The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-01-10
Anecdotes ur PUBLIC MEN.
BIZ COL. J. W. FoRNEr.

BIZ COL. J. W. FoRNET.
Congressional habits and man
ners have changed with the times
and the change is marvellous. Ii
TACT, social life at the Nations
Capital has itself been revolution.
ICED Ifyon look down from the
galleries of the two Houses, OIL
step into the old Senate Chamber,
now the Supreme Court room, you
will see how thorough is the revo-
luton. Coiored men in Congress,
colored men before the highest ju-
dicial tribunal, cleo. colored men
in the local courts. deliberate and
practice without insult or intern up
zion. In 1859, a white man
fcouId not safely advocate ordina
~ justice to q black man. He was
subjected to uncomfortable obloquy
not alone in the Legislatures, but
lgssoeiety. Nothing but illustri-
e services or great moral cour-
| age Secured decent federation to
| sach an offender. The Southern
lSdets were models Of politeness
tfh their peculiar institution was
touched. Then the mask was
dropped, and arrogance expelled
all courtesy. Nobody who did not
aareei With them was invited to
Accuses, and, as they control
led the Administration, of whatev-.
er party, the few anti.slavery men
had to live among themselves.
Now all is changed. Men meet
together and discuss politics ike
philosophers. Go to one Of Fer
nando Woods great parties, and
you find people of all opinions.
Look in on one of Charles Sum-
ner's unequaled dinners, and you
see him surrounded by Democrats
like Thurman, of Ohio, and Cas-
serly, of California. Call on brave
Ben. Butler at one of his recep-
tions, and note among his guests
many whom he has most steadily
antogon.zed. When Thaddeus
Stephens lived, his most intimate
companion at whist and euehre
was the venerable John Law,
the distinguished Democrat from
the indianapolis district. But in
nothing is the change more mark
ed than in the manners of the two
Houses. First is the evident alb
seuce of public dissipatiOn-that
fruitful source Of evil during the
old slave regime. You do not see
men infaned by bad whiskey,
seeking to quarrel with their asso-.
ciates. The night is no longer
made hideous by personal alterca-
tions. The bowie-knife, the pistol,
the bludgeon, lie buried in the
grave with secession and State
rights. There are lively disputes,
OF course; Butler and Sunset Cox
indulge in an occasional passage;
Schurz and Carpenter exchange
repartee; and now and then Mr..
Voorhees, flies his eagles with an
CRY and tervid defamation; but
there are no hostile messages, no
clandestine consultations, no sum
monses to Bladensburg or Canada.
The shots that are fired are hurt
less; the swords are air drawn: the |
fierce charges explode in fruitless
Investigations. A colored member
is listened to by respectful houses,
and silent if not responsive sudi- |
tors; and the EXTREMIST Democrat,
even from the South, yields hear
iHg aad a reply to u man like Ben
,jamin Sterling Turner, the repre-
sentative in Congress from Selma,
Ala, who was born slave and is
now q freeman. How wonderful
is the decay ofprejudices that seem
to be eternal! Is this the capitol
in which Sumner fell under the
blows of Brooks? From which
John Quincy Adams was sought
to be'expeiled for words spoken in
debate? In which Toombs thuf-
dered. Keitt flashed, and Wigfall
thrertended2 And as l turn from
this profound lesson, and look
over the fair city as it stretches
before me from the west windows
OF the Congressional Library-in
which l notice colored men and
women reading in the quiet al |
coves-I find other and even bet |
ter manners. Cars traversing |
streets as clean as those of Paris |
in her best days, and carrying
both races without process. even |
from the delicate ex-rebel ladies |
who are coming back to Us on
their silken wings, ready to sell
guns or carry claims, as opportun-
lty offers; the same schools for the |
education of black and white; col |
leges for the education of the |
freedmen; q great savings bank, in |
which the millions of former slaves
are boarded and increased; and |
above all, free press, that prints |
words and distributes thoughts
which twelve years ago would
have raised a mob and swung the |
writer to the lamp-post in front of
his burning dwelling. And this
social, political, and intellectual
revolution is INDICATED by results |
which, like the glorious works of
nature, give joy to all and real sor-
row to none. The flowers and
verdure Of early spring, that bloom
and grow all around US, are not
more truly the proofs Of the prov
idence of God than all these chan
ged manners at the Nations Capt.
tai