Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-05-07

h LlE N0NE VI . hAoA 5eaNlf AZ We
able to suppose that a respectable degree
of talent and some amount Of public
service would be necessary TO give any
man sufficient prominence and reputa-
ton TO secure such q vote; as il was also
reasonable to suppose that questions Of
broader import would enter into the
contests for those seats, than the local in
terests of district or ward, orthe craving
necessities Of a squad Of greedy petty
politicians. 1t was the virtual exclusion
Of a multitude of men, OF merely local
notoriety, from seats in the great House
of Commons Of the Republic; and an
absolute bar TO the controlling Of such
elections by a handful Of schemers at the
capitol or in some obscure hole Of a city.
At least, it would greatly have lessened
the chances of these evils, and kept
them from becoming chronic when they
occurred and it is certain that many Of
the worst men who have infested the
House Of Representatives, would never
have received the per diem, if to gain
admission they must have had a major
ity OF the votes Of their State. Party
tickets would still nave been made up by
conventions and caucuses but even
these bodies would have been Of a higher
order, and the nominees Of wider repu-
tstion.
But as a Democracy would be less toll
cradle than a monarchy, if it did not en-
H A. --..Tr.- ,,,aa 70 wfca ~ nnWpF
which in the long run becomes its chief
use, the device wss speedily resorted to
of eIecting by Districts, from which,
aided by the Internal enginery Of nomi-
mating conventions, the h~Oped-for conse-
d~uences soon resulted. The South de-
manded a "strict construction Of the
language Of the Constitution. As u
rule Of construction could not apply to
one part, and another to another,
that mode of construction shonld have
beeu applied to all its provisions
and if to any especially, then especially
te all those that were intended to make
the two Houses of Congress be, in all
possible respects, "tbo United STATES ~
Congress assembled For that was the
cardinal purpose of the Constitution, in
asmueh as any other would have been
inconsistent with the nature of the Gov
eminent created by it, and because such
is the plain meaning of its language.
Each STATE was to sit in the House by
its representatives, and not by the repre-
~sentatives of its portions and factions
only. When it is provided that a Legfs-
laturs shall elect judges, that body can
not divide itself into as many parts or
committees as there are judges to be
elected, and let each part or committee
elect one Of the judges, the other men,
bers not voting as to that judgeship.
The arhole Legislature must elect each.
What need of naming many that soon
found a way into the halls Of Congress,
rude Of manner and speech, and iHno-
cent OF even the rudiments of States
manship Let the dead, whether in the
body, or in public estimation, rest in
peace! Even the s~ubterranean strata
sent specimens into the House. The
| stupid, the tiresome, the brawling and
| the besotted, some who drivelled and
/ some who canted, folly in its dotage and
! Ignorance in all its greenness, consOrted
there with wisdom, virtue and knowl-
edge. The District System and nomins-
| ting Conventions, rotation in Office and
the distribution of the spoils Of political
a.! brigandage, produce in profusion thar
manner of fruit. Where the carrion is,
there will the vultures gather.
Under the same miserable, degrading,
I corrupting system, Members Of Congress
became claim-agents, procurers Of con-
tracts, dispensers Of low emplOyments
and their business lay more with
the Departments than in the Hall
of the House. Half their time was
occupied in running to and fro on
the business of every body, while
clerks conducted their multifarious
correspondence. Compared with Mem
bers Of the House Of Commons, they
were what jobbing attorneys are to Coun-
seIlors and Serjeants. Senators followed
the same evil example. All Of
affairs, clean and dirty, came to both to
be transacted. They Legged solicited,
pleaded, ~entreated, cajoled, threatened,
in the Bureaus. They saw to the mail
lettings, had faithless contractors re-
Heved Of fines justly imposed, prosecuted
or defeated land-claims, procured pre-
emptons n pensions, secured extra.
allowances by adroit management,
for contractors, obtained patents for
useful inventions or useless imita-
tons, urged the claims Of needy
beggars Of office, distributed books, doc
uments and seeds, attended to the
wishes Of subalterns Of the army de-
string change Of station to crafty their
wives and, in short, were the servants
Of and runners for every vagsbond
among their constituents. In the House
they naturalized the manner Of the
bar-room, the oyster-cellar and the En-
pire Club, or of the quarter-race-course
and gatherings at elections Of the West;
until the assembly became by far the
most disorderly Legislative body on
earth, amazing every n who beheld it,
and to whose Glamour and confusion no
description can do justice, its members
seeming a mob Of lunatics; while a
page seventeen years Of age stood, at one
session, constantly at the elbow of the
Speaker, and instructed him what to do
and how to decide, under the rules of
the House; more numerous and less
understood than those Of any other body
in the world.
Wrangling and speech-voiding took
the place of legislation, so that on one
bill more han a hundred speeches were
made. Unlimited freedom of speech, in
a Lower House OF two or three hundred
members, like unlimited license Of the
press, will ruin any country but it would
have been nti-DemOcratic to silence
gamblers, as is done in the House of
Commons Of Great Britain. The right
to bestow all your dizziness on innocent
men, is eminently a Democratic right,
and not 10 be in any wise abridged, es-
pecially when the public pays the ex-
pense.
The most important measures were
hsbitually postponed to the close Of the
session, and then hurried through with
indecent haste, the appropriation bills
in particular, which became the recepta-
cles of al sorts Of provisions, and were
even used TO create offices withal, and to
compel the President To. employ particu-
lar officers Of the army to carry on par
ticular public works. These and other ]
important bills were passed in
the last hours Of Congress, and
even beyond the time when It
could legally continue its session {
and it came to be often the case that the
bills passed were substitutes, agreed on
by Committees Of Conference, in lieu of
the original bills on which the two
Houses bad disagreed, and SO, being not 1
even read, much less printed, receiving ,
consideration whatever in either (