Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-04-13
His Maiden Speech.

General Joe Hawley made his maiden
speech in the senate on Friday. 1t has the
true ring. He said the object of the major
ity in the senate, in its broad and general
effect, was to break the usurpation of the
solid south:
" 1t cannot be broken by the action of one un-
aided man here and there, no matter how brave
or gallant he may be, who comes out from the
southern democracy and stands alone; but when
we behold not one gallant soldier of the confed-
eracy alone, but detachment of men, a body a
compact earnest energetic body of men there
whose chief use to the republic, no matter what
they think to-day, is that they are to break down
the democracy when we see them our hearts go out
toward them, for this is the day and these are the
men for whom we have been waiting. These are
the men. ! abhor reputation in every fibre of
my being, whether it be of national or state debt.
My state knows nothing of it. | would that no
state might know 1t. But the movement which
concerns us is in another matter. 1t is not for
Virginia, but for the whole south; and no man in
the land shall be ahead OF me in embracing cor
daily, politically, the man who stands here like
the senator from Virginia defying the Bourbon
democracy, and declaring that there shall be
free vote, an unpurchased vote, and fairly
counted vote You tell me that has been in your
platform! So i has, after fashion; but, my
dear friends Of the south, you and | know per-
fectly well that there is one way of saying it, and
euoie is anotner way OF saying IL; ana Wnen one
man says 1t, 1t is all quite right, and you are at
peace with him; and when another man says it,
and when for an instant he dares to doubt the
majesty OF that mysterious divinity called the
SOUTH, he isa dead man politically. socially, and
sometimes physically. Now you and / know
that You know that when Martin Van Buren,
made whisper, very sigh of doubt Of you
upon the Texan question. ho 5ana, ha st1nd
no more chance OF being president Of the United
States than my venerated grandmother, And
when Stephen A. Douglas faltered for an instant
upon your demand that we should open the terri
tories to slavery, and he, with the instincts of
freeman in him, begged that you would leaye the
question " .ho people VI TIE territories, otopliun
A. Douglas for that doubt was a dead man, and
the oath was registered that he should never be
president of the United States. comprehend all
this so do you, men of the south, better than
some OF those on this side do. do not say it to
reproach you. say 1t comes down to you from
that inevitable compactness of organization and
will and despotic power that the great slave sys-
TEN imposed upon you; and the mistake you
make now is in applying to day of universal
freedom the tactics, the compactness Of organiza-
ton, the despotism of discipline which your party
needed in old times, and which the great pecuni-
airy and social interests and prejudces of slavery
made necessary The day has gone by for that,
too, and all over your south are young men and
middle-aged men, confederates and non-confeder-
ates, who are waiting for the good time to break
down this social and political ostracism and open
the south to generosity aud fraternity of treat
ment of all political and public questions to which
you have been stranger God bless every man
that comes to do that; and, whether agree with
him upon his state tactics or not when he comes
OF his own free accord, without PROMISE without
pledges OF any description, and takes his seat
upon this side and tells you that he does not care
for your caucus, that what you do in there is a
matter OF total indifference to him, shake hands
with him, Malone or anybody else, and the more
OF them the more welcome"