Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-12-21
Our Washington Correspondence
WAsHINCToN, Dec. l., 1870.
CONGRESSIONAL.

Neither House Of Congress has made much
progress in business this week. The House
disposed Of the revision of the postal laws
repeating the ranking privilege, but allow
ing newspaper exchanges and circulation Of
newspapers in the county of publication to
remain as now, free. 4 general amnesty
bill, with many exceptions, was discussed
Wednesday and Thursday in the House, and
is still " unfinished business, and will be
considered and disposed Of next week. 1t
was reported by Gen Butler, from the recon
struction committee, and be made charac-
teristically able speech in support of it. 1t
will not pass, and its provisions are the refore
of little consequence to your readers and
probably the requisite two-thirds vote can
not be got for any bill, except such as spe-
city the persons to be pardoned and thus
Congress will continue to peddle out amnesty
as hitherto
ADMIRAL PORTER.
The newspaper reporters have rather exag-
gerated the " sensation = in the House last
Monday over the bill disseminating the Office
of Admiral and Vice Admiral Gen Butler
was rather severe on Porter, and made some
charges that are not, probably, sustained BY
the facts, and Cox of New York could not
forego the opportunity Of pitching into any
body who helped put down the rebellion :;
but the tragic effect of the scene was not
great The bill passed without serious OBJ
lection, full as much because the navy is
unpopular in the House generally, as because
of Porter's letters. The Senate has not yet
acted upon it, and is considering the nomin-
alton of Porter to be Admiral and it is not
yet clear what that body will do. The vote
would be close, if taken now, on the con-
frmation
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS.
Senator McCreery of Kentucky made him
self notorious, if not Infamous, last Monday,
by Offering resolution looking to the re-
moval of the Union dead from Arlington,
and the restoration Of that property to the
widow of the rebel Gen. Lee and be en-
phasized the insult thus offered to the Senate
and the Union people of the country, by a
highly elaborate eulogy of Gen. Lee, compar-
ing him to Hampden and Sidney and others
who had fought in other times for liberty
Senator Edmunds made at once an indignant
and eloquent protest against even a consider
alton of the resolution and he was followed
by dozen Senators who each denounced the
proposal as insulting and atrocious. Senator
Sumner made an impressive speech, IN which
he admonished the Senate and the country.
to learn from this effort, what would come
if the Democracy ever got possession of pow
er in the csuntry, and he closed with the
following fine allusiOn to Shakespeare S
epitaph;
Do you remember, sir, in some respects
the most memorable epitaph ever written,
that over the remains of William Shakespeare?
1t is as follows
" Good Friends for Jesus sake forbear
To dig the dust inclOsed here
Blest be the man that spares these stones:
And cursed be he that moves my boncs.r
For two centuries and a half those words
have guarded the sacred remains of Eng
lands greatest poet, write them now over
the grave of every one of our patriot dead
May they continue, for centuries to come, TO
guard their remains.
Only three Democratic Senators were
found bold enough to join with the Kentucky
admirer of Gen. Lee on the vote to allow the
resolution to be introduced, viz Fowler of
Tennessee, and Hamilton and Vickers of
Maryland and several Democratic Senators
made haste to disavow any sympathy with
the proposition.
sCHURZ AND DRAKE
The sensation of the week has been the
personal and political encounter of the two