Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-01-03

ley to General Grant for the presidency.
Forgetting his long and faithful service,
careless of his advancing years and feeble
health, the opportunity afforded by his advo-
cacy of an unpopular measure is taken to
wound him in his tenderest feelings rs a
tried and faithful public servant who has al
ways, according to his best light, sought the
true interests of his country, and to break
him down in the respect of the people whom
he has served, and of the world.
Our view of the subject may not be the
correct one, but It is this No one can
doubt thatt knator Sumner, whatever may
have been his faults or his errors, is an hon.
est, sincere, patriotic and able public man.
Such men are scarce in the political world,
and getting scorcer, while thieves and specu-
latoT are multiplying in and around the
centers Of legislation. These latter are a.
'cays faithful to party, because it pays.
Right or wrong, or without any regard to
the right or the wrong, every party measure
is sure of their support; and when il is
passed they havetheir wnlittle bills-as phil
anthropic in their way, perhaps, as any of Mr..
summers, but ofwhich the philanthropy begins
and ends with themselves and their "ring"-
which must be put through as the price Of
their party zeal.
The greatest obstacle to the success Of the
little games of such men, is the presence in
the public councils of statesmen like MIR.
Sumner, upon whose garments the smell Of
corruption has never passed Could these
be got rid of entirely, could their bulldog
vigilance over the public treasury and the
rights of the people be suppressed, every
thing would be lovely and land grants, mo.
nopoies, and every scheme for plundering
the people, could be got through with ease.
Now, as aiming to represent the true in
terests of the people-the working and tax
paying people-and especially of the farm
er, "who pays for ALL" we deem it our duty,
regardless of any party predictions, to sup
port the honest public man. (even though he
may often, in our judgement, be wrong in
his measures,) against all plundering politi-
clans. Important as many party measures
may be, injurious as some of them are, even
when proposed and passed with the purest
and most patriotic motives, we regard the
purity of our public councils as of vastly
greater Importance than any mere partizan
triumphs The honest administration of the
government is to be preferred above all else.
Erroneous legislation can be altered or re-
pealed, but public corruption once securely
seated IN the high places of our government
will make havoc with our most sacred rights,
and undermine the very foundations Of our
liberties
Without anticipating the report Of Judge
Poland's committee on the Credit Mobiler,
or undertaking to distribute the blame of
that or other similar scandalous transactions,
enough is known by the public confession Of
Cakes Ames to have fully satisfied every
member of the Massachusetts legislature
that he has been engaged in a great scheme
of public plumber, in the carrying out OF
which the bribery of fellow members Of
Congress was at least attempted by him.
Yet that Legislature, assembled in extra ses-
sion on account of the Boston fire. went
aside from its work to cast ycnsure upon Mr.
Sumner for what, at the mot, was but a
sentimental wrong, and left their plundering
bribing representative unrebuked. We
should hope that no citizen, of all a
citizen-soldier who had risked his life in de
fence of the UniCn,-would hesitate to agree
with Us in the condemnation OF such a pro
ceeding That Union was hardly worth pre-
serving at so much cost of life and treasure
merely to fall into the hands of men lik,
Ames and his contederates. And it rW Sc
fall, if we are to break down our homes
statesmen on account of their comparatively
harmless crotchets, or even for default o
strict party fealty