Year: 1878

II


nearly all the accounts Of the closing hours
of Congress--in some of them, indeed the
facts are broadly stated in the teXt-whlch
ought not to be lightly passed over 1t Is an
old story, repeated with each sessions close ana
we are so used 10 it that it has almost ceased
to shock MS. We have come to consider 1t as
very much a matter of course and to asSo-
ciate it involuntarily, from force of habit, with
tho all-night sessions, the hurly-bury haste
and confusion of the adjournment. In one form
and another it has been stated that the business
OF the closinghours of Congress. in many respects
the most important of the session, involving
interests of tremendous magnitude, pOllu-
cal and moral as we'll as material, was trans
acted by men who were in no condition TO
decide even questions of the most trifiing
moment. Many members, the most indus
tIious, intelligent and faithful, were so
worn out with watching, and weary with
continuous labor that they were really
unfit for the work they were en-
gagged in and many more were so al
fected by stimulants-in plain words, drunk
that they did not pretend to know how they
were voting, or upon what question: A
drunken rabble was legisating for forty mil
lions Of people. Yesterday and to-day
and for the next fortnight the work
of unravelling the wild tangle which
Congress left-the botch-potch and in
coherencc, the deliberately planned mischief
and the gbbering ldiocy of all this undigestcd
and indigestible-mass goes on, and nobody
knows vet or can know what the final summing
up will be. 1t Is not pleasant thing for the
thoughtful citizen 10 contemplate. And yet 1t IS
no new thing We are as familiar with 1t ms
with more than thrice-tuld tales. And we do
not conceal from ourselves the fact that III
making it a matter OF serious comment we IN
vitc the ridicule Of the optimsts for croak-
! ing nlrrOw-mindedncss


! But we presume the fact win not be denied
that there is at least possibility of peril in
| this reckless fashion of doing the business of
| the Nation. The practical question is the old
one: What are you going to do about itY"
How can it be prevented Well; one
way is PLAN enough, to wit, to send
/ ONLY sober men to Congress. SO we
might say that TO insure wise legislation
| it is necessary TO send only wise men to
] Congress. But we are not so visionary theo-
rsts as to set up any such scheme in either
case. We are not looking for the millennium at
present. We are disposed to look at this Con
ercss of the United Statcsin very nrncti"al light
as a representative body of men. We are not
expecting from them any superior wisdom or
rigid regard for morality temperance, or re-
ligion. All we can reasonably expect from
them Is that not being uncommonly
wise, they will exercise the negative
virtue Of abstaining as much as possible
from unwisdom by undertaking just as little





as possible in the way of legislation; and
that, not being abstemiOus or temperate, they
will at least refrain from what may be called
inopportne drunkenness, and remove from
before them the temptation to admins
ter great affairs or transact the Nations
business when they are drunk. This is, we
think, only a reasonable requirement We
frankly say we do not expect very much from
the average Congress. The danger from
0uackery in statesmanship, as in medicine, is
not so much in the quack's actual lack Of knowl-
edge Of what he pretends to, as in his think
ing he knows things that he doesn't know,
and presuming accordingly TO undertake en-
terprses in which he can only do mischief.
We do not expect Congressman to abstain
from getting drunk, but we do have a right
to expect and require that they shall so order
their sprees or 20 arrange the public business
that they shall not be engaged upon both at the
same time.


Had the plain provisions Of the law been
regarded by this Congress, or by Mr.. Atkins,
its chairman of the Appropriations Committee,
there would have been neither necessity nor
excuse for the disgraceful scenes which
marked the close of the session; nor would
there have been such danger of wild and
reckless, unintelligent, incOherent and waste
ful legislation as was its final outcome.
We may as well look this business squarely in
the face and not hesitate TO call things by their
right names. There is danger, great and in
creasing danger in the reckless methods OF
doing business which habitualy characterize
tbe closing hours of the session. The
country looks on Congress with bated
breath during the last two or three
days of session, and fairly shudders at the
sight of the old ship staggering along under
the management of a drunken crew. But the
people unfortunately forget it when the peril
ia passed, and Congress when il Teassembles
neglects to provide against the recur-
renee of the danger And so we go on
from bad to worse, and some time there will
be bad ending of it all if reform is not
effected We are not radical or fanatical IN
the matter. We do not mean this rs a
temperance lecture. If Congressman desire
to get drunk, and feel that they must
get drunk, we are not now raising any
objection TO it. All that we are saying is, that
when they get drunk they ought to go some
where and sleep it off, and not undertake, in
that condition, to transact business for forty
million people.


DIPLOMACY.


| Ono Of tha Rnssinn fnlK-snYinos r11ns % IL