for three years together. The phrase which the gentleman ought to have employed is, "ladies of a certain age,” by which is meant an age altogether uncertain.

Eighth Speaker. I stand corrected, and have no more to say. Ninth Speaker. Mr. Speaker!

Speaker. The gentleman from Massachusetts.

Ninth Speaker. I beg to inquire what provision the framer of this resolution has made, in the event of its passing, for maintaining the requisite silence among the ladies? Will the Sergeant-at-Arms be empowered to remove such as make too much noise? Or must it be left to the discretion of the ladies themselves, to be still or not? My only fear is on this ground. Should the honorable member succeed in dispelling it, he may rely on my support.

(Several voices exclaim, Mr. Speaker ! )

Speaker. The gentleman from South Carolina.
Tenth Speaker.

Sir, one honorable gentleman who has addressed the House enlarged, with his accustomed eloquence, upon the refining influence which would be exerted by the presence of ladies upon the manners of members. Let me remind the honorable member that if the three GRACES were women, so were the three Furies.

Eleventh Speaker. Mr. Speaker!

Speaker. The gentleman from Maine.

Eleventh Speaker. An objection has occurred to me, sir, which, with all due deference to the Chair, I must be permitted to mention. Should several of us happen to rise together to address the House, what chance would any of us have of catching the Speaker's eye, while there were ladies on this floor?

Speaker. Feeling that the honorable gentleman's remarks apply to myself personally, I trust I shall not be considered as overstepping the proprieties of my office, if I venture a few observations in reply. The success of the pending resolution will, undoubtedly, place your Speaker in a peculiar position; but I do assure the House of my firm resolve never to allow my regards to be attracted from my duties to members by the allurements of any lady who may be present. I am aware, gentlemen, of the liabilities of human frailty, and I yield to no man in my sense of the powerful attractions of the sex whom we propose to honor; but, at the same time, I know that I shall best win their approbation and respect by fulfilling the serious duties of my station, undazzled by any vision of feminine beauty, and undistracted by any bright eyes from the special business before this body. (Applause.)

ON THE ADMISSION OF LADIES.

Twelfth Speaker. Mr. Speaker!

Speaker. The gentleman from Alabama.

415

Twelfth Speaker. Sir, I find it difficult to give expression to the emotions which agitate my breast in considering the subject under discussion. My profession has made me more con ́versant with deeds than words; but, sir, were it otherwise, - were I as ready with my tongue as I trust I have shown myself, at my country's call, with my sword,—still, sir, all the powers of language would fail to convey the feelings of apprehension with which I con-template the passing of this resolution.

What, sir, compel me to stand up in front of a battery of bonnets, all pointed at me, and expect me to speak calmly and coherently on some subject of national moment! Place me under

the immediate flashing of the bright critical eyes of a hundred or more ladies, and expect me to retain my composure, and act out myself with the self-possession becoming a member of this House! Sir, many of us, even now, find no small difficulty in expressing our sentiments. What would be the fate of such

under the proposed aggravation?

Let it not be said, sir, that I am a coward; my courage has been too often tested in the tented field to need to be asserted here. If that lobby behind the bar were filled with a menacing soldiery, with their pieces leveled at my breast, I could speak with an unthrobbing pulse and an unfaltering tongue; but, sir, surrounded by ladies, "ladies to right of me, ladies to left of me, ladies in front of me,”—sir, I could not speak at all! The war-horse that will rush upon a row of cannon will start at the flapping of a banner. It is vain to reason with us. It is a superstition, Mr. Speaker, and we can not help it. Thirteenth Speaker. Mr. Speaker!

Speaker. The gentleman from New Jersey.

Thirteenth Speaker. Whilst I sympathize with the feelings of my honorable friend, the gal-lant colonel - I beg pardonthe gallant colonel, who has just addressed you, I am still more alive to a danger of an opposite description. He seeks to avoid Scylla; I am equally anxious to shun Charyb'dis.* He is apprehensive that the admission of the ladies would close some lips which ought to be open; I fear it would open many which ought ever to be shut; that coxcomb then would find a tongue, for whom the House could not possibly find an ear; - that a plain, straightforward, business-like style of speaking would be despised, and a florid, poetical one affected;-grave subjects treated as trifling, and trifling as grave; - all considerations of

every

*The ch in this word has the sound of k.

patriotism, justice, economy, merged in those of romantic folly and an all-sacrificing gallantry; the lute and harp taking precedence of the trumpet and drum; and this House, once the seat of grand debate, and the oracle of a nation's wisdom, become the arena of an exhibition, compared with which, the tournament, the bull-fight, and even the encounters of pugilists, would be rational and humane.

Far be it from me, sir, to represent the ladies as the cause, or any thing more than the occasion, of all this. The fault would attach not to the influence, but to the influenced. If the moon's pure and chaste beam find out every weak part in a human head, the consequent lunacy is to be charged not upon the moon, but upon the head.

Nevertheless, as it is much more easy to prevent than to cure, I beg to give notice that, if this resolution pass, to prevent these evil consequences, I shall bring in a bill providing that none but married gentlemen, or bachelors above the age of seventy, shall be eligible to seats in this House.

Speaker. The gentleman from Illinois has the floor.

Fourteenth Speaker. I shall oppose this motion, not from individual fear, as some gentlemen have done, nor, I pledge myself, from any party wish to prevent the friends of the administration from reaping deserved popularity, by passing a welldevised measure, if this were one; but from a deliberate conviction that the discipline of this House -ay, and the very constitution of this House are at stake. Sir, we are obliged at times to enter into secret sessions. Are we to allow the ladies to remain on such occasions, or is the Speaker to politely request them to quit the hall? Sir, he may request them, but will they go when they are requested? Will not feminine curiosity be an overpowering inducement to them to stay, and to learn what secret business the House can have in hand? And then, sir, if under an oath of secrecy we allow them to remain, who is so credulous as to believe that a hundred women would keep an oath, which (Cries of order! order! shame! &c.)

I am not to be put down, sir, by the hootings of those whose sharpest rhetoric is a howl of dissent, and whose most powerful retort is a hiss. I maintain it, the ladies are not to be trusted with the business of our secret sessions. The ladies are very well in their places, but the floor of this House is not their place. shall vote against the resolution. (Several members try to get the floor.)

Speaker. The gentleman from Kentucky.

I

Fifteenth Speaker. Mr. Speaker, - however men of sense

ON THE ADMISSION OF LADIES.

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and feeling may differ as to the propriety and expediency of the present resolution, they must be all agreed as to the impropriety and inexpediency of making this discussion a medium of depreciating and vilifying a sex which can not be too highly appreciated and honored; a sex to which we are under such unspeakable obligations; to which we owe not only existence, but all that adorns and endears existence a sex in whose exaltation we are exalted, and in whose degradation we must be still more deeply degraded.

I have heard of silly boys, who seemed to think the first and best proof of incipient manhood was to sneer at woman; but I certainly did not expect to find a folly, unworthy of a schoolboy, sanctioned by the authority of a member of this House. The honorable gentleman who remarked that ladies were all very well in their places, in a sneering tone, which implied that he thought meanly of those places, must surely have forgotten the period of his boyhood; the days when, after receiving a thousand insults, after being elbowed off by one, pushed away by a second, and made game of by a third, he came home to his mother, and found that his own fireside was the happiest place on earth to him; when his mother did what no one else would have condescended to do,- conversed with him, treated him like a rational being; and, by so doing, contributed to make him one. The honorable member surely forgot all this, forgot that mothers are women,—when he spoke as if the sex were of an inferior order, and required to be kept in their places. The only doubt the only reasonable doubt is, whether this House is worthy of ladies, - not whether they are worthy of it; whether their entrance upon this floor would not be a descent, rather than an ascent; whether their duties are not of too elevated and sacred a character, and their time too valuable, to allow of their honoring us with their presence in this House.

Speaker. The gentleman from California.

Sixteenth Speaker. Sir, whilst I cordially sympathize with my honorable friend's glowing testimony to the merits of woman (a testimony, sir, which does equal honor to his head and to his heart ay, sir, to his heart and to his head), I yet do not see, sir, that those merits supply any reason for passing the present resolution. I will yield to no man, sir, in admiration, respect, AFFECTION, ay, sir, affection, for the ladies.

"Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit,

The power of beauty I remember yet."

Yet, sir, surely I may desire not to be diverted, sir, by the pres

Gen

ence of ladies, sir, in a house of business, a character which I hope this House, sir, will ever maintain, sir,—but a character, sir, which the adoption of this resolution, sir, must inevitably destroy. Why, sir, we shall have for the order of the day flirtations! Flirtations, sir! I repeat it, sir, flirtations! tlemen will be chatting small talk, sir, when they ought to be studying the appropriation bill. They will be ogling when they ought to be meditating questions of state-questions of state, sir. They will be sighing like a pavior, sir, when they ought to be working like a beaver-like a beaver, sir. Sir, the resolution would convert this hall into a boudoir.* Gentlemen would have to come with bouquets † in their hands. It will never do, sirthe people, sir, would never stand it. Had I fifty votes, I would throw them all against a resolution so fraught with danger. Speaker. The gentleman from New York.

Seventeenth Speaker. After the-the extraordinary-speech of the honorable gentleman who spoke — that is, who addressed the House - last - I feel called upon to speak that is, to address this House also. Sir, I feel that my constituents will expect that I will expect that I—will expect that I ——— (Cries of "Will expect that you will sit down!" "What will they expect?" etc., accompanied with coughing and scrapings of feet.) Sir, this interruption is as ungentlemanly as it is-(Ugh! ugh! ugh!) Sir, the conduct of honorable members (Ugh! ugh! ugh!) Sir, what did my constituents send me here for what did they send me here for, sir?- (Cries of "Heaven only knows!" 66 Ay, that's a puzzler!" "Who can tell?" etc.) - I do not mean to say, sir, that any thing I can say will have any effect upon the House (Cries of "Certainly not I don't think it will," etc.—ugh! ugh! ugh!) or that it will have any thing to do with the matter in hand. (A general coughing and scraping of feet, during which the honorable member sits down.)

Speaker. Order, gentlemen! order! The member from Pennsylvania.

five

Eighteenth Speaker. (Oldest member) Sir, during the thirtyyears that I have had the honor of a seat in this House during the whole course of my congressional experience, in office or out of office I have never witnessed an exhibition more unbecoming, more unparliamentary, more inconsistent with the spirit of our institutions, than that which has just transpired. Sir, I remember once seeing in the House of Commons the celebrated Mr. Burke coughed down and prevented from speaking; but, sir, it remained for gentlemen now present to introduce into an Ameri+ Pronounced boo-kays'.

*Pronounced boo-dwar'.