PREDECESSORS IN DISGRACE

In its 178-year history, the U.S. Senate has subjected its members to formal censure only six times prior to the Dodd case. The condemned and the causes of their disgrace:

> Timothy Pickering, a Massachusetts Federalist and former Secretary of State, who in 1810 divulged on the Senate floor a carefully guarded secret message from France's Foreign Minister Talleyrand, weakening the U.S. case in the dispute over ownership of western Florida.

> Benjamin Tappan, Ohio Democrat, who in 1844 smuggled to the old New York Evening Post a copy of the treaty of annexation with the Republic of Texas while the document was still considered confidential.

> John McLaurin and Benjamin ("Pitchfork Ben") Tillman, both South Carolina Democrats, who exchanged insults--then blows--on the Senate floor in 1902, giving rise to Senate Rule XIX, which bars senatorial character assassination.

> Hiram Bingham, Connecticut Republican, for arranging a Senate staff post in 1929 for a lobbyist, who remained on the payroll of the Manufacturers Association of Connecticut while attending closed sessions of the Finance Committee.

> Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican who made wild and unsubstantiated accusations of Communist sub version against Government officials and others, was censured in 1954 on charges of abusing the two committees assigned to investigate his official behavior.

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