Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/191

 CONGRESSIONAL PAPERS.— ILLUSIONS DISPELLED.

��177

��CONGRESSIONAL PAPERS, No. 4.— ILLUSIONS DISPELLED.

��BY G. H. JENNESS.

��Many erroneous ideas prevail con- cerning congress, among those not familiar with its interior workings. The newspaper, that omnipresent vehicle of modern intelligence, fails to delineate all the peculiar phases of our American parliament. Even the Congressional Record itself, which is supposed to be an exact official record of proceedings, is also made to convey a harmless de- ception by its burden of long-winded speeches that were never delivered. Take a case in point. The "Record" of the forty-fifth congress, second ses- sion, contains many very able speeches upon American finance, purporting to be the extemporaneous eloquence of approval, disapproval, or indignation generated by the president's veto of the silver bill. The actual delivery of those speeches would have occupied one or more of the entire daily sessions of the house. As it was, the ■ bill was passed in both branches of congress, and became a law in spite of the pres- ident's veto in less than four hours af- ter it left the White House, all debate being cut off in the house by Mr. Alexander H. Stephens' demand for the previous question. "Leave to print" is the mysterious process by which this feat of parliamentary legerdemain is accomplished. The advantages of the plan are obvious. It affords time for preparation, relieves the listeners and avoids the pangs of delivery. It also conveys to the honorable member's constituents the pleasing delusion, that, in times of great public emergency,' the honorable member aforesaid is at his post, flinging his eloquence into the congres- sional arena, and fiercely gesticulating to the admiring crowds who listen with breathless attention to his impassioned oratory. The local newspaper takes up the theme, and with the Congres-

��sional Record for a breastwork, marks out a campaign, throws up the lines of defense, and challenges the political enemy to prove that the failure to re- elect the author of so much extempo- raneous ( ?) eloquence would not be a national calamity, and perhaps imperil the very existence of the government itself.

Another safety valve for the escape of congressional eloquence when it reaches the danger line, is the Saturday session, and an occasional evening ses- sion "for debate only." At these mo- mentous gatherings the audience upon the floor of the house numbers from three to twenty-five, the latter, in con- gressional parlance, being considered "a good house." The best speakers , on either side never resort to this method of firing the hearts of their constituents, for it is considered a great waste of the raw material. Banks, Butler, Garfield Hale, Frye, Kelley, Cox, Blackburn, Tucker, Gibson, Cly- mer, and McMahon, are never found talking to empty benches and galleries, but carefully husband their resources for the "field days" that seldom come unannounced. A judicious expendi- ture of printer's ink generally conveys to an anxious and expectant public the intelligence that "something is up" in the house at the proper time before that "something" occurs. There are exceptions to this, as, for instance, when some unguarded "hit" brings on a running debate, in which the heavy artillery are compelled to take the field, even if not rewarded by the smiles and plaudits of "fair women and brave men" in the gallery. The few men who command the attention of the house, or the country, are alternately praised and abused by the press, and their names perpetually paraded before

�� �