Burnett, recently nominated, but that it was not considered
that the public interests would be promoted by a compliance
with said resolution and the transmission of the papers and
document therein mentioned to the Senate in Executive session.
That made a direct issue. Thereupon a very powerful report
affirming the right of the Senate to require such papers was
prepared by Mr. Edmunds, Chairman of the Committee on the
Judiciary, and signed by George F. Edmunds, Chairman, John
J. Ingalls, S. J. R. McMillan, George F. Hoar, James F. Wilson
and William M. Evarts.
This was accompanied by a dissenting report by the minority
of the Committee, signed by James L. Pugh, Richard Coke, George
C. Vest and Howell E. Jackson, afterward Associate Justice
of the Supreme Court of the United States.
So it will be seen that the two sides were very powerfully
represented. The report of the Committee was encountered
by a message from President Cleveland, dated March 1, 1886,
in which the President claimed that these papers in the Attorney-
General's Department were in no sense upon its files, but
were deposited there for his convenience.
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