Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-01-23
From our Regular Correspondent.l
Washington Letter.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10.

All PollClcals questions we KNOW ptctIy
much what each senator will say, and on
the floor of the senate VIC hear repeated,
though in inferior English, and with faulty
elocution, the same arguments that we
have read again and again in the papers.
But funeral Grafton is out of the usual
line. 1t is no easy transition from finance,
or the southern question, Or internal i'm
provements, to elegiac oratory. Some
senators, powerful in debate and ready in
repartee, appear tame and commonplace
in this unfamiliar role This was notably
the case with senator Edmunds of YER
mont; his forte is in witty repartee ard
species of cold sarcasm with which he
freezes those who presume TO differ from
him. Conkling and Edmunds are deci-
dedly the most egotstical and contemptu-
Gus senators on the floor, but the contempt
of Conkling uniform, perennial, and eter-
nally placarded on his nose, is much less
irritating than the variety that oozes from
the repellant Vermonter Senator Ed
munds's eulogium on Morton was well
written, discriminating, and just, but it
was, on the whole, disappointing to the
galleries because it fell short of cloquence.
One part of it made the studously unim-
pressiblc Conkling smile and look guileess,
it was when he hit the administration foul
by saying that senator Morton was not one
of those republicans who believed that the
best interests of cause would he pro-
NOTED by appointing its opponents to Of
flee. After Edmunds, Conkling spoke and
he was the only senator who deviated from
the rule of reading his remarks from IL
manuscript. To all appearances he spoke
impromptu, just as Mark Anthony did
over the dead body of Cesar. Read
Shakspeare's account, Shakespeare was
there. Senator Conklng's elocution, slow
and drawing on all occasions, was
peculiarly elongated on this. If it were
not for his brains, character, and dignity
of presence, this popularity would cause
him to be laughed mt. He Immediately
placed himself abreast of antiquity, and
spoke of how the ancients regarded death;
thence he branched into unlimited and fer
vid eulogy, and concluded, having made a
speech that the general verdict said, right
then and there, could not be eclipsed in
force and brilliancy. But the general YER
dict was mistaken, as it cheerfully and
unanimously conceded after it had listened
to senator Booth of California. Senator
Booths Grafton was from first to last
crowded with unmonotonous narrative,
striking antitheses, and bold climaxcs.
And it was singuarly free from the tritc-
ness so common on funeral occasions. lie
had evidently expended great labor In its
preparation, for the sentences were con-
densed and finished to the essence of ideas.
If his Grafton does not appear in the school
readers of the future, as model of clcgiuc
eloquence, it will be because it is crowded
out by an inferior composition. Senator
Burnsides remarks were peculiar in their
abundance of personal "Reminiscences. He
and Morton were schoolmates in their
curly youth, and did not meet again until
Burnside was appointed to the command
of the department of Ohio, which included
Indiana, of which state Morton was then
governor. Their second meeting in Off
cial relation was not until Burnside had
been elected senator from Rhode Island.
The fllttest and most commonplace eff
forts were those of senators Paddock of
Nebraska, Mitchell of Oregon, and Wad-
leigh of New Hampshire. Senator Mitch
ell sought to make his part Impressive by
adopting the sing-song tone of rural
preacher, and one had only to close his
eyes to realize the music of an Orcpon
whangdoodle mourning over its frst-born.
Expectation was excited to hear senator
VOORHEES, who, since his speech on the sill
yer bill, is the leading senatorial star, but
his eulogiom was brief, pointless, and non
committaL He however said that he
thought that the influence of Morton ON
American politics since the war had been
detrimental to the peace and prosperity of
the country.
Senator Thurman confined his remarks
entirely to the personal and social charac-
ter of the deceased senator, and said that
while they had been for years in sharp an
tagonlsm on political question, there had
been no harshness or discord in their indi-
vidual relations.
There Is but little that is interesting from
political or social view this week. The
democratic organ the Post of this city has
exploded torpepo in tho party dove cote
by an attack on speaker Randall who. il
would seem, from the Posts standpoint.
has not behaved lovely in the organization
oil the House committees. But the CHARGES
OF the paper are, us yet, too vague to be
classified except as general cussedness."
High social and diplomatic circles are
on the qui ujuc in relation to the entertain.
ment of the Spanish minister in celcbra-
ton of the nuptials of the king of Spain
on the 23d inst.
Receptions have been resumed at nearly
all the old centres, and. while there is a
change of personnel in both the receivers
and the received, and a perceptible dimin-
ution in numbers and gorgeousness-it is
evident that cakes and ale are not vet ex-
hausted, that young ladies prefer Worth
and his imitators to any Quaker modesto.
and that young and old beaus have mot
lost the art of beating their taiIors ont of
swallow tail coats.
BAD ADvICE.-For paper SO riobt-