 1900 other men "and yet you propose to
punish him for this by expelling him from
! the senate"
! Question by Dubois.
Mr.. Dubois wanted to know when and
where Mr.. Smoot had ever publicly placed