New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-12-05
FROM WASHING TON.
CONGRESs-TaE NEW HOUSE
ldto,isl Correspondence Of 'he N. Y. Tribune.
WASHINGTON. Monday. Dec. 8. 185r

visited the Federal City and looked in on
he ioings of Congress. 1 find Washington en-
hsed and visbly growing though still scattered
sd srageling-a city of magnifcfn mt distances
bsed. Its dirty little crooked Tiber is the sane
accession of foul puddes too petty to afford
cope for any but very young ducks its business
,.turslly bisected into /. Getting money out of
ae Federal Treasury and =. Spending it. /
ste. therefore, with deep regret the undeniable
row tn of the city, since it implies no other indus
m but that which is impelled by the reception or
he hope of Treasury fabulum. Every new street
built up in Washington implies another Million
Dollars distracted from the fund which ought to
kmproviDg our Rivers and Harbors and pushing
,he Pacific Railroad across the Plains and the
Rocky Mountains Every new block erected here
argues that the People of this Country are to pay
more for less benefit from their Federal Govern.
msnt than hitherto
The Capitol Extension is fair sample of the
,eneral drift here. The Capitol was amply large
enough and good enough without it. Not more
ass two-thrds of it is in use, or likely to be the
t,lls of the two Houses are spacious; there was
n. need Of any change whatever Yet two wings
lave for some three four years been in progress,
which will cost Millions Of Dollars before they
are finished, fitted up and furnished; and then it
WILDE seen that the old Capitol thls nanked is
foo ,Qust and insignificant thai it needs raising
thirty 10 fifty fe,t-in effect, to be pulled down
nd built over again b, the people never look
hto nor care about such matters-they do not
row, ask nor care whether their representatives
,xpectiyey vote for or against them-so let them
Ns.
Il have not yet found time to take look at the
Senate, or rather 1t organized and adjourned TO-
1,y before could look in upon il; bat the House
today, while unchanged in it's material aspects,
presented some strong contrasts with that of five
ar ak years ago. Virginia and South Carolina
,Ope retain large proportion of the Members of
that day; of New Yorks thirty three, think all
ar, changed; go is it with Massachusetts,, and, in
fact all New England; though Vermont has trans.
erred Messrs Collamer and FOote to the Senate;
Holmes Of s. c., Butler King of Ga. aud Wilson of
dN. II. have migrated to California; Z. BIC.
K,y n. c., Gov. Mcdowell of Va, Mr. Morse
Of La. and d. p. King Of Mass with others,
doubtless) are dead and it seems hard to realize
that Messrs. Griunell, Rockwell, Hudson, Ash
nun and Winthrop, of Mass are alive and act
i've. but all absent and their places filled by men
with single exception utterly unknown out of
their State in 1S49. / have not for years been
able to think Of the House without associatng
herewith the tall figure and earnest face of
Father Venable Of N. c.; yet he too has been two
.x-.u hio coIlaauuaa the vatersp A
H. She pperd and the urbane Gen. Barringer;
TOmbs of Ga. and Brown of Miss. have been
tua,lated to the Senate and at least three
hurths of the seats were filled to-day by men who
kn never been in Congress up to December, 1649.
Yet the faces are not all new. From about
sod spot, at the extreme left Of the Chair rises
lRe head Connecting grayer) of Joshua X. Gid
iEngs. who was accounted an old member in 4S-9,
and ia now the undisputed Father of the House.
IHs II somewhat older than he was, but in all be-
ids the very same. Gen. Basly of Virginia is be-
sinnipg to rank as veteran, though the frosts OF
nee have hardly touched his head. Clngman of
North Carolina holds on here, though he has
sturn,d his back on himself" AID now wages
deadly war on the principles and the comrades Of
hs better days And here, too, is the slight, frail
form and pale, radiantly Intellectual face of Aleck
Stephens of Georgia, Wing no longer, even in
seeming. but the best tsctician and the acutest
logician Oh the floor, who, if born and reared in
zone State uncursed by Slavery, would have been
an ornament and blessing to his country. 1 Will
not think of what he now is and is to be.
Howell Cobb of Ga. has been speaker of one
House since 40; then Union" candidate for Gov
amor and elected NANNY by Wing votes in def
nee of the bulk of his old party and now he is
hck in Congress Democrat and Anti-Know-Noth-
hg. he is very able though not of winning man
mrs. and has probably touched his highest round
On the ladder of ambition. understand that the
Southern State Rights men protested against his
being supported for Speaker; and they will be sure
70 mark him should he ever be presented on Ma
tonal ticket.
Messrs. McMullen Of Va and Cobb of Ala. were
IN the House eight years ago, aud are here yet-a
Distinction which think they owe rather to In
dCmitable good temper than to transcendant aoil'
Ay. They are both Southern Democrats OF the
lore moderate school, which serves to admit, abb
Esc,ly. that the Union had some other purpose
.sde the capture and return of fugitive negroes
lsi,h they could discover what those objects are.
There are more new Members in this House
Ian in almost any before, and some Of them seem
lelv TO be remembered. Among these count
Gen Ouitman of Mississippi, not fierce fire eater
appearance, but seeming rather quiet, elderly
hrmer or planter, with hair and unshOrn beard
becoming silvery born New.Yorker, but leaving
car State while it still upheld Slavery, and de-
vapt nnousst;oning believer that some men were