Litchfield enquirer., 1837-07-20


 merest enlptyings of Cottonsm. Poor John c. seems to have talked and written so much that at last he has scarcely single idea left for seed.
 LEGISLATIVE GIIMPSES.' Under this head the Hartford Courier is publishing series of numbers, whichabound with many exceed ingly piquant remarks. They are intended also to embrace sketches of the characters of some of the pro- mnent members of the Royalist party. Frcm the se- cond number of these articles we copy the following sketch of his honor the Judge of Nonnewaugs, and from the third the annexed touch of the many-sded, no-sded, any-slded representative from Litchfeld." We may perhaps hereafter give further extracts from these Gimpses, should they prove equally racy with those which have already appeared.
 Look into the House, and you will observe that the drill sergeants, and stoolpgeons distributed as to take the eye as well ear of the dull herd whom they were appointed to manage. On the Speaker g right were stationed Phelps of Woodbury, Raymond [ of New Canaan, Hnman of Waterbury, and J. C.. Litchfield, and Wells of Glastonbury. As stool-pig. cons, you might see Phelps of Smsbury, Chapman of Holland, Stiles of Pomfret and Clark of Lisbon who were selected to fill that honorable post because the counties of Hartford, New London, Windham and Holland, sent aking Tory to the House, and it be- came necessary therefore, to act before the bright ones from those counties, Tn pancna!me. Of the en-
 
 were the only ones. except the Speaker, who could put two consecutive sentences together. The rest, a countryman who had scrutnized their movements for few days observed, "couldnt talk any y-how, no-how, although and anon they tried to try to talk, as the negro tried to try to repent ot his sins, but never succeeded.
 will just glance at two or three of the most noted characters in the majority, and will begin with
 Chdrles 2: Phelps of Woodbury. Phelps was num- Der This accident alone, entities him to notice He was constituted by nature and by Niles, the lead CT Tn the House, for he was man of more inches than any other in it, measuring about feet from tip to heel and about feet in grth, while his brazen-fac- ed impudence, partzan ntrepdity, and recklessness @ 0 % 5 the hero ot the "buck basket leave for those to de- eide who know him best. As speaker he is glib and sometimes emphatic, and he is master of the he occupied under Niles. Argument and common sense he abjured he would an angel of light His chief talent lay in talking at a subject, without com any thing. and reasons for whatever he proposed, were with him fewer than righteous men in Sodom and Gomorrah; but when invective and bilngsgate were to be or whg to be prescribed for opn do him justice, he managed his forces with considera ble ecla for if they could not see through him or his remarks there was no difficulty in seeing which way of the smal Diii ia W, Ie ~as ssIsshe ..n though he fought it valantly, as Falstaff did nine men in buckram, and it was amusing to see the huge
 
 to know how to retrieve his loss =.
 A depraved and heartless nature was not his only characteristic. Up to the Sd of May he was post master of the town of Woodbury. On that day he took his in the House, and swore to preserve the Constitution of the State which expressly torbds any officer under the General Government from holding a seat in the Assembly. On the 24th of May, no resig nation of his office postmaster had reached the De- partment at Washington, and none was ever sen for he IS still acting as postmaster He had no right therefore, to his seat, and continued through the ses SlnN fn fha inst hQ had fO serve. Such was the leader of the House.
 Morris Woodruff, of Litchfeld, occupied post Mo- 3 in the majority, but his character and standing in so cIety entitled him to something more reputable than an inferior station under John M. Niles, the anthra cite Sinntor" MT. w: is not far from 65 years oId countenance, betokening powerful passions-a slow but strong intellect and o,snacy of character, while cautious and wary eye gives him an expression of tmidity. Aside from politics he is high-minded, honorable man, friendly in his intercourse with oihers scrupulous and exact in his dealings, and in the man liberal in his principles. To oratory he makes pre- cal effect His speeches in the House were dull, and delivered Tn faerng manner, though at loss for language in which to cloth his ideas Nevertheless there was generally good sense in what he uttered, especially when he relied upon his own sound judg- ment rather than the mandates of his leaders His task as chairman of the committee on banks, already Herculean, was rendered more difficult and embar- rassing by the critical condition of the currency and it nearly useless, because his party neither at- tempted designed to do any thing in relation to the all absorbing topic of interest but he devoted him. self to 1t with the most unrng industry and persever- ence, and if he accomplished but little, the blame rests with his associates. Unwsely for his own suc- cess, he essayed a middle course between the Wings and Tories going too far to suit the former and not far enough for the latter. His reports and bills were therefore trimmed and amended by both, till they lost their original likeness and became compound as noxous as the contents of the witches ceuldron. stead of obeying the Apostles maxim " try all things and hold fast that which is good he tries all parties and holds to that which he deems strongest for the school, and was that year run against and defeated by the republican candidate for the House For sey- eral years afterwards, his politics were in abeyance, placed on the Clay Electoral ticket, in 1882 Finding the Wings in minority in 1885, he slipped in the Tory ranks, and was run last spring as a democratic re- publican" and elected over MT Russell, who up to l8lS was a Jeiiersonan republican. Such are the mutations ofpary that the ederast of 1878 becomes, without the slightest change ot principle, the demo- crat of 1S3 and it is marvellous to see the harmony Id genus, and such sublime statesmen as Johnny Niles. Gen. Woodruff's course in the Legislature, undoubtedly satisfactory to himsef but unlucki-
 % na eGdy m speak accidentally out of the House On the appointment of sheriffs of N Haven and Holland Co.'S, the question being amend by substituting other men than those nominated in O. meeting, and on the bill to repeal the Stamford Bank charter, and the bill to abolish inn prisonment for debt, Morris Woodruff was called in vain. He was est inrentus But he voted against the proposition to revive that article in the old charter which orders the annual election of Judges, Ca darling measure by the way of his party) and in favor of peaIng the charter of the New Haven City Bank He had too much sell respect to submit to Niles with take decided stand. Hence he sometimes looked one way, and rowed another, and sometimes if he could mt slip his collar, he would sP out of the House Corner him, however, and he would fight well
 Hartford Courier.