Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1870-12-23
5fisecllamp.
Shall We Make Restitution 20
Rebels?
DEBATE IN THE SENATE.

The debate on the resolution of Sen
ator Nc Creery of Kentucky, to restore
the Arlington estate TO the Lee family,
on Tuesday of last week, was spirited,
and we give an abstract of it as follows
Mr.. Nc Creery of KY, asked leave to
introduce the resolution, notice of which
he gave yesterday, proposing an investi-
CATION with view of the restoration of
the Arlington estate to the widow OF
Gen. Lee, the removal of the grave
yards on the premises and general resti-
tuition for any incumbrance placed there
in in the interest of the government.
Mr.. Edmunds of Vt. hoped that the
resolution would not be granted, saying
that he would not dignity it by discus
sing it. The only regret that right
minded men could have was that Lee
could not have died in his youth or pat
riotic manhood, or even by the hand of
the law, which would in some measure
have attoned for his crime
Mr.. Me Creery supported the resolu-
ton in speech, in which he paid an
earnest tribute to the memory Of Gen.
Lee, extolling his military ability and
declaring that the American people
would never relinquish the property
which they held in the name and fame
Of the great Virginian.
MIR. Edmunds (Rep., Vt.) said that
instead Of being welded to the institu-
ton and destinies of Virginia, Gen. Lee
was the ward of the nation that the ma
tion had fed, clothed, and educated him !;
that he lived at the capitol, and when
the capitol called upon him to defend the
flag under which he had been born, pro-
tected, and honored, he deliberately
turned his back upon it, and planted his
cannon against the capital hehad sworn
to protect and defend But he Ed
munds) would not dignity the PROPOSE
tion by discussing it.
MrTrumbull Rep. Ill. while discIaim-
ing any sympathy with the apparent OBJ
ject of the resolution, which was to sur
render and mutilate the last resting
place Of thousands of the Union dead,
argued that it would be, if not unprece-
dented, at reast unpariiamentary, to de-
ny member a simple request for leave
to introduce any legislation not in itself
insulting to the Senate.
Mr.. Carpenter (Rep.. Wis.) inquired
whether Mr. Trumbull could state a
proposition more fagrantly insulting to
the Senate than that to remove the
slaughtered dead Of the Union army
from Arlington for the purpose of re-
turning the farm to its Rebel possessors.
Mr.. Trumbull replied that while the
resolution was without doubt repugnant
to the sense of the nation, i: was not in
a personal sense insulting to the Senate.
Messrs. Edmunds and Sumner cited
two instances-one in the case of the
proposed annexation oe Texas, and the
other the bill for the Fugutive Slave
act when requests for leave to bring
in bills was refused, and the Vice-Presi-
dent enumerated five additional instan-
ces.
Mr.. Morton (Rep. Ind.,) protested
against the consideration of the resolu-
ton. He had heard what he never ex-
pected to hear-a eulogy upon the char
acter Of Gen. Lee in the Senate of the
United States, and that, too, in sight of
the graves of the victims Of his Rebel
lion. Hampton and Sidney died, not
for human slavery, but for liberty
This man, Gen. Lee, was of all others
in the Rebellion, sinner; hAhad sinned
against light and knowledge.
Mr.. Scott (Rep. Penn, said the coup
ling together of the names of Thomas
and Lee recalled the utterance Of Ste
phen A. Douglass-made at the time
those two Generals resolved to tread in
opposite paths-that at that time there
were but two classes in the nation-pat-
riots and traitors. The patience with
which the Senate of the United States
had to-day listened to an eulogy upon
the chief conspirator in an attempt to
tear down the government was but an
other illustration OF that unparalleled
magnanimity and mercy which had
characterized the treatment by the Gov
ernment of those engaged in the Rebel
lion. Had the subject of that eulogy
succeeded in his effort, whore would the
American Senate now be sitting? BY
his triumph Slavery would have cast its
dark shadow over all this land of free
dom, from the ST. Lawrence to the Gull
of Mexico. To-day the doctrine of Sc
cession is buried beneath the bones of the
thousands who fell that their blood might
seal the covenant of the nation; yet b
day we behold the spectacle of a resur-