The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-01-14
WASHINGTON, d. C.
Fsain the Albany Evening Journal
THE OLD REPRESENTATIVES HALL.

The removal Of the Hou-e of Representatives
th;s wsek from their cid Hall in the centre
building oc the Capitol, into the new Hall in the
extended southern wing, awakens many recol.
lectiops Of men and events, which, in this now
s;len. Chamber, have played leading parts in
the drama Of political contests. The old Capt.
toi was destroyed by the British forces in Au.
gys, 1914. The incidents of the war then ra-
ging irddced DIR. Madison to convene an extra
session Of Congress IN September of that year.
They me. in plain brick building on Capitol
Hill Though the country was passing through
the most critical period of the war, the message
Of the President occupies only about column
of an ordinary newspaper. The Speaker,
Lapgdon Cheves, of South Carolina, announced
the standing committees the second day of the
session, and members went at business in right
good earnest. As things are done nowadays,
the message would have filled a huge volume,
and month have been consumed in getting
into working order.
A temporary Capitol was erected, in which
the two Houses sat until the assembling of the
Sixteenth Congress, On the 9th of December,
1919, when the House of Representatives met
for the first time in their then greatly admired
new Hell.
He who shall hereafter write the history of
these renowned legislative Chambers-the an
cient and The modern-will not overlook the re-
msrksble fact, that the closing hours in the
old Hall Of 1919 were devoted to exciting de-
bates upon the Missouri Compromise question
that the opening hours of the new Hall of l9 49,
(now the old Hail. as well as several succeeding
months, resounded with the din of debate on
the same theme-that, after a lapse of more
than third CT century, the last Congress
which occupied this Hall shook the country
with sgitstions respecting the same Missouri
promise-and that the first speech deliver
ed in the new Hall of 1857 was devoted to an
examination Of the principles involved in the
enactment of this celebrated measure, and the
legitimate consequences springing from its re-
peal.
Tie struggle respecting the admission of
Missouri TO the Union began in the old brick
Hall, in December, 1918, aud closed in the
more stately Chamber where Congress then
met, in March, 1920. Scarcely had the mem
bers drawn for seats, in December, 1919, than
the fierce sectional battle of the last two SEES
sions was renewed. Challenging to the arena
the highest forensic powers of that celebrated
Congress, and CONFUSING the country scarcely
less tran has the reopening of the controversy
in our time, this essentially irreconcilable con-
fict of opinion finally subsidized into Mr.. Clay's
superficial Compromise, and the nation sank
exhausted into apparent repose. Though the
fires went down, tee embers still smouldered,
and lived to break out thirty-four years after.
wards with a more intense flame than before.
This UHQUEYCHABLE FIRE YET BURNS.
At the opening of the second session of this
Congress, Mr.. Clay having resigned the
Chsir,) John w. Taylor, OF New York. was
elected Speaker on the twenty second ballot
the opposing votes being mostly given to Mr.
Lowndes, of South Carolina. 1t YVES a section
al contest, growing naturally out of the agits-
tons Of the preceding sessions; and it pre-
saged, though it but family resembled, that
more recent struggle which resulted in placing
In the Chair, at the close OF more protracted
scene in this great drama, that model Speaker,
Nathaniel P. Banks.
We have neither time nor materials for more
than brief illusions to some of the mighty
themes and great men who have ignred in the
old Hall, during the eightand-thirty years of
ats occupancy by Congress.
The first subject to which we will refer is the
earliest Congressional proceedings of which we
have any contemporaneous recolection-Web-
ster's speech, and the succeeding debate, in
January, 1924, on the Greek Revolution. 4 y
The Greek debate was an era in Congress
sionsl eloquence. Clay, Poinsett, John Ran
dolph, Dwight of Mass, delivered splendid
Bartlett, of New Hampshire, against Clay, and
the lofty Kentuckian's contemptuous and caus-
tic reply, are freshly remembered.
Sam Houston, just from the wild woods of
Tennessee, broke . lance in the foray. A third
of q century has gore. during which he has
conquered foreign Republic, has filed its
Presidential chair. and annexed l. to our Un-
ion AID yet the towering form of the old chief.
tain may be seen, erect and eagle eyed, in the
Senate Chamber, an active participant in It's
daily proceedings.
a few old relics OF the revolutionary period
yet live to remember the brilliant scene when
Lafayette, nearly half century after he had
babe alden TO Washington, on the eve Of his
return TO France, was received in the Repre-
sentatives' Hall, amidst the widest plaudits of
hundreds of spectators, M. Speaker Clay, in the
name Of the great Republic which his valor
had helped to found, welcoming his return to
our shores. 4 later day Witnessed similar
spectacle, when was greeted within this Hall
by the National Representation, Kossuth, the
eloquent Governor of Hungary.
In THE Hall transpired that event, which go
completely dissolved existing political combi-
nations, and has influenced the destiny of men
and parties even down to our day-the election
of John Quincy Adams by the House to the
Presidency The spiteful contemporaneous
Clay and Kreaner correspondence-the oft.re-
iterated charges of I" bargain and corruptionr-
the long-standing feud between Claw and Jack
son then engendered-the remorselegs obloouv
that chRfed the spirit and clouded the future of
the great Commoner, (now known to have been
80 undeserved by him,) are among the bitter
remembrances of this period.
We can barely mention the proposed Congress
of Panama-the Tariff revision of lS2g-the
Ind
mate removal OF the Aborigines beyond the
Mississippi; measures pregnant with great prin.
ciples, aud prolific of rare eloquence, furnishing
occasions for genius to utter glowing words
which posterity will not LET die. Nor can we
dwell upon that other memorable contest which
shook the Hall OF Representatives and the Sen.
ate Chamber to their foundations, and filed
every corner CT the land with agitation We
mean the notification conflict of 1880 and 1873 |.
1t was about the time when the two last-men.
toned events were pending, that the Senate
began to take the lead of the House in the in.
itia,ion and discussion of important measures
and TO attract to itself an unprecedented share
of the public attention. This was due in part
10 the recent infusion into that body of several
new Senators, who were distinguished not only
for great learning and ripe experience in affairs
but for splendid oratcrical powers. To say tina,
when Clay, Webster. Calhoun, Wright, CLAYTON
Rives, Poindexter, Ewing, Tsllmadge, and Dial
las, entered the Senate, they found already there
Benton, Woodbury., Tazewell, Hayne, Berrien
Frelipghuysen, Holmes, Forsyth, Spregue. and
Mclean, is simple proof that The north wing OF
the Capitol was to be the theatre where the
great questions then convulsing the country
we're TO play their principal parts.
Bat the other wing of the Capitol, during
the closing events of Mr.. Adsms's administra
ton, and the opening scenes OF Gen. Jsckson's
displayed a roll of names scarcely less eminent