New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-03-23
Senator Fessenden on sumner.

On the 9th, il the debate in the Senate on the con
stitutiona amendment on the subject ofrepresenta
/ ton, Senator Fessenden of AIaine attacked Sena
\ tor Sumner of Massachusetts in vein of blting
sarcasm, of which the dispatches have made nj
mention, but which will be better appreciated b,
| the following extract from the Globes report, ex
posing the shallowness of Summers pretensions t,
scholarship or ability:
There are two kinds of debate here, if they ma,
\ be called debate. One kind is a long, labored
written. printed oration prepared carefully in thu
study elaborated proof corrected, all the thunder
bolts forged. everything put into proper shape
A and read to the Senate. Another kind is where
Senator. in unprecedented language and to th
best of his power, as occasion serves him. takes vi
the subject and discusses it without the adyantag
of that previous study and examination. It is no
for me to say which of these is the best, which,
the most parliamentary: | only know-I hay'
4 been told: never was there-that in the Parlia
4 ment of England no man is ever permitted to reat
a speech. He is scrapei down, coughed down
| and put down at once. n
1t is not for me to say which of these two kinds
of debate is the best. can only say that if man
is looking TO future ages, making history, and
wants to leave something on record that will be
crediteble to him, perhaps the orationizng is
vastly the best Of the two But DO not think
that Senators who have not that ambition, and If
they had, cannot expect to crafty it, and are OBJ
liged to get along as they can, and do the best
they can under the circumstances on the subject
Of debate. ought to be blamed very much if they
are willing to content themselves with the little
modicum of the exhibition they make in that way.
Sir James Macintosh said that these written ora
tons proved nothing except the power Of argu-
ment and Imagination, and did not necessarily
denote capacity for affairs This was his opinion.
] presume he was influenced very much by the
practice that prevailed in England, and with which
he was most accustomed
There Is another distinction whicbI would like to
draw. There are two kinds of personalities in
E1tAo%
individual in the heat of debate, when men are
somewhat excited, when they cannot or do not
stop to choose their words, and when sometimes
things are said which are to beregretted. Another
is personality which does not aim at individuals
butsaims at masses, numbers eohfnes itself to no
body, deals in epithets, deals in denunciation :
does not pick out an individual who can reply to
it on the spot, and is eaboraely carefully in the
closet, full of all manner of bitterness but so ex-
pressed that no particular individual has right to
take it to himself. Both kinds of personality are
deserving Of apprehension. think the latter, in
asmuch as it is cody delberated upon, the words
chosen, exhibits vastly the most malace of the
two, more certainly than the hasty words that
escape one in the heat of argument.
Having thus drawn my distinctions with regard
to debate {and suppose am as well entitled to
draw them as anybody else), | wish to call atten-
tion to the speech that under the head of argu-
ment was made by the honorable Senator from
Massachusetts,. On this subject i think he has oc.
cupied about eight nine hours of the time of the
Senate, and on the last occasion, while saying that
principles were to be considered, he has under
taken to designate the character of this proposed
amendment. / have already stated who the men
were who were in favor oft. What does the SEN
ator call it! have chosen few and but a few,
flowers of rhetoric from the speech of the honora-
Bile Senator: compromise of human rights, !"
!" violating the nations fatb,' " dishonoring the
name Of the republic, p "bad mutton g muscipu
lar abortion a new anathema maranatha,"
"abomination,n paragon and masterpiece of in
gratitude, abortive for all good y" shocking to
the moral sense, g the very Koh-i.noor of black.
ness essential uncleanliness,n G disgusting
ordure /" "loathsome stench,n and the men who
support It, will be I. Harpies,p Pontins PLATE,
with Judas Iscariot on his back think cannot
do better than rend few extracts from the hon.
orable Senator's speech:
Looking at this compromise in its most general
aspect, it reminds me, if youi will pardon tie illus
traton, Of that leg of mutton served for dinner on
the road from London to Oxford, which Dr. John.
son. with charac teristlc energy described as bad
as bad could be, il.fed ill-killed ltkept and i'll
dressed. So this compromise adopt the say
ing Of an eminent friend, who insists thatit cannot
be called an amendment but rather detr-
ment to the Constitution as bad as bad can be,
and even for its ayowed purpose il is uncertain,
loose, cracked and rickety."
g Regarding it as proposition from Congress to
meet the unparalleled exigencies of the present
hour, it is no better than the smucipular abors
ton sent into the world BY athe partarent
mountain
This is a specimen Of composition that very few
of us would attempt. Again:
Adopt this proposition, and yon will be little
better than the foul Harpes who defiled the feast
that was spread. The Constitution is the feast
spread for onr country. and you are now hnrrying
TO drop into its text political obscenity, and to
spread on its page disgusting ordnre
q. Defling oil You and
And parting leave loathsome stencil behind. ~
And what do you think the honorable Senator
calls this. he says:
!" II Iuse plain language. il il because the occa.
sion requires it'' TT
Plain lauguagei Again:
u INV was \. no such thing. 1t was a compromise:
proposition, which. by its very words. Is plain
license 70 9 disgusting tyranny, in conside ration
tnaf the tyrants pay in political power TLs pri.
inasy element N the case which stands ont in