Bedford inquirer and chronicle. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1854-1857, 1855-12-21
From the ". Y. Tribune.
THE SENATE IN 1855.
WASHINGTON, Friday, Dec. 6, 1888.

J
we all do fade as leaf" That is the
ultimate mundane result, prior aud PREDATORY
to which, we are unmistakably growing
old. realize it nowhere more forcibly than
on returning, after prolonged absence, tc
the Senate chamber of the United States
The first thought here is inevitably of the
great departed--of Clay and Webster,
Calhoun and Forsyth, Silas Wright aud
Peindexter, whom with younger eyes and a
fresher heart, more hopeful spirit, / saw
sitting here on my first visit, nearly twenty
years ago. They have passed away from
earth with John Davis and Roger Hunting
don, ] T. Moreheal, Phelps, Prentiss, and
many others who have since filled tYeir seats;
while Corwin and Ewing of Ohio, Tyler
and Rives of Virginia, Benton of Missouri,
Mangum and Badger of North Carolina,
though still living, have gone into retire
ment, and no longer challenge the publ 10
regard with calmer interest, more languid
pulse, know that .he Senate OF 1885,
tested by the most unswerying standards,
was abler than that of 1855.
Perhaps this Senate is composed of young
er men than that of twenty years ago, but
doubt it. For here sits Gen. Cass, a We
teran who has already passed the seventy
years allotted to man, locking heavier and
duller than when FIRST saw him, but still
unwrinkled and healthy, striking example
of the conservative dover of rigid temper
ance even though confronted By the dis
fractions ard anxieties Of political life
Here is Mr.. Crittenden returned again, after
many vicissitudes, looking visibly older.
and with seeming sea. on the right side of
his face which mars bis phosiognomy, but
who seems as alert, as sanguine, as ready
for parliamentary tilt, as in his yivacious
prime. As to John NJ. Clayton-who am
confident, was sitting here twenty years ago
II know no: how much longer-he looks
better, hcarticr, brisker, and positively
younger to-day than he die when be left the
Senate in 1849 to Gen. Taylcr's Secretary
of State. His circumference is still gen.
erous, but he looks as il there we're many
years of life and work in him. trust there
may be.
John P. Hale's rosy fase lights up the
Senate once more, and bis humorous COM
men,s on whatever is going forward serve
greatly to relieve the solemn dullness which
habitually broods over this haunt of Fogy-
ism. Hale used to threaten to resign when
here before; but he seems now quite re-
signed to the despesation which sent him
back again. / think his designation to this
will prevent resignation out OF it. His new
colleague, James Bell, is a pale, slim, elder
ly lawyer, who will command the respect Of
the Senate BY probity and industry without
wasting much Of its tine in brilliantly use-
less speaches.
l had not thought, few years since,
ever to see Pitt Ftssenden here as Sena-
tor from Maine, but the change from the
line of Shepleys, Fair6elds and Bradburys
whom he succeeds, is very welcome. Nor
have l yet quite got the hang of seeing
Henry Wilson, sthe Natick Gobbler,' in the
seat of Daniel Webster. As my eyes rests
on his round, full, earnest face, am temp
ted to beckon him out and quietly inform
him that the Senate is very particular in
excluding outsiders from its seats aud then