PRINTING OF A MEMORIAL.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. With
the consent of the Senator from Iowa I move that the memorial which was
presented yesterday from a committee of an agricultural convention and
referred to the Committee on Agriculture be printed.
The motion was agreed to.
MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE.
A message from the House of
Representatives, by Mr. McPHERSON, its Clerk, announced that the House
had passed the following bills and joint resolution; in which the concurrence
of the Senate was requested:
A bill (H. R. No. 1021) for
the relief of preëmption settlers in the State of California;
A bill (H. R. No. 1760) explanatory
of the internal revenue act of June 30, 1864, amended by the act of July
13, 1866, in relation to sirups, jellies, mustards, sauces, and canned
preserved fruits, vegetables, and meats, enumerated and taxed in schedule
C of said acts and acts amendatory thereof;
A bill (H. R. No. 48) to settle
and quiet the titles to lands along the boundary line between the States
of Georgia and Florida;
A bill (H. R. No. 1761) extending
the time for the completion of the Portage Lake and Lake Superior ship-canal;
A bill (H. R. No. 1762) to
authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to allow the printing and impressions
of currency notes and bonds, &c., for the use of Heath & Co.'s
Counterfeit Detector; and
A joint resolution (H. R.
No. 104) directing the Secretary of War to add the German language in the
United States Military Academy at West Point.
The message also announced
that the House had concurred in the amendments of the Senate to the following
bills:
A bill (H. R. No. 383) to
authorize the construction of a bridge across the Missouri river at or
near St. Joseph, Missouri;
A bill (H. R. No. 1417) for
the relief of George W. Morse; and
A bill (H. R. No. 1074) to
provide for the survey of the harbor and river at Washington, District
of Columbia.
The
message further announced that the House had passed the following bills:
A
bill (S. No. 384) extending the time for the completion of the Green Bay
and Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan ship-canal, in the State of Wisconsin;
and
A
bill (S. No. 392) to set apart a certain tract of land lying near the headwaters
of the Yellowstone river as a public park.
The
message also announced that the House had passed the bill (S. No. 550)
to constitute Shreveport, in the State of Louisiana, a port of delivery,
with an amendment, in which it requested the concurrence of the Senate.
ENROLLED BILL SIGNED.
The message likewise announced that the Speaker of the House had signed the enrolled bill (S. No. 675) granting to James D. Dana the use of certain plates, and it was thereupon signed by the Vice President.
SALES OF ARMS TO FRENCH AGENTS.
The Senate resumed the consideration
of the resolution submitted by Mr. SUMNER on the 12th instant.
Mr. MORTON. For one
I desire to express the hope that we shall remain here to-day until this
discussion is closed and the vote has been taken.
Mr. COLE. I concur in
that.
Mr. WRIGHT. Mr. President,
this debate has been greatly protracted, taking a very wide range; and
yet I trust I shall be pardoned, even at this late hour in the discussion,
and at the hazard of trespassing on the patience of the Senate at a time
when a vote is so anxiously desired, if I add a few words. Among
the last coming to a place in this body, and counting myself, as I do,
in all sincerity, and especially in the presence of these crowded galleries,
among the humblest of those around me, I nevertheless do not feel at liberty
to refrain from stating the considerations controlling my action.
I suppose, Mr. President,
as was suggested yesterday by my friend from New Jersey, [Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN,]
it will not be deemed out of order to discuss the measure now before us.
To avoid all questions at this point, however, I shall possibly say enough
upon some other matters to bring myself within the practice if not the
rules of the Senate.
We have been in session, Mr.
President, now nearly three months. Almost one half the time fixed
by our action for the continuance of the session has expired, and yet what
has been done? I feel bound to say in all candor, next to nothing.
Before the adjournment in December, upon the question of appointing a "committee
of investigation and reform," we had a debate running through days and
weeks. The days were absolutely lost fixing the day of final adjournment
solely and entirely, as I submit, because of an effort to attach conditions
as unprecedented in parliamentary proceedings as they were unnecessary
and inexpedient. Following this we had the discussion upon amnesty
and what has been styled its "twin measure, the civil rights supplement,"
but which, in my judgment, was in no manner germane to the text to which
it was sought to be attached--a discussion running through another ten
days, and ending, as every Senator must have seen, because of the tactics
pursued, in the defeat of both, and this, too, in the face and teeth of
the fact that both, as independent measures, might have passed in half
the time consumed by that debate. I say they were defeated by the
tactics pursued by some of the friends of both rather than the enemies
of either, for it is now obvious, as it clearly was to every unprejudiced
mind during the protracted struggle, that the measures conjoined lost votes
sufficient to defeat them, which they certainly would have had, and that,
too, in sufficient numbers, when disconnected, to have carried either separately.
For myself, I may say in passing,
that while I would vote for the civil rights bill, amended
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