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

EXIT AMOS ALDRICH.
Amos Aldrich played well his part in the
broad farce of assembling himself together
as an electoral college so long as he merely
acted the part of a puppet end had George
M. Fisk Of Mortified to pull the string.
Nothing could have been neater than the
alacrity with which he responded to a tele-
gram the submisSiveness with which he
took the train at Albany and betook him
self straightway to Montpelier; the docil-
ity with which he suffered himself to be
led captive to the state house at ten o'clock
at night, taking q notary public, to wit,
Fisk, with him the blank amazement with
which he viewed that dark and gloomy
pile where, but a few weeks before, he had
voted to furnish, at the expense of the
state, his biography to the members of the
next general assembly the pathetic, yet
both commanding and persuasive, manner
in which he cried "sesame" to the closed
doors, and bid them let him enter; the
air of conscious power with which
he attempted to bulldoze tho republican
electors into giving him recognition and
permitting him to cast his vote and one
fifth Of the vote of Vermont for Samuel j.
Tilden his bearing when he was ignored,
as though he bore on bis own shoulders the
outrage perpetrated on the forty million in
hsbitsnts of the United States the grace
which he assembled himself together as an
electoral college all by himself the be-
coming modesty with which he placed
Amos Aldrich in the chair, elected Amos
Aldrich secretary, aud unanlmouley APP
pointed Amos Aldrich messenger the
calm dignity with which, representing the
freemen of Vermont and one-ffth of her
sovereignty, he balloted for Samuel J..
Tilden for president and Thomas A. Hen
bricks for vice president the dispatch
with which he placed two sealed certificates
in the postofice, one directed to the presi-
dent of the senate at Washington, and the
other to the judge of the United States dis
trict court at Burlington.
All this was neatly, admirably done. We
donbt if it could have been improved upon.
But the credit of the performance is all due
to George NJ. Fisk of Mortified. Amos
Aldrich was q mere puppet in his hands.
When Fisk said "thumbs up" up went the
thumbs; when he said ''thumbs down."
down they went ; and when he said "wig
"wag," %straightway Aldrich wigwagged.
When, however, Aldrich wa away from
Fisk's apron string, how miserably he col
lapsed He thought that an express mes
senger-or rather two or three of them
was Amos Aldrich, and so he committed
the third certificate to the express. He
had slept and, pe~rchance, was tormented
by dreams and thought that a polictical
revolution had been wrought and that
Abram s. Hewitt had become vice-presi-
dent-or, perhaps, he fondly imagined that
as the secretary of the interior was chair
man of the republican national committee,
that the vice-president was er cb7cio chair
man of the democratic national committee
but be this as 1t may, instead of personal
ly delivering the third certificate to the
president Of the senate at Washington, he
sent it by express to Abram 8. Hewitt
and the result is that poor Aldrich and his
vote didn't obtain q hearing before the
electoral commission. So much for leav-
ing the poor fellow to his own devices.
But however much of a farce Aldrich
was playing, we think that the president of
the senate made a grave mistake. Aldrich
had not, to be sure, the shadow OF q clam
to have his vote counted. Under the de-
cision Of the electoral commission, right or
wrong, the vote of Sollace would have
been counted. But the president of the
senate received, by mail, one certificate
purporting to contain the electoral vote Of
Vermont certified to by Aldrich, as he,
also, did one certified to by Jacob Estey
and others. He had no means of knowing
which was the legal, valid certificate. Sc
far as he knew or could know, both were
equally valid-the question of validity and
legality was to be determined when the Ger
ti6cates were opened in the presence of the
two houses of congress, and could not bt
determined at any other time.
So far the two certificates stand on the
same footing. Later, George Nichols, Of
Mortified, purporting to be the messen
ger OF the Vermont electoral college
which, in fact, he was, but the president
of the senate had no means of ascertainine
the fact-delivered a duplicate of the Ger
tiicate certified to by Estey, Sollace, snt
others. Aldrich failed to deliver the dupli
cate of his certificate, Fisk having failed t.
make him understand that the president o
the senate and the chairman of the dem
ocratic national committee were different
persons. The law requires that il no Ger
tifcate is received at Washington by the
first Wednesday OF December a specia
messenger shall be dispatched to the dis
trict judge for the certificate deposited
with him. Such a certificate was depos
tied with the district judge of Vermont
but no messenger wa sent for it. A Ger
tifcate was received by the president O
the senate by mail, but he refused to opel
it. We think that the law required eithe
that the certificate in the hands Of Judg
Smalley should have been sent for, or tina
the one received by mail should have beef
opened.
The opening of the certificate woul'
have made no difference in the result, blu
still it should have been opened and sub
mitted. Surprising that the president 0
the senate had assumed to determine tina