Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-05-06
SOUTHERN WAR CLAIMS.

ages incurred in the war. Mr.. Goode
Of Virginia, and Mr.. Loring of Massa-
chusetts, made careful speeches in favor
of the bill, in which the illustrious his
tory of the college and the sentiment of
national reconciliation bore a conspicu-
Gus part. Mr.. Reed of Maine, and Mr..
Townsend of New York, made animated
speeches in reply. All the orations on
the subject of the bill elected applause.
and the two gentlemen last named also
created great deal of amusement. The
following is the report of Martin |.
Townsend's pungent speech, which very
happily hit off the overfowing love of
Virginia for Massachusetts:
Mr.. Townsend of New York, took the
floor, amid considerable excitement, and
said 81 came to this House with the
desire, before taking my oath, to do ex-
act and equal justice to all parts of the
Union. We had been divided we had
come together again. We had common
country, and Virginia, the Carolinas and
Georgia are part Of my country, and
no man can take away my interest in
them. God has given it, and my breth-
ren have shed their blood for my right.
When l am called upon to act in refer
ence to the interests of Virginia, | am
acting for my country, and I will do for
Virginia all would do for New York,
or all would do for my earlier home,
Massachusetts.
Now let us look this matter in the
face. My friends who know me know
that | shall call things by their right
names. | am not to be told by Vir-
ginia gentleman that | must not talk
about matters in the past. How comes
William and Mary college here I? True,
she graduated Washington. l had the
benefits of a collegiate education. but
my college has not taken an inventory.
| came from Massachusetts, originally.
That is proud State. but she has not
the government of an inventory She
does not come here to the National Con-
gress and before the world leaning upon
her inventory. We do not talk so much
about our great men as Virginia does /;
but | shall not stand in the presence of
the National Congress and admit that
Virginia has anything to boast in her
great men over the land that produced
the Adamses and the Winthrops, or over
the land that produced VIM. H. Seward,
Silas Wright and Martin Van Buren.
Mr.. Townsend-I am going to talk
about Webster in another part of what
have to say. The College of William
and Mary has produced great men. She
has great and honorable traditions, but
why did she not follow the traditions of
her great men Did William and Mary
College, when she sent thirty two of her
thirty-fve teachers into the rebel army,
follow the doctrines of Washington in
his farewell address Did she do in
teaching secession and rebellion for thir-
ty years before the war, by which the
"Hotspurs" of the South were stirred
up to drag the common people into war
bloodshed, destruction and four years Of
misery? Did Mason, when he went out
to carry the message of the Confederate
States to Great Britain, think that ht
was following in the footsteps of tha
other Mason, his kinsman, who talked
of the abolition of slavery on his way K
the national convention to look after the
earlier interests of the colonies ? No, i
is because this college forgot her grea
men that she comes here to-day, suppli
ant, cringing, begging for money at th'
hands of those whose sons she has caus
ed to lie down IN bloody graves by tn
side of her OWE sons, whom she houndet
on to death and destruction. All bu
Virginia is proud of that institution, ant
we'll she might be. | will say nothing
against it, but William and Mary Col
lege counted the cost. She taught re
! bellion; she went into the rebellion, sh
sent her sons into the rebellion. VIII
shall she not take the consequences
My Northern friends (turning his bacl
upon the chair and facing his own sid
of the House,, why should she not tax
the consequences 1t has been sal
that there is no precedent for it, quotes
by Benjamin Franklin, who says tha
one day man was peaceably walkin
the streets of London, and Frenchma
ran out with hot poker in his han
and wanted to apply it to the man
body. The man kicked him out of tn
way. ''Then," says the Frenchmar
"Monsieur, you will not let me do tina
e thing, but you will not be SO unjust a
o to refuse to pay me for heating that pc
y ker." She did not destroy the Unior
). Oh, no; she and her admirals, and he
: judges, and her presidents did not de
: stroy the Union No! those admiral
8 and those other great men of hers wer
Y in their graves; they were under grounc
) They were where last years potatoes ar
s The best of the potato is under groun(
;. | will not be unkind enough to say tia
{ Yiroinia keens the tons to-day ahny