The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper CorrespondentBriggs, Emily Edson
History
The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent
Briggs, Emily Edson
United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933; Washington (D.C.) -- History
About the audience that listened to Senators Schurz and Morton.
There was a large delegation from the House, composed of those who
have apparently taken the deepest hold of the slippery question of
finance. Benjamin Butler was there, flushed, worried, and apparently
somewhat worn in his encounter with the committee of Boston,
Massachusetts.
He had just had a conference with them in regard to the collectorship
of Boston in his committee room, and told them “hands off,” and yet
he was not happy. They, too, had come over from the House to listen;
sharp, keen Puritans, determined as so many bloodhounds. But the
nation realizes that when Massachusetts is torn by her own intestine
broils the rest of the world is safe, the Centennial will flourish,
and no possible harm can follow.
Few men have attracted the notice of the Senate and secured that
close attention as did Carl Schurz in his effort of yesterday. Even
Senator Sumner laid aside his pen and pushed back his large pile
of papers, apparently giving himself up to the fascination of the
hour. Senator Mitchell, of Oregon, sat leaning back upon a sofa in
a distant corner. He had resigned his Senatorial seat for the time
to benefit a prominent member of Congress. As he appeared, with the
gorgeous walls of the Senate for a background, no finer picture
could be found for an artist’s copy. Tall, elegant, and graceful,
with a singular purity of complexion, his head crowned by a glory
of chestnut hair, such as the ancient painters used to delight to
transfer to their canvas, large deep blue eyes, such as Raphael gave
his Madonnas. “Fell into trouble with women,” said the newspapers.
Will water fall when the clouds are moist? Will labor seek the
neighborhood of capital? Alas! Will a duck swim? Senator Mitchell is
not to blame because he is the handsomest specimen in the Senate. He
did not make himself. Suppose he made mistakes or committed mischief
before the sense of right and justice was crystallized in his mind?
Who knows anything about the temptations placed before Adonis? What
did Adam do when Eve gave him the apple and told him it would do
him good? It is true the Oregon legislature have never discussed
the subject of apples, but they sent Senator Mitchell back indorsed
by the highest authority of the State, and he has only to take hold
of legislation with heart and soul, and live the same pure and
consistent life that he has in the last few years, and the country
will honor him as one of her most distinguished sons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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