SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON AN AMENDMENT TO THE CIVIL APPROPRIATION BILL,
JULY 23, 1866.
On motion of Mr. Buckalew, of Pennsylvania, a committee was
appointed to consider the ventilation and sanitary condition
of the Senate wing of the Capitol; and the committee made an
elaborate report.
July 23d, while the Senate had under consideration the bill
making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the
Government, this Senator moved an amendment appropriating
$117,685.25 for improvements approved and recommended in the
report. In the debate that ensued, Mr. Sumner said:--
MR. PRESIDENT,--The Senator from Pennsylvania has entitled himself to
the gratitude of all his brethren for the attention he has bestowed
upon an uninviting subject, which concerns the comfort of the
Senate,--I was about to say, the character of our legislation; for,
while breathing this anomalous atmosphere, legislation itself must too
often suffer with our bodies. But he will pardon me, if I suggest that
he is not sufficiently radical in his proposition. I am aware that he
is unwilling to be thought radical. The name is not pleasant to him.
MR. BUCKALEW. I have no distaste for the name. I claim to be
very radical on some subjects.
MR. SUMNER. Very well. I hope he will be radical now,--in other words,
that he will be thorough in his remedy for the present case.
Catching a phrase from ancient Rome, the Senator says that the roof
over our heads must be destroyed, as if it were another Carthage. To
my mind, this is not enough; the walls by which we are shut in must be
destroyed. Our present difficulty is less with the roof than with the
surrounding inclosure, separating us entirely from the open air and
the light of day. Windows are natural ventilators; but we have none.
Let this chamber be brought to the open air and the light of day, and
Nature will do the rest. From its commanding position on a beautiful
eminence, where every breeze can reach it, the Capitol will have an
invigorating supply from every quarter. I doubt if any public edifice
in the world can compare in site with that enjoyed by it,--and I do not
forget the monumental structures of London, Paris, Vienna, or Rome.
But in entering this stone cage with glass above, we renounce the
advantages and opportunities of this unparalleled situation.
I would have all this massive masonry about us taken down, and the
chamber brought to the windows. This change would make ventilation
easy, and secure all that the Senator so anxiously recommends. It is
more revolutionary than his plan. It will be expensive, very expensive,
I fear; for the very completeness of the original work is an impediment
to change. This Capitol, as we all see, is built for immortality. Its
disadvantages will not be less permanent than its advantages, unless we
apply ourselves resolutely to their revision. Without legislation and
positive effort on our part, this chamber will continue uncomfortable
for generations and long centuries. Senators after us, in thickening
ranks, will sit here as uncomfortable as ourselves. If not for
ourselves, then for those who come after us, we should initiate a
change.
Besides bringing this chamber to the windows, its proportions should be
reduced,--I am disposed to say one half. A chamber of one half the size
would answer every purpose of business, and not fail essentially even
on occasions of display. Everything is now sacrificed to the galleries.
Senators are treated as the gladiators of the ancient amphitheatre, not
to make “a Roman holiday,” but a Washington show. As many as fourteen
or fifteen hundred people are constantly gathered in these galleries.
But such surrounding multitudes are plainly inconsistent with the
quiet transaction of business and the simple tone which belongs to
legislation.
I am reminded of the testimony attributed to Sir Robert Peel, whose
protracted parliamentary life made him an expert. Interrogated by the
Committee of the House of Commons with regard to the proper size for
the new chamber, he replied, that, though the House consisted of six
hundred and fifty-eight members, yet that full number was rarely in
attendance, so that on common occasions even a small house would not
be filled, and in his judgment the chamber should be constructed with
a view to the daily business rather than to the infrequent occasions
when it would be crowded. His compendious conclusion was, that the
House should be comfortable every day, at the risk of a tight squeeze
now and then. The same idea had been expressed before by one of the
best of early English writers, Thomas Fuller, who in his proverbs
says: “A house had better be too little for a day than too great for
a year”:[43] houses ought to be proportioned to ordinary, and not
extraordinary occasions. In these concurring sayings I find practical
sense.
Plainly the Senate Chamber is too big for our daily life. It is not
proportioned to ordinary occasions or every-day business. We all know
that anything in a common tone of voice is heard with difficulty,
unless we give special attention. Now I cannot doubt that the chamber
should be so reduced that a motion or question or remark in a common
tone of voice would be easily heard by every Senator. This should have
been the rule for the architect at the beginning; and I would have it
followed now in the change I suggest. With seven hundred listeners in
the galleries, and with the large corps of reporters, the public would
be in sufficient attendance, and the business of the country would be
transacted more easily and advantageously.
Looking at these enormous spaces, adapted to the eye rather than to
the ear, I turn with envy to that other chamber where the Senate sat
so many honorable years, and listened to speeches which now belong
to the permanent literature of the country. I doubt if any Senator
who remembers that interesting chamber would not prefer it to this
amphitheatre. For the transaction of daily business it was infinitely
superior; and even on rare occasions, when the republic hung upon the
voice of the orator, there were witnesses enough. The theory of our
institutions was satisfied. The public was not excluded, and there were
reporters to communicate promptly what was said.
The amendment was agreed to.