Year: 1870




The Cuban resolutions, the message Of the
President relative TO the subject of Cuban bel
ligerency, the passage of the Apportionment
bill in the Senate and of Garfelds Currency
bill in the House and the business-like discus
sion on the frankng privilege all combined
to render the past week in Congress one Of the
most exciting and important since the days Of
impeachment. Indeed, we do not believe
that during impeachment the specta-
tors in the Congressional galleries were
treated to such fierce and daz-
zling rencontre of oratory and eloquence,
such earnest and fiery debate, and such keen
and trenchant retort as they were treated to
on Wednesday during the discussion on the
Cuban question, or to such refreshing bur-
lesque as the inimitable Whittemore furnished
them on Saturday last, when he essayed the
character of Dazzle, in his own farce of Gar
pet-bagging Assurance. In the Senate, OF
course, everything is dull. The exciting
subject of impeachment was at times rem
dered dull by the gloomy ponderosity' OF
that body, and, if we remember rightly,
was enlivened at all only by the Old
Bailey Quips of Ben Butler, or "the
hole in the sky of Bingham, or the grim
humor of Old Thad Stevens, all members of
the House. In fact, it is never the
case that the Senate rises of itself to the height
of healthy excitement unless some irate MEM
Der canes or pistols another, and that has not
occurred since the fiery Southerners stalked
haughtily from its halls. But it has transacted
some very important business during the week
in its sullen and formal way, while the more
mercurial House has transacted equally i'm
portant work with all the glare and brilliancy
of forensic pyrotechnics.


With all this, however, the important mea-
sures alluded to are still unfinished. The
Senate has yet to act upon the Cuban resolu-
tions and Garfeld's Currency bill, while the
Franking bill has not yet passed either
branch, and the Apportionment bill must re-
turn to the lower House for agreement
with the Senate amendments. Besides,
number of appropriation bills, such as the
army, the fortifcation and the civil service
bills are YET to be considered, and number
VI OLuerS, SuCu ds tuc leBlSlatlVe luuidL, HdVai,
diplomatic and river and harbor appropriations
have not yet been fully disposed of, being
either before committees of conference or
lying wholly untouched in the Senate. Other
measures fully as important as the appropria-
ton bills are also unfinished, among them the
Internal Revenue, Tariff, Funding and Georgia
bills.


There remain only twenty-three more work.
ing days before adjournment, and it devolves
on Congress, and especially on the SEN
ate, to hurry up. Such important mat
ters as the Appropriation, Revenue,
and Currency bills should be acted upon at
once and with deliberation. They should not
be left to the reckless mercies of a WORKOUT
Congress, painting in the heat of midsummer
and the closing hours of the session, and
anxious to get away at any price. The bust
ness to be left over should be only the least
important, and as the House has so far cut out
the work pretty well, the Senate should not
lose time or spring new subjects. The aboli-
ton of the income tax, the re-admission of
Georgia and the complete eradication Of the
franking privilege are measures which Con-
gress must attend to before it can 60 back to
its constituents with clear conscience.