CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



141 



such letter or package to entitle it to pass free shall 

 bear over the words ' official business ' an indorsement 

 showing also the name of the department, and, if 

 from a bureau or office, the names of the department 

 and bureau or office, as the case may be, whence 

 transmitted. 



" What I have read embraces the features in 

 reference to free postage. The difficulty in the 

 proposition of the Senator from Illinois, it oc- 

 curs to me, is that it is too loose, it is too liable 

 to misconstruction ; in other words, it is not 

 sufficiently guarded in its language to make it 

 safe. We have heard from several Senators 

 who have been in the Senate longer than I 

 have of abuses under these sections that I have 

 just read as to letters, etc., on Government busi- 

 ness. In order to make it, in common phrase, 

 tlie more binding, the protection is to require 

 an indorsement of the words ' official business ' 

 upon the matter, and there it ends with the 

 signature of the person or persons sending it 

 or a stamp showing that. If all the abuses 

 existed in reference to this feature that were 

 indicated by the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Thur- 

 man], and the Senator from Vermont [Mr. .Ed- 

 munds], what may we not expect under the 

 utmost scrutiny in the way of abuses under 

 this phraseology indicated by the Senator from 

 Illinois ? " 



Mr. Blair, of New Hampshire : " Does the 

 Senator from Arkansas mean to be understood 

 that we receive under franks speeches not 

 made in Congress ? " 



Mr. Garland : " Yes, speeches and docu- 

 ments, and pamphlets of various kinds." 



Mr. Blair : " Under the frank of members 

 of Congress ? " 



Mr. Garland : " No, but under this section 

 249 from governmental officers. There is no 

 one to determine whether the matter is ' official 

 business ' or not, or what kind of official busi- 

 ness it is. In the section which I have just 

 read allowing the indorsement of the super- 

 scription 'official business' upon official en- 

 velopes signed by the head of a department, 

 or a clerk in the office sending them, no one 

 ii provided to determine whether they are on 

 'official business.' This joint resolution in re- 

 gard to Representatives or Senators uses the 

 same words 'official business.' It is possible 

 that neither the Senator from Illinois nor any 

 other Senator could go into enacting a law so 

 as to define specifically what is meant by 'offi- 

 cial business,' and what particular letters would 

 come under that characterization. To protect 

 against that in the matter of the 'Record' it 

 is provided that that shall be sent under regu- 

 lations prescribed by the Postmaster-General ; 

 but here this is left without any protection. 

 It is not worth while for a Senator to say that 

 we all know what 'official business' is, be- 

 cause we know in the practice of the law that 

 words very simple in every-day use and com- 

 mon acceptation, when they are to be inter- 

 preted in law sometimes mean very different 

 things, and are sometimes construed to be very 

 different from their plain meaning. 



" I recollect in the course of my reading to 

 have seen that it was once a very grave ques- 

 tion before one of the courts of England wheth- 

 er a turkey came within the designation of a 

 bird, and after a long argument and long ex- 

 amination it was solemnly decided that a tur- 

 key came within the classification of the word 

 ' bird.' It is possible some one might doubt as 

 to whether, if I was writing to my constituents 

 about a peck of oats, that could be deemed ' offi- 

 cial business.' I might feel inclined, for the 

 purpose of self-protection, to say it was of- 

 ficial business, but the Senator from Missouri 

 or the Senator from Tennessee might not think 

 so." 



Mr. Conkling: "Will the Senator allow me 

 to make an inquiry ? Am I right in supposing 

 that he stated that speeches which are not a 

 part of the 'Congressional Record,' not made 

 in Congress, go free through the mail ? " 



Mr. Garland : " I say I have received under 

 these superscriptions pamphlets of different 

 kinds that it did not occur to me referred to 

 any particular official business or any legisla- 

 tion in Congress or pending before either 

 House." 



Mr. Conkling : " But speeches? " 



Mr. Garland : " Speeches." 



Mr. Conkling: "Speeches not made in Con- 

 gress ? " 



Mr. Garland : " Speeches not made in Con- 

 gress; a speech made, for instance, before the 

 Bankers' Association in New York." 



Mr. Conkling: "Mr. President, if I under- 

 stand the Senator from Arkansas aright, he 

 says that he himself has received through the 

 mail communications covered by the official 

 frank of the executive officers of the Govern- 

 ment, which communications contained no 

 public or official business, but speeches made 

 by somebody I did not hear by whom and 

 not made in either House of Congress. Do I 

 understand and report the Senator aright ? " 



Mr. Garland : " The Senator from New 

 York quotes me with literal correctness, with 

 this exception : that so far as I could see they 

 pertained to no official business and no matter 

 of legislation pending in either House of Con- 

 gress." 



Mr. Conkling : " Mr. President, if a stinging 

 commentary, if a sharp and thorough criticism 

 upon the absurdity of the law as it now stands 

 were needed or possible, the Senator from 

 Arkansas has pronounced that commentary. 

 Here are provisions under which any and 

 every clerk in the Post-Office Department and 

 in every other department ; every postmaster, 

 every deputy -postmaster, every postmistress, 

 every deputy-postmistress, every man, woman, 

 and child, as far as I know, engaged in con- 

 ducting the public business, may determine 

 each by himself or herself at the time that it 

 is ' official business,' place upon mail-matter a 

 frank which exempts it from postage and cnr- 

 ries it free through the mail wherever the mail 

 goes on land or sea, or inland on water or on 



