The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-04-02

HRS, the JULIUS SEEbIS, VINO nave adorned
our great universities m colleges, and to
whom thousands and thousands of our lead.
ing men In public life ave owed what is
best in their training and accomplishments.
We should consider, the Senator warns us,
how much Of the d~isparagement Of the SEN
ate comes from men who judge quite rs
harshly of all other American institu-
tions, OF all American history, and of
the great characters Of that history, both
past and present. To men of this tenn.
per, 80 numerous nowadays, nothing
seems to be worthy Of respect. Mr.. HoAR
submits that 1.-the fault Is with the
critic, and not with the institution or the
history. No man is a hero to his valet
the reason is not that the quality of the
hero will not bear close inspection, but that
the valet Ia of such quality himself as not
to recognize greatness. The history Of no
people is heroicnl to It's Mugwumps."
What Is Mr.. HoAR's own testimony regard
ing the present character of the United
States Senate, a testimony based not only
on prolonged personal experience, and on a
competence to judge at least the equal of
that possessed by any of the Senate's as
sa~ilants7 He does not, indeed, assert that
NV upper hOuoo u SohSACoo 10 " pOihOSe,
but he AYERS that, far from degenerating,
1t represents an immense improvement
upon what it was In the past. 1--WE have
right to say" he declares, =" that the evil
influences Of the lobby and legislation for
private and not public ends" which once
betrayed themselves Gin the atmosphere
of the Senate chamber n in it's
corridors, are all gone to-day. We have .
right to say that drunkenness, which ex-
listed when I first entered public life, is not
known there to-day, and that Senators no
longer bring whiskey-soaked brains to
meet the high demands Of the public SER
vice." Mr.. HoAR goes on to point out that
the use Of Executive patronage for the per-
sonal advancement of Senators has gone
by: "We have a right to say, ALSO" he
, continues, "that II important legislation
demanded for the public welfare is now
often defeated by obstructive measures,
! or prolonged and needless debate, on the
other hand, during the eighty years while
slavery ruled, such legislation was not even
introduced, and its chances were not worth
considering. We have a right to say that
the work that Senator'S now give to the
public service Is a constant hard work,
"hiSl "oo Ia SithCA houoS u
Congress save to a very few persons fifty
years ago." The further fact is noted that
formerly men who belonged to the minority
were not permitted to share even in the or
binary routine business of legislation. 1t
was considered almost an audacity in
earlier days for one of them to move to ad-
journ. LEVI LINCOLN told Mr.. HoAR that
his time, when he was a Wing member of
Congress, hung heavily on his hands, and
that neither he nor any Of his Wing col
leagues was permitted to take the slightest
part in the duties of law making.
When Mr.. HoAR contrasts the facts of
history with the ignorance Of them dis
played by the Senate's traducers, he is
swept into an outburst Of scorn and indig-
nation. "Talk of the degeneracy of the
Senate r he says, "to men who remember
the time when q Vice-President was inau-
gurated in a state of maudlin intoxication;
or the earlier date when FooTE uttered in
debate the threat to HALE that he should
be hung on the tallest tree in the forest If
he should come to Mississippi; when the
same man drew his pistol on BENTON in the
Senate chamber; when BUTLER poured out
his loose expectoration and MASON gave
exhibitions of his arrogant plantation
manners; when SUMNER likened DoUa-
LAS to the noisome, squat and nameless
animal who switched his tongue and
filled the Senate with an offensive
odor; and when SUMNER himself was
stricken down in the Senate chamber by a
rufian's bludgeon with fellow Senators
looking on approvingly." Drawing again
on his personal experience, Mr.. HoAR calls
to mind the fact that in 1875, in the Bel
KNAPP trial, 1t became his duty to point ont
to the Senate, then sitting as o court Of i'm
parchment, the corruption which had
grown up In the country during and after
the war. He averred at the same time that,
although all that he had said was true,
he believed that the amount of this
evil had been greater, not only in pro-
portion but actually, during the first
sixteen years Of the Government under
the Constitution than 1t was during Gen.
GRANTS Administration. The grounds for
this belief he undertook to put together,
and set forth in a public speech which he
delivered in the House Of Representatives
on Aug. 8, 1875. The evil to which he then
adverted as having existed from the outset
of the Government, n as existing with
especial flagrancy during the years follow
ing the civil war, has now, he declares,
been almost cured, 80 far as national pol
itics is concerned, by an aroused and intel
ligent public sentiment.
Mr.. HoAR says, lastly, and his critics
may be challenged to contradict him, that
the Senate contributes as large a part to
the legislation of the country to-day as It
has lone at any period of our history. He
believes this legislation to be better done
than ever before. He believes, too, that
the people as a whole are better, happier,
more prosperous than they ever were be-
fore and that the two houses of Congress
represent what is best in the character of
the people now as much as they ever did.
In Crete.
The h~eliograph letter of Col. VAssos to
King GEORGE lets some light on the situa-