Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-02-20
From the New York Tribune.
Plantation Debates.

The stories that are told by various
newspaper correspondents OF the last
hours of the Senate debate on the bill to
cheat creditors carr US back 10 time
before the war. which no respectable
American remembers without a blush. In
that barbarous aud riolous era. when lh'
"high-toned plantation statesman was
generally half drunk aud always quarrel
some, and the typical Bourbon Congress
man was a fiery person OF overbearIng
deportment. magnificent assumptions aud
unlimited ignorance, who puucIutted con
versation with blasphemy. enIivened tbe
dulness of political debate with brawl>
and dues, and never went to the Capitol
without a loaded pistol in his hip-pocket,
we were accustomed to strange spectacles
within the chambers of legislation. Hon
orable gentlemen often stamnIered IN their
speech. wandered in their argument, re-
posed heavily Oh the sofas after few
visits to the cloak-room. different Class
of gentlemen came into the Senate and
the House when our seeding friends
marched ont, aud different behavior pre-
vailed. But when the old slave drivers
come back, they seem to be Bringing their
bad old manners with them.
We had an astonishing Illustration OF
their hectoring and clustering spirit the
other day when they made their indecent
attack upon the United States Military
Academy. The incidents Of that occur
renee are still fresh in the memory OF the
public. and the loyal people will not soon
forget the spectacle, never paraleled' We
believe, in the history OF Il constitutions
State. of defeated rebels who have been
not only pardoned, but restored TO political
power by the clemency OF their outraged
government, making quick use Of their
newly regained privileges to destroy the
army which whipped them into submits
sion.
They boosted Of their rebelious feats
of arms. They strobe tiercely back and
forth through the assembly Hunting the
names of their insurgent leaders. Aud
when the North stood up against them,
they cracked the slaye-whip as they used
10 do of old. and filled the air with vulgar
menace and BLACKBOARD invectlve. They
did not spare Northern meu OF their own
party. Mr.. Hewitt, who conducted hiu
self in the midst Of this hoarse uproar
like man OF sense, gallan,ry, and good
breeding, was attacked with u rancor, an
insoence. a grossness, of which the tele-
graphed reports give no adequate descrip
tion Some of the worst incidents OF the
scandalous debate have been generally
suppressed by the correspondents. Srv-
eral Southern members, whose names do
not appear in the report, were guilty
of behavior quite as bad as that OF Mr..
Ellis, of Louisiana, who told Mr.. H"wctl
that "he lied in his heart aud in bis falls
throat, words for which Mr.. Hewitt
Immediately. compelled him to apologize
And of course no written description can
convey more than an idea OF the brutal
manner in which all these brutal remarks
were delivered.
Ii the gentlemen on the other side OF
the Potomac wish to create a solid North
they have only to go on in the way they
seem to have chosen. In this section of
the country there is Il sincere desire for
peace, good-felowship the obliteration OF
geographical boundaries in politics, and
all the other phenomena OF the millennium:
but we do not propose to be kicked and
cursed as poor Cutfee was There is
limit even to the Gorbearance and
good nature of the North, and it seems
to us that the Bourbon has pretty nearly
reached it.