The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-01-05
Notes from the Capital.
AUGUSTA, Jan. 8, 1866.

AUGUSTA, Jan. 8, 1866.
To the Editor of the Press:
The chairman of the committee to receive,
sort and count the votes for Speaker, had just
made his report as 1 entered the Hall of Rep
resentatives this morning: "Whole number oil
votes 141; necessary to a choice II; james M.
Stone has 12S; Edward Wilson has ~; Blank
l." The scene was somewhat impressive
Below the galleries, ON each side OF the hall,
on gold and black tablets, are seen the names,
Berry," " Jameson" -" Marshall" and other
martyr heroes of the war. Edmund Wilson,
the standard bearer of modern Democracy IN
the House, has twelve votes" and passed
on, thinking that better suited to the time and
occasion would have been other tablets, in
scribed, Smith, Fairfield, Anderson and Dana.
In the Senate, the President, unanimously
chosen, was returning, in brief but graceful
speech, his thanks to the Senate for the honor.
Verify, the times have changed. $50
The caucus for the nomination of Depart
ment officers and Councillors, will take place
tomorrow evening. No change is proposed
in the former, while among the latter but two
district, and Hon. Hiram Ruggles, OF the sixth
district, the latter becoming chairman of the
board. Hon. Charles Holden, of your city, is,
it is understood, to be succeeded by Hon. S. f.
Perley, of Naples. Mr.. Farwell, OF the fifth
district, by Hon. E W. Stetson, of Damaris-
Gotta; Mr.. Lyman, of the seventh district, by
Peter Dunn, Esq, of Ashland. No selection
has as yet been made for the fourth district
(Kennebec and SomerseD, in place of Mr..
Starks, and in the third district, which is to be
represented by selection from Franklin Co.,
there is tie in the delegation, three for Hon.
W. II. Josselyn, of Phillips, and the same
number for Hon. Horace g. Prescott, of New
Sharon. Neither side seem disposed to relin-
quish their favorite, and failure to compro-
mise the matter may result in the return of
Hon. Rufus Prince, of Androscoggin, who has
represented the district during the last year.
The legislative session will unquestionably
be quite as short as that of last winter, and no
needless delay will be made by the members
in entering upon the work before them. Two
or three cases of contested seats in the House
will occupy the attention of that body for a
few days, that of Alexis Cyr contesting the
seat of Daniel Page, of Fort Kent, being the
most important, as it involves certain points
never before presented in either branch of the
Legislature, the particulars of which ] regard
as of sufficient interest to make the subject
matter of future letter. ,e.s
Yours, WANDERER.
L.
The following are the remarks of Gen. Vir-
Gin on assuming the duties of President Ct
the Senate. There are some inaccuracies in
the Journals report of the speech:
SENATORS IL cannot enter upon the Off
cial duties with which you have just charged
me, without rendering to you my earnest
thanks for this distinguished honor.
You do not expect me to add honor to the
position which has been so highly honored by
SO many distinguished citizens; neither do
you expect me to dishonor it. 1 cannot do
the former, and will not do the latter.
have no doubt that each of you duly ap-
preciates the weighty responsibilities attach
ing to you as Senators and while it is no part
of my duty to discourse to you concerning
your State or National obligations, it may not
be improper for me to remind you that this is
the first meeting of the Senate of Maine since
the commencement of the new epoch in
American history; for how fresh is the recol-
lection that since the adjournment of the last
Legislature, the great, accused slave rebellion,
with all its internal enginery of treason"
has, through the strong right arms and heroic
souls of a million and half of our youth,
who have so valliantly trodden the wine
press" of a thousand battle-fields, succumbed,
and we have arrived at the first bright spot
beyond the gloom-always visible to the patri-
ot-where we can catch partial view at last,
of the sweet countenance of the Angel Of
Peace. .-A ~ sa ~ ~ ~ #LA-t
Most nobly have the saviors of the Republic
performec their duties; and never will the
voice or the pen of the patriot tire in their
praise, or cease to acknowledge, in beftting
manner, their unchallenged claims to our love
and alteration. .7-s
But, Senators, the organized brute force of
the rebellion being crushed, as to our forefath-
ers after 3heir war, so now to as comes the cri-
sis which is to measure and test the wisdom
and craftsmanship OF the nation as it has new
er been tried since the formation of the Con-
stitution, Instruct your representatives in the
National Legislature to see to it that those
rivers of precious blood shed by your sons and
brothers, and those minis of wealth expended,
shall not turn out to have been shed and spent
in vain. Now that the great primeval cause
of the terrific conflict is removed, admonish
your agents in Congress to see to IL that this
asum Of all villainies," in ali its aspects its
airy and arrogant chivalries," its conventional
dreamings,. its bastard limitations of lordly
bearings, and its northern sympathetic incan-
tations, be destroyed in its very spirit, and es-
sence, and that American citizenship shall SO
construct its iron roads across its grave, that
its resurrection shall never have local habi-
tation or name in the most airy imagina-
ton of the blindest worshipper of caste IN
Christendom. f75fse 'lfi
Senators, again thanking you for the conf
dence implied in my being selected as your
presiding officer, l will now entertain any mo-
ton appropriate to the further organization of
fhic hodu