Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1873-03-13
Senator Wilson.

HON. HENRY WILSON retires from his
seat in the Senate to accept the position
of Vice President with record untar-
nished. Commencing life in obscure
poverty and working his way up through
difficulties which were well calculated to
develop the elements of true greatness,
he has now reached one of the highest
positions within the gift of the people.
He has served Massachusetts long and
well, and we do not wonder that they
give him up to the people of the country
with mingled feelings of pride and re-
1gret. The Boston journal, in an article
called out by Mr.. Wilson's letter to the
Governor of Massachusetts, rendering his
resignation as Senator, says:
1t is not merely what Mr.. Wilson has done
for the State that we think of at this time,
but what he has been. He leaves our service
as poor in this worlds goods as when he en-
tered it; and although it might not once
have been great tribute to statesman to
say that he was never implicated in job and
that not penny of his country's money had
stuck to his fingers, it is now, unhappily,
something worth saying. There is another
evil more common, if more trivial, among our
public men, which cannot be overlooked.
There is a species of official arrogance, which
that every one knows what it is. The young
| politician, who is so friendly and affable to
all, undergoes, with long continuance in Of
fee, a sort OF petrifcation. He seems to
| think that office has become his right, that
| even his constituents are made for him rather
| than he for his constituents, and SO he be-
comes distant, oracular and pOmpous. Moth
| ing of the kind attaches to Mr.. Wilson; he is
as accessible, as ready to oblige, as free to
| converse with the humblest, as he ever was.
| He has never got above the common people.
Hence has been nearer right in his views
| and in hiS predictions than most statesmen,
| because he has constantly shared the intu-
| itions of the masses. He had less need to
study history, because he believed it; or to
reflect on the public wants, because he felt
them himself. That this training has made
him in one sense a politician as well as a
| statesman, is no discredit. 1t was said Of
Sir Matthew Hale, when he was lawyer,
| that he knew all the arts of his profession,
but only to protect justice against them in
| the hands of others; and SO Mr.. Wilson's ex-
| perience and skill in political affairs have
| been used only to foil demagogues, to detect
and defeat corrupt combinations; and OF
such men, whether we call them politicians
| or statesmen, may there never be lack in
the councils of this government.
The augury on this score is good when we
reflect on the circumstances of the choice of
the Vice-President elect. Hawthorne,
although he had no political sympathy with
Abraham Lincoln, said he was satisfied that
the people had again indicated their in
stinct of selecting the right man for theil
President. We may say the same of the
Vice-President now, when we consider the
developments that have been made since
Mr.. Wilson was nominated and chosen
however alleviated those developments may
be. The country, almost without distinction
of party, is glad, and feels more secure, now
that Henry Wilson stands next behind Presi
dent Grant. In view of this great fact
Massachusetts, accepts the surrender of thu
Senatorial trust now rendered her, will
peculiar pride and sense of honor which
goes far to mitigate the regret she woult
otherwise feel.
1t is, indeed, fortunate for xthe Ameri
can people, and it seems also providen
tial, that in the recent developments o
! stains upon the characters of our public
men, the closest investigations hav'
+ failed to cast even so much assthe faintes
suspicion upon the untarnished name o
, the e-President-elect With what re
T grets the American people would hav
8 witnessed the Inauguration of Vice
' President whose hands had been staine,
!: by Credit Mobilier stock; and how re
t joiced all must feel in knowing that tn
8 men whom they have chosen to stand a
the helm of State for the next four year
!, are above even the suspicion of corruI
4 tion.-IoIed0 Blade.