The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-03-02

ment was, hailed with joy but now every
thoughtful citizen, no matter what his DO.
lltical afflliations-save, perhaps, afew ex-
tremsts on either e--contemplates his
severance from the public service with re-
greet. The weeks OF the present session
have shown to the people of Vermont that
he Is the same Luke p Poland thot they
thought him to be when they FIRST made
him their representative In the Senate of
the United States and, subsequently, In the
lower house of Congress. They find that
he is the same Luke p. Poland whom they
were accustomed, year after year, to make
the chief justice of their supreme court.
They, and the people of the whole country,
see that he is statesman and patriot, not
a mere partisan and politician. They see
and acknowledge that he has amply atoned
for any mistakes and errors he may have
committed, and are prepared to believe that
even in these he has been sadly belied, his
motives misconstrued, and his acts mis-
represented. Time has vindcated his oft
repeated explanation that the so called
gag law was not a gag law" in any
sense of the word, and had no application
to prosecutions for libels. But here he
was made the victim of his professed party
friends. as well as OF the opposition 1t
was difficult to make either friend or foe,
democrats or republicans, believe in the
judges explanation, SO long as Chandler,
Butler, and George II. Williams placed
another construction thereon, construc-
ton, too, borne out by their avowcd object
in advocating and securing its passage. But
Senators Edmunds, Conkling, Frelnghuy-
sen, Wright, Thurman and Stevenson have
under the sanction of their official oaths,
attested to the truth of Judge Poland's ex-
PLANTATION and his sincerity and knowledge
of law in making it.
The people of Vermont and of the whole
country will, on account of the injustice
unwittlngly done him, forgive and forget
his mistakes, and remember only his great
services to the state and country. They
will not forget that he was eminent as a
lawyer, and that as judge he was learned,
impartial and dgnified. They will not
willingly forget that he dared to do right
in the Arkansas case; that he investigated
impartially, that he took legal and States
manlike view of the situation, and that his
report is that of judge not an advocate,
OF statesman not mere politician of
patriot not partisan /; that he raised his
voice in favor of the right of state to
self-goycrnment and of making its own
constitution without interference or dicta-
ton from the general government or any
other source. They will not forget that
he raised his voice in bold, manly protest
against the force bill, that he opposed it
with his voice and vote, and that lie en-
deavored to stay the hands of his more un-
scrupulous associates in their mad attack
on the security of personal liberty. Fhey
will not willingly forget his great work of
compiling, revising and codfying the
statute law of the United States-a work
with which his name will! be inseparably
linked for all time to come. They will not
forget that because he dared to be a states
man and impartial legislator, he has been
subjected to the most gross of caricatures
by professedly republican newspapers, and
has received, at similar hands, the most
unmerted and unjust calumny and abuse.
They will not forget that he risked all
hopes of a judicial office-an Office to
which he was and is entitled by his charac-
ter, standing and requirements, as well as
by every political consideration that de-
termines the disposition of office-by dar-
ing to do and be right. The President may
refuse to appoint Judge Poland to the dis
trict judgeshp, he may appoint another
and equally qualified man, but the people
will remember that Luke p. Poland, when
the choice was opened to him, preferred
the right to judgeshp, and, because he
SO preferred, he was sacrificed.