Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-10-03
Washington News and Gossip.

Hon. Thos. H. Bayly, of Va, in Washington,
during the past week, reminds US that he,
too. is a candidate for the Speakership. That
is Ito use a more courtly phrase) &c in the hands
of his friends" General Bayly is gen.
tleman of some forty-three or four years of
age, whose heavy figure, rather antique style
of dress and sedate countenance, give his
appearance somewhat older cast, which we
may also designate as the very 'presence"
for the presiding officer of the House of Re-
personalities Of the United States. He has
been in Congress ever since John Tyler sent
Mr.. Henry A. Wise abroad; so that, though
comparatively young, he is one of the fathers
of the House. He was chairman of the Com
mittee of Ways and Means during the Con-
gress before the last. in which position it
became his duty to acquire all that a speaker
should know Of legislative attorneyship. We
need scarcely add that he has for many years
been a leading man in the House upon all
public questions for his learning, abilities,
and parliamentary labors are we'll known to
the country. In view of the fact that there
for the position, he will go before the caucus
with respectable backing, say of twenty
members, composed nearly entirely of gentle
men who were from first to last Democratic
friends of the compromise. and who inclined
at one tine to the formation of "Union
party" It will be remembered that most of
the friends of the compromise oppose Mr..
Cobbs Union-party views, and thus pre-
vented the disintegration of the old parties,
which at one time appeared probable. Mr..
Bayly's thorough strong position against
the Southern Rights wing of ''the party"
will deprive him of hope Of support, we take
it, from any original anti-comprOmisc man
who may be in the House As moro than half
the delegation from his own State are in this
category, it strikes us that he cannot rely
upou more than very few votes from them.
If, however, no party nomination shall be
made, we know of no gentleman who will
probably prove more formidable candidate.
As he will be the favorite among all the
contestants of the Silver Grey Wings. who
are destined to labor very hard, indeed,
next winter, to make themselves the con-
trolling wing or element in Wing connsels
with what success, remains to be SEEN
However, we shall not know who is to be gov
ernor until after the election A hundred
important elements not yet generally dreamed
of are to affect the contest. First of all, we
haze the Pacific railroad question. There will
bo uhn ut for in
caucus, not indirectly pledged in favor of the
construction of this work by active assistance
from the national treasury; and quite as
many who would not touch any candidate sus-
pected of leaning that way, with forty foot
pole. The New York Pacific railroad specu-
lators-the company chartered by the State of
New Iork-wil all be in tho lobby. working
like moles to effect the choice. They under
stand the game to nicely; most of them hav
ing had years of experience at Albany. They
want a speaker who is not only for the project
per Sc. but who can be relied on to do his best
so to shape legislation upon the subject, as that
in constructing the proposed railroad, the
Government shall make them all milionaires.
They are already pledged in favor of the Tex
as route it strikes us, and calculate upon
bringing up much southwestern influence in
aid Of their schemes, as well rs on being
backed with all the influence California will
throw into the lobby as we'll as in the halls of
both Houses. The mail steamer question, too,
will have its weight; the drummers for
''close contracts" OF that sort being always
we'll supplied with money for extrayagant en-
tertainments, and to be loaned to needy par
ties supposed to be able directly or indirectly
gross upon this subject. They will strive
manfully to place in the speakership some
gentleman indirectly pledged to to construct
the committee of Ways and Means, and the
Naval and Post Office Affairs committees as to
perpetuate the system--striving the harder,
inasmuch as it is now understood that the Ad-
ministratiOn entertain any but favorable sen-
timents towards it. The secret enemies of the
Administration in the arty lof the House)
may also be expected to combine to effect the
choice of speaker These gentlemen, though
proverbially loving the President almost to
alteration, already condemn his policy in toto
1t will not take them long, it strikes US, to
condemn him also, or there is no truth in the
unva-ying history Of party defestions. Their
grievances grow out of the fact that the Ad-
ministration have deemed it proper to dispense
their patronage in a manner threatening to
weaken them personally, before the "dear
people, or from a shrewd impression that the
cast Of the Democracy of the Administration
appreciation.
But VIC might fill the Star with such synop-
ses of the causes and combinations conspiring
to render the questionable IS to be the next
sneaker l-eminentlY beyond solution until