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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



procuring accountability in public officers or 

 agents in the care and disbursement of public 

 money is hostile to Bepublicanism ? Is that 

 the idea of Senators ? Why this zeal to rush in 

 to the defence of Republicanism and the Pres- 

 ident when nobody proposes to assail either? 



" This resolution is in aid of purifying the 

 public service, elevating the public morals, 

 bringing about greater security in the collec- 

 tion and disbursement of public money, and I 

 am utterly astounded at the apparent effort 

 made here by certain Senators to place others 

 in a false position before the country. I do 

 not know that they design it. I made no ap- 

 peals to party considerations. I disclaimed 

 them at the outset ; but we find some Senators 

 speaking of the amendment I offered as if it 

 was hostile to some party or person. Now, 

 sir, my hostility extends to abuses. It is against 

 the system I protest. I am for purifying the 

 public service, and that is my only object. It 

 is not to hit at any individual, and no Senator 

 here will be more gratified than I if the in- 

 vestigations, when they take place, show hon- 

 esty and fidelity in all departments of the 

 Government. But we have seen enough of 

 defalcations within the last few months to 

 justify an inquiry as to how the accounts are 

 kept ; and I think that there ought to be no 

 objection to such an instruction to the com- 

 mittee as I have proposed." 



Mr. Morton said : " Mr. President, I cannot 

 permit myself or those with whom I act in 

 this matter to be put in a false position by the 

 remarks of the Senator from Illinois. He has 

 represented me as saying here that a proposi- 

 tion to investigate the affairs of the Govern- 

 ment is hostility to the Republican party. I 

 have said no such thing; I have meant no 

 such thing; but, on the contrary, I have said, 

 and it is so recorded in the Globe, that the 

 Republican party can bear investigation, that 

 it courts investigation, and that it claims the 

 merit of having exceeded other parties who 

 have gone before it in its zeal to bring to pun- 

 ishment its own members who may have been 

 guilty of crime. 



"Now, Mr. President, I wish to say one 

 word in regard to reform. There seems to be 

 a disposition on the part of some people in 

 this country to become professional reformers, 

 to have it understood that they are the re- 

 formers par excellence. They seem to desire 

 to monopolize that business, and to have it 

 understood by the country that they of all 

 others hate corruption, and that they are to 

 make it the business of their lives to hunt 

 down those who are corrupt. I desire to say 

 to those gentlemen, wherever they may be, 

 that for one I shall not permit them to mo- 

 nopolize that business, that I claim to be as 

 good a reformer as any of them, although I 

 may not say so much about it, or make such 

 high pretensions. 



"Now, Mr. President, one word in regard 

 to this resolution. As was stated a moment 



ago by the Senator from Ohio, I believe the 

 Republican members on this floor have been 

 in favor, from the first, of a standing commit- 

 tee on retrenchment. They were not in favor 

 of the resolution offered by the Senator from 

 Illinois, for reasons which have been given 

 heretofore, and I will not go over them again. 

 But it has been said that because we were 

 opposed to investing a committee with gen- 

 eral power to send for persons and papers in 

 regard to matters that have never been before 

 the Senate, to investigate anybody at all times 

 upon any public or private charge that might 

 be made, and thereby cast imputation, we 

 were against the exercise of a power which 

 has been conceded to this committee for the 

 last five years. I want to call the attention 

 of my friend, the Senator from Illinois, to the 

 fact that, if that power has been ever exercised 

 for the last five years by the committee, it was 

 not given by the resolution creating it." 

 No final action was taken on this resolution. 



In the Senate, on December 18th, Mr. An- 

 thony, of Rhode Island, offered the following 

 resolution : 



Resolved, That the Committee of Investigation 

 and Retrenchment consist of Mr. Buckingham 

 (chairman), Mr. Pratt, Mr. Howe, Mr. Harlan, Mr. 

 Stewart, Mr. Pool, and Mr. Bayard. 



Mr. Sumner said : " I should like to have 

 my friend, the Senator who makes the motion, 

 state whether on that committee there are 

 any of the Senators who brought forward this 

 inquiry and who urged it upon the Senate? " 



Mr. Anthony: "The Senator knows that 

 as well as I do. I think they are exceedingly 

 judicious and sensible men, moderate men 

 men who command in the highest degree the 

 confidence and the respect of their associates 

 and the confidence of the country. I do not 

 know whether they have, any of them, made 

 themselves particularly conspicuous in the 

 charges which have been made, or whether 

 they have qualified themselves, any of them, 

 to do justice in the matter by pronouncing an 

 opinion in advance." 



Mr. Sumner: "Certainly I have nothing 

 to say except in kindness and good-will toward 

 every Senator named on this committee ; but 

 as I listened to the list I was astonished by 

 the absence of certain names. On this list I 

 do not find the name of a single Senator who 

 had urged this investigation, as I believe, un- 

 less it be the Democratic Senator over the 

 way he will pardon me for that designation 

 the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Bayard), who 

 did vote for investigation in the strongest form. 

 The Senators on the list all voted against in- 

 vestigation in the strongest form. Thus, Sen- 

 ators in favor of investigation in the strongest 

 form, every one, except the Democratic Sen- 

 ator, are excepted. It is for the Senate to con- 

 sider whether a committee organized in this 

 way, after the debate that has occurred, can 

 justly satisfy the country. 



