Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-03-10
rur CoycRFss OF UYKEssON.


The Congress Of the United States al
ways appeals to what Mr.. TooNIBs once
called the nonsense of the people. 1t
ought to be, what the people of the Town
of Boston, in 1863, said a legal meeting
of their town was,-'an assembly where
a noble freedom of speech is ever ex-
pected and maintained where men
think as they please, and speak as they
think 1t ought to be, as they said, the
dread and the scourge Of tyrants. It
ought to be, like the House Of Commons,
the ~vindieator of that liberty which
Holt and SoMERs vindicated the re-
provers Of the lewd and licentious tyr
amy Of numbers; a bold, brave, manly,
generous body, worthy to legislate for =
republic of men Of the liberty-loving
English blood.
1t is the Assassin of Liberty and the
Apostle of Anarchy. 1t is, moreover,
what BUTLER defined a rabble to be-
ga Congregation or Assembly Of the
States-genera every 4 being of a
several judgment concerning what
ever business be under eonsidera-
ton. They meet only to quarrel,
and then return home full Of salts
faction and narrative.n It is always
not doing what Lord BACON proposed to
do, when receding from what was COM
monty ceived,-proceeding melits, and
not a a}ipd. 1t never proceeds in a
better way; but only in some other way.
Few members of it deserve the encO-
mum of Saint augustine on FAUsTUs
the Manichxan, who "had q heart not
altogether t~reacherous to himself; for he
was not wholly ignorant of his W
ignorance, nor would he rsshly be en-
tangled in a dispute, whence he could
neither retreat, nor extricate himself
fairly.' "WhOsO loves himself in his
folly" he says elsewhere, will make
no progress towards wisdom, nor will
become such as he UiSheS to be, unless
he hates himself such as he Is"
Perhaps the exercise Of practical wis
dem by numbers is always out Of the
question. In Congress, all the nonsense
Of all, even of the intelligent, seems to
be concentrated in the shape OF discus
sion and action. Two-thirds of the MEM
bers are those talking persons, " who,
Saint AUGUSTINE says, undertake to
enlighten others, and say nothing Any
thing passes for argument in a Congress.
Incredible s~ottiscs, an iRcoherent tumble
of ideas, an impervious inv~ulnerabihty
Of the intellect to logic, characterize the
long, dreary debates, until u doubts
whether the Creator has not given men
a sort Of sham-reason, and a ludicrous
conceit Of the excellence Of their non
intelligence, in order that the vagaries
of the race may minister 20 His amuse-
ment. Nothing is so prepOsterous or
ruinous in politics that a party may not
be found to adopt it. No intellectual
eharlatan need despair Of coming to be
venerated as an oracle.
1t is false opinions and the frauds Of
debate that bring calamity upon re-
publics. There is no folly so a~sinine,
that it may not be perpetrated in meas
ures, or enacted as law. The popular
~credulity never fails to answer all de-
mRnds upon il, never revOlts at the
grossness Of an imposture, and rarely
discards a favorite because he proves
himself incapable. Mr.. SEWARD pro-
posed to end the late civil war in ninety
days and was, therefore, the most fit
and proper person to be Secretary of
State. He sneaked out Of the difficulty
caused by the outrage on the British
dag committed in the arrest Of MASON
and SLIDELL and, therefore, the hon
our Of the nation was considered safe in
his hands.
Unfortunately, the gymnastic feats Of
charlatanry in debate, were always re-
garded, among US, as comparatively
harmless, while the law has punished
small larcenies and petty cheats with
and the house Of correction. We
are now reaping the accursed conse-
quences Of insincerity and leger-de.main ,
in debate and writing, of freedom Of
in Congress, and freedom Of the
press. Restrictions on the former, and ,
censorships Of the latter, are odious, and {
Inconsistent with individual freedom, or 3
perhaps with public liberty but it is A..
matter Of very serious doubt whether. !
no limits to the license Of either. '
q republican government is possible that
permanently secure the chief ends |
for which alone free governments are J
valuable. Appeals to the nonsense Of :
The people are always effective. Truth, {
somehow, always seems to limp after |