....The Vice-President announced that the morning hour had expired, and called up the unfinished business of the Senate at its last adjournment, viz, the resolution submitted by Mr. Sumner on the twelfth instant, for the appointment of a select committee to investigate alleged sales of arms and munitions of war by the Government of the United States to the government of France, during the late war between France and Germany; and
The Senate resumed the consideration of the said resolution; and
The amendment proposed by Mr. Schurz to the resolution having been agreed to, and the resolution having been further amended on motion by Mr. Harlan,
On the question to agree to the resolution, as amended, as follows:
Resolved, That a select committee of seven be appointed to investigate all sales of ordnance stores made by the Government of the United States during the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, A. D. 1871, to ascertain the persons to whom such sales were made, the circumstances under which they were made, the sums respectively paid by said purchasers to the United States, and the disposition made of the proceeds of said sales; and that said committee also inquire and report whether any member of the Senate, or any other American citizen, is, or has been, in communication or collusion with the government or authorities of any foreign power, or with any agent or officer thereof, in reference to the said matters, and also whether breech-loading muskets or other muskets capable of being transformed into breech-loaders have not been sold by the War Department in such large numbers as seriously to impair the defensive capacity of the country in time of war; and that the committee have power to send for persons and papers; and that the investigation be conducted in public;
After debate,
It was determined in the affirmative,
Yeas ... 52
Nays ... 5
On motion by Mr. Sumner,
The yeas and nays being desired by one-fifth of the Senators present,
Those who voted in the affirmative are,
Messrs. Ames, Anthony, Blair, Boreman, Brownlow, Caldwell, Cameron, Carpenter, Casserly, Chandler, Clayton, Conkling, Corbett, Cragin, Davis of West Virginia, Ferry of Connecticut, Ferry of Michigan, Flanagan, Goldthwaite, Hamilton of Texas, Hamlin, Harlan, Hill, Hitchcock, Johnston, Kellogg, Kelly, Logan, Morrill of Vermont, Morton, Nye, Osborn, Pomeroy, Pratt, Ramsey, Rice, Robertson, Saulsbury, Sawyer, Schurz, Scott, Sherman, Spencer, Sprague, Stevenson, Stockton, Sumner, Thurman, Tipton, Trumbull, Vickers, Windom.
Those who voted in the negative are,
Messrs. Cole, Edmunds, Gilbert, Lewis, Wright.
So the resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
On the question to agree to the preamble to the resolution, as follows:
Whereas it appears from a recent cable telegram that the committee of the French National Assembly on war contracts has adopted a resolution asking the United States Government to furnish the result of inquiry into the conduct of American officials suspected of participating in the purchase of arms for the French government during the war with Germany; and
Whereas one Squire, agent of Messrs. Remington & Sons, at New York, in a dispatch dated at New York, October 8, 1870, addressed to Samuel Remington, at Tours, in France, near the government of national defense, uses the following language: "We have the strongest influences working for us, which will use all their efforts to succeed;" and
Whereas in a letter dated at New York, December 13, 1871, addressed by Samuel Remington to Jules Le Cesne, president of the armament committee at Tours, in France, the following language is employed:
"New York, December 13, 1870.
"Sir: I have the honor to inform you I have received your telegram of the 10th and 11th, ordering the number of batteries to be reduced in number to fifty, and informing me of instructions to the consul regarding the last credit to him of 3,000,000 of francs.
"Although at the time of the receipt of the telegram I had bought the whole number, one hundred, and had paid the advance required, $200,000, the Government very willingly reduced the number to fifty.
******
"Regarding the purchase of Springfields, (transformed,) Allen's system, I am sorry to say the greatest number we may hope to get will not, I fear, exceed forty thousand. The Government has never made but about seventy-five thousand all told, and forty thousand is the greatest number they think it prudent to spare. I may be able to procure, depending upon an exchange of our arms at some future time, for the number of breech-loading Springfields over and above forty thousand they are willing to let go now.
"This question of an exchange, with the very friendly feeling I find existing to aid France, I hope to be able to procure more. Cartridges for these forty thousand will in a great measure require to be made, as the Government have but about three millions on hand. But the Government has consented to allow the requisite number, four hundred for each gun, to be made, and the cartridge-works have had orders, given yesterday, to increase production to the full capacity of works. This question of making the cartridges at the Government works was a difficult one to get over. But it is done. The price the Government will charge for the guns and cartridges will be --, or as near that as possible.
"Jules Le Cesne, Esq.,
"President Commission of Armament, &c., &c."
Whereas the Secretary of War, under date of January 19, 1872, addressed the following communication to the Secretary of State:
"War Department,
"Washington City, January 19, 1872.
"Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a note from yon of the 4th instant, inclosing, by request of Mr. de Bellonnet, chargé d'affaires of France, a copy of a letter from Mr. Remington to the president of the commission of armament at Tours, containing a series of allegations in regard to the purchase of arms, &c.
"The first of these allegations which seem to require specific replies is, 'cartridges for these 40,000 will in a great measure require to be made, as the Government have but about 3,000,000 on hand; but the Government has consented to allow the requisite number, 400 for each gun, to be made, and the cartridge-works have orders (given yesterday) to increase production to the full capacity of the works. This question of making the cartridges at the Government works was a difficult one to got over, but it is done.'
"In reply to that allegation, I have to say that on the 13th of December, 1870, cartridges necessary to supply about 200 rounds per gun to the model 1866 breech-leaders sold Thomas Richardson were ordered to be manufactured at the Frankford arsenal, and this number of cartridges was necessary to effect the sale of the arms. The Messrs. Remington & Sons did not buy any arms or ammunition from this Department after about the middle of October, 1870, nor would any bid from them for such articles have been entertained by the United States subsequent to that date.
"To the second prominent allegation which is contained in the paper purporting to be a copy of a telegram from Squire to Remington, and which is herewith returned, I have the honor to reply that this Department has no knowledge of any influence exerted in favor of, or for the success of, any transaction between the United States and Mr. Squire for himself or Messrs. Remington & Sons.
"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"WM. W. BELKNAP,
"Secretary of War.
"To the Hon. Secretary of State."
Whereas it appears from these several communications, not only that arms were sold, but that ammunition was manufactured in the workshops of the United States Government, and sold to one Thomas Richardson, the known attorney of Messrs. Remington & Sons, when the bids of the latter had been thrown out for the reason that they were the agents of the French government; and
Whereas it appears, from the official report of the Secretary of War, that, in the year 1870--'71, the sale of ordnance stores reached the sum of $10,000,000, from which, according to the report, only a small sum was retained to meet the expenses of preparing other stores for sale, while the official report of the Secretary of the Treasury for the same year acknowledges the receipt of only $8,286,131 70, showing a difference of over $1,700,000; and Whereas a comparison of the accounts rendered by the French government for moneys expended by its agents in the purchase of arms from the United States and the accounts rendered by the Government of the United States for moneys received in the same transaction show large difference, which seems to have given rise to the suspicion abroad that United States officials have taken an undue part therein; and
Whereas the good name of the American Government seems to be seriously compromised by these incidents, and a just regard to national honor, as well as to the interests of the Treasury, require that they should not be allowed to pass without the most thorough inquiry: Therefore,
On motion by Mr. Hamlin that the preamble lie on the table,
Mr. Edmunds raised a question of order on the motion of Mr. Hamlin, viz: That a motion to lay the preamble to the resolution on the table could not be entertained without carrying with it the resolution itself.
The Vice-President overruled the question of order raised by Mr. Edmunds, and decided that a division of the question having been demanded on the preamble and the resolution, and the resolution having been agreed to by the Senate, the motion to lay on the table the preamble, which was a question in debate within the meaning of the twelfth rule of the Senate, was in order; and that, should it prevail, it would not carry with it the resolution, which had been disposed of by the Senate, but could only carry with it to the table some proposition, if any remained, still remaining and undisposed of;
Whereupon
Mr. Edmunds appealed from the decision of the Chair; and,
On the question, Shall the decision of the Chair stand as the judgment of the Senate?
Mr. Sumner, while engaged in debate upon this question, was called to order by Mr. Sherman, on the ground that it was not in order in discussing an appeal from the decision of the Chair to debate the Merits of the preamble.
The Vice-President overruled the question of order raised by Mr. Sherman, on the ground that under the rules and practice of the Senate, it was not for the Chair, but for the Senator who might have the floor, to decide upon the relevancy of his own remarks to the question before the Senate.
Mr. Sherman appealed from the decision of the Chair; and
On the question, Shall the decision of the Chair stand as the judgment of the Senate?
It was determined in the affirmative,
Yeas ... 28
Nays ... 18
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