Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-11-01
For the Rutland HERALD
Notes aud observations at the
Capital.


have become items of history, and passed
into the public archives of the State.
The legislature of no other State In the
Union has ever entered upon Its journal
A similar record. The election of three
United States Senators on the same day
of the same session-two to fill vacan-
cies caused by death, and one for full
term-is an event unparalleled in the
annals of any sister commonwealth, and
one which may well distinguish the
legislature of our own now In session,
from any and all Others since the iorma-
ton OF the government. May 1t never
fall to the lot of Vermont, or become the
necessity of any of her confederates In
the nation, to add another and similar
event to history.
The loss of two such men as Collamer
and Foot, under circumstances so sor-
rowing and affective to the State and to
the nation, is something more in effect
and influence than mere bereavement.
1t is a calamity to the people. 1t is a
breach in the wall of our national coun-
ellis, which years may never repair. We
have elected good and true men to fill
their places, men who have thus far
honorably discharged the high trusts
committed to their keeping. l have
listened with pleasure to their addresses
before the legislature the past week, and
can heartily commend the truths and
principles they contain, to the careful
consideration of the people of the State.
But their Congressional experience Is
not the experience Of those we mourn.
Time alone can give to their ability the
force, the power, and the commanding
influence, so happily gained and exer-
cised by their lamented predecessors. In
all deliberative bodies, the older men,
beers take the lead; not older in years
necessarily, but in experience, that cor
ner stone to all human success, in
thorough acquaintance with men and
measures, and clear, practical under
standing of the powers and forces to be
met and overcome.
But the loss we have sustained, how
ever great and irreparable, is not with
out it's lesson; not without Its moral
and material effect upon the living. 1t
teaches the mutability of man, and i'm
presses anew upon every heart the irrev-
ocable decree of approaching dissolu-
| ton. 1t proves to US all in the most
solemn and convincing manner, that
death is no respector Of PERSONS that
no station in life is exempt from its raw
ages, and no position, however high or
exalted, affords immunity to its de-
mands, or protection from its visitation.
Production and reproduction, life and
death, animation and decay, are written
by Omnipotent command and passed in
| Judgment upon all animate existence.
The revolving ages and generations of
the past, the millions on millions, whose
! lives have ebbed and flowed upon the
earth as tides upon the ocean, in all and
throughout the vast range of animal
and vegetable creation, from the proud
oak of the forest to the tender plant at
its feet; from the mammoth that play
eth with the cedars, to the smallest in
sect visible to the eye of microscopic
vision, each and all, individually and
collectively, specially and universally,
are but unquestionable, undeniable evil
dences of the law.
wherever life, approaching death,
| Wherever form decay;
Whatever lives must yield its breath,
| Or moves, must pass away.
The thought, the truth is a solemn
one, and may well arrest the attention
| of all, whether robed in the livery Of
state, or clad in the garments of meek
ness and want.
1t is only through painful visitations
that the popular heart can be touched
! and impressed. A thousand individuals
in private life might pass away, as
they have often done during the war of
the rebellion, without effecting and
forcibly impressing the public mind.
Our neighbors may leave US, as they
have done; our friends may depart as
they have departed; our children may
be torn from our embrace, as the marble
slab and the freshly covered mound of
the church yard fully Indicate; yet these
bereavements only reach the few. These
affective dispensations of the Divine will
do not penetrate the hearts and effect
and influence the souls of the commu-
nifty. They are confined more especially
to the domestic circle, to brothers
signs, a sisters sorrows, fathers grief,
and mothers tears. A few relatives
and friends feel the sting, but the whirl
and pressing cares of life soon heal the
wound. But it is only when the ball of
the assassin strikes down loved and
venerated President of the United States:
when the steeled arrows of death pierce
the manly bosoms of two able and dis
| tinguished Senators in Conprass and