Mr. SUMNER. It will be dilficult to add anything to the argument in the petition which has been read; and the Senfrom Ohio will nrdon me if I say that. I think his objection oes not meet the case. He calls this a boot less controversy. I do not so regard it, and if the Senator remembered what passed on the former occasion I think he would not have used that language. When I then made the same motion which I now make, according to my recollection, the chairman of the ComFinance objected rather to the amendment of that bill, the consular and diplomatic bill, than to the proposition itself; he said, “Make it on one of the other appropriation hills that are to follow.” I was notin my seat, being absent from here, when the legislative appropriation bill was under consideration or I should have moved it then. I am now in my seat when the miscellaneous appropriation bill is under consideration, and as the amendment is perfectly in order and perfectly germane I now move it. I have said that it would be difficult to add anything to the argument in the petition, and I may be permitted to remind the Senate, in addition to that argument, that these gentlemen have now only the same pay that they had before the war; there has been no change with regard to anyone of them, while we all know that everything else has risen in price. All that they are obliged to pay for their support is more than it was before, and yet they have only the small means that they had before. There is another consideration in connection with this class of public servants of which, perhaps, the Senator is not aware. In the organization of the State Dept there are no heads of bureaus, as, for instance, in the organization of the Treasury and of the Interior Dept. There are no other persons than a c ief clerk, and then clerks under him. I understand that Mr. Webster, while he was SecyState, had it in contemlation to organize the State Dept on temodel of the Treasury Dept, so that there should be a number of bureaus with a bureau head, receiving a pay proportionate to the pay received by the heads of bureaus in the Treasury Dept. That has never been done; so that you will perceive that all the servants of the Government in the State Dept are on the simple pay of clerks, and nothing else. And yet, sir, during this time, while their compensation has been diminishing in value their services have been increasing in extent. I have here a very curious memoran dum, which is not uninteresting, illustrative of the increase of business in that Dept. For instance, the number of dispatches to our legation at London, in 1851, was 29; in 1852, 38; and in 1853, 65. Now, come to the years of the war and down to the present time, and see the difference. In 1861 the dispatches to our legation at london was 220; in 1862, 317; in 1863, 380; in 1864, 463; and in 1865, 449, in contrast with 29 dispatches, which was all that were sent.in 1851. My colleague asks me if it would not have been wiser to have sent fewer. That question is not involved in this discussion. I adduce the facts mply to illustrate the increase of business on the part of these employes. This shows how much more they have ad to do, and yet the receive only the compensation they had be ore. Here is another curious illustration. The corres cadence of the Dept of State with the British.legation in Washington, has latterly been asfollows: in 1861 there were 248 letters addressed by the Dept to the British legation; in 1862, 529; in 1863, 1288; and in 1864, 2676; making, as the Senate will see, a very large number of letters every day addressed to the British legation. I mention these facts in order to bring home to your attention the increase of business in that Dept, the burden of which has no cessurily fallen upon these public servants. You have been raising salaries elsewhere. The other House has set the exampleby adding, I think, 25%. to t n: pay of its own servants. You have various similar ro osi tiens before on. I understand thatt e stute of NewYer has added 25%. to the compensation of its public servants. The State of assuchusetts has added 20%. recently to the compensation of its public servants. Now, I ask that you should add 20%. to the compensation of the clerks in the State Dept, whose labor has increased probably beyond that of any other public servants of the Government. I ask this, air, as an act of justice to them. I do not see how you can refuse it; indeed, I think the argument is unausweroble. I do not think the Senate ought to postpone it, according to the suggestion of the Senfrom Ohio, to await the report of any committee that shall undertake to remodel the civil service of the Government. Let us do thisactof justice now, and that committee may proceed with its work, and I, for one, shall be ready to adopt the result. I do not wish to see the act of justice which I now propose postponed for the report of any committee.