Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-04-08
AMERICAN TELEGRAPH.


A Commentary ON tho Constitutions.
Now and then complaints are heard that Con-
gress is doing very little business; but they do
not proceed from men acquainted with the genius
of our constitution. That noble instrument holds
out no notion such as complaints of that charac
ter must be founded on. 1t speaks indeed, o.
the powers of the two houses but not at all o.
duties. There is awhole chapter of the one, bu
not so much as o section of the other. A grea
deal is stated of what they shall not do but Yer.
little of what they shall This is left wholly 4
their good sense and good manners, and will no
therefore be neglected. This is enough to pr oy
our Senators and Representatives to be entir ely
faithful to their trusts, though they talk anC
fight from morning to night, and from month to
month, without ever being the authors OF my
other act than one Of assault and battery. Then
people allege coarse manners against them, We
shall be glad to have them place their niger on
the clause which obliges them to be gentlemeil J.
Does anybody pretend to insinuate that any o.
them drink too much And II they 40, ana sucn
excess happens to be the cause OF braws and in
temperate conduct, of which the country is
ashamed. the law, as Shylock says, allows it !;
and gratitude demands that they should hold in
honor the divinity of liquor, which has doubtless
made some of them the honorable members they
now are
The two houses appear to have exceeded their
constitutional limits, it must be confessed in
they can show any express authority whatever
for making speeches On the contrary, the fun
damental law contains these words: ''The House
of Representatives shall choose their Speaker. !"
Here is n very unusual Imperative employed, di-
recting the lower house to select some body to
speak for them OF course all the remainder are
to keep silence, since it is nowhere said that any
other person shall say anything; but the very
contrary is plainly implied But what perver-
sion Of that wise provision has crept in In
stead of being the only speaker that officer is the
only member who is not permitted to speechify
at all, and the rest do all the talking
But this practice, though manifest violation
of the constitution, has been tolerated by the
people for the sake Of its good effects. What if
our Washington friends should take it into their
knowing heads to manufacture laws with the
same unthinking rapidity that they now dc
speeches: what would become of our poor
country, pray? Every man starts back with
horror at the possible alternative, and pours out
his gratitude upon Congress that is content to
do no harm by doing nothing, for the sake of the
privilege of having its fill Of Tapid talk most
profitable exchange To be sure their language
is rather foul sometimes; but it IS spent on one
another, and therefore may be just. They are
the best judges of that, and seem 20 think so.
For one we are willing to defer to tdem as to
the treatment members deserve at each others
bands, whether consisting of words or bio Vs.
Some are unreasonably concerned lest the
country shall be disgraced by the indecent con.
duct of their representatives We are at ease
on that point, for simple reeson. These gentle,
men are in no good sense the representatives OF
the people. Out of their constituency of forty
or fifty thousand persons, some inconsiderable
number of men, noted for nothing but idleness
and cunning, selected and consequently elected
them. The rest of their districts had nothing
more to do with it than one has with being tired
and sleepy because he gapes when he sees another
person cape. We shall not trouble ourselves, for
one, on account of any grossness which member
from Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, or any other
region, civilized or otherwise, may think proper
to commit. When we vote for such man, per-
haps we may but till then we insist upon it that
nobody else in our wide country need to blush
for such representative but those who made
him one
The theory Of the constitution, as>we under
stand it, is, that there should be show Of gov
eminent such as our Congress exhibits ut Wash
ington, like q scare-crow in n cornfeld that it
is unnecessary that anything should be done, or
said either unless to keep them out of greater
mischief, and that we need not mind what Con
gressmen are about solong as they confne them
selves to blackening the eyes or regulations o.
one another, and continue to let the business Of
the country alone.-NeWGrk Daily AdDrtiser: