80 far as my means will permit, when a similar opportunity, with a like pros pect of success, is presented-and not for them only, but for any equally oppressed and suffering people on the face of the earth. If any 'extortion and plunder' were contrived and perpetrated in the meetings for Ireland at Vauxhall last season, I am wholly unconscious of it, though I ought to be as well informed as to the alleged extortion and plunder' as most others, whether my information were obtained in the character of conspirator or that of victim. I feel impelled, however, by the expressions employed in Mr. Brooks's card, to state that I have found nothing like an inclination to extortion and plunder' in the councils of the leading friends of Ireland in this city, and nothing like a suspicion of such baseness among the thousands who sustained and cheered them in their efforts. All the suspicions and imputations to which those have been subjected, who freely gave their money and their exertions in aid of the generous though ineffectual effort for Ireland's liberation, have originated with those who never gave that cause a prayer or a shilling, and have not yet traveled beyond them.

"New York, Nov. 8, 1848."

"Respectfully,

"HORACE GREELEY.

CHAPTER XXI.

THREE MONTHS IN CONGRESS.

His objects as a Member of Congress-His first acts-The Chaplain hypocrisy-The Land Reform Bill-Distributing the Documents-Offers a novel Resolution-The Mileage Exposé-Congressional delays-Explosion in the House-Mr. Turner's ora tion-Mr. Greeley defends himself—The Walker Tariff-Congress in a pet-Speech at the Printers' Festival-The House in good humor-Traveling dead-head-Personal explanations-A dry haul -The amendment game-Congressional dignity— Battle of the books-The Recruiting System-The last night of the Session-The 'usual gratuity'-The Inauguration Ball-Farewell to his constituents.

In the composition of this work, I have, as a rule, abstained from the impertinence of panegyric, and most of the few sentences of an applausive nature which escaped my pen were promptly erased on the first perusal of the passages which they disfigured. Of a good action, the simplest narrative is the best panegyric; of a bad antion, the best justification is the whole truth about it. Therefore,

though Horace Greeley's career in Congress is that part of his life which I regard with unmingled admiration, and though the conduct of his enemies during that period fills me with inexpressible disgust, I shall present here little more than a catalogue of his acts and endeavors while he held a place in the National bear-garden.

He seems to have kept two objects in view, during those three turbulent and exciting months: 1, to do his duty as a Representative of the People; 2, to let the people know exactly and fully what manner of place the House of Representatives is, by what methods their business is kept from being done, and under what pretexts their money is plundered. The first of these objects kept him constantly in his place on the floor of the House. The second he accomplished by daily letters to the Tribune, written, not at his desk in the House, but in his room before and after each day's hubbub. It will be convenient to arrange this chapter in the form of a journal.

Dec. 4th. This was Monday, the first day of the session. Horace Greeley 'took the oaths and his seat.'

Dec. 5th. He gave notice of his intention to bring in a bill to discourage speculation in the public lands, and establish homesteads upon the same.

Dec. 6th. He wrote a letter to the Tribune, in which he gave his first impressions of the House, and used some plain English. He spoke strongly upon the dishonesty of members drawing pay and yet not giving attendance at the early sessions, though the House had a hundred bills ready for conclusive action, and every day lost at the outset insures the defeat of ten bills at the close. As a specimen of plain English take this:

"On the third day, the Senate did not even succeed in forming a quorum, out of fifty-seven or eight members, who are all sure to be in for their pay and mileage, only twenty-nine appeared in their seats; and the annual hypocrisy of electing a chaplain had to go over and waste another day. If either House had a chaplain who dare preach to its members what they ought to hear -of their faithlessness, their neglect of duty, their iniquitous waste of time, and robbery of the public by taking from the treasury money which they have not even attempted to earn-then there would be some sense in the chaplain business; but any ill-bred Nathan or Elijah who should undertake such a job

would be kicked out in short order. So the chaplaincy remains a thing of grimace and mummery, nicely calculated to help some flockless and complai Jant shepherd to a few hundred dollars, and impose on devout simpletons an exalted notion of the piety of Congress. Should not the truth be spoken ?

"But in truth the great sorrow is, that so many of the Members of Congress, as of men in high station elsewhere, are merely dexterous jugglers, or the tools of dexterous jugglers, with the cup and balls of politics, shuffled into responsible places as a reward for past compliances, or in the hope of being there made useful to the inventors and patentees of their intellectual and moral greatness. To such men, the idea of anybody's coming to Congress for anything else than the distinction and the plunder, unless it be in the hope of intriguing their way up to some still lazier and more lucrative post, is so irresistibly comic-such an exhibition of jolly greenness, that they cannot contemplate it without danger of explosion."

Dec. 13th. Mr. Greeley introduced the Land Reform bill, of which he had given notice. It provided:

1. That any citizen, and any alien who had declared his intention of becoming a citizen, may file a pre-emption claim to 160 acres of Public Land, settle upon it, improve it, and have the privilege of buying it at any time within seven years of filing the claim, at the Government price of $1 25 per acre: provided, that he is not the owner or claimant of any other real estate.

2. That the Land office where a claim is filed, shall issue a Warrant of Pre-emption, securing the claimant in seven years' possession.

8. That, after five years' occupancy, a warrant-holder who makes oath of his intention to reside on and cultivate his land for life shall become the owner of any forty acres of his claim which he may select; the head of a family eighty acres.

4. That the price of public lands, when not sold to actual settlers, shall be five dollars per acre.

5. That false affidavits, made to procure land under the provisions of this bill, shall be punished by three years' hard labor in a State prison, by a fine not exceeding $1,000, and by the loss of the land fraudulently obtained.

Dec. 16th. The following notice appeared in the Tribune:

"Ir reference to many requests for copies of the President's Message and

accompanying Documents, I desire to state that such Message and Documents are expected to cover twelve to fourteen hundred printed octavo pages, and to include three maps, the engraving of which will probably delay the publication for two or three weeks yet. I shall distribute my share of them as soon as possible, and make them go as far as they will; but I cannot satisfy half the demands upon me. As each Senator will have nearly two hundred copies, while Representatives have but about sixty each, applications to Senators, especially from the smaller States, are obviously the most promising."

Dec. 18th. Mr. Greeley offered the following resolution in the House:

"Resolved, That the Secretary of the Navy be requested to inquire into and report upon the expediency and feasibility of temporarily employing the whole or a portion of our national vessels, now on the Pacific station, in the transportation, at moderate rates, of American citizens and their effects from Panama and the Mexican ports on the Pacific to San Francisco in California."

This was the year of the gold fever. The fate of the above resolution may be given in its proposer's own words

"Monday," he wrote, was expressly a resolution day; and (the order commencing at Ohio) it was about 2 o'clock before New York was called, and I had a chance to offer the foregoing. It was received, but could not be acted on except by unanimous consent (which was refused) until it shall have laid over one day-when of course it will never be reached again. When the States had been called through, I rose and asked the House to consider the above as modified so as to have the inquiry made by its own Naval Committee instead of the Secretary of the Navy-thus bringing its immediate consideration within the rules. No use-two or three on the other side sang out 'Object,' 'Object,' and the resolution went over-as all resolutions which any member indicates a purpose to debate must do. So the resolution cannot be reached again this Session."

Dec. 19th. Mr. Greeley made what the reporters styled 'a plain and forcible speech,' on the tariff, in which he animadverted upon a passage of the Message, wherein the President had alluded to manufacturers as an 'aristocratic class, and one that claimed exclusive privileges.' Mr. Greeley walked into the President.

Dec. 22d. On this day appeared in the Tribune, the famous Congressional Mileage Exposé. The history of this exposé is briefly related by Mr. Greeley, in the Whig Almanac for 1850.

"Early in December, I called on the Sergeant-at-Arms, for some money on account, he being paymaster of the House. The Schedule used by that officer was placed before me, showing the amount of mileage respectively accorded to every member of the House. Many of these amounts struck me as excessive, and I tried to recollect if any publication of all the allowances in a like case had ever been made through the journals, but could not remember any such publicity. On inquiry, I was informed that the amounts were regularly published in a certain document entitled 'The Public Accounts,' of which no considerable number was printed, and which was obviously not intended for popular distribution. [It is even omitted in this document for the year 1848, printed since I published my exposé, so that I can now find it in no public document whatever.] I could not remember that I had ever seen a copy, though one had been obtained and used by my assistant in making up last year's Almanac. It seemed to me, therefore, desirable that the facts should be brought to the knowledge of the public, and I resolved that it should be done.

"But how? To have picked out a few of what seemed to me the most flagrant cases of overcharge, and print these alone, would be to invite and secure the reputation of partiality, partisanship, and personal animosity. No other course seemed so fair as to print the mileage of each member, with necessary elucidations. I accordingly employed an ex-clerk in one of the departments, and instructed him to make out a tabular exposé as follows:

"1. Name of each member of the House;

"2. Actual distance from his residence to Washington by the shortest postroute ;

"3. Distance for which he is allowed and paid mileage;

"4. Amount of mileage received by him;

"5. Excess of mileage so received over what would have been if the distance had been computed by the shortest or most direct mail-route.

"The exposé was made out accordingly, and promptly forwarded to the Tribune, in which it appeared"

In the remarks which introduced the tabular statement, Mr Greeley expressly and pointedly laid the blame of the enormous excess to the law. "Let no man," he said "jump at the conclusion that this excess has been charged and received contrary to law. The fact is otherwise. The members are all honorable men-if any irreverent infidel should doubt it, we can silence him by referring to the prefix to their names in the newspapers, and we presume each has charged just what the law allows him. That law expressly says that each shall receive eight dollars for every twenty miles traveled in coming to and returning from Congress, 'by the