The daily gazette., 1878-01-26
Mr.. Lainar's Vote and speech.

MIR. Lalnar's Vote and Speech.
1t Is hard to tell how Mr.. Lamar will
vote when the Bland bill comes before
Congress. There were conflicting state
ment in the papers about it. The N. Y.
Herald, yesterday in its editorial, says;
cat the time when the speech was
planned a resolution had been Introduced
In the Mississippi Legislature instructing
Its Senators to vote for the remonetiza-
ton of silver, and the sentiment of Mis-
sissippi on. this question is such that
there was every reason to expect that the
resolution wonld pass. Mr.. Lamar at
once made up his mind to disobey the
expected instruction. He had studied the
question with great care, and the body
which proposed to instruct him had not.
He thought 1t due to his constituents to
, set forth the reasons that would govern
his vote and determined that IL after they
had had an opportunity to read his
speech they should not be convinced by
1t and should request him to resign he
would do so. The resolution of instruc-
| ton did not, however, pass the Legisla-
ture, and so the contemplated exigency
will not arise, but the speech derives
great interest from having been prepared
In view of a legislative command"
The Philadelphia Press of Yesterday in
note appended to its report of the
speech, said: r
| "Mr. Lamar's speech Is considered by
| all TO be able and exhaustive. On the
main question he will obey the instruc-
| tons of the Legislature and vote for the
Bland bill, Notwithstanding his argument
against remonetization." H
| If Mr.. Lamar should vote for the Bland
bill in conformity with the expressed
wishes of the great mass of the people Of
Mississippi, whatever his own convic-
tons may be, he will deserve all the
more highly the confidence Of his State,
and will raise himself higher than ever
in the opinion of the people everywhere
The closing part of his speech which had
not reached us yesterday in time for
perusal is frought with eloquence 80
mingled with melancholy pathos that
every Delawarean, and especially overy
Delaware Democrat, who reads it must, az
we do experience an almost overpowing
sense of sympathy. He is reported to
have said;
81 can never forget the closing hours
i of that power, for / was here and saw il
pass from the hands of Southern Demo.
cratic statesmen into those who now
WELD 1t. remember here on this fioor
the then distinguished Senator from New
York (Mr. Seward) declare that power
had departed from the South, that the
lsceptre was now taken from her hand
land that henceforth the great North
would grasp this power rs her own prero.
gative and become responsible for the ad.
lministration of the whole Government. ]
am aware that listened to him with inn
lpatience and perhaps with prejudice.
thought his spirit was too much that OF
lexultation. 1t struck me that he did moi
/ have the sadness and solemnity which
touches the heart of every great
man when confronted with great
| events and great responsib bilities,
Involving the interests of untold millions
shall never forget the answer that was
made to him by a southern Senator. He
was surrounded by circle of Southern
Democratic statesmen which, in ability
and purity, will never be surpassed in the
history of the country, whatever may be
its glory. There was James NJ. Mason,
whose square and massive simplicity of
character and purity stands monumental
in our annals. There was his accomplish
ed colleague, Robert NJ. T. Hunter, whose
i clear and broad craftsmanship found fit
expression in scholarly eloquence that
drew into the same admiring circle his
friends and opponents in the same adj
miring friendship. And there was Mr..
: Shdell, shrewd and wise and prudent, and
| BY his side sat j. p. Benjamin, whose as
| tuteness and skill, eloquence and learn
ing, have since won him fame and for
tune in the great courts of Westminster.
There was Robert Toombs who never
spoke without striking at the heart Of q
| big thought and kindling the ideas Of all
| who listened to him. There was Albert
G. Brown from my own State, who had
| sympathy outside of the wants and
feelings of his own people; who yet was
never overawed by their prejudices or
swerved from his course bv their passion.
There was another, Mr.. President
shall 1 not be permitted to mention his
name in this free American Senate,
| which has been so free to discuss and
condemn his errors, one who has been
the vicarious sufferer for his people, who
has been in prison cell, the solitude of
whose punishment should lift him above
the jibes and jeers of popular passion,
whose words will ever remain as
the sad and the grand memoranda, not of
triumph not of defiance, but of earnest
purpose, the sincere motive of the great
struggle, which those who inaugurated it
believed was a struggle for representative
liberty and constitutional government.
Among these, and surrounded by them,
this Senator spoke to his associates in
terms which / have never read from that
day to this, but which are stereotyped
upon my memory, and which, if the SEN
ate will permit me, l will here repeat.
"Sir," said he, addressing his Northern
associates, "what the Senator says is true.
The power has passed from our hands in
to your hands but do not forget-it can
brightest page of history-that we, the
shareholders of the South, took your
country in her infancy, and after ruling
her for sixty years of the seventy years of
her existence, we return her to you with
out spot upon her honor, matchless in
her snlendor uncomfortable In her mower