Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1861-08-17
pn,..n IN M UnIted states senute

AuBseu on tue JniteO SiAte1 SoHS
Russell, the famed American correspondent
of the London Times, thus gives his impress
sions of the United States Senate:
HAn enthusiastic lady who came over with
me in the Arabia was very indignant with
countryman of hers because be affirmed that
be had never seen more diguihed assembly
than the House of Lords. What she said,
do you mean for one moment to say that
they are equal in appearance to our SeDa-
tors? In one respect the Senators are GER
tainly destitute Of the air of wisdom which
is given by white hairs and venerable aspect.
Few of the Senators are men of advanced
years. and Mr. Crittenden is pointed out as
kind of obsolete, semi-fossilized politician,
"a much ont Of place as -Aes1nss I'd an
-,54islSer tdey are not 80 digni6ed. They
do not consider il unbecoming to write at
their desks in the midst of debate. Writing
is bare mechanical process, after all, and
no man looks well while engaged in it. Sen
ators ge like other men. Perhaps they are
little ionder of stationery. When the last
Congress was coming to close, | saw large
man, cover with perspiration, dragging
huge box after him into the railway sta
tion. He was followed by two other men
with similar boxes. This was a Senator
who was taking home by mail his supply Of
public stationery contained in these boxes.
Then it must be conceded that dress has
something to do with the aspect of deliber
ative body, and that Jim Crow hats and linen
blouses would detrsct from the appearance Of
the most aristocratic mob in the world. Pre-
termitting these things in the United States
I rphla hnado linz n
forms, and high intelligences, nearly equal to
| the greatest of the issues before them. Bust
ness is transacted eolloquially and easily,
but there is, l am told, practice of making
set orations which at one time threatened the
House of Commons. The young gentlemen
who act as pages, or messengers, would not
violate republican simplicity by its appropri-
ate neatness of attire, but they, as well as all
the servants of the House, and the employe, 8
of the public all over the State, display a
readiness to oblige, civility, and courtesy
which produce pleasant surprise in the mind
of en- Englishman who remembers how the
gentleman at home, not liable to removal at
the end of their four years, assist him in his
inquiries at the Circumlocution office But
as we remark such trifies the Message is 60
ing on. Mr.. Hamlin, Vice-President who is
popularity believed in the South to be gen
tlenan Of color, sits in his chair, ABOVE the
Clerk, who reads it very much as a Commis-
sioner in Bankruptcy may be seen in basing-
hail street listening to the Perusal of doeu-
ment from an assignee. The Messagsi writ
ten on separate sheets it has been brought
in BY the Presidents Secretaries, believe,
who appear on the floor and simply announce
their object, and the Clerk then, by order OF
the Vice-P President, reads it sheet by sheet at
the desk, outstanding. The Senators sit and
listen. Now and then one hears a whisper,
It's too long What's the use of going in
to that2 That point is not badly put TIE
demand for men and money produced no
sensation. They would have swallowed twice
the totals readily and silently. The general
impression seemed to be that the arguments-
tive and historical parts of the Message were
unnecessary, out as a Senator observed, the
people had right to know the facts of the
case as they appeared to the mind Of the EK-
4 eeutiYe in making such propositions, and that
nothing should be taken for granted or be
supposed to be known TO those who were SO
materially interested in the result"