Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-04-03
corrnp1ion in a senatorial Election.
THE CALDWELL CAsE-sPEEoH OF SENATOR
MORRILL,, OF VERMONT, IN THE UNITED
STATES SENATE, MARCH IA, 1873.

dent. this is case involving the largest
amount of alleged corruption OF any IN
fine history of Senatorial elections. Inc
navnent of some part of a considerable
sum of money is openly confessed. Ii
would be strange if such a case did not
admit of just, legal and definite soluc
ton. The highest pleasure and duty OF
Senators will be to shield the innocent
in spite of all clamor, and in spite OF all
unsupported charges; and it will be
equally their solemn duty not to clear
the guilty in spite of all personal friend
ships and in spite of all party attach
ments. | regret that such task, through
no fault of ours, has been imposed upon
the Senate, but, being imposed, it must
be met. :,
The party involved here seeks to avoid
our jurisdiction by setting forth the fact
that he made the contract for the pay
ment of money when he was private
citizen and before his election. Pray,
when would such contract or such q
bride be made? The absurdity OF max
ing it after the election is sufficiently
Obvious. The money must be secured
previous to the election or not at all. IL
appears to me that this plea OF lack OF
jurisdiction on such grounds is too un-
tenable to be worthy of further notice.
Again, our jurisdiction is sought to be
avoided under the plausible argument OF
State rights, or the plea that state
Legislature has the right, If it SO pleases,
to be corrupted without let or hinder
ance, and that candidate for the Senate,
being citizen and of proper age, can
not so far disqualify himself by any con-
duct. however disreputable, that the
| certificate of election, under the broad
seal of the State, will not secure and
hold for him seat as the peer OF all
the other Senators. Reasonable claims
! for State rights are to be respected, but
this is so clearly claim for State wrong
that cannot think it should be con-
| founded with any idea of State rights.
In such a case the State may have been
cruelty defrauded; the investigation OF
the proper committee may subsequently
| prove it and yet, without the requisite
action on the part of the Senate, there
! is no power left TO the State for redress.
The Senate must act as the guardian OF
the rights of the State.
There is only one point in the case
| which I care to consider. While there
is abundant testimony tending to show
that money was expended profusely In
the Kansas Senatorial election, by which,
| if true, the Legislature was largely de-
bauched, and while | am inclined to dis
pute the legitimacy and propriety of all
such expenditures by candidates as I'M
moral and unrepublican, yet the fact
disclosed by written contract, proven
by witnesses, and avowed and defended
by MIR. Caldwell, by which he agreed to
pay and did pay to Thomas Carney the
sum of $4,000 in consideration that
Carney should withdraw from being a
candidate against him in 1871, is the
chief fact apon which feel it to be my
duty to make some comments. The
question is, will the Senate suffer this
record to stand as a precedent which
NAV be safely followed for all time tC
come by such as have the means and are
not restrained by other virtues, or shall
it be promptly stamped with the disap'
proval of the Senate as corrupt bargain
that makes the election which follows
one which should neither be tolerated
or defended?
Technically, the payment of the large
sum of money to which have referred
may or may not amount to the crime OF
bribery, to be punished under statute
I IdN. Cb 10 lllt IL NCdlo NAN 4ifNAD W
bribery. and can those who think other
wise assign it to any element OF greater
purity 1t is not, it is true, the direct
price paid per capita for votes, but it was
a lump sum paid to a contracting party
for the same object, and calculated to be
even more potential and successful il
practice 1t was to seduce and capture
by wholesale rather than detail. The
winner of the race need have little merit
if his competitors should all, one after
another, be held back by fifteen thous
and dollar gifts and brides. Such brides
can be made for no other purpose thar
to purchase the goodwill and influence
of party supposed to be able and viii
ling to transfer support equal in value
to the money received. The party who
accepted in this case such shameful
gains, Mr.. Carney, with vulgar venal
ity that would be discreditable among
Jockeys at a horse-race, perpetratcd
with the direct aid of Mr.. Caldwell &
gross fraud upon those members of the
legislature who were elected, or who
might reasonably be counted upon as his
supporters, or over whom he had any
controlling influence, and who were kept
in innocent ignorance of the way anC
manner in which they had been bought
and sold.
But it may be asked was this fifteer
thousand dollar payment a bride, OF
anything wrong, after all. | will not
insult the Senate by saying to Senators
''put yourself in his place" and asking
if any one of you could do such thing
For while none would like to do it.
some might still think it not so very
wrong for somebody else to do it. A
definition is of little consequence where
the facts of the case furnish definition,
but let us look for moment at the def.
milton of the word ''bribe;" and one is
set forth to be, ''to pervert his iudg.
ment or corrupt his action by some gift
or promise. If the money paid by Mr..
Caldwell was not to pervert the judg.
ment of Mr.. Carney, for what purpose
was it paid? Before the money was
paid, very clearly Mr.. Carney and his
friends in the legislature considered Mr..
Caldwell less fit for the place of Senator
than himself-he may have been mis-.
taken, and | think he was-but his judg.
ment was perverted, changed in the
twinkling of an eye, and the fifteen
thousand dollars not only wrought that
miracle with Carney, but with his legis.
lative friends and supporters. 1t is plain
that Mr.. Carney's judgment was pervert.
ed, as well as that of those over whom
he welded any control. The action log
ically required and expected at his hands
was corrupt. 1t was not that he should
retire as candidate from any convic-
tons of personal propriety or political
rectitude, or from a sense of honorable
duty to the State of Kansas, but that he
! should retire as the purchased tool of
Mr.. CALDWELL tool with which to
make tools of the legislature of Kansas.
When an election has been made un-
der such circumstances, it is tainted at
the fountain, and the least, the very
least, the Senate of the United States
can do it, is to give the legislature of
Kansas the power to revise its action in
view of the facts which have been un-
covered, and which at the time of the
! election was as much unknown to the
legislature as to the Senate.
| The Senate of the United States has
/ @F@ ax, t~a1x IL L n