192 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



anything, to say on that subject. I do not 

 wish to invoke sectional issues here, nor do I 

 wish to get up a partisan strife on this sub- 

 ject; but I do say, as the law stands on the 

 statute-book it gives to gentlemen on the other 

 side all they ask, uml it is unnecessary to ask 

 us on this side to re-euaot it, or meddle with 

 elections in the States against the protest of 

 our forefathers, made, as it has been, so often 

 and so emphatically. 



"The other objection alleged by the gen- 

 tleman from New York against the bill of the 

 majority was, if I recollect aright, the increase 

 of the number of the House. That is a ques- 

 tion, of course, which each member must con- 

 sider for himself, and we have all equal lights 

 before us and can form each our own opinion 

 as to whether the country can be better served 

 by a smaller or larger House. I listened to 

 what ho had to say on that subject, and when 

 he cited his own great State witli a small Leg- 

 islature, as he said, probably one that dates 

 back for sixty years and not increased through 

 that whole time, as a fair sample of what a 

 State can be and what it can do with a small 

 Legislature, I thought it was a little unfortu- 

 nate, because, out in our part of the world at 

 least, New York is not considered the freest 

 State from fraud, nor her Legislature the most 

 incorruptible in the Union. We have never 

 heard any charge against New Hampshire, 

 which I believe has a Legislature like a great 

 big town-meeting, like that which is made 

 against the Legislature of New York, of hav- 

 ing big railroad bills and measures for railroad 

 interests lobbied through it, and that men were 

 elected to it who were controlled and held in 

 hand and sent there, as it is understood, to ba 

 in a large measure the attorneys and promot- 

 ers of railroad corporations and banking inter- 

 ests. I do not know that it would be better 

 for his State to have an increased representa- 

 tion in her Legislature, but I am satisfied it 

 would do her no harm. 



u As far as we of the committee are con- 

 cerned, and at least as far as I personally am 

 concerned, in reference to the number of Rep- 

 resentatives, I do not ask nor demand the 

 House to be increased to any extraordinary 

 number. It certainly seems to me when we 

 increase the number eighteen, as the majority 

 bill in this Housa proposes to do on an increased 

 population of eleven millions, it is asking no big 

 increase, becauses it fixes the representation at 

 over five hundred and fifty thousand popula- 

 tion for each of the new members who can 

 enter this House on account of the increase. 

 Is that increase an expansion too far? Do 

 we not derive some practical benefit from it ? 

 Have we not the history of the world before us, 

 which shows that a large representative body 

 is a safer and greater protector to the liberties 

 of the people than a smaller one? The gentle- 

 man would like to reduce this House within 

 the narrow limits of the Senate. Are we to 

 have no popular branch of this Government ; 



and are the people to have no voice in it ? Are 

 we to hold it up as a model republic, and at 

 the same time stifle the direct voice of the peo- 

 ple ? Where else is their power directly felt in 

 our system of government save in this House? " 



On March 3d, the rules were suspended and 

 the bill put upon its passage, and at the same 

 time a vote was taken on the respective num- 

 ber of members proposed. 



On the question of the number of Repre- 

 sentatives fixed at three hundred and twenty- 

 two, the vote was yeas 119, nays 132. 



On the question with the number fixed at 

 three hundred and nineteen, the vote was 

 yeas 136, nays 123. 



The bill was then passed yeas 145, nays 113. 

 No action was taken upon it in the Senate; and 

 the session closed on March 3d. 



SPECIAL SESSION OF THE SENATE. 



At noon, on the '4th of March, Vice-Presi- 

 dent Arthur, who had just taken the oath of 

 office, assumed the chair in the Senate, and the 

 official proclamation calling a special session of 

 that body was read. The chief object in call- 

 ing this session was to enable the Senate to re- 

 ceive and act upon such appointments as the 

 new President might desire to submit. The 

 terms of office of twenty-five Senators had ex- 

 pired with the Forty-sixth Congress, and their 

 successors were as follows: 





The result of these changes was an equal 

 political division of the Senate. There were 

 37 Republicans and 37 Democrats, while Gen- 

 eral Mahone, of Virginia, elected by the Read- 

 juster wing of the Democratic party, and Judge 

 Davis, of Illinois, were rated as independents. 

 The President's Cabinet appointments, which 

 were submitted on the second day of the ses- 

 sion, were promptly confirmed. They took 

 three members from the Senate, viz., Blaine, of 

 Maine, Windom, of Minnesota, and Kirkwood, 

 of Iowa, whose places were subsequently filled 

 by the election of William P. Frye in Maine, and 



