The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-11-09
WASHINGTON.


W WASHINGTON. ". T., NOV. Z, 1917.
The event which has stirred the ma
tional capital to It's profoundest depths
since my last letter. is the death of
Senator Morton. As q party leader he
was the foremost statesman in American
politics. lie was not so great ali orator
rs Senator Conkling. and in "the audac-
ity of genius" was not equal TO James
&. Blaine; hut in devotion TO the fun
damcntal ideas of the Republican party
he was as earnest as any living man.
while in the power of political manage
ment he was not approached by any fhis
contemporaries. Herein his superiority
was universally acknowledged. Nor
did this capacity of management consist
of the power of what we call political
manipulation only. Such capacity is
not in itself admirable. 1t may be, of
ten is, the mere superiority of skill in
trickery. But Mr.. Morton knew how
to supply great and intelligent organ
ization with the arguments for n popu-
lar campaign in more compact and
powerful form than any other man we
have ever had in our politics.
This remarkable power, though often
manifested by him. was never more
notably shown than in the campaign of
1872. IL was he who STAYED the famous
"tidal wave" of that year, which, carly
in the canvass. threatened to ovcrwhclm
the Republican party and to bear IIor-
ace Greeley 10 the chief magistracy of
the nation. Every intelligent man will
recollect that early in that campaign il
was generally conceded that il would
be difficult if not impossible to stem the
tremendous tide which was bearing the
Liberal movement so grandly forward.
II was Morton who did it. His speech
at the Philadelphia convention was the
platform of the party, the inspiring
battlc-cry by which the North was
rallied to an united support of the Re.
publican candidates against the threat
ened domination of those who had but
recently undertaken TO destroy the
republic. The technical Republican
platform of that year was Il tlimsy docu-
ment, rarely mentioned by sensible men
during the whole campaign. Very
many of the most eminent Republicans
and Republican journals were in hearty
sympathy with the Liberal movement
But Morton's speech, published broad
cast and repeated in idea by all the
orators of the land, little and big, reused
the people TO sense of danger, and
they came up to the support of the
Great Captain like an army with ban
ncrs. The idea was that opposition to
the Republican party then was treason
to the country. That idea, so power
fully put by Mr.. Morton, prevailed, and
Horace Greeley, who would have been
elected in July, was tremendously de-
fcated in November. Other causes
largely contributed TO the result, no
doubt, but many of these Mr.. Morton
put in motion, and he may be said to
have elected General Grant president
i'll 1872 no less certainly than Jackson
elected Van Buren, in 1886.
This capacity of organizing the people
by the power of ideas and the force of
argument and patriotic appeal, was
universally conceded to be possessed
by Morton in II pre-eminent degree
There is no man left to take his place
in this regard, and for the time being
the Republican party is without lead
er On this account the death of the
great statesman of the West must be
regarded as a national calamity. There
is no one to take his place. No doubt
there soon will be; for God evermorc
provides instruments through which
the nations, all mankind, may be helped
forward on the road of progress.
But meanwhile the situation at this
political center is dark an threatening
The most of the Republicans in Congress
are in downright opposition TO the
president, and there is an evident deter
mination to bring on a conflict now, 81
that this country may know whether
this administration is to be Republican
or Democratic, il being simply impossi-
Bile that it should be anything except
the one or the other.
The Congress has as yet accomplished
nothing. General Ewing Of Ohio. the
Leader of the inllationisls. has GOT him
self into n parliamentary and legal tan
gle, and the cause of imitation is in Il
bad way in consequence. just at present.
II will take some time for Ewing 10 get
ont of his scrapc, if he over does. And
so al present the hard morcy men are
not discouraged, and those on the other
side are taking ii ont in swearing at
their scll-constitutcd leader as a mighty
poor specimen of the son of his father.
II now seems certain that Congress will
not adj iourn until about Thanksgiving
Ii ought TO have passed the bills now
needed and gone home long ago.
l.. NJ. y.