Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-09-11
THE LATE SESSION OF CONGRESS.

omission have equalled those OF the Session which
has just ended
On looking over the Calendar of Business of the
House of Representatives for the Both of August
the day preceding the adjournment, we find first
among the Orders of the Day-frst upon the
docket as it is by the Constitution made the first
duty of Congress to act upon it-after lying on
the table from the day of its reception, during
a period of nine full months, get untouched, the
Annual Message of the President of the United
States to Congress. A fact like this, demonstra-
tive of the utter neglect of imperative duty by the
House of Representatives. its utter incapacity
at present constituted for the discharge of It's high
est duties-it would be idle to enlarge upon. The
fact itself stands upon record ndelibe reproach
to the House, which no apology can extenuate,
much less excuse. 1t is not merely discourtesy
to a coordinate branch of the Government, but a
deliberate and wful disrespect to the authority be-
tween which and itself the Constitution has estab
fshed relations that can be dissolved only in the
mode which that instrument itself points out for
amending the Constitution, or by Revolution. De-
H5erate this omission of duty by the House has
BEEN for it has been of nine months duration. That
it has been acltl, no one can deny who will admit,
as every one must that such disrespect has ever
before been shown, even by Democratic House of
Representatives. to the official acts of the President
of the Republic,
Alongside 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 neglected with the Annual Message, to pro-
hibit the prosecution of claims against the Govern
ment by Senators, Representatives, and Heads of
Departments, during the term of their respective
Offices Self-respect one would have thought, would
have secured immediate action his bill, and its
prompt rejection if there appeared no ground for
the charges which it implies against all the Members
unfortunately of both Houses of Congress.
In the same condition, on the table, besides many
bills reported from committees of the House it
self, there lie no less than hundred and forty
five bills, mostly for the adjustment of claims of
private individuals, lich 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 these bills onetwentieth part of the time employed
in the discussion of the merits of candidates for the
Presidency would have suficed Nor is any conso
laton left to those, if there be any such, who would
chuckle over the saving to the Government by the
failure to pass many bills for the payment of just
claims for, though the two Houses, between them,
could in 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 gratuitous donations, not only to the working
clerks of each House, who had well earned them by
extra labor, but to all descriptions of men and boys
employed in and about the Capitol-the sum total
of which donations probably equalled in the aggre-
gate fully one-half of the sums called for by the
bills for the settlement of Just claims of individuals
against the Government which the House of Repre-
sentatves could not find time to act upon.
Upon the whole, there perhaps never was so great
a waste of time, chiefly in debates upon priority of
business and upon questions wholly foreign to the
proper duties of legislation Wecertainly in long
experience, never witnessed lavish expenditure
of time and money in Congress- with so little advan
tage to the country, during the late session 1t is
due however to the Members of the House of Repre-
sentatives to say that much of the useless
of time is attributable to the wretched system of its
Rules for the transaction of business; rules which
would be much more fifty termed rules for the pre-
vention Of business.
Nothing can be more absurd, for example, than
the rules which interdict the reception of any orr
gnal proposition by the House if single objection
be made to it which require two-thrds vote, upon
such objection being made to permit the introduction
Of any proposition which allow of the making
of frivolous and vexaous motions, for the mere pur
pose of consuming time, to adjourn or to call the
House, sustained by calls of the yeas and nays, and
by ill-timed speeches weaying out the patience
of members, day after day, until the House has
found itself at last obliged to adjourn without a
quorum, and to re-enact day after day the dis
reputable scenes.
But we have not time to 90 to the bottom
Of this subject and we should be glad if some
qualified and experienced legislator, either in out
Of Congress, would take it up more seriously, and
prepare between now and the next session project
for the reform Of abuses, which are not less inju
nous to the character Of Congress than to the health
and welfare Of the individual members. Within
the last day two have had the pain to announce
the death Of one Member Of Congress, who had but
few days before assisted in paying funeral honori