AFTERNOON SESSION.
The SPEAKER resumed at half-past two o'clock p. m., and announced the Special Joint Committee on Finance on the part of the house, viz: Messrs. Kercheval, Coffroth, Osborn and Dittemore.
Also, the House portion of the Special Joint Committee on Governor's Mansion, viz: Messrs. Ratliff, Williams of Union, Welborn and McBride.
Mr. RATLIFF moved a reconsideration of the vote fixing the visit to the Normal School at Terre Haute, for Saturday week.
Mr. HAMILTON of Vigo, said Thursday would be more acceptable to parties.
Mr. OSBORN opposed taking a working day for a visit.
COMMON SCHOOLS.
The SPEAKER overruled debate, stating that the motion goes to the clerk's files, and then announced the special order, viz: the consideration of the report of the Committee on Education, reporting a substitute for Mr. Osborn's colored school bill [H. R. 20] introduced January 12, and Mr. Ratliff's colored school bill [H. R. 45] introduced January 14. The substitute is entitled, "a bill to provide for the education of colored children, applying all school laws thereto; and repealing," etc.,--[where the district vote against the admission of colored children--separate organizations for them are to be provided.] The report recommends indefinite postponement of the original bills.
These propositions were read the second time by the Clerk.
Mr. COFFROTH moved that the substitute be printed, which he subsequently withdrew.
Mr. OSBORN moved to recommit the matter to the Committee on Education, with instructions to report his colored school bill [H. R. 20] without amendment.
page: 194[View Page 194]The motion was rejected; and the question recurred on concurring in the report of the Committee on Education--
Mr. OSBORN took the floor in favor of his bill, and against concurrence. The substitute of the committee was defective in that it interfered with school officers, without clearly defining their duties. His (Mr. O.'s) bill [H. R. 20 ] was complete in this respect. It was objected to his bill that it proposed legislation on the Township Libraries--a subject, not embraced in the common school law. He defended the propriety of opening the common libraries to the common schools. He affirmed that the substitute was unconstitutional, because in the third section it made the success of common schools for colored children to depend on the action of a district school meeting, which might never be held, etc. It would amount to no legislation at all, but to defeat the object of opening the common schools to the colored children. As to taxation, his bill simply drops off that clause of the existing law which exempts negroes, etc., from taxation; and it drops the word ''white" with reference to the enumeration, etc.; and it provides that the colored children of several townships may be united for a colored school; and if a sufficient number be not in the county, then their portion of the fund shall be kept in the county treasury for their benefit. He hoped the House would not be hasty in its action in this matter. He regarded it as one of the most important subjects that would come before the present legislature. The question of providing for the education of colored children is one of great importance, and before action upon it by the House, he hoped to see it examined anc debated in all its colorings and phases. The objection urged by the Committee--advising the postponement of the bill [H. R. 20] a bill that he himself had drawn up, after a close study of the needs of the State in that direction, and mature deliberation on the various points presented--he thought the House upon investigation would find to be groundless That the bill is too voluminous, too cumbrous in that it devotes space to defining the duties of officers under it, he thought not a valid objection; for to secure the success of a law, it is absolutely necessary that the duties of officer under it should be fully and clearly defined He then proceeded to institute a comparison between its provisions and the loose and in complete provisions of the proposed substitute He desired to meet the issue fairly and squarely, without flinching. He wanted the Legislature to do its whole duty in the matter, when it should determine to no longer refuse education to the read, but, following up the spirit that prompted this grant, he provided for the throwing open of the public libraries. His bill [H. R. 20] simply breaks down all discriminations on account of color, makes provision for the education of colored children, nd furnishes the machinery by which, with be officers to act, the object sought can not ail of attainment.
The report or the Committee on Education as concurred in.
On motion of Mr. COFFROTH, the committee's bill was ordered to lie on the table and be printed.
BASIS OF APPRAISEMENT.
Mr. SLEETH said that by request of many of the Senators who were not satisfied with the disposition made yesterday of the gold appraisement bill, and who were desirous of a more thorough discussion of its provisions, he moved the reconsideration of the vote taken yesterday on the final passage of the bill.
Mr. PIERCE, of Porter, moved to lay the motion on the table. The yeas and nays having been demanded, they resulted--yeas 39; nays 49.
So the motion to lay on the table was rejected.
The motion to reconsider was then agreed to.
The question then recurred: Shall the gold basis bill [H. R. 58] pass the House of Representatives?
On motion of Mr. COFFROTH it was made the special order for to-morrow at three o'clock p. m.
The SPEAKER announced a message from the Governor, stating his approval and signature of the House enrolled act, No. 8, (for deputy appraisers, etc.)
JUSTICE'S JURISDICTION.
The SPEAKER announced the consideration of the unfinished business of the morning session, viz: Mr. Wilson's Justice's Jurisdiction bill [H. R. 31] with the committee's amendments thereto--they may institute suit in the township where the debt is contracted--the pending question being on Mr. Bobo'a motion to recommit the bill.
Mr. WILLIAMS, of Knox, desired to move indefinite postponement, which was ruled out of order.
The bill was then recommitted.
ORDERS OF THE DAY.
Mr. Buskirk's gravel road amendment bill [H. R. 22]-to give the right to companies to extend their lines--coming up with a committee recommendation--
Mr. ZOLLERS moved that it be printed.
Mr. STEWART of Bush, moved to refer the bill to the Committee on Roads, He said the bill was intended to amend the law of 1867.
page: 195[View Page 195]The latter motion was agreed to.
Mr. Ratliff's bill [H. R. 12] to amend section five of the real estate district equalization appraisement act of May 28, 1852, coming up with the recommendation of the special committee, it was ordered to be engrossed.
Mr. Gordon's docket fee bill [H. R. 21] coming up on the second reading, with amendments reported by the Committee on Fees and Salaries--
Mr. GORDON said the object of the original bill was to increase the fees of Prosecuting Attorney's from five to ten dollars in felony cases, etc.
The amendment was concurred in.
On the motion of Mr. GORDON, the bill was ordered to the engrossment and third reading.
Mr. Ratliff's State Board of Education compensation bill [H. R. 84] coming up with the committee's amendment, taking out the five dollars a day to the Governor, etc.--
The amendment was concurred in.
Mr. RATLIFF explained that the object of the bill was to give to the Board five dollars a day and traveling expenses for the time of actual service--leaving oft' the mileage of the existing law.
The bill was ordered to the engrossment.
Mr. Mason's County Surveyor's bill [H. R. 69] coming up, with the recommendation of the Committee on County and Township Business.
Pending the reading thereof--
The House took a recess for five minutes, to prepare the Hall for the reception of Senators, to hear the address to the General Assembly (appointed for four o'clock p. m. this day) by the United States Senator elect.
IN CONVENTION--HON. DANIEL D. PRATT.
The hour of four having arrived, Senators entered and took seats to the right of the Speaker.
The President of the Senate, Lieutenant Governor Cumback, took the Chair, and having called the House to order, said:
Members of the Senate and House of Representatives:
We have met in compliance with the provisions of a concurrent resolution to listen to an address from the Hon. Daniel D. Pratt, our newly elected Senator, in the Congress of the United Suites. Permit me to congratulate you and your constituents upon the wisdom of your choice, and express my own pleasure in now introducing to you the Hon. Daniel D. Pratt.
Mr. Pratt--standing at the Speaker's table--then addressed the joint convention as follows:
Gentlemen of the General Assembly:
Elected by you, the Representatives of the people, to the highest office within your gift, I appear before you not to make a formal address, but simply to return you my cordial thanks for this expression of your confidence, and for the great honor you have conferred upon me.
You will all bear me witness that this result has not been brought around by any self-seeking or agency of mine.
While I cannot hope to magnify this office, or even worthily to fill it, I can only promise to bring to the discharge of its high trusts, purity of purpose and earnest zeal to serve my country.
In succeeding to the seat of the eminent statesman and accomplished gentleman whose term will shortly expire, and in becoming the official mate of Indiana's other Representative in the Senate who commands so largely the admiration and confidence of the country for his great abilities and patriotic services, I feel painfully the want of those qualifications necessary to make me the fit successor of the one, and the colleague of the other. For you know, gentlemen, that I have been until a very recent period, a private citizen, exclusively devoted to my profession, and that my studies and pursuits have not adapted me to this new sphere of duty.
You would give little heed to mere professions uttered now, when my heart is so full of gratitude for this proof of your confidence and too partial estimate of my fitness. You will judge me rather by what I shall say and do in, the future, when my voice shall help frame laws for the country; and by the record I shall, make after entering upon the discharge of my duties as a Senator.
The verdict of the people at the recent national election has settled many questions left unsettled by the war. Other questions remain--rather of policy than principle-- which demand for their solution the highest skill of statesmanship.
This is not a proper time, however, to do more than allude to them. While the Nation has decreed that the public debt incurred in saving the Union from dissolution, and the country from anarchy and ruin, must be paid in good faith, yet the method, the time and manner, of payment, are left, necessarily, to legislative discretion. It devolves upon Congress to devise and employ such methods as will least burden or interrupt industrial pursuits; to so adjust the taxes upon the capital, the enterprise, and consumption of the country as will least affect the general prosperity, and make all equitably share the burden.
And so, too, while the voice of the people has endorsed the general reconstruction policy of Congress, many details remain to be settled by prudent and patriotic legislation to bring back into harmonious union the States lately page: 196[View Page 196] in rebellion. The country demands peace, order and complete protection in those communities where the embers of the rebellion remain, fanned occasionally here and there into a consuming flame. The disaffected must be made to submit absolutely to the law. Turbulence, disorder and outrages upon life and property must be stopped at every hazzard. Protection from the Government is the equivalent which the citizens receives or should receive from the taxes he pays and the military service he owes and he is defrauded, and the Government dishonored, whenever it fails to render that protection to the humblest of its citizens at home as well as abroad. It is his right to enjoy the blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and the Government fails in its high mission and promise when it does not secure them everywhere within the reach of its power.
The expenditures of the Government during the war, and since its close, have been large, and necessarily large. But the time has come when the strictest economy in the administration of our affairs should begin. If there is any one thing to which both of the great parties committed and pledged themselves during the past year, when they went before the people for their suffrages, it was to the retrenchment of expenses, the abolition of unnecessary offices, the strictest accountability of public officers, and efficiency and honesty in every branch of the public service. These pledges must be redeemed. While our people pay their burdensome taxes contentedly, when satisfied they are honestly applied, they have set their faces like flint against waste of the public revenues by their servants. They demand that all our resources from taxation be sacredly applied to the reduction ot the public debt as rapidly as may be; and they demand that the expenses of the Government be reduced to the lowest practicable limit consistent with its efficient administration. They demand that all schemes of internal improvement and corporate enterprise, however plausible they may seem, which look to the Government for aid by way of subsidies, be postponed, while this mountain of debt continues to cast its shadow over the nation. They demand that the offices be filled with competent, trust-worthy men, selected solely with reference to their fitness, to best serve the interest of the Republic.
I have great confidence that the incoming administration of General Grant, will distinguish itself in meeting these reasonable demands and in accomplishing these desirable results. I need scarcely say that so far as my humble influence shall extend, my efforts shall all be given in this direction. Waving, in my case, political antecedents, that ordinarily are required of those placed in positions of power, you, gentlemen, in behalf of the people, have committed to my hands the great trust of representing, in part, our beloved State in the highest deliberative body of the nation. It shall be my honest ambition by diligence and fidelity to justify your choice.
The LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR then prorogued the joint convention, and the Senators retired.
The Speaker resumed the chair, and then the House adjourned.
