New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-27
HE MIST BE PADDED.

ncel.
He MUST BE PADDED.
What funny fellow Voorhees, IS Viewed
properly, there's no end of entertainment in him.
No statesman of the period has the audacity and
dash, the freshness and bounce, and what they
call in the West the "Rit-up-and-git that
he upon occasions exhibits. To see him lay
off his Jacket, when there's high talk going on
in ths Senate, and square himself and skip into
the debate with kind of prairie whoOp, bid
ding defiance to the entire opposition and offer
ing to polish them off singly or by battaliOns, is
worth going great way to see. There's kind
of swing in his gait, an easy jaunincss of man
ner, a sort of "TOmmy -make-rOOm -fOr-yOur-
"unclrn style about him, that somehow i'm
presses you. II is the kind of thing that can't
be accurately described, for it battles the vO-
cabulary. You got tired with trying TO fit to it
any of the worn out explosives that have been
used from the time of Goliath of Gath down to
the last wearer of the belt and you fall back upon
the simple phrase which, in the poverty of the
tongue, was lately used to describe the proves
of that fine array of affidavit makers who came
up from Louisiana for a GrTcO-Roman wrestle
with the truth: it is simply "red-heaGed"
This is a statesman who will not take
dare from ANYBODY. AT anything that
sounds like a challenge he Frances to
the front and offers battle. And whether
it be to an individual or 70 the
whole opposition, 1t Is all one to him. and with
one never-varying result. The first opponent
to whom he offers himself gives him singer
and sends him spinning to the next, who
whrls him on along the line, and so on till he
gathers himself from the dust at the end of
the encounter much bruised and tumbled, but
bOastIng mono the less that he never
did take a dare. It's almost like q
play the way he rushes in with jacket off
and sleeves rolled up; and then the
philosOphic matter-Of-fact way in which.
after he has been cuffed and tum-
blcd about by as many advcrsaries as
could get whack at him, no pulls him
self together for fresh encounter No
one can SEQ this performance going on
day after day, and observe the per-
feet complacency with which the Indiana
Senator takes it all, without the vague
suspicion creeping into his brain that
the debates are burlesque, and the fights a
sham, and that the Senator must be padded
For It is hardly possible that any man
could 90 through what he does in the Senate,
if ne were not padded, without feeling bruised.
But lac does not seem to.
There was one of these performances in the
Senate Oh Tuesday. Senator Teller having
casually remarked in the debate on the
Marshas bill that the Democrats had
not dared to go into the discussion
of political questions. the irrepressble
Voorhees, slipped Off his jacket and spit on
his hands and demanded to know what
subjects had been avoided by Demo-
Gratis in discussion. He was immedi-
ately enlightened. They were the Mar
shals bill, the rider to the Army
appropriation, the financial question, the tariff,
and many Others of which, as Mr.. COnkling
remarked, the brevity of life prevented an
enumeration. Indeed, when asked to name any
question of general political character which
his party had discussed or dealt with, he could
not answer. One would have supposed from
the indignant manner in which he re-
sentcd the intimatiOn that his party
had lodged political discussion, and the
boldncss OF his challenge to name any SUBJ
iect that had been avoided, that he knew
what he was talking about, and beyond any
question had his advPrsaries on the hip.
But Edmunds gave him n cuff, and Kirk
wood spun him round by the ear, and COnk-
ling tossed and tumbled him till the poor man
must have been in serious doubt whether he
was afoot or horseback. And when in q feeble
way he undertook to charge COnkling with
having concealed his views on the silver ques-
ton, the latter, after showing in q word or
two the falsity of the charge, took him up
and gave him such final shake as seemed
absolutely cruel.
Then says Voorhees, in deprecatOry tone.
quite in contrast with his opening: 1.-THE
Senator from New York knows my feel
"ings toward him are those of entire
"personal kindness, and l have no desire
"whatever to change them in that regard.
90 But at the same time don't intend that
" that side of the Chamber, led by the great
liability of the Senator from New-York,
shall put even so humble q person as my
"self in false position" SO tumble How
different that is from the bouncing way
In which he demanded to know at the begin
ming what questions had been lodged. He
got his information, and with 1t some rough
handling, and at the end of it, picking himself
out of the dust, he SAYS "Pm an tumble person,
"and don't mean to be offensive, but 1 wish to
have it understood that dare discuss any
"question that can be brought up" Well, we
arc inclined to think he would. He Is the most
reckless sort of debater. 1t does not seem
to make tho slightest dinGrence with him what
becomes of his arguments or hon severely