New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-02-12
AMENITIES IN CONGRESS.

In a humorous volume printed many years
ago there is a mock debate between Mr. Can
ming and Mr.. Brougham, who both become IN
ordinately personal until good Mr. Wherefore.
creeping softly behind them, thrusts copy OF
"Tbe Whole Duty of Man into the hands OF
the one. and of LAWS Serious Calf into the
hands of the other, and is enchanted to notice
that his conciliatory expedient has an instant
oleaginous effect upon the disreputalle alterca-
ton. We are sorry that we have in the Amer
lean Congress no monitor at once so benevolent
and so ingenious, with so firm falth III the
promise made TO peace makers, and SO livery
sense of the mischief often occasioned by an
unbrded tongue. We are prepared to pardon
something to the natural vehemence of debate !;
but a true gentleman, however angry, will pre-
serve his own personal dignity and an accom-
plished tactcian knows that calmness Is one OF
the most effective elements of retort. The
parliamentary theory is that every mem
Der il Honorable This is a respect which
every legislative body owes to itself. 1t is an
assumption that representatives will confine
themselves to decent discussion, will refrain
from the temptation of disorderly speaking,
and will remember that the dignity OF the
whole body can only be maintained by indi-
have arisen many of the fictitious phrases
which, among the well-bred, have not gone en-
tirely out of use, such as the honorable gen.
"tleman,n "my learned friend" "the eloquent
gentleman upon my right" &C., &c. a really
accomplished debater understands well enough
that these phrases have sometimes the effect OF
the bitterest reproach the force of which he
well knows how to increase by vocal inflec-
lions, and by exasperating variations of his
countenance. He doubles the agony of his VIC
tim by the delicacy of his castigation, and so
manages the matter that any attempt Mt reply
will merely intensity his ridicule. Mr. Randolph
was the last great master of this art of irony,
although Mr.. John Quincy Adams sometimes
employed it with prodigious effect, keeping at
bay score Of angry antagonists as a
lion might confront whole regiment OF ny
enas No speech could be more whitening than
the contempt which shot from his eyes; no re-
buke could be sterner than that which his
pointed finger alone conveyed. In the modern
school of debate, abuse seems to have been
COMPOUNDED with severity, and venom0us and
endless loquacity to have replaced the pithy
brevity of wit; and this is the more deeply to
be deplored because the subject matter of a
personal alteration is not commonly of the
least consequence either to Congress or the
country. Why cannot honorable gentlemen
scold each other in private, and wash their dirty
linen at home7 Why cannot they make ap-
pointments and settle their insignificant differ
ences in each others lodgingsY If nobody cares
for their wrath; if the public is but an unwil
ling auditor of their injuries; If their misun-
derstandings do not in tho smallest measure
concern the common veal or the common woe,
it is extremely ill-bred for them to thrust their
petty grievances upon the national atten-
ton, to say nothing of the space which
they extort from reluctant newspapers
They force us to print their folly, and
if we are little FESTIVE under the imposition,
and venture to express our dissatisfaction, this
brawler or the other may be rising to ques-
ton Of privilege or may seek to relieve his
overburdened mind by abusing our reporters,
who are usually better informed than he is con-
corning the real business of the House, and may
have saved him twenty times from rdicule by
making the best they could of his blunders.
The number of men in the House whose
speeches will bear verbatim reporting is lin
tied; and If those who sometimes find fault SO
freely with the daily press did but know what
dreadful revenge the art of stenography al
ways keeps within our reach, they would either
show themselves less difficult to please, or re-
sort at once to the morning and evening study
OF Murrays Grammar and of Cushing's
Manual
A member of Congress is hired by the coun-
try not that he may exhibit his gifts of rhet-
ORC, not that he may display his billingsgatc
accomplishments. not chat he may have