CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



137 



lie officers or agents in the care and disbursement 

 of public moneys ; wbether moneys have been paid 

 out illegally ; whether any officers or agents, or other 

 persons, have been, or are, employed in the public 

 service without authority of law or unnecessarily; 

 and generally how, and to what extent, the expenses 

 of the service of the country may and ought to be 

 curtailed. 



And also to consider the expediency of so amend- 

 ing the laws under which appointments to the public 

 service are now made as to provide for withdrawing 

 the public service from being used as an instrument 

 of political or party patronage. 



That said committee be authorized to sit during 

 the recess of Congress, to send for persons and pa- 

 pers, and to report by bill or otherwise; and that 

 said committee may appoint a clerk. 



Mr. Morton: "Mr. President, it has been 

 said here to-day that the country believes, from 

 what has taken place in the Senate in the coarse 

 of this discussion, there is some great corrup- 

 tion existing in this Administration, and that 

 there was a majority of the Republicans in the 

 Senate who were afraid to have it investigated, 

 and who are working to cover it up. Those 

 Senators who have said this may believe it to 

 be true, but I for one desire to say that I think 

 the country believes no such thing. There 

 is a great deal of intelligence in the country, 

 and I think the people will put a very different 

 estimate on this whole proceeding, and, so far 

 from imputing to the majority of this Senate 

 a desire to cover up fraud and protect crimi- 

 nals and to prevent investigation, they will be 

 apt to suppose that there have been other mo- 

 tives and other purposes at work. 



" It is rather an ungracious business, I should 

 suppose, to attempt to cast suspicions upon any 

 of the members of this Senate or a majority 

 of them ; and yet it cannot be denied that dur- 

 ing the course of this discussion, from the time 

 it first commenced, there has been a deliberate 

 attempt to make an impression upon the coun- 

 try that there were Senators here who were 

 desirous of avoiding investigation upon the 

 ground that the Administration could not 

 stand investigation. 



U I for one feel that that insinuation, whether 

 made directly or indirectly, is unjust, and that 

 those who have appeared to make it have not 

 done themselves justice, and have not given 

 themselves credit before the country. I im- 

 pute nothing to the motives of any Senator ; 

 I never do that. I never impugn the sincerity 

 or the patriotism of any Senator ; but the at- 

 tempt that has been made in the course of this 

 discussion to cast suspicion upon the majority 

 of this body in ray opinion is most unjust. It 

 is without evidence to justify it, and if it is 

 to have any effect it will be on those who 

 made it. 



" The Senator from Massachusetts remarked 

 in the opening of this discussion to-day that 

 there was no person appointed on this com- 

 mittee who had voted for investigation in its 

 strongest form; I believe I use his language. 

 Now, I would like to know, and I would like 

 to have that Senator state before I go any far- 



ther, what foundation there is in any vote 

 which has been taken in this body that justi- 

 fies that remark." 



Mr. Sumner : "Does the Senator wish a re- 

 ply now?" 



Mr. Morton: "Yes, sir, I wish a reply." 



Mr. Sumner : " I mean that there is no Sen- 

 ator on the committee, according to my knowl- 

 edge, who has sustained by speech or vote the 

 motion of the Senator from Illinois who began 

 this appeal for investigation. The Senator 

 from Illinois is not on the committee, and none 

 of those who were associated with him in 

 urging that important investigation." 



Mr. Morton : " I so understood the Senator ; 

 but I wanted to have it distinctly stated that 

 he meant that those who voted for the resolu- 

 tion of the Senator from Illinois were consid- 

 ered as voting for investigation in the strong- 

 est form, and that those who did not so vote 

 did not vote for investigation in the strongest 

 form, or, rather, voted against it. 



" Now, Mr, President, allow me to call the 

 attention of the Senate to what I did once be- 

 fore, that, under the resolution of the Senator 

 from Illinois, no authority would be conferred 

 upon the committee to investigate a single 

 fraud. I make that statement now, and I think 

 the Senator from Illinois himself will hardly 

 controvert it. I think he has accepted that as 

 being the true construction of his resolution, 

 that that resolution as he first offered it. and 

 as he now offers it, does not empower the 

 committee to investigate any fraud. 



" Now, what has been said during the course 

 of this discussion ? It has been said that there 

 were great frauds committed in the Adminis- 

 tration ; that there was rottenness ; that there 

 was corruption ; that this should be ferreted 

 out, and the criminals should be brought to 

 light ; and it has been said that this would be 

 brought about by the resolution of the Sen- 

 ator from Illinois. I say now that that reso- 

 lution has been sailing here under false colors 

 from beginning to end; that it contains no 

 authority to investigate frauds, and it is not 

 the first time that attention has been called 

 to that fact ; and yet, because it did not meet 

 with the judgment of the majority in the be- 

 ginning to support that resolution, it has been 

 heralded throughout the country that they 

 were disposed to cover up fraud, and that has 

 been the broad intimation in this Senate to- 

 day." 



Mr. Trumbull: "Now, Mr. President, I pro- 

 pose briefly to give a narrative, which I think 

 ought to go to the country, and ought to be 

 understood by the Senate, of this resolution 

 and of the course which has been pursued here 

 in regard to it. We have had the resolution 

 adopted originally in the Thirty-ninth Con- 

 gress at the instance of the Senator from Ver- 

 mont (Mr. Edmunds) ; in the Fortieth Congress 

 at the instance of the Senator from Rhode 

 Island (Mr. Anthony) ; and in the Forty-first 

 Congress at the instance, I think, in this body, 



