Year: 1879

SS'N'A"A'


gJle Senate.


WASHINGTON, May l0-Senator Eaton intro
duCed by request bill relating to telegraph
communication between the United States and
foreign countries.


THE APPROPRIATIONS.


Consideration was resumed OF tho bill max
ing appropriations for Legislative, executive
and judicial expenses of the government for
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, aud for
other purposes. Mr.. Beck of the committee on
appropriations said the bill was substantially
rs agreed to by the committee conference at
the former session of Congress, with but few
exceptions.


Senator Edmunds inquired whether what he
called the political legislation is the same as
proposed last year. or did it differ by enlarge
ment or diminution.


Senator Beck replied that he was not pre-
pared to answer, us he had not compared the
two positions.


Amendments restoring the compensation OF
the Senatc's officers, clerks and other employees,
which the House had reduced, were agreed to.
Senator Hill asked why the discus
sion had been thrust upon
the country-the legislation proposed be-
ing very simple, nothing more than the repeal
of some portion of the laws enacted during the
late war. He had watched the discussions in
order to arrive at a motive which prompted it,
and was now satisfied that party in the coun-



considered but determined purpose of reopen
ing sectional agitation which so long disturbed
the people, with view of consolidating one
section against the other for the benefit of
party without rcfercuco to public good. If the
bill should become q law it would not affect in
any degree legislation previous to 1865. If the
majority in Congress dcclale from this time
forward that the army and navy shall not in
terfere with cectious, they but re-enact what
the custom, practice and law were before the act
ofi1S65. The country Twas to be told the Demo-
Gratis wanted to destroy the power of the gov
ernment to enforce the laws. The speech of
the Senator from Vermont ought to be studied,
as it showed the grcat questions of difference
between the two great parties now struggling
for the mastery. If the assumption that there
could be no protection to the country save by
the military arm should unfortunately ever be
believed by the country, the republic would be
at an end. He then alluded to persons who had
soourned in the South and gone North to de-
liver lectures the subject of Southern
wrongs and outrascs, their statements being of
n grossly exaggerated character, and also re-
ferred to those who instigsted the movement of
negroes to Kansas under false prctences and for
their own personal benefit, rs they became
sharers in the money contributed for the relief
of the sufferers. The South had been maligned
in hundred different shapes and forms for the
purpose of antagonizing the North and to re-
cure the Republicans i'll posses
CIs
sistcnt earnest, arbitrary and dictatorial
purpose to induce the President to veto the
bill prohibiting military interference at the
polls He never believed the President would
veto the bill. He did not believe the President
would lend himself to any such scheme. The
President signalizcel his administration by the
removal Of troops ut the South, and therefore he
did not believe that the President would be
guilty of inconsistency by vctoing this bill.
The President declared in his inaugural address
that the man who best served his country best
served his party He hoped the President
would rise above the clamor Of those who are
seeking to revive sectional agitation. If he
should do so he would for the second time in
his administration show himself worthy of
the position he holds, but if he should veto the
bill for party ends, the time would come when
the two parties would be face to face on the
meet with moderation but trmnoss. The
Republicans, Senator Hill repeated, resort to
the veto because they want military in order
to keep themselves in power. Senator Hill
affirmed that the tremendous contest before
the country had its orig in and meaning IN the
purpose of the Republicans to obtain absolute
control of the States by force, in order to per
petuatc their power, whether tho people arc
willing or not, and in furtherance Of their pur-
poses of mastery. Republican speakers had
been seeking to impress the country with the
idea of the great danger to come from what





Senator from New York (Conkling) had pointed
ont the members, Senators and Representatives
who were in the confederate service, saying
that because of this the people of the North
were alarmed, but all the charges that they
were not loyal and therefore, could not be
trusted, were based On the assumption that
they were enemies of the Union, and, should
the government pass into their hands, there
would be great danger to public liberties. Il
the assumptions were true, tho result was in
cvitablc. If they were enemies of the Uniol
they had no right in Cenngress-no business
here If they we're honorable men they ough
to leave. The people of tho North ought t.
understand these things. He granted what th'
Senator from New York intimated This gust
will not do, the Senator said, and this walkln!
arm in arm and shaking of hands by confed
crates and Union men in public assemblies
was well enough for Sunday school teachers
Statesmen, said Mr.. Hill. want reason. Ih'
representatives of the South were not enemies
of the Union, and therefore ought to be pres
crt. The Republicans opposed the repeal o
the obnoxious laws under the pretcnse tha
the South was not to be trusted
How could it be that the South could not b
trusted because it was proposed to repeal law
that had not been the statute book TO
scvcnty-fvc years before they were enacted


Was the South not to be trusted because i
wanted intelligence and virtue i'll the jury box
aud because it wanted the army taken ava
from the polls, and because the South, throus
its Republicans, wished to prevent the contro
of elections by deputy marshals and super
visors? Southern men went to war In vlndl
cation of their convictions. The South di
not seCedc from the union because they wer
enemies of the constitution and union. |
was driven into secession by the extremists q
the North. Tho Senator from New Yor
(Conkling) called the Republicans of the SOut
confcderates, and then notified the North tina
they ought to be alarmed because legislatio


,,,,I r>E,, ,I,
were here before the war. He (HilD had bee
making count, too, and strangely as the Sen;
tor might think of it. of nine Representative
and two Senators from Georgia nine-certainl
cight-were opposed to secession till 1T cam
and they stood up in that dark hour like me
for their convictions. They had no apology
make. OF the ninety-three Southern Repr
scntatives and Senators about seventy-fve wei
opposed to secession. He mentioned this tt
the purpose of showing how sound the Souther
people are. They willing to be represente
by men true to the Union Senator Hill the
related re- ted some of his personal history sout
Carolina seeded in December, 1860. The pc
ple of Troupe county, in which he lived, r
ouested him to serve as their delegate in IL
State convention of Georgia. He accepted til
trust in a letter, in which he said he would co
sent to dissolution of the Union as he wou
to the death of his father, only from neccssi


that bad and extreme men we
fighting the Union, which new
harmed anyone. From those who we
destroying the government in their folly, tn;
to give his children better one. His peop
sent him to the convention without oppositio
In January he had the honor to make the Ia
speech against the resolution i'll favor of sece
sion. On the 10Th of that month, when t
ordinance was framed, he wrote to friend t.
ling him the deed was done, and that Geors
that day left the Union. The streets were wi
with excitement, and party came to serena
s. him as it had others. His room dark, |
hnart sad and his tnnpue silent No matt