The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-03-23
1.-THE Republican Leader Of Whom the
Whole Party is Proud"

The election of Senator Edmunds as
president of the Senate elevates to the
legal succession to the Presidency the
most eminent Republican in Congress.
1t was the pleasure of his predecessor,
Mr.. Davis. to separate himself, a little
estentatiously, from party association,
and to proclaim peculiar independence,
as if independence were Incompatible
with party sympathy and preference.
TO be a Republican or Democrat is not.
however. to take the responsibility OF
everything that Republicans OF Demo
Gratis may do 1t is to say on.y that the
principles. the traditions and the tenden-
cies of one or the ether party are more
approved. Mr.. Edmunds has been always
positive Republican. and for n.any years
he has been the most weighty Republi-
can advocate in the Senate. His speech
for the electoral commission bill in 1877
contained the who argument, and the
weight of his individual opinion gave it
immense force. He has the independ-
ence of assured conviction. His intel
lectual quality is singularly firm and in
cisive. He is entirely at home in par
liamentary body, and his long career is
absolutely untouched by hint of self
seeking. No higher tribute could be paid
to any public man than the universal
conviction in 1876, amid all the intrigues
and plots for tho Presidential nsmina-
ton that hc meant what he said in de-
claring that he did not desire it.
Mr.. Edmunds is tifty-tive years old.
and he has sat in the Senale seventeen
years. During that long term his con-
structive talent has been as evident as
his ascendeney in debate and his mastery
| - La ia
tor. but he is Il thoroughly equipped de-
batter. an acute and remOrseless critic of
fallacy and fustian and ignorance, with
memory like well-ordered arsenal,
i'm which every weapon stands brightly
FURNISHED and ready for instant use.
His elevation to the presidency of tho
Senate was but fitting honor from his
party associates, and it properly fills the
gap-which would have been left unti He'd
produced by the expiration of Mr..
Davis Senatorial term.
The most striking fact in the career of
Mr.. Edmunds is, that while he is one of
the most conspicuous, constant and posi-
| tive participants in the discussions of
the Senate, and a regular Republican.
there is no Republican leader who is so
universally acceptable to the party. In
1850 he was understood not to be averse
to the third-term project, yet he was the
choice of the anti-third-termers. lie Is
neither Extensively "Stalwart" nor Half
breed" Among Republican chiefs his
position is unique, and it is due to the
fact that he holds himself entirely aloof
from the wretched business of spoils.
His position was not made by patronage,
and it does not depend upon ma
chine" His ascendency is actual, net
fictitious. His State is justly proud
of him, as Massachusetts, was formerly
proud of Webster, and afterward Of
Sumner, and, like them, he takes his
own course. He is, however, very
conservative of the traditions of the
Senate and of its powers. His mind
is too acute not to see the reason OF re-
form, and he is too just not to admit
il, but his temperament sometimes pro-
tests, so that he may be called reformer
If he can have his own way. This habit
is doubtless often trying to his asso-
ciates, and leads to the charge of hyper
criticism. But Mr.. Edmunds was one
of the earliest friends of reform in the
civil service, and the bill offered by
MIR. Pendleton in 1850 WAS substantially
the one that was proposed by Mr.. Ed
munds ten years before. Probably his
chair in the Senate is more agreeable to
Mr.. Edmunds than that of presiding otii-
Ger, and it is possible that upon the re-
assembling of the Senate In December
next he may prefer TO relinquish his new
honor. But, whether upon the tleor OF
in the presidency of the Senate, Mr.. Ed
munds is the Republican leader of whom
his whole party is proud Harper''
Weekly.