Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1865-12-28

branch of the State Legislature. He
served through the several sessions de-
voting himself with his accustomed
! vigilance aud fidelity TO the interests
/ OF his constituents and of the State. and
took u prominent and influential part Ia
the debates and the business of the body
| oil which he was member.
In January A, ID, 1886, and while
| then Judge upon the bench, ne was
! delegate from his town to the Constilu-
/ tionai convention then holden at Mont
| pelier, to consider and to act upon GER
| tain proposed amendments to the State
constitution, the most important of
which was a proposition to abolish the
old "Gubernatorial Council, so called,
and in its stead to constitute legisla-
| tive branch having co ordinate powers
with the House of Representatives to be
called 90 the Senate" This proposition
was vigorously opposed in the conven-
ton, and brought out a protraCted and
perhaps the ablest parliamentary dis
CuSsion ever had in the State upon any
single question. The convention con
tanned an unusual number of the leading
and foremost men of the State Judge
COllamcs led the debate in the atilrma-
tive of the question. The proposition
was carried and | feel myself authori-
zed to say, mainly through his influence.
In 1888, and after a successful and
even brilliant career at the bar of Just
twenty years, he was placed, by vote of
the Legislature, upon the bench of the
supreme court Of the State, a position
tor which he possessed peculiar and
I prominent qualitlCa tiOns, and which he
| held by successive elections nine years
and until he was returned by the people
/ Of his congressional district to the ma
/ tional House of Representatives As
| Judge upon the bench he added luster to
the reputation he had already acquired
as lawyer at the bar. He possessed
intellectual and moral qualities most
essential and requisite to the best dis
| charge Of the duties of q high judicial
magistracy-a clear and discriminating
mind, an impartial judgment, strong
| practical good sense a profound and In
| stinctive sense of right and wrong,
| patience OF investigation, an infieXible
| integrity, and sincere and earnest de-
/ sire to reach a Just and correct COnclu-
| sion. He held the scales Of justice,
| therefore with a firm and even hand.
| All these qualities were brought into
| practical application, and were beauti-
| fully eXempliled throughout his whole
! judicial career and when he retired
| from the bench ne laid aside the judicial
ermine untarnished, and without spot
or wrinkle or any such thing"
From the bench he was transferred
by the voice Of the people of his district
! TO the United States House of Repre-
| sentatiyeS where he took his seat in
! 1913. succeeding Horace Everett, long a
| distinguished member of that body.
| BY successive elections, he continued an
active and useful member of the House,
though most Of the time in a small
| political minority, until March, 1849,
when he was called to the Cabinet Of
| President Taylor as one of his coniden-
tial and constitutional advisers, and
! placed at the head of the General Post
! Ohice Department. Under his judicious
and energetic administration, the vast and
| complicated machinery Of that Depart
| menJ was uIUuEnL luCU system anu
order and efficiency. He held this posi-
ton until the death of President TAYLOR
in July, 1850, when, with all his asso-
! ciates in the Cabinet, of whom the dis
/ tIbS uIShCn ECudGOl llOln Wal LdlINA, | MT
| Johnson, now present, was one, he re
signed his place, and returned, private
! citizen to his home in Vermont.
He was not long permitted however,
! to remain in the Quietude of private
life. The people of his State still de-
| manded his services in public capaC-
| ity, and in the following October he was
! chosen, by the Legislature, presiding
! Judge of the court in the judicial circuit
in which he resided He held this Office
| through four years by successive legis-
lative elections, disCharging its duties
| with call diligence and fidelity" and
| to the entire popular acceptance and APP
! prOval, when in October, 1854, he was
! elected to the Senate of the United
| States and he took his seat as mem
| Der of this body the first Monday of
| December 1853. He was reelected to
| his seat here in 1850 with an almost uu-
| preCcdented degree OF uuauimity. He
| has been with us and Of us Just ten
| years. His course through all this de
cade, embracing, as it does perhaps,
| the most important period in the his
tory OF the Republic, is familiar to us
| ALT is familiar to all the country
| DNllhS ChlS E'CllO'l1 anu bi IulS III uulY
where grave questions of State where
questions of peace and war; where
| questions of foreign and domestic poll
Cy where questions of trade and COM
merCe questions of finance and rev.
enue and taxation here where every
variety of question pertaining to govern
mental administration, is presented for
consideration, for discussion, aud for
final determination-herei in this forum,
he has won for himself national repu-
ton, an honorable and an enduring
name, as a learned d2d able Senator
as wise and discreet counselor; as
judicious and upright legislator; in
short, as christian statesman-and a
christian statesman, it has been well
and truly said is the glory Of his coun-
try-who has borne himself erect and
| above reprOach through all this career,
and kept himself "unspotted from the
world" BY the very constitution of his
| nature he revolted at every form and
species of fraud and corruption. or OF
wrong and Injustice. No man ever ven