Evening star., 1927-05-06

feeling prevailed, wave of patriot
ism and sympathy swept aside par
tisanship, and all legislation was prop
erly completed.
Strictly speaking, Grant was never
legally restored to his rank and never
legally commissioned. You look sur
prised, but, nevertheless, it is a fact,
and it simply shows, as Tom Reed
once said to me: There are times
when to obey the law is to make an
ass Of the law AS soon as the bill
was passed by the House it was
rushed over to the Senate, the clerk
of the House having hard work to
worm his way through the corridors,
thronged with former soldiers and
others, who were sti1l excitedly ap-
plauding the House for having honored
their hero. 1t was now past II o'clock,
the legal hour for adjournment. There
was no longer House of Representa-
tfves, the Senate of the Forty-eighth
Congress had passed out of existence,
the term of the President had expired.
tionalist, there was at that precise
IIiOfIlSHL no government
Clocks Hands Turned Back.
There are times when Congress
can be so punctilious that failure to
dot an l or cross a Is sufficient
ground to make one House reject the
legislation Of the other; and there are
times when one House might leave
out all the ts and is and pretty near
the whole alphabet and no one would
care. Twelve o'clock had come and
gone, but the hands Of the clock in
the House had been turned back. The
Senate had been tipped off about what
was going on, and it, too, ha1 turned
the hands of it's clock back. The pre-
siding officers in both bodies were
prepared to look at the clock and say
that 1t was not yet noon, If the ques-
tion should be raised. Officially IL
o'clock had not arrived, no matter
what the heavens might say.
'As soon as the Secretary of the
Senate received the bill he presented
it to the presiding officer, who was
Senator Edmunds of Vermont, and he
signed it and sent it to Chester A.
Arthur, who was no longer President
of the United States by the sun, but
was still President by grace Of the
House and Senate clocks, and who
was waiting in the room set apart for
Presidents in the Capitol Building,
across the corridor from the Senate
chamber. Mr.. Arthur Immediately
signed the bill and simultaneously
sent his last presidential message to
the Senate, nominating Grant to be
general.
What Are Rules Between Friends?
There was another great burst of
applause when his message was read,
Senators on the floor joining the oc.
cupants OF the galleries. The Senate
rules forbid applause, and Senator
Edmunds was stickler for the rules,
but he did not follow the usual prac-
tice and cut short the applause with
his gavel. After all, Busbey, what
are rules between friends?
If everything had been done in
order a motion would have been made
to refer the nomination to the com.
mittee on military affairs, but with
out waiting for such a motion the
chair himself, the same Edmunds, |
proposed-again violating all rules
and precedents--that the nomination
be considered in open session. 1t was
instantly done and the nomination, |
made by this President who was no
president, was unanimously confirmed
py this Senate which was no Senate. |
AND all this time Grover Cleveland |
was waiting to be apprised that he