LOCATIONS OF THE MEMBERS AND CAST OF THE COMMITTEES.
Importance of surroundings -- Members sometimes referred to
by their seats -- Senator Andrew Johnson -- Seating of the
Senators -- Drawing in the House -- The Senate-chamber as
seen from the Gallery -- Distinguished Senators -- The House
of Representatives -- Some prominent characters --
Importance of Committees -- Difficulty in their appointment
-- Important Senate Committees -- Committees of the House.
The localities and surroundings of men have an influence on their
actions and opinions. A matter which, to the casual observer, seems so
unimportant as the selection and arrangement of the seats of Senators
and Representatives, has its influence upon the legislation of the
country. Ever since parties have had an existence, it has been
considered of vital moment that those of one political faith in a
deliberative body should occupy, as nearly as possible, the same
locality.
It is sometimes of service to a reader, in attempting to understand
the reported proceedings of Congress, to know the localities of the
members. Each seat has a sort of history of its own, and becomes in
some way identified with its occupant. Members are frequently alluded
to in connection with the seats they occupy. Sometimes it happens
that, years after a man has gone from Congress, it is convenient and
suggestive to refer to him by his old place in the chamber. As an
illustration, Mr. Trumbull, in his speech on the veto of the Civil
Rights Bill, desiring to quote Andrew Johnson, Senator, against Andrew
Johnson, President, referred to "a speech delivered in this body by a
Senator occupying, I think, the seat now occupied across the chamber
by my friend from Oregon (Mr. Williams)."
A necessary and important part of the adjustment of the machinery, at
the opening of each Congress, is the selection of seats. As the
Senators serve for six years, and many of them have been reëlected
more than once, there are comparatively few changes made at the
opening of any Congress. The old members generally choose to retain
their accustomed seats, and the small number that come in as new
Senators choose among the vacant seats, as convenience or caprice may
dictate.
In the House of Representatives the formality of drawing for seats is
necessary. That this may be conveniently and fairly done, at the
appointed time all the members retire to the antechambers, leaving the
seats all unoccupied. The Clerk draws at random from a receptacle
containing the names of all the members. As the members are called,
one by one, they go in and occupy such seats as they may choose. The
unlucky member whose name last turns up has little room for choice,
and must be content to spend his Congressional days far from the
Speaker, on the remote circumference, or to the right or left extreme.
There are in the Senate-chamber seventy seats, in three tiers of
semi-circular arrangement. If all the old Southern States were
represented by Senators on the floor, the seats would be more than
full. As it was in the Thirty-ninth Congress, there were a number of
vacant desks, all of them situated to the right and left of the
presiding officer.
In a division of political parties nearly equal, the main aisle from
the southern entrance would be the separating line. As it was, the
Republican Senators occupied not only the eastern half of the chamber,
but many of them were seated on the other side, the comparatively few
Democratic Senators sitting still further to the west.
Seated in the gallery, the spectator has a favorable position to
survey the grand historic scene which passes below. His eye is
naturally first attracted to the chair which is constitutionally the
seat of the second dignitary in the land--the Vice-President of the
United States. That office, however, has no incumbent, since he who
took oath a few months before to perform its duties was called to
occupy a higher place, made vacant by a most atrocious crime. The
event, however, cost the Senate little loss of dignity, since the
chair is filled by a President _pro tempore_ of great ability and
excellence--Lafayette S. Foster, Senator from Connecticut.
The eye of the spectator naturally seeks out Charles Sumner, who sits
away on the outer tier of seats, toward the south-east corner of the
chamber; and near him, on the left, are seen the late Governors, now
Senators, Morgan and Yates, of New York and Illinois. Immediately in
front of them, on the middle tier of seats, is an assemblage of old
and distinguished Senators--Trumbull, Wilson, Wade, and Fessenden. To
the right of the Vice-President's chair, and in the row of seats
neares this desk, sits the venerable and learned lawyer, Reverdy
Johnson, of Maryland. Just in his rear sits the youthful Sprague, of
Rhode Island, to whose right is seen Sherman, of Ohio. To the rear of
these Senators, in the outer segment of seats, sits, or perhaps
stands, Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, the most garrulous of old men,
continually out of temper with the majority, yet all the time marked
by what he calls his "usual courtesy." To the left of Davis, beyond
Nesmith, of Oregon, and the other and more silent Senator from
Kentucky, sits Saulsbury, of Delaware, unless he should be traversing
the carpeted space in the rear of his seat, like a sentinel of the
Senate.
Far different is the sight presented to the spectator who looks down
from the galleries of the House of Representatives. The immense area
below is supplied with two hundred and fifty-three seats, with desks
arranged in semi-circular rows, having a point in front of the
Speaker's desk as a focus. On the right of the spectator, as he looks
from the gallery in front of the Speaker, is the Republican side of
the House. But this prosperous organization has grown so rapidly since
its birth, ten years ago, that it has overstepped all old and
traditional party limitations. One-half of the House is not sufficient
to afford its representatives adequate accommodations. Republican
members have passed over the main aisle, and occupy half of the
Democratic side, having pressed the thin ranks of their opponents to
the extreme left.
As the spectator scans the House, his eye will rest on Thaddeus
Stevens, whose brown wig and Roman cast of countenance mark the
veteran of the House. He sits in the right place for a leader of the
Republicans, about half-way back from the Speaker's desk, on the
diagonal line which divides the western side of the House, where he
can readily catch the Speaker's eye, and be easily heard by all his
friends. Immediately in his rear is his successor in the chairmanship
of the Committee of Ways and Means--Mr. Morrill, of Vermont. To the
right, across the aisle, is Elihu B. Washburn, of Illinois, the oldest
member in continuous service in the House; and to his rear is Henry J.
Raymond, of the Times. To the right, and partly in the rear of Mr.
Stevens, are a number of noteworthy men: among them are General
Schenck, General Garfield, and "Long John" Wentworth, of Chicago. Far
around to the right, and much nearer, the Speaker's desk, is seen a
man distinguished in civil and military history, who once occupied the
Speaker's chair--General Banks, of Massachusetts. In physical contrast
with him, sits--in the adjoining desk, a tall, dark, bearded
Californian--General John Bidwell, a new member of the House. On the
opposite side of the House, among the Democrats, is the seat of John
A. Bingham, who now returns to Congress after an absence of one term,
whom his friends describe as the "best-natured and crossest-looking
man in the House." James Brooks, most plausible and best-natured of
Democrats, notwithstanding the inroads of the Republicans, sturdily
keeps his seat near the main aisle. His seat, however, he is destined
to lose before many months in favor of a contestant, who will occupy
the other side of the chamber.
In looking down upon so large an assemblage, a large part of which is
so distant, the eye of the spectator will weary in the attempt to
discover and recognize individuals, however familiar, amidst the busy
throng.
In preparing for the work of legislation, a matter of more importance
than the arrangement of the seats is the cast of the committees. Most
of the labor of legislative bodies is done by committees. As it is
impossible for any one Congressman to give that minute and particular
attention to all the numerous interests demanding legislation,
essential to a wise determination as to what bills should be
presented, and how they should be drawn in every case, the various
subjects are parceled out among those whose opportunities, interests,
or inclinations have led them to give particular attention to the
matters committed to their charge. The perfection of legislation on
particular subjects depends not more on the wisdom of the entire body
of legislators than on the good sense of the committees that
deliberate upon them. Much of the efficiency and success of the
legislative acts of Congress will depend upon the structure of the
committees that do the laborious work of preparing business for the
body. Tracing the stream of legislative enactment still nearer to its
source, it will be found that the work of a committee takes a decided
tinge from the character of its chairman.
It consequently becomes a matter of great interest to the country, at
the opening of each Congress, to know who constitute the committees.
One of the most arduous and responsible duties of the Speaker of the
House of Representatives is the selection of committees and filling
their chairmanships. Fitness and special adaptation are supposed to
constitute the rule by which choice is made. Many elements, however,
enter into the work which are not a part of this philosophy. It is
impossible that the presiding officer should know unerringly who is
absolutely the fittest man for any position, and if he possessed such
superhuman knowledge he would still be trammeled by long-established
rules of precedence and promotion. There is often a regular gradation
by which men arrive at positions which is not in direct ratio to their
fitness for their places.
Notwithstanding all the errors which were unavoidable elements in the
work, committees were never better constituted than those of the
Thirty-ninth Congress.
The Senate being comparatively small in numbers, and, moreover, by
usage, doing most of the details of this business in caucus, the
announcement of the committees in this body was made on Wednesday, the
third day of the session. On the other hand, the size of the House,
the large proportion of new and unknown members appearing every term,
the number and magnitude of the committees, and the fact that the duty
of appointment devolved upon the Speaker, combined to render the
reading out of committeemen in the latter body impossible before the
following Monday, one week after the assembling of Congress.
Of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Charles Sumner was
appointed chairman. This is a very important committee, being the
direct channel of communication between the State Department and the
Senate. It being the constitutional duty of the Senate to pass upon
all treaties, and to decide upon qualifications of all persons
nominated by the Executive to represent the United States in foreign
countries, the labors of this committee are arduous and responsible.
The chairmanship of this committee was filled by a Senator of most
eminent fitness and ability. His literary culture, and attainments as
a scholar, his general legal ability and familiarity with the laws of
nations, his residence abroad for several years, and his long
membership in the Senate, now of fourteen years' duration, all marked
him as wisely chosen for his important position.
On account of the immense National debt accumulated in the war, and
the complication of the financial affairs of the nation, the Committee
on Finance has an important bearing upon the interests of the country,
unknown until recent years. William P. Fessenden was the Senator
chosen chairman of this committee. His success in his private
business, his appointment, in 1864, as the head of the Treasury
Department, and his service in the Senate since 1853 as member of the
Finance Committee, and since 1859 as its chairman, all indicated the
propriety of his continuance in this position. Second on the list of
this committee stood Senator Sherman, of Ohio, who has been described
as "_au fait_ on National Banks, fond of figures, and in love with
finances."
The Committee on Commerce was constituted with Senator Chandler, of
Michigan, as its chairman. Himself most successful in commercial life,
in which he had attained distinction before coming to the Senate, and
representing a State having a greater extent of coast and better
facilities for commerce than any other inland community in the world,
Senator Chandler was eminently suitable as head of the Committee on
Commerce. His associates being selected from Maine, New York, Vermont,
Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oregon, left unrepresented no important
commercial interest in the nation.
The Committee on Manufactures was headed by William Sprague, Senator
from Rhode Island, a State having the largest capital invested, and
most persons employed in manufactures, in proportion to population, of
any in the Union. Senator Sprague himself having been educated in the
counting-room of a manufacturing establishment, and having control of
one of the largest manufacturing interests in the country, was the
appropriate person for such a position.
The agricultural States of Ohio, Kansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and
Kentucky furnished the members of the Committee on Agriculture, with
Senator Sherman at its head.
Of the Committee on the Judiciary, a Senator has given a description.
In a speech delivered in the Senate, December 12, 1865, Mr. Doolittle,
of Wisconsin, said: "From its very organization the Senate designs to
make that committee its constitutional adviser--not that its opinions
are to be conclusive or controlling on the vote of any member of this
body, like the opinion of the bench of Judges in the House of Lords;
but its members are chosen in consideration of their high professional
ability, their long experience, and well-known standing as jurists, in
order that their report upon constitutional questions may be entitled
to the highest consideration. And, sir, if you look into the
organization of the Judiciary Committee appointed by the Senate at the
present session, what is it? There is the Senator from Illinois, [Mr.
Trumbull], for years Judge of the Supreme Court of that State before
he entered this body, who, for ten years and more, has been a
faithful, laborious, distinguished member of that committee, and for
the last four years its chairman. And there sits my honorable friend
from New York [Mr. Harris], for twenty years before he came here known
and distinguished among the able jurists and judges of that great
State. And there is the honorable Senator from Vermont [Mr. Poland].
He has, it is true, just entered this body, but his reputation as a
jurist preceded his coming, and he comes here to fill the place in
this chamber, and is put upon this Judiciary Committee to fill the
place of him of whom I will say, without disparagement to any, that he
was the ablest jurist of us all--the late distinguished Senator from
Vermont [Mr. Collamer]. And there is the Senator from New Hampshire
[Mr. Clark], from the far East, and the Senator from Nevada [Mr.
Stewart], from the Pacific coast, and the Senator from Indiana [Mr.
Hendricks], from the central region, each of whom stands eminent in
the profession in the State which he represents, and all of whom are
recognized here among the ablest jurists of this body."
Some of the great political questions destined to engage the attention
of the Thirty-ninth Congress invested the _Committee on the District
of Columbia_ with a national interest, although its duties pertained
chiefly to the local concerns of the immediate neighborhood of the
capital. Its chairman, Mr. Morrill, of Maine, as well as its members,
among whom were Wade, Sumner, and Yates, gave it character and
ability, and afforded assurance that the great questions involved
would be calmly met and honestly answered.
[Illustration: Thaddeus Stevens, representative from Pennsylvania.]
In the House of Representatives, the _Committee of Ways and Means_ has
ever been regarded of first importance, and its chairman has been
considered leader of the House. Its duties, though of a somewhat
miscellaneous character, relate chiefly to devising the ways and means
of raising revenue. The fact that the Constitution provides that "all
bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of
Representatives," gives the Committee of Ways and Means a sort of
preeminence over all other committees, whether of the Senate or the
House.
The work of the Committee of Ways and Means, as it had existed before
the Thirty-ninth Congress, was, at the opening of this session,
divided among three committees; one retaining the old name and still
remaining the leading committee, a second on _Appropriations_, and a
third on _Banking and Currency_.
Of the new Committee of Ways and Means, Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont,
was appointed chairman--a Representative of ten years' experience in
the House, who had seen several years of service on the same
committee. While his abilities and habits, as a student and a thinker,
well adapted him for the work of conducting his committee by wise
deliberation to useful measures, yet they were not characteristics
fitting him with readiest tact and most resolute will to "handle the
House."
Thaddeus Stevens, the old chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means,
was appointed the head of the new Committee on Appropriations. His
vigilance and integrity admirably fitted him for this position, while
his age made it desirable that he should be relieved of the arduous
labors of the Committee of Ways and Means. Of this committee he had
been chairman in the two preceding Congresses, and had filled a large
space in the public eye as leader of the House. His age--over seventy
years--gave him the respect of members the majority of whom were born
after he graduated at college--the more especially as these advanced
years were not attended with any perceptible abatement of the
intellectual vivacity or fire of youth. The evident honesty and
patriotism with which he advanced over prostrate theories and policies
toward the great ends at which he aimed, secured him multitudes of
friends, while these same qualities contributed to make him many
enemies. The timid became bold and the resolute were made stronger in
seeing the bravery with which he maintained his principles. He had a
habit of going straight to the issue, and a rugged manner of
presenting his opinions, coupled with a cool assurance, which, one of
his unfriendly critics once declared, "sometimes rose almost to the
sublime." He alone, of all the members of the Pennsylvania Convention,
in 1836, refused to sign the new State Constitution, because it robbed
the negro of his vote. It was a fitting reward that he, in 1866,
should stand in the United States House of Representatives, at the
head of a majority of more than one hundred, declaring that the
oppressed race should enjoy rights so long denied.
The Committee on Banking and Currency had as chairman Theodore M.
Pomeroy, of New York, who had served four years in Congress. Perhaps
its most important member was Samuel Hooper, a Boston merchant and
financier, who, from the outset of his Congressional career, now
entering upon the third term, had been on the Committee of Ways and
Means, of which he still remained a member, the only Representative
retaining connection with the old committee and holding a place in one
of the new offshoots from it.
Hiram Price, of Iowa, was appointed chairman of the Committee on the
Pacific Railroad. The Speaker of the House, in his recent visit to the
Pacific coast, had been impressed with the importance of this work,
and wisely chose as members of this committee Representatives from
Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York, Missouri, Kansas,
California, and Oregon.
A committee of much importance to Congress and the country--that of
Commerce--had for its chairman Elihu B. Washburn, of Illinois, who had
been in the previous Congress the oldest member in continuous service,
and hence was styled "Father of the House."
The Committee on Elections subsequently lost some of its importance in
the public estimation by the creation of a special committee to
consider subjects of reconstruction and the admission of Southern
members; yet the interests confided to it demanded ability, which it
had in its chairman, Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts, as well as in
the Representatives that constituted its membership.
The legislation relative to our vast unoccupied domain, having to pass
through the Committee on Public Lands, renders this committee one of
much importance. The honesty and ability of its chairman, George W.
Julian, of Indiana, together with his long experience in Congress,
gave to the recommendations of this committee great character and
weight.
Of the Committee on the Judiciary, James F. Wilson, of Iowa, was
appointed for the second time as chairman. George S. Boutwell, of
Massachusetts, and other Representatives of ability, were appointed as
members of this committee. Since the duty devolved upon it of taking
testimony in regard to the impeachment of the President, this
committee attracted public attention to a degree never known before.
The interests of manufactures were not likely to suffer in the hands
of a committee in which the first place was held by James K. Moorhead,
tanner's apprentice, and pioneer of cotton manufactures in
Pennsylvania, and the second by Oakes Ames, a leading manufacturer of
Massachusetts.
Agriculture--the most gigantic material interest in America--was
intrusted to a committee having John Bidwell, of California, as its
chairman, and members chosen from Iowa, Indiana, Vermont, Ohio,
Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York.
The chairmanship of the Committee on Military Affairs was bestowed
upon a major-general of volunteers from Ohio, Robert C. Schenck; while
membership on the committee was given to a Connecticut colonel, Henry
C. Deming; a New Hampshire brigadier-general, Gilman Marston; a
Kentucky major-general, Lovell H. Rousseau; a New York Colonel, John
H. Ketchum, and four civilians.
Nathaniel P. Banks, Henry J. Raymond, and other men of much ability,
were appointed on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Special committees were appointed on the important subjects of
Bankruptcy and the Freedmen. Of the committee on the former, Thomas A.
Jenckes was appointed chairman. Thomas D. Eliot, of Massachusetts, was
made chairman of the Committee on the Freedmen.
Many other committees were appointed whose labors were arduous and
necessary to our legislation, yet, as they had to do with subjects of
no great general interest, they need not be named.
There was another committee, however, of great importance whose
members were not yet designated. The resolution by which it should be
created, was yet to pass through the ordeal of discussion. The process
by which this committee was created will be described in the following
chapter.