The General insurance legislation was enacted. limits of jail yards were extended to include the entire State and Ex-Gov. Charles K. Williams was designated to revise the code of Statute law. Acts were passed permitting Burlington to incorporate as a city, granting a village charter to St. Johnsbury, and incorporating the Burlington and the Rutland Gas Light companies and numerous slate companies. Resolutions were adopted protesting against Canadian reciprocity, favoring international arbitration, and in view of the fact that extensive grants of land had been made to Southern and Western States to aid in the construction of railroads, approval was given to a bill which had passed the National House of Representatives, by the terms of which nine hundred thousand acres of public lands were granted to Vermont for the support of schools, or for other useful purposes. This bill failed to pass the Senate. Daniel Webster died on October 24, 1852, while the Vermont Legislature was in session, and on October 25, Governor Fairbanks sent a message to that body, notifying the House and Senate of the Nation's loss. A joint session was held, and eulogies were pronounced, the principal address being given by the venerable William C. Bradley, a member of the House who had been a personal friend and associate of Webster a quarter of a century before. For many years Mr. Bradley had been opposed to Webster in politics, but in an eloquent peroration he said, comparing the dead statesman to a lion: "When the shaft of the Mighty Hunter had laid him low, dead, prostrate before me, and I looked upon his great and noble proportions, and the symmetry of his make, I must feel that he was indeed created monarch of the forest. So it has never been permitted me to cease admiring and bearing witness to the great things of Daniel Webster; and if it can soothe his mighty spirit to have a political adversary twine the cypress round his tomb, I freely offer myself to bear to his memory a tribute which I trust will be also in unison with the feelings of the whole House." He then offered a suitable resolution, deploring the death of "the eminent jurist, legislator and statesman, Daniel Webster, whose labors in the forum, the Senate and the Cabinet, have honored and adorned his country, and carried its celebrity beyond the limits of our language." The resolution also recognized the debt of gratitude which Vermont owed the great statesman for his achievements in settling the Northern boundary. Effective speeches were made by Messrs. Barrett of Middlebury, Wardner of Windsor and Rowell of Troy. A Webster memorial service, held at Middlebury, was addressed by Ex-Senator Phelps in a notable speech, which, unfortunately was not reported. Senator Upham, who had been in poor health for some time, died in Washington, January 4, of varioloid. The burial was in the Congressional Cemetery. The Vermont Watchman said: "A shameful panic prevailed at Washington on Senator Upham's death-somewhat palliated but by no means justified by the infectious character of the disease. The consequences of the panic were too painful to be made public." No doubt it was suspected that the disease was smallpox. Senator William H. Seward, in eulogistic remarks, said of Senator Upham: "No gate was so strong, no lock so fast and firm, as the watch he kept against the approach of corruption or even undue influence or persuasion." Ex-Senator Phelps was appointed by the Governor to succeed Senator Upham, thus transgressing the so-called "Mountain Rule," whereby one Senator is taken from the east and one from the west side of the Green Mountains. It happened that at the time of Senator Upham's death the vote of every Whig Senator was desired for the confirmation of a nomination for Justice of the Supreme Court, as it was feared that if the appointment went over to the incoming administration a secessionist Democrat would be appointed. Mr. Phelps was in Washington at the time, and, owing to much urging on the part of influential men, he was given a temporary appointment. The Whigs, the Democrats and the Free Democrats nominated the same candidates for Governor who had been named by these parties the preceding year. The Whigs were weakened by the loss of anti-slavery votes and suffered as a result of the passage of the prohibition liquor law of 1852. Erastus Fairbanks led in the Governorship contest but there was no choice, and the Legislature was called upon to elect. The popular vote was: Fairbanks, 20,849; Robinson, 18,142; Brainerd, 8,291; scattering, 133. The political division of the Senate was: Whigs, 11; Democrats, 6; Free Soil Democrats, 6. One Democratic Senator died after election. The political division of the House was: Whigs, 95; Democrats, 82; Free Soil Democrats, 37. longed contest over the election of There was a pro- Needham, a Free Soil Democrat, being elected on the thirty-first ballot, most of the Democrats voting for him at last. The first ballot for Governor in joint assembly resulted as follows: Fairbanks, 110; Robinson, 97; Brainerd, 38. There was no choice on Thursday or Friday and the joint assembly was adjourned until the following Wednesday. Again there was no election, but on Thursday, October 27, on the twentieth ballot, John S. Robinson was elected, the vote being, Robinson, 120; Fairbanks, 104; Brainerd, 15. Two blank ballots were cast. Robinson's vote, 120, was just the number required to elect, and a sufficient number of Free Soilers left Brainerd to make possible the election of the Democratic candidate. By the same coalition other candidates of the same party were elected, Jefferson P. Kidder of Randolph, Lieutenant Governor, and John A. Page of Montpelier, Treasurer. For twenty-five years there had been no Democratic Governor of Vermont, and none has been elected since (1921). The combination which elected Democratic State officials and a Free Soil Democratic Speaker did not hold together for the election of a United States Senator to fill the unexpired term of William Upham, deceased. On the first ballot in the Senate Daniel Kellogg (Dem.) received 8 votes; Lawrence Brainerd (Free Soil), 3; Stephen Royce, 2; scattering, 15. The vote in the House was as follows: Daniel Kellogg, 75; Jacob Collamer (Whig), 65; Lawrence Brainerd, 22; Oscar L. Shafter (Free Soil), 21; Portus Baxter, 9; Charles Davis, 6; William Heywood, Jr., 3; Carlos Coolidge, 2; scattering, 6. Balloting continued throughout an un usually long session, which adjourned on December 6 without having elected a Senator. The vote on the thirty-ninth and last ballot was: Kellogg, 86; Collamer, 80; Shafter, 18; Brainerd, 9; scattering, 3. John S. Robinson, born in Bennington, November 10, 1804, was the son of Nathan Robinson, the grandson of Gen. Moses Robinson and the great grandson of Samuel Robinson, pioneer settler of Bennington. Graduating from Williams College in 1824, he was admitted to the Bennington county bar in the same year and became one of the prominent lawyers of Vermont. He represented Bennington in the Legislature in 1832 and 1833 and was a Senator from Bennington county in 1838 and 1839. He was several times an unsuccessful candidate for Governor and Congressman. He attended the Democratic National Convention of 1860, at Charleston, S. C., as chairman of the Vermont delegation, and while in that city was stricken with apoplexy and died on April 24. His body was brought to his home for burial and the funeral sermon was preached by President Hopkins of Williams College, a fellow student in that institution. In his annual message Governor Robinson declared that the prohibitory liquor law had "engaged the attention and excited the feelings of the community perhaps more than any other legislation since the organization of the government." He considered several provisions of the law of doubtful constitutionality and expediency. In his opinion the idea that the habits and tastes of a people may be materially changed by legislative enactments, was "at variance with the past history and experience of the world." "A very respectable portion," said |