The Wheeling Daily Register

CONGRESSIONAL.

WASHINGTON, February 24.

SENATE.

The House amendment to the political disability bill was concurred in.

On motion of Mr. Saulsbury the President was asked for a copy of the commission or authority issued to General Ames as Provisional Governor of Mississippi.

Mr. Williams offered a resolution that to the present irredeemable paper currency of the country would be to render more difficult the remote resumption of specie payment; to encourage and foster a spirit of speculation; to aggravate the evils produced by the frequent and sudden fluctuations of values; to depreciate the credit of the nation and to check the healthful tendency of legitimate business; to settle down upon a safe and permanent basis. and, therefore, in the opinion of the Senate, the existing volume of such currency ought not to be increased.

Agreed to without a division.

The bill to secure to all persons equal protection of the laws in respect to life and property was considered during the morning hour, without action.

The question of the admission of Senator elect Revels, of Mississippi, was postponed, at the suggestion of Mr. Sherman, to accommodate Messrs. Fenton and Patterson, who desired to make speeches on the funding bill, and who would be compelled to be absent after to-day.

Mr. Fenton desired the amendment of the present bill so as to authorize a single bond at 4½ per cent. in the sum of $1,000,000,000 or $1,200,000,000, not taxable by Federal, State or local authorities, payable in not less than forty and not more than fifty years, at the same time retiring the 5-20 and 10-40 bonds and effecting a gradual contraction by the gradual absorption of greenbacks in new securities, which would result in the resumption.

After Mr. Patterson's speech on financial topics, the Mississippi subject was taken up, the question being upon the motion of Mr. Stockton to refer the credentials of Mr. Revels to the Judiciary committee.

Mr. Saulsbury supported the proposed reference upon the ground entertained by his political associates in the Senate; that under the Constitution Revels was not eligible to a seat in the Senate.

Mr. Drake, during the remarks of Mr. Saulsbury, made a statement that Revels was neither a negro or a mulatto, but an octoroon, and that he made the statement out of compassion for the mental sufferings of his friend. Mr. Saulsbury, upon the probability of being compelled to associate in the Senate with a jet black negro.

Mr. Howard believed the proof of Revels' election conclusive, and that the only issue now was upon the acceptance or rejection of him on account of color. He (Howard) maintained that every person born in the United States and had not been a slave was a citizen, and he would carry this doctrine so far as to assert that even a black man born a slave was to be held a citizen from his birth. The Dred Scott decision, in his opinion, had sunk into eternal derision and contempt.

Mr. Williams remarked that Chief Justice Taney expressly limited the Dred Scott decision to those with pure African blood in their veins, and whose ancestors have been sold as slaves. It appeared that Revels was a man with a large proportion of white blood, and it followed necessarily that some of his ancestors were not slaves. Upon the whole, in view of all authorities, legal and otherwise, Revels had always been a citizen of the United States.

Mr. Cameron narrated the particulars of an interview between himself and Jefferson Davis just prior to the war, and before the latter had left the Senate, during which he declared to Mr. Davis his own conviction was that slavery would cease from the moment the first gun was fired upon the flag of the country, and that his (Davis') seat would some day in justice to God be occupied by a negro. He considered the attempt of the Senator from Oregon to argue that this man had more white than black blood in his veins unworthy any Senator, in view of the great services of the colored soldiers.

Without action upon the question the Senate adjourned.

HOUSE.

The galleries and corridors were thronged. The Whittemore case was immediately taken up.

Mr. Logan, who had the floor, yielded to Mr. Whittemore, who in a voice free from tremor, commenced to read his defense. He was quickly interrupted by the Speaker who, announcing the receipt of a communication from the gentleman, conceived it his duty to lay it before the House.

A slight Whittemore desired to recall it each layer finished his remarks, but the and trim declined to allow it and the it over the read as follows:

Washington, February 24, 1870.

Hon. James G. Blaine, Speaker of the House

of Representatives :

Sir : I enclose the following telegram

addressed by me to the

Governor of South Car-

olina, resigning my seat in Congress,

and a telegram accepting the same.

Please lay them before the House, and

notify them that I am no longer a

member of that body.

Respectfully yours,

B. F. WHITTEMORE.

Then follow copies of the telegram to

the Governor and the telegram from the Governor accepting.

Mt. Whittemore rose, when the

question, finally, an appeal was made by

Mr. Farnsworth, and immediately tabled

on motion of Mr. Cox,

Mr. Dawes said it seemed to him so

dangerous a precedent to be established

that a member could resign whether

the House willed it or not, that he de-

sired to put his opinion on record

against it. The constitution clothed

the House with power to punish a mem-

ber, but if a member could escape puu-

ishment merely by resigning, whether

the House willed it or not, all power to

control the House was at an end.

Mr. Farnsworth, by consent of Mr

Logan, moved the resolution of expul-

sion be laid on the table. Agreed to

without a division.

Thereupon Mr. Logan

offered the fol-

lowing

resolution :

Resolved, That B. F. Whittemore, late

member from the First District of South

Carolina, did make appointments to

the Military Academy at West Point,

and to the Naval Academy at Annapolis,

in violation of law, and that said ap-

pointments were influenced by pecu-

niary considerations, and that his con-

duct in the premises has been such as to

show him unworthy of a seat in the

House of Representatives, and therefore

condemned his conduct unworthy of a

representative of the people.

Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, asked

unanimous consent that Mr. Whit-

temore be heard on that resolution.

Mr. Morgan objected, and the resolu-

tion was adopted unanimously.

The House went into committee of

the Whole on the legislative appropria-

tion bill. The session was continued

until 4 o'clock, when the committee re-

ported the bill to the House. All the

amendments were agreed to except that

appropriating $90,000 for the mint at

Carson City, Nevada, and that appro-

priating $10,000 for the Bureau of Ed-

ucation.

Without disposing of them, the House

adjourned.