Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1857-03-20
The Special Session: No. 2.

beyond doubt, so far as rebuilding al MONT
pelier and continuing that place as the Ca
pital are concerned-and for an indefinite
period of time to come. Whether anything
may happen in coming centuries to unsettle
it, we must leave for those who come alter
us to find out. We do not believe however,
that the act which the Legislature passed
on the subject n true index OF the senti-
,nents of the people throughout the State
nor even of the members themselves. Many
who voted for it did violence to their own
deliberate convictions previously forAed
and freely expressed and when their heads
get cleared, by breathing fresh air at home
and by intercourse with their fellow citi-
zens, from the bewilderment of the inhu-
ences which surrounded them at Montpelier
during the session, (where for eight days
and nights every body was talking only of
one thing fast and furiously, till their
brains buzzed as if they had been drinking
metheglin) they will wonder why they
voted as they cid
On one ground or another there will be
much dissatisfaction with the couclu-
sion which the legislature reached
We foresee angry debate on the
subject in the legislature for some years to
come and though one great hope OF the
people was that the action on the State
House business at Special Session would
keep it from ENHANCEMENT with the bust
ness of regular session and from i'm
peding and perverting it, that hope has
been made vain in no small degree by the
singular provisions of the act which was
passed For these reasons we think it well
deliberately to show up the course OF pro-
ceeding, and the particular action of some
who must be held responsible for these con-
sequences, in different way from what the
journals of the General Assembly, or even
the imperfect and confused newspaper re.
ports of the session will do.
1t is to be remembered that nearly the
whole time was occupied in both Houses in
Committee of the Whoe-and the doings
of the Committee Of the Whole do not APP
pear in the regular legislative journals.
They will give but a slender account of the
steps by which the final result was reached.
What men did before thelast one or two votes
aud what they set forth openly in Commit
tee as the reasons for their action.and what
more influential ones they assigned less
publicly, must be gathered from other
sources. From the strange and scarcely
orderly way in which the subject was dis
cussed u good part of the time, there was
also a confusion in debate, AN amount Of
talking to no point at all or to all sorts OF
points ut once which is rarely seen in
Vermont General Assembly. \ little ana
lysis of the matter will do no harm and may
do ONE good, if not to - the State House
question:" which is decided. possibly to
future questions which that decision will
give rise to-
To make our own position clear, we wish
to state explicitly that the decision Of the
Legislature to rebuild the State House at
Montpelier, was Il decision which We
thought mo- likely to be made from the first.
rs many Of our fellow citizens of Burlington
very we'll know. We did not look for that
decision, however, because we believed 1t to
be the one which the best good Of the State,
for the present or the future demanded We
believe the true interests Of the State would
be greatly promoted by a removal Of the
seat Of government-and We heard nothing
at Montpelier to alter that opinion. Con
trariwise we heard IA good deal To confirm it.
Neither this remark nor any ore which we
shall make On this subject must be taken as
di,parugrlneut Of the citizens Of Mont
pelier Many Of them are our personal
friends and none of them are our enemies so
far us we know. Montpelier is their home,
pleasant home to them, we doubt not. as
other homes are to their owners; and 1t is
not to he wondered at il they do not STE
why that is not altogether good place for
the capital of the State,-nor much to be
wondered at, either, that from having had
the legislative sessions there, ~ long, they
should feel good deal as il it would be do
ing them direct wrong to take
them away. Though they might all
concede that there might be reasons why the
capital Of the State should be else
where, they would not be likely to see any
sufficient reasons for it in the existing cir
cumstances. We remember something Of
the influences which We're effectual in 1882
to keep the State House in Montpelier, not
withstanding the wide spread sentiment IN
the State that it would be better to have il
elsewhere and we were quite prepared TO
see some old and some new ones made just an
etfectual now. Many who then voted to
have the new House built there, afterwards
regretted it ; and so it will be now. Some
who for years have been saying the seat OF
government ought to be changed and were
open mouthed in asserting their readiness to
do all in their power to help on such Il result,
nevertheless when the time for action came,
voted to keep it on the old ground and we
supposed many lCOuld do So--not because
there would be any just grounds for thus
acting contrary to all their former declara-
lions, but because they would not have the
frmness to stand up to the unbiased con-
victions of their cooler judgments, There
would he strong influences brought to bend
them and they had not got JackJones stiff
enough for the emergency. So we expected,
and 50 1t proved and in a like emergency We
presume twould be so again. In 1882, Mont
pelier people were uneasy before the trial
came; but they gained the day. Unquestion-
ably there was greater amount of determin-
alton after the House was burned. through
out the State TO have the capital removed
than there was in 1882 and our Montpe-
lier friends were more uneasy this time
shan they were then. Nevertheless, they
gained the day again and we think they