The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-05-13
AN HISTORIC CONGRESS-.
Closing Scene of the Thirty-third
Congress The 18irthnight of the
Republican PATTY.
From the National Republicau. !,

FROM the Nauonal hepuDncan-1
The recording angel over the all clock
of the old House of Represent ives new
er entered on her dusty record of Con-
gressional events more notable or i'm
pressive scene than was witnessed there
on the night and morning of the 4th of
March, 1856. The rhirty-third Con-
gress of the United States was drawing
rapidly to close. Great events were
staring the nation in the face. The old
Democratic party, that SO long welded
absolute sway over the destinies of the
republic, was silently melting away be-
fore the grand influences of that mighty
wave of human freedom and ma
tional intelligence. On that night the
great Democratic party held its final
levee to the world. On that night
North and South shook hands and part
ed, never more to meet as friends. It is
just d quarter Of a Century since we
stood in the ladies' gallery, looking
down at the sea of heads that moved
restlessly to and fro over the carpeted
floor, and heard the echoing voices of
the speakers, as they pressed successive
ly each amendment of the Civil and Dip
lomatic bill, occasionally pausing to en-
ter inte rambling discussion that was
soon checked by the presiding officer.
Let us return to the old House and
glance retrospectively as it appeared
on that 4th of March, 1866. The scene
is an imposing one-the brilliantly
lighted hall. the galleries on both sides
crowded to suffocation by an immense
army Of femininities, and the noise and
confusion on the floor of Congress
reminds one of party caucus rather
than dignified body of our nations
Legislators. South Carolina, spurred
and boht1eted for secession, has her fit
representatives in Preston s. Brooks and
Lawrence M. Keitt They are convers-
ing earnestly together, while John G.
Breckenridge, negligently reclining in
his chair, is ~athetically sharpening hi
pocket penknife on mis- boot-heel. VIM.
FL. English, with no ambitious dreams
Of the Vice Presidency, is writing let
ter, apparently to his constituents, while
Thomas A. Hendricks, undisturbed by
the phantom of Tilden, is gazing on
the scene, the picture of dignifed seren-
ity. Calvin NJ. 1ngersoll is laughing at
the wit Of some brother member, while
extra Billy Smith is DOING quietly in
his armchair. Tom Benton, the
venerable ex-senator, is engaged in
an exciting colloquy with an Ohio
Representative about poor, slandered,
detained Fremont, and Hon. Caleb Ly-
ON, of Lyondale, the literary represent
alive of the House, is indicating the
claim of Brown, the dragoman of Tur-
key, to extra compensation. Here are
seores OF Legislators, who year after-ye
have taken seat, that ATE gazing for
the last time on session of the United
States Congress here are men SO insig-
nihcant as scarcely to deserve passing
notice, that, as years wing their way
viii be the exposure of admiring eyes
and the theme of newspaper praise and
comment. Standing near the hoary
Kentuckian, Lynus Boyd, is young
man, a few years back humble opera
tor in the mills Of Waltham, Mass, and
now Representative from his district,
whose name, ere long, will be re-echoed
from mouth to mouth as the first
Republican Speaker, young Nathaniel P.
Banks. There, too, is old Joshua Gid
dings, the lone star of abolition, whose
stalwart form and hair, silvered with the
breath of time, was always seen in the
front of political battle as the tried ard
faithful friend of constitutional liberty.
The able and accomplished Richard
Yates, afterward Senator and Governor
of his native State, and Francis b. Cut
ting, with his tall, commanding figure
and aristocratic address, are both men
of note, though destined to be pushed
into political oblivion by advancing
time. There is the little consequential
Charles J. Faulkner, of Virginia, with
his choleric son-in-law, Bocock,
full of wine and wit, and cratic
Judge Caskie, of Richmond, the incarna-
ton of Southern suavity and deceit.
Prominent among the representatives of
the slave power is a pale, thin, boyish-
looking man, on whose thoughtful, anx-
ious face is imprinted the plain, legible
history Of the future. Alexander FL.
Stephens, who twenty-five years after
was to be wheeled into the House of
Representatives the only-remaining sur
vivor of the mutations of q quarter
century's time. Cool end wary in coun-
Gil, fearless in debate, sarcastic in scorn
and bitter in recrimination, no man in
public or private life was to be more ex-
ecrated or more beloved.
There Is another member, eating an
apple-a coarse, large-eyebrowed man,
somewhat inclined to corpulency, whose
history might make capital romance.
John D. Maky, of Wisconsin, five years
before had visited Washington as a
humble lobbyist, and, while staring from
behind the green curtain that separated
him from the sacred floor, formed the
determination of obtaining seat in
Congress. Emigrating to Wisconsin
/ then almost a wilderness-he ingra-
tiated himself with the country people,
and by the iudicious exercise of those
potent influences familiar only to I'M
scrupulous politicians was elected to
the coveted position. Defeated for re-
election by Joseph Billinhurst, he was
now serving his last term in the Thirty
third Congress and forever bidding adieu
to the honors and emoluments of official
station. Thomas Fl. Benton, who had
been thirty years in the United States
Senate, and remorselessly deprived Of a
seat he had so long and ably filed by a
formidable faction of his own party, had
secured d vacant chair in the House, and
was with the & Coming morrow to retire,
the last glimpse of the old scenes van
fishing from his sight.
Let us not forget III this brief record
the brilliant, accomplished, but un-
fortunate Mike Walsh, who, like others,
had failed to obtain denomination, and
was drifting out with the receding tide,
a few years thereafter to be found cold
and ifeless, In an obscure alley in one
of the lowest sections in New York city.
We shall never forget the sallies of his
pungent humor, his cheerful voice, his
eloquence, and his wit. Poor Mike
His only fault was the social glass. He
was a good fellow and deserved better
fate. But among all the moving, rest
less forms of these 160-odd members
there is one whom few knows silent,
grave, long nosed man, with a cunning
eye, almost piercing In brightness, a
parsonage hardly known beyond his