seemed exceedingly anxious to preserve and maintain the honor and dignity

of the Senate.

Was this to be done by trying an obscure adventurer for attempting to

trap a Senator into bribing him? Or would not the truer way be to find

out whether the Senator was capable of being entrapped into so shameless

an act, and then try him? Why, of course. Now the whole idea of the

Senate seemed to be to shield the Senator and turn inquiry away from him.

The true way to uphold the honor of the Senate was to have none but

honorable men in its body. If this Senator had yielded to temptation and

had offered a bribe, he was a soiled man and ought to be instantly

expelled; therefore he wanted the Senator tried, and not in the usual

namby-pamby way, but in good earnest. He wanted to know the truth of

this matter. For himself, he believed that the guilt of Senator

Dilworthy was established beyond the shadow of a doubt; and he considered

that in trifling with his case and shirking it the Senate was doing a

shameful and cowardly thing--a thing which suggested that in its

willingness to sit longer in the company of such a man, it was

acknowledging that it was itself of a kind with him and was therefore not

dishonored by his presence. He desired that a rigid examination be made

into Senator Dilworthy's case, and that it be continued clear into the

approaching extra session if need be. There was no dodging this thing

with the lame excuse of want of time.

In reply, an honorable Senator said that he thought it would be as well

to drop the matter and accept the Committee's report. He said with some

640

The Gilded Age