Senator Hanway, whose monk's face seemed to mark him as private secretary of the Genius of Patriotism, was an eminent straddlebug.

He was thinking on those delegations that would make up the convention and choose a candidate for the Presidency.

The prudent Senator Hanway would be in line with all opinions, and occupied both sides of the money question without becoming the open champion of either.
Not alone did Richard, gazing from the galleries, lose faith in the patriotism of House and Senate men, but he began to doubt the verity of their partisanship.

Considering what they did, rather than what they said, he discovered that the true difference between the two great political parties was the difference between cat owls and horned owls, and lay mainly in the noises they made.

When it came to deeds, both killed chickens, and both appeared equally ready to pillage the hen roosts of government.