Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-03-22
Political Sins OF Omission.


Complaint is made because Senator
Salisbury of Delaware is not expelled
from the position he disgraces, and be-
cause Mr.. Freeman Clark is permitted TO
retain the post he occupies as comp
roller of the currency which he uses to
thwart the policy of Secretary McCul-
loCh and the Administration.
Salisbury was bodily carried out OF
the Senate chamber within the past two
weeks, beastly drunk. The same thing
has been frequently done previously;
and the fact that the Legislature of Del
aware reelected him after his disgrace
full Senatorial condition was generally
known, makes the case still more aggra-
waiting, No one doubts the power of
The Senate over its own members, and
that body cannot long claim respect
rom the sober American people If it
continues to neglect to purge itself of
sSch nuisances.
Comptroller Clark is q more recent
offender, and his offending is of quite a
different kind. His assaults on Mr.. Sec
rotary McCulloch's official statements
are proved to have been wholly unwar-
rantable and unwarranted. His own
statements on examination prove TO have
been wrong, and the fact that he arrays
himself openly, and in his official capac-
ity against the financial policy of the
Administration and his immediate su-
perior, should justify his prompt re-
moval. He has even entered the lobby
TO defeat the legislation deemed neces-
sary to carry out that policy. His re-
moval would require the action of both
the President and the Senate.
The President and the Secretary of
the Treasury are in harmony on the pol
icy of contracting our inflated currency,
and by what christian or political viz |
tae they are required to exercise patti
ence to that degree which would thwart
the execution Of a policy which the
good of the whole country requires, we
are unable to comprehend Is not the
financial condition of the country of |
more importance than the retaining or
the removal of any officer under Execu-
tive or Senatorial appointment
Another sin of omission is alleged to
be the keeping of Thad. Stevens in the
prominent position he occupies in the
National House of Representatives when |
just now his malicious propensities are
doing anything but credit to himself or
the country. On Friday last he declared
that the principal of the flve-twenty
bonds was not payable in specie, but
could be redeemed in deprecated cur
rency, and this he recommended should |
be done. There is evidently malice In
this, as no one knows better than Mr. |
Stevens that the government is pledged
to redeem these bonds In specie.
But Mr.. Stevens was known to favor
this repudiating idea year ago, for he
openly pronounced it during the last
Congress and the mistake was in put
ting him in the position he now occupies
at the opening of the present Congress.
Mr.. Stevens is an old man, grown gray
In political training; he is smart and
witty, but his smartness and wit run
almost wholly to malice. He seldom
gets of joke or says a witty thing
that does not bear upon its face q mali
eious intent. In his case the sin is "a
ther one of commission in giving him
the position of leadership of the House,
while at least three fourths of that body
would no doubt repudiate his leading
financial idea, and his method of mad
ness" in assailiDg political friends who
10 not happen to humor his own whims.