It was proposed to suspend a (ceiling of glass fifteen feet above the heads of the (members.

A member, speaking in favour of this proposal, (said, "Members would then, at least, be able to understand (what was the question before the House, an advantage which (most of them did not now possess, respecting more than (half the propositions upon which they voted." If I mistake not, every debate I listened to in the American Congress was upon one and the same subject, namely, the entire independence of each individual state, with regard to the federal government.

The jealousy on this point appeared to me to be the very strangest political feeling that ever got possession of the mind of man.

I do not pretend to judge the merits of this question.

I speak solely of the very singular effect of seeing man after man start eagerly to his feet, to declare that the greatest injury, the basest injustice, the most obnoxious tyranny that could be practised against the state of which he was a member, would be a vote of a few million dollars for the purpose of making their roads or canals; or for drainage; or, in short, for any purpose of improvement whatsoever.
During the month we were at Washington, I heard a great deal of conversation respecting a recent exclusion from Congress of a gentleman, who, by every account, was one of the most esteemed men in the house, and, I think, the father of it.