The Lambertville press. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1858-1???, 1859-03-10
Congress and its Labors

Since our last issue, Congress has adjourned
or rather the last Congress, expired by constitu-
tionaI limitation on the fourth of March. Al
the results of their labors do not appear to be SO
very great. While many of the great wants of
the country were unsatisfed and unprovided for,
and instead of attending to such duties, much of
their time was spent in appointing committees
of investigation about alleged corruptions, and
in hearing and discussing the reports of such
committees Instead of legislating for the good
of the country they legslated for Buncombe. !"
Any quantity of " Buncombe speeches were
made to almost empty seats, which were not in
tended to produce any effect on the legislation
of Congress, but simply to be scattered among
their constituency, and over the land under the
much abused ranking privilege. when we reao
these illusions, if we did not know the authors,
we would naturally conclude that the country
was blessed with the greatest and purest patriots
that ever lived. That the country is blessed
with many pure patriots. there can be no douot
but we cannot help but believe, that as general
thing, not many of them go to Congress. The
cunning, wire working hauling politicians, as a
class are generally well represented in the halls
of legislation.
In speaking of the Investigating committees,
there is great need of them, or something else,
to put stop to the corruption in government
affairs, from the fountain head to the lowest
meniaIs in the service of the government Some
committees, appointed the last session, made out
some pretty clear cases of corruptions, although
there seemed to be quite disposition to " white
wash" Corruption seems not to be confined to
any station, but its atmosphere seems to linger
around all, from the commander-in-chief down
to the private 1t perhaps may bewell that the
people live in blissful ignorance of the real state
of things, as they could not witness these things
with conplacency. They would sigh for the
primitive days of our government, when it was
conducted upon economic and pure principles,
by men who loved their country, with an eye
single tc the glory and the good of the coun-
try.
That the country is running rapidly in debt,
and that too in a time of peace, is fact that is
staring us in the face, and it was fondly hoped
that Congress would not adjourn without pass
ing revenue measure for its relief Instead
of doing anything of the kind, they resorted to
the spendthrift and bankrupts expedient of bor
rowing and thereby increasing the Indebtedness of
the country. If such state of things are to be
kept up any great length of time, bankruptcy
e. b,,4 hot h.
country could have been substantially relieved,
and that was by increasing the rates Of the tar
if, thereby swelling the receipts from the GUS
toms, which is the principal source from which
the government desires its resources This mea-
sure being so loudly demanded for the relief of
the government, it seems strange that enough
men could not be found willing to vote for such
measure. There was also another considera-
ton why such measure should have passed, and
that is protection. This is loudly called for,
especially in the Middle States The industrial
interests of the country have languished for the
want of it.
The great difficulty of our congressional gis-
lation is that all of the business is deferred to
the lasG moment OF the session, When Dy means
of the talking" process, all sorts of measures
are jumbled up in omnibus style. And after a
tsssion spent in talk, its last hours are spent
the appropriation bill, which after all, seems to
be the greater part of their labors, giving room
for more good fat jobs in distributing the money
of the government.