New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-02-14
REFORM IN THE BUSINESS OF CON.
GRR99.

REFORM IN THE BUSINESS OF CON.
GREss.
The House of Representatives is now fully organ
ized The country asks that it go to work at egitl-
mate business finish it up quickly aspossble, and
disperse.
The people demand reform in the mode OF
transacting business in Congress, and especially In
the Lower House. The greater part of each session
is spent in petty personal squabbes, reading tame
manuscript essays, small talk, Presdent-makng'
and political intrigue generally. The larger share
of legislation is thrown over into the last session OF
each Congress, and is then huddled into the hnal
two DAYS of that session. Amid the indescrlbaole
pelLmell then reigning in the Capitol laudaoie
measures are neglected, pernicious schemes driven
through under the whip of the previous question:
and millions of dollars worse wasted than If thrown
into the sea- General defamation against this
abuse is of no avail. The country must insist upon
specific reforms that 90 straight to the root Of the
evil Let us illustrate one of the commonest modes
of this abuse, by supposed scene in the House, 10
some previous sessions, the like of which has too
often occurred.
The House may be in Committee of the Whole
on printing deficiency bill. The precise question
pending u.s. perhaps, an appropriation for 5OO, 900
engraviDgs of curious tadpole with two tails, dis
covered by Lieut.. Somebody while exploring
route for the Pacific Railroad. Forty members,
each waving roll of manuscript high in air,
spring for the sor, which is assigned, according to
an arrangement of two weeks standing, to Mr.
Borem, q new representative from the Southwest
This is BOrem's maiden speech. The Borem family,
in it's direct and collateral branches, has been in
ore House or the other from the foundation of the
Government. That he may sustain the reputation
of his lineage, he has invoked the pen of seedy
scion of the quill, who sits upn the cocklof of the
House, to make his speech worthy of the man and
the theme
After slight extempOraneous allusion to tadpOles
in general, and protest against doubletailed tad
poles in particular, Borem unrolls his manuscript
and dscomses for one hour upon Nicaragua and ne
groes the iIrepressibe conflict and dissolution of
the Union. This essay, written ere the tadpole,
about to be immortalzed by the graver, was born,
is delivered" in the presence Of fifty members,
who are writing letters, Thanking documents, eye
ing the ladies' gallery, but paying not the slightest
attention to Borem. Borem's hour being up, he
sits down, when forty other members, each armed
with fearful mass of fOolscap, and shouting Like
Comanches in battle, demand the floor, which is
assigned to Mr.. Roarer, who now roars away for
another hour on Manifest Destiny, the American
Eagle, and themes of kindred plumage. And SO on
to the end of the days proceedings.
To come back to Borem. The Associate
+" Press " mangles Borem's speech badly. But,
seedy scion aforesaid, on due consideration, tele-
graphs to the leading paper in Borem's district,
that their representative has won national repu-
tation by speech on Nicaragua and Seward, that
astOnished the House, electrified the galleries, and
wound up amid wild shouts of "Go on" from all
parts of the hall. Meanwhile Borem hands his
"ccpy" to The Congressional Globe, wherein it is
published at the expense of the Treasury. He
then puts it into pamphlet form. His numerous
admirers in the two Houses, O., gentlemen in the
same predicament as himself subscribe Literally for
copies. For weeks afterward the mail-bags, the
st.offces, the trunk factories the coal boxes, in
Borem's district, are plethorc with "the great
"speech of the Honorable Bensjah Borem."
Having achieved national reputation" Borem
subsidies into silence for the residue of the session.
When Congress adjourns he relapses into the boz
som of hs constituents convinces his partsans that
he has mmortalized the district by his oratorical
achievements at Washington, diffuses the Patent
Office Report among the farmers, and the Japan
Expedition among the maidens franks the letters of
all the lawyers and merchants in his neighbOrhood,
is reelected with three cheers, and returns to the
Capitol the same Benajah Borem that he was when
he went away.
Is this caricaturei Every one who has much
observed Congressional proceedings knows that as
it was with our imaginary Borem and koarer on
the day of the supposed tadpole ISSUE so it really
with scores of members, on oil kinds oil questions
during nearly half the days of each session. The
mass of intelligent but unsuspectng people Of this
country do not dream Of the careless, amless noisy
chaotic mode in which the greater part Of what is
facetously called business" is transacted in Con-
gress.
To be little more specific on the subject of
speeches: The "debates," so called, in the last