Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-12-05

From our Regular Correspondent
Washington Letter.
THANKSGIVING IN THE SENATE-TIIE IRRE.
PRESSIBLE CONFLICT-A GREAT STAKE
SOME PREJUDICES OF STATESMEN-CAN1
VERSUS CANT-TIIE ANCESTRY OF (NoI
b. F.) BUTLER AND DOC ADAMS-THE
TIGER HUNTERS OF AFRICA-CoNKLING
AND GORDON.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20.
The Senate WAS in session yesterday anC
ate cold slices of Thanksgiving turkey a
the Capital restaurant, the only grace be
ing a silent middleton of the equivocal
Conover and the treacherous Patterson
with such feeling as the irrepressible con.
hlct, apparently never less repressed than
now, has for half century aroused.
The control of the Senate is IN important
stake, for it will mean, should the demo
Gratis gain it, Il reorganization of commit
tees, the distribution of many offices, the
practical control of the appointing power
of the president, and, it is whispered, the
revival of the question that the electoral
commission was appointed to settle.
1t is not remarkable, then, that every
inch of the ground is II subject of contro.
versy that is not always dignifed or states,
manlike. Those of us who have imagined
craftsmanship to be lifted above the plane
OF human prejudice and passion, have had
in the last week disenchantment. There
is ample evidence in what grave senators
say to show that men elevated to place in
national councils still carry with them the
bias the prejudice, and the ignorance OF
their localities, and the influence of tbe
petty motives that prevail in the more vul.
gar walks of life; but when their words
are supplemented by their actions as we
see them here, when the speech of n sena.
tor is emphasized and interpreted by man.
nerlsms suggestive of his class bias, his
education, his habitat. and his ancestrv-
we have n lesson in human and political
profoundcr and more vivid
than is written in histories. 1t is the priv.
ilego of those who sit in the serene biohts
oil the galleries to study not only contem-
poraneous history, but also human nature
from its pronounced forms in representa-.
tive individuals, and if we could but puroe
our narrative of cant and our vision of the
NOTES and beams we see in the ewes of
those whom we crilicise, our opinions
would be valuable indeed 1t was said of
The Bourbons that they never learned any
thing and never forgot anything. This
was only n half truth; but, in SO far us if
was TRUTH OF far wider application than
The special class denounced, for the
thoughts of all men are "widened with
Inc circle of the seems" and the radical Of
The past has ever been the Bourbon of the
each accusing the other of cant,
with II cant of his own.
l have been led into these reflections bv
hearing Senator Gordon of Georgia in his
speech yesterday, eulogize the ancestry of
M. q. Butler of South Carolina. who is
waiting at the door of the Senate for nd
mission to seat He mentioned that
Butler was descended on one side from
me swamp fox of the Revolutions" Gen.
Marion, and, on the other, from the naval
nero Commodore Perry "whose heroic
Falor is immortaized on canvas in the hall
Of the Capitol." And he might have
added that the picture was in extrayaoant
iaub, lobbied through the Senate mt S25,-
JOO. The occasion which provoked this
genealogical rhetoric from Senator Gordon
was IA poetic description of one Doc. Adj
inns, IL colored witness against Butler,
whom Senator Conkling described as "a
porn leader of men, and descendant of
ne tiger hunters of the gold coast of
Africa"
Senator Gordon is one of the most en-
lghtened and liberal of southern states
men, but, to speak of his rhetoric, after
he manner of Darwin.-here is a recnr.
'ence OF IN ancient and supposed extinct
ype. 1t had been long time since
outhern statesmen made themselves ri
ilcIIous with this cant about ancestry.
every breeder of Berkshire PIGS knows
he Importance of ancestry, but what is
mere in the record of the swamp fox
n The hero of Lake Erie, to prove that
len Butler was not implicated in the
hamburg lots, And, so fur as the senate
n the world knows, there is nothing in
ne record of the tiger hunters of the
,oId coast Of Africa that would prove
heir descendent, and DIR. Adams, Of fair
equation for truth and veracity, and vet
bis was the logic of II lawyer of national
equation, who has been given an oppor
unity to decline the chair of the chiefI
iistice of the United States. 1t is suni.
lentIy humiliating to see two women
rgue in this way, across the hedge on
Which they dry their dish cloths, but when |
representatives. of great commonwealth
tand up in the council chamber of the
alton, and emblazon their antipathics in
uch petty bosh, we are forced to infer
hat the work of the founders, "to form a
lore perfeat union" has fallen into alien
ands.