New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-02-14

House, on the Ka0sas and LecomptOn question
consist of one hundred and twenty long Get
speeches. They I'LL moro than six hundred Of TIE
huge pages of The Congregational Globe closely set
in small type, with three ample columns on page.
II is safe to cay that three ourhs Of these speeches
were read from manuscript; that half Of them wore
not listened to by ten members each; and that ono
third of them were read at informal evening sos
sions when, by unanimous agreement, no votes
were to be taken and no business done. and when
there were usually present not more than half .
dozen members and sometimes only two or three,
and those either accidentally in the hail. or waiting
their turn to be put through this ptiable process
To call this debate" is worse than misnomef.
1t was farce. To say that it was merely waste
of time and money, is an error. 1t was sacrifice
of dignity and decorum. To think that the great
majority of the matter mumbed over on those occa-
sions produced any salutary effect upon public
opinion is delusion. 1t fen stillbom.
We have spoken Of the amount Of business bud.
led into the closing hours. Wehave examined the
laws passed in ten sessions of Congress since the
year 1916, and find that in the last two days Of
ihese sessions making aggregate of twenty days.
Congress passed acts which cover 974 pages Of
Minots "Statutes OF Large'-one # whose pages Is
equal to three Of an ordinary statute book. That
during the remainder Of those sessions, making an
aggregate of ffty.eight months, Congress passed
acts which cover 555 of Minot's pages. In other
words, laws were enacted at the rate of fOrty.nine
pages per day in the two final days. and at the rate
of nine pages per month during the rest of the ses-
sion. In Judging of the quality Of this legislation
we must remember that Congress, in its closing
hours. is in the direst confusion, and compelled to
drive business through with the batteringram OF the
previous question, partly because tie Borems ans
Roarers, the Sparkers and Dolters, will read reams
of irrelevant foolscap in the earlier months OF tn
sittipgs. Has not the rhetoric Of these ll-tmed
gentlemen been rather an expensive luxury to the
exchequer Of these States'
1t was not thus fifty years ago. In the last Two
days of the ten FIRST sessions of this century, beng
an aggregate of twenty days, Congress passed ach
covering ITO of Minot's pages, or at the rate Of
81 pages per day; while in the remaining forty-h's
months of those sessions the acts cover $50 pages
being at the rate of eight per month proving, that
our fathers moved cautiously, not merely in tia
earlier months, but in the closing hours of their
Congresses.
Look in upon the last two days and. nights Of q
session, any time these past ten years Tho bah
bling of Babel, the confusion of chaos, are their
only prototypes. Travellers who have gone over
the wide world have told us that they never wit
messed 30 wild and turbulent, so peIplexing and
dumbfounderiDg scene. And yet amid this in
describable uproar fse.sixths of the legislation Of
Congress is done. Often, not line of the bills 10
read; sometimes not even their titles are an
nounced. On one Of these occasions, and under
the plea of want of time, we have seen the report
of Committee of Conference embracing more
than one hundred items of appropriation, and GOV.
erng more than FIVE millions of dollars passed upon
and adopted, without a word of it being read to
the House-dogged George w. Jones, raising bis
voice above the din, and inquiring of the Speaker
"Was ever such legislation known under Cd
-" Al--y's heavensl" Mr. Banks facetiously re-
spending, "That is not question for the Chair to
"a answer"
In this forty.eight hours Congressional hurri.
cane, some good legislation is swamped, but moro
bad legislation scuds into port. A poor widows
meritorious little claim is lost, saving couple Of
hundred dollars to the Treasury while dozen
heavy jobs bloated with roguery, are, under skin.
full plotting, able to ride out the gale The two
Houses vote, they know not what. The President
signs, he knows not what. And it is only when the
storm is over that the amount of damage done ID
appreciated.
Ought there not to be q radical reform in tho
mode of doing business in Congress-