Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-04-17
FRIDAY MORNING. APRIL II, 1891.
GROWN AWAY FROM HIM.

will lose very valuable lesson about HUI
nature. Mr.. Edmunds gives as his reason
that he does not have good health in Wash
ington; cannot stay there during the ses-
sion, and that where a man cannot be in his
seat he ought to give up the seat. All of
which is logical and sound. MI. Edmunds
came to the Senate twenty-five years ago,
and has spent there nearly all the years
since. He has ha | built up around him in
that time two great reputations-th usual
two--the great constitutional lawyer and the
great parliame n arian. The first of these
regulations he fully sustained on the Eight
to Seven Electoral Commission, where
he proved and with the usual hair splitting
used by great constitutional lawyers that
in the case of one States returns it was I'M
constitutional to go behind the returns,
and in the case of another States returns
it was unconstitutional not to go behind
the returns. AS a great Parliamentarian
his career may be said to rest on a similar
brilliant achievement. Length of service
HUI SlNCIl lI1l dill ullttV UIltt
with parliamentary law and practice, which
he had supplemented with an autOcratic
tone towards his Republican colleagues and
a sneer at any contradiction, that made it
more agreeable to colce lie to him the repu-
tation Of Il lofty eXpounder of parliamenta-
~ law than to debate it with him. In this
character he had held, until the Force Bill
came up last winter, that no such thing as
gag law could be applied in the Senate I'M
der any form. When that bill came to a
finish he WIS counted among those who
held that gag law was part of the Senate
prerogative and could properly be applied
when necessary.
But it was not the troubles arising from
Senator Edmunds resignation. 1t was the in
tlux Of the wild Arab Republican Statesmen
of the far Western States thlt troubled him.
They neither feared nor respected him. To
them his learned opinions were chestnuts
and his autocratic delivery of them only
made them, to use their lrreVerent express
sion, tired. Teller of Colorado, Plumb of
Kansas, the goddess and irreverent Walcott
of Colorado, and others of that ilk, in the
Western phrase dumped on" the ancient
oracle without a moment S warning and on
the slightest provocation. They had found
out that the feet of the idol were of clay
and they were no5 to be deceived by the
bronze nose. With this goddess set, to fay
Hour, OF Dawes, or Evarts, OF Edmunds,
Was something not to be omitted when the
opportunity WAS open. 1t WAS not safe to
'slecture' these Wild Westerners in public
Oh priva e. Hoar tried it in public and
one of them skinned him. Edmunds tried
it in private in the committee room. 1t
was his own committee room, the Judiciary
Committee, of which he is chairman, and
where, tradition has it, the Senator from
Vermont has for many years kept his
private decanter. WaIcott had voted with
the Democrats against considering the Force
Bill and Mr.. EdmundS started to lecture
him on going with the enemy. swell old
man. was the frank Western reply, ''it
you don t look out l II go with them next
winter on organization and jerk you and
your old jug out of this room y Had the
frescoed ceiling Of the committee room
fallen in and burel the Senator from Yer
mont he could not have been more aston
ished. AS a sample Of the audacity with
Which the Western Senators attacked the
former oracle of the Senate, us We'll rs q
sample of what sort of a housing statesman
Mr. Edmunds is Oh great public questions
we copy from the debate in the Senate Oh
March I'd reported on page 1851 of the Con
gressional Record the following:
Mr. Plumb want to repeat one thing,
that it may go into permanent history; and
that is. When the tariff bill of last year was
under consideration Senator's Oil this side OF
the Chamber We're solicited, as matter per
sonal to the Senator from Vermont,
who was Mi. Morrill, absent, sick
sugar, because it was said it would help him
to be reelected from the State of Vermont
and | voted for it on that ground, with the
distinct understanding that it should be re-
iected in conference. [Laughter.] When ii
got into conference, the Yankee came to the
front in the proposition of the Senator's col
league r. Mr.. Edmunds] in writing, which is
now in the pocket of Senator on this floor
that if the bounty on maple sugar was moi
continued, he would be paired against the
tariff bill. That is the way Vermont comes
it, over the people of the United States on The
sugar question. Laughter
Mr.. Morrill, do not know what occurred
when | was absent from the Senate; but Sc
far as my election was concerned, wish tt
say that | never asked man, even in Yer
mont, to vote for me. and yet my election wa:
unanimous, as far as the Republican member.
of the legislature were concerned.
MI Stewart-Did [ understand the Senator
from Kansas to say that there was a PROPOSE
ton made by Senator from Vermont to the
effect he stated?
Mr.. Plumb-The Senator from Illinois ha:
it in his pocket in writing.
Mr.. Stewart.-Whch Senator from Yer
mont?
Mr. Morrill, know nothing of the kind
MI. Plumb.-The Senator before me Mr.
Morrill, was absent, but the bounty have
referred to got in upon the basis of persona
favor to him, and it was kept in on the threa
OF the Senator's colleague MI. Edmunds]
that he would vote against the conference re
port. When Samson put his hands upon TIN
pillars of the temple, of course they would
have to come down, and Samson therefore wa
propitiated. [Laughter.]
During this debate Senator Edmunds sa
silent, for we see that he was present, a,
on the next page he is recorded as voting OF
the proposition before the Senate. One Cal
well imagine what must have been the feel
ings Of a Senator once all powerful in lis
own party who had been hacked SO as to sit
silently under that sort of attack from q
colleague. 1t is not Mr.. Edmunds' throa
that has caused his resignation; it is th,
Threats of the wild, untamed Republican
Senators from the West. Ten years ago t.
have designated Senator Edmunds in hi!
seat in the Senate as a tricky Yankee, as
MI. Plumb did, would have given thai
House of Lords cold chill.
THE TIDE SETTING TO VIRGINIA
For many years, as our Valley readers
Know, the Baltimore q Ohio Railway wa.
in the habit of running. at fixed intervals
what were called HEXcurSion7' trains IL