SUNDRY CIVIL APPROPRIATION BILL. 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. EUGENE HALE, 
 
 OF MAINE, 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES, TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1876. 
 
 The House having under consideration the 
 motion to reconsider the vote by which the 
 President’s message was referred to the Com¬ 
 mittee on Appropriations— 
 
 Mr. HALE said : 
 
 Mr. Speaker : I propose, as certain short¬ 
 comings of this House have been referred to 
 in the message of the President, to review 
 some of the incidents and events of this ses¬ 
 sion of the House of Representatives. I am 
 all the more inclined to this duty, sir, because 
 upon Tuesday last the gentleman from Miss¬ 
 issippi [Mr. Lamar] declared that there is a 
 wide and general dissatisfaction with the re¬ 
 publican party throughout the country, and 
 that the people demanded a change. While 
 listening to that declaration, I thought of the 
 counter blast of Carl Schurz, who says lately 
 that whatever maybe the errors of the repub¬ 
 lican party, it is very clear that democracy 
 affords no relief. Luckily the present House 
 of Representatives gives us the chance to 
 judge of democracy, not by its promises, but 
 by its performances. 
 
 That pgrty carried the country in the half 
 revolution which swept over the country in 
 1874. To all appearance it had the popular 
 voice behind it. It secured almost two-thirds 
 of the members upon this floor, thus giving 
 to it almost irresistible power to drive through 
 any needed and justly desired reform, should 
 it take upon its shoulders any such measure. 
 It had to all appearance, I say, the popular 
 voice to sustain it. Democracy was here in 
 such strength that whatever wise measures it 
 should propose for actual relief to any suffer¬ 
 ing interest, there never has been a time when 
 it could not against all objections in other 
 quarters drive both the Senate and the Exec¬ 
 utive into consonant action. For, Mr. Speaker, 
 it has never been, and I venture to predict 
 will never be the case, that the popular branch 
 of the American Congress, when it is com¬ 
 mitted to any just measure of reform, any 
 wide-reaching policy that meets with approval 
 from the people, can be stayed either by the 
 Senate or by the Executive. In that regard, 
 whenever that question and that time shall 
 be reached, American History will duplicate 
 English history, and it will be found, as it 
 should be found, that with the House arrayed 
 for the right, and the Senate or the Executive 
 arrayed for the wrong, the Senate or the Ex¬ 
 ecutive must and will yield. 
 
 The dominant party in the House of Rep¬ 
 resentatives had such an opportunity afforded 
 it when it assembled on the first Monday of 
 December last as no party has ever had. The 
 whole country was intent upon the action of 
 that party for the coming session. It had 
 been sent here upon certain promises of re¬ 
 form in directions that affected the living in¬ 
 terests of the people—the question of civil 
 service reform, the question of relief from 
 
 taxation, the question of finance and the cur¬ 
 rency, and other broad general questions— 
 upon none of which that party failed to prom¬ 
 ise largely in the canvass, that resulted in its 
 success. In December last its promises ma¬ 
 tured, and it was confronted with pay-day. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, I have no time to speak 
 at length of the spectacle that Washington 
 City presented to the country at the date of 
 the assembling of this Congress. There were 
 to be distributed by the dominant party in the 
 House in all perhaps three hundred offices, 
 reckoning from the page upon the floor and 
 the folder below up to the Speakership and 
 Clerkship of the House. And every gentle¬ 
 man here remembers that the city was crowded 
 in its streets, that the hotels and the corri¬ 
 dors of the House were thronged, and that 
 for every place a hundred hungry applicants 
 presented themselves here, clamoring and 
 scrambling for the good places, and, failing 
 in them, for the small places. The House was 
 organized, and the work of the headsman be¬ 
 gan at once. Now, I appeal to any member 
 upon this floor who was here in the last Con¬ 
 gress to look over the places attached to this 
 House, and which fell under the control of 
 democracy under the promise of a civil service 
 reform, and see how many familiar faces he 
 discovers, faces that were here in the last Con- 
 
 § ress. Two or three only arrest my attention. 
 
 'ne gentleman in the Clerk’s office is allowed 
 to remain there because of his familiarity with 
 certain financial details and the difficulty of 
 filling his place. The paying-teller in the Ser- 
 geant-at-Arms’s office is left, and here and 
 there is spared, as a monument of the past, 
 an old soldier attending our doors. All of the 
 rest have been ruthlessly submitted to the ax 
 of the headsman, have been turned out, and 
 others put in their places. 
 
 Mr. SPRINGER. There are more Union 
 soldiers in the employ of this House than were 
 in the employ of the last House. 
 
 Mr. HALE. I have heard that statement 
 before. I do not accept it as true; my figures 
 are different now. 
 
 Mr. RUSK. Soldiers of which army? 
 
 Mr. SPRINGER. Soldiers who were in the 
 Union service. 
 
 Mr. HALE. This was a specimen of civil- 
 service reform with a vengeance. But it had 
 one advantage, and my friends on the other 
 side were entitled to that advantage. It dis¬ 
 embarrassed the party in control. It left the 
 House in the hands of its friends. And look¬ 
 ing on and remembering how his party prom¬ 
 ised reform in political methods and modera¬ 
 tion whenever it should be placed in power, it 
 may be that Governor Tilden interpreted the 
 action of his party as the fulfillment of its 
 promises, and therefore in his letter of accept¬ 
 ance encourages the faithful followers of civil- 
 service reform in these ingenious words : 
 
2 
 
 The public interest in an honest, skillful 
 performance of official trust must not be sac¬ 
 rificed to the usufruct of the incumbents. 
 
 I fancy that we are likely to hear something 
 of the “usufruct of the incumbents” as a 
 political evil should the presidential election 
 go democratic. 
 
 But I must follow the course of the House. 
 The Speaker was elected and appointed his 
 committees, and just here was a most serious 
 outcropping of what might be expected in the 
 future if the elections of 1874 be repeated in 
 1876. It had been predicted, it had been 
 feared, that a democratic triumph meant the 
 restoration to power of that element in the 
 democratic party which carried the country 
 into civil war, and maintained that war for 
 four cruel, tragic, desolating years. There 
 was throughout the country a growing suspi¬ 
 cion that this was a threatening danger. The 
 democratic leaders kneiv this feeling of ap¬ 
 prehension in the country ; they have always 
 denied it, and there have been here and else¬ 
 where many protestations of modesty from 
 gentlemen representing that element in the 
 democratic party, that with them there was 
 no existing intent of gaining the control of 
 the Government through the control of the 
 democratic party. 
 
 The gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. La¬ 
 mar] in his speech declared—I do not use his 
 exact words—that if anj^ man believed that 
 there was any danger of the South getting 
 control of the democratic party or the country, 
 it was a hallucination which observation and 
 a little experience would surely dispel. Ido 
 not quote his language, but the spirit of his 
 statement. 
 
 Now, the Speaker of this House sat in that 
 chair, the representative of the whole party 
 that had made him speaker. He it was who 
 could feel his party’s pulse and measure its 
 demands. As 1 have always believed, he is a 
 very fair man; a man who will endeavor under 
 any circumstances to do what he believes is 
 right, withal an intense party man, and one 
 who, instead of setting himself in the way of 
 a pronounced demand by his party, would 
 seek to answer that demand. 
 
 His first duty was to organize the commit¬ 
 tees of this House and to appoint their chair¬ 
 men. This is one of the most delicate duties 
 intrusted to the Speaker of the House. The 
 legislation of the country is shaped in the 
 committee-rooms. The voice of the commit¬ 
 tee is uttered by its chairman. His influence 
 is largely potential; he represents the essen¬ 
 tial interests committed to his committee, and 
 aside from his membership is looked upon by 
 the country, if he be a man of prominence, as 
 the indication of the policy to be pursued by 
 the committee on matters submitted to it. 
 These chairmanships are the highest honors 
 that the Speaker can confer. They are greatly 
 desired by the ablest men in the House. 
 
 Now I have here a list of the committees of 
 the Forty-fourth Congress, with the chair¬ 
 man of each and the section and State from 
 which he comes. I have taken the thirty- 
 three old standing committees of the House, 
 who do its work, who shape legislation, who 
 give tone and character to all that we do 
 here. 
 
 COMMITTEES OF THE FORTY-FOURTH CONGRESS 
 WITH SOUTHERN CHAIRMEN. 
 
 Elections, Mr. Harris, of Virginia ; Pacific 
 Railroad, Mr. Lamar, of Mississippi; Claims, 
 Mr. Bright, of Tennessee; Commerce, Mr. 
 
 Hereford, of West Virginia; Post-Office and 
 Post-ltoads, Mr. Clark, of Missouri; District, 
 of Columbia, Mr. Buckner, of Missouri; Ju¬ 
 diciary, Mr. Knott, of Kentucky; Public Ex¬ 
 penditures, Mr. Milliken, of Kentucky; Pri¬ 
 vate Land Claims, Mr. Gunter, of Arkansas ; 
 Manufactures, Mr. Stone, of Missouri; Ag¬ 
 riculture, Mr. Caldwell, of Alabama; Indian 
 Affairs, Mr. Scales, of North Carolina ; Naval 
 Affairs, Mr. Whitthorne, of Tennessee; For¬ 
 eign Affais, Mr. Swann, of Maryland; Revo¬ 
 lutionary Pensions, Mr. Hunton, of Virginia ; 
 Railways and Canals, Mr. Jones, of Ken¬ 
 tucky ; Mines and Mining, Mr. Bland, of Mis¬ 
 souri; Education and Lanor, Mr. Walker, of 
 Virginia; Revision of the Laws, Mr. Dur¬ 
 ham, of Kentucky; Coinage, Weights, and 
 Measures, Mr. Stevens, of Georgia ; Patents, 
 Mr. Vance, of North Carolina. 
 
 COMMITTEES WITH NORTHERN CHAIRMEN. 
 
 Ways and Means, Mr. Morrison, of Illinois; 
 Appropriations, Mr. Randall, of Pennsylva¬ 
 nia ; Banking and Currency, Mr. Cox, of 
 New York; Public Lands, Mr. Sayler, of 
 Ohio; War Claims, Mr. Edeiff Illinois; Mili¬ 
 tary Affairs, Mr. Banning, of Ohio; Militia, 
 Mr. Cowan, of Ohio ; Territories, Mr. South¬ 
 ard, of Ohio; Invalid Pensions, Mr. Jcnks, of 
 Pennsylvania; Public Buildings and Grounds 
 Mr. Holman, of Indiana; Accounts, Mr. Wil¬ 
 liams, of Indiana; Library, Mr. Clyiner, of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 In this list I have not taken into account 
 either the small and heretofore unknown 
 committee on expenditures of the different 
 Departments nor the special committees. I 
 take the old standing committees, who al¬ 
 ways have done and will do the important 
 work of the House of Representatives. 
 
 Here it is seen that of these thirty-three 
 committees organized by the Speaker in the 
 first month of this session, twenty-one are 
 put into the hands of gentlemen from the 
 section lately hostile to the Government, and 
 which it is claimed is not seeking to arro¬ 
 gate power in the democratic party; while 
 upon the other side are but twelve commit¬ 
 tees given to the entire Northern States. 
 
 And these twenty-one committees that are 
 so entrusted are not obscure committees. I 
 find among them the Committee of Elections r 
 the first on the list, a committee that largely 
 controls and shapes the membership of this 
 House. The Committee of Claims, with all 
 of the responsibility of dealing justly with 
 good claims and yet of protecting the Treas¬ 
 ury from bad ones, is in the list. The import¬ 
 ant Committee on Commerce, treating some 
 of the largest subjects that the American peo¬ 
 ple deal with. The Committee for the Dis¬ 
 trict of Columbia; the Committee on the Ju¬ 
 diciary, the great law committee of the House; 
 the Committee on Private Land Claims; the 
 Committee on Manufactures; the Committees 
 on Indian Affairs, on Naval Affairs, on For¬ 
 eign Affairs, on Railways and Canals, on 
 Mines and Mining, on Education and Labor, 
 and other committees are intrusted to south¬ 
 ern men. 
 
 And in this first act of the democratic party 
 through its Speaker, indicating Where in the 
 future power must be lodged if that party ob¬ 
 tains control of the Government . I find that 
 the section of the country from which I come, 
 New England, although she felt the revul¬ 
 sion in 1874 and elected a large delegation of 
 democrats to this Congress, was not awarded 
 a single chairmanship; while Kentucky has 
 four, Missouri as many, Virginia three, and 
 other southern States several each. 
 
 I have here an old Directory of Congress In 
 
3 
 
 the days before the war, and I have looked it 
 over to see liow committees were apportioned 
 then, and I do not find the South more strongly 
 intrenched than now under the Speaker of 
 this House acting at the dictation of his party 
 at the beginning of the Forty-fourth Con¬ 
 gress. Yet we are to be lulled by the talk 
 which w'e hear that there is no danger of the 
 southern element in the democratic party con¬ 
 trolling and dictating its course in the future. 
 Bearing upon this and showing how closely 
 most of these prominent gentlemen were con¬ 
 nected with the “lost cause,” I give a list of 
 the members of this Congress who were in 
 6ome way associated with the “confederacy.” 
 The list has been made up from the Congres¬ 
 sional Directory. 
 
 REBEL OFFICERS IN CONGRESS. 
 
 Senators— Goldthwaite, Ala., Adjutant Gen¬ 
 eral; Jones, Fla., Bridadier General: Gordon, 
 Ga., Major General; Alcorn, Miss., Brigadier 
 General; Cockrell, Mo., Major General; Ran¬ 
 som, N. C., Major General; Key, Tenn., Lieu¬ 
 tenant Colonel; Maxey, Tex., Major General 
 and Superintendent Indian Affairs; Withers, 
 Va., Colonel. 
 
 Representatives — Williams, Ala., Major; 
 Bradford, Ala., Colonel; Hayes, Ala., Briga¬ 
 dier General; Hewitt, Ala., Colonel; Forney, 
 Ala., Brigadier General; Lewis, Ala., Colo¬ 
 nel; Gause, Ark., Colonel; Slemons, Ark., 
 Brigadier General; Gunter, Arlc., Colonel; 
 Smith, Ga., Captain; Hart ridge, Ga., Colonel; 
 Cook, Ga., Major General; Hill, Ga., Colonel 
 Recruiting Service; Blackburn, Ky., Lieu¬ 
 tenant Colonel; Gibson, La., Brigadier Gene¬ 
 ral; Ellis. La., Captain; Levy, La., Colonel; 
 Lamar, Miss., Colonel and Minister to Rus¬ 
 sia; Hooker, Miss., Colonel: Franklin, Mo., 
 Captain; Clark. Mo., Brigadier General; 
 Yeates, N. C., Major; Waddell, N. C., Lieu¬ 
 tenant Colonel; Davis, N. C., Captain; Scales, 
 1ST. C., Brigadier General; Robbins, N. C., Col¬ 
 onel; Vance. N. C., Brigadier General; Dib- 
 rell, Tenn., Brigadier Generali Whitthorne, 
 Tenn., Adjutant General; Atkins, Tenn., 
 Colonel; Young, Tenn., Colonel: Culberson, 
 Tex., Colonel; Throckmorton, Tex., Briga- 
 dier General; Douglas, Va., Major: Cabell, 
 Va., Colonel; Tucker, Va., Captain: Hunton, 
 Va., Brigadier General; Ferry, Va., Brigadier 
 General; Faulkner. W. Va., Adjutant Gene¬ 
 ral and Minister to France; Reagan, Tex., 
 Brigadier General and Postmaster General; 
 Goode, Va., Colonel; Hatcher, Mo., Colonel; 
 Singleton, Miss., Inspector General; House, 
 Tenn., Major. 
 
 Ex-Members of Rebel Government— Stephens, 
 Ga., Vice President; Reagan, Tex., Postmas¬ 
 ter General; Hill, Ga., Senator; Caperton, 
 W. Va., Senator; Ashe, N. C., Senator; House, 
 Tenn., Representative; Goode, Va., Repre¬ 
 sentative; Smith, Ga., Representative; 
 Hatcher, Mo., Representative; Singleton, 
 Miss., Representative; Caldwell, Ala., Solici¬ 
 tor General; Norwood, Ga., State Legisla¬ 
 ture; Candler, Ga., State Legislature; Tucker, 
 Va., Attorney General; Culberson, Tex., State 
 Legislature; Harris, Ga., State Legislature; 
 Slemons, Ark., State Legislature; Gunter, 
 Ark., State Legislature; Lamar, Miss., Min¬ 
 ister to Russia; Dibrell, Tenn., State Legis¬ 
 lature; Hunton, Va., State Legislature; 
 Faulkner, W. Va., Minister to France; Har¬ 
 ris, W. Va., State Legislature; Maxey, Tex., 
 Superintendent Indian Affairs. 
 
 Members of Congress Before Rebellion— Ste¬ 
 phens, Ga., Thirty-sixth Congress; Lamar, 
 Miss.,Thirty-sixth Congress; Singleton,Miss., 
 Thirty-sixth Congress; Scales, N. C., Thirty- 
 fifth Congress; Atkins, Tenn., Thirty-fifth 
 Congress; Reagan, Tex., Thirty-sixth Con¬ 
 gress; Faulkner, W. Va., .Thirty-second to 
 Thirty-sixth Congresses; Harris, Va., Thirty- 
 sixth Congress. 
 
 In the same direction was the course pur¬ 
 sued in the various offices about the House. 
 
 Perhaps there is nothing that illustrates 
 
 these two propositions, first, the promise of 
 civil-service reform, and then the denial that 
 the South is gradually absorbing the demo¬ 
 cratic party, than that presented by the post 
 office of this House, where a clean sweep was 
 made. 
 
 In the Forty-third Congress the Postmas¬ 
 ter was a Union soldier, who had lost a leg 
 at Kenesaw. 
 
 But I will give the lists for both the Forty- 
 third and Forty-fourth Congresses: 
 
 Henry Sherwood, Postmaster, entered the 
 service in the Second Michigan Cavalry early 
 in the war. He was in all the battles in the 
 West, from Perrysville to the battle of Ken¬ 
 esaw Mountain, In 18(54, and lost a leg at the 
 fight at Lattimer’s Mill, on the left of Ken¬ 
 esaw. 
 
 Joseph F. Wilson, assistant postmaster, 
 entered the service from Illinois, and in one 
 of the battles of the war had his lower jaw 
 entirely shot aw'ay. 
 
 Francis A. Wardell entered the service in 
 1861, in a Massachusetts regiment, and was 
 totally disabled by wounds received at the 
 battle of Winchester, Virginia, September 19, 
 1864. 
 
 J. II. Paine entered the Army from Ohio, 
 and served honorably during the war. 
 
 R. S. Bishop served in a Michigan regiment 
 during the war, and had his arm shot away 
 by a rebel bullet. 
 
 R. S. McMichael, while in service in a Wis¬ 
 consin regiment, nearly lost his eyesight in 
 the honorable discharge of his duty. 
 
 D. B. Bradley enlisted in a Wisconsin regi¬ 
 ment in 1861, and was honorably discharged 
 November, 1864. 
 
 A. M. Legg, from New York, served during 
 the war in our Navy. 
 
 C. M. Thomas, Iowa; J. H. Lytle and W. B. 
 Sessions, New York; J. D. Serun and D. F. 
 Bishop, Pennsylvania; and Cripti Palmoni, 
 District of Columbia, were appointed from 
 civil life. 
 
 The employes of the Forty-fourth Congress 
 are as follows: 
 
 James M. Stewart, Postmaster, from Vir¬ 
 ginia, was captain in the rebel army, and 
 served with J. E. B. Stuart’s raiding cavalry. 
 
 Edgar Snowden, assistant postmaster, from 
 Virginia, was a press correspondent in the 
 rebel army. 
 
 G. W. Rock, Va., served in the rebel army. 
 
 G. W. Kennedy, Va., served in the rebel 
 army. 
 
 A. W. C. Nowlin, Va., served in the rebel 
 army. 
 
 W. II. Robertson, Va., served in the rebel 
 army. 
 
 J. R. Fislier, Va., served in the rebel army. 
 
 W. B. Lowry, Va., served in the rebel army. 
 
 E. C. Glass, Va., served in the rebel army. 
 
 The other employes .are Richard Allen, 
 
 Virginia; Edward Estes, New York, who 
 took the modified oath. 
 
 I must touch lightly upon this matter of 
 the outside organization of the House. 
 
 Here and there individual cases attract at¬ 
 tention and deserve mention, both as show¬ 
 ing removals without cause and also show 
 ing the very superior order of merit in¬ 
 troduced by the party just taking possession 
 of the House. For instance we had an old 
 journal clerk, a venerable and accomplished 
 man, who had sat at that desk for thirty 
 years, who had been adopted by a republican 
 administration sixteen years ago, who had sat 
 there as a come-over from a democratic ad¬ 
 ministration. He is a marvel to-day of intel¬ 
 ligence and accuracy upon parliamentary law, 
 and was never more needed in this House in 
 the interests of correct legislation than at a 
 time when new hands took the reins. I refer 
 of course to Mr. Barclay. But short shrift 
 was given to him; and there was substituted 
 
for him a pronounced democrat; and in a little 
 while my friends on the other side found as 
 one result of their “civil-service reform” in 
 displacing this veteran that the new incum¬ 
 bent was thriftily putting himself in a position 
 to make merchandise of the important place 
 that he held here. 
 
 Mr. HARRISON. Will the gentlemen al¬ 
 low me a single moment ? 
 
 Mr. HALE. I find that my time is being 
 consumed so fast that I am afraid I shall not 
 be able to yield any time to the gentleman 
 from Illinois. 
 
 Mr. HARRISON. Mr. Barclay resigned. 
 
 Mr. HALE. We all know about his resig¬ 
 nation. 
 
 Mr. HARRISON. Why did you not state it? 
 
 Mr. HALE, I will state it. 
 
 Mr. FRANKLIN. You said he was dis¬ 
 placed. 
 
 Mr. HALE. I say again that he was dis¬ 
 placed. When Mr. Barclay found that such 
 was the clamor and push for office upon the 
 Clerk of this House for his place as well as 
 all others, and that his removal was immi¬ 
 nent, he resigned, and that will not be denied. 
 
 Mr. HARRISON. It is denied. 
 
 Mr. HALE. He resigned in order that he 
 might show his own self-respect, as it was 
 very proper he should do. 
 
 Mr. HARRISON. It is positively denied. 
 
 Mr. RANDALL. I wish to correct one 
 statement of the gentleman. Mr. Barclay 
 resigned of his own voluntary accord; and I 
 think I am authorized to say that the Clerk 
 of the House never had any disposition to re¬ 
 move him. 
 
 Mr. WHITE. May I ask the gentleman 
 from Pennsylvania- 
 
 Mr. HALE. I cannot yield further. It 
 was well understood at the time why Mr. 
 Barclay resigned. I wish to do no injustice 
 to our Clerk who has these subordinate offi¬ 
 cers in charge. The general system of re¬ 
 movals showed that nobody would be spared. 
 Mr. Barclay was intimately associated with 
 certain gentlemen at the Clerk’s desk whom 
 he wished to remain if he remained and so 
 stated his desire, as I understand, to Mr. 
 Adams, the Clerk. He felt that assurances 
 had been given to him in authoritative quarters 
 that these gentlemen should be retained, apd 
 when they were all removed both the desire 
 to remain was gone and also any confidence 
 as to his own much further retention. The 
 way is not important. The journal clerk went 
 out under the system followed here. 
 
 The new journal clerk who had been put in 
 by this “reform” House was not a great suc¬ 
 cess. He had borne a good reputation, I 
 learn, before he came into office, but before 
 many weeks it was found that, important and 
 delicate as were his duties, he having in 
 charge the Journal of the House which re¬ 
 cords our legislation, he had put himself in 
 communication with claims and claim agents 
 throughout the country and proposed to make 
 profit of his position by getting control of 
 certain claims which were before this House, 
 and which depended upon the passage of cer¬ 
 tain legislation. So my friends on the other 
 side were not able to keep him. 
 
 MR. HARRISON. And he was from a 
 State bordering upon that of the gentleman 
 from Maine. 
 
 MR. HALE. He was from a State that 
 
 had a strong and belligerent democracy, 
 which claimed him as their representative and 
 sent him here to fill an important office. 
 
 The following memorandum has been given 
 to me as to the assistant journal clerk whom 
 our reforming friends put into Mr. Clayton's 
 place: 
 
 Flanagan, assistant journal clerk, legislat¬ 
 ed out June 30, was tried by court martial, 
 of which Gov. Hayes was president, in 1864, 
 for resisting draft and encouraging deser¬ 
 tion, as editor of an Ohio paper, found 
 guilty, sent to Fort Delaware; which decis¬ 
 ion was affirmed by Gen. Hooker; and when 
 the war closed he was serving out his sen¬ 
 tence. 
 
 Here are some of the other officers who in 
 a few weeks were proven unfit. I notice 
 them because of the claim that bad men are 
 to be put out of office and good men put in: 
 
 The clerk of the Committee on Military Af¬ 
 fairs. 
 
 The clerk of the Committe of Ways and 
 Means. 
 
 The Doorkeeper of the House. 
 
 There were other lesser offices, but I give 
 no time to them. 
 
 The clerk of the Committee of Ways and 
 Means was the now rather notorious James 
 P. Hambleton. The place is very important. 
 The clerk possesses all the secrets of this 
 most importanc committe; secrets sometimes 
 worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to 
 desperate men interested upon the subjects 
 considered in the committee, which reverses 
 and re-arranges our tariff laws and all reve¬ 
 nue laws at its pleasure. Mr. Hambleton 
 was, I think, forced upon the chairman of 
 the committee by other influence. He had 
 been a lobbyist-here for some years, and, it 
 was charged, had been a blackmailer on 
 northern merchants before the war. But a 
 well-proved act of his showing pronounced 
 sympathy with the most lamentable and 
 tragic act in our history, the assassination 
 of Abraham Lincoln, aroused the newspaper 
 press and particularly the New York Tribune 
 and my friend from Illinois, [Mr. Morri¬ 
 son,] the chairman of the committee, remov¬ 
 ed him, and removed him, I have no doubt, 
 willingly on learning all the facts.. To show 
 something of the character of the parties, I 
 will have read the following from the New 
 York Tribune: 
 
 TUHN BACK THE HANDS—MR. HAMBLETON DE¬ 
 MANDS PROOFS—A LETTER FROM THE DEMO¬ 
 CRATIC CLERK OF THE WAYS AND MEANS COM¬ 
 MITTEE. 
 
 To the Editor of the Tribune: 
 
 Sir : Judging from your article of this date 
 you seem determined not to receive any 
 statement or explanation as satisfactory. It 
 sometimes happens that “ a man convinced 
 against his will is of the same opinion still.” 
 In reply to your first onslaught I authorized 
 your chief correspondent in this city to say 
 that I never had a child or anything else 
 named “John Wilkes Booth.” That dis¬ 
 patch appeared in the Tribune as my au¬ 
 thorized statement, and the Tribune also t in 
 the same issue, made editorially (in minion 
 type) a quasi retraction. Since that date the 
 Tribune reiterates the charge but presents 
 no proofs. I now say for the last time that 
 the allegation is false and malicious, and if 
 the Tribune has or can get any proof that I, 
 or any member of my family, ever named a 
 child John Wilkes Booth, we say give it to 
 the public without delay. Who are your 
 witnesses and what are they? It is an easy 
 matter for an editor—especially one who 
 fought four years to save the Union—in his 
 
o 
 
 retiracy—glowing with patriotic ardor, to 
 indite gushing philippics over the grave of 
 a dead infant. But it is another thing to 
 produce facts that sustain such a course. 
 This crusade of the anti-democratic press 
 against the clerk of the Committee of Ways 
 and Means is not only unfounded in truth, 
 hut it is partisan and malicious, and is the 
 smallest and most contemptible episode in 
 the history of American Politics. The Tri¬ 
 bune has been imposed upon by the envious 
 and the malignant; its patriotic indignation 
 has been lashed into a rage at the sight of a 
 Quaker gun, nothing more, nothing less. 
 
 The Tribune may also be gratified to know 
 that the clerkship of the Committee of 
 Ways and Means is a matter of small consid¬ 
 eration to its present incumbent. The clerk 
 was appointed on the sole recommendation 
 of prominent democrats who had served 
 long and faithfully on this committee, and 
 while the chairman is not responsible for 
 my appointment yet my resignation has al¬ 
 ways been subject to his will and pleasure. 
 Will the Tribune suggest to the chairman of 
 the Committee of ways and Means some 
 suitable gentleman for his clerk, after learn¬ 
 ing that he has a family, and what he has 
 named his children? No mistakes should be 
 made. In conclusion, we ask the Tribune if 
 there is anything in either of the new 
 amendments of the Constitution, the recon¬ 
 struction acts, acts of Congress, proclama¬ 
 tions, or military orders that prohibits a 
 man from naming a child anything he 
 chooses? “We are in our father’s house,” 
 and will never knowingly violate any law or 
 anything done in pursuance thereof. We 
 shall never invade, under any pretext, the 
 domestic circlo or the graves of innocents. 
 
 JAMES. P. H AMBLE TON, 
 Clerk of Committee of Ways and Means. 
 Washington, D. C., February 187(5. 
 
 P. S. If there is any additional statement 
 you desire to make, please prepare it and 
 inclose it to your regular Washington cor¬ 
 respondent, that 1 may comply, if possible, 
 with your patriotic demands. J. P. H. 
 
 MU. HAMBLETON ACCOMMODATED. 
 
 [From the Washington Patriot, Monday 
 July 8, 1872. 
 
 DIED. 
 
 Hambleton —At the Exchange Hotel, 
 AVasliington, D. C., on the morning of July 
 3,1872, at 10 minutes past seven, of inflam¬ 
 mation of the brain, John W. B. Hambleton,, 
 aged 6 years, 3 months, and 17 days, youngest 
 son of J ames P. and Martha L. Hambleton, 
 of Atlanta, Ga. 
 
 The case of Doorkeeper Fitzliugli is so well 
 known that I need not give it much time. 
 He was the “bigger man” than Grant. He 
 had been brought here before the democratic 
 caucus because he had been either doorkeeper 
 or sergeant-at-arms of the confederate house 
 of representatives during the war, and that 
 was not a claim to be disregarded. That was 
 a claim with my friends on the other side so 
 overtowering that it was not asked, “Is he 
 honest?” it was not asked, “Can he spell?” 
 it was not asked, “Can he write?” it was not 
 asked, “Is he fitted by attainments and ex¬ 
 perience for this important place?” But be¬ 
 cause of his “war record,” I suppose, he 
 distanced all competitors in the caucus. 
 
 Mr. HARRISON. As soon as we found he 
 was unfitted for the place, we dismissed him. 
 
 Mr. HALE. Yes; he was turned out. My 
 friend should not be uneasy. 
 
 Mr. FRYE. Cannot the gentleman from 
 Illinois be kept quiet? 
 
 Mr. HALE. But I must come to weightier 
 matters. The House was confronted with the 
 condition of the country. The majority had 
 the country before it, in whatever condition 
 it was, in whatever condition of depression 
 
 were all the industries of the country, with 
 all needed reforms to be set on foot. The 
 South claimed that the whole republican 
 policy there was wrong, that grievous errors 
 and sins and crimes were the accompaniments 
 of that policy, and that a drastic change was 
 demanded. Here was an opening for some 
 broad plan of legislation that the House at 
 least might send to the country. But on the 
 day that the House assembled we witnessed 
 the faculty and the power of the democracy 
 to grapple with a great subject; for it was de¬ 
 liberately proposed here upon the question of 
 swearing in a member of this House to open 
 what is one of the wisest things in the record 
 of the republican party, the adjustment of 
 the Lousiana difficulties—the Wheeler com¬ 
 promise—which had given to New Orleans 
 and the State of Louisiana a peace which she 
 had not known for years. I am glad to say 
 that my almost always wise friend from Indi¬ 
 ana [Mr. Holman] was not in accord with the 
 movement and opposed it. But it was urged 
 by almost all the leaders of his party that this 
 beneficent measure of settlement should be 
 thrown open, and it was voted down only by the 
 solid strength of this side of the House, with 
 the careful and moderate men, few in num¬ 
 ber, on the other side under the lead of Mr. 
 Holman. So disastrous was that experi¬ 
 ment, so pronounced was the defeat, that from 
 that day to this there has been no plan nor 
 suggestion as to southern measures reported 
 from any committee that I have ever heard of. 
 
 Other questions confronted us. The ques¬ 
 tion of finance was upon every man’s mind, 
 and almost upon every man’s tongue. 
 
 American commerce, Mr. Speaker, it was 
 claimed upon that side, languished, as it un¬ 
 doubtedly does languish, largely from causes 
 that are world-wide, and not influenced by 
 legislation in this Hall. But it was claimed 
 there that it languished because it suffocated 
 in the grasp of an incompetent party; and 
 the country looked to see what measure would 
 be attempted by the dominant party in this 
 House upon that great interest. The questions, 
 too, of currency—its uses, its medium, its 
 kind, its limitation—were all beforb the House 
 when it assembled. 
 
 The House left all of these questions. It 
 trod them under foot. It ignored them as of 
 little account or confessed its incompetency 
 by refusing to deal with them, and embarked 
 in a wild crusade of investigation. Now here 
 with a party in power during four presidential 
 terms there was an opportunity undoubtedly 
 for some good to be done. It was by no 
 means new ground. No republican Congress 
 had for the last ten years failed to investigate 
 when real evils appeared and to censure and 
 punish both friend and foe alike. But there 
 was yet some opportunity for improvement, 
 and when the crusade was started the country 
 looked for some good out of the effort. 
 
 But, Mr. Speaker, while the House sent 
 thirty-three committees into investigating 
 duties, which monopolized their time and 
 drove out all other subjects, yet the method 
 and manner was such that from the begin¬ 
 ning the whole movement was paralyzed. 
 Then first was adopted as the almost un¬ 
 varying policy—I believe the Committte on 
 Ways and Means was the only exception at 
 first—what had only been in rare cases ever 
 attempted before, the sitting of these com- 
 
6 
 
 mittees in secret; investigations conducted 
 with closed doors. Parties who were investi¬ 
 gated found, months after secret investiga¬ 
 tion had been set afoot, for the first time that 
 they were under accusation. The minority 
 members of the different committees had the 
 padlock of secrecy put upon them, because of 
 a false notion of the honor due to the com¬ 
 mittee by them as members. 
 
 Secret meetings of the members of the 
 majority upon the committees were frequently 
 held, and one result of all this was that when 
 any facts were brought out that affected 
 any prominent member of the party of the 
 majority in the House the investigation was 
 suppressed. No committee cared to follow 
 up the claim of the Kentucky Railroad which 
 had been forced through one of the Depart¬ 
 ments when it was learned that a leading 
 democratic aspirant for the Presidency was 
 implicated. When it found that John Roach 
 had contributed money to the election of a 
 democratic member upon this floor no atten¬ 
 tion was called to it. When Contractor Swift 
 told the committee that his largest contribu¬ 
 tion had been in aid of democratic elections 
 the committee felt that they had heard 
 enough. And Mr. Commissioner Davenport 
 opened up the condition of the elections in New 
 York City under democratic rule so effectu¬ 
 ally that another committee, like the Cali¬ 
 fornia hunter, drew off from the trail because 
 “it was getting altogether too fresh.” But 
 whenever any slur could be put upon the 
 hitherto fair reputation of a prominent re¬ 
 publican the committees were eager and 
 anxious to bring it forth. 
 
 Let me give an instance or two of these in¬ 
 vestigations and of the manner in which the 
 democratic party conducted them. It has 
 been the party that heretofore has set up 
 loud claims of devotion to the individual and 
 private rights of the citizen. One of the first 
 things that one of the committees of this 
 House did under the general authority given 
 it to investigate everything was to send to the 
 paper-mills where a mass of telegrams from 
 the telegraph offices had been sent and to se¬ 
 cure them for the use of the committee. 
 Why, Mr. Speaker, one cause of the success 
 of the electric telegraph has been the fidelity 
 of its employees to the citizen who commits 
 his most secret communications to the com¬ 
 panies. This confidence is a thing that rami¬ 
 fies all business and social life. But the in¬ 
 vestigating committees of this House broke 
 through all that, seized the dispatches, and 
 spent their time searching for private mes¬ 
 sages that had been brought from the vats of 
 the paper-makers. 
 
 Why, Mr. Speaker, the secrets captured, 
 the information there gained, these commit¬ 
 tees had no more right to, as a matter of prop¬ 
 erty, than they have to a gentleman’s purse. 
 They gained them in no better way than if 
 they had stolen into a gentleman’s house and 
 had hidden behind his door or under his bed, 
 and had listened to all the confidences and 
 secrecies of his household. Let me give an 
 instance of the craze that followed this hunt¬ 
 ing up of private records. A Cabinet minis¬ 
 ter, whose wife was at the seaside, received a 
 dispatch something like this: “Arrived safely; 
 baby well. You must decide about the cook.” 
 To the committee this was a vastly myste¬ 
 rious dispatch, and the Cabinet minister re¬ 
 
 ceived from the chairman of the investigating 
 committee a curt note, copying the dispatch 
 and calling upon him to furnish the cipher 
 for its interpretation. Think of the gross 
 maladministration [laughter] concealed un¬ 
 der this dispatch, and how the chairman of 
 the committee must have racked his brain to 
 gather its true and hidden meaning. 
 
 Can any craze go further than this ? Wby, 
 sir, the famous absurdity of Sergeant Buzz- 
 Fuzz—“Mutton Chops and Tomato Sauce”— 
 is common sense compared with this commit¬ 
 tee investigating a Department of the Govern¬ 
 ment. , 
 
 But we have gone on far enough to ascer¬ 
 tain that one result followed from all this. 
 It was a thing that my friends on the other 
 side hated to look in the face at first, hated 
 to provide for in appropriation bills. But it 
 soon became evident that the bills for all this 
 had to be paid. The city of Washington was 
 full of men who had been summoned here as 
 witnesses from every corner in the land, some 
 of whom wanted to testify and return to their 
 homes, while others preferred to wait while 
 their fee-bills rolled up. The Sergeant-at- 
 Arms had sent his messengers out in all di¬ 
 rections. The Government Printing Office 
 had from the beginning a surfeit of matter 
 thrust upon it for printing. The committees 
 had to be given clerks, and their salaries had 
 to be raised. This very day, on a report from 
 the Committee on Accounts, the salary of the 
 clerk of one of these committees was raised. 
 
 Now, I wonder if gentlemen know, with all 
 their claim of economy, how they have illus¬ 
 trated it in this House, where they have had 
 full swing. I had the figures made up for me 
 four days ago, and I found that there were 
 then thirty-three clerks of committees of this 
 House under pay, while never in the time of 
 republican administration were there ever 
 more than twenty-nine. And since that list 
 was made up for me two more have been 
 added. 
 
 The democratic party has been, and is now, 
 running the most expensive session of Con¬ 
 gress that the American Republic has ever 
 seen. I have here a list of a few of the items 
 of expense in some of the committees, only 
 including fees, mileage, and per diem pay of 
 witnesses. It is only a small part of the in¬ 
 vestigating bills: 
 
 Ways and Means, $307.60; Pacific Railroad, 
 $132.90 ; Commerce, $259.16; Post Offices and 
 Post Roads, $2,381.21; District of Columbia, 
 $1,472.90; Judiciary, $4,174.28; Indian Affairs, 
 $5,801.50 ; Military Affairs, $290.10 ; Naval Af¬ 
 fairs, $5,602.17 ; Foreign Affairs, $669.87 ; In¬ 
 valid Pensions, $81.70; Public Buildings and 
 Grounds, $286.10; Printing, $928,74. Expendi¬ 
 tures : State Department, $325.47 ; Treasury 
 Department, $2,081.07; War Department, 
 $8,203,74; Navy Department, $535.98; Post Of¬ 
 fice Department, $936.60; Interior Depart¬ 
 ment, $4,509.58; Public Buildings, $45.86 ; De- 
 partment of Justice, $1,788,74; Reform in 
 Civil Service, $2,650.05; Rules, $10.00. Select 
 committees: Texas Frontier, $1,410.72; Freed¬ 
 man’s Bank, $1,027.29; Real Estate Pool, 
 $1,377.39 ; Whisky Frauds, $3,261.15; Federal 
 Offices in Louisiana, $9,000.00; Charges against 
 Judge Wylie, $218.9o; Charges against Clerk 
 Adams, $16.00; Impeachment of Belknap, 
 $316.90. Total, $60,104.66. 
 
 It does not include any of the largest items 
 of these expenditures; it does not include any¬ 
 thing for printing the testimony. It includes 
 nothing for stenographers, clerks, stationery. 
 It undoubtedly does not cover one-tenth part 
 
7 
 
 of the additional expenditures imposed on the 
 country by the action of this House. 
 
 Why, sir, ordinarily we employ but two 
 stenographers to report for our committees. 
 We have paid this session (I counted them up 
 the other day) seventeen. The appropriation 
 bill for the sundry civil expenses of the Gov¬ 
 ernment has several pages decorated with 
 items to pay for services upon these commit¬ 
 tees. I venture to say, and I measui'b my 
 words, that the additional expenses of this 
 House over and above the ordinary expenses 
 of years immediately preceding, when they 
 are all in for the entire session, will aggre¬ 
 gate in the neighborhood of 81,000,000. A 
 very large item of this is of course the print¬ 
 ing, the cost of which cannot now be told. 
 
 Had great results bten reached all this 
 money might be well afforded. But setting 
 aside the result of the War Department in¬ 
 vestigation where Republicans contributed to 
 the end as freely as Democrats, the outcome 
 of the investigation is a mass of partisan re¬ 
 ports to be used for campaign purposes, and 
 while no money of the Government is shown 
 to have been stolen by officials, it is proved 
 that the defalcations and losses are smaller 
 than at any period in our history. 
 
 The democratic party claims, and that is 
 about all that is left to it out of this session, 
 that it has reduced the general expenditures 
 -of the Government. Now that is, if true, a 
 claim that should be admitted, and our friends 
 • on the other side should be given due credit. 
 I wish that I had more time to give than I 
 have now; but I cannot pass it by without 
 noticing it, although my hour is waning. 
 
 Now, what does that claim amount to in 
 truth? Reckoning from the last year’s appro¬ 
 priations, the reductions made in the appro¬ 
 priation bills of this session, when it shall 
 have drawn its long length to an end, will 
 perhaps amount to not far from 825,000,000.' 
 To do this the consular system has been put 
 in peril, the Navy and the Army have been 
 put upon short rations, laborers upon Govern¬ 
 ment works have been cut off, and small 
 salaries have been reduced. In a few days 
 almost a thousand helpless men and women 
 in Washington will be turned upon the streets. 
 
 Now the Committee on Appropriations and 
 my friend the chairman of that committee 
 [Mr. Randall] will claim that I have ad¬ 
 mitted that the democratic party in this 
 House has reduced the people’s burdens by 
 the amount of $25,000,000. Sir, I do no such 
 thing. I start with this as my cardinal propo¬ 
 sition; no man can tell what credit should be 
 given to this House of Representatives until 
 the closing day of its term on the 4th day of 
 March, 1877. It is no new thing that the 
 good which has been done in the first session 
 of a Congress has been been undone in its 
 second session. 
 
 The American people will wait before this 
 House is given credit for a reduction of $25,- 
 000,000 in expenditures until it sees the wan¬ 
 ing, dying days of this Congress; so first, as 
 entering into this discussion of the actual 
 amount of appropriations, are all the subjects 
 of appropriation that have been postponed. 
 There have been some reductions, some ad¬ 
 visable, desirable reductions, which I am 
 glad that I have helped to make. But when 
 it is found how much of this $25,000,000 is 
 simply a postponement of needed and neces¬ 
 
 sary expenditures, then some correct rule can 
 be adopted in awarding credit to this House. 
 
 But there is another matter that will have 
 to be considered; not in this session, but in 
 the next, in order to determine the question 
 of what this House shall have credit for. I 
 refer to the immense mass of southern 
 claims, private and public, that are lodged in 
 the committee rooms of this House, as my 
 friend from Ohio [Mr. Garfield] said the 
 other day, to be launched upon this House 
 after the elections. 
 
 My friend from Mississippi, [Mr. Single- 
 ton,] a member, along with myself, of the 
 Committee on Appropriations, brought out 
 in the early part of the session, in a colloquy 
 upon this floor, what was intended upon that 
 side of the House. It covered the Southern 
 Pacific Railroad and the levees of the Missis¬ 
 sippi ; and he only fought shy, on monition from 
 wiser members of his party, when I taxed him 
 with complicity in the scheme for having the 
 cotton tax refunded out of the Treasury. 
 
 Mr. SINGLETON. Will the gentleman 
 allow me a single word ? 
 
 Mr. HALE. I cannot yield now, because I 
 have so little time. The gentleman will have 
 ample opportunity for reply, 
 
 Mr. SINGLETON. I only want to say- 
 
 Mr. HALE. I cannot yield. I will put into 
 my speech the colloquy with the gentleman 
 from Mississippi as it appears in the Record , 
 so that the gentleman shall not be misquoted: 
 [From the Congressional Record,Feb. 4,1876".] 
 
 Mr. Singleton. * * \ Now, sir, let us 
 be done with this. I came here as your 
 brother; I came here as your friend; I came 
 here with the purpose of promoting the in¬ 
 terests of my own people and yours. I shall 
 strive in all my acts to build up the ruined 
 South. I want you before this Congress ad¬ 
 journs to assist me in two or three schemes 
 directed to that end, which I believe you 
 will do, because your own interests impera¬ 
 tively demand such a course. I want to build 
 up the Mississippi levees and reclaim its al¬ 
 luvial soil, which will prove a more fruitful 
 source of wealth to the United States than 
 the Black Hills of the Territories or the 
 mines of California, because it is from this 
 •inexhaustible soil of the delta of the Missis¬ 
 sippi River that we can raise 7,000,000 bales of 
 cotton a year if properly protected from 
 overfloAv. We expect to ask a small sum for 
 this work that will develop this alluvial 
 basin and enable us to purchase from you 
 the goods we formerly purchased and con¬ 
 tribute largely to the expenses of the Gov¬ 
 ernment. 
 
 Mr. Hale. Will the gentleman state what 
 the other schemes are that people desire ? 
 
 Mr. Singleton. I will. I am not afraid to 
 tell it anywhere. Another one is a Pacific 
 railroad. 
 
 Mr. Hale. The Southern Pacific railroad? 
 
 Mr. Singleton. Yes; and then again I want 
 the jetty system carried out at New Orleans 
 which promises to admit vessels of the larg¬ 
 est tonnage up to the wharves in that city. 
 And if we can get these things accomplished 
 you will find the South blossoming like the 
 rose. You will find sources of wealth to you 
 and the whole country that you never 
 dreamed of. 
 
 Mr. Hale. Is not the refunding of the cot¬ 
 ton tax another object which the gentleman 
 desires? 
 
 Mr. Singleton. Well, I do not propose to 
 discuss that now. When the proposition 
 comes before the House I will give my views 
 upon it. 
 
 Mr. Willis. I would like to suggest to the 
 gentleman from Maine that the democratic 
 party do not propose to help the South by 
 building a Pacific railroad. The republican 
 
8 
 
 party may do so if they feel disposed; but, 
 so far as we are concerned, w e do not intend 
 to indulge in any subsidies, the republican 
 example to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 Mr. Hale. I wanted the gentleman to state 
 as a representative of the southern democ¬ 
 racy w hat the democratic party, of which it 
 constitutes a large portion, expect to carry 
 before Congress adjourns. I thank him for 
 the candor with which he has ansvvered my 
 question and the monition he has given the 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Singleton. I stated that I had three 
 schemes in view. 
 
 Mr. Douglas. X would inquire of the gen¬ 
 tleman from Maine by what authority he 
 says that the gentleman from Mississippi is 
 the representative of the southern democ¬ 
 racy here? 
 
 Mr. Hale. I did it because it was not an 
 assumption on the part of the gentleman 
 from Mississippi, for he is not an assuming 
 man, but he claims to state for the southern 
 people as their representative, speaking dis¬ 
 tinctly for them, complaining of the repub- 
 lican party, that they required certain 
 “schemes,” and I use his words, that the 
 South washed to accomplish before Congress 
 adjourns. I wished to know what they Avere, 
 and I thank the gentleman again for the mo¬ 
 nition he has given to the country, and espe¬ 
 cially does the gentleman from Mississippi 
 represent the southern people, because he 
 has been selected as one of their representa¬ 
 tives on the Money Committee of the House. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I have here a carefully com¬ 
 piled list of southern claims now suspended 
 in the committees of this House. They cover 
 every imaginable variety of subjects from a 
 claim for the price of a single mule up to the 
 destruction of iron manufactories that were 
 engaged in furnishing materials of Avar for 
 the rebel armies. They come from every 
 southern State ^nd almost every coqnty of 
 every southern State. There is no member 
 from the South, so far as I knoAV, Avho has 
 not introduced such claims here; and the im¬ 
 portant point is that all these bills are intro¬ 
 duced because the member introducing them, 
 w r hether he believes them right or Avrong, is 
 pushed and driven bj r his constituents. 
 
 Mr. EDEN. I Avould like to ask the gen¬ 
 tleman a question on this subject. 
 
 Mr. HALE. I must decline to yield. Mr. 
 Speaker, Avhen the day comes that it av ill be 
 safe to A r ote for these bills, the same influence 
 that has driven these members will drrw 
 them to A r ote for their passage. It is an in- 
 evitable laAv Avhich will dominate that side of 
 the House, and after a little Avhile, when the 
 public mind shall have become gradually 
 familiarized with the concession, as in the 
 old times it did with certain exactions of the 
 South, the northern democracy will become 
 acquiescent and, provided the party gains 
 power, Avill consent to the passage of these 
 bills. They aggregate about £160,000,000of 
 those that are already here. Does anybody 
 believe that the South has not an interest in 
 these claims being paid ? Does anybody be¬ 
 lieve that if it has control of the Government 
 through the democratic party it will allow its 
 members to rest day or night on this floor 
 until these bills are passed? 
 
 Mr. LAWRENCE. And many of these are 
 simply test claims, Avhich if alloAved Avill be 
 followed by others to a vast amount. 
 
 Mr. HALE. Of course, as my friend from 
 Ohio suggests, many of these are simply rep¬ 
 resentative claims, and if one passes, it in¬ 
 volves the payment of twenty or fifty times 
 as much more, which will be covered by the 
 
 same principle. These are only the courier, 
 the advance-guard, the feeler, the skirmisher 
 that is sent out to feel the line, and find 
 Avhether it can be broken. Fi\ r e hundred 
 millions of dollars, Mr.' Speaker, will not 
 meet all these claims v, r hen we begin to pay 
 them. 
 
 Mr. LAWRENCE. Five hundred million 
 dollars would not cover the total amount of 
 these claims, without reference to the claims 
 for emancipated slaves. 
 
 Mr. HALE. Mr. Speaker, he AA'ho lives 
 long enough—provided ahvays that the 
 democratic party gets control of all the 
 branches of the Go\ T ernment—will see Avhat 
 I here predict come to pass. If anjflbody 
 doubts, let him wait and see for himself. 
 
 I cannot give a full list of their claims, be¬ 
 cause it Avould occupy Avhole pages of the 
 Record Here are some of them: 
 
 One of them, introduced in the Senate by 
 Mr. Johnston, of Virginia, appropriates 
 $199,228.24 to pay certain “loyal” citizens of 
 Loudoun County, Virginia, two hundred and 
 six in number, “in consideration of their 
 property destroyed by fire by the military 
 authority of the United States in conformity 
 with an order of Major General Sheridan, 
 dated November 27, 1864.” This is the fa¬ 
 mous order in Avhich Sheridan, after direct¬ 
 ing General Merritt to operate with his di- 
 vision of cavalry against the guerrillas in a 
 certain district of country, says: 
 
 “This section has been the hot-bed of law¬ 
 less bands avIio liaArn from time to time dep¬ 
 redated upon small parties on the line of 
 army communication, on safeguards left at 
 houses, and on troops. Their real object is 
 plunder and higliAvay robbery. To clear the 
 country of these parties that are bringing 
 destruction upon the innocent as Avell as 
 their guilty supporters by their cowardly 
 acts, you Avill consume anti destroy all for¬ 
 age and subsistence, burn all barns and mills 
 and their contents, and drivu> off all stock. 
 This order must be literally executed, bear¬ 
 ing in mind, howeA*er. that no dwellings are 
 to be burned and that no personal A'ioience 
 be offered the citizens. The ultimate result 
 of the guerrilla system of warfare is the to¬ 
 tal destruction of all private rights in the 
 country occupied by such parties. This de¬ 
 struction may as well commence at once, 
 and the responsibility of it must rest upon 
 the authorities at Richmond, avIio have ac¬ 
 knowledged the legitimacy of guerrilla 
 bands.” 
 
 By Mr. Faulkner, of West Virginia: A bill 
 to pay Abram II. Herr $21,067.51 for the use 
 of land and buildings on the island of Vir- 
 ginius, in the Shenandoah River at Harper’s 
 Ferry, by the Quartermaster’s Department, 
 from February 26,1862, to February 1, 1866. 
 
 By t he same member: A bill to pay Wildey 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Cliaidestown, West Vir¬ 
 ginia, $3,547.50 for the destruction of build¬ 
 ings, furniture and regalia by fire. 
 
 By the same member: A bill to pay the 
 German EA r angelical church of Martins- 
 burgli, West Virginia, $2,500 for the destruc¬ 
 tion of the building and furniture by fire 
 “through the carelessness of the military 
 forces of the United States.” 
 
 By the same member: A bill to pay Abijalr 
 Daily, of Grant county, West Virginia, $2,- 
 453.87 for losses in property sustained by him 
 during the war. 
 
 BA r Mr. Reagan, of Texas: A bill to pay J. 
 A. Warren, of Tyler county, Texas, $3,150 for 
 eight mules and three horses taken from him 
 by order of General Laila. 
 
 By Mr. Phillips, of Missouri: A bill to pay 
 Thomas Ifiant, of BooneA'ille, Missouri, $902 
 for boots, shoes, leather and tools taken from 
 his shop by United States troops. 
 
 By Mr. Whitthorne, of Tennessee: A bill 
 to pay John E. Tulloss $12,982.04 for the burn¬ 
 ing of his buildings and destruction of prop- 
 
9 
 
 erty near Franklin, Tennessee, [a battle 
 field] by United States troops. 
 
 By Senator Johnston, of Virginia: A bill 
 to pay Peters & Keed $15,170.89, balances due 
 them for labor and material furnished by 
 them as contractors at the Norfolk navy- 
 yard in 1860. (This bill was passed by the 
 House last session, but was not reached in 
 season for consideration by the Senate.) 
 
 By Mr. Htjnton, of Virginia: A bill to pay 
 James Green, of Alexandria, $37,750. (No 
 consideration mentioned.) 
 
 By the same member: A bill directing the 
 auditing and payment of the claim of It. B. 
 Hackey for carrying mails in 1861. Amount 
 not stated.) 
 
 By Mr Whitthorne, of Tennessee:. A bill 
 to pay the officers and men of the First Reg¬ 
 iment and of the Ninth Battalion of Tennes¬ 
 see Cavalry* Confederate States army, for 
 their horses which, by the terms of surren¬ 
 der to General Sherman in North Carolina, 
 they were allowed to retain, but were taken 
 from them on their way home, at Strawberry 
 Plains, Tennessee, by General Stoneman. 
 
 By the same member: A bill to pay $42,271.- 
 34 to certain mail contractors in Tennessee 
 for services up to June 8,1861. [A claim long 
 pending.] The second section of this bill 
 contains the following sweeping provision : 
 “ That all laws conflicting Avith the payment 
 of these claims, and which payment is hereby 
 directed to be made, be, and the same are 
 hereby, repealed.” 
 
 By Sir. House, of Tennessee: A bill to pay 
 James M. Hinton, of Davidson county, Ten¬ 
 nessee, $2,508 for “ board and so forth ” of cer¬ 
 tain colored men avIio Avere taken from his 
 custody when sheriff, and employed on the 
 fortifications of the Federal Army near Nash¬ 
 ville, in 1862. 
 
 By Mr. Atkins, of Tennessee: A bill to pay 
 $13,000 to Bethel College, Tennessee, for occu- 
 
 B ation of and injury done to the college 
 uildings and property by Federal troops. 
 
 It is noticeable that in only tAvo out of the 
 tAventy-lWe cases is it even claimed that the 
 parties interested Avere loyal citizens during 
 the war. 
 
 Next comes an exceedingly important class 
 of bills—those relating to cotton claims, of 
 Avhich five have been introduced. First is 
 the old bill to refund the taxes on raw cot¬ 
 ton, involving an appropriation of $68,072,- 
 388.79. 
 
 Four bills have been introduced—one by 
 Senator Mkrrimon, of North Carolina, tAvo 
 by Mr. Vance, of North Carolina, and one by 
 Mr. Hancock, of Texas—restoring to the pen¬ 
 sion rolls all persons Avliose names Avere 
 stricken therefrom for disloyaltv, under the 
 act of February 4,1862. One of‘Mr. Vance’s 
 bills goes much further, and repeals not only 
 the act of February 4, 1862, but the statute 
 prohibiting the payment of claims of dis¬ 
 loyal persons [section 3480, Revised Statutes] 
 “ancZ all other laws of similar character and 
 purport." In the same bills occurs the re¬ 
 markable phrase, “ the Avar betAveen the 
 States, generally called the rebellion.” If 
 it was simply a war “betAveen the States,” 
 by Avhat rule of law or logic can the United 
 States be held liable to pay such claims 
 as Vance’s bill proposes to admit; to re¬ 
 peal the statute prohibiting certain pay¬ 
 ments to disloyal persons; to restore to the 
 1812 pension roll the names of persons stricken 
 ofi' for disloyalty; and for the relief of owners 
 and puchasers of lands sold for direct taxes 
 in insurrectionary States? The most im¬ 
 portant among the more recent measures 
 proposed is a bill introduced by John Ran¬ 
 dolph Tucker to repeal the section of the 
 Revised Statutes Avhich prohibits the ap¬ 
 pointment to any position in the Army 
 of persons who have served in any capac¬ 
 ity m the military, naval, or civil service of 
 the confederate government or of any of the 
 States in insurrection. 
 
 I select these as my eye runs hurridly doAvn 
 the long list. It is a fearful account that 
 
 these gentlemen mean that Ave shall settle 
 some day. 
 
 In looking o\ r er the record of this session, 
 I discover many things in Avhich the party in 
 poAver here has departed from its old tradi¬ 
 tions and principles. It stood for years as 
 the advocate of the rights of the citizen, as 
 the defender of the poAvers of the courts, the 
 sanctity of the writ of habeas corp>us. But 
 this winter, Avith poAver unbridled and uncon¬ 
 trolled, the writ of habeas corpus has been 
 cast into contempt and the adjudication of a 
 high court has been disputed and sought to 
 be nullified. 
 
 Mr. Hallet Kilbourn, of Avhom I knoAv noth¬ 
 ing except that he is an American citizen, 
 came into conflict Avith one of the investiga¬ 
 ting committees upon some question as to 
 disclosing names and producing private books 
 and papers. He Avas committed for contempt 
 by the order of this House, and resorted, as 
 any citizen may do, to the intervention of the 
 courts. The House disputed ev T ery step and 
 employed counsel to represent it. Both upon 
 the return and upon the final question of dis¬ 
 charge under the writ of habeas corpus which 
 had been iirvoked the petitioner was sustained 
 and released. It had been a fair trial and the 
 House had been beaten. But Mr. Kilbourn, 
 having established the strength of the pro¬ 
 cess and having no desire to withhold proper 
 testimony, then communicated to the House 
 his Avillingness to testify, and the gentleman 
 from Mississippi [Mr. Wells] sought to 
 bring him before the proper committee with 
 the result shOAvn by this extract from the 
 report of proceedings in the House of Repre¬ 
 sentatives, May 2,1876. 
 
 HALLET KILBOURN. 
 
 Mr. Wells, of Mississippi. I ask unanimous 
 consent to offer the folloAving resolution: 
 
 “ Resolved , That the Committee on the Real- 
 Estate Pool be directed to accept the offer 
 of Hallet Kilbourn to appear before that 
 committee to answer any inquiries relating 
 to such real-estate pool and to furnish such 
 information to said committee as the books 
 in his possession may contain, and the said 
 committee are directed to examine said Hal¬ 
 let Kilbourn and his books.” 
 
 Mr. Randall. I move that that resolution 
 be laid on the table; that is the right way to 
 treat it. 
 
 Mr. Wells, of Mississippi. I call for the 
 yeas and nays on that motion. 
 
 Mr. Holman. I rise to a question of order. I 
 did not yield the floor for the purpose of the 
 introduction of anything for action. The 
 gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. Wells] did 
 not certainly understand that I yielded the 
 floor when about to make a motion to go into 
 Committee of the Whole on the state of the 
 Union on the appropriation bill, to allow him * 
 to have the yeas and nays on a proposition 
 like this. 
 
 Mr. "Wells, of Mississippi. The point of or¬ 
 der comes certainly too late. 
 
 The Speaker pro tempore. The gentleman 
 from Indiana did not make his objection in 
 time. 
 
 Mr. Holman. The gentleman from Mississ¬ 
 ippi certainly understood that I yielded the 
 floor simply for the introduction of measures 
 for reference, and not for action. 
 
 Mr. Wells, of Mississippi. I understood 
 that I had the floor to offer the resolution. I 
 did offer it, and a motion has been made to 
 lay it on the table, and on that question the 
 yeas and nays are demanded. 
 
 The yeas and nays Avere ordered. 
 
 Mr. Randall. The right Avay to treat it is 
 to treat it with contempt. 
 
 [Cries of “Regular order!”] 
 
10 
 
 The Speaker pro tempore. The regular or¬ 
 der is the call of the roll. 
 
 Mr. Landers, of Indiana. 1 want to make 
 an inquiry of the Chair. Can this resolution 
 come before this body without unanimous 
 consent ? 
 
 The Speaker pro tempore. The Chair un¬ 
 derstood that unanimous consent was given, 
 because no one objected when he put the 
 question, and the Chair put the question dis¬ 
 tinctly to the House, 
 
 Mr. Blount. The gentleman from Indiana 
 [Mr. Holman] objected. I heard him. 
 
 Mr. Holman. 1 tried to object. 
 
 The Speaker pro tempore. The Chair did 
 not hear the gentleman, although he was 
 waiting for objections. 
 
 [Cries of “ Regular order!”] 
 
 The question was taken on Mr. Randall’s 
 motion; and there were—yeas 138, nays 84, not 
 voting 68; as follows: 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I might cite instance after in¬ 
 stance where the dominant party here has 
 sought to override rights heretofore respected 
 and unquestioned. It has conducted its in¬ 
 vestigations in secret, and has ordered the 
 h ead of a Department to communicate all 
 facts known to him, without regard to the im¬ 
 portance of secrecy in detective operations 
 against knaves and thieves. It has demanded 
 the custody of departmental papers, some¬ 
 times if given up to be put in charge of dis¬ 
 charged incompetent employees who had been 
 adopted by the committees as clerks or mes¬ 
 senger. In its demands upon Cabinet min¬ 
 isters and their subordinates it has been ex¬ 
 acting, imperious, and not infrequently rude 
 and insolent. I commend to its consideration 
 the letter of President Jackson to Henry S. 
 Foote, formerly chairman of the committee 
 to investigate general charges of abuse against 
 the executive department as applicable to the 
 present methods of democratic inquiries. The 
 following sentences will indicate its character: 
 
 The heads of Deparments may answer such 
 requests as they please, provided they do 
 not withhold their own time and that of the 
 officers under their direction from public 
 business to the injury thereof to that busi¬ 
 ness. I shall direct them to devote them¬ 
 selves to their duties in preference to any 
 illegal and unconstitutional call for infor¬ 
 mation, no matter from what source it may 
 come, and however anxious they may be to 
 meet it. For myself, I shall repel all such 
 attempts as an invasion of the principles of 
 justice as well as of the Constitution, and I 
 shall esteem it my sacred duty to the people 
 of the United States to resist them as I would 
 the establishment of a Spanish inquisition. 
 If, after all the severe accusations contained 
 in various speeches of yourself and your as¬ 
 sociates, you are unwilling of your own ac¬ 
 cord to bring specfic charges, then I request 
 your committee to call yourself and your as¬ 
 sociates and every other member of Congress 
 who made general charge of corruption to 
 testify before God and the country whether 
 you or they knew of any specfic corruption 
 or abuse of trust in the Executive Depart¬ 
 ments, and, if so, what it was. If you are 
 
 able to point to any case where there is the 
 slightest reason to suspect corruption and 
 abuse of trust, no obstacle which I can re¬ 
 move shall be interposed to prevent the full¬ 
 est scrutiny by all legal means. The offices 
 of all the Departments will be opened to 
 you, and every facility furnished for this 
 purpose. I shall, on the one hand, cause 
 every possible facility consistent with law 
 and justice to be given to the investigation 
 of speclic, tangible charges; and, on the 
 other, shall repudiate all attempts to invade 
 the just rights of the Executive Depart¬ 
 ments and of the individuals composing the 
 same. If, after all your clamor, you will 
 make no specific charges, or bring no proof 
 of such as are made, you and your associates 
 must be regarded by the good people of the 
 United States as the authors of unfounded 
 calumnies, and the public servants you have 
 assailed will, in the estimation of all honor¬ 
 able men, stand fully acquitted. 
 
 If I had more time, Mr. Speaker, I should 
 be glad to go into the account of the repeated 
 assaults made upon the national credit in the 
 seven different attempts, under the lead of 
 prominent democrats upon this floor, to re¬ 
 peal or nullify the policy of an early resump¬ 
 tion of specie payments, to which this Ad¬ 
 ministration is committed. They culminated 
 on Saturday last in a bill which repeals the 
 date fixed for resumption by the act of Janu- 
 ary, 1875; and so much time had already 
 been consumed in doing nothing for eight 
 long months that to this important measure 
 but two hours of debate was allowed, and it 
 was then pushed through under the lash of 
 the previous question. 
 
 In the meantime all the material interests 
 of the country are left neglected. A tariff bill 
 reducing taxation has been reported, but the 
 chairman of the Committee of Ways and 
 Means lets it sleep in the Committee of the 
 Whole. Mr. Bristow’s recommendation for 
 refunding the national debt, by which at 
 least $17,000,000 yearly in interest paid can 
 be saved, is passed by unheeded. An Indian 
 war of such magnitude as has not been seen 
 for a generation breaks out at the time when 
 the House of Representatives is reducing the 
 Army and crippling the whole Indian service, 
 The amendment to the Constitution offered 
 by my former colleague, [Mr. Blaine,] rela¬ 
 ting to sectarian schools, remained until in 
 the last week it was brought up and passed 
 without debate, no interchange of views being 
 allowed, because it had been determined that 
 no expression of hostility should be permit¬ 
 ted from the democratic side of the House. 
 
 The last days of this session, Mr. Speaker, 
 are upon us. Your party has .had its day in 
 court. For nearly nine months the American 
 people have looked upon this body as it has 
 drifted and hopelessly struggled on with ele¬ 
 ments in it which, while useless for any pres¬ 
 ent good, have sounded a constant alarm of 
 future dangers. 
 
Conditio^ of the Country and Claims of Parties to Public Coijfideijce. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. STEPHEN A. HUBLBXJT, 
 
 OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1876. 
 
 The House being as in Committee of the 
 Whole on the state of the Union for debate 
 only— 
 
 Mr. IIURLBUT said: 
 
 Mr. Speaker: We are now approaching 
 the end of this most “weary, stale, flat, and 
 unprofitable” session, and it may not be amiss 
 to look back before we separate and review 
 the course we have been pursuing. 
 
 I fear, sir, we shall find few fruits to 
 gather, slight harvest in sound grain for the 
 labor and time expended. But those we rep¬ 
 resent may take warning at least by the 
 shortcomings of this Congress, and see to it 
 that the public interests are not again com¬ 
 mitted into the hands of a party which has 
 been so lavish of promises in advance and so 
 barren of performance in the time of trial. 
 
 The facetious gentleman from New York 
 [Mr. Cox] laid aside some weeks ago his 
 quips and jests and condescended to the 
 sphere of simple fact when, with a sweeping 
 gesture including all of his own side of the 
 House, he solemnly declared that “this is the 
 day of small things.” The ludicrous truth¬ 
 fulness of the statement rendered his remark 
 an example of the highest kind of unconscious 
 humor, fit to be reproduced in the next issue 
 of “Why We Laugh.” The evidences were 
 all around him, and especially in the “mas¬ 
 terly inactivity” of his own committee. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, nearly two years since 
 a great popular election was held. Many 
 causes combined to bring about changes in 
 the public mind. Depression in business 
 affairs, stagnation of currency, failures of 
 mercantile enterprise, manufacturing over¬ 
 done, building of great railways stopped; all 
 these were charged as due to the policy and 
 practice of the party in power. All elements 
 of discontent and division naturally gravi¬ 
 tated to the Democratic party, the chronic 
 grumblers of twenty years. Then there is 
 always a considerable element which wearies 
 of anything continuous and uniform, and 
 seeks change and variety by natural appetite, 
 and this element is always large in this coun¬ 
 try, and it is to it that is due the apparent im¬ 
 possibility of any settled, continuous, and uni¬ 
 form policy. 
 
 These hosts were like those that gathered 
 to David in the cave of Adullam. 
 
 The press of the country in many instances 
 devoted itself to the consideration of ephem¬ 
 eral questions, and forgot the grave differ¬ 
 ences that rest, and must always rest, on 
 eternal principles of right and wrong. 
 
 The Republican party was arraigned every¬ 
 where before the great tribunal of the people; 
 
 and in the exercise of that broad license, which 
 the freedom of elections gives and requires, 
 it was charged with all the sins and short¬ 
 comings of individual members; it was alleged 
 to have outlived its usefulness, to have had its 
 day, to have performed its purpose, and that 
 its paramount necessity now was to die out ot 
 the way of the newly reorganized Democracy, 
 whose mission it was to cure all evils; to re¬ 
 store all waste places; to make all citizens 
 free, equal, and contented; to sweep out all 
 vice, public ahd private, and to restore the 
 dominion of the Constitution and the laws. 
 
 What promises, Mr. Speaker, from the 
 party press, the party conventions, and at 
 the hustings ! Promises are the cheapest of 
 all cheap currency; they cost nothing to 
 make, nothing to scatter lavishly and broad¬ 
 cast and as some one says, “Promises are 
 the money of fools.” “Let the Democrats 
 into power,” said they, “and the good 
 times will come; official corruption shall be 
 stopped; business shall be revived; fields 
 shall groan with golden harvests, foreign 
 commerce be restored; internal transporta¬ 
 tion shall be simplified and cheapened; money 
 shall be solid, abundant, and cheap; values 
 shall be restored; taxes shall be reduced, re¬ 
 trenchment inaugurated, and the Gov¬ 
 ernment conducted on the soundest and 
 most economical plans. The South shall 
 groan no more; the great problem of labor 
 and capital, the great struggle of life and liber¬ 
 ty,still going on in that section, shall be harmo¬ 
 niously settled, and all feuds and quarrels of 
 race, citizenship, or ownership of property 
 shall disappear under the overshadowing and 
 benignant wings of the new Democracy.” 
 A real civil-service reform should be effect¬ 
 ed; Caesarism, personal government, offices 
 as rewards for personal service, all these and 
 all other evil things should perish before the 
 dawn of the new day. 
 
 These were among the inducements held 
 out to the people to glorify the beginning of the 
 second century by the ingress of a Demo¬ 
 cratic majority into the House of Represen¬ 
 tatives, and these, with not a little of that 
 judicious violence which the Anglo-Saxon 
 deems himself privileged to use toward a 
 weaker people and which was used so far as 
 deemed necessary in more than one State <Jf 
 the South—these causes and these means 
 brought the present majority into this House. 
 
 Fir§t and foremost among the partisan 
 cries was that of universal corruption among 
 Republican office-holders. A charge easy to 
 make; for general condemnations are the 
 
12 
 
 currency; reduced to gold the amount Is a 
 little over $522,000,000 for domestic products, 
 and the whole exports in gold value is $537,- 
 000,000, showing an increase in the total ex¬ 
 ports, gold value, of about $24,000,000 over 
 those of the previous fiscal year, and about 
 $77,000,000 over the imports ‘of the present 
 year. 
 
 The imports of specie in the last fiscal year 
 amounted to $15,530,648, and the exports to 
 $69,139,066, showing an excess of exports of 
 $53,608,418. By adding this amount to the ex¬ 
 cess of merchandise exported, namely, $77.- 
 000,000, the total excess of exports of mer¬ 
 chandise and specie over imports during the 
 year is about $130,000,000. 
 
 These figures are approximately accurate 
 and will probably be found to vary not more 
 than $2,000,000 from the correct ones when 
 the accounts for June shall have been re¬ 
 ceived and compiled. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 EDWARD YOUNG, 
 Chief of Bureau. 
 
 Hon. J. A. Kasson, M. C., Washington. 
 
 Thus the work of preparation goes on. 
 One of the bankers before our committee, in 
 answer to the suggestion of my honorable 
 friend from New York, testified that the 
 banks had made already large preparations, 
 particularly his own, and said other banks in 
 New York had done the same. Your bank- 
 vaults are crowded with a surplus of paper 
 money, and you have not allowed this Gov¬ 
 ernment to provide for its redemption by 
 funding and cancellation, evefi on the sole 
 condition that the people themselves wish to 
 surrender and cancel their paper money. 
 You have refused the right to the people, 
 which the original act gave them, of funding 
 the greenbacks, a right which gave them so 
 much value under the funding act. And you 
 still refuse to return that right to them. Not 
 this side of the House, but the other has re¬ 
 fused to do that. 
 
 Mr. WILLIS rose. 
 
 Mr. KASSON. Excuse me now. And we 
 have proposed to reduce the expenses of the 
 public debt further. In the Ways and Means 
 Committee has been pending for months a 
 bill passed by the Senate enabling the Secre¬ 
 tary of the Treasury to reduce our rate of in¬ 
 terest from 6 to 4per cent., and that bill is 
 not reported. Another proposition has been 
 to reduce it to 4 per cent.— 
 
 Mr. MORRISON. Will the gentleman al¬ 
 low me a moment ? 
 
 Mr. KASSON, (continuing,) — by the ex¬ 
 tension of the time of maturity as an equiva¬ 
 lent for the diminution of interest, and that 
 is not reported to the.House. 
 
 - Mr. MORRISON. Does not the gentleman 
 from Iowa know that the Treasury has at its 
 disposal now three hundred millions of 4% 
 per cent, fifteen-year bonds; and seven hun¬ 
 dred millions 4 per cent, thirty-year bonds 
 undisposed of? 
 
 Mr. KASSON. Precisely; and the Secre¬ 
 tary’s letter told the committee they could 
 not be negotiated, as they needed some ten 
 years added to the time when they 
 matured as an equivalent for the reduction of 
 the interest, and no report has been made to 
 the House on the subject. Ah, does it lie in 
 the mouths of the opponents of specie re¬ 
 sumption to say the fault rests with the re¬ 
 publicans, and we cannot resume in 1879 with 
 the measures they can yet submit for our 
 action prior to that time? • 
 
 Sir, I care nothing for that identical day. 
 
 The 2d of Janauary is as good as the 1st to 
 me; and the 25th of December prior to the 
 1st as good as the 1st of January. There is 
 no cabalistic effect in the 1st day of January. 
 But the significance, the dangerous signifi¬ 
 cance—and no man knows it better than Gov¬ 
 ernor Tilden—of this proposition is that it 
 leaves no port to sail to and no time at which 
 your arrival shall be expected. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. And no promise. 
 
 Mr. KASSON. As that distinguished poli¬ 
 tician stated in his letter laid upon our desk 
 this morning, “with a good pilot at the helm— 
 
 S. J. T., to wit—if you start on a voyage for 
 Liverpool you are sure to arrive there.” But 
 he is taking Liverpool out of the resumption 
 act, and proposes to make a voyage only “for 
 Cowes and a market.” [Laughter.] 
 
 Mr. Speaker, his letter and the claims se 
 up by his friends of being honestly devoted to 
 the resumption of specie payments have yet 
 to be canvassed by the people of the United 
 States. The platform is an evasion. A large 
 party in this country demands the entire re¬ 
 peal of the resumption act and want no re¬ 
 sumption at all. They are honest. They be¬ 
 lieve in poor monejq and they take the proper 
 steps to arrive at it. But when a gentleman 
 believes in good money, which can be made 
 good in only one way, then he is not justified 
 in striking a blow at one of the most essen¬ 
 tial features of the resumption act without 
 substituting an equivalent measure. 
 
 I have not time of course to cover the 
 whole ground of this debate. The bill which 
 the committee have attacked in part contains 
 several provisions for the resumption of 
 specie payments besides that of which they , 
 propose the repeal. And the other words of 
 that act will remain, of course, standing un¬ 
 supported by this other clause and emascu¬ 
 lated of all vigor by this repeal, leaving us 
 all afloat as far as the public confidence in 
 future resumption is concerned. The gentle¬ 
 man from New York, who I think has an 
 honorable purpose in respect to the resump¬ 
 tion of specie payments—I refer to Mr. 
 Hewitt —announces the fact that in the 
 passage of that act the honor of the 
 country was committed to its execution, but 
 condemns what he calls the haste with which 
 it was adopted. Is it possible that that gen¬ 
 tleman, admitting that the honor of the coun¬ 
 try has been constitutionally pledged, is him¬ 
 self willing to aid in striking this blow at 
 that honor in the presence of the w r orld ? Can 
 any man who believes that the country is 
 bound to exhaust all honorable efforts to ar¬ 
 rive at that result, can such a gentleman vote 
 to abolish this clause in the act until all pos¬ 
 sible measures to give it effect have been tried 
 and found wanting? 
 
 Mr. HEWITT, of New York. I beg tore- 
 mind the gentleman that that was the exact 
 statement I made. 
 
 Mr. KASSON. Am I to understand that 
 the gentleman is opposed to this repeal? 
 
 Mr. HEWITT, of New York. Certainly. 
 
 I announced my position to-day, and 
 moved a substitute. 
 
 Mr. KASSON. Then I beg to apply my re¬ 
 marks to the other gentlemen who accept his 
 premises but do not honorably accept his con¬ 
 clusions. 
 
 We stand, then, in the presence of a de¬ 
 sirable object, for which a certain provision 
 
13 
 
 has been made by existing laws. And in that 
 condition of things, without avowing their 
 hostility to the object of the law, gentlemen 
 are here proposing to take away that part of 
 the law which is vital to the rest and without 
 which the remainder cannot be executed, and 
 are doing it, to quote the platform on which 
 they stand, because it is a “hindrance to re¬ 
 sumption.” Now, sir, look for a moment at 
 the political deceit of that proposition. They 
 say that a law which declares that resump¬ 
 tion shall take effect by a certain time and 
 does not 6ay that it shall not come prior to 
 that time is a hindrance to the result to be 
 arrived at. Is that consistent with your two 
 arguments that no preparation has been made 
 and that it is not possible to resume by the 
 time named ? If there is any significance in 
 terms, this must be a hindrance, because 
 without it you would su rive at resumption 
 quicker. Will you make this argument in 
 Indiana ? Will you say that you are going to 
 resume specie payments before the 1st of Jan¬ 
 uary, 1879 ? How will you use it on the stump 
 in Indiana and in New York? Will you not, 
 on the contrary, 6ay in the West simply that 
 Tilden is for the repeal of the resumption act 
 and Hendricks is for the repeal of the re¬ 
 sumption act ? Will you not say in New York 
 and the East that it means to arrive at re¬ 
 sumption sooner than 1879 ? And will you not 
 tell the greenbackers of Indiana that they 
 must come and help elect these candidates in 
 order to defeat the resumption of specie pay¬ 
 ments ? Sir, that clause of the platform struck 
 me with more than opposition; it struck me 
 with a feeling, I hope I may be permitted to 
 say, of disgust. That the law should be said 
 to be positively a hindrance to resumption 
 when they do not suggest anything except its 
 repeal to help resumption, that seems to me 
 a positive and direct evasion of the responsi¬ 
 bility under which that party stands to the 
 country. It is’a two-faced declaration, worthy 
 of the politician trained in the school of Mar¬ 
 tin Yah Buren. 
 
 Mr. Tilden says in his “message,” as some 
 gentleman has called it, based as I suppose 
 upon its length, that— 
 
 To amass the requisite quantities— 
 
 Alluding to an accumulation of coin for the 
 purpose of resumption— 
 
 To amass the requisite quantities, by inter¬ 
 cepting from the current flowing out of the 
 
 country, and by acquiring from the stocks 
 which exist abroad, without disturbing the 
 equilibrium of foreign money markets, is a 
 result to be easily worked out by practical 
 knowledge and judgment. 
 
 Now, if this is a result to be easily worked 
 out in this way, why have not his friends 
 proposed a better plan than the republican 
 administration has proposed. 
 
 Mr. WILLIS. We will when the responsi¬ 
 bility devolves upon us. 
 
 Mr. KASSON. Why have you not, when 
 the responsibility is upon you in this House 
 of Representatives, proposed a proper meas¬ 
 ure ? Why has not a single measure for that 
 purpose come from a committee of this House 
 while under the control of the democratic 
 party ? 'Why have they not moved an amend¬ 
 ment to this act in the Committee on Bank¬ 
 ing and Currency, providing for the accumu¬ 
 lation of the requisite amounts ? 
 
 Mr. WILLIS. Because there is a better 
 means than that which is provided by the 
 original act. 
 
 Mr. KASSON. And why does not the 
 honorable gentleman for whom they propose 
 to vote suggest those easy and practical ways 
 for arriving at that result? W'hy is it that the 
 man who sees no obstacle, who wants no ob¬ 
 stacle, and whose friends in this House have 
 not the necessary knowledge—why is it that 
 he does not supply the knowledge that will 
 enable them before this session closes to in¬ 
 troduce their measure? Certainly this side 
 of the House will vote for it with great 
 promptitude if it tends to the result we so 
 much desire—to relieve the country of its 
 uncertainty. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I think the more you exam¬ 
 ine the position of this question the more you 
 will see that this is not a measure honestly 
 designed for the benefit of the people, but is 
 merely a party bridge across a political 
 chasm. Let this issue be distinctly and con¬ 
 stantly drawn, that the party to whose prin¬ 
 ciples I am permanently attached persists in 
 demanding good constitutional money for the 
 the laborers, the farmers, the producers of 
 the United States, for all the people of the 
 country, while the so-called party jumps at 
 every form of poor money; first at paper, be¬ 
 cause it is poorer than gold; and then at silver, 
 because it is more fluctuating, more depre¬ 
 ciated than paper. 
 
RESUMPTION OE SPECIE PAYMENTS. 
 
 SPEECH of HON. JOHN A. KASSON 
 
 OF IOWA, 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OE REPRESENTATIVES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1S7G. 
 
 The House having under consideration a 
 substitute for the bill (H. R. No. 3074) to re- 
 Deal in part the resumption act of 1875— 
 
 Mr. KASSON said: 
 
 Mr. Speaxer : If there is any one greater 
 cause of discouragement than any other to a 
 gentleman in public life, it is the frequent in¬ 
 stances which present themselves of legisla¬ 
 tive impatience and haste where there is 
 great need of legislative deliberation. No 
 gentleman upon either side of the House, 
 I apprehend, has been here many years with¬ 
 out feeling again and again how slight are 
 the rewards offered in our parliamentary sys¬ 
 tem to those gentlemen who desire to devote 
 themselves directly to the solid interests of 
 the people whom they represent. We go on 
 from day to day, from -week to week with 
 our legislation without any patient and thor¬ 
 ough investigation into the real, substantial 
 interests of the country. But when a so- 
 called political question is presented on this 
 floor parties rally, numbers are aggregated, 
 pressure is brought to bear, debate is cut off, 
 and the party lash applied irrespective of 
 what the great radical interests of the people 
 require. 
 
 Sir, the question before the House is one 
 of a class that demands the most serious 
 thought and deliberation and inquiry into the 
 great business interests of the country before 
 we can with any just right say that the re¬ 
 peal of the day of resumption is demanded. 
 
 Sir, not one word of proof is presented to 
 you by the Banking and Currency Commit¬ 
 tee; not one particle of evidence is supplied 
 by the gentlemen who have taken the floor 
 which can be relied upon by a deliberative 
 body, to show that you cannot give this 
 great boon of sound money to the people by 
 the 1st day of January, 1879. 
 
 Finding myself met here by political plat¬ 
 forms, political candidates, political consid¬ 
 erations, I feel how vain it is to address my¬ 
 self with probable good results to that judg¬ 
 ment of the representatives of the people 
 which seeks alone the public good. 
 
 Gentlemen say no preparation has been 
 made for the resumption of specie payments. 
 Sir, since the financial panic of 1873^ enor¬ 
 mous preparation has been made. Not by 
 legislative efforts so much as by the volun¬ 
 tary efforts of the people themselves. Econ¬ 
 omies have come into public, social, and bus¬ 
 iness life throughout the country. Expen¬ 
 ses are reduced everywhere. Hundreds of 
 millions of debts have been discharged di¬ 
 rectly by payments, and other hundreds of 
 millions have been discharged by the proces¬ 
 ses of the bankrupt courts. 
 
 More than that, sir; in the last fiscal year, 
 commencing on the 30th of June, the balance 
 
 of trade—without estimating the balance of 
 specie shipments—the balance of trade shows 
 $77,000,000 of gold value in favor of the Uni¬ 
 ted States. And the good work is going on 
 still, reducing imports of luxuries and in¬ 
 creasing exports. 
 
 And in presence of the fact that this law 
 of 1875 was passed nearly two years after 
 the disaster came u^>on the country that 
 brought the hard times, (the failure of the 
 Northern Pacific Railroad,) to this law, 
 passed in 1875, the politicians and the dem¬ 
 agogues from one end of the country to the 
 other are attributing the hard times of 1873 
 as the effect of proposed resumption! The 
 hard times came immediately from extrava¬ 
 gant railroad enterprises, and ultimately 
 from the extravagance induced by irredeem¬ 
 able and cheap paper money. Mr. Speaker ,• 
 the question has been abused by the politi¬ 
 cians. It is presented here to-day by the 
 politicians. As one gentleman has said, in 
 the ninth month of. the session a political 
 platform brings it here—no, not even a po¬ 
 litical platform, but a political candidate for 
 the Presidency pronounces in his letter, just 
 published, for its repeal, and the bugle-call 
 of party summons you to follow it and re¬ 
 peal a statute whose whole action has been 
 beneficial to permanent American interests. 
 
 It is bringing us to the economies demand¬ 
 ed and has brought us largely to them. It 
 has brought national, State, and municipal 
 governments to economical practices. It is 
 bringing the balance ot trade largely in our 
 favor, amounting, including the specie ship¬ 
 ments, to a balance of $130,000,000 in the 
 last year, as shown by the official letter 
 which I send to the reporters to be published 
 as part of my remarks, verifying what I have 
 said. 
 
 The letter is as follows : 
 
 Treasury Department, 
 
 Bureau op Statistics. 
 
 July 8, 1876. 
 
 Dear Sib: I transmit herewith, at your re¬ 
 quest, a statement showing the imports into 
 and exports from the United. States during 
 the eleven months of the fiscal year ended 
 May 31, with an estimate (from some of the 
 ports) for June, and giving the following re- 
 suits* 
 
 Imports for the fiscal year ended June 30, 
 1876, $460,087,277; for the same period in 1875, 
 $533,005,436, showing a falling off of $72,918,159* 
 
 Exports of Domestic products, 
 
 (mixed values). $591,677,554 
 
 Exports of foreign products.... 14,393,342 
 
 $606,070,896 
 
 For the fiscal year 1875 $559,237,638 domestic 
 and $14,158,611 foreign, showing an increase in 
 the total exports of $32,674,647. 
 
 It wall be observed that the domestic ex¬ 
 ports above given are expressed in mixed 
 
15 
 
 refuge of ignorant malice. Is it true? No 
 man denies that always, at all times and in 
 all parties, some bad men obtain places of 
 honor and emolument, and disgrace by their 
 misconduct and their venality themselves and 
 their friends. It was so in the times of Wash¬ 
 ington and Jefferson, and every other Presi¬ 
 dent the nation ever had. High names might 
 be recalled from the distance that gives ob¬ 
 livion that were polluted by jobbery and 
 bribery. 
 
 But fortunately we have official documents 
 that show' in rare contrasts the fidelity and 
 honesty of official men since 1834. On the 
 19tli day of June, 1876, the Secretary of the 
 Treasury reported to the Senate of the United 
 States a full and detailed statement of re¬ 
 ceipts and disbursements from January 1, 
 1834, to June 30, 1875; and also the amount 
 of defalcations in gross and the ratio of 
 losses per $1,000 to the aggregate received 
 and disbursed, in answer to a resolution of 
 the Senate of February 9,1876. 
 
 I have caused this official statement to be 
 tabulated so as to show the exact state by 
 presidential periods, and I commend it to my 
 Democratic friends as excellent reading for 
 the vacation, and insert it here in my re¬ 
 marks. 
 
 Statement showing the receipts and disburse¬ 
 ments of the Government from January 1, 
 1834, to June 30, 1875; exhibiting also the 
 amount of defalcations and the ratio of losses 
 per $1,000 to the aggregate received and dis¬ 
 bursed, arranged in periods as nearly as 
 practicable of four years each. The disburse¬ 
 ments for the Post Office Department are 
 given separately. 
 
 Period. 
 
 Amount. 
 
 Loss on 
 $1,000. 
 
 Jan. 1, 1834, to Dec. 31, 
 1837.—Andrew' Jackson, 
 (Dem.,) Px-esidont: 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 *135,995,960 92 
 
 $10 17 
 
 Gross disbursements,ex¬ 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 
 110,308,325 19 
 
 10 55 
 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 11,697,884 18 
 
 1 17 
 
 Jan. 1, 1838, to Dec. 31, 
 1841.—Martin Yan Bu- 
 ren,(Dem.,) President: 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 129,948,548 91 
 
 3 01 
 
 Gross disbursements,ex¬ 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 
 137,094,438 34 
 
 21 15 
 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 18,284,961 77 
 
 2 83 
 
 Jan. 1, 1842, to June 30, 
 1845.—J. Tyler, (Whig,) 
 President: 
 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 116,736,004 87 
 
 3 68 
 
 Gross disbursements, ex¬ 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 
 109,187,401 24 
 
 10 37 
 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 18,666,750 20 
 
 14 
 
 July 1,1845. to June 30, 
 1849.—Janies K. Polk, 
 (Dem.,) President: 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 201,857,508 45 
 
 08 
 
 Gross disbursements,ex¬ 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 
 205,194,700 57 
 16,S61,478 41 
 
 8 34 
 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 15 
 
 July 1,1849, to June 30, 
 1853.—Taylor and Fill¬ 
 more, (Whigs,) Pres’s: 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 211,908,612 91 
 
 1 30 
 
 Gross disbursements,ex¬ 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 
 194,370,493 14 
 
 7 64 
 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 26,582,570 74 
 
 1 99 
 
 Statement showing the receipts and disburse¬ 
 ments of the Government , etc. —Continued. 
 
 Periods. 
 
 Amount. 
 
 Loss on 
 
 $1,000 
 
 July 1, 1853, to June 30, 
 1857.— Franklin Pierce, 
 (Dem ,) President: 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 282.179,829 56 
 
 75 
 
 Gross disbursements,ex¬ 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 
 285,638.875 65 
 
 5 86 
 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 40,439,110 70 
 
 6 92 
 
 July 1,1857, to June 30, 
 1861. — Jas. Buchanan, 
 (Dem.,) President: 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 312,359,679 56 
 
 62 
 
 Gross disbursements,ex¬ 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 
 328,183,268 39 
 
 6 98 
 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 56,957,922 74 
 
 3 02 
 
 July 1, 1861, to June 30, 
 1865. —Ab’ham Lincoln, 
 (Hep.,) President: 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 4,670,460,137 61 
 
 10 
 
 Gross disbursements.ex- 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 
 4,667,457,921 22 
 48,779,085 45 
 
 1 41 
 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 1 91 
 
 July 1,1865, to June 30, 
 1869. —and’w Johnson, 
 (War Dem.,) Presi’ent: 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 4,042,316,438 46 
 
 63 
 
 Gross disbursements,ex¬ 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 
 3,891,576,259 10 
 
 48 
 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 81,016,286 91 
 
 2 06 
 
 July 1, 1869, to June 30, 
 18/3.— U. S. Grant, (Re¬ 
 publican,) President: 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 • 
 
 2,576.645,585 22 
 
 .. 
 
 Gross disbursements,ex¬ 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 2,601,158,569 90 
 104,132,079 69 
 
 40 
 1 13 
 
 July 1,1873, to June 30, 
 1875. —U. S. Grant, (Re¬ 
 publican,) President: 
 Gross receipts. 
 
 1,420,222,898 62 
 
 22 
 
 Gross disbursements,ex¬ 
 clusive of Post Office.. 
 
 1,40(5,699,819 31 
 
 26 
 
 P. Office disbursements.. 
 
 65,737,724 03 
 
 53 
 
 GROSS TOTAL RECEIPTS. 
 
 Period. 
 
 Receipts. 
 
 Losses. 
 
 Loss on 
 $1,0000. 
 
 Jan. 1,1834, to 
 June 30,1861.. 
 July 1,1861, to 
 June 30,1875.. 
 
 $1,390,9S6,145 18 
 
 12,709,645,059 91 
 
 $2,907,52131 
 
 4,348,098 10 
 
 $2 09 
 
 34 
 
 GROSS TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS. 
 
 Period. 
 
 Disburse¬ 
 
 ments. 
 
 Losses. 
 
 Loss on 
 $1,000. 
 
 On all acct’s. 
 
 except P. O. 
 
 Jan. 1,1834, to 
 June 30,1861.. 
 
 J uly 1, 1861 to 
 June 30,1875.. 
 
 Postoffice dis¬ 
 bursements: 
 
 Jan. 1, 1834, to 
 June 3 >, 1861.. 
 
 J uly 1,1861, to 
 June 30,1875.. 
 
 *l,369,977,o02.5> 
 
 12,566,892,569.53 
 
 189,490,678.74 
 
 299,665,176.08 
 
 12,361,722.91 *9.02 
 
 9,905,205.37 
 
 576,109.78 
 
 413,472.60 
 
 78 
 
 3.04 
 
 1.33 
 
16 
 
 FROM JACKSON’S SECOND TERM TO THE END OF 
 BUCHANAN’S TERM 
 
 Gross total receipts and disbursements from 
 January 1, 1834, to June 30, 1861—$2,950,454,- 
 326.44 includes loans and Post Office; $2,250,- 
 356,731.04 excludes loans and Post Office. 
 Gross total losses for the same period, (no 
 loss on loans.) $15,845,354. 
 
 Gross total loss on $1,000, including loans and 
 Post Office, $5.36. 
 
 Gross total loss on $1,000, excluding loans 
 and Post Office, $7.04. 
 
 UNDER LINCOLN, JOHNSON AND GRANT. 
 
 Gross total receipts and disbursements from 
 July 1,1861, to June 30, 1875—$25,576,202,805.52 
 includes loans and Post Office; $9,701,614,481.43 
 excludes loans and Post Office. 
 
 Gross total losses for tlie same period, (no 
 loss on loans.) $14,666,776,07. 
 
 Gross total loss on $1,000, including loans and 
 Post Office, 57 cents! 
 
 Gross total loss on $1,000, excludingloansand 
 Post Office, $1.51! 
 
 It appears then, from the official records 
 of the Treasury Department, prepared in obe¬ 
 dience to an order of the Senate, that— 
 
 The gross total of receipts and 
 disbursements from the be¬ 
 ginning of Jackson’s second 
 term to the end of Buchanan’s 
 including loans and Post Of¬ 
 fice, -was.$2,950,454,326.44 
 
 The gross total of receipts and 
 disbursements for the same 
 period, excluding loans and 
 
 Post Office, was.$2,250,356,731 04 
 
 Gross losses. 15,8-45,354 00 
 
 Ratio of losses per $1,( 00 on total 
 receipts and disbursements, 
 including loans and Post Of¬ 
 fice. 5 36 
 
 Ratio on same, excluding loans 
 and Post Ofhce. 7 04 
 
 Under Lincoln, Johnson and Grant both re¬ 
 ceipts and disbursements were infinitely 
 larger, and yet the gross amount of losses 
 was smaller and the percentage almost ridic¬ 
 ulously disproportioned. Thus— 
 
 The gross total of receipts and 
 disbursements,including loans 
 
 and Post Office, was.$2,576,202,805 32 
 
 On the same, including loans 
 
 and Post Office.....9,701,614,481 43 
 
 Gross losses. 14,666,776 07 
 
 Ratio of losses per $1,000 on to¬ 
 tal receipts and disburse¬ 
 ments, including loans and 
 
 Post Office, . 57 
 
 Ratio on same, including loans 
 and Post Office. 151 
 
 Thus under Democracy in its purity before 
 the war, and under Republican administra¬ 
 tion including the war, the receipts and dis¬ 
 bursements of the first, including loans and 
 Post Office, w r ere about one-ninth of the sec¬ 
 ond; the receipts and disbursements of the 
 first, including loans and Post Office, were 
 about one-fourth of those of the second: while 
 the losses and defalcations of the Democratic 
 period were nearly ten times as great when 
 the loans and Post Office are included, and 
 four-and-a-half times as great when those 
 items are excluded. 
 
 But the table bears closer investigation, 
 and you will find, Mr. Speaker, that the 
 nearer you come to this actual time in which 
 we live, to this present, existing, much- 
 abused Administration of President Grant, 
 the standard of honor and fidelity, as meas¬ 
 ured by the official reports, becomes higher 
 and firmer. 
 
 The very lowest rate of losses ever reached 
 in this present Presidential term: 
 
 On receipts.22 
 
 On disbursements.26 
 
 In the Post Office...53 
 
 and this tabular statement stands in grand 
 contrast w r ith the record of any President of 
 any party who has ever preceded President 
 Grant. 
 
 So much for the charge of gross official dis¬ 
 honesty reaching through and corrupting the 
 entire Republican party. The official tables 
 give the lie direct to this wholesale campaign 
 accusation. 
 
 Yet in face of these known facts the Dem¬ 
 ocratic party in the House organized them¬ 
 selves into a scandal-making machine, took 
 upon themselves the office of professional 
 slanderers, and charged every one of the 
 regular committees of the House, and many 
 special ones, with this unsavory business. 
 
 Public business has been willfully neglect¬ 
 ed; public necessities ignored, and the whole 
 weight and power of Congress devoted to the 
 manufacture of political capital for the pend¬ 
 ing election. 
 
 Every broken official kicked out for thiev¬ 
 ery, every cashiered officer, every nameless 
 vagabond was invited, solicited, urged to tes¬ 
 tify. Partly for revenge, partly for witness 
 fees, partly for cheap notoriety, these birds 
 of evil omen flock to the Capitol, thronged 
 the corridors, took possession of the commit¬ 
 tee-rooms and of the committees, prompted 
 questions, invented answers, retailed old 
 scandals picked up second-hand, the dead 
 refuse of the streets, to be greedily' swallowed 
 by the mouths that stood agape for such car¬ 
 rion food. 
 
 The common rights of individual citizens 
 were grossly violated, the sanctity of private 
 correspondence outraged, the telegraphic mes¬ 
 sages unlawfully forced from their proper 
 keepers, citizens imprisoned by order of the 
 House for no valid reason, and all the rights 
 of private individuals secured by the Consti¬ 
 tution trampled down by the decree of the 
 House of Representatives. Secret sessions 
 were held, parties charged with wrong-doing 
 kept in ignorance, and the poor privilege 
 granted to all criminals of an open investiga¬ 
 tion and of meeting witnesses face to face 
 was denied. 
 
 In all this one single and most melancholy 
 case of official misdoing has been undeniably 
 made known, and that has been fairly pre¬ 
 sented to the proper tribunal by the active 
 co-operation of the Republicans in the House. 
 
 You are now trying, Mr. Speaker, by a most 
 singular report from the Committee on Naval 
 Affairs to smirch the reputation of another 
 officer to whom neither the committee nor 
 the House dare give the benefits of cross-exam¬ 
 ination of witnesses and of an open impeach¬ 
 ment and a fair trial before the Senate and 
 the nation. 
 
 Sir, the injustice, the gross partiality, the 
 secret inquisitions of the committees of this 
 House are justly a stench and an offense to 
 the American people. Above all things they 
 like fair play, a»d that is what the Democracy 
 have most carefully refused in the whole 
 course of these examinations.