Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-02
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,.
BY Henry Cabot Lodge.
copyrighted 1890 by the Author.l

Holmes to have said that all good Amer
scans when they died went to Paris.
while they live all good Americans ought
TO go to Washington. 1t is not metrop-
nlis in the sense of London, but it is the
political center of the country and it is
the one spot in the United States where
all local feeling drops away and where
one comes in touch with the diverse in
terests and the widely varying thoughts
OF the American people. It is the best
place to get realizing sense of the
greatness of the country and its people,
and this to every thoughtful man and
woman breathes lesson of patriotism
and liberality. These ideas of the
national capital are constantly spreading
and the natural result is that the number
OF pilgrims to Washington and to Mount
Vernon is always increasing. Every one
who comes thus for the first time is taken
or goes, as a matter Of course, to see the
sights. and one OF the principal sights is
the house of representatives in the south
wing of the capitol. 1t is to be feared
that the knowledge of this great repre-
sentative BODY brought away by the
average visitor after a brief survey from
the galleries is neither very extensive nor
very accurate. If he is alone when he
first looks down upon the assembled con-
gressmen the puzzle to discover what is
being done and who is doing it must be
hopeless. If he has his representative
with him, or one of the capitol guides,
then the distinguished men on the floor
l. -E,r-,
brief explanation will be given of the
business before the hous6 at the moment;
but as to the origin, constitution or
methods Of the house, the sight-seer is as
wise as before. Yet every American
ought to know and understand some
thing of the great body which be helps to
elect, and which is supposed TO have in
its peculiar keeping the wishes and in
terests of the people.
To attempt TO convey any knowledge
of this character without dropping into
constitutional disposition Is dry as a
common school arithmetic and as COM
monplace as a spelling book is not easy.
Our friend, the capital guide, is after all
quite right in principle when be confines
himself to pointing out the distinguished
men, and lets all the rest concerning the
house 20 by, for people are moro inter-
esting than constitutional organizations,
and little gossip more entertaining than
history. DR.. Johnson said that the au-
photography of any man honestly written
would be of value, and the same might
almost be said of any biography when the
author gives the subject anything like
fair chance. Men and women never tire
OF hearing of each other even if what
they hear be trivial and IA
millar. But the keen personal in
nF in, ha
distinctly particular. When We lose
sight of the individual man and pass to
men in the aggregate or in q group, the
vitality seems to fade and the flavor loses
its pungency. Nothing, for instance,
would be easier or more interesting than
TO write about the men past and present
who have made up the house of repre-
sentstives of the United States. Even
If The present is too close to us to make it
either safe or wIse to indulge in personal
histories, those who have come and gone,
played their parts and sunk into silence,
offer an unlimited field FOR aneodote and
reflection. Great men indeed have
figured on that congressional stage, and
great scenes have there been enacted.
History opens her peep-show to all. You
have but to pay your penny and look in
at the past for as long a time as you will
look, then; it is less than a hundred
years ago and the representatives of the
American people, still wearing powdered
hair or queues, knee breeches and gilt
tering buckles, ruffles and laced coats,
are listening with bsted breath while
Fisher Ames tells them that frail as he
is he will cutlive the constitution and
liberties of his country If the Jay treaty
is not sustained. Look again; no de-
bate is now in progress, but men are
Voting nd sink
are brought in on touches to vote and
there is a strain of intense excitement
apparent on the faces of all. Mr. JEFF
ferson and Mr.. Burr have received an
equal number of votes for the highest
office in the people e gift, the choice Of
president is in the house voting by states,
and Mr.. Burr is trying to secure the
presidency and defeated the will of the
people, but is destined now as always to
a conspirator's failure. Look again;
there is Henry Clay, in the flush of his
early manhood, denouncing the Essex
Junto, or, as he called them, ''the Brit
ish pack let loose from the Essex ken
nels.' A little later and then it is
Webster pleading for liberty in Greece
and attacking the Holy alliance. Again
little later and We can see John Quincy
Adams stricken with death, falling in
the very scene Of his labors and tri-
umphs; or we can discern, moving about
among the undistiDguished crowd of
members, the tall, gsunt form of Abrs-
ham Lincoln.
1t is not, however, the province or the
purpose OF this paper to recall the great
figures and the dramatic incidents of the
house of representatives. We are here
concerned with the lower branch of con-
gress in its collective capacity and in its
much less interesting aspect as one of the
four great driving wheels which move
the vast engine known as the govern
ment of the United States. To say any
thing fresh or interesting on this subject
under these conditions seems almost
hopeless. I have been told of youth in
fashionable society in New York who
asked "what 8 senator was ''and have
myself known, not many years ago,
jealous reformer of things IN general and
of other people in particular, who ex-
pressed surprise that Rhode Island should
have as many senators as New York.
These incidents would appear to indicate
that there are persons to whom rudimen-
tary information about the senate