North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1866-09-05
SPEECH OF S. S. COX.
THE RADICAL RrTMPERs REVIEWS
THE PRAYERS, THE HYPOCRISY,
THE VIOLATIONS OF SACRED F.
p. VOWS, BY MEN IN HIGH
PLACES.
WHAT THE LATE RUMP CONGRESS DID DU-
RING EIGHT MONTHS.
SPEECH OF THE HON s 8. cox.

1ne nrSt session OF the Ihlrty-nintE
Congress has ended, The best thing it did
was to die. Laughter Not altogether
lovely in lis life,its death was its chief mer-
1t. Posterity will remember with gratitude
that spark Of patriotism which led it to
the tomb. But it is not altogether dead
Non onen's mortar. 1t survives in the mem
ories of men aud in 5000 pages of Con-
gressional Globes Upon FIVE volumes of
immortal type, piled quarter upon quarto,
sits, as on sublime pedestal of talk, this
American Rump ! Laughter 1t is,there-
fore, monumental Let me lay my immor-
teltes on its tomb. Nero had his friends.
and his affection, after his death, has an his
toric fragrance. would Law my little for
get-me-nOt at the shrine of this congree a.
tion of petty Neros. My sadness is very
similar to that of the minister who was re-
quested to preach the funeral of a very bad
young man. After giving his characters
tics he ordered the body removed while the
choir sang the hymn;
With rapture we delight to see
This wicked cuss removed p'
True it was not "a symmetric body. 1t
was a rump. 1t was misbegotton anl
mis- shapen. But it was all ours. The
mother loves more dearly her mutilated
offspring True, it was not angelic indis-
position. 1t had in its nature more tenn
per than reason more wickedness and less
love more gall and less milk. But chari-
ty condones for such infirmites in ricket,
ty organism. Laughter.
Its composition, motives and acts, were
incongruous and extraordinary. Before
viewing them, let me tell you what the
lhlrty-nlnth Congress should have beeu.-
The war had ceased It's object, the res
toration of Federal authority,was achieved.
The incubus CT secession had beer thrown
from the national breast. where it had
been coiIing for four years and the good
men of the land were pouring balm tito the
half healed wounds. 1t was under these
peaceful omens that this Congress met.
BY the law ofthe fourth of March, 1862,
it was declared that after the Sd of March,
1868, "the number of members of the House
of Representatives Of the Congress of the
United States should be 24l." Could this
law, passed since the war be carried out
after peace came s.? Why not 1t was as
much Of law as that which gave to the
Clerk OF the House, the right to ignore
States in making his roll. 1t remained un-
repealed. The 24l members never all
took their seats. Only a fraction secured
them. Hence it Is called Rump. To
make up this number of 241.. Virginia was
allowed 8; Tennessee, s; Georgia, 7 8
North Carolina, 7 South Carolina. 4 =
Arkansas, 3 Louisiana, 5; Mississippi. 5;
Alabama, g; Florida, and Texas, A -
Here were 80 members ready to sit in the
Federal Legislature. They were anxious
to serve the Interests of great peoples TO be
affected by its legislation. Two Senators
were ready, or soon would have been, to
represent each of these eleven States.-
! They were not excluded for dsloyaltv for
no inquiry was condescended upon that
point of qualification. Nevada, California,
Oregon-far distant and newly made States
linked to US by no historic associaton-on-
| ly by their shining ores and grand adven-
| lures these were represented but, on
the call of the roll, SO members and %
Senators, from States full of all revolution
ary and fraternal memories and anxious TO
be inbound again in the same destiny, were
debarred, If these l States were in the
Union on the 4th of March, 1862, when
the Republicans, passed the law fixing the
rumber of members-why were they not
| in on the 4th of December, 1865, when, sit
ting under the painted escutcheons of the
States in our Capitol halls, "a usurped the
rights of 35? Cheers Those glded and
colored ceilings, each panel of which tram
ing the emblem ofa State sovereignty, but
all irradiate with the luster of a common
central orb glowing through them upon the
hall beneath should have been far more
significant appeal for representation than
even the empty seats or the SO members or
the vacant chairs of % senators, Why
was this History will, in vain, strive to
answer, until she brings her microscopic
ken to bear upon the partisan infusorie
which have wriggled their hour IN this
Congressional element. In the analysis of
this singular unrepresentative body, where
one-third of the States, were not,I propose
first to glance at the nen and then at the
measures Of this Congress.
l.. AS to the men they are, classed as
partisans. Over two thirds in each House
were of the Republican party, and known
as Radicals. With the exception of three
and, perhaps, four of the Republican mem :
bers from the North, there was always con-
cert of action and votes among these two
thirds In the Senate there were Cowan,
;; Dixon, Doolittle aud Norton. I'D. .i.-
- Who. amid the reign of error .-.4s
| Dared subliInely to be true.
They stood undau nted among their rindic-
tive brothers, holding up the hands of the