238 



AMERICAN JOURNEY, 



[Chap. V. 



as in Yankee land. . . . Half the gallery is appropriated to ladies, 

 and, as it seems, to gentlemen who come with them ; as they 

 have filled their part, they are turning into the few unoccupied 

 seats at our side. Senators are beginning to buzz about, and 

 have a little chat before they sit at their separate desks. ... 

 The pages are a pleasing feature of American Houses. They 

 stand by a senator while he writes, and then carry off the spoil 

 with great zeal. ... At one p.m., punctually, there was a rap : 

 people became quiet, and a parson made a short prayer with a 

 Northern twang. Then the clerk read the minutes of yester- 

 day's proceedings : the Senate has to be informed on all matters 

 of diplomacy, etc., and often meets with closed doors. Very 

 few senators are in their places while this goes on. (I have a 

 Southerner on one side, a Northerner on the other [who express 

 their views] : the Englishman keeps his own counsel and 

 observes.) Senators shake hands lazily, walk in and out : 

 gallery people talk : great waving of fans by the ladies, who 

 have winter dresses on this warm day: the clerk's voice shouts 

 out over it like a town-crier's — he. does the thing in a kind of 

 chant : a small senatorial son snoozes in the paternal chair, 

 learning the trade of governing as they do in the South : in the 

 North they have not time, and just take their chance. . . . 

 Meanwhile they appropriate many thousand dollars : it is 

 declared, for a variety of things, that the Ayes have it : filial 

 senator sits on paternal senator's lap : the crier chants out 

 appropriations : honourable gentlemen don't like it, and inter- 

 rupt each other ; but it is soon settled up." 



The Hall became very crowded, and several Representatives 

 came in and had chairs provided for them, to hear Mr. Seward, 

 who was hoping to be the Republican candidate for the 

 Presidency. He had affirmed "the higher law" to be supreme, 

 and was known by his phrase — " the irrepressible conflict " 

 between freedom and slavery; but it was now his object to 

 reassure the timid members of his party. 



66 Seward, thin, spare and gentlemanly, looks magnificent, 

 and quite prepared to define his position, which is to reconcile 

 ' the irrepressible conflict ' with amiability to the South. He 



