Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1858 — Senator Hale Hluminating Senator Bigler. [ARTICLE]

Senator Hale Hluminating Senator Bigler.

Our Washington correspondent in one of his late letters, spoke of Senator Bigler’s last achievement in the debate about garden seeds; and also of Senator Hale’s remarks, which are as follows. The scene took place on Friday, the 28th ijHt: Mr. Hale.—lt is very rarely, sir, that a debate in the Senate is intended to influence the action of members here; but it is made to enlighten the country. I confess, however, that this debate has enlightened my mind. I was at first inclined to go against this appropriation, but the considerations which have been urged with so .much force by the Senator from Pennsylvania, I confess, have weakened my convictions in that direction, and have almost induced me to go for it. It the appeal which he so powerfully and pathetically, made to the honorable 1 Senator from Georgia has not moved him, he must be impervious to eloquence and to pathos. I think that the case, which the Senator from Pennsylvania has presented, is eminently just. I agree entirely with what he [ says, when lie declares that in his course ! here he has not been looking to popularity. 1 I think that the wholehNurth, Pennsylvania ! no less than any other part of the Union, will indorse his veracity, if nothing else, when he declares that he had not beeivseeking popularity, at d when he appeals to.the Senator from Georgia, and tells him what a I hard road the Northern Democrats have had i to travel, how much they have had to sacri- j fice and to face; and then ask if, in return for all this, he cannot let him have a few ! onion and garlic seeds, [laughter,] I confess ■ if the Senator Iroin Georgia was not moved, j I was. [Laughter.] I think it is reasona- ! ble, and more than reasonable, even if he ' had asked for a jittle of the vegetable full

grown. But when he says, “Look at the North, .and see on every side, and hear by every mail, proof that we have not pandered to popularity; see what we have sufl'ered in 'y° l,r beliall; when you sqe all that, and see that we are {not exhorbiitant, we do not ask any offices; take your foreign missions, and distribute them where! the)' appropriately belong; take the Federal Treasury, and use it; but when we go home to an outraged constituency, will you be so illiberal as not to let u.s carry a lew onion seeds, and a little garlic, and 'now and then a cabbage, [laughter,] so that our Constituency may be inclined to wink a little at the course we have taken on this great question, upon which we have sacrificed so much for-ytm?” I confess that even it I Bad such strict rules as the Senator from Georgia entertains upon j the Constitution, when such an appeal as ! that came Irom such a source, the “right ; bower” i f the Administration, not risking j to take the “ace,” or anything else, hut smf- ; plv a little onion seed—a vegetable that, I under peculiar states ol application, is calculated to produce tears—[laughter] cannot you let us go home and cry with our constituents ])ver what we have done! Ido not want to be personal; but I appeal to the honorable Sehator from Georgia, and 1 ask him—l can ask him, f.r we have always been on friendly relations

Mr. Bigler;—Allow me. I have no idea at all that the Senator intends to be personal. Mr. Hale.—j-Oh no. Mr. Bigler.—But he uses terms which I do not understand; talking about the “right bower” and “ace,” and all that sort of thing. [Laughter.] Mr. Hale.—Well, sir, I do not understand them; but I thought the* Senator did, because the Senator from Georgia, spoke of it, and he seemed to understand it then. [Laughter.] Ido not understand them; but I suppose it is parliamentary, highly so, [laughter,] or else it would not have been introduced. Ido not know what the “right bower” is. I suppose it is a naval [knave-al] term, [laughter,] or something of that sort. But I was proceeding. The Senator from Georgia and myself do not agree on political questions; we have differed; but I believe, in our social intercourse we have never had any difficulty, and whenever it has been in my power—l do not know that I ever had an opportunity wheie it was in my power to do him a slight favor, but if it was the case, I would do it; but if he has the slightest personal regard for me, I beg to throw it into the same scale where the eloquence and pathos of the Senator from Pennsylvania have gone before me, and both together we ask for—a little onion seed. [Laughter.] Can he, under these circumstances, resist! No, sir. I am as strict a constructionist of the Constitution as any, not excepting*fhe honorable Senator before me [Mr. Toombs;] but I have read all the platforms, and I suggest to the Senator from Georgia that he islTlittle too fast. I think, considering what has been done, we may continue to vote these seeds, at least until the Charleston Convention sits, and then, I have no doubt after these developments, there will be a new resolution that will cut off these seeds, and that onions will be unconstitutional ever after. [Laughter.] But until that is done, until that proviso is put in, I think the faithful may construe the provisions of the Constitution and the Cincinnati Platform, as (he honorable Senator from • Pennsylvania has suggested. I think we may construe them without straining the Constitution any more to buy onion seeds than it does to leatch runaway sluves., I guess when you find a provision in the Constitution that there is a way made to take money out of the Federal Treasury to pay for returning fugitive slaves, you will find also the provision that a little sum may be paid for onion seed. Until a clause forbidding it comes either in the constitution or ihe Charleston Convention, let us have the seed; but I have nn doubt it will he unconstitutional after the Convention sits.