Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-03-14
WAS TrtipTY-rtrrn CoreRnss.

Tn. Leading Characters cr the Senate
srd House, as by a News
Paper Man.
, The Washington correspondent Of the
New York Tribune draws the following
pen-portraits OF the prominent figures
in the Senate Of the Thirty-Ninth Con-
gress, probably the most memorable In
our history:
When YOU enter-and this letteris not |
for a day, but for all time-Garret Davis |
is speaking. He Is q sepulchral and at
teniratcd Gratiano. His reasons are rs
two grains of wheat hid in two bushels
of chaf. You shall search oil day ere
you find them, and when you have them
they are not worth the search. His text
Is any of the eleven hundred enactments
of Congress, but his sermon is always the
Constitution, and it violated. That mo-
body listens to him does not in the least
disturb him. He purlson, a turbid rivulet
of talk, till some ingenious damming
chokes him up. He looks mummy-like
and shrunkcn, and might be a well-pre-
served Theban citizen, a thousand or two
years old, galvanized into action. The
presiding officer, Senator Foster, Is a
scholarly-looking man, tall, slender, fair,
with full brow and flowing hair. lie
y
| of requirements more than OF experience,
who enlarges by accretion rather than by
growth, He has timid and cOnciliatory
bearing, and would, underprotest, JoUoW
tremendous events, but never compel
them, one fancies. On Monday, the 4th
of March, he resigns his chair to Sena-
tor Wade of Ohio. r vac ~ i.
This Martin Luther of politics is rough
hewn, indomitable, tireless. On every
| f.,of x,n.t in VOL m
the protest of the old monk, Here
stand. i can no otherwise, for
| it is not safe for man to go against his
conscience" Too intense to be always
Catholic, too terribly in earnest to be III
ways wise, his simplicity is so much
better than statecraft that he goes straight
| to the core Of the matter at issue, while
better managers debate definitions. A
narrow man, perhaps an erratic man, he
| IL yet so trusted that the Senate elects
him, remembering that 1t thus places
him in the direct line Of succession to
| the highest heroes of the nation.
\ A tall and handsome man, nOticeably
well-dressed, whose beautiful hands turn
rapidly the huge pile of papers on his
desk, Is Mr.. Charles Sumner of Massa-
chusetts. With even broader fame rs q
phllanthrOpist than as statesman, or a
scholar, he yet seems to lack those ele-
ments which make philanthropists. His
benevolence Is logic, not enthusiasm
He impresses one as cold, isolated, and
self-contained. His mind rejects the
idea that pyramid, can balance on its
apex, and hence he will not recognize an
aristocratic and servile element In So
: ciety, which, sooner or later, must upset
that very uncertain fabric. Given two
souls endowed with duties, his ratiocina-
ton will not permit one to be stripped
OF rights because 1t Is clad In dusky vest
ure. Skins are an accident. Reason will
build laws only with substances as souls.
! He makes tracks for the Unknown, as
ThOreau would say, and In his swift pro-
gress catches his feet I'm certain briars,
and tangles of the Known, and after
trips. His panacea for the ills of life Is
! like that of the French acadenician who
moved that all rogues be hanged. Never
|, theless, whether 1t is logic or love that
moves this pillar of state, he has done
splendid service for Liberty, and his
: name will shine as the stars when even
his biographer Is forgotten.
His colleague, Wilson, who looks like
amerchant In comfortable circumstances,
, stout, sleek, iiorid, talks little, and works
!. much. He Is most skillful tactician,
! and putative godfather to larger family
: of feeble, but twell-intentiOned and need.
4 ed bills, than anybody else, except John
: Sherman. Senator Harris, large, unc.
tuoas, plausible, looks so like high pre-.
D late Of the Roman Church perpetually
a., officiating that 1t seems u high crime and
misdemeanor for him to appear without
his sacerdOtal robes and shaven crown.
Senator Morgan Is such model Of de-
pertinent that the Prince Regent, or Mr..
, Turveydrop--not to speak it prOfanely--
might exchange cards with him without
misgiving. Senator Stewart of Ne
vada, young, earnest, with fire In him,
and force and feeling-or he contradicts
, the promise of his hair and complexion
comes upon one, after these men, as a
wind from his mountains might sweep
|, up Fifth Avenue.
Mr.. Frelinghuysen of New-Jersey has
! a fine face, and the bearing of q gentle
I man. If he can but triumph over that
, baleful legacy, distinguished father
! against whom the patriarchs will meas
ure him, and by whom the young mel
: will condemn him, his career promises
much. Here is Van Wrinkle, from West
e ern Virginia the register says, but thai
: Highlands, his heart Is not here, and hi,
u pr@nomen Is Rip. The cannon of the
d war woke him, but what train bore his
o trembling limbs to Washington nobody
knows. He IL occasionally reused to vote
= believe, but for the most part sit
u dreamily reminiscent Of Hendrick Hud
r son and the ribald crew of the Half Moon
i Mr.. McDougall OF CaliTonir, perhaps tn,
y most brilliant man In the Senate, who's,
70 tongue drops mamma, and can make tn,
. worse appear the better reason! A MAI
. so wonderfully rich that though he seek
Is to beggar himself In talents and oppor
J. tunities, he has left patrimony larg,
u enough to out-dazzle most of his collea
CUES. 1t Is sad that this clarion will no
20 sound In the grand chorus of Freedom
l. Sad that this genius will not illumin
,e waste places. Oh, that men should pu
" an enemy into their mouths to steal ava,
n their brains. A slender, tall man, witt
s' fair face, not bold, but positive, IL Johl
sherman Of Ohio. He moves quietly
he looks up US II his eyes were In bond
to keep some secret. He approaches hi
'y objects dexterously, alertly, rather tha
e, directly, and carries them nine times ou
N. OF ten. Before his last transmigratio
he was panther--lithe, elegant, nc
no cruel, but devourlng. His personallt
ig affects one much less than his reputatio
D. prophecies, and astranger is not lik,
% ly to ask his name. His mind, like III
speeches, is granary Of facts winnowe
r. from other mems harvests by an ingen
e- | ntla tnanta al 1a.hina nf (which ha is q