Mr. WILSON. I voted yesterday with great reluctance for the reconsideration of this measure, because I did not desire to separate from gentlemen in whose judgment I have great confidence. My own judgment is that it is unwise to press this measure upon this bill at this time. I do not deem it wise to ress it for this reason: the member of the Finance Committee who has the care of this bill [Mr. SHERMAN] is opposed to it. That gentleman we all recognize here as one of our true and reliable friends. The Senfrom Maine, the chairman of the ComFinance, objects to putting it upon this measure. Other Senators, true and mad men, in whom we have confidence, make this objection. It did not seem to me wise to ress this measure upon this bill with a divided) vote among our friends, so I voted for reconsideration. Iwill go as far as any member of the Senate in the properlegislation to correct a great abuse; but we have time enough to mature and actu on such a bill, and if we iass such a bill, and it fails to become a law, there will be other bills upon which this same proposition may be moved, and upon which the Senate may put it with at least as much propriety as upon this bill. I believe that it is neoessaryt at some action should be had by the Congress for the protection of our friends throughout the U.S., and yet I do not entertain anv great apprehensions in regard to the political influence of the appointments which are made and which are threatened to be made. A person going into an office, recognized as a man of capacity and character, representing the sentiments of the community in which he lives, of those who have come into power, will exercise a certain degree of influence; but the putting in of a man against the sentiments of the men who made this Administration, a man who wears simply the collar of the Executive and violates his faith, will have no other influence than to excite the scorn, contempt, and indignation of the people. I tell Senators, and I tell the President, that the American people are in no condition to be bought or sold by Government patronage, and I believe the use of it for any such purpose will weaken whoever undertakes to use it, whether in the executive branch of the Government or in these Halls. I believe that 99 out of every 100 of the men who put this Administration in power agree in principle and in policy, and I believe that any attempt to use the offices of this Government to control the elections against them will signally and ignominiously fail. I am, therefore, in favor of going just as far as we can go in maturing and passing a propermeasurevto correct abuses, and to protect the men who are fillingr the public offices against the attempt, whether it conic from men in this Chamber or out of it, to remove faithful officers who adhere to their opinions, and appoint such men as the postmaster at Hartford, whom we have confirmed this year, and who has turned his back upon us a man who was lingering around here last year with $40,000 of money in his pocket to influence and control Congress. I think we have time enough, as was said by the Senfrom Maine this morning, to prepare such abill and act upon it; and if we fail in that we shall still have time enough to take up the measure now iroposed or some other measureof a similar character, and put it upon some other appropriation bill. We can do that to ward the close of the session; we can do it after we have done what was suggested yesterday by the Senfrom Nevada, after we have deveoped a plan that we approve and that will be conducive to the interests of the country. For this reason I do not think there is any haste in this matter or any occasion for pressing this amendment now: and I am very much surprised at the earnestness with wthehitis pressed. think it of far more importance that whatever mealsure we agree upiui shall receive the careful and deliberate judgment of our friends, and that they shall act together, rather than that we:lltlll press this amendment by a divided vol s, with some of the ablest and most trusted members of the Senate opposed to putting it upon this bill. It is said that if this bill does not become law because of the putting of this amendment upon it, somebody else will be held responsiblefor its failure. I do not agree to that doctrine. If we pass a bill and it does not become a law, the country will judge upon its merits as between us and any other branch of the government. If we put it upon an appropriationbill and the appropriation bill fails, the people will judge not of the proposition itself, but of the propriety of putting it upon an a ipropriation bill. That is my judgment on his bill; and so feeling, though it is with a great deal of reluctance that I differ from friends in whom I have the greatest confidence, and whose wishes I always like to comply with if iossible, I shall vote against putting this amendment upon the bill now pening. 1hr. TRUMBULL. Mr. President, I am not a little surprised at the character of the speech of the Senfrom Massachusetts, [Mr. will sown] I will endeavor to noIice his objections to this amendment, each of them, but his main one I will notice a little more at length. His 1st objection, as I understood him, was that the member of the ComFinance having charge of this bill [Mr. SHERMAN] objected to this amendment, and therefore he was not in clined to put it. upon this bill. The Senfrom Massachusetts knows that the member of the ComFinance having charge of an appropriation bill objects to any amendments proposed to be put upon it always. He considers itv his duty, having charge of the bill, to object to extraneous matter being at on it; but I think there is no member of the Senate who has oftener put such measures upon such bills than the Senfrom Massachusetts himself.