The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-01-13
In and out of the HOuse.-NOrth and
South.


The Washington correspondent of the
Philadelphia Press illustrates the angry
airs which members put on in the Houses of
Congress and their bearing when outside,
by mentioning violent alteration which
took place in the Senate of the United
States, while MARTIN VAN buren, was
Vice President, and the presiding officer of
that body:
On one memorable occasion, Mr.. Clay
arose in his seat, and addressing the Vice
President in very impassioned manner,
proceeded to give him good scolding,
which excited the audience in the galleries
to the uttermost, and provoked replies from,
1 think, Mr.. But hanan, MIR. Wright, and
others. The debate was conducted for some
time, and at last became animated and acri-
monious. When the Senate adjourned, and
the galleries were cleared, two of the audi
tors-one Democrat and the other Wing
got into violent dispute as they passed
out into the rotunda over the merits and abili
ties of the respective knights in the Senate
rial tournament which they had just wit
messed.
Al the very moment, however, when
they were on the eve OF proceeding from
words, the attention of one of them was
directed to group of Senators, arm in
arm, laughing and talking as they passed
down the broad steps that lead to Pennsyl-
vania avenue. These were Mr.. Clay, Mr..
Buchanan, Mr.. Wright, and, think, the
Vice President himself; their feuds of the
moment before were forgotten, and the good
feeling which seemed to have departed in
the presence Of the sovereign people. at once
most Familiarity restored. "There," said
the Democrat to the Whig," there are the
men who were on the eve of getting US by
The ears Are they not all like actors on the
mimic stage, who, after arousing the feelings
Of their audience to the highest pitch, and
causing many fair eye to run over with
honest tears, retire to the green room, Iago
shaking hands with Othello, Macbeth drink
ing gin and water with the murdered Dun
can, and Capulet, pledging bis worst enemy,
Montague, in glass of champagne?"
A good deal of this sort of thing may be
seen every day in the House of Representa-
tives, and it is not an inapt commentary upon
the violent and infammatory harangues
made on both sides in that boiling and tenn
pestous legislative cauldron. Your John
Hickman, who, when he speaks, recalls the
days of the Convenantors, with his strongly
marked face, his clear, metallic tones, and
his bold defiance of adverse opinions, is by
no means the buga-boo to the Southerners
you would suppose. I noticed him the
other day in friendly chat with the elegant
and fiery Lamar of Mississippi, and as he
sits among a good many saamandrine
Southerners, his jokes fly about him as freely
as though be did not differ from them radi-
cally and sincerely.
Haskins laughs his way through the
House after one of his most energetic
philippics against the Administration and
Secessionists, and MIR. Crawford, of Georgia,
who you would think is ready to see the
Union fall to pieces without sigh, can be
as mild and gentle and amiable as the
kindest hearted man in the House. 1t is
only some extraordinary occasion that arrays
section against section and even then the
impulse is soon forgotten, and candidly and
publicly regretted. No men are more
prompt to recognize and respect fearlessness
in Northern Representatives than the
Southern chivalry, and none are so ready
to laugh at the miserable spaniels, who,
for the sake of standing we'll with them,
crawl under the lash that is raised to smite
them.
Now, whatever may be said Of the bust
ness of excluding Northern mechanics and
laborers, and school teachers and merchants,
from toe South; of prohibiting the use of
articles of Northern manufacture; of rallying
the militia; Of passing resolutions prepare
tory to grand translation from the Union
to an ecstatic Southern Confederacy; and of
doing other and divers things of this sort
one thing is certain, the game will not sue
coed. The Southern people are human
beings like their brothers and sisters in the