Year: 1879

The New Senators, williams, Vance,


Vest and sOnas-The Republicans


as Minority.


Especial Correspondence OF the Democrat


WASHINGTON, March 27. 1879.


There is no mistakng the temper In which
the Radicals, after eighteen years OF power, en-
ter upon the disagreeable Office OF an opposi-
tion minority in the Legislative branch OF the |
government. 1t Is the temper OF men who
regard themselves as having been deprived
OF rights and powers that are prescriptlve,
II not hereditary, who feel and mean to as
sert that, although in a minority as to votes,
they represent the preponderance Of power in |
every other respect, and who are determined |
by every possible device and upon every i'm |
aginable pretext to bully, browbeat and bluff |
the majority They feel and say without the |
least reserve that, though the numerical SUI |
premacy Is gone from them, they still hold
and intend to employ to the utmost, and by
the EXTREMIST methods, the preponderance Of
legislative experience, intellectual fertility,
controversial tact and vigor OF debate; that
they will lose no opportunity to harass, exas-
perate, bedevil, taunt or satirize the majority;
that, in short, they will, from now until 1880,
turn the deliberations of the House and Sen
ate into intellectual bull fights, in which the
majority shall play the bull, and themselves
figure as picadores, matadors and the like.


This take it will be proven by events to
have been a fair forecast of the situation. At
all events the Republicans, either in public or
in private, do not conceal their designs, nor
are the Democrats deceived. In fact there
seems to be general agreement on all hands
that


| THE MINORITY
| is to do its very worst at all times and under
all circumstances, while the majority is to
make the best compromise it can between It's
responsibilities and its disadvantages.
| watched with more interest than | ever
felt in any other spectacle


THE REORGANIZATION OF THE SENATE
as Democratic body last Tuesday. The
transfer of power which / saw take place In
| the House four years ago next December was
by no means parallel to 1t. The transfer OF
power in the House at that time was marked
by none of the peculiar features Of signifl-
canoe that distinguished the event under con-
sidpration. The Democratic House of 1875
was an unexpected result OF phenomenal
tidal wave, and nobody could tell whether 1t





a new epoch. But the change OF hands In
the Senate the other day was different
affair. Whatever may have been the nature
Of the reflections suggested by the scene in
the House four years ago, there was but one
impression to he derived from the mien and
manner with which the Democrats stalked to
the front in the Senate last Tuesday, and that
was that


| THEY HAD COME TO STAY.
/ There was notable plenty of new men.
The old "war horses" were all there but the
curiosity of the galleries and the interest of
the country centred on the nine new men who
had come In to turn the scales OF the new and,
let US trust, better regime. With one or two
exceptions they were men whose names are
almost as new to the sort of fame a seat In the
Senate gives as their faces were strange to the
habitues OF the galleries and the waiting
rooms.


There was


WILLIAMS, OF KENTUCKY,


towering up six feet three, straight as when
he led his riflemen up the brushy steep sides
of Cerro Gordo, and beaming from every fea
ture Of his handsome face with the native
kindness and gentleness that give him suct
a hold upon the chivalric heart OF the State
he represents. Williams is not merely
magnificent in form and imposing IL
presence, but he bears himself with that
massive grace and that frank ease which be
speak the sense and self-esteem OF mint
strong, hale and hearty as the physique
which 1t vitalizes. Kentucky need never gt
out ransacking for fit or typical representa-
tive Of her robust rollicking civilization while
Cerro Gordo Williams lives. He will make
his way in that body as he has done every
where else, by frank honesty, straight for
ward truth and sturdy hard knocks.


Then came


FARLEY, OF CALIFORNIA,
veritable grizzly OF forty-nine. Farleyt
ensemble is that of man who finds the after
noon of life calmer and pleasanter than tn
morning was; as II the forenoon OF his day
had been full Of bad weather and bad road
to travel. That pioneer life of California has
stamped all those who came under its infu
ences beyond mistake. There is no class o
men in this country so distinctively marked
with the impress of peculiar circumstance:
as are the forty-niners Of the Pacific slope
and Farley is forty-niner from top to toe
| SCI LllIu diOBRSllt Vi w IIlldiilS DpNdu5t
, represents perfectly the peculiarities Of tht
local type in his place; what the one is tc
Kentucky the other is to California-racy Of
the soil.


} Next Vest


GEORGE VEST, OF MISSOURI
claimed the attention of the loekers-on.
say George with particular emphasis, because
that is the name first learned to know him
: by. will soon get acclimated to his title OF
Senator, grave and reverend. Fancy short


heavy set man-say five feet seven, and lot
, pounds-a round head covered with dark red
wiry hair streaked bit here and there with
iron-gray, and cropped close; a face In which
the incisiveness of the small, pointed nose,
; the pluck OF the bulldog chin and lower jaw,


the benevolence of the wide, full-templed
.. forehead, and the humor OF the twinkling