New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-03-26
The Debates in Congress.

The Debates in Congress.
We have looked with much curiosity over the
debates in the present Congress. for some time
past, for something worthy of individual note,
and Of the attention Of the country at large. We
must confess that we feel disappointed in not find
ing theobiect Of our search. 1t would require a
political Diogenes Of no ordinary sagacity and
perseverance to discover in the present Congress
a legislator, the chief bent of whose labors and
speeches is towards the practical and substan-
tial good Of public and private interests.
The debates, both in the upper and lower
Houses, are the mere whirlpool of political cur
rents, arrested uncertainty in their progress
and not yet knowing the channels through which
they should flow in the Presidential contest. In
every debate there is an abundance, and
superabundance, of elimination and reerimlna-
ton; Of attack upon and defence of this candi-
date, of abuse and eulogy Of another. Cass,
Butler, Fillmore, Webster, Douglas, Buchanan,
Scott, are frequent in the mouths Of our legisla
tors, anxious either to build up or destroy their
political capital There are large words upon
the ridiculous improbability called &c Interven-
ton
The majority of the advocates of the &c Inter-
vention Resolutions proclaim loudly that they
design only to protest-in other words, only to
talk. THERE'S no possibility Of any such legis-
lation as would make intervention practical
thing, or even a probable contingency Yet,
the ss battle Of words is industriously kept up,
and able and eloquent Senators exhaust in it
all the briliancy of accomplished rhetoric and
all the yehemence Of impassioned appeal. A
plain waste of public time and money The
only other subject having at all practical
bearing yet brought before the Senate, is the
disposal Of the public lands Coming up in the
first place in the practical form of resolutions,
donating lands to railroad projects, it has been
seized upon by the manufacturers Of Presiden-
tial campaign thunder, and the advocates of
ries, and the special champions of sectional
interest which must be cultivated to secure re-
election, are all up in full cry, branching the
discussion into thousand issues, nine -tenths of
which are totally unreal and unsubstantial
This is what is doing in the Senate.
In the House we have lively discussions as to
the merits and chances Of probable OF possible
Presidential candidates. s-...--a
Thus far, the domestic quarrels have been
altogether with our democratic friends, the
wings prudently holding their differences of pre-
ference in reserve. First, we had Mr. Brock
enridge, democratic member from Kentucky,
coming forward as the special champion of Gen.
Butler, denouncing the Democratic National
Review. (Which has made itself the special advo-
cate of Douglas for the Presidency and de-
manding that Judge Douglas should authorita-
lively repudiate this national organ, or take
mortal defiance from the friends of Butler Cass
and Buchanan. One of Mr. Douglass friends
disavowed any responsibility on the part of Judge
Douglas for the course of the Review Mr.
Breckenridge politely insinuated that this dis
avowal was Of no consequence to any body in
particular except General Douglas. The next
actor was Mr.. Marshall, democratic member
from California. In a fiery speech, he de-
nounced Cass, Buchanan and Butler, as old
" fogies,' said he belonged to Young America,
was democrat all over, and was going to have
no old 'sfogies,' but one of Young America as
the democratic candidate for President of the
United States. 1t may be easily conceived that
while this speech was progressing, the House Of
Representatives looked more like g bar-roonl
meeting than itself
The only other question up before the House
but one in the same line of manufacturing
material for the Presidential campaign-is the
eminently edifying and interesting one of the
political consistency of. individual members.
Free sellers, Southern ultraists, abolitionists,
wings, and democrats-more spirits than were
ever called upon by the witches in Macbeth to
mingle-seem all to have felt it profoundly I'M
portant that the country should be bored and the
national treasury plundered by their wordy and
senseless yindioation Of themselves Even Cid |
dings and Rantoul have yocferated their noisy |
declarations Of their sublime patriotism and su-
perhuman purity of motive. We must do these |
noisy orators, all round the justice to say that |
there is one point in which they all show their
magnificently disinterested magnanimity not |
one OF them fails to impress upon the country |
that it is a matter of the last and most solemn |
Importance that one of his own peculiar kidney |
should be elected next President of the United |
States. |
In the midst of all this there is only one di- |
version, only one relaxation from the soporifc |
ilhucuCes VI Hoouy anu ullSuDStantlal debate
Some of the honorable members, properly ap-
preciating the tedium of the session, kindly get
up amongst themselves exhibitions in the pugi-
hstic art, and literally give them to thei,
brother members and the public at large, gra-
It's We do not know but it would be we'll that
the House should sit only one or two hours in
the day, transact its business and adjourn, to
allow such members as may be so disposed, the
paiance OF the day to engagein sparring match
ess 10 exercise themselves and amuse the public
But seriously, this session of our Congress is
queer thing, and will have no special honor in
the political history of our country. 1t is in
reality but two political caucuses met at the cap
itol at the expense Of the people, to wrancle
amongst themselves, work for favorite aspirants,
breed dissension in the minds of the people and
galyanize inanimate sectional issues into the
living material on which demagogues feed and
have their life. 1t is seething cauldron from
which only airy and colorless bubbles rise and
float off to mystify or disturb the vision of the
people. Thank Heaven, all things have an end
and so must this session of Congress. But if We
wished to punish our worst enemy in the world,
We should only compel him to read steadily day
after day the reported debates of the present