Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-03-04

merlCan. IL cannot Uut oc PeTSSNeu VIII ueeP
regret that any portion of the members Of bo-
dy placed in the elevated station which the Sc
nate of the United States holds, should so far
be unmindfu of what was due to their own dig
nty and the interests of the nation, as to permit
feelings of personal opposition to the Executive
to have any influence whatever, when discharg-
ing the most important trusts OF their high
calling. With regard to the Panama mission,
we do not hesitate TO advance the opinion that
nne-ten,hs of the people Of the United States are
decidedly in favor Of the views expressed by
the President An opposition, therefore, which
seizes upon this as the measure hest calculated
to further It's views, must be feeble indeed-and
will find its destruction in the recoil OF its own
attacks, which public opinion will send back
with all overwhelming force. Ball. FIN.
WASHINGTON, gath Feb. 1926
1t may not perhaps be undressing to your
readers TO hear from calm observer an opinion
concerning the aspect of things in this our po-
ltical centre. Beginning then with the Execu-
tive branch Of the government, 1t may be said
with strict accuracy, that more harmonious
cabinet has perhaps never existed. Between
tie President and the Secretary of State in par
ticular, who have been represented as not al
ways agreeing, there subsists degree OF mu-
tua good will, respect, and confidence, that au-
ours most happily for the country; which, where
harmony in the public councils is wanting, is
always sufferer. Ii is said by those who have
had an opportunity Of examining them, that
the public papers Of MIR. Clay, since he has
been in the Office of state, do him the greatest
credit; while his assiduity to discharge the mi.
nor duties Of the station, even 10 the in Jury of
his health, is admitted by ALL Yet it is not to
be disguised that the venom of the opposition
is directed chiefly against this gentleman; and
this consideration brings me 10 the Senate, the
chief seat of that opposition: and here fact
presents itself, which illustrates at once the
cause and the nature OF the discomfort which
prevails in that body. 1t is notorious that In
the House Of Representatives there is great
preponderance both Of numbers and talents on
the side Of the administration: while in the Sc
nate they have much less strength. But the
members Of the House, who are fresh from the
people, and who, or many OF whom at least, had
not been mingled up in the strife Of the late
presidential contest, have come, in the spirit OF
the constitution, and in obedience to the will OF
their constituents, to give fair, frank and man
ly support to the measures OF government, as
far forth as they shall seem to deserve it. The
Senate, on the other hand, from the circumstan-
ces Of its greater permanency, is with lew ex-
ceptions the same body that participated in all
the recent conflict, and it yet heaves with the
subdued, but not extinguished passions Of that
period. Hence measures, which TO unPreju-
diced minds present no aspects OF danger or IN
convenience, are, when seen through the delu-
sive medium of angry disappointment, tortured
into porents Of evils, and resisted with the acr-
mony Of personal wrongs; whence it results,
that, the popular branch which furnishes OF
course the most faithful Gas we'll as the most
recent index of the popular will, being decided
ly in favor of the administration, the OPPOSE
ton manifested in the Senate, the more aristo-
cratic branch, and which represents the states
as Committees or Corporations, & not the peo-
pie, is contrary to the public sentiment and the
popular feeling. Yet this opposition thus
at variance with the feelings, as we'll as the
good of the country, is at this moment para
Lying all the operations OF the government
The public business is daily suffering from
it. The Senate, which from its comparatively
fewer numbers, is almost always in advance OF
the House, is now much in arrears; and all the
important bills that have passed the House, are
damned up in the Senate, and delayed there,
while days and weeks are spent by that grave
body, in psltry efforts to embarrass and delay
what those who thus act, know thar they can
not finally defeat, the confirmation Of the Pa.
mama Mission A multitude Of minor bills,
all the appropriation bills, the judiciary bill,
and know not how many others, are sleeping
on their clerks table, to the manifest injury Of
The public service With respect 10 the latter
bill in particular, a circumstance most conclu-
sve of the extent to which opposition is to be
carried as we'll as of the means by which it is
to be cemen,ed, occurred The Judiciary Com
mittee in both houses had reported bills to
augment the number Of Judges of the Supreme
Court, and regulate the circuits. In organi-
zing the circuits the provisions of both bills
were exactly similar, and when the House pass
ed theirs, contained on that head precisely the
provisions which, as chairman OF the jucia-
ry committee, Mr. Van Buren, had reported in
the Senate. The bill from the House being, as
usual, committed to the Judiciary Committee
of the Senate to examine and report upon, that
committee, through their chairman, from mo-
tives yet to be explained, amended it, (though
in that particular similar to their own) so as TO
unite in one circuit Kentucky and Ohio, two
states in which three-fourths Of all the business
of the western country is done, leaving three O.
Their Judges to so through the remaining fourth.
This amendment, SO contrary to common
sense, as well as to their own first report, the
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