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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



highest places the shameless doctrine avowed by men 

 grown old in public office that the true way by which 

 power should DC gained in the republic is to bribe the 

 people with the offices created for their service, and 

 the true end for which it should be used when gained 

 is the promotion of selfish ambition and the gratifica- 

 tion of personal revenge. I have heard that suspi- 

 cion haunts the footsteps of the trusted companions of 

 the President.' 



" Sir, it is not my picture ; it is drawn by an- 

 other Land, and it will live as long as the Eng- 

 lish language is spoken or written. 



" Mr. President, I presume it has been de- 

 termined that this bill shall pass the Senate. 

 It is not my hope or expectation to defeat it, 

 but I could do no less than place upon record 

 the reasons why I shall vote against a measure 

 which in my judgment is without a single claim 

 upon the justice or generosity of the American 

 people." 



Mr. Logan, of Illinois : " Mr. President, the 

 Senator from Missouri always speaks well on 

 any subject, but, like other men, he sometimes 

 falls into errors. I will try to answer his propo- 

 sitions one at a time if I can. His first propo- 

 sition is that there is no precedent for this bill, 

 as I understood him. That is a most astound- 

 ing statement to me, and certainly it ought to 

 be to the Senate. This proposition is to take 

 a man who is now a civilian and authorize the 

 President of the United States to appoint him 

 to the army with a view of putting him on 

 the retired list. That is the proposition, and 

 the Senator from Missouri says there is no pre- 

 cedent for any such thing. Why, sir, on your 

 calendar now are bills of that character. 

 There has not been a Congress since 1866 that 

 has not passed bills authorizing the President 

 to nominate men to the army who had become 

 civilians either by resignation or otherwise 

 from the army; and there has not been a 

 President since the war down to the present 

 time who has not by virtue of bills that have 

 passed Congress nominated civilians to the 

 army, and they have been confirmed by the 

 Senate. 



" The next proposition he makes is that in- 

 asmuch as General Shields, who was his prede- 

 cessor on this floor, was not placed back in the 

 army as he requested to be, being old and 

 feeble and poor, therefore no other man ought 

 to be. I will say to the Senator that the re- 

 fusal to place General Shields back in the 

 army did not prevent the Senate of the United 

 States from placing Colonel Lee and Colonel 

 Haller back in the army, who had been out 

 longer than General Shields. So there is 

 nothing in that. I call the Senator's attention 

 to the fact that when the bill for General 

 Shields was before the Senate of the United 

 States, asking that he might be put back in the 

 army, so that he might be placed on the re- 

 tired list, although I was not a member of the 

 Senate at that time, I wrote a letter and pub- 

 lished it in the public prints to the very Sena- 

 tor who made the motion the Senator spoke of 

 to amend the bill which defeated the bill. 



That letter was published all over this country, 

 defending General Shields, and insisting that in 

 right and justice the bill for his benefit ought 

 to pass. 



" So the Senator can not lay it at my door 

 that that bill was not passed, and General 

 Shields was not put in the army, because I 

 was one of his friends and one of his advo- 

 cates, publicly, although I had not a vote on 

 this floor at the time. I gave the law in that 

 letter, and I gave the reasons for it, not so ably 

 perhaps as the Senator from Missouri would 

 have done, but as ably as my feeble ability 

 would allow. 



" Then, sir, another proposition the Senator 

 states is that this bill is presented for the reason 

 that General Grant was defeated at Chicago, 

 and because of that certain of his friends de- 

 sire to remunerate him. Why, I am only sur- 

 prised, as I go along examining the speech of 

 the Senator, at his want of recollection. Does 

 the Senator and I call his attention specially 

 to this pretend to say, and shall it go broad- 

 cast to the country, that this bill was only in- 

 troduced after General Grant was defeated at 

 Chicago ? Is that his statement ? He is wo- 

 fully at fault in that. Senator Elaine intro- 

 duced in Congress, long before Chicago was 

 ever named as the place for the last Repub- 

 lican Convention to be held, a bill putting 

 General Grant on the retired list. The prop- 

 osition had been made in the Senate and in 

 the House long before General Grant was ever 

 mentioned as a candidate before the Chicago 

 Convention. So the Senator's beautiful pict- 

 ure of untying the money-bags and remuner- 

 ating the fallen fortunes of a candidate for 

 the presidency goes for naught when you come 

 to the facts. 



"Why, sir, shall the Congress of the United 

 States, the people of this country, refuse to 

 give the President authority to renominate 

 General Grant to the army for the purpose of 

 putting him on the retired list ? For what ? 

 Merely as an acknowledgment by the whole 

 country that the people were, and that the 

 people yet are, willing to show their gratitude 

 to the one man who, above all others, did more 

 in the army to save his country than any other 

 man. Some say, ' Why let us retire ex-Presi- 

 dents?' When you retire ex-Presidents and 

 put them on the retired list you do that be- 

 cause they have been Presidents of the United 

 States. That is not the retirement that I de- 

 sire to see given to General Grant. I desire 

 to see him retired on account of his military 

 services, and not for any services as a civil- 

 ian : and that is what is proposed by this 

 bill." 



Mr. Butler, of South Carolina : " I do not 

 like to interrupt the Senator from Illinois, but 

 I do not wish to be put in the position of voting 

 against this bill because of prejudice. No such 

 motive as that actuates me. I have not one 

 particle of prejudice against General Grant. 

 There is scarcely an honor this country could 



