The New York herald., 1865-02-25

The New York Prsss a~A the washing
ton Congrcss> =.
Mr. Thsd Stevens has very singular Ideas y
regard to Congressional orator.. SThe nearel
he can initiate the words and manners Of tht
famous 6shwomen Of Billingsga4e, ths neArer b
approaches his own standard Of eloqueNce
There Is no other member Of either House wks
can assume 10 rival Mr. Stevens In The high
and manly art Of vitaperssion. Compsred with
him, Ben Wade u elegant and Jim Lane refined.
His political opponents are beiabored with his
verbal cudgels whenever they presume to speak.
and often, BY way Of keeping himself In prac-
tice, he galiantiy vituperates his political
friends, especially those Of them who are gen.
tlemen and will not oondesoend 10 reply.
These peculinrities Of Mr.. Stevens have fire.
quently been commented upon by the press,
and Mr.. Stevens has, not unnaturally, burned
for revenge. His opportunity arrived few
days ago, when Mr.. Rice. of Massachusetts,
rose to question Of privilege and COR
rooted the misstatemsnts of an article In the
Eoening Post Of this city. Thereupon Mr..
Stevens Indignantly moved that the Post re-
porter be excluded from the House, and sup
ported his motion by tho following speech,
which quite comes up to his ideal Of . frst
class oration:-T see the newspapers, and es-
pecially those Of New York, become 90 inso-
lently libellous and calumnious If ws venture
to differ from, their dsgmas, that scarcely day
passes in which We are not attacked in foul
manner by these scribblers." After this bril-
liant outburst Mr.. Rice compelled Mr. Stevens
to withdraw his notion We recall this affair
as . matter Of history.
II was not little amusing to see the muddy
philosophers Of tho Post assail Mr.. Rice be-
cause he dared to vote upon the paper duty.
Mr.. Rice is . paper-seller, and the Post could
not understand how he could have an interest
in the subject and yet vote honestly. We ad-
init that such ignorance ID natural in the Post
One Of tho publishers Of that delectable jour-
nal Is now under indictment for defrauding the
government, and it is not strange that the Post
should think everybody else ~ corrupt -
itself Thus an inebriate often accuses others
Of intoxicahon, and q rogue cries ''stop thief1
According to the theory which the Post has
developed in regard to this matter, no Con-
gressman, who has q special interest in, ac-
quaintance with or knowledge Of subject,
ought to vote upon it, and if he does he is open
to suspicious OF corruption. Farmers in Con-
gress must never vote upon agricultural ques-
tions, nor merchants upon commercial ques-
tions, nor lawyers upon legal questions. That
is the dictum Of the Post, and we can imagine
nothing more silly If farmers, merchants or
lawyers in Congress disobey this order, then
they are to be set down as corrupt; and if they
grow indignant at this charge, then their anger
Is to be taken as proof Of their dishonesty.
This is the decision of the Post, and we can
conceive Of nothing more malicious 1t is
through sach papers ~ the Post that gentlemen
like Mr.. Thad Stevens abuse the whole press.
But Mr.. Stevens ought to understand, as Mr..
Rice clearly does, that the Post is an excep-
tionsl paper, not to be taken % the represent
ative Of American Journalism. We lay down
the general rule-and such exceptions as the
Post only prove it-thst "the newspapers, and
especially those Of New York." are . thousand
fold more respectfully conducted than the Con-
gress to which Mr.. Stevens has the honor to
belong, and that, in any mir comparison, the
press has the decided advantage Of Congress
both in talent and refinement While we pro-
test against the malicious insinuations Of the
Post, we also protest against the vituperation
Of Mr.. Stevens, compared with whom the worst
Of journalists-the old Bourbonists Of the West
or the Bohemians Of this city--shine like angels
OF light agl agF aoe astus.t Hsary
The relations OF Journalists TO such men as
Mr.. Stevens are amusingly peculiar. The
editors take hold Of these small politicians and
elect them to Congress. Being in Congress, and
without brains, they turn to the papers for ideas
Read the leading articles in leading journal
and you sec the foundation for all the speeches
delivered by the politicians who agree with
that journal. A member Of Congress turns to
his newspaper for his arguments, ~ regularly
a. Q squalling brat turns to it's mothers
breast for the sustenance which enables 1t to
squall again Suppress the papers and there
would not be more than q speech year in
Congress. The pinchbeck orators Of the HOUSE
and the Senate simply rehash and warn over the
editorials written by men wiser than they. AS
we have seen, even Mr.. Stevens abuse Is partly
plagiarized, although we admit that the ability
TO use bad language was born in Mr. Stevens,
like original sin. But, after having elected them
and supplied them with ideas, the editors keep
these Congressman before the world and make
them famous. Mr.. Stevens talks very glibly
about excluding reporter from Congress; but
what would Mr.. Stevens be were II not for the
reportersi II those gentlemen were TO publish
what is actually said In Congress, during
single session, our national Legislature would
be q universal laughing-stock. Besides writing