Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-03-08
MORNING LEADER.
Retirement of Joshna X. GiddIngs from
.l ,.lsr -t s-. Congress. H
Hs r s -a -g - .a-1 ss
"REMINISCENCES OF THIS VETERANS REPRESENT
.a-. .lt. ... f--l ATIvE CAREER.
From the New York Tribune

90 "REMINISCENCES OF THIS VETERANS REPRESENT
: l.- r5t. DID,. t-- ATIvE CAREER.
From the New York Tribune
WAsHINeToN, Feb. 81, 1853.
Great changes will take place in the mex
House of Representative Some members o.
the present Congress will retire wholly from
public life at the close of this session Others
may re-appear upon the scene. few who led
in the memorable conflicts of the last session
have been called to other theaters of action,
} while two or three have gone to their final re.
pose. Of these few have been long in Con-
gress and here and there one has played con-
spicuous part in affairs We may instance
Giddings, Stephens, Quitman, CampOell, Orr,
Clingman, Harris and Letcher.
At the head of the list stands the venerable
member from Ohio Mr. Giddings is a historic
character. He has sat twenty years in the
House, he is the connecting link between ths
large body of able and faithful representatives
who now bear up the Republican standard, and
the small band who aroused and maintained the
same principles when he entered the hall
| The leading members at that time were Cliff
ford and Evans, OF Maine; Adams, Gushing and
Lawrence, of Massachusetts,; Truman Smith of
! Connecticut; Barnard, Fillmore, Granger, and
Grinnell, of New York; Sergeant, of Pennsylya-
mia; Bolts, Dromgoole, Goggin, Hopkins Hun
ter and Wise, of Virginia; Stanley, of North
Caroiua; Pickens, Rhett and Waddy Thomp-
son, of South Carolina; King, of Georgia; Bell
and A v. Brown, of Tennessee; Lewis, of Ala
bama; A. G. Brown and Thompson, of Missis-
sippi, and Tom Corwin of Ohio. Of these only
Mr.. Hopkins is in the present House, and he has
been member but portion of the intervening
time. Messrs. Hunter, Bell and A G. Brown
int fI,o Mr. CliffnYd 10 4bo G,,
preme Bench; Messrs. A. V. Brown and Jacob
Thompson are in the Cabinet Of the then
members of the Senate, MIR. Crittenden only is
now in that body. Mr.. Buchanan was then also
Senator. 79-l.- a '.-
Thus our friend has outlived nearly whole
generation of public men. 1t would be lesson
for those who now 3fret theiI brief hour in the
marble pile on the hill yonder to run their eyes
over the journals of the two Houses and scan
| the lists of members for the last twenty years,
and see how large a proportion have utterly
perished from human recollection, leaving II
the slightest trace of their greatness or their
littleness behind
One of Mr.. Giddings' first acts in Congress
was to vote, with all the Whigs for Robert N
T. Hunter for Speaker. Bolts, Goggn and
Wise voting with Giddings for Hunter. Goggin
now runs tor Governor of Virginia. Hunter
dDu wise oppose dHu ~ hOulu
if he could Bolts supports him. And yet
Giddings and Bolts dwell IN the same political
hemisphere, while Hunter and Giddings are as
wide as the poles asunder. The complications
which the negro has infused into American pol
itics are more may than the widest measures
of Strauss.
Mr. Giddings entered Congress in the midst
of the contest about the right of petition He
followed the lead of Adams in the champion
ship of this right He shared with him the
perils of the fight, and the glories of the tri1
umFh. He bore conspicuous part in the sub
sequent conflicts over the annexation Of TexBs,
the Oregon joint occupation, and the Wilmot
Propiso.
The country recolects the agitation which
sprung from the enfranchisement ofthe negroes
of the brig Creole, by the British authorities in
Bermuda when driven into one of its ports by
stress of weather, while voyaging from Virginia
to New Orleans, with a cargo of slaves. In
March, 1S42, Mr. Giddings offered in the House
nine resolutions touching the case, and affirm
ing that all attempts to gain possession OF, or
to re-enslaye these negroes, were unauthorized
by the Constitution OF and laws of the United
States, and incompatible with our national
honor. On reading the resolutions, wild
storm broke out, raging nearly all day, in the
midst of which he withdrew the obnoxious pa
per- Mr. Bolts drafted and endeavored to offer
resolution with wordy preamble) declaring
that this House hold the conduct CT the said
member (Giddings) unwarranted and unwar-
rantable, and deserving the severe condemna
tion of the people of this country, and of this
body in particular" The State of Virginia
having been passed in the call for resolutions,
Mr.. Bolts could not offer it, and he handed ii
to John B. Weller of Ohio, for that purpose
oh I,ll 4
al of the paper, now burst forth afresh on this
resolution of eensure 1t moved with ungov-
srnable fury for two days Though the previ-
Gus question was pending, the Speaker, Mr..
White of Kentucky, liberal minded man, rul-
ed that Giddings could be heard IN his defense,
as matter of ''priviege" The House. insane
with passion, overruled the Speaker. Giddings
stood dumb before his accusers. After the
struggle, the resolution was adopted l25 yeas
10 SO nays Among the nays are the names of
John Quincy Adams, Caleb Gushing, William
Pitt Fessenden, Millard Fillmore, Francis
Granger, Robert c. Winthrop and John NcKeon
all honor to him Giddings resigned his seat,
returned to Ohio, and was sent back by a splen
did majority. -,.-...--,
In the seventeen years that have passed
since this event transpired, the people of the
North have taught the House Of Representa-
lives SOME s1IuLdIJ leSsons cOnceIulnS tub us
cussion of slavery within its walls. Mr.. John
Minor Bolts is wiser now than he was then.-
And Mr. Giddings has sat in the Hall till, SO
far from resolutions and debate on the slavery
question being ruled out of order, it has be-
come almost disorderly and impossible for
members to talk or act anything else! ftIt
does move thought" SAID Calico.
On the death of Adams, his anti-slayery
mantle fell upon the shoulders of Giddings =
His course during the contest over the com
promise measures of 1850, and in all the phases
Of the Kansas controversy, from its initiation |
in the repeal of the Missouri compact down to |
the crowning infsmy of the LecomptOn swim
die, would have met the appreciation of the |
great man whose fame in coming generations |
viii rest less'upon the craftsmanship he dis |
played during the MONDAY of his powers, in
high administrative positions, than upon the
skill, courage and eloquence with which he
defended, in his declining years, on the floor of
Congress, the cause of Liberty and Humanity.
The stalWart form of Giddings, unbent with
the weight of years, his towering head crown
ed with flowing white locks, is a marked OBJ
ject as he calmly sits in the House amid the
surging sea of young life around him Though
he be an interesting spectacIeto beholders, and
though it be a treat to hear him, on questions
of order, give from memory, or, it may be,
from his own personal observation, the rulings
of previous Congresses; or to see him silence
some upstart negro propagandist with a crush
ing fact, or impale him on a sharp retort, or
roast him with irony as he impIOres his Re-
publican colleagues not to interrupt by cries
of order his ''young friend from the South"
L IF