Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1879-07-09
SENA TORIAL PLANTATION
MANNERS.

stances. He has been on a perpetua
hunt for plantation manners in th
Senate during the present session. II
has hunted for them in and out @
time. Every motion or measure con
sldered in the Senate was regarded b,
him as their temple and all season
were claimed as their own. He ha,
still hunts, in which he displayed hi
supreme art in flinging his contemp
and insult upon the Confederate Brig
adiers without utterance. His finel,
chiseled nose would curl, and curl, am
his beautiful golden forelock woul
play on the chasing frowns whicl
hurled their defiance at the rebel bar
barians who have invaded the Senet
as his peers. He has had fleld-da,
hunts, in which he played the gladia
tor before crowded galleries and EN-
ployed his keenest lnvective and tn
most polished insolence to force plan
tation manners to exhibit before th
multitude. He had Blaine for willinj
lieutenant. They agreed only on tw,
things: to hate each other and to hat
sectional tranquility Each everignor
ing the name of the other, studiousl,
refusing respectful reference to eaol
other, and still hugging mutual enmitl
that has sealed their lips and deniel
the commonest cIvilities which woult
be rendered to the stranger, for halt
generation, they are ambitious to max
the whole country sanctuary of hat
and to deform every quality of states
manship with their distempered ami
mosities. In the hunt for plantation
manners in the Senate, they have mad
common cause, but each mourned whel
the other best succeeded but Blain
has had the fortune to find them whel
they suited his purpose and when b.
could make a flodd-tide Of hate from
them. Hill thus served him in th,
House and again in the Senate, ant
his practical, everyday sense has savet
him from pulling the pillars of hat,
down upon himself Not 30 will
Conkling. lie is vain and eloquent
supercilious and polished, courageou
and cowardly. He advances grandly
and retreats ungracefully, while Blain,
charges impetuously and skilliully tall
back when danger confronts him
Both have sacrificed craftsmanship L
their hatreds but Blaine glidcs from
the wheel when it turns the wrong
way and Conkling, always mirroring
himself TO himself sees danger only
when he is broken, Both have founC
plantation manners in the Senate, bu
Blaine found them just when he wanted
and as he wanted them, while Conkling
has finally found them just when ht
didn't want them and they came il
just the shape that most fretted him
He recently worried out the most mag
ni6cent display of plantation manners
ever exhibited in the Senate since the
Foote and Benton brawl Of thirty years
ago, but the plantation gladiator, il
the blind passion that was expected tC
be the plaything of Conkling for tn,
amusement Of the Senate, struck 9
chance blow at the staggering master
that ielled him in helpless humiliation
and shame.
And what shall the harvest be
Conkling, usually forgctful of the com
mon courtesies which obtain among
Senators, and which are cultivated BY
gentlemen everywhere, has exhausted
his great powers, during the present
session, to hurl insult upon every
Southern Senator. Cool and selfpoiscd
master Of the elegance of speech, un
rivaled in invective and contemptuous
beyond description in manner, he has
rasped and goaded his fellow. member
from the South as the mercilcss slave
driver would taunt the slaves he wished
TO provoke to the resentment that
would justify the lash. He hates
Hayes, and would destroy him; he
hates the South because Hayes bartered
with it and obtained his title over
Conkling's cowardice, and he would
now make Hayes and the South de-
stroy each other. If the South shall
be arrogant and flaunt plantation man
ners in Congress, sectional strife will
be revived, Hayes will he overthrown
and Conkling will reign with Grant
He, therefore, called fer plantation
manners on every possible occasion
and Lamar has responded to his prayer
at last. With his regulation sneer and
and imperious manner which intensl
fed the meaning OF every sentence he
uttered, he charged studied deceit upor
the majority of the Senate, and mad,
his assault directly upon the Southern
members. He wanted plantation man
ners, and hc found just what be wa.
in search Of Lamar has no power Il
express what he means to say by sneeri
or contempt Of manner, but he tool
the palmer and more manly way O
resenting in plain words what Conk
ling had provoked by the insolenc,
that Is lost in the official records CT th,
Senate, and he answered that the ut
terance Of Conkling was falsehooc
and that he repelled IL with all th,
contempt he felt for It's author. Thil
was an exhibition Of plantation man
ners not down on Conkling's bills, and
his wounded vanity at once brought
him TO a personal scuille with planta
tion manners, and Of course at dis
advantage. Herespondcd by denounc
ing Lamar as blackguard, coward
and liar, If hc meant TO impute false
hood to Conkling. Lamar promptly
replied that he meant to charge false
hood upon Conkling, and followed with
an apology to the Senate for having
been compelled to say in debate what
no good man deserved and what no
brave man would submit to.
Thus ended Conkling's last attempt
at gratuitous exhibition of plantation
manners in the Senate. He offered
wanton insolence to the Senators. OK.
pccting to provoke them TO public dis.
grace, but Lamar answered inuendo
and sncercd with plain English, made
his plantation manners tear the mask
from falsehood, forced Conkling into a
personal wrcstle in the arena Of Sena-
torial blackguardism, and tossed him
from the pinnacle Of bis pride with the
reiterated charge Of ialsehood hissed
in his face. II was a sorry day ior
the country bu; II may recall the