Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1852-09-27
From, N, National Iat.,,fseueer.
The Good of !, ..Democrnric'' Congress

The G. God OF IL .sDcmocratico Congress.
Often aswc have heretofore had occasion to point
out TO our readers the things which successive Con-
gresScs at the close of each of their Sessions have
| left undone, We know of none whose errors OF
omission have eqlelled those of the Session which
has just ended. %.
| On looking over the Calendar of Business of the
House of Representatives for the 30th of August,
the day preceding the adjournment, We find first
| among the Orders of the Day-frSt upon the dock
ct, as it is by the Constitution made the first duty
of Congress TO act upon it--after lying on the ia
| bic from the dayo its reception dunng period
of nine full months, yet untouched, the Annual
Message of the President of the United States to
| Along side of the Message, in Committee of the
Whole House on the State of the Union, lies bill
| reported by its Committee on the Judiciary, and
\ equally Mt elected with the Annual Message, t..
prohibit the prosecution of claims against the Gov
eminent by Senators, Representatives, and Heads
| of Departments, during the term of their respec=
tive Offices. Seifrespect one would have thought,
would have secured immediate action on this bill,
| and its prompt rejection if there appeared no
ground for the charges which it implies against all
The members indlScriminately of both Houses OF
Congress. ~. 20 73i-hat
In the same condition, on the tables besides ma
ny bills reported from Committees of the House it.
self, there lie no less than one hundred and forty
1--WE bills, mostly for the adjustment OF claims of
priv ate individuals iuhich had all passed the Senate
and wanted but the sanction of the House, which
would have required probably but few minutes
each of the time of that body. For the dispatch
of all those bills one-twentieth part of the time
employed in the discussion of the merits of the
candidates for the Presidency would have sufficed
Nor is there any consolation left 10 those if there
be any such, who would chuckle over the saving
10 the Government by the failure to pass 81 many
bills for the payment of just claims; for, though
the two Houses, between them, could, in a session
of forty weeks, find time to pass only thirty-fve
private bills the same Houses besides donations
and gratuities included in acts passed. by both,
found time, separately, during the last eight and
forty hours of the session, to vote away vast sums
of money in various forms, some of them gratui-
touS donations, not onlyto the working clerks of
each House, who had well earned them by extra
labor, but TO all description of men and boys en-
ployed in and about the Capitol-the sum total of
which donations probably equalled in the aggregate
fully one-half of the sums called for by the bills
for the settlement of just elaims of individuals
against the Government which the House of Rep
resentatiYes could not find time to act upon.
Upon the whole, there perhaps never was SO
great waste of time, chiefly in debates upon pri-
ority of business and upon questions wholly for
eign in the proper dnties of legislation. We GER
tainly, incur long experience, never witnessed SO
lavish anexpenditure of time and money in Con-
gresS, with so little advantage to the country, as
during the last session.