Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1873-03-14
Senator Wilson.

Hon. HENRY WILSON retires from his
seat in the Senate to accept the position
| of VicePresident 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
vel, and we do not wonder that they
| give him up to the people of the country
with mingled feelings of pride and re-
gret 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 1T; and although 1t might not once
have been a 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 species of official arrogance, which
is hard to define, but which we so often meet
that every one knows what it is. The young
politician, who is so friendly and aifable to
all, undergoes, with long continuance in Of
flee, 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 he has been nearer right in his views
and in his predictions than most statesmen,
because he has constantly shared the iutu-
itions of the masses. He had less need to
study history, because he believed it; or to
reflect. on the public wants, because ne felt
them himself. That this training has made
him in one sense politician as well as
statesman, is no discredit. 1t was said Of
Sir4Matthew 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 deInagogues, to detect
and defeat corrupt combinations; and of
such men, whether we call them politicians
| or statesmen, may there never be a lack in
| the councils of this government.
| The augury on this score is good when we
re feet 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 vindicated their in
| bJluCG VI bGltCIluB JuC IlSlI .luuu lOI Jutll
| 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 the
| Senatorial trust now rendered her, with
peculiar pride and a sense of honor which
goes far to mitigate the regret she would
otherwise feel.
- 1t is, indeed, fortunate for the Ameri-
! can people, and it seems also pr0viden-
| tial, that in the recent developments of
stains upon the characters of our public
men, the closest investigations have
failed to cast even so much as the faintest
suspicion upon the untarnished name of
the Vice-President.elect. With what re-
grets the American people would have
witnessed the Inauguration of Vice
President whose hands had been stained
by Credit-Mobilier stock; and how re.
| joiced all must feel in knowing that the
men whom they have chosen to stand at
the helm of State for the next four years
are above even the suspicion of oorrup-
tion. Toledo Blade.