Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-03-15
Our Washington Correspondence.
THE PRESIDENT APPOINTS THE SENATE cor
MTTEES.

moving Mr. Sumner from the Craftsmanship
of the Senate Committee on Foreign Rela-
tions is the chief topic Of discussion here, as
it has been, for the last few days, IN the
newspapers throughout the country. The
course of those Republicans who have brought
about this result is generally regarded here
as having two motives, viz: personal dislike
of Mr.. Sumner and desire to please the
President, and thus become influential with
the '' administration. There is no doubt
that since the President found he could not
use Mr.. Sumner, he has disliked him, and
endeavored to have him removed from the
Committee on Foreign Relations. There is
also no doubt that Mr.. Summers opposition
to the annexation of a part of the island of
San Domingo made the President and his
household, composed in part at least OF
persons who were in their swaddling clothes
when Charles Sumner was already states
man and leader In the ranks of those bat
Ting for human rights, -Outspoken and
bitterly hostile to the Massachusetts Senator.
The first public manifestation of this hostility
was in the removal of Mr.. Motley, as Min
lister to England, Immediately following the
Senate's rejection of the San Domingo treaty.
The Secretary of State, in correspondence
with Mr. Motley subsequently,, sufficiently
disclosed the aninlus of the State Department,
and of the Executive, toward Mr.. Sumner.
The Senator could not fail to see these evil
dences of hostility to him, and he would have
been something more than human 1t ne had
not personally shown that he resented them.
1t is not strange, that friendly social relations
should be broken off as a consequence OF this
attack upon Mr.. Sumner and his friends it
is simply impossible that a high-spirited
person, not accustomed to fatter and praise
those in power for the sake of influence with
those who have appOintmentsa at their disposal,
and occupying 50 high position politically
and socially as not to be likely to be largely
influenced by invitations to dinner either at
the White House, or the Secretary of States,
should remain amiable and sweet-tempered
toward those who thus made war upon him.
Partly as a consequence of this condition of
things came the violent and ll-tempered de-
bate in the Senate on San Domingo before
the holidays and now, as the elimination
of the quarrel, twenty-six out of forty-seven
Republican Senators present and voting at q
caucus, have decided to remove Mr.. Sumner
from his position as chairman of the Com
mittee. of which he has been the head since
1861; and the action of the caucus has been
ratified by the Senate. The vote in the
caucus, as given in the papers, on the motion
of Senator Wilson, to retain Mr.. Sumner as
chairman of the Committee, was as follows
Yeas-Messrs Boreman, Caldwell, Cor
bett, Cragin, FentOn, Ferry Of Connecticut,
Gilbert, Hitchcock, Logan, Morrill, Of Maine,
Morrill, of Vermont, Robertson, Schurz
Spencer, Sprague, Sherman, Upton, Trum-
bull, Wilson, Window and Wright-2I.
Nays-Messrs. Ames, Brownlow, Carpen-
ter, Chandler, Cole, Conkling, Edmunds
Ferry of Michigan, Flanagan, Frelinghuysen,
Howe, Harlan, Hamlin, Kellogg. Lewis,
Morton, Nye, Osborn, Pomeroy, Pool, Pratt,
Ramsey, Sawyer, Scott, Stewart and West
20
If all the Republican Senators had been
present Mr.. Summers vote would have been
larger relatively, but still less than a major
ity Yesterday the appointment of commit
nearly the entire session, with a crowded
gallery and large audience on the floor
Senators Wilson, Schurz, Trumbull, Logan
and Upton spoke warmly against the pro-
posed action, while Senators Howe, Ed
munds. Nye and Morton, defended the action
of the caucus Other Senators, like Senator
Sherman of Ohio, and Morrill, of Vermont.
while strongly disappearing the action of the
caucus, yet held that that action was final,
and bound those who participated in it..
The removal of Mr.. Sumner was finally con-
summated, 80 Senators voting for it and 9
against,-25 not voting.
OF the debate yesterday it should be said
that those who advocated the removal of Mr.
Sumner had much the worst of it. The
reasons given by them were of the most
trivial nature amounting only to the fact
that Mr. Summers social relations with the
President and Secretary Of State were not
pleasant And has it then come t. this, -
that the President and the Secretary Of State
have brought the Republican party in the
Senate to the business of remOdeling their
most important committee question OF
dinners and social etiquette This is latter
| day republicanism IN the United States SEN
ate
But even this is not the worst of it. This
excuse for the course pursued was not the
! honest reason, but the merest evasion of it.
| Opposition to San Domingo on the part of
Senator Sumner the beginning of the
trouble it is the moving cause now
all the rest is leather and pruneIla. Social
relations would not have been disturbed had
it not been for that. That is the alpha and
omega of the whole business. And so it has
been brought about, that the oldest member
of the Senate, one of the few pioneers in the
Republican movement, the most fit man in
the Senate for the craftsmanship of the Com
mittee on Foreign Relations, the man whose
name is familiar to the philosophers and
statesmen of two hemispheres, the man
whose words have gone before the party OF
freedom like pillar of flame to light it on
its way is struck off of the committee over
whose deliberations he has wisely presided
since the Republican party came into power
and Senator Cameron takes his place And
this is done because the President demands
it a punishment for fearless and sue
cessful resistance to most unwise and
dangerous executive scheme of annexation.
If the Republican party of the country does
not find some way of showing that it utterly
disapproves of, and unqualifedly condemns
this attack upon Senator Sumner because he
has the courage to think and act for himsel
against executive influence, it will be false
to all its early history. and will invite il.