Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1865-12-15
correspondence of the Delaware Gazette
AN AFTERMooM IN CONGRESS.

AN AFTERNOON IN CONGRESS.
WASHINGTON. Dec. 9TH 1865.
After a five months absence, once more
| in Washington But the Washington o1
December is not the Washington of june
/ 1865. A great change seems to have
come over the city of magnificent dis
tances, not merely that the fierce heats Of
summer have departed and been replaced
| by the calm, cool, and infinitely more
agreeable days of incipient winter not
| merely that the all pervading dust no lon
ger lies shoe. deep in the streets and floats
in suffocating clouds In the trail of each
passing vehicle; not only that the trees
are leafess and the umbrage of each green
| forester no longer oVerspreads the stall OF
some nick-nack selling jew, or that OF
some bottle nosed vender of lager beer and
wine not merely in the fact that the dog
days and Shylocks have been exchanged
for cold weather and congressman, is
Washington changed. The soldiers have
departed, or to say it more expressively
have decGneped. Emphatically all is now
quiet on the Potomac. Standing at the
portico of the Capitol ones eye wanders up
and down the CLASSY expanse of that clas-
sic stream, views the wavy hills that
stretch from Alexandria to theHeights of
Arlington, and from thence far off In un-
dulating vista toward Vienna and the
Chain Bridge, but on none of those fort
crowned heights can be discovered the
canvas of a single tent, or the smoke of
single camp fire. Yet only five months
ago the camps of hundred thousand
veterans viii; ;ened those hillsides and val
leys like harvest fall of snow. And
where are those thousands now? Where
are the blue human waves that rolled
with crests of sheeny steel through two
long triumph days up the broad sweep of
Pennsylvania Avenue? Where are the
two vast armies that brought home to the
nations capital In the bright spring time
the starry flag all stained and torn but
laurelled with victory? Those mighty
hosts no longer throng these streets or be-
star those nightly hills with biVouac fires.
They are scattered among the millions of
happy homes that from Delaware to Col
den Gate beautify the fair free land which
their strong right arms have redeemed,
regenerated, sGUed. At the coming Christ
mas their bronzed faces and MANNED forms |
will mingle with fairer and tenderer ones |
that did the watching and praying while |
they did the fighting. Let us leave them |
around the happy board and beside the |
cheerful circle, devoutly hoping that they |
may never more be summoned thence by |
the shrill blast of the war bugle. Wash |
ington is no longer a military post, or gar
risoned fortress. A few moons since one |
might have thought it the centre of some
tremendous military empire. Here was
concentrated The material strength of
continent, the flower of an army consist
ing of over a million of men. What
king, what emperor would not have ex-
ulted in such a host? With it Napoleon
would have defed combined Europe and
might have established his authority from
the Bay of Biscay to the mouth of the
Danube But suddenly that host disap-
peared. Of their chief it might, as of
certain other, have been appropriately
said,
che counted them at break of lay
But at sunset where were they?
Not scattered by disaster or whelmed in
dreadful rout, but dispersed at the mild
behest of peace. The soldier quickly be-
came merged in the citizen and the great
army absorbed in the civil body polite
What a sublime illustration of the mo-
bility of republican institutions and the
of American character. In no
other country under heaven could such
an army have been so soon raised, or its
mission accomplished, so quickly disband-
ed. None but government deriving its I
strength from the hearts and minds of the
people could SO soon obtain, or dispense
with military support. Washington has ;
regained the order and quiet becoming
the capital of a great republic, Yet for ]
peace footing it is lively, and thousands
Of visitors representing all parts of the {
country throng the streets Once more ]
The Southern element appears, but no /
onger in the naughty and dictatorial role t
It once played here. Fashionable circles t
ire no longer swayed by the proud bellies {
rom the sunny South, nor are political G
circles under the dominion OF cotton '
ords or negro whipping princes. On the l
contrary the plain plebians of the North, t
both male and female, have now decided
y the upperhand here, and Washington t
las become, both politically and socially, t
raction is, of course, the new Congress f
which has just assembled. But before l t
peak of that, let me dwell moment upon
his vast architectural pile In the wings of t
which the two houses hold their daily s.
sssions. That splendid dome which a
our years ago was incomplete has, during p
be war, received its finishing touches,
nd been surmounted by the great bronze n
tatue Of the Goddess of Liberty. The Il
yings are still unfinished and their CON- n
letion will even be the work of years. n
Drifting with the continual stream of ci
isitors up the great stairways and thro' pl
ne main entrance one soon finds himself as
ithin the rotunda and beneath the grand CT
cope of marble which towers &C
in vast concentric sweep un- dC
/ IL closes seemingly IN Lne aim zenlbn OF pt
le empyrean. Here perhaps better than qr
any other standing point one appreci- th
les the grandeur of the capitol. We &C
ave but moment to bestow on the splen- es
ID gallery of historical paintings which siI
lorn the lower panels of the rotunda. pc
However often seen one will always
ell the charm of beauty and experience of
increased admiration when beholding Sc
ose inimitable works, "The Baptism of de
1.-THE Landing of the Pill he
ims," and "The Surrender of Bur he