The Committee made its report to the Senate, and that body proceeded to consider its acceptance.  One Senator indeed, several Senators—­objected that the Committee had failed of its duty; they had proved this man Noble guilty of nothing, they had meted out no punishment to him; if the report were accepted, he would go forth free and scathless, glorying in his crime, and it would be a tacit admission that any blackguard could insult the Senate of the United States and conspire against the sacred reputation of its members with impunity; the Senate owed it to the upholding of its ancient dignity to make an example of this man Noble —­he should be crushed.

An elderly Senator got up and took another view of the case.  This was a Senator of the worn-out and obsolete pattern; a man still lingering among the cobwebs of the past, and behind the spirit of the age.  He said that there seemed to be a curious misunderstanding of the case.  Gentlemen 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 jocularity that the more one agitated this thing, the worse it was for the agitator.  He was not able to deny that he believed Senator Dilworthy to be guilty—­but what then?  Was it such an extraordinary case?  For his part, even allowing the Senator to be guilty, he did not think his continued presence during the few remaining days of the Session would contaminate the Senate to a dreadful degree. [This humorous sally was received with smiling admiration—­notwithstanding it was not wholly new, having originated with the Massachusetts General in the House a day or two before, upon the occasion of the proposed expulsion of a member for selling his vote for money.]