The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1859-03-15

Ie,SC ~ SsIaadls ~ ibr
~ Yfe0er1nea
he ~ dsbAss in t6s Senate Il thus des-
ssihnd ~ eQErssp0ndspt. # The Nav York
N. Doolittle moved 10 lay aside Cuba, and
take up the Homestead bill. The few Gu
bans who favor this latter, inplored DOo :
little not 10 injare the Home aad, by an
tagonis;ng it with this greas medsafG Of
foreign policy" He warned them that the
country would regard this as test vote
They wiheed and tho skirmish went on.
.1h1 llbatA on the relatiles merits Of the
two measures, intermingled with questions of
order, now became general Trumbull struck
tho admirable point, that it was wiser to
take up and pass bill that disposed Of q
portion Of the surplus land we now had, than
TO waist time on one which proposed to buy
more. Seward pronounced the Cuban foray
Q mere partisan scheme whose friends
knew Il could mot by any possibility pass
the Lower House, while the Homestead
could become q law, BY the action Of the
Senate, in ten minutes He briefly contested
the two policies-one to enlarge the domain
Of the Slave power, and restore and maintain
the supremacy Of compulsory labor in the
tropics-ahe other, to give land to the land
lees, and furnish homes to free laborers in
our own country. He was emphatic, but
entirely parliamentary and respectful in
tone and language
After little brush on points of order,
Toombssgot the floor. To understand the
scene that followed, you must know that
Seward and Wilson Sit on the rear row Of
chairs, and Toombs, Wade and Benjamin
Immediately in front Of them in the next row
Wade having Toombs on his right and
BENJAMIN on his left and all five being in
close proximity to each other. A little fur
Their OF to the left Of Benjamin sits Fessen-
den. Toombs directed his speech entirely to
SeWsrd Always impassioned ard furious,
he was now extraordinarily vehement in
tone, violent in gesticulation, and abusive in
language. He called Seward a demagogue
"A, small demagogue--sa said he despised all
demagosues detested small demagogues in
particular, but more especially pitied and
despised those who could be driven by small
demaepgues, bringing his fist in the vicinity
Of Wade's desk as he uttered the last clause
He accused the Republicans in body OF
cowardice, personal and political LOT skulk.
ina the issss sf. Oabs, aud shivraiu6 in their
shoes ct 10 mere name
he rang the changes ON Stewards term,
"Land for the landless," and sneered at the
"lacklanders," as he called them, Of whom
the Republicans were afraid, &c. He smote
his own desk violently, occasionally reached
over and struck Stewards, kept his back to-
wards the chair that he might turn his face
toward Seward, ever and anon thrusting his
hand almost in his face and pushing inadver-
tently against Wade's chair; all this
time his face glowing with passion,
and his air and mein and tone suggesting the
ferocity of Danton. combined with the ma
Lightly of Marat During his short speech
. portion Of the galleries kept up running
accompaniment of feeble gusts Of laughter.
Nearly a Il eyes had been fixed on Toombs
and Seward-the latter calm and pale, and
looking steadily at his assailant But the
few who knew Wade well, had not failed to
notice his hands firmly clenched on the arms
of his chair, his compressed lips and the in
describable air of defiance that sat upon his
countenance. Ere Toombs was fairly in his
seat, Seward, Wilson, Fessenden and Wade
sprang to their feet 1t was impossible for
the Chair to assign the floor to anybody but
"the Senator from Ohio" for the tone in
which he pronounced the formula, MIR.
President" and the eye he fixed on Breck-
enridge, said as plain as words could have
uttered it, must and will have it.
Wade, who don't fear the devil, turned
square upon Toombs, who knows that Wade
don't fear the devil, and bringing his fist
down within about an inch of Toombss nose
and heavily upon his desk, said, his eye
riveting him, and the hot words Kissing
through his teeth, "Skulk, ah shiver, do
we9'
The Georgian pushed his chair-it stands
on casters-a few inches farther of, so as to
give his Ohio neighbor more room
Wade went on, leaping almost from the
floor at every sentence, showing plainly that
tbough.he was able to reply effectively to the
taunts and abuse that fell from Toombss
lips, he would rather drive them forcibly
down his throat-all of which Toombs knew,
because once on time they being neigh
bers in the Senate then as now, Toombs was
abusing all Republicans in the most vi
Imperative style, when Wade, his hands on the
arms Of his chair, ready to leap to his feet,
demanded to know, Does the Senator mean
to include me in what he is now saying ~
Upon which the Georgian responded, l ex.
cept the Senator from Ohiot' Since that
occurrence, everybody thinks Toombs desires
to give Wade wide berth.
But to the speech. The first sentence
went straight to the core of the subject, and
all the rest followed it, You sneer at the
Homestead bill, because it gives lands to the
landiess, do you? What is Your pet measure?
Stealing niggeres for the niggerless We 60
to the country upon it-Land for the land
less uersus niggers for the niggerless.
That was enough, the galleries had seem
ingly held their breath Now, some feet
came down with one determined stamp upon
the hoor-a few hands smote together-bus the
mass. in gallery and in Senate, shouted with
mingled roar of laughter and cheers---the
President throwing down the gavei in
despair.
Having, in this phrase, compressed the
whole argument into the smallest possible
compass, Wade went on roasting the De-
mocracy about their "nigger bill, and satis-
flying Toombs that he Wade) was not much
frightened, however it might be with him
(Toombs J and then he handed over the
eight to Fessenden
Mr.. Fessenden was more deliberate. In.
ingly cool He told Toombs that Republic
cans did not SILVER on the Cuba question
but only meant by this course to take their
own time and teach the gentlemen that the
Senate was to be governed by its own rules
0hA uOt Wy tAO uCCACCS Va p0Aty NouSuoi'sA~
that they should permit the vote to be
taken on the bill when they had said all they
wished to on the subject, and not one mo-
ment sooner.
All the time Seward sat quietly in his
chair. Those accustomed to read his thougts
on his face, knew he was biding his time te
reply. Finally, he took the floor He never
spoke of the Senator from Georgia. He
turned his back somewhat toward him. with
. mingled air Of contempt He drew his
own chair aside, pushed Wilson, out the
way, stepped back pace or SO, shook of
trammels, forgot Blair's rhetoric Campbelrs
rhetoric, and Stewards rhetoric, calmly de-
fined the different kinds of courage, said he
hoped he had enough to serve his purpose as
aSenator and . man, and then rose with his
theme, contrasting in a few glowing words
the bene6cent objects Of the Homestead bill
with the pernicious scheme Of acquiring Gu
ba, and, allnding to the Presidents efforts
TO clutch the purse and the sword, denoun
cling him in severe but strictly parliament
airy language, for attempting thus to diver
the nuhlic mind from tho issueS which hi,