Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-01-16

L
ty on the banks Of the Owasco; Judge Belts,
who prcsides over the Admiralty Courts OF the
Commercial Metropolis; Judge Savage, firm of
heart, but feeble in body Judge Mclean, who
may be seen daily with manly brow and erect
form, on the Supreme Bench, at the Capitol
and Judge Cady, who, though he has counted
four score and five winters, has head as clear.
and a Ia ID almost ready for professional toll,
and step almost as vigorous as when forty three
years ago he climbed Capitol Hill to take his
seat in the old brick building then occupied by
the House Of Representatives.
A temporary Capitol was erected in VIII ch
the two Houses sat until the assemblage of the
sixteenth Congress on the 8th of December,
1919, when the House of Representatives met
for the first time in their then greatly admired
new Hall.
He who shall hereafter write the his ory of
these renowned legislative chambers-the an.
cient and the modern-wi not overlook the re.
markable fact that the closing hours Of the old
Hall OF 1919, were devoted to exciting debates
upon the Missouri Compromise queslion-lhat
the opening hours of the new Hall of 1919 (now
the old Hall ~ as well as several succeeding
months, resOunded with the din of debate on the
same iheme-that, after lapse Of more than a
third Of a century, the last Congress which oc-
cupied this Hall, shook the country with agita-
tion respecting the same Missouri Compromise
and that the first speech delivered in the new
Hall of 1857, was devoted to the examination
of the principles involved in the enactment Of
this celebrated measure and the legitimate con-
sequences springing fIom its repeal.
Among the distinguished names founl on the
Journals of the Congress OF 1920. are, in the
Senate, those of Harrison Gray Olis, Rufus
King, Jas. Barbour, John Gaard, Nat. Ma
con, VIM. r. King. X. NJ. johnson, and VIM.
Pinckey and in the House were Henry Clay,
then Speaker; Samuel A. Foot author Of the
resolutions offered ten years afterwards in the
Senate, which caused the world famous contest
between Webster and Ilayne /; Henry X. Storrs,
j. w. TAYLOR, Tallmad2e and Albert II. Tracy,
ot New York John Sergeant, Of Pennsy ylvanis {;
Louis McLane, of Delaware; z. X. Barbour,
{. +. Mercer Thos. Newton, Wm. 5. Archer
and John Randolph Of Virginia, and William
Lewndes, of South Carolina. All Of these men
will be recognized as having borne a conspicu-
Gus part ~ The great controversy which made
that session a memorable one IN the history Of
the country.
The struggle respecting the admission Of Mis-
souri, to the Union began in the old brick Hall,
in December, 1918, and closed IN the more slate
ly chamber where Congress then met, in March,
1920. Scarcely had the members drawn for
seats in December 1919, then the fierce section
al battle Of the last two sessions was renewed
Challenging 30 the arena the highest forscnic
powers Of that celebrated Congress, and convul-
sing the country scarcely less than has the re-
opening of the controversy in our time, this es-
sentally irreconcable conflict of opinion finally
subsidized into Mr.. Clay's superficial Compro-
mise, and the Nation sank exhausted into appar-
rent repose. Though the fires went down, the
embers still smouldered and lived to break out
thirty.four years afterwards with more intense
flame than before. The CnquenchaJe fire still
bu ms.
At the opening of the second session Of this
Congress (Mr. Cay having resigned the Chair)
John w. TAYLOR, of New York, was elected
Sr~~i.~. .i.e t-.en,y second baiiut-ti,v ot,
posing votes being mostly given to Mr.. Lowndes
of South Carolina. 1t was seciiunal contest,
growing naturally out of the agiiaiiuns of
the precedin. sessions; and it pres,ged,
though ii but family resembled, that more
recent struggle which resulted in placing in the
Chair, at the close of a more protractcd scene in
this great drama, that model Speaker. Nathan
iel p. Banks.
We have neither time nor materials for more
than brief illusions to some Of the mighty themes
and great men who have figured in the Old Hall
during the eight and thirty Yeas of its occupan-
cy 10y Congress.
The first subject to which we will refer is the
earliest Congressional proceedings of which we
have any contemporaneous recOllection-Web
ser's speech, and the succeeding debate. in Jan
uary, 1924, on the Greek Revolution. How OF.
ten l-boys have ratified of selections Of this
great orator on academic boards. fancyinr in
the greenness Of their jdvenillry that all Mem.
bers of Congress were like Webster Also, that
the eaden realities of manhood should so dissi-
pate the golden dreams Of youth Webster
why, If he had been cut into slices in 1894, and
preserved I'LL now, he would have furnished ma
tera for the whole delegation of medium sized
State, with enough left to make a small Senator.
In his stcrnly classic exOrium, he paws 4 fine
tribute to the architectural grandeur Of the Hall.
Enforcing the duty, while discu sing the main
question, OF not being led astray by enthusiastic
recollections Of ancient Greece, he adds Eve
qn0le the substance from memory) that VIC must
not only fly beyond the limits of civilized socie-
ETY. ami the boundaries where laws and knowl-
edge are found. but we must leave this Hall be-
fore we can turn away from he memorials of
ancient Greece. After happy alluson to the
fact that the Constitution OF that flee, delibera-
tive body. was copied from classic models, he
says: "This magnificent ediGce, these columns
with their stately proportions, this elaborate ar
chltecture which surrounds us-;what are these
but so many witnesses of what Greece once was,
h'h "hhl SHt u IL lhupHl US W Dt DOunu lnt
acoustic qualities of the Hall are of the worst
kind, this testimonial TO its architectural magni-
fcence is richly deserved. Its sonbre grandeur
contrasts strikingly with the ia wiry embazonry
of the new Chamber.
This Greek debate was an era in Congress
onal eloquence Clay, Poinsett, John Randolph,
Dwight of Massachusetts, delivered splendid
speeches The keen philippe of fiery young
Bartlett, Of New Hampshire, against Clay, and
the lofty Kentuckians contemptuous and caustc
reply, are freshly remembered Sam. Houston,
just from the wild woods of Tennessee broke a
lance in the foray A third of a century has
gone, during which he has conquered foreign
Republic, has filled the Presidential Chair, and
annexed it to our Union; and yet the towering
form of the old Cheftain may be seen, erect and
eagle-eyed, in the Senate Chamber, an active
participant in its daily proceedings.
few old relics OF the Revolutionary period
yet live TO remember the brilliant scene when
Lafayette, nearly half century after he had
babe adleu to Washington on the eve of his re-
turn TO France, was received in the Representa-
tives III III, amidst the widest plaudits of hun
dreds Of spectators. Mr.. Speaker Clay, in the
name of the great Republic which his valor had
helped to found, welcomed his return to our
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