Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-05-19

Mr.. Hoars speech to the Senate in
the Belknap impeachment trial is one
of the most remarkable specimens of
fine and vigorous eloquence that we
have ever read. Every word is in place,
every word tells; the sentences are con-
else and trenchant, and the sentiment man
ly and noble. We quote tho close OF the
speech from the official report, which prob
ably does not fall under the eye of many of
our readers
ST said little while ago that The Consii-
tuition had no safeguards 10 throw away.
You will Judge whether the public events
of to-day do not admonish US to look well
to all our securities to prevent or power to
punish the great guilt of corruption in Of
ice. We must not confound idle clamor
with public opinion, or accept the accusa-
tons of scandal and malice instead of proof
But we shall make worse mistake If, be-
cause of the multitude of false and ground
less charges against men in high office, we
fail to redress substantial grievances or to
deal With cases of actual guilt. The worst
evil resulting from an indiscriminate at
tack of an inscriptions press upon men
in public station is not that innocence suf-
fers, but that crime escapes. Let scandal
and malice be encountered by pure and
stainless lives. Let corruption and bril-
berry meet their lawful punishment.
"My own public life has been very
bri eff and Insignificant one, extending little
beyond the duration of a single term of
senatorial Office but in that brief period |
have seen five judges of high court of the
United States driven from office by threats
of impeachment for corruption or malad-
ministration. l have heard the taunt, from
frendliest lips, that when the United States
presented herself in the East to take part
with the civilized world in generous conf
petition in the arts of life, the only product
of her institutions in which she surpassed
all others beyond question was her corrup-
ton. have seen in the state in the Union
foremost in power and wealth four judges
Of her courts impeached for corruption,
and the political administration of her CHIEF
city become a disgrace and a by-word
throughout the world. l have seen the
chairman of the Committee on Military
Affairs in the House, now distinguished
member of this court, rise in his place and
demand the expulsion Of four of his asso-
| ciates for making sale of their official priv
| ilege of selecting the youths TO be educated
at our great military school. When the
greatest railroad, binding together the con-
| tineut and uniting the two great seas which
wash our shores, was finished, have seen
our national triumph and exaltation turn
ed TO bitterness and shame by the unani-
nous reports of three committees of Con-
gress-two of the House and one here
| that every step of that mighty enterprise
| had been taken in fraud. / have heard in
highest places the shameless doctrine
| avowed by men grown old in public office
| that the true way by which power should
| be gained in the republic is TO bride the
people with the offices created for their ser
vice, and the true end for which it should
| be used when gained is the promotion of
| selfish ambition and the qualification of
personal revenge. have heard that sus-
| picion haunts the footsteps of the trusted
| friends of the President,
"These things have passed into history.
| The Hallam or the Tacitus or the Sismun-
| di or tho Macaulay who writes the annals
| of our time will record them with his mex
orable pen. And now, when high Cabi-
| net officer, the constitutional adviser of the
| Executive. fees from Office before charges
| of corruption, shall the historian add that
| the Senate treated the demand of the peo-
| Pile for its Judgment of condemnation as a
| farce and laid down its high functions be-
| fore the sophistries and jeers of the crimi-
nal lawyer? Shall he speculate about the
| petty political calculations as to the effect
| ON one party or the other which induced
| his Judges to connivo at the escape of the
| great public criminal? Or, on the other
hand, Shall he close the chapter by nara
ting how these things were detected, re-
| formed and punished by constitutional
processes which the wisdom of our fathers
| devised for us, and the virtue and purity
| of the people found their vindicaton in the
| justice of the Senator"