IN SENATE.
TUESDAY, January 15,1861.The LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR called the Senate to order, and after the reading of the Journal, laid before the Senate a communication from the Doorkeeper, stating that the Sentinel and Journal Companies refused to receive the subscription of the Senate to their daily papers upon the terms dictated by the Senate on yesterday.
The LIEUT. GOVERNOR announced the committee of reception and correspondence with Hon. A. Lincoln, on the part of the Senate to be Senators March, Anthony, Steele, Conner, Line, and Hamilton.
Mr. MURRAY. I am instructed by a portion of my constituents to lay before the Senate of Indiana, a series of resolutions, which I send to the Clerk's desk.
[The resolutions are fourteen in number, as adopted by a meeting in Goshen, Elkhart county, on the 5th inst., reciting that in casting their votes for Abraham Lincoln for President of the United States, they were actuated by a high sense of duty ; giving expression to Union loving sentiments; protesting against the spread of slavery; sustaining the conduct of Major Anderson at Fort Sumpter, &c., &c., &c.]
The resolutions were referred to the Committee on Federal Relations.
Mr. RAY. I have a document I desire to submit for the consideration of the Senate; and I am somewhat uncertain as to whether it is in order. While it is a memorial, it is at the same time a joint resolutiona document, sir, which I think will form a fit response to the very extraordinary message which we heard yesterday from His Excellency the Governor in the other end of the Capitol. A document, sir, which I think, in view of the fact that the President elect is soon, as we learn from a resolution adopted by this and the other branch of the Legislature, to pass through the capital of Indiana, on his way to Washington to be inaugurated, is appropriate at this time. It is a fitting response also, sir, I think to the resolutions which we have just heard read at the Secretary's desk. At a time like this, sir, when the fabric of our Government is trembling around our heads, it is fitting-
Mr. WAGNER. (Interrupting,) Mr. President, what is the question before the Senate ?
The LIEUT. GOV. I would suggest that there is nothing before the Senate.
Mr. RAY. With all due deference to the gentleman raising the point of order, it is a rule recognized in deliberative bodies that when a party offers a resolution, and before it is read at the desk, he may explain its object and purpose.
The LIEUT. GOV. The right of explanation I recognize.
Mr. RAY. I was going on to explain that this document is intended as a declaration by the Senate of Indiana, and also by the General Assembly of Indiana, if the House concur, of the sentiments which they hold in relation to the crisis which is upon the Federal Government. Without then troubling the Senate with any further remark than simply to say that we think the conservative sentiments that are declared in the preamble and resolutions should actuate all parties in the land, and are the sentiments alone upon which this Federal Union can be preserved, I submit the document.
The LIEUT. GOV. decided the resolutions to be out of order at this time.
STATIONERY.
Mr. ANTHONY, from the select committee appointing to provide a plan for the procurement and proper distribution of stationery for the use of the Senate, submitted a report in writing directing the State Librarian to procure the stationery, and to deal it out upon the written order of Senators-blanks for that purpose to be printed.
Mr. SLACK suggested an amendment that blanks be printed, with a bond and security clause, for the good behavior of Senators during the session. [Laughter.]
Mr. SLACK and Mr. TARKINGTON opposed, and Mr. CRAVENS sustained, the report of the committee.
Mr. MURRAY offered as a substitute for the report a plan by which each Senator shall be charged with the stationery he procures the same as was in force last session.
The substitute on motion by Mr. ANTHONY was laid on the table-yeas 28, nays 18.
Mr. NEWCOMB and Mr. MARCH favored the adoption of the committee report-the latter with an amendment that the Librarian procure stationey from the Secretary of State.
Mr, ANTHONY accepted the amendment.
Mr. TARKINGTON moved to amend by providing that the Secretary of the Senate procure the stationery for the use of the Senate.
On motion by Mr. MELLETT the amendment was laid on the table.
On motion by Mr. WAGNER the report was adopted, with an amendment that the Librarian make a report to the Senate every two weeks.
page: 43[View Page 43]RULES AND ORDERS.
Mr. LINE, from the select committee on the revision of rules, reported no amendment to the rules of the last session ; but several joint rules with a recommendation that 200 copies be indexed and printed for the use of the Senate.
On motion by Mr. WAGNER the report was adopted with an amendment, including the standing committees and order of business.
NEWSPAPERS FOR MEMBERS.
Mr. SLACK offered a resolution directing the Doorkeeper to procure three copies each of the Daily Sentinel and Daily Journal, and two each of the Free Press and Volksblatt-two of each paper to be enveloped and stamped.
Mr. STONE moved to amend by striking out the word "three," and inserting the word "one."
Mr. NEWCOMB moved to amend the amendment, by providing that each Senator may subscribe for blank copies of any of the city papers, report his choice to the Senate, and that they be paid for out of the State Treasury, at a rate not exceeding the price paid at the last session.
Mr. CLAYPOOL favored this latter proposition, and would like to see the blank filled with six copies, four of them stamped.
Mr. JOHNSON made an ineffectual motion ayes 13, nays 33-to lay the amendment to the amendment on the table.
Mr. Newcomb's amendment was agreed to.
Mr. Stone's amendment as amended by Mr. Newcomb was agreed to-affirmative 29.
Mr. LINE moved to fill the blank with the word "six."
Mr. MELLETT was opposed to the amendment to the resolution. He made an ineffectual motion to lay the resolution and pending amendments on the table.
Mr. NEWCOMB explained that Senators preferring to take weekly papers would be entitled to thirty-six.
Mr. SLACK made an ineffectual motion to refer the matter to a select committee of three. He then moved to fill the blank with the word "nine."
On motion by Mr. ANTHONY, this amendment to the amendment was laid on the table-yeas 32, nays 11.
Mr. SLACK moved to amend by adding three copies of the Free Press and the Volksblatt, in addition to the number prescribed.
On motion by Mr. CONLEY this amendment was laid on the table-yeas 31, nays 13.
Mr. Line's motion to amend was agreed to by yeas 31, nays 14.
The resolution, as amended, was then adopted by yeas 24, nays 20.
A MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE
Was received, announcing the passage by that body of a joint resolution [H. R. 9] in regard to the postage, pay and mileage of members of the General Assembly; and a joint resolution [H. R. 11] in relation to the free navigation of the Mississippi.
EMPLOYEES OF THE SENATE.
Mr. MELLETT offered a resolution, which was adopted, requiring officers of the Senate to report to-morrow the number of assistants employed by each, and the duties discharged by them.
CALUMET DAM.
Mr. TURNER submitted a preamble and resolutions, setting forth the grievances of the inhabitants of Lake county, in regard to the dam across Calumet River, asking the Judiciary Committee to act in the matter; adopted.
CLAIMS AGAINST THE SENATE.
Mr. BEESON offered a resolution, which was adopted, directing the Committee on Finance to allow no claims submitted within ten days of the close of the session, unless accrued within that time.
SETTLEMENT WITH THE STATE AUDITOR.
Mr. TARKINGTON offered a resolution, which was adopted, authorizing the appointment of a committee of three to examine the books of the retiring State Auditor, and report the result of their investigations to the Senate.
RE-DISTRICTING THE STATE.
Mr. WILLIAMS offered a resolution, which was adopted, authorizing the appointment of a committee of one from each Congressional District for the purpose of re-districting the State for Senatorial purposes.
VOTERS IN SCHOOL MEETINGS.
Mr. MURRAY offered a resolution, which was adopted, directing the Committee on Education to enquire into the expediency of so amending the school law as to define who are entitled to vote at school meetings.
CLERKS TO COMMITTEES.
Mr. MELLETT offered a resolution, which was adopted, directing that no committee shall employ a clerk without authority of the Senate.
IN RELATION TO EXECUTIONS.
Mr. FERGUSON offered a resolution, which was adopted, enquiring of the Judiciary Committee what legislation is necessary in regard to proceedings supplementary to executions.
A RESOLUTION OF THANKS.
Mr. LINE offered a resolution, which was adopted unanimously, tendering thanks to Hon. John R. Cravens for the able and impartial manner in which he has presided over the deliberations of the Senate during the present session.
FEDERAL RELATIONS.
Mr. HAMILTON. I offer the following joint resolution, [S. 3.] These resolutions are forwarded to me by a gentleman of high standing, and high literary attainments, who page: 44[View Page 44] has a deep and abiding interest in the affairs of the country. He is anxious they should be presented to the country.
The resolutions,which are very lengthy,were read and referred under the rule to the Committee on Federal Relations.
Mr. RAY then submitted the series of resolutions on the State of the Union, which he offered early in the morning hour: and they were read. Joint Resolution [H. R. 4.]
To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled;
The State of Indiana, by her Senators and Representatives in General Assembly convened, respectfully memorializes and represents to your honorable bodies that she views with the utmost anxiety the perilous condition of the American Union; that she, moved by an imperative sense of duty to our common country in addressing the Congress of the United States on the portentious condition of public affairs, imploring prompt action on some scheme of pacification that will preserve the Federal Union and restore tranquility to the country.
Entertaining, as your memorialist does, the most profound conviction of the blessings, as well as the threatened dangers of the Union, she is ready to make great sacrifices to perpetuate the one and avert the other.
At a time like this, when the foundations of the National government are shaken and its pillars crumbling away, it is the solemn duty of every State in the American Union to discard all specious fallacies in regard to slavery-all blind resentment for supposed agressions-all pride and sectional animosities, and all partisan criminations, and forgetting the mutual provocations of the past, bring all offensive doctrines and platforms, all abstract theories aud barren creeds, as sacrifices upon the altar of a common country.
The State of Indiana, not unmindful of her position and duty in this respect as a conservative State of the Union, solemnly invokes the wisdom and patriotism of the national Congress to the noble work of fostering loyalty to the Federal Government, strengthening the bonds of the Union, removing all disturbing causes, staying the tide of revolution and giving a peaceful solution to the great problem of the age.
The labors and sacrifices of an immortal ancestry in devising this beautiful and complicated form of Federal Government, the experiment of civilized man for self-government, the happiness, the prosperity, the civilization and the destiny of the American race hang, it is believed, upon the speedy and effective action of the American Congress. Events of an age are crowding themselves into hours, events of an incalculable magnitude, fraught with the issues of Union or Disunion, peace or war, the rise or fall of a great empire.
The State of Indiana can not but deplore the sectional madness and party infatuation that would suffer the dismemberment of this confederacy on any theory that the supposed integrity of platform is of greater consequence than the existence of this Government.
She takes great pride at this critical junction in declaring to her sister States that the records other past legislation are not sustained by nullifying laws or personal liberty bills.
While the State of Indiana is firmly attached to the Union of the States, and regards the un broken peace of the country as an indispensible condition of its continuance, and while she denies the asserted Constitutional right of any State to secede from the Federal Union, and while she recognizes a plain duty in the Federal Government to enforce the Federal laws, and maintain Federal supremacy over Federal property, yet she recognizes the duty and policy of moderation and forbearance on the part of the Federal Government toward the seceding States, and that at this junction, only the civil powers of the Government can safely be used to enforce the laws, and in behalf of the Union and peaceful enforcement of the laws, the State of Indiana exhorts the National Government to second, by legislation, the efforts of the Executive to enforce the laws by civil process.
And while the State of Indiana recognizes, as a last resort, the inalienable right of revolution by a State for sufficient cause, and she does not regard the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency alone a sufficient cause for revolution, yet in frankness and justice to her sister States, she is bound to say, that the aggregate of grievances which the South has sustained at the hands of the North, including the election of a sectional President, upon a simple anti-slavery issue, does furnish good ground of alarm to the slaveholding States, and justifies them in demanding concessions and new guarantees for the safety of their institution.
The State of Indiana, therefore, not wholly despairing of the Republic, but greatly at a loss for an adequate remedy for the impending catastrophe of a disrupted Government, regards with great favor the series of propositions lately submitted by the Hon. John J. Crittenden to the Senate of the United States, as furnishing a basis for an adjustment which shall withdraw the further agitation of slavery from the National councils, as well as from Northern politics; correct public sentiment in the North; secure the return of the disloyal States; save the land of Washington from a sanguinary war; preserve the honor and prestige of the American name, and perpetuate the liberties of a people who have wantonly put them at stake to abide the fortunes of Revolution, and the arbitrament of the sword.
For these, among other reasons, the State of Indiana prays for prompt action by the Congress of the United States in the passage of said propositions, looking to an amendment of the Federal Constitution, to meet the exigencies of the case; and further, the State of Indiana looking to the possible defeat of said scheme of adjustment, and looking to the fearful progress of the revolution, which must inevitably carry with it the pillars of the Constitution and insure the horrors of civil war, she prays, in that event, that your Honorable bodies will unite in calling a National Convention of the States to consider amendments to the Constitution of the United State. In conclusion, your memorialist repeats that the solution of the impending calamities is to be found in conciliation and compromise, and not in the power of the sword, which, if once drawn, will never be re
page: 45[View Page 45]turned until every State in the Union has become a blood-stained desert. She asks that the people of the nation may have an opportunity of speaking with their own lips, and their own tongues, and from their own hearts, and not through the doubtful and uncertain medium of political oracles. Therefore,
Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, That copies of the foregoing memorial, certified by the President and Secretary of the Senate, and by the Speaker and Clerk of the House of Representatives, be and they are hereby directed to be forwarded to Washington City, and one copy to the Vice President of the United States, and the other to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to be by them laid before the bodies over which they respectively preside.
Mr. JOHNSON moved to suspend the rule referring the resolution to the Committee on Federal Relations.
On motion of Mr. WAGNER,this motion was laid on the table-yeas 25, nays 21.
The joint resolution was then referred, under the rule, to the Committee on Federal Relations.
Mr. SLACK offered a resolution, directing the Committee on Federal Relations to report back the joint resolution just referred to them, on to-morrow, without amendment.
On motion by Mr. WAGNER-yeas 25, nays 21-this resolution was laid on the table.
And then-
On motion, the Senate took a recess till 2 o'clock.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
The LIEUT. GOV. laid before the Senate the printed reports of each of the Benevolent Institutions of the State, which were laid upon the table without reading.
POSTAGE STAMPS FOR THE LIEUT. GOVERNOR.
Mr. BEARSS offered a resolution which was adopted by consent, that the Doorkeeper purchase three dollars worth of postage stamps for the use of the President of the Senate.
STATIONERY FOR REPORTERS.
Mr. MURRAY offered a resolution, which was rejected upon a division, allowing the same privileges as respects stationery to reporters admitted to seats on the floor of the Senate to report its proceedings as are allowed members and officers.
BANK AND CANAL REPORTS.
The LIEUT. GOV. laid before the Senate the report of the Trustees of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and the report of the officers of the Bank of the State, and its Branches ; which were laid on the table without reading and 100 copies ordered printed.
HOUSE OF CORRECTION FOR JUVENILES.
Mr. BLAIR offered a resolution, which was adopted, authorizing the appointment of a select committee of five to inquire concerning the procurement of a site for a House of Refuge for juvenile offenders.
A MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE
Was received announcing the passage by that body of a joint resolution [H. R. 8.] instructing and requesting our Representatives in Congress to take such action as will secure to actual settlers on the public lands a homestead of 160 acres. Also a joint resolution [II. R. 7.] instructing and requesting Representatives in Congress to procure further aid or relief for the soldiers of the war of 1812.
BILLS INTRODUCED.
The following new propositions were submitted, and passed the first reading.
By Mr. ANTHONY: [S. 28.] For the organization of the Indiana Militia, prescribing the duties of certain officers, providing for a military fund and its disbursement. &c., and repealing all existing laws.
On motion by Mr. ANTHONY the rules were suspended-yeas 34, nays 8-and the bill read by title only, the first and second time; and 300 copies ordered printed.
By Mr. TURNER: [S. 29.] To amend section 14 of an act defining misdemeanors c., approved June 1(5, 1852; increasing the punishment by adding imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months.
By Mr. BLAIR: [S. 30.] To amend sections 4, 5, 18, 20, 21, and 22 of an act regulating general elections, c., approved June 7, 1852.
[This bill amends the law now regulating general elections so as to require a residence in the township of thirty days immediately preceding any election to eniitle any person to vote at such election-defines what shall constitute a residence-and the manner of testing the qualifications of persons offering to vote and whose votes are challenged, &c., &c.]
By Mr. HAMILTON: [S. 31.] To perfect title to purchasers of Railroads sold by foreclosure or other proceedings in law or equity, or in pursuance to provisions of mortgages or deeds of trust, &c., and to enable them to organize corporations and assume corporate powers.
On motion of Mr. ANTHONY the rules were suspended-yeas 42, nays 0-and the bill was read by title only.
By Mr. MURRAY: [S. 32.] Changing the law for the assessment of property, the levying and collection of taxes, &c., as follows:
1st. Township assessors to make their return at the March instead of the June session. 2d. Taxes for county and township purposes to be levied at the March session, enabling the auditor to complete his duplicate by the 15th Sept., also to have the road tax worked out in the spring. 3d. Settlements of collections of delinquency to be made 15th August instead of October. 4th. The period of tax-paying without penalty to terminate last Saturday in page: 46[View Page 46] December. 5th. Settlement of auditor and treasurer to commence first Monday in January. 6th. On fourth Monday of January, auditor to forward abstract of settlement to Auditor of State, by mail, and abstract of school taxes to Superintendent of Public Instruction. 7th. The auditor and superintendent determine the amount of school money for each county, and forward statement to county auditor. 8th. Treasurer makes his settlement by the first Monday in March. 9th. On second Monday in March pays over school money to township.
By Mr. WILSON : [S. 33.] To punish employees of railroad companies for embezzling or stealing railroad tickets or moneys belonging to such companies, and prescribing the mode of punishment thereof.
[A message from the House announced the passage of a resolution authorizing a joint committee-three on the part of the Senate and four on the part of the House-to apportion the State for representative and senatorial purposes.].
By Mr. WOLFE : [S. 34.] To amend sec. 2 and 5 of the liquor law, approved March 5, 1859; construing "intoxicating liquors" to mean spurious and distilled liquore only, and reducing license from $50 to $20.
By Mr. WAGNER: [S. 35.] To apportion Senators and Representatives for the next six years.
By Mr. MILLER: [S. 36.] to amend sec. 49 of an act for the opening, location and change of highways, approved June 17, 1852, so as to facilitate the opening of private roads.
By Mr. WOLFE: [S. 37,] to amend sec. 1 of an act relative to the salaries of public officers, &c., approved March 5, 1859, so as to reduce the salary of the President of the Sinking Fund from $3,000 to $1,500.
By Mr. LINE, as chairman of a select committee, [S. 38,] authorizing county auditors to purchase dockets for justices of the peace, to pay for the same out of the county treasury, and providing for the safe keeping of said dockets.
By Mr. FERGUSON : [S. 39.] To give the same force and effect to surveys made by city surveyors in certain cases, as if made by the county surveyor.
By Mr. CLAYPOOL: [S. 40.] For the protection of fish; making it unlawful to catch fish in the inland waters of the State by drag net, heel net, seine, or obstructing in any way the transit of fish up or down stream.
And then-
On motion the Senate adjourned.
