When Congress Was Alive with Debate
Weinberg, Arthur
When Congress Was Alive with Debate Bold Voices. Edited by Richard L. Grossman. Doubleday. 474 pp. $5.95. Reviewed by Arthur Weinberg There was a time in the history of this country when...
...In this Presidential year when there is debate between the two candidates of the major parties on television, a book has just been published which recreates the era of great debates in the halls of Congress by some of its most distinguished debaters and dissenters...
...its members stood up, spoke, and debated with fellow members...
...Issues were argued...
...Clement L. Vallandigham's near-treasonous attack on Lincoln's Civil War policy...
...The author blames the constituency: "Indict a whole people for the vacuousness of its tribunes...
...Grossman prefaces each oration with opinionated, reasoned, and lively comment...
...He is a serious student of history and professes fear that Congress is no longer a forum of debate, but rather an arena for activity...
...Richard L. Grossman has compiled and edited a provocative book, Bold Voices...
...The Congressman did not let the press conference, the newsletter to voters back home, or the panel discussion on TV take "final precedence over their own special platform in the Capitol building...
...Supreme Court...
...Even if the decline of debate, the evasion of controversy, the fear of expression come as a result of Congress altering its own character over the years, the blame still rests on a constituency that is more concerned with facts than ideas, more intrigued by investigation than by contradiction, more respectful of a Right Vote than a Right Thought...
...Public relations men and press secretaries played little or no part in presenting a Senator's or Representative's opinions to his constituency...
...Reviewed by Arthur Weinberg There was a time in the history of this country when Congress was a forum for open debate...
...the maiden speech of Robert M. LaFollette, where as a freshman Congressman he "defines the ethical ideal for his colleagues...
...The book includes some of the most famous speeches given in Congress, all by debaters and dissenters: John Randolph opposing the War of 1812...
...Congress was an arena for political argument...
...In his introduction, he writes: "A public which wants to read 'How Congressmen from This Area Voted Last Week' rather than read what those Congressmen said about the issues before them will get a Congress that is a loosely knit federation of investigating committees and Presidential candidates...
...Oratory was lively...
...William E. Borah opposing the nomination of Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice of the U.S...
...Daniel Webster's Union at any cost...
...Indeed, in a constitutional democracy there can be no other place to fix the responsibility...
Vol. 24 • November 1960 • No. 11
