Tilden. And again, but for the arrangement by which
he was elected to the Presidency of the Senate, the Republicans
would not have gained control, so far as it depended on the
Committees.
He did not make a very good presiding officer. He never
called anybody to order. He was not informed as to parliamentary
law, or as to the rules of the Senate. He had a familiar
and colloquial fashion, if any Senator questioned his ruling,
of saying, "But, my dear sir"; or, "But, pray consider." He
was very irreverently called by somebody, during a rather
disorderly scene in the Senate, where he lost control of the
reins, the "Anarch old."
But, after all, the office of presiding over the Senate is
commonly not of very great consequence. It is quite important
that the President of the Senate should be a pleasant-natured
gentleman, and the gentleman in the Senator will almost always
respond to the gentleman in the Chair. Senators do not submit
easily to any vigorous exercise of authority. Vice-Presidents
Wheeler, Morton and Stevenson, and more lately, Mr. Frye,
asserted their authority with as little show of force as if
they were presiding over a company of guests at their own
table.
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