Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-04-20

There was a very lively tilt in the United
States Senate on Tuesday between Mr.. Ed
munds and Mr. Vest of Missouri. The bill
for the admission of the state of South Da-
kota was under consideration and in the
course Of his remarks opposing the bill Mr..
Vest took occasion to say that
Dakota, neither in nor out of the Union, claim
ed to exist as state in spite of laws and in def
nee of Congress. If any Southern community
had undertaken to do what the people of Dakota
had done there would have been an cutlery mme
diatcly only exceeded by that in regard to Fort
Sumter; and the senator from Vermont would
have DroDostd a piece of legislation equivalent to
that celebrated legislation which he carried in
1875 which put Hayes into the presidential chair;
and ito arms to arms" would have been the
cry all over the North
Mr. Edmunds answered promptly that
He wished to say, with emphasis that he be-
lieved, and that ninetenths of the people of the
United States who knew anything about it, he
lieved, he Thought, that President Hayes was law
fully and fairly and Justly elected by the votes Of
the states, according to the constitution of the
country; and that the only evil which had exist
ed in regard to that matter was the attempt Of a
body Of men at headquarters in New York 10 buy
the electors of the state of South Carolina; and
those men had not been Republicans
In replying to this pointed thrust Mr..
Vest took occasion to lug in the name of
Roscoe Conkling, who then lay at the point
of death, saying that
lie did not now choose to base his assertion
that Mr.. Hayes was not elected on Democratic
opinions; but ON that of the foremost man of the
| Republican party, who was now lying stricken to
death in the city OF New York, and who had been
heard To say in the Senate chamber that 'r'other
fraud Hayes claimed to be President Of the Unit
ed States'
Mr. Edmunds answered
My kindly and sincere friendship for Mr. Conk-
ling, in his present unhappy condition (Which !
am glad to hope is Improving leads me to say
now that Mr. Conkling was one of the foremost
men in tine committees which conferred ON pre-
serving the peace of the United States in settling
the dispute by the electoral commission bill. And
my belief is that Mr.. COnkling believed las did
and now dol that Mr.. Hayes was lawfully elected.
lie believed las did then and do now that the
only fraud in the business was the fraud of per
son of the party TO which my friend from Nilsson
ri belongs, and to which my friend himself never
would have been personal party. And my be
lief is that, whatever Mr.. Conkling may have
been said 10 have said il lie ever said 1t (Which
do not bclicvel arose from certain difficulties and
differences, which urose later ON, after Mr., Hayes
had come in. II is due to President Hayes, to
Democrats and Republicans, and To Mr.. COnkltng
himself, to say that thing. | repeat that Mr..
Conklng was one of the ablest tOf course we all
know that, and the foremost of the people who
engaged with good Democrats Senator Thurman
and others, in trying to preserve the peace OF the
United States by having some lawful way Of de
Gliding disputed question"
In his reply to this Mr.. Vest denied the
alleged suppression OF Republican votes at
the South and read extracts from Republi-
can journals detailing the hardly disguised
and wholesale purchase of votes in the late
election in Rhode Island, Mr.. Edmunds
answered that
lie had been informed that for every dollar
| which any misguided and wicked Republican paid
for votes at that election, $40 paid by a mis-
| guided and wicked Democrat; and he sincerely
| believed that that was true
/ 1t was evident before the colloquy was
ended that the Missourian felt keenly the in
cisive comments with which Mr.. Edmunds
pursued him, and at the first opportunity
he made haste to close the little passage
alarms with an abrupt declaration that SO
confident were the Democrats of Mr.. Cleve-
lands triumphant reelection that they
would not think of opposing South Dako-
tas admission to the Union from any fear
/ that her three electoral votes might turn
the scale AGAINST them