Litchfield enquirer., 1875-02-18
AN HARITUAL ABSENTEE.

It seems that the long fight against the adoption of the new rule in the House was lost by the Democrats through the ab- sence of Mir. Barnum of Connecticut. It is charged by the political opponents of Mir Barnum in his own state that he is uniformly absent from his place in the House, and that so far as voice, vote, and influence in that body are concerned the Nth District of Connecticut might as we'll be unrepresented. It is matter of record, we presume, that he has been of- tener absent than present on the roll calls of his eight years service, and we believe he has never burdened the pages of The Globe or Record with a single sentence, He makes no speeches in the House or anywhere else; he does not vote; he does not even put in an appearance in his seat Ill the House, except at such intervals as suit his convenience, and for very brief periods. And yet Mr. Barnum has served four terms in Congress, and will shortly be renominated for the fifth, probably without opposition. It seems, to anyone who considers the functions of Repre- sentative in Congress and the stake which his constituents have in the deliberations and acts of Congress, little singular that he should persist in taking an office he does not pretend to fill, or that his constituents should continue to he satis- fled with him and to return him with such cordial unanimity.
 Last Summer, before the Connecticut Legislature, MT. Barnum was a candidate for United States Senator, receiving in the Democratic caucus very large support from members of the Legislature outside of, as well as from his own district. No one of his supporters seemed to think there was anything incongruous or absurd Tn the proposition to take man who had served seven years in Congress without opening his mouth, and had been more than half the time recorded among the absentees, and had never made in any form public utterance, and promote him to seat in the highest legislative body in the nation. It did not strike any of his supporters as being in the least ridicu- lous, but what man who considers ser1- ously the duties of the office and the ca- pacity he had exhibited for them, can fail to see the wild absurdity of such selec- tlon? MT. Barnum is a man of large wealth and extensive business interests. These make constant demands upon his time, and we presume he has found it al- most impossible to be at his post of duty 1n Congress very much of the time since he began to represent his district. But 1t IS not impossible to find some other person in the district and in his own par ty who would undertake to see the dis trict represented occasionally in the vot- Ing. We confess we cannot understand why he should desire either to continue Tn the position of Representative, for which he has developed no capacity. or T0HnNnntn6 fo Sn.1 P-- whose duties he would be more conspicu- Ously unfit.
 Now in this matter: it may or may not have been of supreme importance to the party to which Mr. Barnum belongs to defeat the attempt of the majority to in- pose upon them an arbitrary rule. The leaders of the party seemed to think it of consequence enough to make staying. continuous fight of forty-six hours on. and to resume 1t with the most stubborn ob- stinacy at each meeting of the House. MT. Barnum knew this fight was in pro- gress, and that his party, in the minority, needed every vote at every stage of it to prevent their being utterly routed. Every vote on that side counted more than one in th1s crisis, for the majority had to be two-thirds to succeed. And Mir. Barnum's vote was nowhere. Will some delegate to the Democratic Congressional Con7en- tion of the IVth District of Connecticut about to assemble shortly and renominate MT. Barnum by exclamation, have the goodness to drop line to MT. Randall or MT. Cox or some other of the Demo- cratic leaders who sat this fight ont and saw it through-and state precisely what Mir. Barnum is sent to Congress for. He is good citizen and an honest man no doubt; is generous, good-natured and iol- ly-an admirable qualities in neighbor and friend, but really, why send him to Congress Once in two years regularly