New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-12-08
Washington and the New Congress.
Editorial Correspondence Of The N. Y. Tribune
WASHINGTON Dec. 4, 1851

to Washington in the session as Tadmor to
Paris; but Washington IN the first week IN De-
cember is far less changed from It's former self
than are any OF us who observe it. Some fifteen
wears have passed since first made its acquaint
ance, but they have left few traces here The
magnificent distances are filled up or shortened
very slowly; the Presidential Mansion is still as
imposingly, eligibly situated, as outwardly good
looking, and as inwardly attractive to our sec
ondary magnates as ever; the clink of hammers
on public edfces in process of construction
is still incessant, and is the main feature of In
dustrial activity here presented the same crowd
of unfortunate borers for places under she new
Clerk, Doorkeeper, &c, of the House is here
pushing elbowing and entreating as ever-the
crowd, say, is the same, though the mdividu-
ais composing it are mainly changed with each
successive Congress; there is the same preva-
lence of high living and low thinking as for
merly the same swarm of insOlent and rapa-
cious hackmen about the doors of the Hotels,
though their importance has been senslbly
curtailed by the introduction of Omnibuses, (the
single novelty | find in Washington, and most
welcome addition to its facilities for iocomotlon)
True, the buildings Of the Smithsonian Institute
are here but they are located out of the range OF
observation, so that suspect three-fourths ofthe
strangers visiting the Metropolis go away pro-
foundy ignorant of their position if not of their
very existence. Literature and science have
few votaries here, but no public consideration
they are not part of the life and mental aliment
Of the Federal City. Politics and Jobs-to Sc
cure places whereby fat living may be made
with little labor, or to secure Contracts whereby
fortunes may be realized out of the labor Of 9TH
ers-these are chief ends of existence and effort
in Washington. And thus liberal Admins
tration or Congress, in the dialect of the Me-
tropolis, is one which disburses money lavishly,
especially at this point. This local sentiment
exerts an unacknowledged but potent influence
over the doings OF Congress; and thus we wit
messed at the last Session an appropriation made
without debate or serious objection to commence
the erection of wings to the Capitol which will
cost at least Three Millions of Dollars and are
utterly umeeded, while bill appropriating some
Two Millions in all to the improvement of Rivers
and Harbors throughout the country-a measure
which, if adopted, would have saved the lives
Of at least one hundred navigators each year,
and add hundreds of thousands to the market
value of the Produce annually exchanged for
Merchandise by our Farmers-was fought with
desperation for weeks and to the last sands of
the late Session, and finally defeated by the
most disreputable shifts and lodges. Washing
ton is night here her citizens are all interested
in the expenditure of money at this point, and
are able to make their interests felt and re-
spected but the settlers on DISTRACTED rivers,
the backwoods pioneers whose produce brings
them next to nothing because OF the cost OF
sending it TO market and the seamen on our
Great Lakes constantly exposed to wreck and
death for want of sufficient and accessible har
bors-these are all far away, and their power,
like that of the magnet, is in inverse proportion
to the square of their respective distances. /
fear this must continue
But about Congress. We who begin to grow
old are apt to mistake the dimness of our vision
for the daIkening of Nature We fancy that
the world about us is feeling the approaches
of decrepitude Perhaps 1t is this which
gives me the impression that Congress is
falling off in intellectual force, and that
lower grade of ability is now current than
was formerly required. | know well that
the wisdom of our ancestors is pretense and
cant-that to-day has Patriots as unselhsh,
Statesmen as sagacious, and Orators as effective
as those Of former days; | know. too, that block
heads and demagogues always did and must
abound in representative assemblies and am
not so unreasonable as TO expect this single
Congress to embody an equal amount OF talent
with all the seven or eight preceding Congresses
of whose deliberations have been more or less
cognizant Yet when recall the Senate as
first saw it-with CLAY, WEBSTER, CALHOUN
FORSYTH, BENTON, McDUFFIE, WRIGHT, Ew-
ING, PoINDExTER, &c. on its benches, and ask
whether the present body is at all equalin force
and dignity to that cannot answer in the afhr
native Yet in the interim some six or eight
States have been added to the Union, increasing
its area by third and its Senators by at least a
Dozen while its population has been swelled by
hardly less than ten millions. In spite OF all,
has not the Senate fallen of and why should
il have fallen off There are able and good men
in it to-day-ssme glorious relics OF the giant
race OF old, and some new members OF signal
ability and promise but, regarded as whole, the
Senate has deteriorated. Either theAighest or
der OF mind now prefers other paths TO that OF
Politics, or the People prefer men who court
their favor to those who deserve and would honor
it. Is it not so When, prior to 1850, was there
ever a Senate whereof Foote could have been
a leader
The HOUSE Just assembled is an unusually
raw one. think more new members have this
week astonished their own likenesses In the
mirror by appearing in the character OF National
Legislators than ever before. Yet among the
Members new to Washington | observe many
who are capable of mingling instructively IN the
1ahates or more usefnllY discharging their du-