The daily republic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1853-1853, 1853-07-11

r0mO@491t6 Wttuous oh0cs. vvheu suo s4uu-
der Of popular warfare arises, the voice Of the
political partisan is inaudible.
Congress and the Public Business.
The people well remember the scandalous
manner in which the public business was de-
layed and baffled during the last two sessions
Of Congress. Ia the Senate there was de-
gree Of decorum and propriety observed, but as
to the other branch Of the Federal Legislature,
it is not too much to say that more disorder.y
and incompetent assemblage Of the same mum
Der Of men was never got together for purposes
of law making than were collected in that
House which expired on the 4th Of March.
To be sure, the evils to which we allude were
very much aggravated by the organization of
that body. A Speaker like Mr.. BoYp, and a
party leader like Mr.. HousroN, would embar-
rass the business Of any House; but House
that could perpetrate an organization that ele-
waited two such individuals to its highest places
of Legislation into a farce. 1t is too much to
think Of without laughter-the idea Of the col
lected wisdom of this great country represent
ed in the persons of gentlemen to whom Hea-
ven had granted stalwart frames and sonorous
voices, but unfortunately not single spark Of
intellectual illumination. What would JOHN
RANDOLPH have said, if he had revisited the
earth, to find HoUsroN, of Alabama, occupy
ing his old place at the head of the Committee
of Ways and Means?
Still, it was not entirely owing to the inca
pacty of these functionaries that the public
business was SO scandalously neglected as it
was during the last two sessions of Congress.
They could not have mismanaged SO misera-
bly, if they had not been aided and sustained on
the floor by kindred and congenial spirits, who
awaited themselves of the rules of the House to
stife and obstruct Legislation. There was no
invention or cleverness in the movements of
these gentlemen. Their tricks were as old as
Legislation, but were the less unworthy on that
account. 1t is remarkable that seventy-five
years ago Mr.. HosMER, a delegate from Con
necticut to the Congress of l778, wrote to the
Governor of that State in terms very similar to
those which the Republic has habitually en-
ployed for two years past in criticising the
conduct of Mr.. BoYD's House Of Representa-
tives. We find his letter in the collection re-
Gently published by Messrs. Little & Brown,
Of Boston, with the title of Correspondence
of the american, Repolution, edited by Mr..
SPARKS. The following extracts may suggest
useful reflection to these who are disposed to
profit by it:
s. wish l could with truth assure your excel
lency that in my view our affairs are in happy
train and that Congress has adopted wise and effect
ual measures to restore our wounded public Gre
dit, and to establish the United States, their lib
erty, union, and happiness, upon solid and per-
manent foundation. | dare not do it while my
heart is overwhelmed with the most melancholy
presages. The idleness and captiousness of some
gentlemen, maugre the wishes and endeavors Of
an honest and industrious majority, in my appre-
hension, threaten the worst consequences. The
Southern States fixed against holding Congress
more than once a day. Our hours fixed from
nine in the forenoon to two in the afternoon. If
these were punctually attended, it would be, per-
haps, as much as could be spared from commit
tees and other business which must be done out of
Congress hours. Nine States make Congress.
Some States have delegates SO very negligent, SO
much immersed in the pursuit of pleasure or bust
ness, that it is very rare we can make a Congress
before near eleven o'clock; and this evil seems
incapable of remedy, as Congress has no means to
compel gentlcmen's attendance, and those who
occasionally delay are callous to admonition and
reproof, which have been often tried in vain.
s'When we are assembled, several gentlemen
have such knack Of starting questions of order,
raising debates upon critical, captious, and trifng
amendments, protracting them by long speeches,
by postponing, calling for the previous question,
and other arts that it is almost impossible to get
an important question decided at one sitting, and
if it is put to another day, the field is open
to be gone over again, precious time is lost, and
the public business left undone. | am sorry to
add that the opposition between States, the old
prejudices of North against South, and South
against North, seem to be reviving, and are in
dustriously heightened by some who, fear, would
be but too well pleased to see our Union blasted,
and our independence broken and destroyed -
VOL 2, PIP. 1877, 1873.
Z The evils complained Of in the foregoing
paragraphs have been growing more and more
intolerable till they reached, we think, their
climax in the last Congress. How much time
was lost during the last two sessions in
/" starting questions of order, raising debates
upon critical, captious, and trining amend
ments. protracting them by long speeches, by
calling for the previous CUES
ton, and other acis"-among which may be
reckoned that most efficient time killer, the
demand for the yeas and nays2 To say that
nine tenths of the actual time of their sessions
were occupied in this manner by the last House
Of Representatives, we are satisfied would be
: moderate and Just statement of the lamenta-
BILE and disgraceful fact. How are these abuses
to be corrected2 One way is. to make them
familiar to the people. and to brand the indi i
viduals who degrade the representative char