The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-05-15


Travellers from abroad are wont to write Of us,
that the representatives of our people, in Congress
and elsewhere, are very far, in the main, from
representing fairly, either the intelligence or the
integrity of the communities that choose them. Il
this be true, the constituents have at least the
consolation of knowing, in their turn, that they
cannot be accused of wasting any undue amount
of attention upon those whom they have appoint
ed to rule in their stead A prze-fght or rail
road eXcurs;on-a cattle-Show-a breach-of-pro-
mise case, or anything else that makes a still
among the newsboys, is quite sufficient 10 with
draw the public contemplation from the ''talkers'
las CARLYLE calls them) Sin the national pala-
ever and Honorable gentlemen may go on
making up records for Immortality, for days to-
gether without quickening pulse or thought
in the unconscious and ungrateful Republic
Such being the normal state of the American
mind in relation to such matters, it is not to be
wondered that journalists, like the rest of the
people should occasionally overlook some exhb-
ton of parliamentary eloqnence and genius, which
ought not to fade away altogether unpraised.-
Especially do they deserve to be pardoned, if, in
the midst of conventions, secessions, rati6catons
and Constitutional Unions, all big with the fate
of the nation, they should, now and then, lose
sight, for moment, of the Congressional Pro-
ceedings, and the many wise and patriotic things
which are there enshrined. We trust that our
readers will accept this explanation Of our tardi
ness in noticing the very interesting and remark
able debate which took place in the Senate on the
8th inst, and in which gentleman, from whose
speeches ourselves, and we trust, our readers,
have more than once drawn profit and delight-the
Hon. Mr.. IvERsON, of Georgia-bore his accustomed
part Itseems that there is to be an eclipse of the
sun on the 18th of July. Dean SWIFT, on one occa-
sion, postponed a similar phenomenon for his pa
rishioners in Dublin but the secret appears to
have died with him, and the solar regions being
no part of the territories, or "other property" of
the Federal Union, not even the most strenuous
advocates of the doctrine of intervention appear to
have advanced any claim TO Congressional juris-
dictiOn in the premises The eclipse, therefore, is
to 90 on, notwithstanding the Presidential cam
paign. The sun being ordained to shine on the
just as well as the unjust, there would appear to
be no reason why the eclipse should be partial
to the dwellers at the Capiol-who, for the most
part We ledT, DeioHS W Tue
it is to be ''total' TO better people elsewhere
Nevertheless, such, the almanacs say, is to be the
case, and there seems to be no remedy. Every
body, therefore who desires to observe the Occult
taton in its fulness must consult It's pleasure, and
go where it chooses to be seen. The UNITED
STATES being commercial people, and conse-
quently interested in the development of every
science which smooths the pathway or directs the
course of those who 90 down unto the sea in ships,
have naturally some interest in the accurate obser-
walton of great natural phenomenon, the relation
OF which TO the purposes of navigation is supposed
to be well known to all who have advanced as far
in their education as PETER FARLEY. Trade and
its interests apart great and growing nation
null OF wealth ana power, and seeing to be fore
most in the development of thought and know
ledge, the elevation of humanity and the spread
of civilization-wOuld seem TO have no work more
worthy, and no duty more obvious, than that o
furthering discovery in the nobest of the Sciences
through which the wisdom of man looks rever,
emily up TO the infinite wisdom of COP. 1t was
therefore with peculiar propriety that the Com
mittee on the Library, through its Chairman, the
Hon. Mr.. PEARcE, of Maryland, reported joint
walton of the eclipse, and authorizing the
employment of a vessel ITO transport not more
than five astronomers to some point where the
ECLIPSE can be best observed" According to
the american almanac, Cape Chidley, the north
eastern extremity of Labrador, will be the most
favorable station this continent for the obser-
walton of the eclipse in its total phase. One
would have thought that in body such the
Senate Of the UNITED STATES ought TO be, such a
resolution would have been hailed with unani-
nous welcome, and passed without a moments
delay. But not so. The Hon Mr. Brown (of
Mississippi had his difficulties He
Expressed the apprehension the expedition would
cost too much similar expedition fitted out
before to determine the paralax of the and instead
OF five thousand it cost half a million of dollars
There was, doubtless, good deal in this consd-
Grafton of Mr.. Browns, if his facts were accurate
A parallaX costing half a million of dollars was
certainly very extravagant parallax, and al
though, between the Lecompton Constitution and
the CovoDE Committee, it will probably cost a
good deal more, without any grumbling, to de-
'erm'ne the parallax-i. G. the difference between
the apparent and the true place-of conspicuous
lumlnary in the political and moral armament
still we think that Mr. Brown was not altogether
wrong. He did not oppose the resolution in
ltSelf-he only sought to prevent the proposed
expedition from being converted into a lob. lie
had no objection to the eclipse being observed
he only sought to prevent stealing from being
called astronomy-and we trust his warning will
be effectual. But the Honorable Senator from
Georgia was not to be confined in any such pent-
up Utica, as mere economical or moral prin-
ciple. His difficulty was much more serous-it
was constitutional, and he thus stated it:
"Mr. Iverson believed that the government has no
such power contemplated by the resolution. 1t
an oi-shoot of old Whiggery."
Mr.. PEARcE explained. He tried to divert the
objections of Mr.. IvERsoN from his resolution to
himself. He was quite willing, personally, to be
considered ''an off.shoot from old Whggery, -
nay-speaking like man, as he always does-he
expressed, his pride in having adhered to the
Wing party as long it existed and his deter
mnaton to adhere to the Democratic party, with
equal fidelity, long as it should continue to be
the only conservative party in the country. But
he protested that the Coast Survey, to which the
matter of his resolution belonged, established
before the Wing party existed. Clearly he did
not regard the eclipse as party measure. Mr..
IvERsoN, however, was not to be baked. He
stood on the Constitution, and defed the sun.
He
"sad that Congress had power to regulate commerce
but he could that the observation of eclipse oil
tue sun would enable ships to get into port any faster
obviously he was under the impression that ships
sail nowhere, except Unto port''-that the whole
art OF navigation consists in sailing fast, and that
sea with sky over it is altogether unconsttu-
uonal' With ''the waters under the EARTH he
would doubtless have been willing to do any
thlng, within the reasonable limits of strict con-
strucuon; but he could not persuade his constitu-
uohal conscience to take "the heavens above
upon his platform. Nay, more-so improper did
the whole business of looking at the sun through
natohai telescopes, appear to him. that he thought
it necessary TO clear the skirts of the Democracy
from all responsibility for such an outrage Mr.
PEARoE, he said
ADMITTED that he belonged to the old whie marty
which the party that believed in liberal constr
ton of the Constitution The Senator now
to the Democratic party, but The old coven would
now and then stick OUT
What reproach to party, 10 say that it had
"beleved in liberal construction of the Const
tuition +! What a diabocal body it must have
been, when its cloven-foot stuck out, in such ar
enormity as sending five astronomers to Labra.