"I Have Yet To Learn - !" Said Indignant Members,
Stamping With Their Feet On The Floor Of The House.
One would have
said that by that time the lesson might almost have been understood.
Up to the period of this civil war Congress has certainly worked
well for the United States. It might be easy to pick holes in it;
to show that some members have been corrupt, others quarrelsome, and
others again impracticable. But when we look at the circumstances
under which it has been from year to year elected; when we remember
the position of the newly populated States from which the members
have been sent, and the absence throughout the country of that old
traditionary class of Parliament men on whom we depend in England;
when we think how recent has been the elevation in life of the
majority of those who are and must be elected, it is impossible to
deny them praise for intellect, patriotism, good sense, and
diligence. They began but sixty years ago, and for sixty years
Congress has fully answered the purpose for which it was
established. With no antecedents of grandeur, the nation, with its
Congress, has made itself one of the five great nations of the
world. And what living English politician will say even now, with
all its troubles thick upon it, that it is the smallest of the five?
When I think of this, and remember the position in Europe which an
American has been able to claim for himself, I cannot but
acknowledge that Congress on the whole has been conducted with
prudence, wisdom, and patriotism.
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