The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1894-09-05
THE SENATE IN JAcKSON's TIME.
A Long List of Nobodies to Prove that
Nobodies are Not Peculiar to the Sem
ate at the Present Day.
Hartford Courant.

editor of the New York Christian Ad-
vocate this week is the alleged deteri-
oation of the Senate. He reminds his
readers thai in the great days, SO call
ed, the Senate was much smaller
body than it is at present, the art OF
stenographic reporting was in its in
fancy, and the reading Of a speech from
the manuscript was very unusual
thing. He might have added that
when Seaator-Mr. Calhoun, for in
stance-wrote out what he had to say
on an important occasion, the reading
was usually prefaced with an explana-
tion in the nature Of an apology. The
editor continues :
SIN comparing the Senate with the
days Of Calhoun, Webster and Clay to
the disadvantage of the present, these
things should be remembered. These
men and one or two others lowered as
far above the average Of the Senate as
the White Mountains do above the
lakes and valleys at their feet, 4 .
There is reason to believe that the
bulk of the Senate to-day, in point OF
brain and requirements, compares well
with nine-tenths Of it in the best days
of the Republic"
At a time when 80 much ignorant
nonsense about the ''decadence" of the
Senate is getting into print an article
of this rational quality in paper so
widely circulated as the Christian Adj
vocate is a public service. A great
many busy people, without the time
or the facilities for investigating the
matter for themselves and taking a
thing often and vehemently asserted
for a thing proved, really believe that
the Senate used to be an assembly Of
intellectual giants and is now an assem-
bly, of intellectual pigmies. Yet there
could be no greater delnsion.
Let us make brief excursion back
into those alleged palmy days of the
Senate-the "great days." and see
what we find. The time Is sixty years
ago. Andrew Jackson. is President.
Martin Van Buren is Vice President.
Daniel Webster, John G. Calhoun and
Henry Clay are in the chamber. Their
names have been "Writ large" upon
the pages of American history. How.
about the names of their colleagues? ?
Beside Webster sat Nathaniel Siisbee;
beside Calhoun, William G. Preston;
beside Clay, George M. Bibb. How
many readers of The Courant feel
themselves equal to the task of giving,
off hand, an account of the lives and
public services of Messrs. Silsbee,
Preston and Bib?
Sixty years ago this summer Con-
necticut was represented in the Senate
by Gideon Tomlinson ard Nathan
Smith-worthy men and useful public
Servants, but certainly neither worthier
nor more useful than many Of
their successors in that body. Call
the roll of the remaining New
England Senator's in the 23d Con
gress Pelig Sprague, Ether =Shep-
ley, Samuel Bell, Isaac Hill, Ne
hemiah r. Knight, Asher. Robbins,
Samuel Prentis, Benjamin Swift:
How many readers can even assign
these gentlemen correctly to their res
pectiye Statess They played their
minor parts creditably uponStbe stage,
butthere was but one Daniel Webster
in the cast. -.
How about the Senators from the
old Middle States, the South and the
West? Some of the names linger in
the memory of the gray-haired reader.
They are familiar as names to we'll
read Americans Of the younger genera
ton. Silas Wright, Theodore Ere
linghuysen, John NJ. Clayton, John
Tyler, William c.. Rives, Thomas Ew-
ing, William r. King, Thomas q.
Benton-that comes very near to ex-
hausting the list, and there are men 10
the Senate to-day who are at least the
peers, Intellectually and morally, OF
the best Of them.
Associated with these men in that
Senate of Andrew Jackson's day were
N. P. Tallmadge, s. L. Southland, VIII
liam Wilkins, Samuel Mexican, Ar
mold Naudain, Ezekiel F. Chambers,
Joseph Kent, Bedford Brown, w. z.
Mangum, John Forsyth, John P.
King, Felix Grundy, Hugh L. White,
Thomas Morris, 6. a. Waggaman,
Alexander Porter, William Hendricks,
Joha Upton, George Poindexter, John
Black, Elias z. Kane, John NJ. Robin
son, Gabriel Moore and Lewis +.
Linn. Here are twenty-four Senators
who had achieved distinction in the
OplL6u StaCSS O3~S4Z1<S y Se1A'-eseaO. ~'AS..AAy
of them had served their country. with
credit in war and peace. Some of them
still live in the remembrance of their
respective States, and have given
names to counties and towns. Manguno
has been embaimed in Lowelps verse.
But to the ordinary American, who
has not made special study of polltl-
cal history, what do the names OF these
dead and gone Senators mean? What
do they recall? What chance would
be have of passing with success an i'm
promptu examination, oral or written,
with regard to them? Yet they were
all Senators of the sgreat days." They
were contemporaries Of Webster, Cal
houn aad Clay, sitting beside them IN
the chamber doing their full share OF
the committee wolk and the speech
making.
In other words, the notion that at
one time the Senate was composed en-
tirely of Websters, Calhouns and Clays
is not borne out by the facts.