New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-01-09
THE SECRET DIVULGED.

Though for some time fully aware Of the real
reason why the House OF Representatives at Wash
ington does not organize itself we have hitherto
Judged it best to keep that reason to ourselves 1t
is seldom that wise man, especially if he be also
kind-hearted and gOOd-natured judges it expedient
10 tell more than half of what he knows. But as
patience and appeals to reason and conscience have
all been tried in vain, and as there seems no longer
any hope that II Speaker will be chosen it is time
for the Press to speak out. BY preventing an or
ganzatim OF the House, the men who have thus
defeated the popular will have lost all claim upon
our respect and forbearance. Having with
their own hands stripped of the peacock's
feathers with which u deceived and i'll
Judging constituency had decked them out, re-
duced by this act of their own to their natural and
normal condition, they can have no right to accuse
us OF Immature or of any disrespect for constituted
authorities, if We show them up to the public pre-
cisely as they are. For all constituted authorities
we hope ever 10 exhibit that degree of respect.
whatever it may be, which position and office as
distinct from talents and virtues entitled to
claim from republican journal. But those Mem
effort is to prevent the choice of Speaker are not
constituted authorities they form mere rowdy
collection of turbulent, intriguing fathless, rois
terers-wc might even say swinders-who have,
by plunderDg the public treasury Of eight dollars
day, obtained under pretense not a whit less
false than if they had forged pension certificates,
or otherwise had undertaken to pass themselves of
for what they are net
But 10 come 10 the point at once. The true rea-
son why no Speaker is chosen the reason why the
plurality rule is not adopted, is this: The present
House, ss has happened to Of Its predecessors
contains number Of very small men, totally unfit
for the station to which their own ambition and ill.,
trigues, the mistaken favor of friends, or decep
tons deliberately practiced on the people, have
raised them. There is one merit, however, which
they have, and for which they ought to obtain full
credit. Sensible Of their own incapacity, and anx-
ious if possible to conceal it from the public, they
hope TO do So by preventing an organization. But
here again their little glimmer of sense deserts
them, and in their anxiety TO hide their lttleness
from the public they initiate the example of the
ostrich who sticks his head into the sand under the
idea of thus concealing himself from the hunters.
The dOube-faced gentlemen at Washington and
indeed the majority of all the Members, seem to
imagine that so long the House remains unor-
ganized so that they not called upon to act in
the capacity of Legislators, the public never will
hnd cut how totally incapable they are-snd hence
their steady Iertinacity in voting against the plu
ralit! rule
This is a device worthy of the geniuses with
whom II has originated; yet we fear it will hardly
save them from somehow betraying themselves
If not by making speeches, at least by writing let
tiers. Mr.. Volk, for instance, seems to have done
pretty well for himself already. and there are
Others in the same predicameut We know of but
one means by which SUCH Members CON efsc
tually screen themselves fpm public observation.