Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-04-27
Senator Frye,s First Speech.

Senator Frye, Mr.. Blaine's successor in
the senate, made his first speech in that
body on the Goth inst. Hitherto the repub-
licans have been content to act on the de-
fensive, replying to the wild attacks and ex-
travagant assertions of the Bourbons. Mr.
Frye was sharply aggressive in his speech
using irony and eloquence with equal facil-
ity and power in his assault upon the solid
Bourbon phalanx. Taking up Senator
Cameron's exhortation TO the obstructonists
to be "brave men," Mr.. Frye said, with
firm irony, that he had never seen in all his
life, he had never read in all his lie, OF
drawer men than were to-day on the other
side of the senate chamber. Paying his re-
spects TO Senator Brown of Georgia, Mr..
Frye said:
IL was brave in the senator TO make an attack
upon Massachusetts when he had said that there
was in that state $4,000 paupers, spendthriits
and drunkards deprived by law oil the right 70
vote, and II they were allowed 10 vote they woulu
to say. The senator might have gone further,
and declared that In the prisons and pententlares
of the great commonwealth there were thousands
Of men who, II they could get out, would vote the
democratic ticket. The senator from Florida
(Call) needed courage TO make an attack upon
the industries of Massachusetts. Inc Complaint
was that in Massachusetts, educational qualfica-
tons were placed upon the ballot, bnt ne lfIyel
asserted that where the south raised one dollar
for the education of voters, the north raised from
eight to eighteen dollars. The senator from
Florida had been bold in calling the laboring men
Of Massachusetts " serfs; seffs, men 70 De pulI,
dozed and inundated. II the working men OF
Massachusetts had been In Louisiana and the
conservatives OF that state had undertaken TO In
tmdate and bulldoze them, there would not
have been to-day enough conservatives lett to
| form the decent nucleus OF party. IL was easy
| TO shoot at labor which had been ground down
by slavery il was not 10 easy to point pistol at
| or look in the face of white man, starving ana
| hungry workmen OF Massachusetts,; Inc savings
| OF the aborers in the state would be enough 10
buy the whole state OF Florida five times over and
have $50 900 900 left. Oh, it required courage to
| call them serfs" Oh, the courage OF the sena-
tor from North Carolina (Vancel Drawer man nan
| than the senator could not be found when he de-
clared that North Carolina had never repudiated
a single dollar Of her debt. Senators on the re-
| publican side had stated that they were making
this fight for principle that the majority should
govern the minority That was not the ground
upon which he made this fight for himself and his
state. There was force in it, but there was an
other ground which appealed to him with infin-
| tey greater strength than that. He had seen
something of minorties in the other house, but
| he had supposed that when he came to this dis
tinguished body he had bid adieu to fllibustering
altogether, but, behold, all the administering in
| the other body faded into insignifcante before
| that practiced in this chamber. The ground upon
which he made the fight was this: That there
was solid south, and that the solid south was
a constant menace to the prosperity and to the
safety of the American people The north to-
day placed the fight on that ground, and said that
the solid south should be broken II Its solidity
| came from any deprivation Of any right OF any
citizen of the United States.