Mr. CONNESS. I should have been pleased if this amendment had met the concurrence of the Senfrom Ohio, but I am very glad that the Senator has opposed it in the manner in which he has done. I do not think his obJection that this amendment applies to a locality is a tenable one, because there is no other locality, he will remember situated just like ours. We are on the other side of the continent. am glad, however, that he has made the observations that have fallen from him. The Dept appear to have been as oblivious heretofore to the fact that there were manufactures of this character in California as m honorable friendfrom Ohio. He says that i I shall be active in advising our manufacturers when they may bid thriy can get contracts to supply these articles. beg to assure my honorable friend that there is a knack about bid ding that the California manufacturers do not et a pear to understand or come u to. They have been here a ain and again byt cir agents and have undertaken to impress upon the government and the agents of the government employed in making these contracts the value and, benefit to the Government of receiving their bids. It has often been stated in this body that the most cirpensive branch of this Government, and the branch in which there is the least responsibility, is the quartermasters Dept. It would hardly be necessary to affirm that that is the fact here today. I say this without any inclination to pass a word of cen sure upon the head of that Dept. He cannot know, managed as the Dept is, all that transpires. HfIwere at libertyto state here what I now know in regard to the impos sibilit of honest men getting good goods accepte, it would surprise the country and the Senate. Let me to l the Senator, and it is a starth ng fact, that (against a special order from the Dept here) after an inspection of the blankets sent out to SanFrancise o from the NewYork market showing them to he utterly unfit for use, an after an examination and their condemnation by a military board of inspection regularly constituted, there was a peremptory order to go forward and use them; and 5,000 pairs of blankets were concerned in that transaction. General Halleck examined them himself, and ordered them to be set aside, and would not permit them to be used, notwithstanding the peremptory order of the Dept. Sir, this is not a new thing. It maybe new in the Senate. I have at my rooms now specimens of the article that your soldiers are compelled to sleep under by this mismanagement that would surprise Senators, and they would be ashamed that either a white man or a black man should have them for his covering. The Senator smiles; but I assure him that if he were camping out and had to be warmed on a cold night by the miserable trash sent out to the sol mm on the Pacific coast he would not smile in the morning. I know the Senators kindly heart. There is nothing in the objection that he makes. No provision of this kind can come u in favor of Missourior any other place. 1 ie Senfrom Oregon, [Ms Nasuirii] I apprehend, can beara ittle testimony in this case. I will have these specimens brought here that the Senators may see them. I have had specimens alread at the QuarterMGens Office, but it is very hard to reach these things through Deptal sources. The Indian Dept have done the same thing. They have managed in the same way. They have sent out blankets that have cost 100%. more than the blankets that are made in Ore n or SanFrancise o. Those blankets are may O entirely of pure wool, while the blankets sent there have 1/2 or 2/3rds of cows hair, upon which your shoddy contractors have grown rich, and they and amendment like this, changing and modifying their families are shaming sensible, modest, and discreet people of both sexes at your leading hotels throughout the count. Idesire merely it is a very simple amendment that the Government shall give the prelereucc when they can supply a better article there at a less cgst. I do not think anybody can object to t at.