[295]
and other direct means of public conveyance, like the omnibuses in the City of New York, between all points; they had no other channel of communication except the mighty lakes or the rivers of the West; he could not get here in any other way. The law on the subject of Mileage authorized the members to charge upon the most direct usually-traveled route.
Now, he ventured the assertion that there was not an individual in his District who ever came to this city, or to any of the North-eastern cities, who did not come by the way of the lakes or the rivers.
...
He did not know but he was engaged in a very small business.
A gentleman near him suggested that the writer of this article would not be believed anyhow; that, therefore, it was no slander.
But his constituents, living two or three thousand miles distant, might not be aware of the facts, and therefore it was that he had deemed it necessary to repel the slanderous charges and imputations of fraud, so far as they concerned him.
Other honorable gentlemen followed, and discoursed eloquent discord in a similar strain.
Mr. Greeley sat with unruffled composure and heard himself vilified for some hours without attempting to reply.
At length, in a pause of the storm, he arose and gave notice, that when the resolutions were disposed of he should rise to a privileged question.
The following sprightly conversation ensued:
Mr. Thompson, of Indiana, moved that the resolutions be laid on the table.
The Yeas and Nays were asked and ordered; and, being taken, were— Yeas 28, Nays 128.
And the question recurring on the demand for the previous question:
Mr. Fries inquired of the Speaker whether the question was susceptible of division.
The Speaker said that the question could be taken separately on each resolution.
A number of members here requested Mr. Evans to withdraw the demand for the previous question (i.e. permit Mr. Greeley to speak).
Mr. Evans declined to withdraw the motion, and desired to state the reason why he did so. The reason was, that the gentleman from New York [Mr. Greeley] had spoken to an audience to which the members of this House could not speak.
If the gentleman wished to assail any member of this House, let him do so here.
The Speaker interposed, and was imperfectly heard, but was understood to say that it was out of order to refer personally to gentlemen on this floor.
Mr. Evans said he would refer to the editor of the Tribune, and he insisted that the gentleman was not entitled to reply.
[Loud cries from all parts of the House, “ Let him speak,” with mingling dissent.]
