Year: 1872

In the United States Senate, on the twenty
third instant, the resolution to investigate
the alleged sales of arms to the French be-
ing up, Mr. Trumbull, Of Ohio, took the floor


He said that every effort at reform in this
body was met by assaults upon those who
made the effort by aspersiOhs upon their
motives by charges Of bad party faith.
Questions affecting the purity of the gov
ernment and the welfare of the public are,
in the opinion of some Of the members Of
this body who assume to be peculiar expo
nents of the Republican party, no longer to
be decided on their merits, but only with
the view to their bearing upon the party.
Chief among those who would subordinate
the public welfare to party stands the Sen
ator from Indiana (MOrton). In the dis
cussiOn of the resolution under cOnsdera-
ton he has devoted two or three hours to
assaults on those who have felt it to be
their duty to favor this investigation; and
not content with that, he has taken occasion
to wander away from the subject, and talk
about a senatorial caba1. l do not know
by what authority any member of this
body assumes to be the peculiar exponent
of the Republican party, or even of the ad-
ministration. intend to say something in
reply to the repeated assaults that have
been made by those who assume to be better
L
intend to show the course of these Senators,
and before have done, unless I,misunder-
stand what the principles of the Republican
party are think | shall be able to show
that he who stands foremost here on all
occasions to denounce others as assaulting
the party, has himself forgotten the prin-
ciples on which the Republican party was
founded, and is himself at war with them.
Senator Trumbull then reviewed the course
L. IL
ton OF removing Senator Sumner from the
Craftsmanship of the Committee on For
eign Relations, on the resolution to in
vestigate the management of the New
York custOmhouSe, and on the pending
resolution, and insisted that on each and
all these questions the majority had avow-
edly acted, not with reference to the right
or wrong involved, but wholly with refer
ence to the supposed interests of the party.
The Senator from Indiana (Morton), speak
ing of the position OF Senator Sumner, had
boldly said that the question was not as to
| the propriety of the act, but was whether the
| majority intended to stand by the organiza-
| ton and usuages of the party. That was a
! standard of duty for Senators acting under
| oath. When it was proposed to investi-
| gate the abuses in the New York custom
! house the Senator from Indiana did all he
| could to defeat it. but now he boasts that





| that it was whitewashing committees
that the committee had not yet made its
report, and he tTrumbui) would not
assal it. but its conduct in making
| the investigation was public. and was
| somewhat remarkable. The witnesses
who testified that the Customhouse ofncers
had interIered with the Legislature of New
| York were asked whether they were 10,
there themselves for the same purpose, as il
the people had not right to take part IL
| politics. and as if the committee could cal
| the people to account for their political ac
| ton. He had seen it stated, too. that notice
| had been given that witnesses brought be
fore the committee for the.purpOse of expos
| ing the corruption and malteasance in office
were themselves to be prosecuted-a gooC
way to encourage witnesses to testify again
| On the pending resolution. the same
old cry of party. party" had beeI
raised. and the Senators who favored til,
| resolution were threatened with Tin,
and Imprisonment He would NO
comment ON the motives of the Senators
but the people were thoroughly aroused
against fraud and corruption everywhere
and they would understand the motives o
| these Senators very well. The Senate
from Indiana had denounced the platform
OF the Liberal Republicans as anti-Repub
lican and essentially Democratic. and h
would now undertake to show that the maj
who-hed that view did not know the mean
| ing of Republcanism. He then went owe
the resolutions one by one, and insiste,
| that they were all in complete accor,
with the principles of the Republican party
| They We're the principles he had cOntende'
for through all his public life. and, Got
helping him. he would contend for them t
the end.