Some Things Never Change

Some Things Never Change

A bowie-knife, dirk, or pistols, commonly occupy the desk-drawer of Congressional members; who, as a close observer remarked to me—"not only look four ways at once, but in manners and deportment strongly remind me of runaway convicts." [Henry Cook Todd, Notes Upon Canada and the United States: From 1832 to 1840 2nd ed. (Toronto: Rogers and Thompson, 1840), 181]

Okay, doubtless not completely fair back then, or now, but I was looking for references to Bowie knives in that period, and I thought you might get a laugh out of the description of members of Congress.