Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-11-07
senator Morrill,, of Nermont.

No more grateful duty has ever fallen
To our journalistic lot than that which we
now perform in recording the election
last week by the Legislature of Vermont
of the Honorable Justin :. Morrill, To rep
resent the Green Mountain State for Il
fourth term in the United States Senate.
His present term of service Will expire ON
the I'd of March next. and his fourth term
will not expire until the Sd of March, 1871.
We icYrn;iy hope that he may live to see
thcend of H.
senator Morrill, is one of the very few
living American statesmen whose public
services commenced before Fort Sumter
was fired upon and the Nation had its new
birth of freedom, He was Il RcprcSCnta-
tive in Congress for twelve years, from
March (. l>lj. to March 3. 1851. and he has
been nted States senator from March
/, 1861. To the present time, Il period Of al
most eighteen years. In all he has served
almost thirty years in the two branches of
Congress- aId this long service has been
most honorable to himself and most bcnc-
liclal To his countrymen. He has proved
himself upon many trying occasion to
be one of the most sensible and practical
of all our public mcu. His title rs one of
the first of American statesmen was long
ago fully recognized by grateful people,
whose highest interests he has always
zealously sought to promote As long as
the policy of Protection to home industry
indissOlubly connected with its most mem
orable triumph in Congressional legisla-
ton, and with the longest period of indus
trial prosperity the country has ever
known. The Morrill, tariff will occupy no
obscure place in American history. But
Senator Morrill, has not ridden Protection
as II hobby he has had the capacity to
comprehend and the industry to make
clear to others many other great problems
of government especially the financial and
other problems growing out OF the civil
war and he has had the courage to insist
that these problems should be solved only
as he would solve them.
The Morrill, tariff act became Il law ear
ly IN 1851. 1t was not, as might be erro-
neOusly inferred from its date, a war
measure, but measure rendered abso-
lutely necessary by the depressed cOndi-
ton of our manufacturing industries and
by the low condition of the national ii
nanCcS before the War-ClOud arose. The
bill was reported to the House of Repre-
ScntatiVcS ON March II, 1850 by Mr.. Nor
rll, of Vermont, from the Committee ON
Ways ana Means, and it passed that body
ON May 10Th. It passed the Senate ON
February -. 1851, and was approved by
President Buchanan on March ID. 1t
took effect on April list of the same year.
But senator Morrill, is not only a states
man worthy 10 be named in company with
the greatest of American statesmen, liV-
li- VI 'ftil ne - tlN'l one ~ lllt IlllltSl
and most exemplary of our public men.
Ills life has been an open book TO all who
cared To look into IL his public and his
private life are each absolutely without
reproach. The frequent and the vulgar
criticism that our public men are not as
pure minded nor rs Clean-handcd as they
ought To he finds Il signal rcfutatiOn and
rebuke in the career of this modest but
clear headed Vermont senator
Senator MOrrill's services to the cause of
Protection have nowhere been more fully
and gratefully appreciated than in the
great state of Pennsylvania, Its regard
for him has been frequently expressed
through the columns of its leading jour
nails, but it has recently been expressed in
a more marked and formal manner. At
the commencement exercises of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania, on June IL, 1884,
the degree of LII. ID. was conferred upon
Senator Morrill, by the authorities of that
honored educational institution, the first
of its class in Pennsylvania. This is a
high honor, but an honor most worthly
bestowed. j. NJ. ;.