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The Commoner.
Tol. a, No. 50;
" VI "-"BUh-ai
Current topics
ROSWELL BEARDSLEY, POSTMASTER AT
North Lansing, N. Y., died recently -at the
ago' of ninety-three years. Mr. Bcardsloy, accord
ing to a writer in the New York World, was the
government's oldest employe in all senses of the
term. He held his first commission "from Presi
dent John Quincy Adams and he served under
twenty presidents and thirty-four postmasters
general. This writer says that when Mr. Beards-,
ley took office, in 1828, there were about 6,700
postoillces in the country. Now there are 76,594.
The postal department expenditures in 1830 were
$1,932,708. In 1901 they were $115,039,607. Mr.
Beardsloy's share of the growth in the servico
lay in a gradual increase of salary from $19.53,
his first year's pay, up to almost $200, his last
year's due. Mr. Beardsley was postmaster twenty
five, years before the stomped envelopo came in.
For six years he saw letters' posted at rates run
ning from six cents for transmission not over
thirty miles up to twenty-five cents for distances
over four hundred niiles. His career has covered
all that is marvellous in postal development.
BOB SMALLS, THE NEGRO POLITICIAN, IS
Mr. Roosevelt's collector of the port of
Beaufort, S. C. Small's name figured conspicuous
ly in a precedent established relating to the ar
rest of members of corress. The story is told
in an interesting way by the Washington corre
spondent of the Des Moines Register and Leader.
The statutes of South Carolina provide for the
punishment, by imprisonment in the penitentiary
at hard labor for ten years, or by a fine of $5,000,
of any legislative officer who accepts a gift with
an understanding that his vote, opinion or judg
ment shall be given on a particular side of any
question. After receiving his credentials as a rep
resentative in the Forty-fifth congress, Smalls
was arrested in South Carolina on a charge of
having accepted a bribe, while a member of the
state legislature, for his vote on a printing ap
propriation. He gave bonds, came to Washington
and was sworn in as a member of the house, and
then went back and faced the indictment found
against him, first with a motion to remove the
case from the state to the United States courts;
when this was overruled, he followed it with a
plea that his arrest was a violation of his consti
tutional privilege as a member of congress. This
was overruled in turn, a jury trial wae had, and
he was convicted and sentenced to five years in
the penitentiary. Pending an appeal ho gave bail
and came back to Washington, and made an. ef
fort to induce the house to declare his arrest -void
as in defiance of the constitution.
TT IS RELATED BY THIS SAME CORRESPON
uent that right here Smalls met with a de
cided rebuff, the committee on judiciary, through
Proctor Knott Kentucky, reported a resolution
"that the arrest of Robert Smalls . . . was no vio
lation of any right or privilege of this house, and
that the detention of said Smalls for trial . . .
was legal and justifiable." The report is one of the
most notable in the annals of the house. Mr.
Knott answered the argument raised in Smalls'
behalf, that bribery was not regarded as a felony
at the time of the adoption of the constitution, by
Baying that the same reasoning would apply to
many of the most detestable crimes known to the
calendar, including perjury and forgery, "which
have since been specifically declared in many of
our .state constitutions to be so infamous as to
render a person not only unfit for any public po
sition whatever, but totally unworthy of credit on
oath, or the privilege of voting at any election."
And referring to the incongruities suggested by
such an interpretation of congressional privilege
he said of the framers of the constitution: "Can
it bo possible that while deliberating on that
sec ion they could have contemplated the spec
tacle of the sergeant-at-arms of the senate with
the mace, the awful emblem of his offlce unonnis
l&VftlftS Int " CUrt of See wPhQereha
senatoi is held to answer an indictment for hnv
ing bought his high position with mney and dl-
: ,"' u"Vi,umu LO act as judge in a high court
of impoachment where the president or Ibml
other exalted functionary of the United Stotes is
on trial for the same dangerous and detestable
crime?"
THE HOUSE DECLINED TO HELP SMALLS
out of his difficulty, but Senator Matthew
C. Butler of South Carolina exerted his influence
in Smalls' behalf and the negro politician es
caped punishment through the clemency of the
state administration. The Register and Leader
correspondent adds: "As President Harrison
overlooked this little incident in his career and
President McKinley was kind to him, doubtless
President Roosevelt felt that it would be un
gracious to'take too careful notice of the past in
his case. "Ben" Daniels might have kept his
marshalship if he had been candid with the presi
' dent and recalled freely the story of his youthful
conviction. Smalls never puts his own disagree
able experience into his autobiographies, but it
is not known that he has ever tried to make a
secret of it."
5?
THOSE WHO INCLINE TO ATTACH SIGNIF
icance to dreams may be interested in a
dispatch from East Orange, N. J., to the Chicago
Tribune. The dispatch follows: "Mrs. Mary
Grant Cramer, a sister of Gen. Ulysses Simpson
Grant, who lives with her sister, Mrs. Virginia
Grant Corbin, at 70 Lenox avenue, East Orange,
says the death of Mrs. Grant 'was foretold to her
in a dream on December 6. 'The dream was ex
ceedingly vivid,' said Mrs. Cramer. 4I thought
Mrs. Grant came to my bedside and, placing her
hand on my shoulder, said impressively: "Mary,
I have come to talk with you and say good-bye
because I am not going to be with you much
longer.'" Mrs. Cramer told her dream at the,
breakfast table the next morning, and, to her sur
prise, a friend of the family, Mrs. Katherine Law-
rence, who was visiting at the time, said that she,
too, had a singular dream. Mrs. Lawrence said
she dreamed that she, Mrs. Cramer, and Mrs. Cor
bin, stood in the portal of Grant's tomb on River
side drive, New York, and that there appeared to
be a large crowd of persons outside, drawn up in
two lines, waiting the arrival of a cavalcade of
some kind."
AN INTERESTING CHAPTER TO THE STORY
of the Spanish-American war is provided
by Joseph G. Cannon, in an interview with the
Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia
Press. This correspondent asked Mr. Cannon if
Speaker Reed had approved Mr. Cannon's bill ap
propriating $50,000,000 to be used by the president
for national defense. Mr. Cannon replied: "He
probably did not, but he did not place a straw in
the way of Its passage. That bill was ray own.
After the explosion of the Maine I concluded that
war was inevitable and I feared more serious com
plications because of the sympathy expressed for
Spain in Europe. I had a talk with President
McKinley and suggested some action of this kind.
as a warning to Spain and her friends and also
as a means of preparing for war, which seemed
inevitable. 'I suggested that the president send a
message to congress recommending an appropria
tion of $50,000,000 or $100,000,000 for national de
fense." 1 a? j?
ACCORDING TO THIS STORY, MR. Mc
.Kinley feared that the proposed action would
be accepted as an admission that the administra
tion wanted a war while he was exerting every ef
fort to maintain peace. Mr. Cannon says: "But
he said he wished he had such an appropriation to
prepare for what he feared must come. I still
suggested that the appropriation ought, to be made
and the president then stated in substance, Gen
eral Grosvenor of Ohio being present, that he
would bq glad to have us meet a number of
members and senators at 10 o'clock tho next
morning to consult touching the propriety o tho
appropriation. Wo did meet the president and a
number of others, among those I recollect being
Senator Allison and Representative Boutelle of
Maine, and the consensus of opinion was that' the
appropriation should be made. I introduced the
bill that morning and had it referred to tho com
mittee on appropriations. The newspaper boys
found it and the news was spread over the whole
world before noon. That was part of my plan
It had tho desired effect so far as other European
powers were concerned."
THE INTERESTING STORY IS CONCLUDED
by Mr. Cannon In these words: "That was a
busy day. in tho house. Mr. Reed was in the
chair all day and I was busy. I- did not see Reed
oxcept as speaker until I was leaving my com
mittee room in tho late afternoon. I met him
leaving the speaker's room. His first remark
was, 'Why did you do it?' with just a shade of
reproach in his voice. I replied that I thought it
advisable. 'I did not consult you because I was
Quite suro' you would not approve and I did not
care to ask your advice and then go contrary to
it, because I was quite certain I would introduce
the bill anyway.' We walked up town together
and talked about the situation. I explained to him
that the object to bo attained by the appropria
tion was twofold: First, to show to Spain and
other nations, some of whom were disposed to
sympathize with Spain, that we had the money
to pay the expenses of war in our treasury and
were ready to use it This was good as a meas
ure making for peace, and if it did not result in
peace, it was absolutely necessary in due pre
paration for war. After a short silence Mr. Reed
replied: 'Perhaps you are right. Perhaps you
are right.' The bill was reported tho next day
and passed by the unanimous vote of the house."
THE PARAGRAPHERS HAD CONSIDERABLE
sport prior to the delivery of Mr. Roose
velt's message speculating on the probability of
the president making formal reference to his un
productive bear hunt It has not been generally
believed, even since the message was inspected,
that Mr. Roosevelt would refer to that incident,
and yet, according to a story related by tho Wash
ington correspondent of the New York Tribune, a
certain army officer insists that the president did
not omit reference to his Mississippi expedition.
Tho story is told in this way: "Two army offi
cers, known to fame and also renowned for their
fondness for an honest wager, put up a modest
sum a few days ago on the novel proposition that
the president would mention the Mississippi bear
hunt in his annual message. The man who be
lieved the president would mention the hunt in
some way naturally asked and got good odds.
Today he stood around waiting anxiously for the
coming of the fateful message. In. the first copy
he could lay his hands on he buried himself
deeply, and when he put down the paper his face
wore a smile of triumph. 'The dinner's mine!
said he, gleefully. Inquiry reveals the following
sentence as the basis of tho officer's claim: 'The
senseless slaughter of game, which can by judic
ious protection be permanently preserved on our
national reservos for the people as a whole should
be stopped at once.' 'That means that tho presi
dent got mad and swore oif when he came home,'
said the officer, with a note of finality in his voice.
Nothing short of a court-martial will shake his
belief in his prediction."
3? ft?
THE KILLING OF A MAN IN GUATEMALA
by the son of the United States minister haa
raised an interesting question as to the manner
in which' the accused is to bo brought to trial. A
writer in the Chicago Tribune maintains that the
Guatemalan courts will have jurisdiction in this
case unless it is expressly agreed that the of
fender is to be sent to the United -States for trial
and punishment by tho courts of this country. It
is pointed out that twenty years ago tho first sec
retary of one of the embassies accredited by tho
court of St James was arrested together with cer
tain English associates on the charge of felony.
As soon as the diplomatic status of this particular
defendant was established he was delivered into
the custody of the ambassador who returned him
to his native land in the custody of two detectives
to be dealt with by the courts of his own country.
It is also said that several years ago when tho
English coachman of tho American ambassador
in London was arrested for an assault committed
outside of the precincts of the embassy, tho juris
diction of the British court was questioned. It was
shown, however, that this coachman being an
Englishman was not entitled to the privileges "and
immunities that American employes of tho Amer
ican ambassador would have.
THE RULE IN FORCE A FEW YEARS AGO
gave extraordinary privileges to ministers
with relation to the misconduct of the members
of their household or their servants. The Chicago
Tribune writer says that in the old days the
envoys themselves acted as judges in cases where
members of their mission or of their household
had been guilty of crimes committed either within
or without the precincts of the embassy. During
tho seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there
were quite a number of incidents of this kind. This
writer recalls that when Venice was still a re
public, tho Spanish ambassador, having caught
one of his Spanish servants in tho act of thieving,
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