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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



tion of tins rale to say that you may appoint a 

 committee out of any seven Senators who 

 voted for the resolution ordering the commit- 

 tee. Upon that question there was no division 

 at all. Everybody who voted at all did vote 

 for the resolution which the Senate adopted. I 

 believe there is one member of this proposed 

 committee I am told there is who did not 

 vote for that resolution, who did not vote at 

 all, and that the Globe shows that that is the 

 ease one who did not vote for it. But, 

 though that may be, that does not touch the 

 question. The question is not on the appoint- 

 ment of a committee or ordering that there 

 shall be a standing committee of this character 

 upon that, as I said, there was no division ; 

 but the question is, upon the investigation; 

 the question is, how Senators vote on the sub- 

 ject of investigating these abuses. 



" The resolution offered by the Senator from 

 Illinois provided for a thorough and searching 

 investigation. It proposed to give to the com- 

 mittee the powers that had heretofore been 

 given for five years to the Committee on Re- 

 trenchment and Keform powers that no man 

 will say were ever abused ; powers that re- 

 sulted in good to the country in the mass of 

 testimony that the committee laid before the 

 two Houses of Congress. The question was 

 upon raising a committee with these ample 

 and plenary powers, upon making an investi- 

 gation that should be an investigation, raising 

 a committee favorable to investigation, and 

 clothing it with powers that should enable it 

 to be effective in its work ; and how was the 

 vote on that? That is the test question. 

 Where were the Senators who were in favor 

 of this thorough investigation, of this broad 

 and comprehensive investigation ? All voting 

 for the resolution of the Senator from Illinois. 

 "Where are they in reference to this commit- 

 tee ? Not one of them is upon it. 



"Now, Mr. President, this cannot be got rid 

 of by saying that the proposed members of 

 this committee are respectable and honest men. 

 No such issue as that can be forced on the Sen- 

 ate. The rule depends on no such question as 

 that. We do not admit in parliamentary lan- 

 guage and in parliamentary usage that this 

 Senate is composed partly of honest men and 

 partly of villains; and this rule could have no 

 existence at all if it were founded upon any 

 euch supposition as that. 



"Then there is still another singular fact 

 about this committee, and that is that there is 

 but one Democrat allowed upon a committee 

 of seven, and that a committee of investigation 

 whose inquiries are to be as broad as the Re- 

 public, if they are to amount to any thing at 

 all. That was not so in your joint Committee 

 on Retrenchment. There were two Demo- 

 crats of the House on that committee, and one 

 of the Senate, giving us three. Then there 

 was a Democrat on every sub-committee of 

 that joint Committee on Retrenchment. Here 

 is an iovestigation broader than that That 



investigation was limited to eleven States of 

 the Union. Here is an investigation that 

 goes to the whole thirty-seven States of the 

 Union. You appoint a committee of investi- 

 gation into the conduct of Government offi- 

 cials ; into the conduct of this Administration, 

 and you allow the Opposition to the Adminis- 

 tration but one member upon that committee, 

 and that a gentleman charged already with 

 the important and onerous duties of a member 

 of the Committee on Finance and a member 

 of the Committee for the Investigation of 

 Southern Outrages. 



" I do say, therefore, Mr. President, without 

 uttering one word in disparagement of the 

 personnel of this committee, that it is pro- 

 posed to be appointed in violation of parlia- 

 mentary usage, and in violation of what is 

 due to the minority on this floor, who, though 

 they may be very small here, you know very 

 well, Mr. President, represent within a small 

 fraction one entire half of the people of the 

 United States." 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, said: "It will 

 not do by empty professions to say that you 

 are in favor of reform and yet vote to impede, 

 embarrass, and restrict every practical step 

 taken to secure the information necessary to 

 base it upon. There must be works in this 

 case. There must be acts, not hollow profes- 

 sions; and, however ingeniously gentlemen 

 may seek to explain away their votes, the 

 meaning and operation of their votes cannot 

 be gotten rid of, and I do not think will be 

 misunderstood by the common-sense of the 

 people of this country. This demand has 

 been growing since the war closed. The 

 period of necessary excitement in which our 

 whole country was placed by the terrible con- 

 vulsions of civil war enabled men under a pa- 

 triotic cloak to avail themselves of the excite- 

 ment to enrich themselves at public expense 

 and intrench themselves behind abuses. 

 Gradually, as the excitement of the war has 

 passed away, as the country is resuming once 

 more the sober-suited garb of peace, the de- 

 mand for investigation, retrenchment, and re- 

 form is increasing. 



"There is in this country undeniably a 

 wide-spread suspicion and belief that the ten- 

 ure of civil office in the United States is now 

 a mere reward for partisan service and a mere 

 weapon for party success. I am one of those 

 who consider it most important that that fact 

 should be determined one way or the other. 

 There can be no greater evil to a country in- 

 flicted than to destroy the confidence of the 

 people in those who rule it." 



Mr. Trumbull : "I move to amend the reso- 

 lution by adding these words: " 



And that said Committee of Investigation and 

 Eetrenchment be instructed to inquire into the ex- 

 penditures in all branches of the service of the Uni- 

 ted States, and to report whether any and what 

 offices ought to be abolished: whether any and what 

 salaries and allowances ought to be reduced ; what 

 are the methods of procuring accountability in pub- 



