Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-12-19
A woman. Word for Zach Chandler

a WOman's Word for Zach Chandler.
In letter to the Independent Mrs. Mary
Clemmer says:
When Zachariah Chandler first appeared in
the Senate of the United States, the mutter-
ings of secession had already deepened into
fierce howl of hate on the Senate floor. What
those days were TO him. we learned from his
own lips last spring in the Senate, in the tre-
mendous speech he hurled against jefferson
Davis He had passed through the long bat
tie Of human freedom, fought and won at
such terrific cost. Now, being won, lac would
not see its Priceless fruit despoiled by the
man who, from beginning to end, had been II
traitor to the largest idea of human liberty.
The land was sown with the bodies of brave
men, the flower of our race, for what? That
the leaders of the confederate army might at
last again dictate terms in the Senate Of the
United States, with all the narrowness Of
their old provincialism, all the old insolence
of their blood? Not 30, thought Zachariah
Chandler and his ringing uttoTGnces, potent
with truth, pungent with the live emotion of
honest manhood, awoke the confederate and
the country alike to n complete consciousness
of the might of the conflicting forces, the
old old forces of truth and error. fighting
each for supremacy in the government of the
nation. After all the people had suffered and
lost, it was almost impossible for them to re-
alize that the old spirit Of impudence again
reared its head, and assumed command with
all of its ancient insoence. Only three weeks
ago, in Boston, Mrs. Chandler said to me II
doubt if any public honor can pay the person
who wins it, or his family what it cost them;
yet l was glad to have my husband back in
the Senate, il only to make that speech
against Jefferson Davis" 1t has been said
since his DEATH that "for the last six months
ha n l.oltps, i,,t Ia. a.. OF
hate" The one who wrote that should have
listened to the confederate army in the Sen
ate for at least six months before Zachariah
Chandler reappeared therein. A man of in
tense convictions but kindly heart, nothing
Senators tors Gould 5d have en-" "fodfsg1 Gfm' Is i&RbeKe
speech against JEFF Davis which he made last
spring A Senator who had listened to JEFF
ferson Davis before the war, who had lived
through the war, only to hear at last from
southern men such utterances, would have
been less than true man could lie have said
less than he did. Mr.. Chandler did not drift
by accident to the front a leader. 1t was
sheer force of character that pushed the boy
from u country shop among the New Hamp-
shire hills to a foremost place in the conduct
of the nation He had perception, intuition,
sagacity, tact the faculty of organization and
administration in the e-eminent degree that
always marks the leader of men. Besides
these, he had that intensity of nature, that
force Of conviction, that profound sincerity,
that answering integrity, that power to hate
and to love, which make the blocks that build
"A strong character. From the front rank
giant has fallen. A figure as individual,
face as remarkable, as the character they rep
resented, have vanished forever from our
sight. His face, without the wavering of
line, would look at home on a Greek medal.
1t is of the antique type. He had the low
brow, the straight nose that made the har-
monious line that Charles Sumner delighted
TO call 'the line of beauty" 1t is untrue
what / read-that he had "a face scanned
aud furrowed, topped by a shock of rough
hair" No Senator ever carried fuller or
smoother head of hair. Amid an assemblage
of bald headed men, he, like Charles Sum
ner, sat crowned with ample locks, which
touched with shadow of youthfulness his
face to the end. Force, determination grim
ness even, may have been set in his features
at tmes-in his thin lips and resolute jaw;
but above these shone the Perceptve brow,
the intuitive, kindly eyes, the crown of the
man born to rule and to be loved by those
who knew him best