New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-03-10
The United States Senate in 1862

{ Had stranger to our land, and more espe
cially a Partisan, entered our Senate Hall OF
the 9th or 28th nlt., he would have at once
concluded that the club of Jacobins was in ses-
sion. The words ssliar,'' g knaye,' g coward, .
witness lnworthyof the belief of any honora-
Bile man, were scattered abroad like leaves in
the autumn wind; and the United States Sen
ate quietly tolerated this Dissertation of a place
honored by great labors and positions ranking
above all comparison -
The actors in the scene were MIR. Rhett of
South Carolina, and Mr.. Clemens, Df Alabama.
If the testimony of both were to be admitted as
good, we should be compelled to conclude that
the United States Senate was disgraced by the
membership Of two men without honor and with
out truth. So these gentlemen eliminate and
recriminate each other. They speak in no
$stinted phrase; g knave,'' 'sliar,' ecoward,.
leap from their lips in rapid succession. These
are curious words for the Senate Chamber
words which should not have been tolerated for
one moment; and yet, for three on four DAYS
Senatorial debate was allowed to he the mere
sewerage of personal hate, malice, vindictiye
ness, and abuse,
Messrs Rhett and Clemens ard both Young
members of the Senate, and it is probable that
they have not yet realised the prophecies of the
high position they hold. They, perhaps, are too
fresh from g the stump &c the canvass the
political club" and Sc the District Convention
to appreciate that they are actors upon n
broader stage and in nobler drama. In Mr..
Clemens we recognize some excellent personal
quahties-frankness, independence, nationality
and political nerve. He has all the efferyes-
cence of the young, and none of tile ripe thought
of the matured statesman. We could almost
say, did we not remember his better qualities
his passable oratory, his firm stand for Union
and nationality, and his fearless defiance to on-
position, that he was Harlequin at the altar.
His recent and most unnecessary agitation o.
the Compromise measures and the sectional
questions therein involved, is certainly not cal
culated to advance him or his co-laborer, Gen
Foote, in the esteem of moderate and thinking
men
But Mr. Rhett is much worse. A disunioni st
IN the most entire sense of the term, bitter in
personalities, violent in denunciation, section Al
IN every sentiment, an agitator at all times and
Al aii piaees' and forever equivoeating in poiti-
cal position, he is a man for whom we have,
politically, no earthly respect. He is Robes
pierre diluted, Calhoun burlesqued, Hayne re
fected from reflection, and distorted in tbot
lie would have made a good Jacpbin n zea,o,s
Cromwellite, merciless Ghibel1ine, a dwarf,.d
Cataline. He openly ayows hatred to the ITn;oo
and yet he holds his seat in the Senate under .
solemn oath--an oath which must have had y
mocking echo in the making Of ito support
the Constitution and the Union. He is in ibis
more than a political paradox He is an enigma,
which can only be solved when curious casuistry
shall reconcile plain duty and hostile professions
1t ls not singular that two such violent men
new in Senatorial dignities, should have acted
queerly in the Senate; but it Is none the less
notifying to the American to look upon what
they have made the United States Senate in
ls52--an arena for petty squahbles, of the most
violent personal and censurable character
Such things sap the influence of the Senate
which, partially removed by its composition
from popular action, is nothing if not dignifed
decent courtesy of language, even in the heat
anu temper OF the most impassioned debate,
sneaiu prevail IN the Senate # nowhere else
1t is grave fact, that year after year the Sen
'aee mas been falling back from the position j