The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session Forty-First Congress; Together with an Appendix, Embracing the Laws Passed at that Session Page: 3,148
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3148
THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
May 2,
the bill with an intendment, to add to the first
section:
Prnvitinl. That no olalra shall be held to exist
against tUo United States for suck drainage.
The amendment was agreed to.
Mr. PRATT. I move to amend the second
section by adding the words "subject to said
lien."
The amendment was agreed to.
The bill was reported to the Senate as amend-
ed, and the amendments were concurred in.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a
third reading, was read the third time, and
passed.
BAILIFFS OF DISTRICT COURTS.
Mr. HAMLIN. I now ask to take np the
bill (S. No. 781) to amend an act entitled "Ah
act fixing the compensation for the bailiffs and
criers of the courts of the District of Colum*
bia,'' approved February 22, 1867. I will
explain it in a moment.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senate will
resume the consideration of the bill if there be
no objection. The Chair bears none. It is
before the Senate as in Committee of the Whole.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Let the bill be read.
The Secretary read the bill.
Mr. HAMLIN. Now I will read the law to
which that refers, which is precisely this bill,
word far word, with the '• orphans' court"
omitted, as I have said, by accident;
"That the feailiffi and criers who are repaired by
the marshal or court* of the District of Columbia to
attend upon the district, circuit, or criminal court of
said District"—
Omitting the "orphans' court"—
"shall be paid by said marshal 63 50 per day for
«aeh day's attendance, instead of two dollars, as now
provided hy law. commencing with the 1st of Janu-
ary. 1868."
This bill amends that law, puts in the
orphaus' court, just as was designed to be
put in.
Mr. POMEROY. That is precisely what I
said before; this gives $1 50 a day to the crier
of the orphans' court since 1866.
Mr. HAMLIN. Precisely; it does that.
Mr. POMEROY. That is the very thing I
am opposed to.
Mr. HAMLIN. The others have all had
their pay.
Mr. POMEROY. I do not propose to go
back.
Mr. HAMLTN. Then more to amend.
Mr. POMEROY. If we give him more let
us do it from the date of this law, bat not go
b&ck w&rd
Mr. HAMLIN. Say "provided that the
bailiff of the orphans' conrt shall not receive
any increased compensation prior to this time."
Mr. POMEROi. This paying a man $1 50
a day more sinoe 1866 is the reason I objected
to the bill before.
Mr. DRAKE. I suggest toi the honorable
Senator from Maine that this bill ought not to i
be a transcript of that section which he has j
just read, because upon its face it authorizes
the paying of these criers again.
Mr. HAMLIN. No; they have all got their
Ilr. DRAKE. But this authorizes them to
be put in again. Would it not be better to
amend the bill and simply confine its operation
to the orphans' conrt? i
The VICE PRESIDENT. The question is
on the amend mentof theSenator from Kansas.
Mr. POMEROY. My amendment is to make
the increased pay take effect from this time.
Mr. DRAKE. 2 move to amend in line j,
nine by striking out the words "of the district
circuit, criminal, orso as to read: 1
That the bailiff* ore riert whe are required by the
marshal or courts of the District of Columbia to at- 1
tend upon tho orhpans court of said District shall j I
be paid by said marshal $3 50 per day for each day's 11
attendance, from and after the passage of this act. -
Mr. BAYARD. I would ask how many
-bailiffs are required for attendance on the
orphans' court.
Mr. HAMLIN. Only one.
Mr. BAYARD. Then it bad better be put
in the singular and not the plural.
The VICE PRESIDENT, The amendment
will be regarded as agreed to.
The bill was reported tothe8enate as amend-
ed, and the amendments were concurred in.
Mr. BAYARD. I ask that the bill, as
amended, be reported.
The Secretary read as follows :
lit it enrxcted, <£*>., That tho act entitled "An act
fixing the compensation for the bailiffs And eriers
of the courts of thoDistrict of Columbia," approved
February 22. 1807; be, arid the same is hereby,
amended so as to read as follows: that the bailiff and
crier who is required by the marshal or courts of the
District of Columbia to attend upon the orphans'
court of said District shall be paid by said marshal
$3 50 per day for each day's attendance, (instead of
two dollars as now provided by law,) from and after
the passage of this act.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a
third reading, and was read the third time.
Mr. FERitY. The bill as it now stands re-
peals the whole act of 18C7, and makes a new
law applicable to the orphans' court.
Mr. HAMLIN. Oh, no. I want the bill
read again.
The VICE PRESIDENT. It will again be
reported.
The Secretary read the bill.
Mr. FERRY. It strikes out the provision
as to all the courts but the orphans' court.
Mr. POMEROY. There is uo law to pay
the rest of them.
Mr. WILLIAMS. I suggest that the bill be
amended so as to provide that this officer shall
be paid so much.
The VICE PRESIDENT. If there is no
objection that amendment will be incorporated.
Mr. HAMLIN. I will propose an amend-
ment which I think will meet the views of the !
Senate, although it will not meet my own. I 1
would take the bill precisely as it was reported j
by the committee, and then I would add at the j
end of it, "provided that the bailiff of the ,
orphans' court shall receive $3 50 per day
from and after the passage of this act." All !
the Oitbers have got their pay. J
The Secretary. The amendment is to add
to the original bill.
Provided, That the bailiff of the orphans' court
shall receive the compensation herein provided for
only from the passage of this act.
The VICE PRESIDENT. Is there objec-
tion to this amendment? The Chair hears
none.
Mr. HAMLIN. That makes it distinct.
Mr. WILLIAMS. I do not know what effect
that will have. I think we bad better pass the
bill over and fix it up hereafter; but if the Sen-
ator from Maine is perfectly clear about it I
8hall not interfere.
Mr. HAMLIN. That amendment makes it
plain.
Tbe VICE PRESIDENT. The amendment
will be made by general consent.
The bill was passtd.
JOHN YOUNG.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The next bill on
the Calendar is the bill (H. R. No. 6102) for
the relief of John Young, which was indefi-
nitely postponed, and the motion to postpone
indefinitely was, by unanimous consent, recon-
siddpccii
Mr. FERRY. Let that bill go over.
Tbe VICE PRESIDENT. The bill will be
passed over.
NIAGARA RIVBRBKIDGB.
The next bill on the Calendar was the bill
(H. R. No. 489) to authorise the construction
and maintenance of a bridge across the Niag-
ara river.
Mr. RAMSEY. That bill may go over
informally.
The VICE PRESIDENT. It will be passed
over informally.
ESTEBAN O. MONTANO.
The next bill on the Calendar was he bill
(S. No. 833) authorizing payment .of Abe
amount awarded to Esteban G. Montano, a
citizen of Peru, under the claims convention
between the United States and Peru of Decem-
ber 4, 1868.
Mr. EDMUNDS. That had better go over.
Mr. SUMNER. Is tho Senator aware that
this bill is to carry out tho provision of a
treaty, on tho reoommendation of the Presi-
dent? The President has communicated by
message the resultof this convention, by which
a certain sum has been awarded to Esteban
G. Montano. He is the only Peruvian who
has prevailed before the convention, while
some twelve of our own people have prevailed
and have had awards in their favor. By the
treaty the provision for the payment on each
side must be within four months from the
date. Any delay in this case of course must
have a tendency to postpone the payment of
our own people in whose favor much larger
allowances have been made than for this Peru-
vian. If the Senator has examined the ques-
tion, and if he sees any ground to go behind
the positive stipulation ot the treaty, followed
by the decision of the commission, I should
like to know it.
Mr. EDMUNDS. I am obliged to admit
that any delay will, as my friend says, have a
tendency to postpone the payment of these
claims. Nobody can deny that. But I am not
altogether ignorant, although I have not the
honor to be a member of my friend's commit-
tee, of this case. I believe it to be an unadul-
terated fraud, to express it flatly. This man
has been paid four times already what he wa3
justly entitled to, what he recovered in the
courts of law under a previous convention, and
be has come in again to get a further payment
from tbe Treasury of money that he is no more
entitled to than my friend from Massachusetts
or myself, as I believe.
I know that here was a convention, and I
know that here was an award; but we were
taught by my friend the other day, and taught
correctly, that we have a right to go behind a
judgment, or a statute even, for any fraud or
deceit or improper practice, upon the general
joules of equity. He read to us from Aristotle
and Bacon those quotations as to equity con*
trolling our conduct. If wp are Satisfied that
this claim is a fraud, and that this commission
was either imposed upon or was a party to the
fraud, it entitles us justly to protect the Treas-
ury of the people against the perpetration of
suchaperformance as this, I am informed, really
is-; and if the consequence of our protecting
our own people against a fraud by a Peruvian
is to deny to our own citizens for a.time just
claims against the Peruvian Government, they
must submit or we must make H good to them
in some other way.
If I am rightly informed, and I am quite sure
that I am, this is a claim that will not bear
investigation at all. This commission has been
imposed upon, egregiously imposed upon. This
man has not a shadow of a claim. On the con-
trary, when the facts are displayed to you, as
they can be from tbe documents, I am sure there
is not a Senator within the sound of my voice,
not even excepting my friend from Massachu-
setts, who would stand up and say that the
claim is at all just, or has any shadow pf jus-
tice in it.
Mr. SUMNER. I hope I shall be pardoned
for making a brief statement. The Senate has
already once voted on this claim and allowed
some $30,000 on a report which I had the
honor to make, and in making it I did not act
as the Senator admits that he does* upon the
information of others ; I acted on the evidence
brought before the committee. The case went
to the House of-Representatives, and there it
failed. Meanwhile a commission was consti-
tuted, by a treaty between the United States
and Peru, to audit the claims of Peruvian citi-
zens against the United States and, of citizens
of the United States against Peru, and th^t
commission has sat. I have the result,of the
commission. It was communicated to tne Sen-
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session Forty-First Congress; Together with an Appendix, Embracing the Laws Passed at that Session, book, 1870; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30886/m1/320/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.