The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1860-01-26
FROM WASHINGTON.
The Manners of the Oligarchy.

w ASHlNGTON, Jan. 10, ACoO'
Our friends in the House Of RepreseD-
tatises deserve great credit, greater even
an has been accorded to them. for the
equaBiuity with which they maintain 81
lence under tie most tantalizing provoca-
tions to plunge into the general debate,
and for the psrsisteney With which tbeJ
bend all their energies to the election OF
Speaker, despite the turbulence OF open
enenies and the treachery OF those whom
they had a right to rely upon as allies
A reader Of the daily proceedings of tbe
House, as reported by the telegraph, can
have bat feeble conceptions of the rude
ness, the indecency, the asperity of the
attacks which the Southern oseTseers and
their Northern hireliugs are constantly
making upon the Republicans as party.
upon prominent men in their ranks, aud
especially upon their candidate for Speak
er. To say that they outrage all Parlla-
mentary rules. and fnd neither precedent
nor parallel iu the annals OF even the A
merican Congress, i. tame statement OF
the fact. These attacks have their keen
est sting not SO much in the words utter
ed. though these are bitter aud irritating
to the last degree of human encursncei
uor in the falsity of the charges, person
al and political. which Ignorance, malig-
nifty. and meDdacity send Kissing across
the Hall. like poisoned arrows; bot it is
in the lofty tone. the domineering gesture,
the air of command, and the plantation
manners generally, which the Overseers
naturally exhibit, and their hirelings fee
bly, copy, toward the Republicans, that
renders the struggle for the SpeaberShiP
protracted marty yrdom. Even the iron
nersed John Brown, on being asked if he
were tHed during the quarter of an hour
be stood on the drop, with the cap drawn
down, while Virginia cbivalry marched
and countemarobed around the galIows
even be could but reply, "No. | atu
not "tired, but don't keep me standing
here longer than "is absolutely Decessa
ry!'
The personal attacks upon Mr.. Sber
man are ofttimes ungentlemanly 10 the
extreme. The loBg skinny finger of Pry
or has been thrust almost in bis face; the
clumsy first of Houston has been shaken
at him. from safe distance; he has been
compelled to endure the buffoonery of
Extra. Billy Smith. the cutting sneers of
interiors like Missouri Clark, and the
wanton aspersions Of equals, like Georgia
Crawford, together with almost every
grade of abuse, from the high and the low,
within aud without the House, be all this
time forced (except on rare occasiobs)
by the deicacy Of his position, to sit with
closed lips, though fully conscious of his
ability to repel triumphautly every person
al and political charge hurled against him,
and make successful forays into the camp
of his enemies. The fact that this sre-
cies of attack upon him, made under these
circumstances, demonstrates the w gari
ty and cowardice of the assailants, does
not render it the more agreeable to him
However, Mr. Sherman S inherent calm
ness and self-possession are equal to the
trial He will endure even unto the end
Scarcely less provoking are the assaults
upon other prominent Republicans in the
House, in which the overseers and their
brelings are wont daily and hourly to in
dulse Among the CON monest OF charges
cast 10 the teeth of members of the party
and against the party as a whole, is that
they are factious aud disoFgs that
they aim to emancipate the slases by
force; that they are tonentlng insurrec-
tion aud eival war; that they are banded
with traitors and cut throats and incen-
diaries; that they refuse to obey the laws,
would overturn the Supreme Court, and
drag the country into the gulf of disunion.
Nor are these counts in the indictment of
the OVerseers listened to by the RepubIi-
cans with any more patience because du.
~ seems to demand that they should not
yet plead to them, though conscious all
the time that, not the facts only, but the
real debating power, the learning, the el'
oqueDce OF the assembly are on their sidei
and, once in the foresnic field, they could
drive their assailants in disgrace from
the forum. But they hide their ti0e.-