The Portland daily press., 1879-03-20
sf ,he Union was worth Gghsing for il is
worth paying for
After Eighteen Years.

Eighteen years have passed since the Demo-
Gratis last had control of the Senate, In
the thirty-sixth Congress, which met in sec
ond session on the 3rd of December, 1860,
the Democrats had twelve majority. But
the secession of the Southern States, yery
shortly threw the control of the body into the
hands of the Republicans, where 1t remained
until Tuesday last. The return of the South
has again given over the Senate to the Demo-
cratic party. In the session of 1S60-61, the
Republicans had 26 members. They now
have 80. The Democrats had, before the
withdrawal of the Southerners' IS votes.
They now have AZ. Two of these they get
by the division of Virginia into two States.
The other two are gained from the North.
Their majority now however, is but s; in
1860 it was r. Relatively, they are not as
strong as they were nineteen years ago.
In the Democratic Senate of 1860 were
Breckenridge, Hunter, Mason, Davis, Fitz-
patrick, Benjamin, Slidell, Sebastian, Tombs,
WigfalI, and Powell from the South aud those
Northern traitors, Bright of Indiana, and
Gwin OF California. The Republicans num-
bered in their ranks, Fessenden, Hamlin,
Hale, Collamer, Sumner, Wilson, Foot,
Anthony, Seward, Chandler, Grimes, Wade,
Trumbull and Baker. On motion of Dem
ocrat, Powell of Kentucky, Republican.
Foot OF Vermont, was unanimously chosen
President of the Senate, pro tempore.
None of the seeding Senators have yet
hnpr Tnfnrpo1 m ha 70 Al Al
outbreak of the Rebellion, though their places
are for the most part filed by men who were
with them in the struggle for secession, and
who were officers in the Confederate army.
But some of them shave hopes" johnson
OF Arkansas was candidate in the Demo-
cratic caucus this last winter for the Senate.
Yulee OF Florida was Democratic candidate
in caucus against Call. Both Davis and
Toombs have been suggested for Senators.
Mason, Slidell, Fitzpatrick, Sebastian, Pow
ell, Breckinridge, Wigfall and Bright are
dead. and so lost to their admring country
men who cannot reward their fidelity to the
"lost Cause" But Hunter is State Treasurer
of Virginia and Clingman an aspirant for po-
iitical preferment in North Carolina. Now
that the eighteen years wandering in the will
derness of political ostraclsm has come to an
end we need not be surprised to see the old
Southern leaders returning TO the places in
the Senate they so contemptuously vacated.
No sooner does thing get well established
than attempts are made to overthrow it,
For years all the doctors have taken up and
preached from Sancho Panza's text on sleep,
and have nearly persuaded the people that
nights good rest is better medicine for body
and mind than half the drugs in the pharma-
copoeia. But here comes magazine bitterly
complaining of the bad effects of too much
sleep. 1t asserts that thereby the whole ner-
vous system becomes blunted, so that the
muscular energy is enfeebled, and the sensa-
tioHs. and moral and intellectual manifesto.
tions are obtunded, All the bad Effects of in
action become developed; the functions are
exerted with less energy; the digestion is
torpid, the excretions are diminished, whilst,
in some instances, the secretion of fat ac-
cumulates to an inordinate extent. The
memory is impaired, the powers of imagina-
tion are dormant, and the mind falls into a
kind OF hebetude, chiefly because the func-
tlons of the intellect are not sufficiently ex-
erted, when sleep is too prolonged or too Of
ten repeated.