Year: 1866

position to the resolution:


a. MIR. President: 1t was once said that
there are as many minds as men, and there
is no end of wrangling 1 had occasion
some years ago to discourse with reverend
Doctor Of Divinity from the State which has
had the honor to be the birthplace. | think,
of the present President of this body (Con-
necticut). While | was discoursing with
him, lot of vile rapscallions invited me to
join them at the bar | declined out Of re
spect TO the reverend gentlemen in whose
company | then was. As soon the occa
sion had passed. | remarked to the reverend
Doctor - Do not understand that declined
to 90 and Join these young men at the bar
because | have an objection to that thing,
for it is my habit to drink always in front
and not behind the door lie looked at
me with certain degree Of interrogation
| then asked him Doctor what was the
first miracle wrought by our great Master!'
He hesiiated. and | said to him. Was 1t
not at Cana in Ga lice, where be converted
the water into wine at the marriage feast?
/ asked him then, After the ark had float
ed in the tempestuous seas forty days and
forty nights, and as it descended upon the
dry land. what was the first thing done bv
Father Noah? He did not know that
exactly. Well, said |. Did he not plant
a vine?' Yes. he remembered it then.


asked him: Do you remember any
great poet that ever illustrated the higher
fields of humanity that did not dignity the
use of wine, from Homer down? p He did
not. | asked Do you know of any great
philosopher that did not use it for the exal
tation of his intelligence Do. you think
that man who lived upon pork and beef
,,I a ,lo
regions--nto the ETHEREAL? Mo- he must
take nectar on high Olympus, and mighty
mead in Valhala' | said to him again =
Doctor. you are a scholarly man of course
"a Doctor of Divinity-a graduate Of Yale
do you remember Plato's Symposium ?'-
Yes he remembered that. | referred him to
the occasion when Agatha. having won the
prize of tragedy at the Olympic Games at
Corinth, on coming back to Athens was
feted by the nobility aod arstocracy Of that
city-for it was a proud triumph to Athens
to win the prize of tragedy. They got to
gether at the house Of Phedrus, and they
said Now we have been every night for
these last six nights drunk let US be sober
tonight, and we will start "A me'-which
they passed around the table as the sun goes
around-or as they drank their wine-or as
men tell story. They started a theme, and
the theme was love-not love in the vulgar
sense. but in its high sense-love of all that
is beautiful. After they had gone through.
and after the true and beautiful in came
Alcibiades with drunken body of Athenian
BOYS, with garlands to crown Agatha and
crown old Socrates; and they said to
those assembled This will not do; we
have been drinking and you have not, and
after Alcbiades had made his talk in pur
suance of the argument in which he under
took to dignity Socrates | remember it,
they required, after the party had agreed to
drink (it being quite late in the evening, and
they had finished their business in the
way Of discussion), that Socrates should
drink two measures for every other mans
one, because he was better able to stand it.
And so one after another they were laid
down On the lounges in the Aihenan style,
all exert an old person named Aristodemus
land Plato makes him the hardest headed
fellow except Sacrate,). He and Socrates
stuck at it until the gray of the morning.
and then Socrates took his bath and went
down to the Groves and talked academic
knowledge After citing this incident said
ia this divine Do you remember that Lord
Bacon said that a man should ret drunk at
least once a MONTH and that Montaigne. the





tion p do these exhaiations buoy US up
above tie common measure of the brute
wine and oil-eievate us-enable US t. seize
great facts inspirations which once possess
ed are ours forever. and those who never
get beyond the mere beastly means of animal
support, never live in the high planes of
life and cannot achieve them? | believe in
women. wine, whisky and war. Let me
add, that the Reverend Doctor said to me,
well, General. you right; but | can't
afford say it, y


Mr.. Wilson addressed the Senate as fol-
lows:


Mr. President: desire to pass the res
olntion We had here last year. | believe, a
shop for the sale of whisky, and under
stand that there are two in the Capitol now.
but not at this end of it, | think it bad
enough to bring liquor here in any form,
whether it comes in the Committee rooms, or
whether it comes in the form suggested some
time ago by the Senator from Oregon Mr..
Nesmith). when he spoke of some persons
who had great capacity TO throw Themselves
on the outside of quart of whisky. We
all know that in our day old Bourbon had
about as much inspiration as gin had in the
DAYS of Byron | think, too, Legislators of
this country can discharge their duties quite
respectfully without wor~hipng at that
shrine. especially in the Capitol of our coun-
try. If they choose to do it. think they
had better do it away from the Capitol and
public grounds | hope that the Commits
sioner who has charge of this building Will
see to it that the Capitol is no longer dis
graced by the sale OF these articles; and If
they are brought here las | understand they
have been in times past by officers of the
Senate, and by others connected with the
Senate and House of Representatives. and
kept in the Committee rooms and given away
land understand that within the last three
years boys employed in the public service
here have been taxed to pay for liquor that
members Of Congress have drank. | think
it is time to put an end to such things.
am content for one that we should not have
the mighty inspiration Of old Bourbon, or
gin. or w ne, or any of these things that take
mortals to the skies Let US be content to
legislate as plain. practical public men, and
leave the inspiration t. Others


Senators Grimes Hendricks, Clark. Con-
ness and TrVmbull advocated the passage of
the resolution. and Conness declared in the
course OF his remarks tnat there can be no
greater disgrace before God and man than
persons sent here 10 make laws for a nation
ooasting high civilization appearing in a
State OF IntoxIeation. This his colleague
evidently regarded as personal. and he re-
piled.


WORRYING lNeERriruDE.-A good lookino
younC woman was hefnra a ID H.: n