Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-02-17

Governor died in Office In our State, an,
that was the first one, Thomas Chitten
den, who was serving his 10Th term, il
the wear 1897. On account of his failin,
health he determined to be candidate n
longer. In July he issued an address t.
the people declining reelection, and OK
pressing an earnest wish that in the ohoic
of successor the highest welfare Of tn
State might be consulted. In August, tn
gath, he died at his residence in Willis
ton, month or more after his resignation
and less than two weeks before the day
for the election of successor. The event
then, that calls us SO sadly together Is
unparalleled in our history. Governor
Washburn dies in the first half of tht
first year of his service, having beer
elected when apparently in full vigor ano
strength, and when there was the prom
Use of many years of vigorous labor be
fore him, and when the term of two years
for which the Chief Magistrates of oul
State are generally chosen, seemed but 6
small measure of the labor he was yet te
perform in his varied relations to his
fellow men.
Surely we are taught that we are de-
pendent upon God that He often darkens
our wisest counsels and thwarts our best
laid plans.
Governor Washburn's official life was
unfinished to the eye to man, when death
stepped before his path. 1t was abruptly
terminated as it could not have been by
any other than the Supreme Being. Let us
feel, too, the rightful authority of the
Lord of Lords.
But when we look about us and see
the void that this intercepted life has
made in almost all directions, we are, per
haps, even more strongly impressed by
the thought that God is our Lord and
that His ways are not our ways.
One-half of his work as Governor was
fully done. Had he. like his predeces
sors, been reelected, his life having been
spared, he would have had one more op
portunity next autumn to impress
upon the administration of State
affairs the marks of his en-.
ergy, ability, and honesty as he did last
autumn in most signal manner-as his
honored associates in Office most heartily
testify-and that would have been al
probably. He would then have given
place to another, and his undivided ener
gies would have been employed upon hi:
other accustomed labors-though it i.
summoned to other and perhaps wider
spheres of official life-for he had been
frequently called upon by the people
to perform public labors in times past Of
varied and honored character. He falls
however when we might expect him to be
in full strength to accomplish his best
work at the bar, his chosen and well loved
profession. This very month the Su.
preme Court of our State holds term in
yonder Court House. His clear, earnest
and emphatic words and arguments would
have been heard there had he lived. So
would they have been heard at other
terms of that and the lower courts in this
and other counties of the State for many
years of the future-heard and been ap-
preeiated. Why should he not have re.
tanned his-a towering position-at the bal
for fifteen years to come? Man sees nc
stronger or prouder day than his sixth
decade, and Governor Washburn was but
half through that. At fifty-fve many are
in the fullness of their physical and mental
strength. But this is not the extent of
his loss to his profession.
Having been for eight years, beginning
with 1874, Reporter of Decisions of the
Supreme Court, doing his work as he did
everything, with superior ability. But
having already prepared and published
a Digest of these decisions in three vol
umes, he was at his death serving the
will of our Legislature and of the bar of
the State in preparing Digest of all
those decisions from the beginning in one
solid and compact volume. He had
worked his toilsome way through 50 of
the Al volumes of those Reports, raising a
pile of manuscript upon his library table,
so large, so neat and legible in it's chirog-
raphy, that it might almost be the pride
of one mans lifetime, until the mind
refused to think and the pen dropped re-
from his hand.
But we must come nearer home. We,
bis neighbors and fellow citizens, see and
feel the blank his death has caused more
clearly still.
How can he be spared? is the question
that has fallen from the lips of multi
tude in the last few days in our village
and town. What is there that concern
the business, educational and social inter
ests of the place in which he has failed to
have an active, efficient and prominent
part
For years it has been matter that lay
near the heart of every public spirited
citizen of this place, that Railway COM
be opened from US TO the sur
world.
1t has been hard question 10 solve, q
great work to undertake, requiring the
most self-denying labors and contribu-
tons on the part OF our citizens as we'll
as those of towns near us The task
is not yet done, though we trust it is
assured. Who has studied longeF,or Labor
ed more assiduously or with more self
denying devotion, or contributed more
then he The first locomo.
tive that rolls over the track that il, ere
long, to unite this town with the railway
world, mighr, upon its painting and glister-
ing sides, bear no more appropriate name
than his, or one that would be more gladly
read by those who have done, as yet, the
most to forward that hoped for day.
Before me | see throng Of children
and youth gathered from our schools.
What meaneth this? It means that this
busy, hard working, over wrought man
has for several years, term after term, and
week after week, met them in their vari-
Gus school rooms that he has there most
inspected their work, while he
has taken pains, in thorough examina-
tions, to pass them along from their
infant classes, through grade after grade
till he he'd, with satisfaction and pride,
had the pleasure OF handing to some of
them the certificate of their graduation
aftec four years course OF study in the
High School.
All the details of this school work he
to with as much fidelity and III.
terest as he would if he had been at the
head of some of tho departments of
State, and working before the eyes of the
people be desired to win their ~pplsuse
for the excellence o, his Labor. We all
know he was ambitious and loved to stand
in prominent places, but he desired no
place he could not fill and fer which he
had not superior merits; and what is
appropriate to say here, he was
not one Of these hetly ambitious persons
who will never do anything except to at
tract the public guze through which they
may push themselves into prominence.
A prudential school committee is the
last sphera of labor one would soak W no