is as much grander than any other fire company in the world as
Niagara Falls is grander than Croton dam." Two years afterward,
Tweed, profiting by a division in the Whig ranks in the Fifth
District of New York, returned to Washington as a Representative
in Congress. He was a regular attendant, never participating in
the debates, and always voting with the Democrats. Twice he read
speeches which were written for him, and he obtained for a relative
the contract for supplying the House with chairs for summer use,
which were worthless and soon disappeared.

Senator Andrew Pickens Butler was a prominent figure at the Capitol
and in Washington society. He was a trifle larger round at the
waistband than anywhere else, his long white hair stood out as if
he were charged with electric fluid, and South Carolina was legibly
written on his rubicund countenance. The genial old patriarch
would occasionally take too much wine in the "Hole in the Wall" or
in some committee-room, and then go into the Senate and attempt to
bully Chase or Hale; but every one liked him, nevertheless.

Then there was Senator Slidell, of Louisiana, a New Yorker by birth,
with a florid face, long gray hair, and prominent eyes, forming a
striking contrast in personal appearance with his dapper little
colleague, Senator Benjamin, whose features disclosed his Jewish
extraction. General Taylor had wished to have Mr. Benjamin in his
Cabinet, but scandalous reports concerning Mrs. Benjamin had reached
Washington, and the General was informed that she would not be
received in society. Mr. Benjamin then rented a house at Washington,
furnished it handsomely, and entertained with lavish hospitality.
His gentlemen friends would eat his dinners, but they would not
bring their wives or daughters to Mrs. Benjamin's evening parties,
and she, deeply mortified, went to Paris.

On the first day of December, 1851, Henry Clay spoke in the Senate
for the last time, and General Cass presented the credentials of
Charles Sumner, who had been elected by one of the coalitions
between the anti-slavery Know-Nothings and the Democrats, which
gave the latter the local offices in New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts,
and elected Seward, Chase, and Sumner to the United States Senate.
Soon after Mr. Sumner took his seat in the arena which had been
made famous by the political champions of the North, the South,
and the West, Mr. Benton said to him, with a patronizing air, "You
have c