Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-06-17
SENATOR SUMMERS SPEECH.

We surrender share of our space this
week to an abstract of the speech of Sen
ator Sumner, in order that our readers
may see just what kind of language and
arguments are relied upon to defeat the
reelection of Gen. Grant, and that they
may see, too, how blind and bitter
hatred toward another will sometimes
warp and distort the judgment of the
best minds.
Mr.. Sumner has concentrated into this
speech the gall and wormwood of many
months distillation, and careful anal
ysis of the speech, which we bespeak at
the hands of our readers, will show little
or nothing besides. For fact, for figures,
and for solid reasoning, we look in vain.
The entire speech is distinguished solely
as being the vent of some personal spleen.
Nowhere is any credit given for the
great work of the administration no.
where do we find aught but vindictive
malice and bitter personal hatred. He
ignores every question of craftsmanship,
and every question which relates to the
good of the country or of the people All
the benifcent results which have followed
the wise measures of the administration
are flung aside, and his speech is charac-
terized by mastery effort to magnify
its Fly specks,' and parade them in the
most envenomed language before the
gaze of the world. He talks savagely
about Rings, which Investigations set on
foot at his own instigation have failed
to disclose, and swells into alarming
proportions the stale charges of despotism,
of GIFT taking, of admiring good horses,
of spending a portion of his summer at
the seaside, and of riding in palace cars.
In this particular Mr.. Sumner vies with
Dana, of the New York San. Both
parties vent their spleen in the same
stereotyped charges, for which they ought
to receive a patent, and the extreme
fimsiness and weakness of which shows
better than anything else the lack of
graver charges, which can be laid at the
door of the President. Both are at en-
nifty with the President on purely per-
sonal grounds, and seek to draw the
country into their purely personal quar-
rels. In this it is PLAIN to see they will
be disappointed. The country is fully
convinced that the administration Of
Gen. Grant has been in the main emf
} nently wise and patriotic, and has been
carried on with a success and regard te
economy remarkable in the annals of the
administrations of our country, and il
( bothers it's head but little whether
Charles A. Dana be Collector of the Port
of New York, or Charles Sumner b,
Chairman of the Senate Committee o
Foreign Affairs, or not.
The speech was evidently made will
view of influencing the Philadelphi;
Convention, for at the very time of it
delivery hundreds of delegates to tina
6 convention were in Washington, ant
/ many of them listened to it. 1t is no
E at all probable that any of them woul'
suffer themselves to be biased by thi
fsh-woman's TRADE of SANDER and vitu
peration F.; and, happily, the people rep
resenting the party which elevated Gen
/, eral Grant to the Presidency four year
since, in view of his wise administrator
of its affairs, have already taken tn
matter into their own hands, and hav
/, signiied in their election of delegates
e that convention desire for his re-nom
j. nation and reelection.
n 1t is not pleasant for US to write thes
p things of Mr.. Sumner For years W
d have looked upon him as the foremos
p man in all the country, and as one VIII
5, always subordinated self and self-intel
Is est to the best interests of the countr,
d We write therefore of his present vii
y dictive and malignant effort, more j
sorrow than in anger. He has dor
much for the country, and is entitled
much consideration, but others are Ell
titled to just as much. Even he who
81 he so vilely assails, is the very man WI
at took command of our armies at time
u general depression and gloom, and col
ut Quoted us to glorious success; the ma
e who, as the saviour of the country, W;
~ called, like Washington, its father, |
c. the spontaneous voice of the people
n the Presidential chair; the man who
ne administration has been distinguish
by tranquility, prosperity and progress
: the calm, modest, self-poised hero-Pres
no dent, equally successful in war and
:, peace. Is it for Mr.. Sumner to malig
be and vilify this man as though he were
~ common villain? Does he suppose t
! people have forgotten these illustrio
~ services? Does he imagine that patric
b, ism and gratitude are dead? Let him ia
~ his course. If we must part with hi
SO be it. 1t is for the Republican par
to say what Republicanism is, and tn
Elk it is for him to say whether he W
VA trample upon the record of his life, al
an ally himself with the foes of every eau
IDS he has ever advocated Watchman
l." .Stote Journal.