Mr. CONKLING. I hdpe the Gentfrom Ohio will not get too energetic. He has had 3 extensions of his time, and has expressed himself so fully that he should be content for a space. I do not wish to wrench myself by attempting to execute that cele brated lvic sture, by which the gentleman makes iinselt forcible, but I hope the House will consider that l have executed it as far as is necessary, and that I say with just as much distinciuess as the gentleman employs that the result under the language he refers to will, in my belief, be just what I have stated. Let us see how this is. A projision on this subject, substantially if not exactly like the present, was suggested originally in the Senate bill as 1st intro need. No one then denied or doubted that under it the Officers of the existin Veteran Reserve corps were to be continued. The whole provision was struck out in the Senate committee. When the bill was under consideration in the Senate, an amendment was offered not in the same language here employed. The whole subject was sifted in debate, and before a vote was had the mover of the amendment adopted the orinal language which, as I said, was in effect i not literally the same as we have here, namely, “to be selected from officers of the Veteran Reserve corps, and appointed from other wounded officers.” Still, nobody in the Senate doubted that the provision was for the especial benefit of the o cers of the present Veteran Reserve corps. So it was held and treated, and so it was condemned and defeated. So much to show that I am not solitary in my mistake. if mistake it be. But let us look for ourselves at the probable result of such a provision. Who are the persons upon whom the provision is to act, and haw are they now situated? The privates of the Veteran Reserve corps protested against being kept in service, and nearly all upon their own application have been discharged . 600 I and 21 officers preerred not to be mustered out, and so remain in service. 300 of this number have already been provided for in the Freedmens Bureau and in the Treasury service; the rest are unemployed. Look at these facts a moment, 1st, or another purpose. Here is a bod of men conceded, for this purpose, to be al without excetion meritorious, conceded to have suffere in the service of their country, and for 3 years they have been kept on lirht service and on full pay, while other men who have been wounded and disabled have been cast aside, or compelled, in spite of their wounds, to go to the front. All other heroes and martyrs nve been doomed either to retire from pay after being disabled, or else, wounds or no wounds, to drag themselves back to the camp, the trench, and the battle field. Bear in mind, then, that these men as a body have been during 3 years drawing pay and performing the lightest duty of the service to the exclusmn of all others; and bear in mind that there now remain as officers of the Veteran Reserve corps, say 621 men, some detailed and some unemployed. I hope the Gentfrom Ohio [Mr. gensxex will not take me up upon the exactness of that statement. It may not be literally accurate. I will stop and refer to the figures if he does, as I have them somewhere on my desk. Now, a Veteran Reserve corps of ten rements is to be rendered permanent and to be officered by “ selection ” mark the wordnot by appointment afresh, but by “selection from the Officers of the present Veteran Reserve cors, and by appointment from any officers and soldiers of volunteers who have been wounded in the line of their dut, " &c. Does not every bod see what is like y to result from such a mo e of organizing? All these officers are in alread, they can act, in concert, they and their iiends can and will see to their interests and pilot them through red tape and other obstacles. Being already imbedded in the cors, and having their places and commissions, they will be “select;, ” and although here and there other wounded officers may fight in or beg in from the outside, the ready made officers of this corps are to happen in, and outsiders are to have the right to shear the wolf; their trouble will be ow to cut the fleece. Those who know the ins and outs of the matter can tell just how it can be worked; it has been explained to me by officers and volunteers, too, who oppose the whole ting. But without going into the minutiie, we can all see about how it will be. So it is understood in the corps and out of the corps. How else shall we explain the influences around us? Whence t leenormous anxiety of the officers connected with this corps to have this provision retained if they are to come in only for a slight%age of commissions? Because on the theory of the Gentfrom Ohio, [ML SCHENCK] when you come to at the 3 or 400 officers of the eteran Reserve cors who now remain out of employ in among alfthe wounded officers and soldiers of the country, they would be lost. They would be “ Like the snow fluke in the river, A moment white. then lost forever." Every one must see that if this little few were to be mingled with the many, put on apar with all the wounded soldiers of the war, and only allowed to receive their share of commissions in proportion to their numbers, that share would be virtuall nothing at all. Is thatteunderstanding of those who have besieged Congress on behalf of the Veteran Reserve corps? Is that the understanding of the volunteer officers who hear honorable and disablin se ars who oppose and denounce the propose legislation as unjust to them and their unnumbore comrades? Circulars have been sent throu bout the Vet eran Reserve corps officers, as understand, and as has never been denied, calling upon those addressed to contribute money in order to have their interests properly attended to before Congress. Has this expense and this.cquivocal expedient been resorted to for the benefit of soincbod else? No man can wi so hard as not to see that the practical operation of this bill as it stands is likely to be to substantially include all the officers of the existing Veteran Reserve corps, and only by accident to include anybod else. Therefore say again, that while the bi 1 does provide that the officers shall be taken not only from the present officers of the corps, but also appointed) from among others who have been wounded in the late war, the effect will be as I believe in the 1st instance to secure in their places all those who are now in the corps.