The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-02-23
CHANGES IN CONGRESS.
When the Present Session Closes
Many will co Out.
LCorrespondence Of the Press.

Correspondence OF the Press.]
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.-two weeks
hence this congress win expire, and
wholesale exodus of statesmen Will &C.
eur. Some of those who go will never re-
turn, while others may sooner or later be
seen in their old seats. One of the in
teresting phases of life in Washington
Is this procession of coming and going
statesmen, this feeting show of am
oition gratifed and pride humbled. rev
men have been so great or strong as to
be safe from the assaults of rivals or the
changes of public opinion. There are
examples in our history of popularity
which never waned, and which was
strong and steady enough to give its
happy possessors life leases of congress
sional seats
But such instances are rare, and every
other March brings to our view in the
house and senate large number of men
long familiar to the public eye standing
gripsack in hand, railroad tickets in their
pockets, ready to return to their homes
and private life. Never before was there
such large number of retiring members
of the house-175, or more than one-half
of the total number of representatives,
dropping out at the end of this congress.
In the senate there are many to go, but
not so many as on other similar occa-
Eons. Twelve senators retire March 4.
They are Blair of New Hampshire, Evarts
of New York, Hampton of South Caro-
lima, Brown of Georgia, Eustis of Loui-
Biana, Payne of Ohio, Farwen of Hi
nois, Spooner of Wisconsin, Moody of
South Dakota, Pierce of North Dakota,
Mcconnell of Idaho, and ingalls, of Kan
sas.
A greater number of senators have left
the chamber in a single day in the past,
but it is said that the ancient and honor
able body never lost so many of its prom
inent and able members at one fell
swoop. In one group we see four fa-
nous oldmen-Payne, Hampton. Evarts,
Brown Their combined age is 297
years. Mr.. Payne at 81 is a lively old
gentleman. Itwas nearly sixty years ago
that he began the practice of law. He
is one of the few men that have sat six
years in congress without making
speech. But if Mr.. Payne has not
shone as debater he has been good
listener
No senator has been in more constant
attendance than he, and while in the
chamber he likes nothing better than to
sit in his chair an intent and alert OBJ
server of the proceedings. In Wade
Hampton and William Maxwell Evarts
the public service loses two of its great
est and most interesting figures. Each
is 70 years old, and Mr.. Evarts will in a
few days celebrate the fftieth anniver-
sary of his admission to the bar. What
a distinguished career is now to be
brought to close! Ealf century,
nearly, one of the foremost lawyers of
his time, attorney general of the United
States, counsel for President johnson in
the famous Impeachment trial, counsel
before the Geneva claims tribunal,
counsel for President Hayes before the
electoral commission, of which his friend
and retiring brother senator, Mr.. Payne,
was member, secretary of state and
senator.
Mr.. Brown, at 70, is the youngest of
the quartet, though the Oldest in ap-
pearance. He has not been in his seat
this winter, but is said to be as active as
ever in business. 1t is nearly thirty-five
years since he was elected governor of
his state, and he has been prominent be-
fore the public eye ever since. One of
the condolences of thisever coming and
going procession of public men is found
in the fact that Governor Brown sue
ceeded Gen. Gordon eleven years ago,
and now Gen. Gordon succeeds Gov
ernor Brown.
In ingalls, and Eustis the senate loses
two of its greatest orators and most in
teresting characters. No man in con-
gress has been more talked, written and
gossiped about during the past ten or
twelve years than John James Ingalls,.
His quaint figure, his ststuesque man.
ners, his rhetoric, his wat have moved
many tongues and pens. What the news
paper writers viii do without Ingalls,,
at whom shall the Capitol guides point
the gaze of their customer, the curious
stranger, are conundrums of the hour.
Minus Ingalls, the senate will lose much
of its attractiveness, and the scribes are
hoping his successor, Judge PETER, will
prove to be as interesting in his way as
the departing senator. Ingalls, has been
eighteen years in the senate, and he and
Samuel G. Pomeroy, his predecessor,
filed one seat during the entire thirty
years that have elapsed since Kansas
was admitted to the Union.
Another picturesque figure soon to de-
part is that of Mr.. Blair. With all his
peculiarities, more earnest, conscien-
tious man never sat in the senate. Mr..
Blair leaves the senate even poorer in
purse than when he came to it, twelve
years ago, practically without dollar
in the world. Could one leave a better
record behind him? In these twelve
years Mr.. Blair has introduced more
bills, made more speeches, filed a great
er number of pages of The Congressional
Record than any of his colleagues. His
industry has been marvellous. He has
also suffered the greatest disappoint-
ments. Few if any of his plans for the
amelioration of the evils which beset
the human race have found their way to
the statutes, and the final defeat of his
great educational bill, after ten years of
labor and advocacy such as no other
measure in congress ever had from its
devoted author, was a twentyfold harder
blow to Mr.. Blair than his failure to win
reelection.
In Mr.. Eustis the senate loses not only
an orator of great power, but one of its
most popular members and its finest
French scholar. Mr.. Eustis can speak
just as eloquently in French as in En-
glish, and he is, perhaps, the only man
now In public life who subscribes for and
reads the leading Partisan magazines and
reviews, and who makes an effort to
keep up" with current French litera-
ture. Senator Eustis has been noted as
the best natured and most indolent man
In congress. 81 plead guilty." he said
the other day, "to the first part of the
indictment, but not to the latter. At
any rate, am not so lazy as to preclude
my going back to Louisiana and hustling
for seat in the house of representa-
tives." This will not be the first time
Mr.. Eustis has retired from the senate,
and his friends say it will not be the
last.
Another popular man whose departure
is generally regretted is Mr.. Spooner.
There seems to be something in ex-
tremes of physical proportions which
conduce to good nature and the popu-
larity which attends upon it, for Spooner
is the smallest man in the senate and