Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-04-24
The choice of United states senators.

land Magazine an interesting and sugges-
tive article under this title. 1t is needless
to say, for the information of any Wind
ham county reader, that Mr.. Flagg is a
Vermonter--a native of Wilmington-a
man of long experience in legislative af-
fairs, and that he holds a leading place at
the New York bar, being an authority on
international and corporation law. The
purpose of his article is to show the un-
wisdom of making the choice of United
States senators depend on the, section of
the state in which a man chances to live.
To illustrate his point he lays a special en-
phasis on the Vermont practice part of
her unwritten law, so to speak-which re-
quires that one senator shall live on the
east side of the mountain and the other on
the west side. vermont, like every other
state" Mr.. Flagg says, "should send to
the national councils her ablest, purest,
foremost men; and the notion that any
particular person, however well qualified,
cannot be considered as eligible because,
forsooth, the water happens to drizzle from
his dooryard toward the Connecticut or
towards Champlain is an absurdty which
should be repudiated." The mar ifest eff
feet of such a rule is to ostracize one-half
the population whenever a senator is to be
elected, and it encourages the pernicious
idea of ownership of the man in question
by one section of the state to the exclusion
of another.
The essential point of Mr.. Fagg's argu-
ment is that the purpose of the fathers was
to make sure that the people of the several
states should discover and select the fttest
men as members of the United States
senate, and any rule of choice by location
is sure, sooner or later, to vtiate this pur-
pose. Vermont, with her small area and
population, can hope to maintain her pri-
macy in the national councils only by
sending to them her ablest and foremost
men, and there should be no rule or prac-
tice which tends to preclude the choice of
the best. While the rule of location has
the effect in Vermont of a law, there is
only one state, Maryland, which has ever
enacted such a rule into a law. On ac-
count of the division of the state into two
parts by Chesapeake bay, law was enact
ed in 1909 providing that lone of the sem
ators shall always be an inhabitant of the
eastern shore and the other Of the western
shore of that state. But it has once been
necessary lin 1861 to repeal the law tenn
porarily to allow the election to the Senate
of one of the states most distinguished
citizens.
In Vermont there has been but one devia-
tion from the "mountain rule"
early in 1858, on the death of Senator
Upham, Judge Phelps, although living on
the west side, where the other senator also
resided, was appointed to fill the vacancy.
The reason of the appointment, however,
was that Judge Campbell's nomination as
justice of the supreme court was awaiting
confirmation by the Senate, and it was ex-
tremely doubtful whether any person then
in Vermont, even with the utmost expedi-
ton, could reach the capital in time to help
the Wings on the vote. Judge Phelps,
who happened to be in Washington at the
time, was for this reason alone appointed
by the governor"
Mr.. Flagg raises no claim that Yer
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suffered thus far by the mountain rule, ="
but he urges with much force that, if the
system is bad one, the time to realize it
is now before it has ruled out some citizen
''of the preGmnent ability of a Collamer
or an Edmunds." In conclusion he urges
the manifest nconstitutionality of any
such law or practice, and quotes the admo-
milton of Washington in his farewell ad-
dress that, Toward the preservation OF
your government and the permanency OF
your present happy state, it is requisite
that you resist with care spirit of limo.
vation upon its principles, however specious
the preteXts."
The logic of Mr.. Flaggs article is un-
answerable, and its force will be conceded
by every thoughtful Vermonter; but we
think Mr.. Flagg will himself admit that
up to this time the mountain rule has new
er interfered with Vermont being repre-
sented in the Senate by her ablest men
On the contrary, in spite of the rule, ifnot
by means of it, our representation ha'
been such as to give Vermont.a fame il
this respect which no state of the Unior
has exceeded. We hope and believe thi
will continue to be so in the future, but
however it may be, we suspect that nothin!
short of a special dispensation from or
high will ever induce the state to chang
its beloved and ineXorable mountain rule.