Year: 1860

 sentative of said Morris, out of any money appro- priated for the post office department.

 Is there anything in regard to this case that sanctltes 1t as an appeal to justice, and an appeal to equity and right, above other cases of the character 1 have already stated, which would not justify allowing the discretion in the one case as well as the other in the post office department to settle and pay such amounts of money as may be equltably found due? 1 know that in the instances of which I spoke, the accounts have been certified to not only by the agent of the post office department on the ground, but by the Governor of the State, who is one of the same class of men with the Senator who Is the chairman of the com mittee on finance here, Mir. Hunter, who would resist almost everything ertainly everything that Is not within the strictest and most rigid rules of law and economy. Those cases are certified to, and established by the strongest testimony 1 have ever known Tn any case, or at least equal to any that l have ever known in any case appeal ing to the justice of Congress for relief That Is the case in two instances; yet this application is not entertained by the com mittee. know that such cases are among those that are appointed to be sacrificed. 1 shall resist things of this sort, and insist that the rule be applied to, all alike. This bill directs the proper officers "to allow in said amount all sums of money paid out by said Morris for defraying the expenses of said office within said period" d"-about six years" including the amount paid on ac count of the city dispatch office''

 We are to pass it without any further explanation I do not think it proper.

 Mir. YULEE. The Senator from Ar kansas mixes totally different cases-caSes that belong to different classes The claims to which he refers, when he speaks of bills from his State, the action of the commit tee upon which ne complains of, are 8 class of cases in which it is proposed, against the will and against the decision of the depart ment, to pay for services that they never authorized, and that they did not believe to be necessary when performed. This belongs to different class. This bill re- | lates to an adiustment-

 | Mr. JOHNSON, of Arkansas. The Senator, presume, does not understand 1 the cases. He says they are cases in'which the department did not believe the service ! to be necessary. The Senator must cer- tainly know that they refused to pay any | thing more than the contract price; and 1 the Senator and his committee decline to suffer the department, that he says did not not believe the services were necessary, to ! judge whether an allowance for them would be right anl equitable and necessary, or not. That is all we ask There is the bill on the table,

 Mir. YULEE. The Senator is mistaken on that point, as the committee gave him bill for that purpose at the last session in the very case to which he refers They gave him bill which would have enabled the department to pay for what it con sidered necessary.

 Mir. JOHNSON, of Arkansas. If the committee have establisheda precedent diff ferent from what l supposed, have noth- ing more to say.

 MT. IULEE. Isnot the Senator aware that we gave him such bill at the last session?

 Mr. JOHNSON, of Arkansas. I was not aware that they went even to the ex- tent of allowing 1t at the discretion of the department, who the Senator says was against the thing. That is all the parties ever asked

 Mir. IULEE. The rule on which the ' committee are acting, in the cases to which the Senator refers, Is that they will not force on the department payment for ser vices which it has not authorized and whicl do not deem to have been necessarily called for by the public interest Wherever it is prepared to say or to decide, either by re- commenting in advance to the committee or in a bill which the committee may sub init to its opinion, then the services although not authorized, were beneficial tt the public, and under the circumstance, should be paid for we were willing that they should be paid for; and upon that foot ing we are disposed to place the cases tC which the Senator from Arkansas refers and 1 thought he was satisfied with thai view at the last session, which the com. mittee authorized me to report.

 Now, sir, in reference to this particular bill, it proposes simply, not the reversal o any decision, but the readjustment of an account upon principle adopted after wards by direction of an act of Congress in the case of the successor of this gentle man. The committee yielded to report favorably on.the bill which came from the House, for the reason that the Auditor the officer who Is appointed to arrange anC adjust theaccounts ot poStmasters according to law-in letter which he communcateC to the committee of the House regarded il as just, as being in conformity with the principles of statement directed by an ac of Congress for the relief of the successor of this gentleman, Mr. Graham It is up on that ground that the committee recon mend the favorable action of the Senate because, in the opinion of the auditing off cer of the department, the readjustment O the account Is due to justice. The bill comes, therefore, indorsed by the recon mendation of the proper officers of the de partment, and we give to them the oppor tunity to do justice according to their view Auditor Is among the papers, and can b, read for the satisfaction of the Senate | is not direct recommendation, but, iron its terms, carries with 1t what the commit tee considered to have been the indorse ment of the auditing office to the justice Q the demand

 Mir. JOHNSON, of Arkansas. The Senator gives me information which I had not before, or if had, forgot it, because my action was based on the belief that was right in the facts which l attempted tc I Id l.. 4l, statement the Senator has made; but , should like to make an examination anC , see if I can find the bill alluded to by him and look at 1t. l was of the impression } that there was an idea, such as the Senate stated, as to the improper or inequitablt VT OF TAXES IN CONWAY COUNTY ANSAS,