2d Session. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. APRIL 28, 1880.-Ordered to be printed. No. 537. Mr. WITHERS, from the Committee on Pensions, submitted the fol lowing REPORT: [To accompany bill S. 1535.] The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1535) granting an increase of pension to Rebecca E. Haskin, widow of Joseph A. Haskin, late lieutenant-colonel First Regiment Artillery, United States Army, find, that while serving in Mexico as first lieutenant the officer lost an arm; that he remained in service during the late war, and since died of consumption; that the claimant receives a pension of $20 per month, being the sum allowed by law for the widow of a first lieutenant, which was the rank of her husband at the time the injury was received in the war with Mexico. The claimant, however, asks that the pension allowed by law for the widow of a lieutenant-colonel be given her, on the ground that the disease of which the officer died originated in the service during the war of the rebellion while he held the rank of lieutenant-colonel of artillery, and had no connection with. the loss of the arm in Mexico. The application for an increase was denied by the bureau on the ground that "the claimant is in receipt of all pension she is entitled to under the provisions of the general pension laws." The evidence of Army surgeons and several officers of the Army is on file to sustain the claim. It is established by medical evidence that the officer during the late war performed arduous and valuable service; that he was exposed to hardship and privations, which developed tubercle in the lungs, which softened and ultimately caused his death. The various phases of the disease appear to have been satisfactorily traced by the evidence of competent medical men. The existence of crude tubercle, the subsequent softening of these deposits caused by exposure, fatigue, and privation, and the progressive increase of the disease terminating in death. The committee, being of opinion that the disease of which the officer died was contracted in the service and in the line of duty during the war of the rebellion, and while he held the rank of lieutenant-colonel, recommend the passage of the bill granting an increase of pension. 2d Session. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. APRIL 28, 1880.—Ordered to be printed. No. 538. Mr. BUTLER, from the Committee on Territories, submitted the following REPORT: [To accompany bill H. R. 5203.] The Committee on Territories, to whom was referred the bill H. R. 5203, haring had the same under consideration, submit the following report: The report from the Committee on the Territories of the House, accompanying said bill, is as follows: Mr. BOUCK, from the Committee on the Territories, submitted the following report: The Committee on the Territories, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 5203) providing for the reapportionment of the members of the legislatures in the Territories of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, submit the following report: An act of Congress approved June 19, 1879, reduced the number of the members of the Territorial legislatures, and it also provided that the legislatures of the Territories at their next session redistrict their respective Territories. This the legislatures of the Territories named in this bill failed to do. In said Territories there cannot be a lawful election of members of the legislature or a lawful legislature unless the said law, so far as it changes the number of the members of the Territorial legislatures, is repealed and the old law re-enacted as to said Territories, or the passage of an enabling act by Congress. The time fixed by law for the next election of members in said Territories is in the month of November next. This bill provides that the governor and the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the council during the last session of the legislatures in the Territories named in said bill, shall constitute a "board of apportionment" in their respective Territories to redistrict the same, such redistricting to be upon the basis of the population as shown by the census of 1880. The bill further provides that the legislatures elected under such redistricting shall have authority to alter or amend such apportionment so made under this bill, and that at any time thereafter the legislatures of said Territories may reapportion their respective Territories in accordance with the population. The committee are of the opinion that a new apportionment in said Territories is an absolute necessity, and that the same must be had before there can be a lawful election for members or a lawful legislature in either of said Territories, and that the mode provided by this bill for making such apportionment is not only convenient and economical, but fair and just to all persons and interests. The committee, therefore, recommend the passage of the bill. Attention is called to the necessity of the passage of this bill at the present session of Congress, because the time fixed by law for the election of members of the legislature in said Territories is in the month of November next. As this report explains the necessity for the passage of the bill at this session of Congress, your committee adopt the same and recommend the passage of the bill. 2d Session. No. 539. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. APRIL 28, 1880.-Ordered to be printed. Mr. DAVIS, of West Virginia, from the Select Committee to Investigate the Finance Reports, Books, and Accounts of the Treasury Department, submitted the following REPORT: The original resolution under which your committee was organized was adopted by the Senate at the first session of the Forty-fifth Congress and was as follows: IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, November 19, 1877. Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the Chair to investigate the Finance Reports, books, and accounts of the Treasury Department, particularly with reference to differences, discrepancies, and alterations in amounts and figures that have been made in them, if any such there be, especially in the annual statements of the expenditures of the government, revenue collected, and the public debt contained in said reports; and if any such differences, discrepancies, and alterations be found to exist, to report the same and the extent and nature thereof, the years wherein they occur, by what authority made, if any, the reasons that induced them, and to report generally such other and further information bearing upon the subject as to them may seem best; and that said committee have power to send for persons and papers, to take testimony, to employ a stenographer and two clerks, and leave to sit during the session of the Senate; and that the expenses attending this investigation shall be paid out of the contingent fund of the Senate, upon vouchers approved by the committee; and said committee shall not be dissolved by the expiration of the present session of the Senate, but shall exist until it shall make its report or shall be discharged. Under this resolution Senators Davis of West Virginia, Beck, Allison, Ingalls, and Cameron of Pennsylvania, were appointed the committee to make the investigation. The committee, not having concluded its labors during the Forty-fifth Congress, was continued by the Senate, with the same powers, at the first session of the Forty-sixth Congress, March 19, 1879, and Senators Whyte and Dawes were substituted for Senators Allison and Cameron, so that the committee as reconstituted consists of Senators Davis, Beck, Whyte, Ingalls, and Dawes. CHANGES AND ALTERATIONS IN THE FINANCE REPORTS, BOOKS, &C. The attention of the Senate was first called to the changes and alterations in the Finance Reports, books, and accounts of the Treasury Department, which form the subject of this investigation, by the chairman of this committee, both by resolution and by speech in the Senate, in the month of January, 1876. He then asked for the appointment of a select committee to examine the matter. This the Senate, at that time, was disinclined to grant, and instead, referred the resolution to the standing Committee on Finance, which, after consulting the then Secretary of the Treasury, embodied his letter of explanation as its report |