The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1883-01-18
The Senatorial elections in Michi-
gan, Minnesota, Illinois and Nebras-
ka, are exciting general interest.
Senator HOar Explaining His
Vote.

The following eloquent extract is
the conclusion of Senator Hoar's re-
marks last week, in explaining his
vote for the bill for the relief OF Fitz
John Porter:
Mr.. President, we are not wiping
out the sentence of Fitz John Porter.
That man has tasted for twenty years
the bitterness of that Judgment. No
cup of death was ever presented to
human lips which, it seems to me,
could be so bitter as that which has
been the daily and the nightly
draught for twenty years of this Off
Ger, who, at least, once and sometime
deserved we'll of the Republic.
Will the Senator from Illinois say
that the President of the United
States, in pardoning this man, meant
to affront or did afr Mt the great and
mighty shade of Lincoln? He thought
that in the doubt upon this question
it was time at least that justice
should stop and that mercy should
have her place. Over that name hon>
ored for generations in the military
and naval history of this country
you can hardly look upon the stars
I'd stripes on our flag that you do
not think of the name of Porter-for
twenty years has rested the burden
of this shame, worse than death,
worse than torture, and no act Ct
Congress, no act of God can wipe
that away.
Not fate herself can DER the past have
power,
But what has been has been.
And he has had in shame and ago-
ny-he has had his hour.
Now, Mr.. President,I do not know
what bitter passion, l do not know
what prejudice, I do not know what
honest love of country,I do not know
what feeling of patriotic and gen
erous soldiery may be encountered
by the vote | am about to cast. l
know this, that would rather incur
almost anything myself than to incur
the disapprobation of some men
whom I shall seriously grieve by the
conclusion to which | have come. II
is not an easy thing for Republican,
q partisan, q man whose life has been
given to the advocacy and the sup
port of the doctrines of this party, to
incur the disapprobation and the
condemnation of his political friends
who sit about him on great guess
ton of state but l thank God that
after hesitation and doing my best
bo discover whaL my duty requires
he has given me the grace to per-
form it.
do not believe, studying this tess
timony, that the burden of this con
domination ought to rest longer upon
the head of this man unless on such
REORGANIZATION of the facts as it will
be the duty of President Arthur
hereafter to give, aud on such res
examination of the facts as it will be
the duty of the Senate hereafter to
give, one or the other Oor it will re-
quire the concurrence of both to re-
store hlm) should be Of opinion that
he ought not to be restored.
SO thinking, Mr.. President, I be-
lieve that if Abraham lincoln sat in
this seat to-day and could read the
testimony which has come from the
reports of Longstreet and of Lee,
changing, as it seems to me, so ma
terially the military situation of that
day, the vote of Abraham Lincoln,
with his kind heart, with his sound
sense, and his fearless independence
in doing right, would be cast as l
mean to cast my own.