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Show LATEST DISPATIM FORTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. j Washington, 13. Kenmn pre-uuted pre-uuted a memorial 1 1" the Mow York bjurd of trade nd transportation b-gntd by oflicera thereof and a large oumber of business men, member of that organization, rem oust rating against the passage of the silver bill and Butting forth the inconvenience of silver in commercial transaction. Laid on the table. Hamlin from the committee bn foreign relations reportud adversely on the petition of certain citizens of j Now York asking an appropriation Irom me uuioeso i no enmity iuuu to aid persons In certain provinces of China now Buffering on account of lumine. He said the committee was unanimously of the opinion that it was utterly impossible to gat any re lif to the sufferers and besides any attempt to devoto the (Jbinesc indemnity indem-nity fund to that purpose would lead to discussion. Doraey submitted the following: Resolved that tbe secretary of the interior bo and hereby is direoted to report to the senate at the earliest possible day the number of persons now on United States pension rolls in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Louisi-ana, Missouri, 8outh Oarolinaj Texas and Indian Territory. Also the number num-ber of payments reported daily to the commissioner of pensions made to suoh persons by the pension agent from the 4th day of September, 1877, , to tho ol&t day of January, 1878, inclusive. in-clusive. I Dorsey said that last Bumcr.er an order was made abolishing many pension agencies and he believed one of the results was many pensioners didn't receive their money promptly. ! He thought this the most direct way to right it. Maxey from the committe on mili tary atlaira, reported back tbe resolution resolu-tion submitted some days ago by Tburaian in regard to increasing the annual appropriation for the army, and equipping the militia ol the several sev-eral states and the payment of certain cer-tain war claims due Ohio. He said the bill to increase the appropriation is now before the senate and the war claim of Ohio should be considered by the committee on claims. Agreed to. Bills were passed providing fjr the nate of laoda in Kansas, and for hold ing a United StateB district court for the southern district of Iowa at Burlington. Bur-lington. ' Sargent reported with amendment the senate bill to authorize and equip an expedition to the Arctic seas, known aa tho Howgate. i Placed on the calendar. Morrill of Yermont, called up the house joint iesolution declaring that a reduction of the tax on distilled epiritais inexpedient which woe discussed dis-cussed till tbe expiration of tbe morning hour and then laid aside and the senate resumed consideration of the silver bill. Merrimon spoke in favor thereof. Sargent took the floor at 3 o'clock and spoke in opposition to the silver bill. In opening hia speech he read the resolutions of the recent meeting of the San Francisco chamber ol commerce, which he said expressed tbe general sentiment of business men of the Pacitio states, and tbe dictates of sound sense and due re- gaiU lo national prosperity and public honor. He argued forcibly to show tho disasters which must flow from the Bland bill; that gold would be without employment here, and con sequently go abroad; that no act ol j congress can call it back. Gold could not then be found circulating even in , tne Pacific Btates. The only class ol j people who would derive benefit were the silver speculators. The law would strike a blow at our prosperity that would require two generations of patient labor and economy to recover from. Tbe arrest of the funding of the debt at lower interest, the withdrawal with-drawal of protection to American industry by indirect reduction of the tarifl' and tbe banishing of gold from the country might all be averted by an amendment providing that the proposed coinago Bhall be legal tender for all debts except for customs and interest on the public debt. All tbe evils may be averted by remouetiziDg silver, though a dollar of adrquate intrinsic in-trinsic value. Tbe Bland bill kills confidence, for wautof which business is at a Btaudelill and laborers sufter. Saunders supported tho bill but oppostd all amendments, iiolsi;. Kice of Ohio, chairman, reported u bill granting pensions on account ol wouudj, etc., contracted in thesorvice of the United Siatea since March 4th, 1801. For the payment of arrearB of pensions and for the restoration to the rolls of the names of invalid persons stricken therefrom on account of disloyalty. Keferred to the committee of the whole and made a special order for this day two weeks. The bouse then went into commitice of the whole, Blackburn in the chair, on the military academy appropriation bill, the pending amendment being to atrike out the tectiou prohibiting the appointment of civilians to the rank of second lieutenants when no more vacancies occur than can be filled by tbe next graduating class of tbe academy. White oflered an amendment pro viding that nothing in the bill should prevent the appointment for commis-oions commis-oions in tho army of meritorous noncommissioned non-commissioned officers or privates. Adopted. The motion to strike out was then defeated. The section which provides when a cadet has once matriculated at West Point, no other appointment from the same district shall be made during the term for which such cadet was appointed if a vacancy should occur from any cause ether than death or physical disability, was stricken out. Clymer oflered an amendment providing pro-viding that only such number of graduates of the military academy in oue year shall be entitled to appointment appoint-ment to second lieutenaut as is re quired to till vacancies in ttiat grade existing on July 1st, of each year. Those entitled to such appointments to be determined on the b&ses of Him standing of tbe graduation class, and Hereafter no supernumerary officers shall be attached to any corps of the army and all j:rduatet of the academy not attained to the army under the provuions of this act ahull be discharged iu graduation from the academy. Keagau oHered as & substitute amendment that as vacancies occur in the academy every alternate vacancy shall remain vacant for on academic term, so there shall be for the future half the present number or; cadets. Southard referred to tho evil of a' large standing army. It was the! history of the world that standing armies sapped the liberties ol the, people. This country had seen in j titaBCM of the tyranny and oppression of a standing army, notably in the i Inst presidential election. Ten thou-j sand men ws-uld be sufficient to protect pro-tect our border, while congress had; kept an army of 2o,000 all these years j for the purpose of harrassing thel people and overriding constitutional ' privileges. Conger said he did not know why bis friends on the other side were bound on destroying the army and kept nibbling at it on all occasions. He had often asked what tho hidden motive was, but no man had ana' wermi him, but sheltered tbemaulvM behind the beautiful cry of economy. Hia friend from Ohio (JUtbarJ) had let out the secret a little wy and said it. was because the rmy hail been used in the south in the presidential election. Under the proteose of ecoaomy the democratic party were I cutting down tho army. I Humphrey opposed cutting down the army on account ot strikes, etc Hale reiterated tbe charge mode by Conger that tbe democratic party was determined to out down the army. I Attiflj, there is no such motive. It lis a false assumption on the part of tbe gentleman from Michigan that there is a hidden motive on this Bide I of the bouse to destroy the army. Hale said he had listened day by Idav to speeches tending in that direction. direc-tion. That was cortainly the current of things. Southward had objected to tbe army because it had been used in the south. Those tropps had been withdrawn as a measure of reconcilta tion, and the answer to that measure oi reconciliation was that the knile was put into the army. Chalmers said he bad hoped the war waa over. He believed this was a day of reconciliation. He believed government could afford to do justice to its citizens on both sides, in the firm conviction that both sides were welded together in strong bonds of union. Gentlemen at hii sid had come back to the Union bearing in their hearts no malice, no liugering feeling, no ill will to the gallant gentlemen whom thoy had met on the field of battle. He saw those gallant men before, behind and around him. Men who bud fought on the southern side were not iaalous of the wreaths of fame whicb were worn by those gentlemen who had fought on the other side. He contrasted con-trasted the honor done to men who had been killed on either side, but he did not grieve about that. Gentlemen om his side did not have the slightest feeling of disloyalty toward the Union. Conger, amid contemptuous laughter on democratic side, stated at aome length that tbe real motive which demoarats bad in cutting down the army was in order mat when it got the appointing power the army might be filled with old officers who had left the army for reasons oi' their own, Hewitt sent to clerks desk and had read remarks he had made last Monday in regard to selling West Point and the charge whicb had been made against him by House of Tennessee, that he bad slandered the people of the south He had felt deeply grieved at the language of that gentleman. He had arisen at the moment, and attempted to get floor iu ordsr to correct the misapprehension under whioh House1 was evidently labering. ; If there was1 anything in the language he had used, I which could be construed into any I slandering of tbe representatives of the southern states, be would take it I back, but he insisted that his motivos I were to defend tho representatives of the Bouth from the slander which had been uttered against their good name, by the gentleman from South Carolina Caro-lina (Aiken), when he declared that West Point was an incubus on the' country. . j House replied that if Hewitt intended in-tended no reflection on the southern ' representatives he was g'ad to hear it. I The remark which he had made had been bastd on his understanding of f the gent's remarks. If he had mis-, understood it, then justice impelled him to say that he should not have made the reply which he had made. I He had uuderstood it, however, aa a' reflection on every southern member; L as the statement that the remark nf Aiken had been inspired by southern hostility to West Point, became through the skill and prowess of tbe West Point officers South Carolina and other southern states had been whipped back into the Union. He! thought the southern representatives should ba permitted to disouss the question ot public policy without having the fact that they bBd panici- j pated in the rebellion fiuig into their i faces. They fought like men and! since the surrender had behaved like! men. He did net deny love for hia1 section and for i',s people. The man1 who did not love the spot where bis mother rocked bis cradle was un- ! worthy ot any country. (Applause.) Hewitt of New York, anu Aiken then addressed the chair in the midst ' of contusion and excitement Foote suggested that public business busi-ness should be proceeded with. Towusend of New York, (excitedly,) (excited-ly,) A southern man House Has just time piven him; why not give a northern man I Hewitt Time. (Laughter and ap- plauie.) f Atkins suggested that there was no ! necessity for so much excitement. Durham demanded the regular i ordi r of businesB, but tbe call was I only laughed at on both sides of the1 house, and without any diminution of excitement and confusion, Hewitt again got the floor. He said be was: glad to hear what had fallen from tho 1 lips of the gentleman (rum Tennessee, (House). The remark ol bis, which that gentleman had taken exception i to, was that of the geutleman from I South Carolina (Aiken), that he! WOUld VOte for thA nhnlitinn .A , sale of West Point. He (Hewitt) did not believe there was another mem-bor mem-bor from the southern states who would give hia assent to that proposition, proposi-tion, and hence, in repudiating that declaration, he had felt bound to repudiate re-pudiate it as a democrat, whose motives might be called in qne- tiOD. At the request of Allison, it waa agieed to coutinue in session on Friday Fri-day until the bill was disposed of. |