Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-04-26

GoD help the country if the present Con-
gress is its noblest promise for the future.
How low and mean they all seem when we
remember Thad Stevens, with his biting sat
ire and fearless soul bluff Ben Wade and
warm-hearted Lovejcy. These all are gone,
the old familiar faces, and IN their places sit
Republican optimistS- good, easy iat-brained
fellows, who think "whoever is, is right,
and whatever is, is right" or will be, and
that therefore the only wisdom is the wis
dom Of being angry with nothing or nobody,
the wisdom Of trying to do nothing but to
sit up straight and take Jour Tea periodical
ly. Against these optimists are arrayed
lot of bright-brained, energetic, ambitious
Southern men,-men of affairs, men not
poetic nor philosophical. out practical utili-
tartan fellows, who love power for Its own
sake, and who will get it either by open
grapple or by guile.-Rmiand Herald.
Probably there never has been an age Of
the world, sirce the first, when men did Eot
look back to some preceding age. and mourn
over the degeneracy of the race. In the
time of Thad Stevens and Ben Wade, how
often men recalled the time Of Webster and
Clay, and how they bewailed the fact that the
race of American statesmen had become ex-
tinct We do not consider the present National
Legislature the ablest and best that ever
assembled; but we are not sure that
Eimunds, Hoar, Morrill,, Blaine, Garfield,
COnger, and others that might be named, do
not compare pretty fairly with Stevens,
Wade and LovejOy, in the qualities which
make influential and seryiceable legislators.
The debates show that even the qualities OF
"biting satire and fearlessness have not
wholly disappeared from the Republican side
of either House. But at whatever disadyan-
tage our present Republican legislators may
appear, as compared with the giants Of for
mer days, we are very sure that they do not
need to ask much odds, man for man, of the
Sjutherners in the presen: Congress. The
idea 50 long prevalent 10 some quarters, that
a Southern Democrat must be essentially and
necessarily brighter, ADLER, more statesman
like. more imperious, and more powerful
than any man from any other section cla
possibly be, is being rudely dispelled, in
these modern days. The men who now
control "the Confederate House and
will soon control the Senate, are
sharp enough on the scent of pub
lie plunder bat take out Mr.. Lamar,
and they can hardly be said to have a
great man among them. The Southerners
in the House have not shown themselves to
be a particularly brilliant set. Ambitious
no doubt they are. and fond enough OF pow
er but, having the power Of strong nu-
merical majority, they have time and again
been cornered by the Republicans. have lost
control of their own bills, and found them
selves practically in the hands of the Repub-
lican minority, simply because the latter un-
derstood their business better than they did,
and had the tact to take advantage of their
opponents blunders. We do not call on
any one to admire and praise the average
Republican Congressman; but to describe
him as a lazy, incompetent do-nothins,
piece of scarcely animated putty in the hands
of the bright-brained Southern man OF af-
fairs" shows curious misconception Of the
facts of the situation at Washington.