The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-11 00:00:00

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TILE N.EIV AND RE-ELECTED SENATORS.

HANNIBAL HAMLIN was elected Senator for Maine
in the place of Senator Morrill, on the 19th Jan.,
in the Senate by 28, against Albert P. Gould's 2 ;
and in the House by 118, against Albert P. Gould's
30. Mr. Hamlin was born in Paris, Oxford County,
Maine, August, 1809. His father died while he was
young, which compelled him to look after the farm
he inherited instead of going to the University for
which he had prepared. When of age he spent a
year, as compositor, in a printing-office ; then read
law, and was admitted to practise in 1833. From
1836 to 1840 he was a member of the Maine House
of Representatives; but in 1843 he was sent to
Congress, where he remained till 1847, when he went
back to the Maine Legislature, and on the next year
was elected to the United States Senate in succession
to Fairfield, deceased, where he remained till 1857, his
second term having nearly expired, when he resigned
to become Governor of his State. This office he
held but a few weeks, as he was induced again to
take his seat in the Senate for a third term, which
had but half closed when he was chosen for the
second place on the Presidential ticket with Abra-
ham Lincoln. In his early life Mr, llamlic sewed
the Democratic party, but he fell away from it after
the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and on the 12th Juno,
1856, after the nomination of Buchanan on the Cin-
cinnati platform, he openly announced his separa-
tion. On the expiration of his term as Vice-Presi-
dent he was appointed by Mr. Johnson Collector of
the port of Boston, which he resigned, August
28, 1866, finding himself in opposition to the
policy to which the President had swing round. - •
Thus honourably and recording his reasons in a letter
to Mr Johnson, Mr. Hamlin again found himself on
his little farm, having refused to hold a lucrative
post in no way connect.d4vi ise r
with politics, which
luibse.
coma have 'held with Irai
tration, rather than incur evenlite suppuw.Liuu
sanctioning a policy he wholly disapproved. It is
satisfactory to record such acts, as they show that a
political career in America can leave the keened
sense of honour with some ; and it is remarkable
to note how instinctively the people have appre-
ciated and held fast to such servants.
CHARLES SUMNER was re-elected on the 19th of
January for his fourth term for Massachusetts, the
votes being in the Senate, Sumner 37, Abbott 2 ;
in the House, Sumner 216, Abbott 14, Banks 1.
Charles Sumner is now 58 years of age. At 19 he
graduated at Harvard, and under the tutelage of
Judge Story he was trained for the bar, to which
he was admitted at 23, where he quickly attained
eminence. At 25 he was engaged on Sumner's R--
ports, editing the American jurist and delivering
law lectures. In the following year he travelled in
Germany, Italy, and France, and remained a year
in England, where he was received with distinction
by the bar, the judges placing him, when he visited
their courts, on the bench. He continued his pro-
fessional work until he commenced politics at the
age of 34. His first great oration was delivered
before the municipal authorities of Boston, on the
true grandeur of nations ; another against the
annexation of Texas, and a third on the anti-
slavery duties of the Whig party. Ile was elected
to the United States Senate in 1850 by the
" conscience" men of Massachusetts, by a contest
which took three months of balloting in the House
to decide, and then he scraped in without a vote to
spare. Here we come again to a fine specimen of
an American politician, and we are the more parti-
cular in remarking on the fact, as efforts have been
made to create the impression in England that a
man cannot be honourable and a politician, in Ame-
rica. Nothing could induce Charles Sumner to
lobby, pledge, use any art, or make any promise to
secure his election. His speech of May 19th and
20th, 1856, is considered the finest oratorical effort
ever made in the Senate, and it was this that brought
on him the assault of Brooks, which disabled him
for four years. Massachusetts, of course, re-elected
him in 1857 with only seven dissenting votes ; but
he did not reappear in the Senate till 1859, when
he instantly renewed his attack on the " domestic
institution," showing the barbarism of Slavery.
Throughout the war, as before it, Charles Sumner
was the apostle of emancipation, and he worked
with that strength which great ability concentrated
L.; -- Like Thad Q'• tra nlear
his miud, and the success which attended his efforts
will leave his name associated with the freedom of
a race and the abolition of slavery on a continent.
As the chairman of the Senate's Committee on
Foreign Affairs Mr. Sumner has been of great value
to Congress, and his re-election, in truth, interests
foreign countries almost as much as his own State.
He brings great legal knowledge -to bear on ques-
tion; with an honest spirit of fair play, while, as
the first champion of freedom, his Republican
principles cannot be questioned. This gives to his
opinions a weight not only in the Senate but
throughout the country, which is used in concilia-
tion and moderation.
JOHN SCOTT was elected on the 19th January by
the Pennsylvania Legislature in place of Mr. Bucka-
lew. He was born at Alexandria, in Buckingham
county, and studied at Chambersburg, where he
fitted himself for the law. His father, the Hon.
John Scott, a tanner, represented the district from
1829 to 1831. John Scott married a daughter
of the late George S. Lyster, and removed to
the town of Huntingdon to practise law, where he
soon gained a good local reputation, eventually
becoming well known in the Supreme Court
of Pennsylvania. Though originally a Democrat he
opposed Buchanan's election, and endeded by joining .
the Republican ranks, but in 1860 he was Demo-
cratic candidate for the State Senate of lluntingdon
District, when he was defeated, though elected next
year to the Lower House as a War Democrat. In
1867 he was elected President of the Republican
State Convention at Williamsport. The return
for Pennsylvania of a man so little known, and
one who has thus suddenly been thrust into this
very high position, has caused great surpriss, the
more so as he was not even mentioned a short time
before in opposition to the powerful candidates who
came into the field. The strength of Simon Ca-
meron, who rules in the Pennsylvania Legislature,
is said to have been underrated by the other aspi-
rants to the dignity, but that gentleman has given
a proof, in walking John Scott over the course, in
whose hands the real power in Pennsylvania is held.
WILLIAM CUMBACK was elected by the Indiana
Legislature on the 19th January, in succession to
Hendricks in the Senate by 22 against Hendricks
19, 9 scattering, and in the House by 48 to 45,
scattering 7. This gentleman was born in Franklin
county, Indiana, 24th March, 1829. He was
educated at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and
obtained the funds to carry him through the Cin-
cinnati Law School by teaching for some years.
When the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was passed ho
had obtained sufficient prominence to be elected to
Congress, but he failed for re-election, and was
Rnoetpuhbelariedano f
Presidential
dlBe
n6Oti,a
lw h h was appointed a
elector.
In the spoils
awarded he got the place of additional paymaster,
but the war raised that comparatively insignificant
post post into importance, and he earned a
He was a candidate fotrhenl
canproposing
call
eth"at"hr-
norship of his State, but it. wa.l!
trhazeteorffifeoer. his honest and able managementtig_ ofa-
provided the Governor. would assure.
akeer
to withd;aw,
noomwmoirtstee thedof
writingg ross indiscretion, iGs corveetri on no ,r
raker
f
him of another appointment ; to which he received
termed "corrupt and indecent." William Cum-
back
most damaging reply, the proposition being
back then made an effort to get back his letter, but
Governor Baker turned a deaf ear to the piteous
call of Come-back, keeping it for after use, and
afterwards using it. The contest for the Senator-
ship was hot, and had not Mr. Cumback been
strong he would have been bowled over by the
publication of this correspondence: This gentle-
man adds another to the Republican party in the
Senate. Alas ! we have counted our chickens be-
fore they were hatched. On the 22d January a
caucus of Republican members was held at India-
napolis, and Mr. Cumback's name withdrawn, D.D.
Pratt of Logansport being substituted, and when
the Legislature met that day he was elected in the
joint convention, the vote being 83, Hendricks 60.
DANIEL D. PRATT had resided for 30 years at Lo-
gansport, where he seems to have been very corn,
fortable if we may judge from the weight to which
he has attained, 4001bs. Indeed it is said that no
Senator so weighty has sat in the Chamber since
the time of Dixon H. Lewis. He is an able lawyer,
and must be thought highly of in the State, as he was
elected for the Forty-first Congress, beating Nathan
A. Rosa by 17,233 to 14,946. He is therefore pro-
moted from the House tot he Senate, and we may
here mention that Thomas N. Stillwell, late Minis-
ter to Venezuela will be the Republican candidate
for the Eighth District vacated by him. Stillwell
was a Johnson Republican in the Thirty-ninth
Congress,