The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-05-03
Two of the PRESIDENTS Friends"

WASHINGTON, April %, 1866
| Several members ofthe National legislature
have in consequence of recent events been as
signed prominence before the eyes of the
country, to which under other and different
1 circumstances they never would have attain
ed. So often have they been thought and
spoken of during the last month or two, that
more than passing allusion to them may be
ofinterest. I refer of course to those gentle
men who were elected to their present posi-
tons as Union Republicans, but of whose pres
eut political status nothing more definite can
be said than that they are the presidents
friends" special and peculiar, supporters of
his policy" johnson men," ~.
OF these the most considerable is probably
Senator DooLITFLE of Wisconsin. He is a
short square man, with hair and beard some
what gray, with forehead rather low, and
general look expressive if not of any high or
der of intellect at least Of considerable energy
and vigor. He is native of Hampton, Wash
| ington Co., New York, is a graduate of Gene
va College, and a lawyer by profession. In
1851 he removed to Wisconsin, and from 1853
to 1856 he was Judge of the First judicial Cir
cult of that State. lie was elected U. s. Sen
ator in 1857, and reelected in 1868 for the
term ending March 1869. He is now fiity-one
years of age.
As public speaker he is better than the
average, having at his command an easy Tow
OF Language, and a full sonorous voice of which
however he does not make the most His de-
livery is HOMOGENEOUS and lacks greatly in va
riety aud power ofe1pression. His rhetoric il
not of any high order, is yet free from gross
biemishes.
AS practical legislator he is not above the
average. will give single Illustration. On
the 18th OF April, 1852, he made speech up
on the subject OF colonization, of which pro-
ject. he has been jealous supporter, in
the course of which he established to his own
satisfaction, that sac large steamships, or one
ceasetCf the capacity OF the Great Eastern,
could transport ali the slave population OF the
country, with their increase, save an insignifi
can't fraction, to the West indies or Central
America in the space OF seUea gears. He fur
ther concluded from the consideration ofvari-
GUS preceaents, the anaiOgieS OF which with Our
own case were probably clearer to him than to
the unthinking multitude, such as the migra-
tons OF the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan,
of the northern barbarians to the south OF Eu-
rope, of the destitute classes OF the old world
| TO tnS country, and lastly the enforced trans
| Ter OF negroes rom Africa to the various slave
holding countries ofthis hemisphere, that col
onization on the largest scale was not only pos
| SIble but practicable. 5sl ) u a.,
Twice during the present session has Mr..
Doolittle broken lances with his colleague,
Senator Howe, and in neither encounter is he
believed to have gained anything desirable.
Senator CowAN-of Pennsylvania is one of
the Presidents peculiar friends. He is in
physical stature at least a rather great. man.
lie bears up the banner OF the COMMITTEE on
| Patents" and seems able, as Senator Eessen-
den once rather sarcasticaly remarked, to
''bear up anything" His present term in the
Senate ending March 4th 1867, is his first and
will doubtless remain his last Of Congression-
al service. He was even more troubled with
Constitutional crotchets during the war than
Mr.. Doolttle, and they have since grown up-
on him to an alarming degree IL is very well
| tor keverdy johnson, with his great legal at
| tainments, and his subtitle, adroit understand
| ing, or for Sumner with bis vast accumulations
OF Iact and Illustration, his inexhaustible stores
of acquired knowledge, and his resounding
| periods, to indulge i'll discussions concerning
| lhe great organic law, but Senator Cowan,
with talents and requirements sufficient to
set up a very respectable country lawyer, has
| not been uniformly successful in his attempts
| to play the Constitutional fiddle. In fact his
efforts seldom extract anything more edifying
or entertaining from the tortured instrument
than squeaks and grOans. -t--r -s1 8
| His oratory is-weIl it is not capt ivating.-
Garrett DAVIS enjoys national reputation as
the bore OF the Senate, yet were l condemned
to listen to an entire speech from the Pennsyl-
vanIa Senator or the Kentucky Senator,
would deliberately, decidedly, and with a full
1 ~ IL