Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-06-14
RI TI.AND HERALD.
FRIDAY, JUNE.s, 1866,
The senatorial Question.

Morrill, we take from the Springfield
Mass Republican, 1t is ably written
and discriminating, and presents the
matter in way which is worthy the at
tention of the voters of Vermont;
ST. JoHNsBURY, VI, June >, 1866,
at is my vocation, Hal IL is no sin
ror man 10 labor in his vocation"
Thus. we suppose sope of the Washing
tom letter writers Justify their "damna-
HE iteration OF sly inuendo with refer
ance to the Vermont Senators. IL is
Cnite amusing 10 see how these inC0n-
siderable men fisk about grave subjects
with light fantastic pen. They treat
the grayest questions of state with q
iinglesome tlippaucy, and manage the
poIitical interests OF their patrons with
diplomacy worthy Of Tallyraud or
NesselrOde. Somebody is TO be served
for the gift of somebody's place, com
Portable clerkship IN one of the depart
ments of state; or somebody is TO he
propitiated it, perChauce, thereby some
body may be asked to 60 up higher. To
please a bishop has been thought to he a
foot in the stirrup for sub. deacon.
Nothing positive is said nothing ill
natured is meant. Everything is done
from sheer trolicSomeness, and 50 this
uproar of flies in a bottle is blown north
by every wind that comes this way.
Now and then little laudatiOn handed
in by disparagement; now and then
little faint praise for damnatiOn's sake
and now, perChanCe, a little heartily be.
slowed all done with the most amiable
virulence and delightful acrimony. Thus
now, too, occasionally an unfinished
skull gets its leaf of laurel SO this sad
Chattering of empty noodles is kept up,
and the readers of flippant paragraphs
are gratfed.
All this is designed to work good to
somebody. But since man became lame
TO the performance of good works by
Adams fall, it has not often happened
that those acts even which designed only
good have wrought good to all. The
imputation that the Vermont Senators
are not loyal to the interests Of freedom
will fall harmless among their Constitu-
ents, whatever reception 1t may find
elsewhere. When the lips of these carp
ing critics were still moist with mater
nal milk, our sc niOr Senator was lead
er of the Free Soil party of Vermont,
ana in those days to be liberty man
was to have the unmoving finger OF
sCorn pointed at one and the lips thrust
out in derision. And he has never
sweIved a hairs breadth from that
record. If there had been no contro-
versy as to the successorship of Senator
Collamer, there would have been no crit
icism of his course in Congress. Ever
on the alert for some flaw in his harness.
at which shaft might be let fly, the OPP
position thought they detected weak
point, and drew the bow but the shaft
recoiled, and pierced the buckler Of him
who sent it.
In the Stockton vote, the intelligent
women of Vermont noticed that the
question was purely and technically
legal one; that it involved a great prin
ciple OF right and Justice which could
not safely be sacrificed to secure what
might seem to be an immediate good,
but what gained at the expense OF strict
integrity, would prove that broken reed
on which, if a man lean it shall pierce
his hand. They noticed, too, that the
judiciary committee, headed by as radi-
cal a man as Mr.. Trumbull, held precise
ly the same judicial ground, and voted
with Senator Poland. They did not for
get that his colleague, the lamented
Foot, though not able to be in his seat.
announced, throughshim, that he should
have voted IN favor of Mr.. StOckton's
claims nor were they unmindiul that
he expressed in debate wish that he
could consistently give his vote adverse
ly to Mr. Stockton.
Soon up came the Trumbull amend
ment Messrs. Poland and Edmunds vo-
ted for it, but upon mature deliberation
believed the action. wrong, and the for
mer moved its reconsideration, and sus
tanned his views with such force and CO.
gency that it was finally defeated. And
it is known that some who failed to
vote would have opposed it If they had
been compelled TO vote; and other some
who gave it support would have opposed
it if they had not been committed to its
support, and expressed qualification at
its defeat. Among the Athenans every
public meeting was opened with curse
on every one who should notspeak what
he thought. Would that such a custom
might prevail in our legislative bodies.
Did Maine suspect Mr.. Fessenden of
copperhead proclivities for opposing this
amendment? Did Massachusetts. radi-
cal Massachusetts,, so sensitive to any
disloyalty to the cause of freedom, up
braid Mr.. Wilson for similar vote
Did Ohio censure Mr.. Sherman 1t was
left for some gifted correspondent, with
eyes of sense closed, and those OF imag-
ination staring WIDE to discover that
Vermont had sent men to the Senate
who stood ready to betray the interests
of the republican party. BY the same
token the majority of the Senate are in
this same downward path.
1t is a royal privilege to do right and
be evilly spoken of. See the ingenious
ness of this action. The mere politician
would have justified his vote against his
convictions of right, on the ground that
it was a party measure. Do we send
men to Congress to follow programme
laid down beforehand? Do we send men
to Washington to follow the dictation Of
some partisan leader ? Shall our repre-
sentatives yield to this dictatorship, or
satisfy their own moral sense? The
cause Of freedom has more to apprehend