Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-10-10

The election at single session of the Leg
stature of two United States Senators,-or as
may quite likely be the case this fall in Yer
mont, the election of three,-rarely happens
IN any State, and is of itself an occurrence
which, coming at any time, would be of great
importance, and demand the most prudent,
CAUTIOUS aud wise action on the part of our
General Assembly. Coming az this moment,
when issues of greater Importance to the we'll
fare of the republic are presented to Congress
and 20 the country for decision. than have
been presented at any former period of our his
sory,-unless it be at the presidential electio n
in l86O,-these elections demand much more
than ordinary careful and considerable deliber
alton, and warrant the press in inviting to
this work the hearty cooperation of every In
telligent and unselfsh thinker and worker in
the ranks of the Republicans OF the State.
There is we trust no danger that any person
who can be chosen to represent this State in
Congress will become a Doolittle, Cowan or
Ray mond; yet the fact that constituencies Ill
other states have been SO conspicuously and
fatally betrayed by false representatives and
Senators, renders it all the more the part OF
wisdom in US to examine, with the closest and
most impartial and unrelenting scrutiny, the
men whom we are to send TO Washington to
defend our liberties in the very citadel of the
national life.
Our Senators should be men of unblemished
morals, and of stainless Integrity. Vermont
Q state has earned a high reputation for the
purity of her politics, and her two distinguish
ed Senators, Collamer and Foote, were worthy
representatives of that purity linen on whose
public or private character there was found
no spot or blemish. 1t is possible to keep the
places in the Senate Chamber, occupied by
them, unsullied by any stain of official dis
honesty and corruption, or of private immor- =
ity and vice and letnot our General Assem-
bly, think that it is descending to little things
to inquire respecting the honor, the honesty,
the integrity, the private and the public life,
and the virtue of those who are 20 be its nation
al representatives. Righteousness exalteth a
nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Ii
this nation had the highest, the most rigid
and incorporating virtue, in its executive
departments and its congressional halls, there
would be infinitely less need tina. pulpit Or
press should preach politics,-for bitter waters
do not flow from sweet fountains. The nation
whose legislators are themselves righteous,
will hardly make laws which deal unrighteous
ly with any Of the people. The virtuous
legislator Is the chief security of the liberties OF
the people
Our Senators should be men of the highest
order of practical ability and craftsmanship.
We want thinking, working, energetic men
men with large and active brains, inspired
BY large and warm hearts men with broad
intellect enlightened by a comprehensive PM
lanthropy men whose culture, whose habits
of thought, and whose mental discipline have
been largely gained in the actual encounters
of life, and whoare trained 10 the school which
produces the thinkers and reasoners and work
ers for such perilous times as these men o.
resolute will, of tenacious purposes, of mental
pluck, of positive ideas, OF quick and clear per-
ceptions, of sound understanding, of sober
Judgment men capable of reasoning soundly
and of persuading others by their speeches;
in the true and best sense OF the word, self
made men, for it is only these who have
reached the best development of their powers.
A Congress of such men would pour fresh life
into all the veins of the republic, and send it
forward with giant strides on its career OF
bene6cent empire.
Our Senators should be Radicals, indeed
if they are what we have already said they
should be, they can hardly be anything but
Radicals. No man at home or abroad doubts
what Vermont Republicanlsm means. how
steadfast it is, how immovably IL is planted
upon the rock of equal rights, with how 1T
tie favor it looks upon conservatives and
trimmers and time-servere, with what righteous
indignation it visits all political recreancy and
treachery, whether in president or In a
postmaster: and those who are to represent
Vermont In the U. s. Senate should be men
heartily in accord with the Repubiicanism of
the State, and with not the shadow Of sus-
picion upon their political faith and conduct
When men applied for admission into the
army OF the Union during the war, they were
stripped of all DISCUSSES and most rigidly ex-
ahmed, and unless they were perfect accord
ing TO the required standard they were rejected.
And while Vermont seeks men for her service
in the Senate, in these times, wheu great and
fundamental principles of government, which
are to be the security of our liberties in all
future time, are to be re-af6rmed and insisted
upon in the face of the opposition of the
executive department with all its machinery
Of bribery and corruption, there should be no
false delicacy, no untimely leniency, no un-
wise relaxation of the most rigid and exact
ing scrutiny into the political fitness of these
expect them to do. They should be men
fully in sympathy with the progressive spirit
of this era of the republic /; men who are not
content to be governed alone by the wisdom
of the past century, of the past generation, of
hast year or of yesterday, but who ever add to
the teachings Of all the past the teachings of
to-day, when seeking the wisdom which is to
Be the rule of the craftsmanship of the future
not 0eo like johnson and Doolittle, who, in a
great crisis in our national life, when the
solicitations of an expanding and glorious
future are inviting US to build that future
upon the stone of impartial liberty, still rejec,
that stone because their fathers rejected it, OF
because q frightened Congress in 1861 rejected
it, o. because . Convention of politicians a,
Baltimore two years since repudiated il ; but
men Who are ready 20 seize the moment while