206 



CONGRESS. (MISCELLANEOUS.) 



The President pro tempore: The Senator from 

 Ohio moves that the Senate proceed to the con- 

 sideration of executive business. 



The motion was agreed to; and the Senate 

 proceeded to the consideration of executive busi- 

 ness. After two hours and twenty minutes the 

 doors were reopened. 



In executive session a resolution was adopted 

 unanimously declaring both South Carolina 

 Senators in contempt and referring the matter 

 to the Committee on Privileges and Elections. 

 In open session the Senate adopted a resolution 

 allowing the Senators, though in contempt, to 

 make explanation. This is what took place: 



.Mr. Tillman: Mr. President, I have always 

 esteemed it a high honor and privilege to be a 

 member of this body. I had never had any legis- 

 lative experience when I came here, and my 

 previous service as Governor of South Carolina for 

 four years had unfitted me in a measure to enter 

 this august assembly with that dignity and re- 

 gard proper regard, I will say for its traditions 

 and habits and rules that is desirable. 



I have been here seven years. I have in that 

 time learned to judge men with a little more 

 catholicity of spirit than I did when I came here. 

 I have found a great many people here in whose 

 personal integrity and honor and regard for their 

 obligations as gentlemen I have implicit confi- 

 dence; but I have seen so much of partizanship, I 

 have seen so much of what I consider slavish sub- 

 mission to party domination, that I confess I have 

 felt somewhat at a loss how to judge men who 

 in one aspect appeared to be so high and clean and 

 honorable and in another appeared more or less 

 despicable. I say this because of the fact that 

 one of the Senators has seen fit to allude to some 

 matters that occurred in the debate this morning. 



I now want to say that, so far as any action 

 of mine has caused any Senator here, or the 

 Senate as a body, or the people of the United 

 States to feel that I have been derelict and have 

 not shown that courtesy and proper observance of 

 the rules of this body, I regret it; I apologize for 

 it. I was ready to do that two minutes after I 

 had acted ; but under the provocation, which was 

 known to all of you, I could not have acted other- 

 wise than I did ; and while I apologize to the 

 Senate and am sorry that it has occurred, I have 

 nothing more to say. 



Mr. McLaurin, of South Carolina: Mr. Presi- 

 dent, I did not realize that I was in contempt of 

 the Senate, nor do I think now, if my words are 

 read in the Record, that I was, but, at the same 

 time, as the Senate has ruled that I am in con- 

 tempt of this honorable body, I beg leave to 

 apologize. 



I desire to say, Mr. President, that I have been 

 very sorely and severely tried. I was in at- 

 tendance on the Committee on Indian Affairs 

 when I received a message from a friend in the 

 Senate that my presence was needed here. 



The history of the vote on the Spanish treaty is 

 known to all of you. There have been statements 

 made in newspapers and insinuations that I had 

 been influenced by improper motives in connec- 

 tion with my vote on that treaty. Knowing in 

 my own soul, and knowing that God in heaven 

 also knows that it was false, when I was told that 

 it was centered down to me, I was so outraged by 

 what I considered a most brutal assault upon my 

 honor as a man, and especially in view of the fact 

 that in the beginning of the session, after the ac- 

 tion of my party associates, I made a most care- 

 ful and deliberate statement explaining all these 

 matters, I did not feel as a man that I could ever 

 hold my head up again if I did not resent it in 



the place where it was delivered, in the strongest 

 and most forcible terms that I could employ. 



With that, Mr. President, I am done, except I 

 have this to say : If there is any more talk of that 

 kind or any more 



Mr. Patterson: I beg the Senator to refrain. 



Mr. McLaurin, of South Carolina: I will refrain, 

 Mr. President. 



Pending further action on the matter, Mr. Till- 

 man presented a protest to the Senate, which was 

 received by that body, Feb. 27. He declared him- 

 self ready to submit to whatever action the Senate 

 might take to vindicate its own rights and dig- 

 nity; but he protested against mere delay as de- 

 priving South Carolina of its right as a State to 

 be represented in that body. . On the following 

 day the committee in charge of the matter re- 

 ported a resolution of censure against Senators 

 Tillman and McLaurin, which was adopted by a 

 vote of 54 yeas to 12 nays. Its adoption, under 

 the terms of the resolution, cleared both gentle- 

 men of contempt. 



Miscellaneous. The Senate passed a ship 

 subsidy bill early in the session, but it was not 

 considered in the House of Representatives. 



The House passed a measure admitting Okla- 

 homa, Arizona, and New Mexico into the Union 

 as States; but the Senate got no further than to 

 make it a special order at the second session. The 

 House also passed an immigration bill, which the 

 Senate did not take up. 



Two treaties were ratified the modified agree- 

 ment with Great Britain on the Isthmian Canal, 

 and the agreement with Denmark for the pur- 

 chase of the Danish West Indies. 



The following acts were passed: 



What is known as the omnibus public build- 

 ing act. It bears the title " An Act to increase 

 the limit of cost of certain public buildings, to 

 authorize the purchase of sites for public build- 

 ings, to authorize the erection and completion of 

 public buildings, and for other purposes ; and it 

 deals with public buildings in 186 towns of the 

 United States. 



An act authorizing the President to reserve 

 public lands and buildings on the island of Porto 

 Rico for public uses, and granting other public 

 lands and buildings to the Government of Porto 

 Rico. 



An act authorizing the Commissioner of In- 

 ternal Revenue to return bank checks, drafts, and 

 certificates of deposit, and orders for the payment 

 of money having imprinted stamps thereon, to the 

 owners thereof. 



An act for the allowance of certain claims for 

 property taken for military purposes within the 

 United States during the war with Spain, re- 

 ported by the Secretary of War in accordance with 

 the requirements of an item contained in the sun- 

 dry civil appropriation act, approved June 6, 

 1900, authorizing and directing the Secretary of 

 War to investigate just claims against the United 

 States for private property taken and used in the 

 military service within the limits of the United 

 States. 



An act authorizing the adjustment of rights of 

 settlers on the Navajo Indian Reservation, Ari- 

 zona. 



An act to provide for funding taxes paid upon 

 legacies and bequests for uses of a religious, char- 

 itable, or educational character, for the encourage- 

 ment of art, etc., under the act of June 13, 1898. 



An act to amend an act to prohibit the passage 

 of special or local laws in the Territories, and to 

 limit the Territorial indebtedness. 



An act to provide for the homesteads in the Ute 

 Indian Reservation in Colorado. 



