The Spirit Of Democracy

"Rump"
or A
Barebones
Congress.

John Van Buren thinks there is a mistake in calling the present Congress the Rump, and insists that it should be called the Barebones Congress. In a recent speech, in Connecticut, he said:

Now, it is flattery to call this Congress a Rump Congress. [Laughter.] It is a great deal more like a parliament that succeeded and which was known as the Barebones Parliament, in which there were members with all sorts of names, as described by a writer of that day, who says ("Brown's Travels in England," page 279:)

"Cromwell," says Cleveland, "hath beat up his drums clean through the Old Testament. You may learn the genealogy of our Saviour by the names of his regiments. The muster-master has no other list than the first chapter of St. Matthew. The brother of this Praise God Barebones had for name, If-Christ-had-not-died-you-you-had-been-damned Barebones; but the people tired of this long name, retained only the last word and commonly gave him the appellation of Damned Barebones."

Now one would not have to go long through the present Congress and the Reconstruction Committee before finding a gentleman who answers exactly to the description of "Damned Barebones." [Laughter.]

Of the extraordinary character of this Congress, Mr. Van Buren says:

Why, just look at it! Eleven States are unrepresented in that body, and about half of the residue are utterly misrepresented by men elected in time of excitement, when there was no fair opportunity for an expression of opinion, and under circumstances that have entirely changed since their election. This body is sitting in Congress, nominally under a Constitution which says "representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers. Each State shall have at least one representative." The Constitution also says: "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six years, and these Senators shall have one vote."

Now look at that body, with eleven States entirely unrepresented, under a Constitution which declares that each State shall have one representative in Congress, and that the Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State—eleven States entirely unrepresented in either House of Congress.

What more? Why, under the Constitution which requires each House to judge of the election and return of its own members, they pass a joint resolution, by which they take from themselves the power separately to judge of the returns of their members and proclaim that neither House shall admit any person from the States formerly in rebellion till both Houses have acted upon the subject by a legislative act or otherwise. What more? Why, while in this disorganized state, mutilated and imperfect, a man gets up in the Senate and charges the President with whitewashing the South, another man says that the conversation of the President, I believe with Dixon of your own State, in which he simply gave his views with regard to the duties of Congress, "would have cost Charles I his head in the day in which he lived."

Such a body as that, I say, is an illegal unconstitutional assemblage. It is in point of law, a mob; and, in my judgment, the Mayor of Washington neglects his duty in not dispersing them as such. [Applause and laughter.] And this is the noble army of the Constitutional defenders which the Republican convention of this State endorses, and which the people are called upon to sanction and approve!