240 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



have ceased, and not one of the latter, so far as is 

 known to the Senate, is now held in confinement for 

 the part he may have acted in the rebellion except 

 said Jefferson Davis : Therefore, 



Resolved,, That the President be respectfully re- 

 quested, if compatible with the public safety, to in- 

 form the Senate upon what charges or for what rea- 

 sons said Jefferson Davis is still held in confinement, 

 and why he has not been put upon bis trial. 



The reply to the preceding and to all other 

 resolutions calling for information on" the same 

 subject was, that it would be incompatible with 

 .the public interest to furnish the same. 



In the House, on April 9th, Mr. Eaymond, 

 of New York, offered the following resolution, 

 which was referred to the Committee on the 

 Judiciary : 



Whereas the President of the United States has, 

 by proclamation, declared the insurrection in the 

 State of Virginia to be at an end ; and whereas the 

 reasons which have hitherto prevented the holding 

 of a court of the United States in said State for the 

 trial of persons charged with treason against the 

 United States have been thereby obviated and re- 

 moved : Therefore, 



Resolved, That the President of the United States 

 be requested to take steps for the speedy trial of 

 Jefferson Davis, who has been duly indicted in said 

 State for said crime of treason, unless he shall be, 

 with reasonable dispatch, indicted for said crime, 

 and put on trial in some other district in which he 

 may be legally liable for trial. 



On July llth, Mr. Boutwell, of Massachu- 

 setts, offered the following resolution : 



Whereas it is notorious that Jefferson Davis was 

 the leader of the late rebellion, and is guilty of trea- 

 son under the laws of the United States; and where- 

 as by the proclamation of the President of May, 18G5, 

 the said Davis was charged with complicity in the 

 assassination of President Lincoln, and said proc- 

 lamation has not been revoked nor annulled : There- 

 fore, 



Be it resolved, As the opinion of the House of Rep- 

 resentatives, that said Davis should be_ held in cus- 

 tody as a prisoner, and subjected to a trial according 

 to the laws of the land. 



The resolution was adopted by the following 

 vote: 



YEAS Messrs. Alley, Allison, James M. Ashley, 

 Baker, Baldwin, Banks, Baxter, Beaman, Bidwell, 

 Bingham, Blaine, Boutwell, Bromwell, Buckland, 

 Buudy, Header W. Clark, Sidney Clarke, Cobb, 

 Conkling, Cook, Cullom, Darling, Davis, Dawes, 

 Defrees, Donnelly, Eckley, Eliot, Farnsworth, Far- 

 quhar, Ferry, Garfield, Grinnell, Griswold, Hale, 

 Abner C. Harding, Hart, Hayes, Henderson, Higby, 

 Holmes, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Chester D. Hubbard, 

 John H. Hubbard, James R. Hubbell, Julian, Kelso, 

 Ketcham, Kuykendall, Laflin, Latham, George V. 

 Lawrence, William Lawrence, Loan, Longyear, 

 Lynch, Marshall, Marvin, McClurg, McKee, McRuer, 

 Mercur, Miller, Moorhead, Morrill, Morris, Moulton, 

 Myers, O'Neill, Orth, Paine, Perham, Phelps, Pike, 

 Plants, Pomeroy, Price, William H. Randall, Ray- 

 mond, Alexander H. Rice, Sawyer, Schenck, Scho- 

 field, Shellabarger, Sloan, Smith, Spalding, Thayer, 

 John L. Thomas, Thornton, Trowbridge, Upson, 

 Van Aernam, Ward, Warner, Henry D. Washburn, 

 Welker, Whaley, Williams, James F. Wilson, Ste- 

 phen F. Wilso'n, Windom, Winfield, and Wood- 

 bridge 105. 



NATS Messrs. Ancona, Boyer, Cpffroth, Eldridge, 

 Finck, Glossbrenner, Grider, Harris, Hogan, John- 

 son, McCullough, Niblack, Samuel J. Randall, Ritter, 

 Rogers, Sitgreaves, Tabor, Trimble, and Wright 19. 



On July 27th, Mr. Boutwell offered the fol- 

 lowing, which was agreed to : 



Resolved, That there is no defect or insufficiency 

 in the present state of the law to prevent or interfere 

 with the trial of Jefferson Davis for the crime of 

 treason or any other crime for which there may be 

 probable ground for arraigning hhn before the tri- 

 bunals of the country. 



Resolved further, That it is the duty of the exec- 

 utive department of the Government to proceed 

 with the investigation of the facts connected with 

 the assassination of the late President, Abraham 

 Lincoln, without unnecessary delay, that Jefferson 

 Davis and others named in the proclamation of Pres- 

 ident Johnson of May 2, 1865, may be put upon trial 

 and properly punished if guilty, or relieved from the 

 charges against them if found to be innocent. 



In the Senate, on April 30th, the House hill 

 making appropriations for the service of the 

 Post-office Department and other purposes, be- 

 ing under consideration, Mr. Henderson, of 

 Missouri, had offered an amendment providing 

 that persons appointed to office, but not con- 

 firmed by the Senate, should not receive any 

 salary until such confirmation. 



Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, also offered the 

 following amendment, which was accepted by 

 Mr. Henderson : 



^ le it further enacted, That no person exer- 

 cising or performing, or undertaking to exercise or 

 perform the duties of any office which by law is re- 

 quired to be filled by the advice and consent of the 

 Senate, shall, before confirmation by the Senate, re- 

 ceive any salary or compensation for his services 

 unless such person be commissioned by the President 

 to fill up a vacancy which has happened by death, 

 resignation, or expiration of term, during the recess 

 of the Senate and since its last adjournment. 



Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, in opposition to 

 the amendment, said: "I should like to know 

 the reasons why the honorable member from 

 Illinois supposes a provision of that sort is con- 

 stitutional. There was a period in the begin- 

 ning of the Government when the President's 

 power to remove was considered somewhat 

 questionable. It was, however, decided by tho 

 Senate to be a clear power ; and from that time 

 to the present I do not know that the legality 

 of the power has ever been questioned. Mr. 

 Webster, many years ago, when there was a 

 contest between the then President of the 

 United States and the Senate a contest just as 

 angry or just as excited as the contest which 

 may be supposed to exist now between a 

 majority of the Senate and the President was 

 disposed to call in question the power of 

 removal ; but the Senate will find that, in a 

 letter written by Mr. Madison, in the papers 

 we have recently published, in reply to Mr. 

 Coles, who had been his former secretary, he 

 enters into an argument on the subject and 

 considers it a question no longer open for 

 controversy. The Senate were very anxious 

 at that time to prevent, if they could do it, the 

 power which President Jackson was from time- 

 to time exercising, but they had to abandon it. 

 I think the Supreme Court have more than once, 

 the question being presented, recognized tho 



