The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-10-15
WILLIAM w. CIRCUS

But lately the lesson of mans NOR
tality has received frequent and sig
nal enforcement. Men of Vermont,
closely and conspicuously identified
with public affairs, have been passing
suddenly away, whose departure to
the beyond, in the natural course of
human life, it was reasonable to ex-
poet, would be long delayed
With only some small degree of pre-
paration for the announcement of the
event, tidings came on Tuesday of the
addition of the name of General Will
liam W. Grout to the lengthening
death roll of the men of the State
who for a quarter of century have
stood in the front rank of its active
and influential citizens, and in re-
spect of whom the suggestion of
death had been only remotely enter
tanned, as the common lot of man.
kind.
General CIRCUITS life has been writ
ten, intellectually, in the political his
tory of Vermont. Consult any chap
ter of the States records since he
came into the years of his manhood,
down to the present time, and the
name of w. w. Grout will be fire.
quently found, and always with hon
orable mention. There is no need to
recite the facts and incidents of his
public career. These are as we'll
known, probably. among all the ranks
and ages of Vermont citizenship, even
among the youngsters in the high
schools, as is the story of the life and
labors of any public man of this
generation of Vermonters. But yes
terday, it seems, he was one of the
foremost figures in one of the most
strenuous of the spirited political
battles for which the State has be-
come somewhat conspicuous. 1t re-
minds his contemporaries in political
life that General CIRCUITS public ca
reer was somewhat stormy one.
His entrance into the strife for the
higher honors of federal Office in
1878, in the old third congressional dis
trict, was the signal for political
battle whose echoes have hardly yet
died away-cerainly its warning in
eidents have not yet faded from the
recollection of men. He won peace
full victory, two years later, but again,
in 1882, after the States representa-
tion in Congress had been reduced to
two members, and the east and west
side counties constituted the two dis
tricts, he encountered defeat in the
contest with Hon. Luke P. Poland for
the honor of representing the east
side district. Grout was the stormy
petrol of Vermont politics.. Oppo-
sition could not daunt, defeat could
not discourage him. In 1884, with
Hon. W. P. Dillingham; and Col. G.
W. Hooker for opponents, he contend
ed for the prize of the district nomin-
ating convention, and won. For
fourteen years the doors Of the Temple
of Janus were closed. There was
peace in the district till 1885, In
that year the late Judge Reed opposed
Gen. CIRCUITS candidature for renomi-
nation-and lost. In 1900 General
Grout announced his determination
not again to be candidate for re-
election to the national House of
Representatives His purpose was to
enter the contest for the United
States senatorship vacated by the
death of Mr. Morrill,, with which his
name for many years had been associ-
ated, as the ultimate object of a laud-
able ambition. There is no need to
write of the incidents and the result
Of contest which rent the State.
These are all still fresh in the minds
of General CIRCUITS survivors. He
bore the disappointment of his most
cherished hopes with the fortitude he
had always opposed to defeat, and
he was manly in defeat that like
iron entered his soul. No sound of
anguish escaped him and he met his
opponents with that grim goodoheer
born of quarter of century of pol
itical strife. No one will question
the desire of General Grout to serve
his country we'll and faithfully. No
one will pay him sincerer homage
than those who had opposed him, and
who in their opposition had expert
enced
"The stern joy that warriors feel
In foemen worthy of their steel"