Year: 1860



 Col. Hindman says that Bob Johnson for taking pay for national and christian Holidays, and Judge Sebastian. for this and constructive mileage, should be drawn and quartered. By the Alabama decision above quoted, 1t Is clearly held to be just and right for members to take compensation on such recesses as here spoken of; but not for three weeks vacation Yet, if it was wrong legally and morally, the case is not similar to the action of the last legislature, and It the many other differences could be haraDnized, it would be impossible to har- monize the difference in the mode of getting the money; the one got it by law and the other by the higher law. Col. Hindman says Sebastian only voted for the bill hereafter prohibiting constructive mileage, to prevent anybody coming after him from getting any of that with which he was gorged, giving him no credit for this most salutary amendment to the law. Politi- clans have no charity it seems.

 Col. Hindman says he thinks members were legally entitled to this money vet when 1 put the direct question to him. he said he would not have taken it. He would not be afraid to take what he thought belonged to him; he is too bold a man although the question has been nigbt- mare to some politicians and frightened them as much as they would have been at t9eng called dlsorganizers had they in- lndorSed the violation of democratic pre- cedent by the caucus. Col Hindman says he does not defend the men who took this mons4, yet no man could hear him on this question without regarding him as their deiehder. have yet to meet with per dleh taker, It matters not what may have been ms position on the action of the cau- cus' the congressional election bill, the elec- ton of John c. o. Smith, Sebastian's election, or any other question. who is not Hlndman man-and 1t is said "the devil knows his own children

 But for the surrounding circumstances. should certainly not have touched this question. By reason of 1t men with whom was friendly were, in my opinion, uniustly assalled, and in such terms as would show them better suited to prison, than the confidence of the people, and in order to defend them against unjust assaults I was compelled to discuss the merits of the oues- ton. It Is one strictly of State policy; o4e between the legislators and their con- ~ sstuency, and legitimately having no con- nectlon with congressional caucus

 1t would seem useless to defend Cover nor Conway on account of his veto of the congressional election bill, when the veto message and attendant circumstances are known, were it not he is so bitterly assaled on account of it., The reasons as set forth III his message are ample and unanswerable. >1hey must have convinced the members of the legislature of the correctness of the positions assumed, since no effort was made to pass it over the objections of the Gov ernor. When we reflect simple majority 'of each house is all that is required by the constitution of Arkansas, to breathe new life into bill after its death by the cx- erclse of the veto power, the inference is fair one, that the reasons set forth in the message contributed more to the death of the bill than the power itself.

 The Governor shows the State of Ar kansas would be deprived of about six months ot her representation at the begin nIng ot every Congress, if the Congress begins on the fourth of March of every odd year, and the election not taken place until the August thereafter. It is clear the State sustains loss of six months Ordinarily the loss IS only nominal one; but should there be a called session of Congress the case would be quite different one: the failure of the appropriation bill before the last Congress, would doubtless have caused call session during this year,S but for the fact majority of the southern States were, as Col. Hindman and his friends desired to have Arkansas, that is, without an elected member for such an emergency.

 t~ The Governor then shows by the con stitution of the United States and the statutes of Arkansas, auxiliary thereto, that / we would be compelled to order an election to fill such vacancy wherever and as often as 1t would occur-whether Congress was Tn actual session or not. If such a con- struction were clearly to all minds the cor " rect one as it is to mine, no man could of course favor the bill.

 The claimed advantages are that mem- bers of Congress would have an opportu- : nity of discussing the questions of the day and their own merits before the people, thereby assisting the people to vote ad- vlsedly, which would doubtless be an ad- vantage to both the people and the politi- , elan. But the advantage is so overshad- owed by the objections to the measure as hitherto preventing men in position or , thelr friends from advocating 1t. Rust, / >Greeenwood, and Warren have all, doubt less, suffered politically by not having an Opportunity of going before the people at . the proper time; for, being in Congress, they could not leave the public business and return to their homes simply for the purpose of securing a reelection. Yet they have not advocated measure of this character. And 1 am told Col. Rust dis approved of it prior to its passage through the last legislature.

 Col. Hindman. descants on the veto power, "the one man power" to such an extent, one would imagine an old whg speech of eighteen hundred and forty four, had been resuTected and rcvamped for the occasion. But the democratic party having decided then, the veto power under the aeieral constitution, where a two-thirds majority Is required to pass bill over the veto ot the President, was one of the most I salutary checks known to our system, they cannot now, 1 suppose, stop to condemn 'the power as anti-democratic, even at the ibldding of Col. Hindman, when a majority of both houses is all that is required to pass bill over the veto of the Governor. ]

 There is still another objection to this on and 1t is somewhat singular, that men whose nerves are so tremulous as to allow them to be terrified because, according to , he'r ogn account, a little money was to be locked up in the treasury, had not discovered It. It Is this: It would cause an election to Joe held every year, the expense of holding tn election Is about one hundred dollars to each county, making in the aggregate to 'the State an additional expense of about live thousand dollars every other year, to last as long as the law should stand as pro- posed. Money coming out of the pockets of the people to be locked in the State trea- sury, seems to frighten some people who can with composure see it go for services not rendered, or to hold elections for the