The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-08-12
A Pen Photograph of Hon. Geo.
F. Edmunds, Senator
from Vermont.

This gentleman, as chairman oil tn,
Senate judiciary committee, is virtually
chief manager Of the Belknap impeach
ment case on the part of the Senate, SC
your readers may be pleased to have hil
pen photograph presented to them.
Senator Edmuuds stands, in my estima
ton, in the fore front Of the public mer
of this day, and deseryedly 80. He makes
few long speeches; but as one of the
shapers, one Of the wheel. horses Of pub
lie business, he makes numerous shorI
ones, and in them, especially in the latter
the moral and mental man is revealed L
the careful listener. Admitting his power
| have often wondered if he would no
havo become q much greater man il b,
had early carried his New England cul
ture and training to the broader fields o.
the West. Sargent 8. Prentiss would
never have developed into the greatest OIL
American orators, nor Stephen A. Doug.
las into the most sudaolous of American
leaders, nor Salmon P. Chase into the
most comprehensive Of American states
men, had they not early emigrated from
New Hampshire.
"The spirit grows with its allotted spaces,
The mind Ia narrowed In q narrow sphere
Nature, which abhors vacuum, is
averse 10 the development Of uuneeded
powers. New England is becoming our
old ENGLAND, whose hshits and customs
and modes Of thooght are stereotypcd. and
where men may grow high bu, moi broad
In earlier days there ~u~ All amplitude
of space. Of forests Of opportunities that
constantly enlarged the ambitious men II
New England but in these days they
are "crbbed, cabipcd and confined" and
no'eas rolens they must move 10 pre-.
arranged ruts. More because Of the
greater mental breadth OF theWest than OF
its marvellous increase Of population. it is
true that westward the course Of empire
takes its way" 1t is significant That
nearly all OF the important legislation OF
the last fifteen years is of Western origin,
albeit New England furnished the germ.
inal ideas
Morton and Edmunds are really great
men, who would have come to the front
in the days Of Clay, Calhoun and Web.
ster The former may be called the po.
litical, the latter the judicial statesman
Each excels the other. and their respcc.
tive excellences are mainly the results of
their local training and education Pri.
marilY attending to the new and ever
widening needs of the maryelously ex.
panding West. Morton has greater vigor,
breadth and originality than his associate
Attention to the business wants of the
East, with their sharply defined competi.
tion, hos given to Edmunds closer
power of analysis ard Of logical express
sion than his Western compeer. Ed.
munds would excel in dissecting a subject
to its finest elements; Morton, in taking
those elements and reconstructing them
into some grand national measure. In
politico.moral questions Edmunds is
sometimes SO chained by his logical per.
oeption Of the claims Of the law that he
does not allow full scope for the equities
of politics. Coming from the West, peo.
Piled largely by men ignorant of culture.
but we'll acquainted with general princi.
Piles, Morton is imbued with that moral
logic that widens legislation SO as to give
play 10 the purer aspirations OF the peo.
pie. He is one OF the few who realize
that laws do not really emanate from
Congress, but from popular desires. 10
ordinary times the Judicial Edmunds is
the safer leader; in radical times the po.
litical Morton would more surely ioresee
the nations wants. Ii would be unjust
to Edmunds to gather from the above
that he is that satire upon craftsmanship
"A strict constructionist It is only
when contrasting him with Morton, whom
l consider the most comprehensive of oil
our public men, that he can be charged
with lack Of breadth.
The term 1.-THE statesman Judge" Dor.
trays EdmuDds more fully than any other
term that | can employ. AS Judge. he
would not exercise casustical skill in
narrowing great measure Ike the en-.
forcement act so as to embrace as little
as possible, but would endeavor so to
widen it as to give expression to those
purer impulses Of the popular heart from
which such laws really spring. Finding
perchance, no grant of power in the pre-.
face to the constitution, yet he would
ever keep in mind that the constitution
end the laws enacted hereunder we're
primarily intended "to promote the gen.
eral welfare" He would be striking
illustration OF the fact that the perfect
judge must be graduate from tho ronks
Of practical stateamanship.
In presenting his mental characteristics
(and here would be glad to have q
whole column of your paper, can only
say that he ia not merely logician, ever
keeping his premises and conclusions in
perfect harmony ian excellence which in.
dustrious mediocrity can secure). but he
has rare mental insight the power to dis.
cover truth though hidden in obscure aud
involved labyrinths 10 short he is
thinker ; and rare pleasure il is to hear
him speak on subject which he has
patiently mastered No empty seats. no
chatting senators then. All his associates
feel that master mind ia about to open
itself, and high profit will repay attention
Never has the United States Senate
listened TO more brilliant efforts than his
speeches on the pincbback acd BeKnap
questions, speeches which resulted in the
overthrow of the hopes of both Of those
gentlemen. (Of his Belknap speech |
only speak from hearssy) | am The
freer to say this because had | been
senator, instead Of an employe, my vote
would have neuiralized his vote. When
! speak Of his briIliancy. apply it 10 the
thoughts. and in no respect TO the Ian.
guage or manner, for simpler, less adorned
language. or quieter, though impressive
manner, can scarcely be imagined than
that Of Senator Edmunds.
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