Mr. GRIMES. It seems to me that this is a very important precedent that we are about to establish, and I call the attention of the Senate specially to it. Gentlemen appear before us representing themselves as Senators from a State which we all recognize as being entitled to representation on this floor. A member of this body rises, and without any written decla ration on the part of anybody, without making any charges himself or becoming responsible for an or introducing the name of a single individual who is willing to become responsible for any, proposes that the introduction of one of the Senators upon this floor as a Senfrom that State shall be postponed until the question can be determined Wicther that man is qualified to occupy his seat. Heretofore the case has always been that, primafacie, the man presentin credentials was entitled to the occupation of the seat, to exercise the functions of the office that his State elected him to; and if it was afterward discovered that he was not entitled to occupy the scat, than it was the duty of the Senate, and they always exercised it. to investigate that question through their proper organ, the ComJudiciary, and if they found that he was not qualified, then to reject him. If I should present my credentials on the 4th of March next as a Senfrom the State of Iowa, would it be competent for a gentleman to rise here in his place and say he did not believe that I was able to take that oath conscientiously and justly, without presenting any charges against me, and require my credentials to be sent to the ComJudiciary and my State to be deprived of representation until that ComJudiciary should make a report and the Senate should act upon that report? There is no analogy or very little between the Oregon case and this. In that case, if I remember, there were very responsible parties who made declarations to a member of this body charging the Senfrom Oregon or attempting to represent the State of Oregon, with the expression ofcertain sentiments.