CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



121 



In the House, on December 5th, Mr. Wood, of 

 New York, said : " The gentleman (Mr. Dawes) 

 proposes, in one of the resolutions which have 

 been read, to refer a portion of the President's 

 message to what he is pleased to call the Com- 

 mittee on the Insurrectionary States. I deny 

 that there are any insurrectionary States, or 

 that there is any such committee of this House. 

 I will say that we had in the last Congress a 

 committee on reconstruction; that several 

 efforts were made by the distinguished col- 

 league of the gentleman from Massachusetts, 

 the late chairman of the committee, to revive 

 that committee in this Congress, and that on 

 every occasion this House voted down the 

 proposition to revive the committee on recon- 

 struction. And when the other committee to 

 which I have referred was first moved here, 

 it was for a temporary purpose, to go into the 

 Southern States to act in conjunction with a 

 committee of the Senate, and to do certain 

 things. In my judgment, that committee, when 

 it reports to this House, has performed all the 

 duties this House delegated to it, and has no 

 further function. Therefore I am opposed to 

 reviving that committee for this session in this 

 surreptitious manner." 



Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, said : " There 

 are various answers to the gentleman from 

 New York; and the first is, that he seems to 

 have forgotten that the resolution under whicli 

 the committee was raised by its terms contin- 

 ued it during the present Congress. And, if 

 that were not so, the gentleman should re- 

 member that yesterday certain measures were 

 referred to that committee, and that the House 

 by that act revived the committee if it had 

 expired, as the gentleman seems to think it 

 did. The committee, by the terms of the reso- 

 lution appointing it, was to continue beyond 

 the last session, and, if it were not, it was re- 

 vived by a vote of the House yesterday, and is 

 now in existence. 



" It was fondly anticipated by all lovers of 

 peace and good order, I doubt not, that the 

 committee would be able to discover some 

 remedy for existing evils. The evils seem, 

 however, to continue to exist in spite of the 

 best efforts of that committee, certainly to 

 such an extent that all lovers of good order 

 will desire that it may have an opportunity to 

 report to the House. I do not see any view 

 the gentleman can take of it which will not 

 bring the committee standing right up before 

 his eyes as a committee existing." 



Mr. Maynard, of Tennessee, said : " I would 

 remind the gentleman from Massachusetts that 

 the resolution creating the committee referred 

 to, by its terms authorizes the committee to 

 report at the then next session, the present 

 session of Congress, or any subsequent session. 

 By its terms, therefore, it continues the com- 

 mittee to this present session, or, if the com- 

 mittee shall find it necessary, to any subse- 

 quent session of this Congress. I make this 

 remark in order that the statement shall not 



go out unchallenged that this is a side-wind to 

 continue a committee which has already dis- 

 charged its functions, and which ought to be 

 dissolved. It is possible that when the report 

 of the committee shall be made, and the facts 

 gathered by it this summer shall have been 

 brought before the House, the House may see 

 the importance not merely of their past work, 

 but of their continuing to prosecute the same 

 general line of investigation that they have 

 done." 



In the House, on December 5th, Mr. Randall, 

 of Pennsylvania, said: "I would like to direct 

 the attention of the gentleman from Massa- 

 chusetts (Mr. Dawes) to one clause in his reso- 

 lutions, which proposes to establish a special 

 committee upon postal telegraphy. I am aware 

 that there is a proposition to be submitted to 

 the House and to the Congress of the United 

 States looking to the purchase of the telegraphic 

 lines of this country, and that the owners of 

 those telegraphic lines estimate the cost to the 

 Government at $35,000,000, or thereabout. 

 I have seen during my service here the evil 

 effect of creating special committees to con- 

 sider such subjects." 



Mr. Farnsworth, of Illinois, said : " Mr. 

 Chairman, I was about to move to amend the 

 resolution of the gentleman from Massachu- 

 setts, so as to refer so much of the President's 

 message as relates to the union of the tele- 

 graphic system with the Post-Office Depart- 

 ment to the Committee on the Post-Office and 

 Post-Roads ; because it is proposed to connect 

 so intimately the telegraphic system with the 

 Post-Office Department, that, it seems to me, 

 no other committee can properly take jurisdic- 

 tion of the subject. It is proposed, I under- 

 stand, to buy all the telegraphic lines in the 

 United States, and to incorporate them into the 

 Post-Office Department, and make them a part 

 of the postal system of the United States. If 

 that is to be done, the Committee on the Post- 

 Office and Post-Roads, it seems to me, should 

 have jurisdiction of the subject. I do not 

 know what reason there is for the appoint- 

 ment of a select committee." 



Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, said : " The 

 very suggestion of the gentleman from Penn- 

 sylvania (Mr. Randall) that it approaches a 

 matter valued by its owners at a great many 

 millions of dollars, the suggestion of the gen- 

 tleman from Illinois (Mr. Farnsworth) that it 

 affects the whole postal system, the suggestion 

 that my colleague from Massachusetts (Mr. 

 Banks) is about to make, that it affects the for- 

 eign relations of the country in the matter 

 of ocean-cables any view of it that any gen- 

 tleman, who will listen to the suggestions that 

 that committee did for some considerable time, 

 may take, will satisfy him that no one com- 

 mittee, as constituted in this House, can take 

 jurisdiction of the whole matter. And, after 

 all, I think the Committee on Appropriations, 

 rather than any other committee, might feel as 



