Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1877-11-07
Senator Morton.

| W Oe commended IN MI. Morton
public career are precisely those which
require no recommendation to the
young men of America, for they are
such as the latter are sure to develop
in greater or less degree if they are
ambitious to follow in the path he
trod, OF the qualities which are con-
spicuously open to criticism or worse
we are debarred from speaking, except
in general way which makes such
comment Of universal applicability, by
the long recognized canon that moth
ing shall be spoken in derogatlon of
the dead. Never personally, we
agree; yet any notice of a public man
like Senator. Morton would be fatally in
complete that abstained from touching
anything and everything which helped
to give him prominence, influence and
power. While no one cares to i'm
pugn his patriotism, it must in truth
and justice be said that up to the very
last it took and kept that abhorrent
form of sectionalism, Of the intensest
and Ditterest kind, which wildly re-
fuses to heed mutual rights and rela-
tons, which SCOTS at the candid pro-
tests Of those whom it aggrieyes as
well as wrongs, aud which all but pro-
fesses its readiness to pull down the
pillars OF the temple Of constitutional
liberty for the sake Of establishing a
regular system OF vindictive suprema
cy. No such man as that Can be 4
statesman, and he was not. With
him the accommodating spirit OF
craftsmanship was suppleness that
defed reasons and gave none. lie
could denounce negro suffrage after
the war, and tor the sake OF partisan
ship advocate it but a few months lat
er.
Of his ability, but especially of his
transcendent and tireless energy-the
product Of his temperament as much
as Of his mental structure-there new.
er was any question. But his com
bined passion and ambition made him
impatient Of the tried and safe ways
he would carve out methods for HIM.
self. Without doubt, the strange and
unprecedented dictatorship assumed
by Thaddeus Stevens in the House OF
Representatives awakened in him the
purpose to try similar experiment
in the Senate At the last be was ac-
knowledged to be the bearer Of the
sceptre in that body. He took care
to demonstrate it obnoXiousl y in being
the sole member of the Senate Com
mitiee to oppose the Electoral Com
mission, while, as a most improper
member of that Commission, he prac-
tised the browbeating art on every
occasion and in every way which he
thought Of 10 help in bringing its work
to a strictly partisan and unjust con-
clusion. Such man may, fol- time
and under exceptional public circum-
stances, be power, but he is 4 power
to dread and guard against rather
than to admire and obey. Partisan
ship so rank and dangerous as his is
not something to be put out ct the
public memory, by the mere act of
death. 1t was the parhsanship that is
first personal and then warlke, and
cannot co-exlst with a state of pacili-
cation and tranquility. lie likewise
stood in another position ; Grantism,
that all but fata, ulcer in the body
polite, relied on him as on a strong
hold. He hustled up ia the public
eye as its defiant head and front.
There was seemingly no end Of the
weapons that he could not draw out
Of his full armory for its defence and
advancement. 1t was something that
called for what was bold and unscru-
pulous to sustain it, ana he was the
man of all men to respond to lis worst
demands without wavenng and with
out me.-B0st0n Post.