Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1866-07-12

senden, johnson, sherman, VIII
acn, TrumbulI, and Gyatz Hrowi
! --ssuInner and st. Just--The Mer
chants, Pioneers, and j Journalist
+ ofths Senate
! Core espondence OF the New York Tribune.
WASHINGTON, June %, 1866.
The XXXIXth Senate of the United
States has not borne q part OF like promi
neuce with the body Of younger and more
numerous men accessory to it, 1t has beer
a place of confirmation rather than Of origin
and while the questions current come fresh
and startling from the floor of the House
the same house is also senatorial in the ex
perience, independence and ability of it!
components. Thaddeus Stevens, in tht
Senate, would be leader Of not less emi
nence than he now sustaihs. The same re-
mark have had occasion to make Upon the
better average Of intelligence now prevail
ing in the lower branch is applicable to the
superior legislature. There are no longsi
overlapping statures hero. The floor to day
! is not like the Eve great pyramids rising
above the desert; it is high table-land,
like the Virginia Piedmont, where every
individual knoll is battle position and the
mountains are the dim and distant Blue
Ridges of far historic era.
The man who stands in the focus of the
| assembly is New Englander, Mr.. Foster.
He bears the name of Lafayette, and is a
direct descendant of Miles Standish. Who.
ever looks for excellent pedigrees in high
places can find one here, remote and sturdy
in its origin and republican in all its tradi-
tions. Twenty seven years of public service
find him quiet and vigilant, calm. intrepid
President, whose strong will has kept the
roughest tractable.
THE PAST OF THE SENATE.
This body, taking the name of that grand
old assembly before whose white and flow
ing boards the barbarian Gauls stood abash-
ed, has nevertheless had its pioneer history,
when the strong arm took up what the hot
tongue failed to say, and the trembling lip
and glaring eye that closed the debate was
like the very finger boards that pointed to
the "lawn" at Bladensburgh and the plateau
of Arlington. A better dispensstion now
prevails with Northern ideas uppermost,
and the few violations of decency and court
esy which have narred the session have
been of no deeper origin than drunkenness.
Mr.. McDongal once mistook the Hall for q
bar-room, but was checked in the midst OF q
profane anecdote, and Mr. Salisbury once
prefaced speech by laying his pistol on his
desk, for which he narrowly escaped ex-
pulsion.
Here are three semi circles Of oak desks,
set under roof lighted With soft medallion
glass, and studded with brenSes and gilded
pendants.
Following the Presidents eve you observe
midway of the second semi. circle, grave,
gray gentleman, cast in the most sedate OF
citizen molds, inspecting through his gold
glasses q wilderness of notes and manu-.
scripts. He reminds you of bishop ful.
filling the duties Of bank president, and
there is 9 severe, perhaps a petulant meth
cd in the movement Of his lips and hands,
for he is the responsible Member Of the
Senate, carrying the reputation OF his party
aud the statistics of the Government we'll
nigh upen his shoulders alone. Other men
are shining ornaments, the heroes ofepisodes
who gain great credit or apprehension by
occasional exhibitions; this man is the
chairman of the foremost committee, the
ultimate resort whom the minority, ever
prying and revolutionizing, make their Gem.
bined onsets against the policy they would
overthrow. There ia for him all the drudg.
cry of eminence, little of its sparkle and
leisure. He dare not be brilliant; because
that would impeach his steadiness and re.
liability. He must carry within himself all
the proofs, the statistics, the grand plan Of
action and since be is not in bodily strength
the peer of his contemporary Senators, we
may we'll imagine in his broken sleep and
overworke ed brain the fulsomeness and safety
of high command unless instigatsa by the
lovNof duty and the inspiration Of patriot
ism. He speaks with more than the calm
ness of legislative leader; long experi'
ence IN the Courts Of Nisi Prius has lost
him the dramatic intention, which gives the
vulgar idea of craftsmanship. A concoeter
of no surprises, the arranger Of no tableaux,
he deals with the masonry Of argument,
net its architectural details. Fol, 81 years,
a mans lifetime, he has been q legislator,
and is at last the leader of the Senate.
To the right Of the hall, removed some
half dozen seats, you note brown haired
man, hale and able.bedied, and younger
than most others, who is the foremost, in
point of command and cleverness, of the
few Democratic m members. This is Thomas
A. Hendricks, of Indiana, q Democrat of
strong party traditions, an effective, collect
ed speaker, pundent in tone. decided in
opinion, and more jealous in the general
affairs Of the country than the mass Of his
party colleagues, whose opposition is apt to
be mere protest and bitterness. He is of
light complexion, settled and severe face,
but without particular character either in
guise or oratory. He has marred his native
extempore confidence somewhat by the too
frequent habit of reading his speeches from
manuscript.
The State of Maryland is represented by
two men of great but differing gifts. He
who sits close up to the Speaker, writing all
the while with an attorneys industry, is
Reverdy johnson. A massively quakerly
featured man, with bulging contour, from
the eyebrows down to the under lip cast like
q prize fighter, and seeming by the one eye
he has lost to carry the scars OF his art.
Yet the ampleness and symmetry Of his
head show that it was framed for better in
ternal than exterior uses--built like fort,
but really an arsenal-while the keen, close
angle Of the chin gives token Of some deli
cacy of taste and feeling. He has short.
gray hair, and his eye is doggedly humorous.
Less significant, of triter and more aver
age humanity, yet perfect in his kind, and
pleasing rather than striking, is the hale
meridisnal face Of John A. j. Creswell, a
Senator beautiful 10 his friendships, sturdy
Republican of progressive integrity, and one
Of the new and more Christian aegime Of
Maryland gentlemen. These colleagues, OF
opposite Folities. seem to me to constitute