The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session of the Thirty-Ninth Congress Page: 835
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1867.
THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
835
who prefer foreign markets to domestic mar-
kets ; those wlio prefer to buy of the English-
man or the Frenchman or the German when
they can buy intheir own country articles bet-
ter adapted to them merely because they are at
a little higher price here.
Mr. President, I vote thus because I believe
the more we make at home and buy from each
other at home the more solid and substantial
and powerful we become as a people. At the
same time, sir, I would reach our statesman-
ship a little further, and I would encourage the
carrying trade too. I would have commerce
one of the great branches of the industry of
the nation; and in place of seeing oar steam
marine driven from the Atlantic ocean by for-
eign subsidized lines, I would reach out a little
of the money that pours so freely from the
pockets of the people into the Treasury of the
United States; and I would have the star-
spangled banner still keeping the van of com-
merce in these waters. It is a shame and a
scandal that while we have voted the freest
measures of legislation for the protection of
manufactures, we who believe in the system,
and I agree with those who believe in it, have
at the same time almost turned our backs upon
our great marine.
But, sir, I said that I should only make a
few remarks, and I shall keep my word good.
I am very anxious for a vote; I only make
these remarks to warn Senators who represent
States that have grown rich and great by a pro-
tective policy against any such want of gen-
erosity and fair dealing to their neighbors as to
propose an abandonment of the measures by
which they have grown rich and great because
their neighbors now propose to come in and
participate in the benefits of the same policy.
Mr. WILSON. I have but a word to say
in reply to the Senator from California. The
Senator thinks that the remarks I saw fit to
make should not come from a Senator from
Massachusetts, for the reason, I suppose, that
during the last forty years Massachusetts is
supposed to have been greatly benefited by the
tariff policy of the country.
Mr. CONNESS. "Supposed!" Do you
not know that she has been?
Mr. WILSON. I have only to say on that
point that we had to raise money to support
the Government, and we adjusted the duties
generally on revenue principles. Sometimes
and in some things we departed from the rev-
enue principle and adopted protection; but
generally the protection that we have received
in Massachusetts and in the country generally
has been incidental to revenue. Now, we have
to raise one hundred and forty or one hundred
and fifty millions a year in gold. Duties must
be laid to produce that result. I know that as
a consequence of the imposition of duties to
that extent, if they are laid fairly and according
to any principles acknowledged and accepted
as sound principles at home or abroad, there
will be incidental protection enough to the
productive interests of the country; and I have
110 anxiety upon that point.
But, sir, I have no idea that there is any
principle in this bill. Put a principle of any
kind in it, and you can blow it to^ atoms. It
is simply an arrangement, a sort of a conglom-
eration. I do not complain of it because it is
so, for I do not see how we could adopt any-
thing else in the present condition of the coun-
try. Our great trouble has been brought upon
us by the necessities of the country, by the
enormous currency that we have. The Sen-
ator from Indiana [Mr. Hendricks] told us
in his speech to-day that he was opposed to
reducing this currency ; and 1 have discovered
lately that from portions of the country where
the bill now pending is denounced, and por-
tions of the country, too, from which denun-
ciations are heaped upon Massachusetts or
New England in regard to it, petitions are
coining in against any reduction of this seven
or eight hundred millions of irredeemable
paper. I believe sound policy requires that
this Government should tend toward the
resumption of specie payments at as reason-
able a day as possible. I would not press it
beyond a reasonable, steady policy. In ad-
justing these tariff duties at this time I have
no fear whatever of the result so far as my
State is concerned.
But I have noticed another thing here, and
I have noticed it with pain, that the general
drift and tendency of the amendments that
have been made has been to strike at my State
or section of the country. Now, sir, I am ready
to take my share of the responsibility of the
action upon this bill. I-voted last year against
acting upon the House bill in order that the
measure might be deliberately and carefully
considered ; and I believe more mind, more
thought, more reflection has been put upon
this tariff bill than all the tariff bills that have
been made for the last half- a century in this
country. I have not a doubt of it; and we
shall have a better bill now than we would have
had if we had acted upon the House bill at the
last session. I say I am ready to take my
share of the responsibility of passing this meas-
ure and of every denunciation that may be
made upon it. I am anxious to make these
adjustments on as sound principles as possible,
to make the bill as perfect as we can, to take
care, not only of the interests of Massachusetts,
but of all sections of the country, manufactur-
ing, agricultural, mechanical, and commercial.
But what do we have here? Everybody is
talking just as though we of Massachusetts
were living on the bounty of this Government;
as though they hold us in the hollow of their
hands, and if they close their hands we die. I
tell them we can live, adjust your tariff as you
please. We are no pensioners, and we are rea-
sonably independent.
Mr. CATTELL. I suggest to the gentleman
that that arises in part from the fact that you
have been protected for the last thirty or forty
years.
Mr. WILSON. Not half as much as you
gentlemen are disposed to say. We have been
protected as others have been protected under
this Government, nothing more and nothing
less. While I do not denounce the policy of
the past nor deny the reasonable benefits that
have grown out of it, I do object to this hold-
ing up of Massachusetts and of my section of
the country as responsible for this measure.
What did we hear here to-day? What have we
heard on the stump during the last few months ?
What have we heard in the public press and
everywhere? Denunciations of the manufac-
turers and the mechanics and machine-shops
of Massachusetts and of the eastern States, as
though we were getting up, advocating, and
forcing through measures unjust to the other
sections of the country. Now, sir, what I said
just now is true: that the great duties upon
coal, upon iron, upon steel, and upon wool are
not compensated to us by anything in this bill;
and in no sense of the word is it a Massachu-
setts measure.
I say that here. I am ready to stand by it,
and events in the future will demonstrate it.
The war in the future will riot be upon Penn-
sylvania steel and iron, nor upon Ohio wool,
but it will be after all upon "the manufac-
turers ; the great mammoth corporations of
Massachusetts and New England." What 1
demand here is that gentlemen who are putting
on these duties for their own sections of the
country shall take their full share of the re-
sponsibility for the tariff we are passing ; and
I want the country to hold them to the same
responsibility they hold us.
Mr. BUCKALEW. I votedagainst adjourn-
ing some time ago in the hope of getting a vote
on this amendment; but as there is evidently
no quorum present, I move that the Senate do
now adjourn.
Mr. FESSENDEN. I ask for the yeas and
nays on that motion.
The yeas and nays were ordered; and being
taken, resulted—yeas 8, nays 10; as follows:
YEAS—Messrs. Buckalcw, Conness, Creswell, Mor-
rill. Sumner, Van Winlde, Willey, and Yatra—8.
NAYS—Messrs. Cattell, Chandler. Cragin, Ed-
munds. Fessenden, Fogg. Foster, Irehnghuysen,
Grimes, Howard, Howe, Morgan, Spn gue, Stewart,
Wade, and Wilson—1G.
ABSENT—Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Cowan, Davis,
Dixon, Doolittle, Fowler, Guthrie, Harris, Hender-
son, Hendricks, Johnson, Kirkwood, Lane, McDou-
gall, Nesmith, Norton, Nye.-Patterson,Poland, Pom-
eroy, Ramsey, Riddle, Ross. Saulsbury, Sherman,
Trumbull, and Williams—28.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. On this
question the yeas are 8, the nays 16. The Sen-
ate refuse to adjourn, but there is no quorum
voting.
Mr. PESSENDEN. I move that the Ser-
geant-at-Arms be directed to request the at-
tendance of absent members.
Mr. GRIMES. I move to amend the mo-
tion by adding '' to appear to-morrow at twelve
o'clock." [Laughter.]
Mr. FESSENDEN. "And to stay until
dinner is ready."
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the
Senator from Maine accept -the -modification
of the motion ?
Mr. FESSENDEN. No, sir.
Mr. GRIMES. Then I move that amend-
ment to the motion.
Mr. WILSON. I move that the Senate do
now adjourn.
The motion was agreed to; and the Senate
adjourned.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Tuesday, January 29, 1807.
The House met at twelve o'clock m. Prayer
by the Chaplain, Rev. C. B. Boyntok.
The Journal of yesterday was read and
approved.
civil service.
Mr. JENCKES. I desire to call up a motion
that I made last evening.
The SPEAKER. When the House ad-
journed last evening the gentleman from
Rhode Island had moved to suspend the rules
so as to enable him to report bill of the House
No. 889, to regulate the civil service of the
United States and promote the efficiency
thereof. The gentleman .from Rhode Island
stated that many gentlemen voted last evening
with the understanding that the bill would
come up this morning. Is there objection to
the consideration of the bill ? The Chair hears
none.
The House accordingly proceeded to the
consideration of bill of the House No. 889, to
regulate the civil service of the United States
and promote the efficiency thereof.
Mr. SPALDING. I call for the reading of
the bill.
Mr. JENCKES. Let the bill be read.
The bill was read, and is as follows :
A bill to regulate the civil service of the United
States, and promote the efficiency thereof.
Be it cnaated by the Senate and House of Represent-
ative* of the United States of America in Congress
assembled. That hereafter all appointments of civil
officers in the several departments of the service of the
United States, except postmasters and such officers
as arc bv law required to be appointed by the Presi-
dent by "and with the advice and consent of the ben-
ate, shall be made from those persons who shall have
been found best qualified for the performance ot the
duties of the offices to which such appointments are
to be made, in an open andeompetitiveexammation,
to be conducted as herein proscribed.
Sec 2. And be it further enacted, lhat there shall
be appointed by the President, by and with the ad-
vice and consent of the Senate, a board of three com-
missioners, who shall hold their offices for the term
of five years, unless sooner removed by the President
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to
bo called the civil service examination board, among
whose dutiesshall be the following:
1. To prescribe the qualifications requisite lor an
appointment into each branch and grade oi the civil
service of the United States, having regard to the
fitness ot each candidate in respect to age, health,
charactcr, knowledge, and ability for the branch ot
service into which he seeks to enter.
2. To provide for the examination of all persona
eligible under this act who may present themselves
for adinissiou into the civil service.
3. To establish rules governing the applications ui
such persons, the times and places ot their examina-
tions, the subjects upon which such examinations
shall be had, with other incidents thereof, and M0
mode of conducting the same, and the manner ot
keeping and preserving the records thereof, ana oi
perpetuating the evidence of such applications, qual-
ifications, examinations, and their result, as they
shall think expedient. Such rules shall be s o li amcd
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, book, 1867; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30917/m1/85/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.