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Show nutr itKi'oitrH or iihiiviLS im i'i)Nutii:s (iiituv. 11V Till: llll.t, JAMRl U. Itl.atXK, rx IIK.TAIIV OF ITATK. Tho rrt-irt of congrnalanal proo-cHl-luga aru growlug, nr have already grown, aii large aa to be Imrdvuaoiue, and are In Imminent danger of becoming becom-ing iimdeaa. There are two tpccllla rNUona for thla Incri-atei one la lha printing nf every trivial UcUII with aUnographlauxactncaa, and the other It tho perriil.uu In loth brauchee of utllig allltteu eaaaya Inalwvl ot mak-lug mak-lug actual taivchea In ilekate. In the beginning or the government, and tot many year thereafter, the habit or aklng from n manuacrlpt In either JbrauJi of CougrcM wat unknown. On every Imiaittaiit mev ture that came lfore Congrcaa, mi the ex peillency of hich memberi tllllere.1 In o.lnlon, there wna au actual debate, lu which iwaltloiu were atllrnlc.1 mid contented with oil-haul tpi-ech. In every conlllct or thla kind the mem-bera mem-bera wire, at a rule, lu their trait, many taking part, and tlivmaaato lu-tn-atilai lutlt coutlnuuualy through the debate. The habit or eiictch It greatly changed. chang-ed. At Ihlt time anyone who will take hla teat In tlui gallery of Ihu Hen-ate, Hen-ate, at the aeliatora eeactnula, will be liiterratcd,dtirlngthellmornlnghour,M which lauften marke.1 by what may t railed a iharp debate; loit when II -e "morning hour" cxplrm, and Ilia "regular order" la announced, tho aiecltor will very probnWy ace a gentleman rlae and umbll n inaat of manuscript ah. I begin to rend. Howlllnexttei-, out of tho tlghty-eight tlghty-eight teuatort, probably teveuty-llve, aul poealbly more. If the Heiiate la-full, la-full, absent ilieintelvea from their icita and retire lo their conmillt.-o rooma to write lettertaud tratitact lith )il.llo audprlvatu bualuiea, until the gre tliall Inform Iheui that tho reading of tho inauuacrhit. In progrita whtiitho tenaton left the chnmber, la about lo cloav. Illthellouaoof Heprraenllllvre, the tia-ctator, when he M ata hllntelf In the gallery, will robably tee repealed, aa nearly aa the analogy nf the procied-Inga procied-Inga will allow, all that haa beeu aald of tho Heitate, with tho addition of a habit, which It not extensively, If at all, practiced lu the Henatr, vlr.l Ihu la-rialailQtt to print tjieswhca, not one word of which has U un delivered; and alto the h tlltig aalde of oJd af ternooiia, generally Haturdayi, fir ditvtlo only, w hldi meaua that tome ono ileiaitisj hy tho Hjx alter will prwlde, wltli tho understanding that no buslnena It lu l-o done, nnd that any niemlier who clioo-e can ruoio there and deliver a timch upinauy auhject ho may te-lect, te-lect, whrliier It It wndlng Iwfore (,'on-grea (,'on-grea or not. The eauyt which aru thua ml ou a tingle Haturday would often fill n large tiled octavo, more extended lu liit of matter than n volume of llaucrofi or Motley. I'nw haw reckoned tho magullude of Ihelncna-o In the rcorta, The general presumption la that it cornea from the !ucreaiNd iiivmbershln of both brancbea of Cougreaa. Thla an-rotinUf'r an-rotinUf'r p.ut of tho Increase, but Is not a sufficient cnutu for Uie whole. The Heiiate la larger than fifty yran ago by a littlo more than one-half lllty-two then, elghly-elght now. The House lo lay la not one-half larger In membership than It wot liriyjcait ago. Hut the volume of the retort of either house today, roniumal with thotu of flflryoart ago, la prodigiously great. The reiortt of proceedings In the Tni-iily-aUth Congrem March 4, 1339, to March 4, 1SII take scarcely om-tlxlli om-tlxlli of the tic given to Uio rvportt of the l-'irtlrlli (,'ongrew. Hut If we gn Nick only hair or flfly yoara, a triklng Illustration will be found. Take both heuaca of Coogreat froinlSOI in ISM, smbraclnglhe Thlr-ty.aoventh Thlr-ty.aoventh mid Thlrty-ilghtli Con-greaaea, Con-greaaea, and roverlng tlio entire icrlod of the war. One would tupposu that the proccinllttga In two Congresaia, with nn extra aeulou In onu ot them, ilurlngatich a rrlod ni 1W1-03, would Ins extraordinarily voluinlucut. UMi house were llllod with remark-able remark-able debaters, and the tullcctt tliat ueru conlltiually u-foro each branch were o abwrblug In Interval that almost al-most every teuatur and every rrpre-teulallvu rrpre-teulallvu Uitltial lo be hiard. At Iho form In which the proceed-luga proceed-luga are repotted haa changeil slncu that time, llieromtiarlton, of Ulllerunt trlodt c-in bo made with opproxlmato exact net by itallug the proceeding! In uniform ptgi of onn thousand word each. From March 4, 1SI1I, In March 4. ISM, tho number of page filled by Iho procftMllugt wat twenty.rlve thou-aanil thou-aanil four humlr.il. Twetilyalx yeart artorwardi the 1'lltleth Coitgrem con. vened. It laalw from March 4, 1SS7, to March 4, IHjO, nnJ the report of pro. reuilltige II I led twouty-elght thousand three huudred ;iage. In an uu.ventful i(ii.I, then, with nothing nperlally to excite iirillslurh the country, Ihu uuml er of ingtt llllcd by the procs-edlnga of a sine. hi Congrt-aa la grcnter than during the hole tierlod of tho war, Hlth all lit mighty huuui ul ttake. Inauearlltrcra of the government the contrast would tueni still stronger, ..."."'.'!. ,,rtllhleeni:oiigretet,frtini 1789 to Isii-thlrty-alxyunra-fromlhu Inaugiirallon of Witshlimion to the In. aujturallou of John tjulncy Aclnma. All lite illactiMlona ou Ihu tul-jectnt setting Iho Federal (loveriimeiit III molloii, vi hlch were very able, and at that lime atipnoaod lo be verv lonr: nil Iho proceedings on Gliding thu National debt; all the iltacuaaioiia of the famout Jay Trealy! all the delnvUt luring the stormy administration of the elder Adams; nil the ilcMtet fur theKrlodaof Jelferaou and MoOlson, on the Kmkargo and the War or lSI'.'i nil thu prrxordluga lor tho' ten yean following the treaty or Uheut; In short, tho entire proci ed-Inga ed-Inga of Congrcea, under Wathliigton. John Adams, Jellerson, Madltun and Monro,, are recorded lu -'1.00.) istgni, actually lest hy two thouaan.1 ttircnhiMidnalthan avere rcconled In the ilrlMtM i.r both acwlona of Iho Fiftieth Fif-tieth Congreaa, and very little more thanlhowordaorthe first Mtaloli of the Fifty-Ural Congreaa, which adjourned ad-journed oh the lira! or Oclolier Int. Other couiinulMina of Interuat may I madercA'JIIy. One of tha most exciting excit-ing Congresses-. supaawd lo lie the most Imiiollaut aver held tu Ilia i"i'-Mlum i"i'-Mlum inrlihl-wa tlio Thlrty-llrst, l-eglnnlitft March 4, 1913, and ending March 4, 1 Hoi. Theconlpromlsemeat-uritof Theconlpromlsemeat-uritof Infill, Involving nil the phaaea nf the si i very iiueallou oa II then existed, exist-ed, call.il forth n delate which far thorougliniaa and ability haa icrhapt never laaui tiualled, certainly never turpasaed, In ma history or the government. govern-ment. Men who naturally belonged to Is firmer rlod Webster, (,'lny, Calhoun, Cal-houn, Ileitton, Cast wero thero In full vigor; ati'ltliMyouuger men of prettige and power Heaanl, Douglas, Chase, Jeileraon Davis, Husk or Texas ueru alto tin re lu all the strength of mature manhood. Four ycart later, the Twenty-third Congreaa convened,, extending from March I, KVI. lo March 4, ltM. It was, If lonslble, eveu n more i-xcltlng and t-xrlted body thautlie Thirty. II rat. 1 1 wat tho Congreat u hlcli repeanl the Mlsaourl rompromlae n measure which led lo unparalleled acrimony and recrimination In delate. All the leen reeling which had btvll exhibited on the slavery ipjotlon In the Thirty-first Thirty-first (,'oiigrcn wai greatly ltitenaltli-d, mil the ilehaUa laslel on thlttlnglo iueatlnu for ins ny moulht. Tho first aeaslon of the Thirty-first lasted uulllHrplemlwr thirtieth, and that of the Thirty-third until August seventh, nnd the procetillngt of both Congresses filled only twenty-three thousand )aget, Jce by one thousand four hundred circs than the rerord of Iheprm-i-edlngaof the Hist khIoii of the Flfty.fi rtt Congress. To makott comprehensive and most auggeatlvecililiiarlaoil, let It las stated that from tho Inauguration ot Washington, Wash-ington, lu list), to Iho olie of tho Civil War, In iS'l.1, the rrirt of Hie prociiallugaof Congrea, ror the entire seventy-six years, nihil one hundred and soventy-aeveii thousand fourliun Ureil aud ninety pagen., From lha close of tha Civil War In 18M lo Hie Drat day of October last, baluglwenl) live yi-art, the nuiultr of worda em-ployml em-ployml lu letaiitlug Congria waa two hundred and eighty-one million. llt-nce Iho Cougriatlonal reiorlt tor the last twenty-live yean contained one hundred and Hire million live hundred thousand worda more thnnull the ri'iaiiu from 1791) lo inns. It should of cuurau lie aald that the rrioruoftho teventy-tlx ycart weru not throughout lu aa full detail aa Ihu morn n cent nnd current reintls, but that It this very thing that make the first data valuable, and practically rulna the second close to thu ordinary reader by Ita Inaccessibility. The an. nalaof Congreu lu Iho lln.tlhlrly-.lx years named are readily ncceeslble, easily handled, and well Indexed, ami glveannccunle retort of all Hie pru-reollngsalidofall pru-reollngsalidofall the tlvecliM that had ttaclal value. If the proceedlnga of Congreaa for the next Ihltly-slx yenra from thla lime are rcwrtl upon lha Increasing ratio that hat Ulstlnguliln.il tho rricnt alucelherlosuof the war, the aggru-uatowlll aggru-uatowlll probably reipilrefoiirliundrod large volume, or tli hundred million word wpMlvnleut to a library or more than twelve hundred volumea or the onllunry ocUvo aud duodecimo edl. tlona. Thla evil haa grown to audi gigantic proinrllona that every ono w 111 admit a rvform It not only tiecettary but Inevitable. In-evitable. As lo the various phutia of that reform, much might lu said. Al tho tamo time, It would Involve personal person-al criticism, not or Individual but of rliMca: and If tho reiarta am llnilled lo readable dimensions, thu remote, .If not the Immediate, effect would I to rcduco the list ufillglblci for ctlcctlvu i-ervltu I n Congress. The nietluala of ri lorm might, therefore, there-fore, ltler lie left lo the day whuu Congress la ready to ruler uimn the work. It la aurilcletit at present to call attention to lha alius... and tu Illustrate Illus-trate lla magnitude, 1iiuMi tbiu. iniikwior .iiirri. |
