Year: 1873




1t Is always pleasure for us, to notice
the favorable opinions expressed by our
cotempoIaries of our noble representa-
| tive in the u. S. Senate and doubly SO
when his home papers relate their i'm
pressions during their long acquaintance
with him. The Green Bay Gazette of
the 9th inst, after some preliminary re-
marks, speaks of him as follows


''Of all who have been mentioned in
connection with this office he seems to
us. IN peculiar degree, to possess those
qualifications which would enable him to
preside with fitness over the most august
legal tribunal on the globe. and it is the
purpose of this article to briefly cite a
few facts bearing upon his career as a
public man, which impel us to this con-
cluslon. Long before he entered the
Senate, IN 1861, he was known and re-
spected al one of the most eminent law
yers III the West. His services in Con-
gress during and since the rebellion, have
made him intimately acquainted with the
constitutional history of the United
States, giving breadth and depth to his
convictions, opening noble field for the





eating much of that devotion to unim-
portant and unessential form which too
often clouds the legal mind, and gives to
precedent, established under different
order of things, a greater value than to
experience.


Aside from his legal ability. which was
attested before he entered pr 'itical life,
as a practitioner at the bar O. this State
from 1S45 to 1850, by his services as Cir
cult Judge In 1850 to 1855, part of
which time he presided as Chief Justice
OF the Suprems Court, he stands head
and shoulders above the statesmen of
the West by his known and answering
devotion to principle. In 1856, during
the exciting Fremont campaign, he was
an eloquent and untir1ng advocate of
Republican principles, and assisted great
ly In carrying the State and giving to his
party decided majority in both branch
es OF the Legislature. A Senator was
to be elected that winter and Judge
Howe's name was foremost on the list.
The people had already nominated him,
but the Legislative caucus demanded some
retractlon of his views of the binding
power of the decisions of the Supreme
Court over the States in the Union. He
hated slavery with righteous hatred
be regarded the Fugitive Slave Act as a
piece of iniquity, but so long as it was
law, and its constitutionality decided by
the sovereign authority under the Consti-
tuition, he held it his duty to submit and
yield obedience. The caucus again and
again appealed to him to modify this view,
and hnaIly endeavored to exact q pledge
OF silence, holding up to him as reward
the prlze OF his highest ambition. a seat
IN the Federal Senate. But to all the
Judge had but one answer, that he would
not deny he would like to be Senator
but on the subject of these resolutions.
his position was firmly fixed that ne
was sure he was right, and that if he
knew he could secure the Senatorship
for life by equivocationg in a single word.
he would not do it. Noble words of a
statatesman and patriot A gentleman
OF the name of Doolittle was found ready
at hand, prepared for any amount of
'equivocating, and he was elected. The
prize within his reach passed from his
grasp, but shortly the principle he then
stood by came home to Wisconsin in
different direction, it being in the thick
gloom and gathering storm the only
anchor of safety for the Union, and the
far-sighted wisdom and loyalty of the
Judge was amply ylndicated by the re-
suit. At the earliest opportunity the
people s1gnlfied their appreciation of his
character by sending him as their State
representative in the Senate, and there
for the past twelve years he has been
found steadily at his post, loyal and true,
not alone to the interests of Wisconsin,
but to the whole Union. Never violent,
nor carried away by impulse, charitable
OF the views OF others, mild and digni-
fed IN his manners, generous IN his treat
ment of the distracted South, when such
was permissible in legislation, looking
over the whole Union and bearing an
equal love for every section, since all
alike is his country. His State leans
upon him with mistaken trust, and should
he be called to the Supreme Bench, while
parting from him with regret, would feel
compensated by rational pride in seeing
one of its most eminent and meritorious
citizens selected for position where his
services would prove of equal value to
the Nation -