The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-03-05

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The Thirty-fffh ongress has finished its misc
rable career OF folly and faction, and has dis
solved and dispersed. AS we expected, the
pressure of the heavy business of the session into
the last three daysb resulted in much bungling
III finishing up the regular appropriation bills.
For the details concerning these appropriations
we refer the reader to our Washington dispatches
and Congressional reports. With these short
comings on the part of Congress in reference to
The domestic machinery Of the government, and
in regard to the critical international relations OF
Mexico and Central America, whether the Presi-
1T, through the long regular Congressional
recess before him of nine months, can or cannot
avoid the alternative of an extra session, a few
days or few weeks will probably determine.
All the bills relating to the Post Office De-
parfnent, including some twenty millions Of
appropriations, fell through for want of time,
after the exhaustion of the session in frivolous
debit ties and buncombe speeches. And so
he immediate question, whether there shall
or shall not be an extra session, devolves
upon the Postmaster General to answer; and
we suppose that his answer will be: eve shall
try to get On as Mr.. Cobb does, upon credit, and
upon our expectations of the next Congress-"
For all other purposes, financially, The Reissue Of
twenty millions of treasury notes will do; but in
the absence of any modification of the tariff, to
increase the resources of the treasury, the next
Congress will have as its first duty, the task of
providing for the redemption of a hundred mil
lions IF Onhlie debit and deticianeies
The divisions and confusion of parties, sections,
and factions, have been the death, on the other
hand, of the Homestead bill, the new Pension
bill for the benefit Of all sorts of old soldiers, and
the French spelation bill Of five millions, which,
together with the veto put upon the bill Of land
grants for agricultural colleges, have saved to
the treasury in all good many hundreds Of
millions of dollars, which are something. But
the failure in any definite action to second the
Presidents sagacious recommendations in re-
gard to Cuba, Mexico, Central America, and
upon the important subject of the tariff, leaves
Mr.. Buchanan free from all obligations to con-
slider the consequences to the refractory demo-
crazy in calling an extra session.
From the reading of the Presidents Message,
on the first day of the long session, to the closing
hour of the last day of the short session, the
measures Of the administration, and the appro-
priations necessary to carry on the government,
have depended, more or less, upon the balance
of power possessed by the opposition from the
discussions and divisions upon great things and
small things among the President making clques
of the democratic majority. This majority,
elected under the wing of Mr. Buchanan's popu-
larity in 1856, and elected to support his ad-
ninlstratlor, could have carried everything
smoothly before them, and could hove CONSOLE
dated their party into an army Of impregnabe
strength, by simply alhering to the administra-
ton. But what have they done, and what have
been the consequencesg
The factious leaders and Presidential aspirants
ana managers of tho party In Congress, instead
of cooperating with the President have from
this section or that section from this little
Presidential clique or the other, played
the game of rule or ruin against his admins
tration. The consequences are recorded, first,
in the proceedings of the party majority Of the
late Congress proceedings which have estab-
lished the conviction in the mind of every in
telligent reader that more impotent, imbecile
and discordant party majority never occupied
both houses. Secondly, the consequences are in
Dictated in those formidable opposition gains in
the members elected from the Northern States
last year to the next, or thirty-sixth Congress
These gains have thus placed the House of Repre-
sentatives within reach if not in the actual pos
session, Of the opposition; for only through the
most cordial exertions among the democracy in
the Congressional elections Of the Southern States
still to come of, can they turn the scale.
The great moral Of the last Congress is
this: that Congressional President makers,
in their factious intrigues for the success
sion, should beware of commencing too soon
the fatal game of ruling or breaking
down an administration of their own
choosing. This disastrous game against Mr..
Buchanan has resulted in reducing the party to
mere skeleton, and has placed the approaching
great battle Of 1850 completely at the discretion
of the opposition forces. Meantime, while the
democratic party has thus been demoralized and
broken down, the administration has risen above
all the treacheries, conspiracies and rebelions of
the party camp; and, regardless of the party, in
Congress, or out Of Congress, Mr.. Buchanan, af-
ter weathering the stormy winds and waves of
the first two years of bis term, is comparatively
safe for the last two-between this and the 4th
OF March, 1861. In the interval, the democratic
party may be utterly demolished; but the adj
ministration may still maintain its position in
the confidence of the country, and close up its
| official career with flying colors. After passing
the ordeal of the late demoralized democratic
Congress, it has nothing to fear from an oppos-
ton Congress, or an extra session, or the absolute
extinction Of the democratic party.
METROPOLITAN Police ExPosuRE.--The spe-
cial committee Of the State Senate, appointed
eleven months ago to investigate the manage
ment Of the Metropolitan Police, have at last re-