WASHINGTON, March 27, 1873.

'JAMES A. GARFIELD.

About the middle of November last, two weeks before the meeting of Congress, the Committee on Appropriations assembled in Washington and sat from two to five hours per day examining the estimates and preparing the annual appropriation bills. Three of the twelve regular bills were completed by the time Congress assembled, and were introduced on the first day of the session. One of these, the legislative appropriation bill, was placed in charge of Mr. GARFIELD, chairman of the committee, who introduced it into the House on the 2d day of December. That bill makes appropriations for all the salaries of all the employés of the Government in the three great Executive Departments of the Government, except for the pay of the Army and Navy. It includes in separate chapters the various departments and bureaus, and represents in one view the whole machinery of the Government. One seventh of the

total annual expenditures of the Government, exclusive of the interest on the public debt, is appropriated for in this bill. The proceedings on this bill consumed the greater part of twelve sessions of the House and nine of the Senate. The record of votes and debates upon it fills nearly four hundred columns of the Congressional Globe. As it was reported to the House by the Committee on Appropriations, no salary was raised above the amount already provided by law; but in several instances salaries were reduced which had been raised by the legislation at the preceding session. As guardians of the public expenditures, the committee regarded it as their duty to resist a tendency that is always manifested on this bill, to increase salaries by special amendments. The bill was called up for action on the 7th of January and read by paragraphs and de

bated in Committee of the Whole during the 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 14th, 15th, and 16th of January. On the 7th of January a few salaries of clerks of the House were increased by a vote in Committee of the Whole, the Committee on Appropriations opposing. On the 8th of January a motion was made to increase the salary of the Journal clerk and tally clerk of the House. On this motion

Mr. GARFIELD said: I desire to make a single statement. The Committee on Appropriations have not moved an increase of these salaries in any case. Yesterday the House raised several salaries of officers of the House. If those salaries are to remain raised, there is a certain inequity in allowing others to remain where they are. I do not know whether this particular amendment ought to pass or not. It has not been brought to my attention; but I wish to wash the hands of the Committee on Appropriations from any responsibility for inaugurating this increase of salaries. This amendment has not been before the committee. On the 10th of January,

Mr. GARFIELD said: I desire to take this occasion to call the attention of the Committee of the Whole to the matter of salaries. There have been about thirty salaries increased, all of them employés of this House, including the pages. That has been done not by the consent nor by the recommendation of the Committee on Appropriations. At the proper time I shall ask the attention of the House to that matter. If these salaries are to remain raised then there are a large number of persons in the employ. ment of this House whose salaries should also be raised. We have done injustice to some by raising the salaries of others, and after a time I have a recommendation to make from

what is stated in that motion, so the question may be brought up for consideration in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, where every man can express his opinion on the subject.

Before we vote I should

Mr. GARFIELD. like to have that bill read.

The bill having been read, the yeas and nays were called; the motion to suspend the rules not being debatable.

The question was then taken by yeas and nays; and there were-yeas 81, nays 120, Mr. | GARFIELD Voting "nay."

The motion failed, and the salary increase was not attached to the miscellaneous appropriation bill.

Other business had crowded over several of the appropriation bills, and on the 24th of February, late in the afternoon,

Mr. GARFIELD said: I move that the House take a recess until half past seven o'clock. Before the question is put on that motion, I wish to say that it seems to me imperative (and the Committee on Appropriations are of the same opinion) that this evening, after finishing the bill-the fisheries bill-of the gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr.. BANKS, we should make some progress in considering the amendments of the Senate to the naval and legislative appropriation bills.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Mr. Speaker, does not the eight-hour law apply to this House? [Laughter.]

The SPEAKER pro tempore, (Mr. WHEELER.) The Chair thinks not.

The question being taken on the motion of Mr. GARFIELD for a recess, there were-ayes 115, noes 53.

Mr. BECK, of Kentucky. I call for the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

Mr. BECK, of Kentucky. I now move that|| the House adjourn. More than half the men who vote to have night sessions do not attend those sessions. We have had a call of the House every time we have had a night session.

The question being put on the motion of Mr. BECK, of Kentucky, that the House adjourn, there were-ayes, 63, noes, 102.

Mr. BECK, of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw the demand for the yeas and nays on the motion for a recess, hoping this will bring a quorum to-night.

Mr. PETERS. We will all be here tonight.

So the motion for a recess was agreed to. The House accordingly (at five o'clock and twenty-three minutes p. m.) took a recess until half past seven o'clock p. m.

The House met at half past seven in the evening, in pursuance of the above notice, and after finishing the fisheries bill, which was first in order, considered and passed upon the Senate amendments to the naval appropriation bill, which was completed about ten o'clock, whereupon

Mr. GARFIELD said: I rise to call up the legislative appropriation bill.

Mr. GARFIELD still holding the floor, some other business was transacted, by unanimous consent, when

Mr. WILSON, of Indiana, said: I move to suspend the rules in order to bring before the House for consideration the bill reported from my select committee [Credit Mobilier No. 2] in reference to the Pacific railroad.

Mr. BINGHAM. I ask my colleague [Mr. GARFIELD] to yield to me in order that I may make a report from the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. RANDALL. I demand the regular order of business. I insist the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. GARFIELD] shall go on with the appropriation bill or yield the floor unconditionally.

The SPEAKER. What has been going on has been going on by the sufferance of the gentleman from Ohio. What has been going on has been permissive. The Chair will advise the House it is his duty to recognize the appropriation bills before any and all other business whatever except privileged questions.

Mr. RANDALL. If the gentleman cuts off the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. WILSON] I object, unless he yields the floor unconditionally.

Mr. BURCHARD. I move the House do now adjourn.

The House refused to adjourn.

Mr. GARFIELD. I will not refuse to let the House settle the question in reference to the Credit Mobilier. I will not interpose even an appropriation bill against the settlement of that question. I therefore yield to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. WILSON] to make his motion.

The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. GARFIELD] yields to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. WILSON] to move that the rules be suspended, and the bill reported from the committee of which that gentleman is chairman brought before the House for consideration.

The vote being taken on Mr. WILSON'S motion, Mr. GARFIELD again resumed the floor and called up the legislative appropriation bill, which thus taking its place as the first business in order,

Mr. GARFIELD said: The bill now has the precedence of other business, and I hope the House will adjourn.

Many MEMBERS. No, no.

Mr. GARFIELD. Then I move that the House resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union for the consideration of the amendments of the Senate to the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation bill.

Mr. HOLMAN. I suggest that the amendments be considered in the House.

This could only be done by unanimous consent, and objection being made,

Mr. GARFIELD said: Pending the motion

that the House resolve itself into Committee of the Whole, I move that all general debate be limited to five minutes.

Mr. RANDALL. I renew the motion that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was not agreed to.

Mr. GARFIELD. I now ask for a vote on the motion that the rules be suspended, and that the House resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the special order.

Mr. SAWYER. I move that the House do now adjourn. It is now eleven o'clock.

Mr. GARFIELD. I think we had better adjourn.

Mr. SARGENT. If the House is willing to work, let us work.

The question being put on the motion to adjourn, there were-ayes forty-eight.

Mr. BURCHARD. I call for the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The question was taken by yeas and nays, and it was decided in the negative-yeas 59, nays 98, Mr. GARFIELD Voting "yea.'

Thus the House by a majority of nearly two to one refused to adjourn.

The question being put on the motion of Mr. GARFIELD, that the rules be suspended, and that the House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole on the Senate amendments to the legislative, &c., appropriation bill, it was agreed to-ayes 86, noes 49.

Mr. GARFIELD. Mr. Chairman, it is my desire to get this bill placed in a position where it will have precedence, and then I hope we may adjourn. Several gentlemen asked me an hour ago if this bill was likely to come up to-night, as they desired to be present during its consideration, and I told them that it was not likely.

Mr. ELDREDGE. Why then did the gentleman insist on going into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union? After he

had made that pledge we tried to adjourn, but the gentleman insisted on going into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union.

Mr. GARFIELD. The House insisted on going into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union.

Mr. ELDREDGE.

The House did not; it was the gentleman himself who insisted on it.

Mr. GARFIELD. to adjourn every time.

On the contrary, I voted

If gentlemen will send for a printed slip which accompanies this bill they will see all the amendments. There are several battlefields in this bill, and I wish to indicate them to gentlemen so that they may understand the matter. First, there is the matter about the Pacific railroad and the right of the Government in regard to recovering its interests and bringing suit to settle all these disputed points.

Another question raised by one of the amendments brings up the question of the suits pending in the Court of Claims growing out of

the captured and abandoned property act. That question presents itself in a new phase.

There is another question, as to the officers of the House. We found it exceedingly difficult to adjust an equitable balance of salaries between the officers of the two Houses. A few of the officers of the House had their salaries raised by the House when the bill first passed, in order to equalize them with corresponding officers of the Senate. The Senate non-concurred in all those amendments of the House raising the salaries of officers of the House, and at the same time put in some twenty amendments increasing the salaries of officers of their own, such as their committee clerks and the Journal clerks, whose salaries were already greater than those of the corresponding officers of the House.

The Committee on Appropriations have recommended a non-concurrence in those amendments of the Senate striking out the increased pay to officers of the House and also to those amendments increasing the pay of officers of the Senate, on the ground that we desire that the matter shall be equalized and that either the Senate shall not increase the salaries of their own officers, which are already higher than ours, or else that they shall put ours on an equality.

After further explanation of the Senate amendments, Mr. GARFIELD offered the first amendment recommended by the Committee on Appropriations, whereupon

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts, offered the following amendment:

That on and after the 4th day of March, A. D. 1873, the President of the United States shall receive for his services during the term for which he shall have been elected the sum of $50,000 per annum in full for his services, to be paid quarterly at the Treasury; the Vice President of the United States shall also receive for his services during the term for which he shall have been elected the sum of $10,000 per annum in full for his services, to be paid quarterly at the Treasury; and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States shall receive the sum of $10,500 per annum, and the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States shall receive the sum of $10,000 per annum each, to be paid quarterly at the Treasury, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Interior, the Attorney General, and the Postmaster General shall receive $10,000 per annum each for their services; and each Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, State, and Interior Departments, shall receive as annual compensation, to be paid quarterly, $6,500; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall receive compensation at the rate of $10,000 per annum, and Senators and Representatives in Congress and Delegates from the Territories admitted to a seat in Congress, including Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in the

Forty-Second Congress, shall receive compensation

at the rate of $7,500 per annum each; and in lieu of mileage there shall be allowed to each Senator, Representative, and Delegate, including those of the Forty-Second Congress, his actual expenses from his place of residence to Washington city, at the commencement of each session of Congress, and return, to be certified in a bill of items, to be filed as a voucher; and the sum of $1,200,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated therefor.

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts, made a speech in favor of his amendment. At the conclusion of which,

Mr. GARFIELD said: I regret, Mr. Chair

man, this subject comes before the House at such an hour of the night as this. We ought to have fuller discussion than possible on this occasion.

Mr. E. H. ROBERTS. Is not this matter before the House by his action at this hour?

Mr. GARFIELD. I will answer the gentleman. I have myself, as the House will remember, been in favor of the motion to adjourn, but when the House will not adjourn I am bound to go on with the business with which I am charged.

Mr. E. H. ROBERTS.

I should like to ask him if this bill could have come up tonight except on the motion of the gentleman from Ohio?

Mr. HALE, [member of the Committee on Appropriations.] Let me make answer, which perhaps I can do better than the chairman himself. The Committee on Appropriations was desirous of going on with this business, and instructed its chairman to go on and bring up this bill if possible. The chairman himself was not in favor of it personally, and has, I believe, voted twice to adjourn, but the committee wish to go further.

Mr. GARFIELD. If any gentleman in this House desires in any way to intimate that I have done or may do any other than my duty in calling the attention of the House to the public business, I am here to answer him.

I insist on the floor, and say this: I gave notice this afternoon to the House that I desired an evening session for the sake of bringing the naval appropriation and the legislative appropriation bills before the House after the one hour which was devoted to the bill of the gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. BANKS,] chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

It was not expected that when that hour ended more than twenty or thirty minutes would be needed for the naval appropriation bill. Gentlemen came here with the understanding that both these bills were in order. And, sir, if any gentleman has any responsibilities anywhere relating to any of these bills let him bear his share. I bear mine.

I rose, however, to say that I not only regret that this proposition has been brought here and now, but I regret that it has been brought at all.

Mr. NEGLEY. I should like to know why it is that the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations should undertake to lecture the House on a question which has been decided over and over again.

Mr. GARFIELD. I have the floor, and I desire to occupy my time myself. I desire to answer some of the points which have been made in support of this amendment. Some of the salaries referred to in the amendment, I doubt not, are too low-perhaps all of them. But I feel it to be my duty to call the attention of the committee to the movement of salaries in the last twelve years. I hold in my hand a statement of salaries other than legislative as they were paid in 1860. The total amount of salaries of officers of this Government here in Washington other than legis

lative in 1860 was $809,864 67. The war so greatly increased our civil service that now in the year just closed, in the calendar year 1872, the total for the same classes of salaries with the increase of bureaus that have been put on the various Departments was $3,598,978 35; being an increase of $2,789,113 68.

Mr. MAYNARD. Does that include the officers of the internal revenue service?

Mr. GARFIELD. It does, and the officers of the currency bureau and of the various Departments and bureaus of the Government which have been created during the twelve years that intervened between those periods.

two

Now, the fact that the salaries of the officers of the Government here in Washington other than legislative have been thus increased in the twelve years is a fact that the House ought to know. The main increase has been of officers here in Washington. And when it is proposed to increase the salaries by a sum, I think somewhere in the neighborhood of a million and a half or two millions of dollars in one amendment, I feel it to be my duty to show them what the total of the salaries will be. I of course believe that the propositions in this amendment ought to be separated. Some of them, gentlemen ought doubtless to vote for. But, to pass that amendment in the lump, as laid before the committee now, I do not think it just, I do not think it equitable, and I do not think the House will do it.

[Here the hammer fell.]

After several speeches had been made for and against the measure,

Mr. UPSON offered an amendment to strike out the retroactive provision of the bill, and spoke in support of his motion. It was also debated by others. On the retroactive feature

We

Mr. BUTLER said: Now, I want to state this fact every increase of salary of members of Congress which ever has been made since this Government existed always included the House of Representatives and the Congress in which the increase was made. are only following the precedent without exception, for the plain reason we are supposed by experience to have found out our salaries are insufficient, and finding that out, we increase for our successors as well as for ourselves.

The question was then taken upon the amendment of Mr. UPSON to strike out of the amendment moved by Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts, all in relation to Senators, members of Congress, and Delegates; and upon a division there were-ayes 60, noes 76.

Mr. DAWES moved to amend by adding the following:

That from and after the 1st day of January, 1873, there shall be paid, in addition to their compensation now fixed by law, twenty-five per cent. of the same in addition thereto as compensation to all officers in the several custom-houses of the United States whose annual compensation as now fixed by law does not exceed $2,500 per annum.

The amendment was rejected.

The question recurring on the amendment of Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts,

Mr. POTTER moved to amend the amend