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 INTEGRITY OF REPUBLICAN ADMINIS¬ 
 TRATION. 
 
 SPEECHES OP 
 
 Senator Anthony and Hon. James Wilson. 
 
 TREASURY ACCOUNTS, 
 
 Mr, ANTHONY. The Committee on Print¬ 
 ing, to whom was referred a motion to print 
 a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 transmitting, in answer to a Senate resolution 
 of February 9, 1876, a statement of balances 
 due to the United States from public officers 
 and from other parties no longer in the public 
 service which have accrued since January, 
 1830, have instructed me to report back the 
 '*same adversely, except so far as refers to a 
 ^ condensed statement which contains a good 
 deal of valuable information and which the 
 committee think may well be printed. I will 
 not ask a vote upon the adverse report in the 
 absence of the Senator from West Virginia, 
 [Mr. Davis,] on whose motion the informa¬ 
 tion was called for. I am quite confident that 
 when he comes to examine this voluminous 
 and expensive and utterly useless document, 
 he will not desire that the Government shall 
 go to the additional expense of $2,262 to 
 print it. 
 
 It contains a list of all persons, including 
 those not now in the public service, against 
 whom there appears to be a balance on the 
 books of the Treasury. In very many in¬ 
 stances the balance is nominal, not real, some¬ 
 times so designated; in very many cases it 
 arises out of misunderstanding between the 
 disbursing officer and the accounting officers 
 of the Treasury, which, when they come to 
 be explained and adjusted, may be decided in 
 favor of one party or the other. In very many 
 instances it arises from balances due from 
 officers of the Navy who have gone down 
 with their ships with their papers upon them ; 
 officers of the Army who have fallen in battle 
 or died in hospital, and whose vouchers have 
 been lost; while it is apparent from the sup¬ 
 plies which they had purchased and from 
 the men whom they had paid that the money 
 intrusted to them had been expended for the 
 purposes for which it was appropriated. Ac¬ 
 cording to the law these all appear upon the 
 
 books of the Treasury as indebted for the un¬ 
 settled balances; for, while the Treasury 
 charges an officer • with everything paid to 
 him, it does not credit him with what he has 
 paid out until it is ascertained and adjusted 
 according to regulations of the Department. 
 Many of these are charges for overpayments ; 
 that is, where an officer has erroneously paid 
 to some creditor of the Government more 
 than he was legally authorized to receive; and 
 of course the disbursing officer must suffer 
 the consequence of his error. That is a blun¬ 
 der, but it is not a crime. He has not em¬ 
 bezzled the money; he has not defrauded the 
 Government; he has made a mistake and 
 paid a man a thousand dollars, for example, 
 when it appears from all the information yet 
 in the possession of the Treasury that he only 
 ought to have paid him $990; and therefore 
 he stands as a defaulter for $10 on the books 
 of the Treasury. This may in many cases 
 remain yet open for adjustment. I am sure 
 that nobody wants to publish the names of 
 such men, living and dead, as embezzlers and 
 defaulters in any criminal sense. 
 
 The great defalcations, the criminal defal¬ 
 cations, are all known; they are all made 
 public; they cannot be concealed without 
 criminal complicity of the accounting officers. 
 They are put in suit against the defaulters 
 and against their bondsmen ; and other cases 
 are put in suit the results of which do not 
 always show that the officer is a defaulter. 
 There may be cases of honest differences of 
 opinion between the officer and the Depart¬ 
 ment as to the law, which are to be settled by 
 the courts. A great many cases grew up be¬ 
 fore the present improved system of keeping 
 the accounts, when disbursing officers who 
 were also receiving officers, received the reve¬ 
 nues of the Government, disbursed the ex¬ 
 penses of their Departments, and turned over 
 the balance to the Treasury, That system 
 prevailed until it was reformed in ©ur day, 
 and under • that system the result of every 
 difference of opinion between a disbursing 
 
2 
 
 officer and the Department would stand as a 
 defalcation against him. Some of these cases 
 are so trifling that I have collated a few of 
 them. Although I should not read the name 
 of any person who would suffer by it, I sup¬ 
 pose the illustrious name of Washington Irv- 
 5 ;ing will not suffer if I say that he stands here 
 as a defaulter to the amount of three cents / 
 Here is another officer in the list whom I was 
 instrumental, among others, in commending 
 to the public service, in which he greatly dis¬ 
 tinguished himself. I shall hold myself re¬ 
 sponsible for his defalcation, principal and 
 interest in gold. It amounts to one cent. I 
 d® not suppose anybody will think that Robert 
 Walsh was an enibezzler or defaulter to the 
 Government, and yet he is put down for a 
 small amount. Here I find an old colonel 
 whom I knew well, who died in 1854, who is 
 marked as a defaulter for $3.60. 
 
 ]\Ir President, I do not wish to impair the 
 credit of the great banking house of this city, 
 but I am bound to say that Corcoran & Riggs 
 stand down here as defaulters under this call. 
 
 Mr. HAMLIN. What is the amount of 
 that ? 
 
 Mr. ANTHONY. Seventy-two dollars. 
 
 Mr. SHERMAN. I ask if the English 
 bankers. Baring Brothers & Co., are there? 
 
 Mr. ANTHONY. Baring Brothers are 
 down, and, worse than that, the English gov¬ 
 ernment itself is put down as a defaulter. 
 As we have just settled nearly all our old 
 difficulties with England and got into a new 
 one, I do not wish to see the credit of that 
 government impaired, and for its relief I 
 must state that a marginal note reads: “ The 
 Secretary of State says he has no doubt this 
 was settled long ago.” It occurred in 1813, 
 but it stands on the books as over $1,200 of 
 default by the British government. 
 
 Mr. President, I might go over a great many 
 illustrations of the same kind, but I have 
 made quite sufficient to show that, while there 
 are of course in the great operations of the 
 Treasury many defaulters and many embez¬ 
 zlers, nothing could be more unjust than to 
 mix them up with these persons who are 
 marked in default in the Treasury, hut who 
 are not defaulters in any sense whatever, and 
 probably do not owe the Government any¬ 
 thing. Certainly it is not likely that' Corco¬ 
 ran & Riggs, Baring Brothers, and the British 
 government owe the Treasury anything. 
 
 The aggregate statement of tlie disburse¬ 
 ments of the Treasury under the list is a 
 paper exceedingly creditable to the American 
 Government. I do not mean to any particu¬ 
 lar party, but to the financial liLstory of the 
 United States. There have been disbursed 
 since 1834—I can hardly read such big fig¬ 
 ures—$13,936,870,072.05, of which is marked 
 upon these books $22,266,000, being about 
 
 half a million of dollars a year, and a great 
 part of this is nominal, not real. 
 
 The losses on the $1,000 of disbursements 
 were, in the administration of Jackson, 
 $10.55; Van Buren, $21.15 ; Harrison, 
 $10.37; Polk, $8.34; Taylqr and Fillmore, 
 $7.64; Pierce, $5.86; Buchanan, nearly 
 $6.98; Lincoln, $1.41; Johnson, 48 cents; 
 Grant, the first four years, 40 cents; the sec*- 
 ond four years, 26 cents—showing a constant 
 decline, which is owing in a large degree to 
 the improved manner of keeping the ac¬ 
 counts; and that is due very largely to the 
 Committees on Finance and Appropriations, 
 who have introduced legislation here which 
 has compelled much greater accuracy and re¬ 
 sponsibility. The average percentage of losses 
 during this whole period on the disbursements 
 is $1.59 on the thousand. I do not believe 
 that the aggregate of any class of corporate 
 or private bu.sine.ss, hanking, commercial, or 
 any other kind, can show so small a percent¬ 
 age of loss as this, and it is gratifying that 
 the percentage of loss is continually decreas¬ 
 ing, coming down from $21.55 in the admin¬ 
 istration of Van Buren to an average of 
 twenty-three cents on the thousand dollars, or 
 only about one-sixtieth as much under the 
 present Administration. This is exclusive of 
 the Post Office, which administers its own 
 revenue. In the Post Office the loss has gone 
 down from $11.18 on the $1,000 in Jackson’s 
 administration, and $26.19 in Van Buren’s, 
 to $1.59 for the first term of Grant, and $1.01 
 for the second ; with an average of $3.51 for 
 the whole period I move that this statement, 
 which I think is creditable to the Govern¬ 
 ment and to all parties, be printed ; and that 
 the adverse report of the Committee on Print¬ 
 ing on the rest of the document lie over until 
 the return of the Senator from West A^irginia. 
 
 Mr. WITHERS. In justice to the Senator 
 from AVest A^irginia, under whose resolution 
 the report was made which the Committee on 
 Printing have reported against the printing 
 of, I think it proper to state that he certainly 
 nev^er intended his resolution to parade before 
 the country the names of such parties as have 
 been read by the Senator from Rhode Island, 
 his idea and object being to elicit information 
 with regard to the number of hona fide default¬ 
 ers to the Government; and the reductio ad 
 absurdum which has been reached this morn¬ 
 ing through the remarks of the Senator from 
 Rhode Island I do not think is fairly appli¬ 
 cable to the resolution which was pre.sented 
 by the Senator from West A’^irginia or to the 
 information which was elicited thereby, his 
 object being, as I say, to secure information 
 as to the number and amount of bona fide de¬ 
 falcations which had occurred in the Govern¬ 
 ment, and those and those only he desired to 
 .have printed. I say this in justice to him 
 
3 
 
 Mr. SHERMAN. All I desire to say is 
 that the resolution of the Senator from West 
 Virginia as originally offered would have 
 called only for those defalcations that occurred 
 under a republican administration, or was 
 limited in point of time from 1865 to this 
 period, and would have included the names 
 of hundreds and thousands of soldiers who 
 died on the field of battle with the very arms 
 used in defense of their country cliarged to 
 them, and which charges are yet on these 
 books. So with officers of the Navy. The 
 injustice of the resolution of my friend from 
 West Virginia was that it confined itself to a 
 particular period, during which a particular 
 party was in power ; and, therefore, it was ex¬ 
 tended back so as to embrace many adminis¬ 
 trations of many parties, different phases of 
 our political life from 1834 to this time. 
 
 Now, when it comes before us I do not 
 think tliiit the Senator from West Virginia, or 
 any Senator who looks over this list, would 
 do the injustice to publish this list either from 
 1865 down or from 1834 down ; but I did not 
 object to this paper being prepared, because, 
 if there is any defaulter, any man who really 
 has appropriated with bad intent money of 
 the Government of the United States which 
 he has not paid over, he should be exposed. 
 Here is a formidable list, and from that list 
 those cases may be expurgated and published 
 if necessary. As I said the other day, I 
 should be willing to publish on the barn-doors 
 all over this broad land the name of every 
 man who has robbed the Government or be¬ 
 trayed the trust reposed in him by the Gov¬ 
 ernment of the United States ; but it is man¬ 
 ifest that in doing that we ought not to do 
 injustice to the most virtuous, the most pa¬ 
 triotic, and the best men in our land. 
 
 Mr. WITHERS. That is all that the Sen¬ 
 ator desired to accomplish, I have no doubt. 
 I think he does not do it by printing such 
 cases as are described. 
 
 Mr. SHERMAN. The difficulties will then 
 be in making the expurgation. 
 
 Mr. MORRILL, of Vermont. When this 
 subject was up in the first instance, on the 
 motion of the Senator from West Virginia, I 
 thought it a matter of sufficient importance to 
 go to the Treasury Department and ascertain 
 precisely what had been the amount of the 
 defalcations there and at the Internal-Rev¬ 
 enue Bureau, and I obtained similar results 
 to those which have been read by the Senator 
 from Rhode Island, but based on different 
 dates and presented in a little different man¬ 
 ner, but still in a manner of sufficient interest, 
 I think, to warrant me in reading the two 
 communications that I received at that time. 
 First, I read from the Assistant Secretary of 
 the Treasury: 
 
 Treasurv Department, 
 
 Washington, March 22,1876.- 
 
 Dear Sir: Referrinti to your verbal request, made 
 on Saturday last, ^o' bo furnished with a statement 
 showing the defalcations of customs officers, I have the 
 honor to inform you that the total amouut of collect¬ 
 ions of revenue from customs Jrom April 1, 1861, to 
 June 30, 1875, amounted to $2,136,305,612.12. Total de¬ 
 falcations from Ifarch 4, 18G1. to June 30, 1875, $355,- 
 534.27, The defalcation is 1-GO of 1 per cent, of the 
 amount collected, or $1.G0 in every $10,000. 
 
 I promised to send these figures to you on Saturday 
 last, but found it impossible until the present moment 
 to get them ready. 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 CHAS. F. CONANT. 
 
 Hon. Justin S. Morrill, 
 
 United States Senator, Washington, D. O. 
 
 I also have a communication from the Com¬ 
 missioner of Internal Revenue, which is as 
 follows; 
 
 Treasury Department, 
 
 Office of Internal Revenue, 
 
 Washington, D. O., March 18, 1876. 
 
 Sir: In compliance with your request, I have the 
 honor to submit herewith (he following statement 
 taken from the books and records of this office: 
 
 The total of internal-revenue tax returned by the 
 various collectors of internal res'enue during the 
 period from September 1, 1862, to IMarch 31, 1865,'being 
 from the organization of the internal system to the 
 close of the month preceding the end of Mr. Lincoln’s 
 administration is $283,111,131; the ascertained “cash 
 deficiencies” of collectors appointed during that period 
 are $414,508.10, or about 13-l(j0 of 1 per cent, of the 
 amount collected. In the period from April 1, 1865, to 
 February 28, 1869, being the period in even months 
 covered by Mr. Johnson’s administration, the collec¬ 
 tions were $817,068,305; ascertained cash deficiencies 
 of collectors appointed in that period, $1,626,802.52, or 
 about 2-10 of 1 per cent, of the amount collected. In 
 the period from March 1, 1869, to February 28,1876, 
 being from the beginning of the present administra¬ 
 tion to the close of the last month, the collections are 
 $854,808,237; ascertained cash deficiencies of collectors 
 appointed in this period. $592,751.80, or about 69-1000 
 of 1 per cent, of the amount collected. 
 
 As the balances for the last period mentiened are of 
 comparatively recent occurrence and are now in pro¬ 
 cess of collection, it is believed that a large proportion 
 of it will ultimately be recovered, so that the actual 
 ultimate loss will be very much less than herein shown. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 C. D. PRATT, 
 Commissioner, 
 
 Hon. J. S. Morrill, 
 
 United-States Smate. 
 
 I think under the circumstances the present 
 and past republican administrations since 
 1861 have no reason to feel <ashamed of the 
 exhibit. 
 
 Mr. ANTFIONY. Mr. President, I desire, 
 in justice to the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 who made this report, and in reply to the re¬ 
 marks of my friend from Virginia who seemed 
 to think that the report had embodied informa¬ 
 tion not called for by the Senate, to read the 
 resolution, which is: 
 
 That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and hereby 
 is, directed to furnish the Senate, as soon as practicable, 
 a statement of all balances due to the United States 
 from public officers, and all such balances due from 
 other parties, (no longer in the public service,) distin¬ 
 guishing those whose accounts with the United States 
 have been finally passed upon and adjudicated and 
 those whose accounts are yet unsettled and subject to 
 additional credits, stating the nature of such accounts 
 
4 
 
 and the credits in question; the statement to embrace 
 the accounts of all such ofScers, or parties in which 
 such balances have accrued since the 1st day of Jan¬ 
 uary, 1830, and to set forth respectively, and as near as 
 practicable, the period over which the accounts exten¬ 
 ded and the amounts involved therein. 
 
 I do not see how, under tliat resolution, 
 the Secretary of the .Treasury could have 
 done less than to send the communication 
 which is before us; and, if it is information 
 
 that is not needed, it is our fault in calling for 
 it, not his in sending it. 
 
 The PRESIDENT Tiro tempore. The chair¬ 
 man of the Committee on Printing asks 
 that the report which lie has submitted lie on 
 the table and that the summary statement 
 which he submits be printed. Is there objec¬ 
 tion to that ? The Chair hears none, and the 
 Senate so orders. 
 
 THE MASSACRE AT HAMBURGH, S. C. 
 
 Eemarks of Hon. Egbert Smalls, M. 0., from South Car¬ 
 olina, IN THE House of Eepresentatives, July 15, 187G. 
 
 The House, having resolved itself into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and resumed the 
 consideration of the joint resolution (H. E,. No. 96) to provide for the protection of the Texas frontier on the 
 Lower Rio Grand— 
 
 Mr. SMALLS. I offer the amendment 
 which I send to the desk. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 Add to the first section the following: 
 
 Provided, That no troops for the purposes named in 
 this section shall be drawn from the State of South 
 Carolina so long as the militia of that State peaceably 
 assembled are assaulted, disarmed, and taken prison¬ 
 ers, and then massacred in cold blood by lawless bands 
 of men invading that State from the State of Georgia. 
 
 Mr. SMALLS. I hope the House will 
 adopt that proviso as an amendment to the 
 bill. As I have only five minutes I send to 
 the desk a letter published in one of the news¬ 
 papers here from an eye-witness of the massa¬ 
 cre at Hamburgh, and I ask the Clerk to 
 read it. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 The origin of the difficulty, as I learn from the best 
 and most reliable auihority, is as follows: On the 
 Fourth of July the colored people of the town were 
 engaged in celebrating tlie day, and part of the cele- 
 br.'tion consisted in the parade of the colored militia 
 company. After marching through the principal 
 streets of the town, the company came to a hault 
 across one of the roads leading out of the town. 
 While resting there two white men drove up in a 
 buggy, and with curses ordered the company to break 
 ranks and let them pass through. The captain of the 
 company replied that there was plenty of room on 
 cither side of the company, and they could pass that 
 way. The white men continued cursing and refused 
 to turn out. So the captain of the militia, to avoid 
 difficulty, ordered his men to break ranks and permit 
 the buggy to pass through. 
 
 Mr. SCHLEICHER. I rise to a point of 
 order. I wish to know if this proposition is 
 germane to the bill. 
 
 Sever.al Members. Too late. 
 
 The (TIAIRMAN. The Chair desires to 
 say that it strikes him as being as germane as 
 other propositions wliieh have been generally 
 entertained to make it allowable. 
 
 The Clerk continued the reading of the 
 letter, as follows: 
 
 The order was obeyed, and the white men went on 
 their way uttering threats. The next day a colored 
 trial justice issued processes against the officers of the 
 company, based on the complaint ot the two w'hite 
 men, citing the officers to appear and answer to a 
 charge of obstructing file public highway. They 
 obeyed the writs, and after a slight examination the 
 justice adjourned the trial until Saturday, the 8th 
 instant. On that day, at an early hour, the town com¬ 
 menced to fill up with white men armed to the teeth 
 with repeating rifles and revolvers. The colored peo¬ 
 ple had no idea of the bloody tragedy which was soon 
 to take place, and consequently made no preparations 
 to resist an attack, and were almost defenseless. 
 
 Late in the afteriioon General M. G. Butler, one of 
 the most malignant of the un-reconstructed rebels, 
 rode into the town accompanied by a score of well- 
 armed white men, and stated to the leading colored 
 men that he came for the purpose of prosecuting the 
 case on the part of the two white men, and he demand¬ 
 ed that the militia company should give up their arms 
 and also surrender their officers. This demand the 
 militia was ready to comply with for the purpose of 
 avoiding a difficulty if General Butler would guarantee 
 them entire safety from molestation by the crowd of 
 white desperadoes. This Butler refused to do, and 
 persisted in his demand for the surrender of the guns 
 and the officers, and threatened that if the surrender 
 was not immediately made he would take the guns 
 and officers by force of arms. This threat ai’oused 
 the militia company to a realizing sense of their impend¬ 
 ing danger, and they at once repaired to a large brick 
 building some two hundred yards fromMhe river, 
 used by them as an armory, and there took refuge. 
 They numbered in all about forty men, and had a very 
 small quantity of ammunition. During this time, 
 while the militia were taking refuge in their armory, 
 tho white desperadoes were coming into the town in 
 large numbers, not only from the adjacent county of 
 Edgefield, but also from the city of Augusta, Georgia, 
 until they numbered over fifteen liundred well-armed 
 and ruffianly men who were under the immediate 
 command and direction of the ex-rebcl chief M 0. 
 Butler. After the entire force had arrived, the build¬ 
 ing where the militia had taken refuge was entirely 
 surrounded and a brisk fire opened upon it. This 
 fire was kept up for some two hours, when finding 
 that the militia could not be dislodged by small arras, 
 a messenger was sent to Augusta for artillery. Dur¬ 
 ing all this time not a shot had been fired bj*^ the 
 militiamen. The artillery arrived and was posted on 
 the bank of the river and opened fire on the building 
 with grape and canister. 
 
5 
 
 ^Ir. SCHLEICHER. I rise to a question 
 of order. If tliis be read as a part of the 
 gentleman\s remarks, is lie not subject to tlie 
 five minutes rule ? 
 
 Tile CriAIRMAN. The gentleman from 
 Soutli Carolina was recognized at thirty-two 
 minutes past three o’clock. There is still 
 half a minute remaining. 
 
 Mr. TOWNSEND, of New York. I hope, 
 the paper will be read through. 
 
 The Clerk j-esumed the reading of the pa¬ 
 per, as follows: 
 
 The militia now realized that it was necessary to 
 oyacnate the armory at once. They i)roceeded to do so, 
 petting out of a back window into a corn field. They 
 Avere soon discovered by the ruffians, and a rush was 
 made for them. Fortunately, by hiding and hard fight¬ 
 ing, a portion of the command escaped, hut twenty- 
 one Avere captured by the hushAvhackers and taken im¬ 
 mediately to a place near the railroad station. 
 
 [Here the hammer fell.] 
 
 Mr. RAINEA". I rise to oppose the 
 amendment, and I yield my time to my col¬ 
 league [Mr. Smalls] in order that the read¬ 
 ing of tiie letter may be continued. 
 
 A Member. The two gentlemen are on 
 one side. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. The present incum¬ 
 bent of the chair confesses to some doubt 
 whether the multiplication and piling up of 
 pro forma amendments for the purpose of mu¬ 
 tual accommodation is strictly in accordance 
 with the spirit of the rule. The Chair felt 
 that in the debate that terminated a little 
 while ago. But inasmuch as these things 
 have generally been practiced—a multiplica¬ 
 tion of joro forma amendments or a gentleman 
 getting the floor in order to yield time to an¬ 
 other—'the Chair allows this. 
 
 Mr. COX. I hope the paper will be read 
 through. 
 
 Mr. HARTRIDGE. I ask that it may be 
 read by unanimous consent. 
 
 Mr. HANCOCK. I hope there will be no 
 objection to its being read through. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. The paper is being 
 read in the time of the gentleman from South 
 Carolina, [Mr. Rainey.] 
 
 The Cleik continued the reading, as fol¬ 
 lows : 
 
 Here a quasi-drumhoad court-martial was organized 
 by the hlood-luiiitcrs, and the last scene of the horrible 
 drama began. It must now be remembered that not 
 one of the twenty-one colored men had a pistol or gun 
 about them. The moment they were captured their 
 arms were taken from them, and they were absolutely 
 defenseless. The orderly sergeant ol the militia com- 
 l>any Avas ordered to call the roll, and the first name 
 called out to be shot in cold blood Avas Allan T. Atta- 
 way, the first lieutenant of the company, and holding 
 the po.'Jition of county commissioner of Aiken County, 
 in Avliich county Hamburgh is situated He pleaded 
 for hi.s life as only one in his position could plead, but 
 hi i jileadings Avere met with curses and bloAvs, and he 
 Avas taken from the siglit of his comrades and a file of 
 tw(>lve men tired u]Aon him. He AA^as penetrated by 
 four balls, one entering his brain, and the other three 
 the loAver i>ortion of his body. He Avas instantly killed 
 and after he Avas dead the brutes in human shape 
 
 struck him over the head with their guns and stabbed 
 him in the face with their bayonets. Three other men 
 were treated in the same brutal manner. The fifth 
 man Avhen taken out made a dash for his life and luck¬ 
 ily escaped with only a slight wound in his leg. 
 
 In another portion of the toAvn the chief of police, 
 a colored m,an named James Cook, was taken from his 
 house and Avhile begging for his life brutally murdered. 
 Not satisfied with this, the inhuman fiends beat him 
 over the head with their muskets and cut out his 
 tongue. 
 
 Another colored man, one of the marshals of the 
 toAvn, surrendered and was immediately shot through 
 the body and mortally wounded. He has since died. 
 Bo far as 1 have been able to learn only one Avhite man 
 AA'as killed. It will thus be seen that six colored men 
 were brutally murdered and one wounded, Avhilo on the 
 side of the AAffiites only one man was killed. After this 
 holocaust of blood was oA'er the desperadoes in large 
 bodies entered the houses of most of the prominent 
 colored men of the toAvn and completely gutted them. 
 They stole all they ])Ossibly could, andAvhat they could 
 not steal they destroyed. Furniture was smashed, books 
 torn to pieces, pictures cut from their frames, and 
 everything that could be destroyed AA^as given up to the 
 demon of destruction. Such scenes my eyes have never 
 before witnessed and the distress and suflering among 
 the poor colored people was heart-rending to behold. 
 The town is desolate and the inhabitants haA'e taken 
 refuge in Aiken, Columbia, and other points. The civil 
 authorities are powerless or too negligent to do any¬ 
 thing, and peace and order c.annot bo preserved unless 
 United States troops are sent to this point at once. 
 
 The scenes during the massacre were fearful to be¬ 
 hold—the moon shining doAvn upon the horrid scene 
 lighting up the whole Avith a ghastly light; the pop¬ 
 ping of small arms; the screams of frightened Avomen 
 and terrified children; the loud reports from the ar-. 
 tillery, all tended to make a scene terrible and more 
 than fearful to behold. And noAv Avhat Avas the provo¬ 
 cation given for this hellish slaughter? The answer is, 
 nothing. Legally the militia had the right of way over 
 the public road. The day was the nation’s holiday. 
 The militia had a perfect right to parade, and vehicles 
 of all kinds Avere required to keep out of their Avay, 
 and not interfere Avith their inarching. Again, General 
 Butler had not the shadoAv of a right to demand the 
 arms of the militia. They AA’ere organized und«r the 
 constitution and laws of the State, and were part and 
 parcel of the armed force of the CommoiiAvealth. No 
 private citiien had the slightest right to molest them. 
 Such molestation Avas a direct bloAv at the poAver and 
 authority of the State. It Avas a revolutionary step, and 
 should be thus punished. 
 
 [Here the hammer fell.] 
 
 Mr. COCHRANE. I ask unanimous con¬ 
 sent that the reading of the letter be finished. 
 
 Mr. COOK. I hope there will be no objec¬ 
 tion. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. Unanimous consent 
 cannot be granted in Committee of the Whole. 
 
 Mr. CONGER. I move to strike out the 
 last word of the amendment of the gentle¬ 
 man from South Carolina,, [Mr. Smalls,] 
 and, as part of my remarks, I ask that the 
 reading may be continued 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. The chair, perhaps, 
 was not thoroughly understood when he spoke 
 before. He desires simply to say that 
 although he has some doubt about the pro¬ 
 priety of these pro forma airangements, still 
 he cheerfully consents to their being contin¬ 
 ued, because such has been the practice in 
 the Committee of the Whole House. 
 
 The Clerk resumed, and concluded the 
 reading of the letter, as follows: 
 
6 
 
 Are the sonthern colored citizens to be protected or 
 are they to be left at the mercy of such ruffians as mas¬ 
 sacred the poor men of Hamburgh ? The murdered 
 Attawny was a man of considerable prominence in the 
 republican party of the county. lie Avas a law-abiding 
 citizen, held a responsible office, and Avas Avell thought 
 of by many people. The other murdered men Avere 
 aood citizens and have never been knoAvn to infringe 
 the laAA". The whole affair Avas a aa-cII and secretly 
 phanned scheme to destroy all of the leading republi- 
 caus of the county of Aiken living in Hamburgh. M! 
 C. Butler, Avho lost a leg Avhilo fighting in the ranks of 
 the rebels, and avIio is to-day the bitterest of Ku-Klux 
 democrats, Avas the instigator of the Avhole affair and 
 the blood-thirsty leader of the massacre. He boasted 
 in Hamburgh during the fight that that Avas only the 
 beginning; that the end Avould not be until after the 
 elections in November. Such a man should be dealt 
 Avith Avithout pity or without hesitation. The United 
 States Government is not powerless, and surely she 
 will not be silent in an emergency like this, the parallel 
 of Avhich pen cannot describe. In this centennial year 
 will she stand idly by and see her soil stained Avith the 
 blood of defenceless citizens, and Avitness the bitter tears 
 of Avoiuen and children falling upon the murdered bodies 
 of their loved ones? God forbid that such an attitude 
 will be assumed toward the colored people of the South 
 by the best Government the world ever sa\An” Some¬ 
 thing must be done, and that quickl 3 \ or South Carolina 
 Aviirshed teai-s of blood and her limbs be shackled by 
 democratic chains. 
 
 Wha,t I have AA ritten in this letter are facts which 1 
 vouch 'for entirely, and are not distorted in any degree. 
 It's a “ plain, unvarnished ” naiu-ation of painful and 
 horrible truths 
 
 Mr. HILL. Bead the name attached to 
 the letter. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. The Chair under¬ 
 stands tliere is no name given. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Who is the author of the 
 letter ? 
 
 Mr. CONGER. I hope that all this will 
 not be taken out of my time. 
 
 The CHAIRIMAN. The gentleman from 
 Michigan [Mr. Congek] has hve full minutes- 
 of sixty seconds each. 
 
 Mr. CONGER. Then I yield five minutes 
 to the gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. 
 Smahls.] 
 
 Mr. SMxVLLS. This is a letter written by 
 a genileman vvdio was an eye-witness of this 
 transaction to me, and I, sir, had that letter 
 published in the paper. I am responsible for 
 the name. • 
 
 Mr. COCHRANE. Whose name is it? 
 W^ho wrote that letter? 
 
 Mr. SMALLS. I will say to the gentleman 
 if he is desirous that the name shall be given 
 in Older to have another negro killed, he will 
 not get it from me. [Applause.] 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. Does the gentleman 
 from South Carolina wish to occupy the rest 
 of the five minutes ? 
 
 Mr. SMALLS. I do not. 
 
 Mr. CONGER. Thtn I resume the floor. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from 
 Michigan has three and a half minutes of his 
 time remaining. 
 
 Mr. CONGER. W’^hen an amendment was 
 before the committee to increase the regi¬ 
 
 ments without any reference to the action of 
 the House in reducing the Army, I made a 
 suggestion to the House that that proposition 
 would draw from other cavalry regiments a 
 large portion of their quotas and leave them 
 with a very diminished number of men. The 
 amendment that is offered here i.^ a very sim¬ 
 ple and a very proper one and in accordance 
 with the amendment which was last under 
 consideration. It is that, in portions of the 
 United States where the lives and property of 
 the citizens are alleged to be invaded, where 
 it is alleged that property is taken and life 
 taken by riotous men, in regions of country 
 where troops are as necessary to protect them 
 as they are necessary to protect our citizens 
 on the borders of Texas, notwithstanding this 
 resolution which we propose to pass, troops 
 shall not be taken from those regions where 
 their presence is equally necessary for the 
 protection of the life of the citizen and the 
 protection of his. property. 
 
 I venture to say there is no man on this 
 floor that dare rise in the presence of the 
 American people to oppose this amendment, 
 and I challenge any man to it; not alone on 
 account of the statements in that communica¬ 
 tion, of the truth or falsity of which I do not 
 now speak, but from the common knowledge 
 which everyone has of the events in the State 
 of South Carolina. From facts universally 
 acknowledged I venture to say that the same 
 spirit which will induce every member of 
 this committee and every member of this Con¬ 
 gress to raise his voice and his hand in defense 
 and protection of the citizens of the* country 
 would palsy the hand that would be raised to 
 oppose the extension of that protection to one 
 portion of the United States where the same 
 necessity for protection exists. 
 
 Sir, I believe that the cutting down of the 
 
 Armv was the result of a determination on 
 
 •/ 
 
 the part of some men somewhere to prevent 
 troops being sent into States where lawless 
 men take the lives of peaceable citizens, I 
 just charge that as the attempt inaugurated in 
 this House and carried out I regret to say with 
 the assent of men who never ought to have 
 given it their assent. 
 
 Mr. MILLIKEN. I would ask the gentle¬ 
 man if he has any member in his eye or in 
 his mind whom he pictures as that man. 
 
 Mr. CONGER. I charge that the natural 
 and inevitable result of that reduction must 
 be to leave the Army so small that with the 
 Indian war upon our hands and the necessity 
 of protecting the Texas border there would 
 be no forces to be sent into other portions of 
 our country where the presence of an Army is 
 eminently desirable and necessary. 
 
 [Here the hammer fell.] 
 
THE r)EA.H LOCK. 
 
 Hon. JAMES WILSOJ\^, in the House of Rejjresentatives 
 
 Wednesday, June 28 , 1876 . 
 
 Macanley says that a week of civil war in 
 England would be felt from the Hoang-Ho to 
 the Mi'^souri a hundred years hence. We 
 know something of the effects of civil war. 
 But he must have the gift of prophecy who 
 can foretell the effects of stopping our. Gov¬ 
 ernment by a refusal to pass the appropriation 
 bills, of stopping the courts, the mails, the 
 foreign service, the Army,' the Navy, the 
 Indian Bureau, the Pension Bureau, Bureaus 
 of Education and Agriculture; in short, stop 
 the whole American Government because one 
 committee of the House, after having absorbed 
 the functions of nearly all the standing com¬ 
 mittees of the House, insist upon pushing the 
 prerogatives of the House beyond any pre¬ 
 cedent heretofore set, and against the ver^ 
 letter of the Constitution itself, that gives the 
 Senate the same power to amend a revenue 
 bill—conceding an appropriation bill to be a 
 revenue bill—that the House has to originate 
 it. If the Senate refuse to cut down where it 
 should be done they are responsible and can 
 be reached, but such a revolution as a failure 
 to pass the appropriation bills would bring 
 about is not justified by the Senate refusing to 
 change existing law on a money bill. * * 
 
 Consider the present situation. We have 
 civil and military establishments, the salary 
 of each officer and employ^ established by 
 law. The House, whether by exclusive right 
 or not, originates bills approriating money to 
 support these establishments. 
 
 It has been customary to allow nothing to 
 be tacked to these bills not in accord with ex¬ 
 isting law, if either House objects. When 
 tlie law is to be changed a standing commit¬ 
 tee of the House, under the rules, has juris¬ 
 diction, and part of the legislative machinery 
 of the House is arranged bv which laws can 
 be changed when a majority of the House cte- 
 sire. There are thirtv-four standing commit' 
 tees, upon which are appointed all the mem¬ 
 bers of the House, having charge of all the 
 subjects upon which Congress can legislate. 
 
 One of these committees is that on appro 
 priations, consisting of eleven members, the 
 .same as the other committees. It has former¬ 
 ly been charged with the duty of preparing 
 and reporting bills to appropriate money in 
 conformity with existing law. When legisla¬ 
 tion has been tacked on these bills, it has been 
 by suspending the rule and making it in order 
 by a two-thirds vote. Such new legislation 
 has been limited heretofore to occasional 
 clauses. But this session a new policy has 
 been inaugurated, enabling a majority by 
 changing the rule to do what could only be 
 done heretofore by a vote of two-thirds of the 
 House. This departure from time-honored 
 
 custom has given to the eleven members com¬ 
 posing the Appropriations Committee the 
 power heretofore exercised by the standing 
 committees, and is a concentration of power 
 unheard of in our times. Close observation 
 of the workings of tliis new order of things 
 has shown that when the opinion of the Ap¬ 
 propriations Committee clashed with that of 
 any other standing committee, the standing 
 committee could not be sustained. 
 
 It is a well-known fact that unless the party 
 in power for the time being in the House 
 stands well by the Appropriations Committee 
 they cannot succeed in carrying through the 
 eleven bills for the support of the Govern¬ 
 ment. Our eleven members on the Appro¬ 
 priations Committee first got the power 
 through a change in the rule. Then the maj¬ 
 ority was compelled to sustain them as against 
 any standing committee. The Committee on 
 Appropriations adopted a theory of reduction 
 of 10 per cent, in pay, 20 per cent, in force. 
 In some Bureaus of. the Government this 
 might be applied without detriment; in 
 others only at the expense of efficiency. The 
 Committee on Military Affairs, on the Post- 
 Office and Post-Roads, on Agriculture, on In¬ 
 dian Affairs, and others, might and often did 
 protest against the iron resolution of the (.’orn- 
 mittee on Appropriations. But power is 
 sweet even to a committee, and necessity com¬ 
 pelled the House to sustain them. One by 
 one the standing committees Avere beaten. 
 The judgment of one committee of eleven 
 men was indorsed on one day against tlie 
 judgment of eleven men on one standing 
 committee, on another day ag.ainst eleven 
 men on another standing committee, until 
 the whole field was gone over; and now we 
 have the law changed relating to all branches 
 of the Government on the recommendation 
 of eleAmn members of the House, whom the 
 House was compelled to sustain if we passed 
 appropriation bills at all. I do not say that 
 the Appropriations Committee has not been 
 industrious. I am sure they have been. I 
 do not say they are incompetent. I think if 
 they had confined themselves to reporting 
 bills to carry out existing law, as former Ap¬ 
 propriations Committees have, they would 
 have been fairly succes.sful. But they have 
 applied an unbending rule to everything. 
 They cannot know Avliat all the consequences 
 Avill be. The House surely does not know 
 whether they have done well or crippled the 
 Executive l)ei)artments of the Government. 
 The Senate, being vested by the Constitution 
 with the same powers to amend appropriation 
 bills that we are vested with, and consequently 
 under the same responsibility the House is 
 
8 
 
 under, and hesitating to stop or block the 
 wheels of Government, determined to be gov¬ 
 erned by law, and change the law relative to 
 appropriation bills only when their judgment 
 tells them it is wise to do so. 
 
 For this law-abiding spirit the gentleman 
 from New York compares the Senate to the 
 English Frown and their stand for law and 
 order to the encroachments of the royal pre¬ 
 rogative on the English Commons. The 
 House says it is economy because the Appro¬ 
 priations Cornraitte thinks it is. The Senate 
 does not know it is economy and proposes to 
 stand by the law until a reason is given for 
 changing it. It cannot be said that the.Sen¬ 
 ate refuses to agree to the reduction of ex¬ 
 penditures because they concurred last Con¬ 
 gress in a reduction of twenty-six millions on 
 these same bills when the House gave them 
 abundant time to ascertain what they were 
 doing. There is no doubt of their willing¬ 
 ness now to help efiect salutary retrenchment, 
 but it is not clear to many of us that we have 
 not gone entirely too far in nearly every 
 direction, while it is clear to many of us that 
 we have cut too deep in many directions. 
 
 It would not become a member of the 
 House to advocate the yielding of any privi¬ 
 lege or prerogative that belongs to it, either 
 by custom or through the Constitution. But 
 tire issue raised by the gentleman from New 
 York, respecting the right of the House to 
 the exclusive control of appropriation ' ills 
 and the denial of the right of the Senate to 
 either originate or amend, can result in no 
 good to the country. The two bodies are co¬ 
 ordinate and have equal powers in making 
 ail laws, except that the House has the sole 
 power to originate a revenue bill. After it is 
 originated, the powers of the House and Sen-^ 
 ate are equal in every respect. Nor is it 
 possible to conceive how any evil can result 
 from the power of the Senate to amend or re¬ 
 ject any bill. The Senate is not, like the 
 House of Lords, a hereditary Hocly, but is 
 elective and representative in its character. 
 There is but little analogy between our Sen¬ 
 ate and the English House of Lords. The 
 reference of the gentleman from New York to 
 the struggle .between King and Parliament, 
 before it can be brought into comparison with 
 our courted dead lock, mu.st be transposed. 
 In the English case the Parliament struggled 
 for'existence. If the King could levy taxes 
 he had no need of Parliament. In our case 
 we are tiie aggressors; we are reaching for 
 more power than the Constitution gives us; 
 and, while there was no doubt the people 
 sided with the Commons, we have no evidence . 
 whatever that the people desire the Senate t@ 
 yield to us its constitutional privileges. The 
 judgment of both is needed, and I do not 
 think it would be best that the whole respon¬ 
 sibility of passing appropriation bills should 
 ji»esi on the House. It is a prominent feature 
 
 in our form of government that absolute 
 power and sole responsibility rest nowhere 
 but with the people, whose majority vote can 
 bring about anything they desire, the same as 
 a majority of this House can find a way to do 
 anything or prevent anything fronr being 
 done. 
 
 The assertion that we are the most heavily 
 taxed people in the world has led me to in¬ 
 quire into the sources of taxation, and for 
 illustration I have inquired into tl^e amount 
 of taxes laid on one of my constitqents and 
 who lays them. I find the average Iowan 
 pays for municipal and local purposes, laid 
 by himself, seven dollars and a half. The 
 State of Iowa lays one half dollar on him ; 
 the late war, to pay interest on the war debt, 
 pensions, war claims, &c., lays $3 on him; 
 and the United States, to support the foreign 
 service, the Army and Navy, pay interest on 
 lands got by treaty from the Indiaiis, to pro¬ 
 vide for the deficiency in the mail service, 
 meet the executive, legislative, judicial and 
 other expenses of the Government, lays little 
 over $2 on him. Now you see who is taxing 
 the people. More than one-half of all taxes 
 are local, nearly one-fourth the interest on 
 the cost of the late war, and a little over one- 
 sixth suffices for all the purposes of the Gen¬ 
 eral Government, derived from' whisky, to¬ 
 bacco, and foreign imports. No people on 
 the face of the earth are as lightly taxed by* 
 their government; our Army but a skeleton, 
 our Navy a shadow, compared with the great 
 armies and fleets of old countries. We are 
 the best-fed, best-clothed, best-housed, most 
 generally educated, freest, and should be the 
 happiest people on earth. This misrepresen¬ 
 tation of the condition of our people on the 
 floor of Congress is unwise and sinful, and, to 
 a stranger who might be listening, incompre¬ 
 hensible. 
 
 If there is depression in some of our indus¬ 
 tries, so there is all over the world. We have 
 been living on too high a plane; we must 
 economize a little till times get better. Our 
 system lias enabled the workman to live like 
 the higher classes of some countries. If over- 
 speculation and overproduction of the pro¬ 
 ducts of our factories has overflowed the home 
 market we must seek one abroad and curtail 
 family expenses till the home market revives 
 or the foreign one is found. If you take off 
 the $2 per capita that internal and customs 
 duties bring us and run the Government for 
 nothing, it would not create a home market 
 for iron and cotton goods. 
 
 Our people are not ground down by taxa¬ 
 tion. We expend very freely to educate and 
 improve, and moderately for civil service. If 
 the Blouse would turn ks attention to the in¬ 
 dustries of the people more than to the suc¬ 
 cess of party it would find a more noble field 
 for inquiry. 
 
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