National Republican., 1880-08-19
Tho Vice-President--" Ills Superfluous High
nosA.v

Tho Vice e-President--" His Superfluous High
ness"
In beginning his speech at st. Albans,
VT, on Thursday afternoon. Vice-Presdent
Wheeler facetiously said with all the
boastcd freedom Of the good old Green noun
tain state there is one man here to-day undor
duress, and am that man, aud the despoier
Ofmy freedom is your worthy ex-governor, sur
named Smith. With merely colorado war
rant of authority, he has caused my presence
hero to-day to be advertised, we'll knowing
that | would not dare 10 turn my back upon
my old boyhood home just over tho eastern
hills which skirt your beautiful town. The
governor called at my house in Malone few
days SINCE aud spoke Of this meeting. lie
said that he had already engaged all the ora.
torical ability that was needed that nothing
could be, or would be, expected of me
in that line; that he simply wanted
something in the way of u side-show
and as l had been travelling ia that
capacity with the administration for the last
four years, lie thought would just fill the bill.
A complimentary and plain-spokcn man. this
ex-governor of yours. He forgot that John
Adams, our first vice-presdent, in his inaugu.
raj address in 1889, said, in identical words,
that the Vice-presidency was q respectable
situatiou, adding that he was 'unaccustomed
to refuse any public service, however danger
Gus 10 his reputation or disproportionato 10 his
talents These words of Mr.. Adams have been
wonderfully comforting to me during my oili-
cial torm, particularly those declaring the vice.
presidency respectable situation My
shrunken and attenuatcd franc shows you
how onerous havo boen my official duties, con.
fined merely to keeping the obstreperous soma
tors from Vermont in order ia tho senate
chamber. But tho vice-presidency has its
trials Tho great trial is in attending church,
my lifetime habit learned here in New Eng.
land. Where taught TO find consolation l 20
away, too often, with my spirituality greatly
soiled. TO hear the minister pray ia town for
tho president, his cabinet, both houses
of congress- the supreme court, the
governors and legislatures of all the
states, and every individual hcatheu from
Greenland's icy mountain to lndiRs cOral
strand, and to find myself wholly left out,
gives the man of sin the advantage of the
upper dog in the fight. On one of these occa-
sious III Washington, when just this thing
happened, as l passed out of church my old
friend Shellabarger of Ohio, locking arms
with me, said: Wheeler, the minister was
pretty hard on you this morning. Yes said
|, when Il man is rated below the uututOTed
savage, who strols in brecch-clout along where
"Ahic's sunny fountains roll down their golden
sands" and is past praying for, he is in a
tight place But | alterward found conso.
lation, and l am quito confident 1t came from
your Senator Edmunds, who said to me in
learning my trials: You don't need the
prayers aud the other fellows do, and that,
probably, was the view the minister took of it,.
While had u lingering fear that the congre'
cation did not accept this theory, con-
cluded TO comfort myself with it, and have
come to have absolute faith in IT, From that
time Mr.. Edmunds has grown wonderfully in
my estimation, and l regard him as eminent
in psychology us in statesmanship."