New-York tribune., 1919-03-01
George F. Edmunds

George +. Edmunds resigned from the
United States Senate in March, 1901,
and died Thursday in his ninety second
year. If he had chosen he might have
served to the end Of his life, for Vermont
was welded to the theory of continuing
Senatorial tenures.
Mr.. Edmunds went to Washington in
April, 1866. On March a, 1891, when he
retired, he was still the junior Senator,
Justin NJ. Morrill, being the senior Had
he ignored his physical infirmities, which
were slight, he could probably have
dwarfed all records with a continuous
Senatorial service of more than fifty
three years.
One Of Mr.. Edmunds's most striking
characteristics, however, was his indif-
ference to fame. He was a hermit by
instinct In politics he was a Brah min.
He carried Senatorial dignity to the point
of pontifcal austerity. In debate he had
belligerent manner and sharp tongue.
Most of his colleagues scrupu lousy
avoided clash with him. The only one
who ever stood up to him in his later
years and actually put him to rout was
the husky, irritable and exceedingly free
spoken Preston B. Plumb.
Mr.. Edmunds held his own from the
first among the leaders in the Recon-
structlon Congresses. He had an exact
and penetrating legal mind, which went
straight to the weak points in an oppo-
nent's arguments. He was Intellectually
arrogant, but usually right In course
of time he became chairman of the Sen
ate Judiciary Committee, and in that post
exercised sort Of ozarship over legi5la-
ton. His favorite way of confuting the
advocates of measures which he thought
legally unsound was to move to refer
their handiwork to the Judiciary Com
mittee. He once undertook to discipline
President Cleveland by calling for the
papers presented in behalf of appontees
named to Federal judicial Offices. But he
came out second best in that encounler.
Probably no other Senator in his time
legislation as he did He was called on
to straighten out all knotty points, as
John G. Spooner used to be in the period
following. He drafted the important
clauses of the resumption act. He gave
final form to the Sherman antitrust
act, with some aid from George +. Hear.
He was president pro temporc of the
Senate for a time and was always
power in all party conferences.
His indifference to self advertisement
allowed much credit for his work to go
to others. About the only measures to
which his name was attached were those
abolishing polygamy in Utah. He was
one of the earliest champions of the merit
system of Civil Service appointments
And at the beginning of each Congress
he religiously introduced bill for the
creation of University Of the United
States.
Mr.. Edmundss fame as Republican
leader was nation wide. He was several
times passive candidate for the Repub-
lican Presidential nomination. But he
came from a small state and lacke,. all
the arts and elements Of popularity. He
was cast in the ample Senatorial mould
of older days But he lacked the per-
sonal ambition and the thirst for pow :.
which made men like Clay, Calhoun and
Webster cling to public life even after
they had tasted its bitterest disappont-
ments.
After twenty-nine years Of retirement
Mr.. Edmunds had become a vague men,
ory to this generation. But in his own
generation he was an impressive and
potent figure. Intellectually he stood in
the front rank Of the statesmen of the
era following the Civil War and Recon-
struction.