Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-01-11
Mock Session Again.

Legislature, the FREEMAN, and myself, by
turns, in consequence of the appearance OF
my article concerning the " mock session,
in your paper of Nov. 80, which seems to
have created an excitement hardly paralleled
by any similar one since the famous Stowe
Byron controversy of a year and half ago
At least Judge that the storm which my
article raised, bears about the same relation
to its giant predecessor that the renown OF
the Legislature does to the fame of Lord
Byron, or the reputation of your humble
correspondent to that of the great novelist,
who, with single stroke of her feminine
pen, set all the world agog.
do not suppose, however, that it is neces-
sary for me to write book in defense of my
statements, as there are plenty of living wit
nesses who can testify to their truthfulness,
with one apparent exception, and that, one
of insdvertency, and not of intention, to
which l shall refer pretty soon. The Wo-
man s Journal, which has been 50 persist
emily misrepresented, that it seems itself to
have caught the spirit of misrepresentation
prints a garbled extract from my article,
selecting a sentence here and a sentence
there, and SO putting them together as to
make me say much more than | did sag
and then in its editorial remarks, manufac
/ lures an important statement which puts
different and much darker phase upon the
whole affair. statement as foreign to truth
as it is TO any connection with my article,
from which it purports to have been taken.
! The Burlington Free Press, in hurting back
in the teeth Of its author, this statement OF
the Journal, that the ladies attending upon
the session were - unable to escape in con
sequence of the crowd, ' falls into another
error-which the St. Adams Messenger stig-
matizes as an insult to the ladies, by saying
that its readers a. can judge how many and
what class Of ladies would be likely at that
hour Of a stormy night, TO be pressing into
a hall filled with men" Now the female
portion Of that audience was made up OF
sOme-and think many-ot the wives and
daughters of honorable members, and Others
of equal respectabilitv, and there were
q hundreds . of them They were not g un-
able to escape" and some did escape, as
others came in but | have no doubt that
many Of even the most refined Of the ladie:
none Of whom are quite as angelic as the
Womsr's Journal would have Us think
though more 50 than the remarks of the Ere
Press and Rutland Herald would seem to in
dicate-had a curiosity to see and hear wha
was to be said and done, notwithstandin.
; the Objectionable features which all the pa
pers alike condemn, as too free for any pubh
audience. Besides, it is said that a pledge
had been given to some members, who's
families desired to attend, that these impro
prietics, which had cast their shadows be
fore. should be suppressed. pledge which
those members who made 1t, were probably
unable to make good so the ladies ha
reason to believe at any time, that the wors
was over, and remained, not in enioymen
Of the " fun, :" but in the vain hope tina
something would be presented which the
could enjoy,
Some weeks ago wrote, and read befor
a literary society, a poem, in which Occurre
these lines
Came gus WIN p gra,sI from, between tie Nv
E just over the way. and before could STIR.
He had planted lis teeth iu The leg OF my Trousers
And it was true that did experience
. dream very like the one ! described, bu
e there being no Daniel to whom l could Z
e for = the Interpretation thereof, I was q
c a loss to know what it meant, bat see no.
that it was the presager of the roaring G
E the Queen City lion, the neighing of tn
e Rutland war horse, and the threatenin
# growl of your correspondent a. Truth,
e And this brings me 10 the part OF my art
= Gle which has been branded as false
t q outrageous, Sc. 70 show that N
d statements were not 50 outrageous - q
T they might have been, l quote from III
d Free Press, which says " We do net PR
u pose to palliate the indeceneies Of the moe
4 session. This paper was among the first t
= characterize them az they deserved" Th
Rutland Herald also characterizes the Or,
g ceedings as "a indecencies,' but says that fl
: the credit Of the State. they should hay
t been kept out of print. But it seems to IN
\ that when our halls Of legislation are throw
q open T. the public, and we are asked to wal
in and listen to the Wit and wisdom ther
4, exhibited, the people have a right to kuo,
the character of the entertainment 10 while
2 they are invited.
d Now let me explain the statement IN m
2 article, which is declared TO be a. false - h
It the Free Press and Herald, and by your co.
respondent-not. admit, without some re,
+ son-yet it not a falsehood, though
n seems to have conveyed false impression
V the mind OF the reader. | said that bi
a came from the Senate, 50 had that bot
n Clerk and Speaker refused to read j
It % Most people in Vermont, - as Truth
2 says, know what a mock session Is. an
a how it is organized, and by whom composed
V The fact that it is always organized and hel
d in the Hall of the House, and composed
i members and everybody else who choose
V take part in it, is so well known, that
/ didn't occur to me that in saying a bi
n came from the Senate, | should be unde
II stood to mean that the Senate, too, was pas
il ing bills in - mock session., and sendir
d them over to the House as in ordinary legi
y latiOn though see that in legislative pa
e lance | might easily be SO understood
y should have said that bill came from tt
Senate Chamber, or from Senator. whic
& was simply what | meant. So | made I
c g charge against the Senate which yol
n correspondent asks me to retract, though
e am aware that | owe to that gentleman an
r to the Honorable Senate, an apology for th
e mistake | made in using language wbic