CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



CONNECTICUT. 



The report was concurred in. 



In the House, on the same day, Mr. Hewitt, 

 of New York, said: "When the conference 

 committee upon this bill met, they found them- 

 selves in opposition, in absolute antagonism, 

 upon three points : First, the number of men of 

 which the army was to be composed ; secondly, 

 the question of the immediate reorganization 

 of the army ; and third, the transfer of the In- 

 dian Bureau from the Interior to the War De- 

 partment. 



"Now, the preponderance of votes in the 

 Senate had been so great upon these three 

 points as to be almost overwhelming, while 

 the majority in the House on those three 

 points was very narrow, running in one case 

 down to four votes. We were confronted then 

 with the question of the failure of the bill on 

 an attempt to reconcile the Houses on these 

 points. The failure of the bill would not have 

 reduced the army, for the army exists now by 

 law to the number of thirty thousand men. 

 A failure of the bill would therefore have 

 practically made it possible to have an in- 

 crease of the army. Neither would the fail- 

 ure of the bill have secured any reorganiza- 

 tion. Neither would it have transferred the 

 Indian Bureau from one Department to the 

 other. Therefore there was nothing to be 

 gained by its failure, and there was much to 

 be lost in the necessity for an extra session, 

 and the postponement of the reforms which 

 we saw our way clear to secure. 



" The question was this : how, by a conces- 

 sion of the points upon which the Senate were 

 unwilling to yield, we might secure the other 

 reforms for which we had contended and 

 which were contained in our bill. We there- 

 fore yielded the number of men, and they stand 

 in the report of the conference committee at 

 twenty-five thousand/ 



" On the question of reorganization we yield- 

 ed the immediate attempt to reorganize the 

 army, but we procured in lieu thereof a joint 

 committee of the Senate and the House, to be 

 composed of five members of the House and 

 three members of the Senate, thus securing 

 the control of the committee to the House. 

 And in order that the army might not be in- 

 creased in any direction pending the considera- 

 tion of this question by the joint committee, 

 we procured the further stipulation that, pend- 

 ing the action of the committee and pending 

 the action of Congress upon it, there should be 

 no promotion in any staff corps or department 

 and no appointment whatever to vacancies ex- 

 cept in grades in the line below that of captain, 

 in order that the company organizations might 

 not suffer. This, therefore, arrests the army 

 where it is, and it must stay there as in the 

 jaws of a vise until by the joint action of 

 the two Houses a scheme of reorganization is 

 agreed to, and in devising this scheme the pre- 

 ponderance of power is secured to the House. 



"Lastly, as to the Indian Bureau, we have 

 provided for a reference of that question also 



to a joint committee. Upon that joint commit- 

 tee there are to be five members of the House 

 and three of the Senate. They are also em- 

 powered to sit during the recess, take testi- 

 mony, and mature a proper report and scheme 

 of transfer, if they shall conclude that it ought 

 to be made. 



" But these are all minor points and insignifi- 

 cant questions compared with the great prin- 

 ciple which was incorporated by the House in 

 the bill in reference to the use of the army in 

 time of peace. The Senate had already con- 

 ceded what they called and what we might ac- 

 cept as the principle ; but they had stricken out 

 the penalty, and had stricken out the word 

 'expressly,' so that the army might be used in 

 all cases where implied authority might be in- 

 ferred. The House committee planted them- 

 selves firmly upon the doctrine that, rather than 

 yield this fundamental principle, for which for 

 three years this House had struggled, they 

 would allow the bill to fail, notwithstanding 

 the reforms which we had secured ; regarding 

 these reforms as of but little consequence along- 

 side the great principle that the army of the 

 United States in time of peace should be under 

 the control of Congress and obedient to its laws. 

 After a long and protracted negotiation, the 

 Senate committee have conceded that princi- 

 ple in all its length and breadth, including the 

 penalty which the Senate had stricken out. We 

 bring you back, therefore, a report with the 

 alteration of a single word, which the lawyers 

 assure me is proper to be made, restoring to this 

 bill the principle for which we have contended 

 so long, and which is so vital to secure the 

 rights and liberties of the people. 



" I will read the section as it now stands : 



From and after the passage of this act it shall not 

 be lawful to employ any part of the army of the 

 United States as a posse comitatus, or otherwise, 

 for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such 

 cases and under such circumstances as such employ- 

 ment of said force may be expressly authorized by 

 the Constitution or by act of Congress; and no mon- 

 ey appropriated by this act shall be used to pay any 

 of the expenses incurred in the employment of any 

 troops in violation of this section ; and any person 

 willfully violating the provisions of this section shall 

 bs deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on convic- 

 tion thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding 

 $10,000, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, 

 or by both such fine and imprisonment. 



" Thus have we this day secured to the peo- 

 ple of this country the same great protection 

 against a standing army which cost a struggle 

 of two hundred years for the Commons of Eng- 

 land to secure for the British people. I move 

 the previous question." 



The question was taken ; and there were 

 yeas 154, nays 58, not voting V9. 



The session of Congress was closed by ad- 

 journment on June 20th. 



CONNECTICUT. The Legislature of this 

 State met for its regular session of 1878 on 

 the 9th of January. Senator Hoyt, Republi- 

 can, was elected President pro tempore in 

 competition with Caleb B. Bowers, Democrat, 



