Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-04-03

the screen OF any foreign autnOfily. Inc
Senate has been constituted the sole
Judge of the election, returns, and
qualifications of its members We are
to Judge of elections, and may or may
not accept of what a legislature calls
an election. A Senator once admitted
cannot be removed by a State legisla-
ture. Any wrongful act in the premi-
SEES must be redressed by the Senate It
self, or go unredressed; and the Senate
is clothed with ample constitutional
authority, not only to vindicate Its own
honor, but to protect the honor OF the
State which may have been wronged III
any real or pretended election, returns,
or qualifications. For sufficient reasons
it may expel member, andthat touches
our own sense of honor and for suffl-
cient reasons may we not say that an
election is invalid, that the returns are
fraudulent, or that the qualification are
insufficient? Must every election, now
ever consummated, be treated as valid
by the Senate Their judgment is not
to be delivered capriciously there must
be gravity In the offense, or in the facts
which make an election voidable, but
we are bound by every sentiment OF
truth, by every impulse of honest patrl-
otism. to see to it that the character OF
the Senate, as it stands in the best pages
of our history, shall suffer no detriment
at our hands, and that it shall not be
made merchandise of by even the most
enterprising capitalists of any State.
| Any other doctrine hands the Senate
| over. bound hand and foot, to the mon
eyed rascals of our country, II there
| be or should be any such,
| 1t is no honor to any man TO hold
purchased seat in the Senate, nor by
| any title less than that of the free ana
unpurchased choice of the people. A
seat won by the expenditure of money
brings lasting disgrace upon any state,
and If winked at, tolerated, or excused
when the subject, after an impartial in
yestigation by a committee, and agree
ing upon the facts, is fairly before us
| for our decision, it will seriously impair
! the usefulness of the Senate, and tend
to make it a stencil in the nostrils OF the
people. States are represented here ana
not filthy lucre.
There is no dispute about the SIS, 600.
! IT brands the forehead of this case. MI.
| Carney admits he got it. Mr.. Caldwell
| admits he paid it. Every dollar of it
was corrupt 1t was worked and to
work in the dark.
Some consideration is asked. and per-
haps is due, to Mr. Caldwell as young
man wholly without experience in polit-
| ical affairs He was an entire stranger
to me, and | bear cheerful testimony
that since he has been one of our asso-
ciates have seen nothing in his bearing
to criticise. l only regret antecedent
facts whic cannot be ignored. Hemade
a deplorable mis-step in the manner OF
gaining his entrance, which not only al
fects.him, but also the Senate and his
State. He comes from young State
which. from its birth, has been the arena
of rude border conflicts. Partisan
strife there has been fierce, and, fear,
somewhat INSCRIPTIONS. 1t is enough
to say that Mr.. Caldwell does not appear
to have been conscious of any wrong in
the lavish use of money to secure his
election. Being man of wealth, it APP
pears to have been understood by good
many of the people of Kansas that it
was a very proper and nice thing for
him to do, to pay literally for their sup
port. But cannot believe that the ma
iority of the people of that growing
and gallant State are so demoralized as
to be willing to treat the election of 1871
as good and valid and to be unques-
toned forever Mr.. Caldwell, it is like
ly, has made grave mistake if he sup
poses his standard of politics snd moral
ity prevail everywhere, for think l am
safe in saying it will be repudiated by
Kansas, and it never was, and never
will be, accepted in the United States
Senate If this election is to be taken
as an index of the general state of the
political health of Kansas-and 1 do not
believe it is-then it is time the sharp,
extreme medicine of the Constitution
was administered; and certainly it is
time that Kansas should have AN oppor-
tunity 10 put herself right before the
world by new Senatorial election, with
out spot or blemish, and where, at least,
it will not be followed by an attempted
justification of fifteen thousand dollar
bride.
Most business men have heard of fore
stalling the market, which means inter
cepting whatever may be on its way
there. This operation, of course, if sue
cessful, enhances the price of whatever
happens to be in the market. The pub
lie are feeced, being obliged to take at
any cost whatever they can get but did
any one ever hear that such conspiracies
in trade were called honorable? If not
honorable so far as corner in grain or
cattle is concerned, how can corner be
justified in candidates for the United
States Senate? Thevalue of a candidate
might thus be temporarily raised, but ii
would be likely to fall with a crash
when the corner was over. Mercantile
honor bushes at such transactions, and
can that of the Senate be supposed TO be
less fastidious?
A word or two more, and | shall have
done. To assert that the Senate cannot
declare an election invalid wherever the
forms of an election have been preserv-
ed, or where some person has received a
majority of all the votes cast, quorum
being present, though the election is
spotted all over with corruption, is to
deny all power of relief, and reduce the
Senate from the rank of judges of cleo
tons to that of mere recording clerks
To assert that the Senate cannot Judge
of any qualifications save those particu-
larly mentioned in the Constitutional
age and citiZenship-wouldf force the adj
mission and retention of lunatics and
idiots. We admit members by MAORI
ty vote upon mere T1'iDaG tdcie evidence,
and when we come more maturely to
consider this evidence, upon finding il
inadequate, can we not exclude the
member by the same majority that gave
him admission? When, upon a more Sc
rious examination of the case, a disquali-
fication is found which would have been.
had it been known and acted upon, a
bar to the original admission, cannot
such member be let 90 in any other
way than by expulsion and a two-thirds
vote? This would seem to me like stick
ing in the bark, and ON this theory the
admission of members on prinaa fqcie ev-
idence becomes a snare and delusion.
In a case like the present, where the
disqualification would, | regret to be-
lieve, seem to justify expulsion, and
which shall feel compelled to vote for,
if the case shall not be disposed of in
the milder form proposed by the COM
mittee, l have no insuperable difficulty
in asserting the power to unseat, or to
declare that the party has not been duly
| and legally elected. Nor do / heliere