CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



193 



report may be made during the pending of a 

 motion to adjourn. After eleven o'clock to- 

 day, however, the Chair will not entertain a 

 motion to adjourn, as the two Houses have 

 fixed twelve o'clock to -day for final adjourn- 

 ment." 



The Clerk read the report of the committee 

 of conference on the civil sundry appropria- 

 tion bill. 



Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, said : " Mr. 

 Speaker, I now move that the report of the 

 committee of conference be recommitted to 

 that committee. I feel this morning that, if 

 by the force of a mere majority we drive this 

 bill, embodying as it does the enforcement 

 amendment, through Congress, we will com- 

 mit an act which, so far as I and a number of 

 gentlemen around me are concerned, will be 

 regarded as in the category of acts for which 

 I have more than a score of times sentenced 

 men, theretofore respected in the community 

 in which they lived, to solitary confinement 

 and penal labor. 



" This bill reached its present stage by what, 

 in the light of information in my possession, 

 appear to be false pretences, which are charac- 

 terized by all the features necessary to sustain 

 a conviction under the law of Pennsylvania. 

 On Saturday last, the minority of this House, 

 by virtue of parliamentary law and of the 

 usages of this House not by the weakness of 

 the Republican party, not by the weakness or 

 lack of fidelity on the part of members of the 

 Republican party, but, as I have said, by virtue 

 of parliamentary law and usages long and well 

 known to the House and the people of the 

 country, the minority party of this House 

 held this bill in its power. Leading members 

 of that body said .to us : ' Take from the bill 

 one amendment, and you may have all the 

 other provisions without question ; take from 

 it one provision, and you may complete your 

 appropriations and adjourn.' This being the 

 condition of the bill, there came upon this 

 floor a Senator who was then a member of the 

 committee of conference to consider and ad- 

 just the disagreeing votes thereon, and I vouch 

 gentlemen around me for the fact that from 

 him went forth the assurance that, if the Op- 

 position would permit this bill to go to a com- 

 mittee of conference, the Senate would recede 

 from the objectionable amendment. It was 

 also known that he who must be chairman of 

 the committee of conference on the part of 

 the House disapproved of that amendment, and 

 had given open and public assurance that he 

 disapproved it as heartily as gentlemen on the 

 other side could do." 



Mr. Garfield, of Ohio ; " If the gentleman 

 .refers to me, I beg him to withhold his state- 

 Iment of my position, and allow me to make it 

 'for myself." 



Mr. Randall : "You did state that privately." 

 I Mr. Kelley : " I am assured by many gen- 

 tlemen that the gentleman from Ohio did make 

 'such statements. 



VOL. XII. 13 \ 



"According to parliamentary usage, there 

 must be two Democrats on a committee of con- 

 ference, one from the House and one from the 

 Senate. There was, therefore, it seemed to me, 

 as it did to others, no possibility that the ob- 

 jectionable amendment would be adhered to. 

 And I, and others who are as loyal to Repub- 

 licanism, loyal to radical Republicanism, as I 

 am or ever have been, I say, Mr. Speaker, that 

 gentlemen, who are as radical as I am, went 

 with or in advance of me to gentlemen on the 

 other side of the House, and said : ' The cir- 

 cumstances are such as guarantee the with- 

 drawal of this amendment to which you ob- 

 ject ; you cannot be deceived should you let 

 the bill go to a conference.' But they knew 

 the impregnable strength of their position, and 

 not yet did they yield. They hesitated and in- 

 quired, and did not yield until from the Speak- 

 er's chair they received assurance that the re- 

 port of a conference committee was subject to 

 all the dilatory motions to which any other 

 measure would be. In my conversations with 

 them, I had given them assurance that, if by 

 any peradventure they lost position or power, 

 I would cooperate with them in resisting the 

 passage of the bill embodying the amendment 

 in question, and I make this motion in redemp- 

 tion not alone of my word, but of the pledges 

 of others. If this action bring upon me con- 

 demnation, I shall not heed it. For, sir, it may 

 be egotism, but I tell you that I value more 

 highly the self-respect and approving con- 

 science of William D. Kelley than I do the ap- 

 plause of all mankind; and I could not go 

 through the world maintaining my self-re- 

 spect if I failed to make every effort in rny 

 power to have this report go back to the com- 

 mittee of conference." 



Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, said : " I desire to 

 inquire of my friend from Pennsylvania (Mr. 

 Kelley) to whom he refers as having author- 

 ized him to pledge this side of the House to 

 any thing about this bill ? " 



Mr. Kelley : "I did not pledge this side of 

 the House, nor have I so intimated." 



Mr. Bingham : " "Whom did you pledge ? " 



Mr. Kelley : " I pledged my influence, fol- 

 lowing gentlemen whom I saw on the other 

 side promising theirs. And I reiterate that I 

 was impelled thereto by assurances given, as I 

 had been informed by many gentlemen about 

 me, by a member of the Senate conference 

 committee that, if we could get the bill to the 

 conference committee, the Senate would re- 

 cede ? " 



Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, said : " On the merits 

 of the amendment now in debate by itself 

 considered I will not now speak. No man on 

 this floor regrets more than I do that the 

 House was brought to a dead-lock on a ques- 

 tion of this sort appended to a general appro- 

 priation bill. But there is another phase of 

 this subject which rises altogether above that 

 amendment or any other amendment that can 

 be brought into this House. To discuss that 



