Year: 1870

ODgrcss Yesterday Abolition Of tho FruAk-


Ing Privilege.


The proceedings Of both houses OF Congress
thus far have been rather preparatory TO the
hard work of the session than actual practical
BUSINESS. The Senate has spent in the work
Of legislation but fogg Yr avs hours II The
aggregate, and q portion Of that time was
devoted to the important question Of regu-
ating the minimum aud maximum age Of tho
precocious youths whom it employs as pages.
But it had some matters to arrange, also, In
caucus, particularly as to tho rearrangement
of committees. Yesterday morang one of
those little matters turned out to be the dis
placement of Senator Patterson from the
Committee on Foreign R.l.tions and the
substitution Of Senator Conkling in his
stead But the sagacious Sumner imagined
that he saw in this movement an ingenious
device to strengthen the st. Domingo treaty
in that committee, and he stormed about it 80
much that, in the interest OF moderation and
harmony, the proposition was withdrawn, and
the Committee on Foreign Relations was ar
ragged to consist Of Messrs Sumner, Cameron,
Harlan, Morton, Patterson, Schurz and Cas-
serly. TIE mind Of Sumner Is, therefore, set
at rest, and the question OF st. Domingo must
] stand or fall on its own merits rather than on
| any ngeniously contriyed aid in Senatorial
arrangements.


The House was engaged yesterday, as it had
been the day before, on a bill, prepared by
the Post Office Department and reported from
the Post Office Committee, to revise and con-
solidate into one act all the existing
statutes relating to that branch OF
the public service. This afforded an
opportunity for striking at the franking privi-
lege-a relic of antiquity and absurdity which
we derived from the British government at
time when there were privileged classes among
the English people, but which has been long
since abandoned by that and every progressive
country bat our own. For many years past
the abolition of tle franking privilege has
been n favorte idea with reformers in Con-
gress and out Of Con gress, and although
whenever the question has been presented to q
| direct vote of either house the result has gene
rally been in favor its abolition, still there has
always been found means OF preventing final
action upon it by both houses. Last session
bill passed the House, with only thirteen
opposing votes, for the repeal of the privilege;
but that bill is still before the Senate, with
out action, aud the use and abuse Of
the franking privilege is still possessed
and enjoyed. The chairman of the Post Office
Com nitlee, Mr.. Farnsworth, recognizing the
slimness OF the prospect OF the Senate passing
that bill at ths present session, proposed q
plan by which tho President, the various de-
partments and the two houses should have all
in order t9 be carried free .er,nss the M mails;
while Senators and members Of Congress,
whose documsnts and speeches would thus be
circulated without cost to them, should have
besides IN allowance OF one hundred dollars
for postage on their correspondence at each
session. A majority Of the House, compr.s-
ing most of those who are in earnest in their
opposition to the frauking privilege, took the
very sensible view that there was but little
reform in that measure, as it retained and gave
| additional vitality to the real evil
namely, the publication, at enormous
expense, of public documents that are
of no practical value, and only cucumber the
mails, to the great embarrassment of the SER
vice and to the disgust of the Postmaster
| General, who sets down the annual deficiency
of nearly three millions in the postal revenue
to that cause. The proposition was defeated.
Thereupon our Jersey Congressman, Mr.. Hill,
who has assumed the championship of that
\ ~
sections relating to the franking privilege, and
that motion, which was equivalent to an abso-
lutte repeal Of the privilege, was carried by
vote of ninety-eight to seventy nine. It will
thus be seen that the reform has been losing
ground sincs last session, when there were
only thirteen negative votes in the House on
like proposition, which means, not that the
reform was any more cherished then than Il is
now, but that the fall elections were pending
and that that question might have It's influence
on the result.


The House has two subjects specially
the Committee on Foreign Affairs on the sub
ject of Minister Washburns official course at
Paraguay, and the General Amnesty act,
reported last session from the Recons ruction
Committee. The first has ceased to be of any
public interest, OF to have any practical bear
ing. The last is of the deepest importance to
all the people Of the Southern States. We
hope that the bill will be so matured and
passed as to wipe away all tcchnicalities on
the way to grace, and that an amnesty, in its
fullest, broadest and most generous terms,
shall be- not offered to, but conferred upon, every
man in the South, burying forever all hostile
feeling of party or section and cementing the
States in an indissoluble union or nationality.