EDMUNDS, GEORGE F. 



231 



educational matters, as well as in its commerce. 

 For several years Ecuador has been under 

 military rule, and has passed through various 

 revolutions, with successive changes of rulers, 

 each more despotic than his predecessor. The 

 popular vote has rarely been consulted, and 

 the country "is as much tyrannized over as is 

 Turkey or Russia, although it has nominally a 

 President who assumes to be a constitutional 

 chief magistrate." The principal activity dis- 

 played by the military ruler of Ecuador ap- 

 pears to have been in improving as much as 

 possible his own personal interests and those 

 of his friends, while the only reward of merit, 

 when opposed to his principles, has been either 

 imprisonment or exile. 



" Although the Treasury," writes a journal- 

 ist, " is said to be in a flourishing condition 

 something after the style of the Costa Rica Trea- 

 sury, which is always overflowing, according to 

 official accounts yet colleges and schools are 

 closing up because the teachers are unpaid. The 

 college of San Vicente and the Schools of Law 

 and Medicine are in a condition of complete 

 misery, and sustained only by the voluntary 

 efforts of the professors, many of whom are 

 poor men. The School of Medicine, in which 

 there are thirteen classes, subsists on the pitia- 

 ble sum of 120 pesos; one professor, whose 

 duties are divided between lectures and the 

 hospital, receiving but 12 pesos per month. 

 The Government, it is said, is a debtor to the 

 college in a large amount, which if paid would 

 place it in a condition to maintain its service 

 efficiently, and to the immense advantage of 

 the community." A Guayaquil newspaper pub- 

 lished, under date of January 24, 1880, a se 

 vere arraignment of the Government on this 

 account: "And as the Government appears 

 to be composed of Veintemilla and his tools, 

 who are more interested in becoming rich and 

 great themselves than in dividing the blessings 

 of Providence with the people, the evils com- 

 plained of are likely to continue until the hand 

 of destiny scatters to the winds the contempt- 

 ible faction that ruthlessly assails private rights, 

 fosters corrupt influences, muzzles the press, dis- 

 regards the claims of education, and does its best 

 to make the country a by- word among nations." 



EDMUNDS, GEORGE F., an American states- 

 man, was born in Richmond, Vermont, Febru- 

 ary 1, 1828. His father was a New England 

 farmer, of the strictest Puritanical habits ; his 

 mother was of Quaker descent. He received 

 a public-school education and the instruction of 

 a private tutor, and early developed a fondness 

 for study and intellectual effort. Possessing a 

 natural aptitude for law, he pursued his legal 

 studies with unusual assiduity and success. In 

 1849, at the age of twenty-one, he was admit- 

 ted to the bar. He studied law in Burlington, 

 but returned to his native town, to begin prac- 

 tice in the office of his future brother-in-law, 

 A. B. Maynard. In 1851 he removed to Bur- 

 lington, and was soon in the full tide of success 

 at the bar. He was distinguished even as a boy 



for maturity of mind, as well as for readiness 

 of wit, and his strong intellectual qualities, 

 joined to a great capacity for the acquisition of 

 legal knowledge, early gave him a foremost 

 place among the lawyers of his State. In Au- 

 gust, 1852, he was married to Miss Susan Marsh 

 Lyman, daughter of Hon. Wyllis Lyman, of 

 Burlington, Vermont, a lawyer of considerable 

 repute. At the end of five years of exclusive 

 devotion to his profession, Mr. Edmunds was 

 induced to enter the political arena, but he has 

 never sought political honors. He was a mem- 

 ber of the State Legislature of Vermont in 

 1854-'55, '57, '58, and '59, serving three years 

 as Speaker ; was a member of the State Senate, 

 and its presiding officer, pro tempore, in 1861- 

 '62. He was appointed to the United States 

 Senate as a Republican, to fill the vacancy 

 caused by the death of Solomon Foot, and took 

 his seat April 5, 1866, and was elected by the 

 Legislature for the remainder of the term end- 

 ing March 4, 1869. He lias been thrice re- 

 elected to the Senate, and his term of service 

 will expire March 4, 1887. He was one of the 

 members of the Electoral Commission of 1877. 

 As a member of the State Legislature he was 

 distinguished for his accurate knowledge of all 

 business that came before it ; and it was said 

 of him then, as it is said of him now, that no 

 measure could possibly get passed into the form 

 of law without his scrutiny. As chairman of 

 the Judiciary Committee of the United States 

 Senate, in which position he succeeded Lyman 

 Trumbull, of Illinois, he has had the shaping of 

 many of the most important measures that 

 have ever been passed by the American Con- 

 gress. In the long contest with President An- 

 drew Johnson, Senator Edmunds was an inde- 

 fatigable worker, and in all the legislation of 

 reconstruction and the enforcement of the Con- 

 stitution he has acted an influential part, often 

 adopting a more moderate and conservative 

 course than many of his party associates. The 

 initiation and passage of the Electoral Com- 

 mission Bill and the Pacific Railroad Funding 

 Act are largely due to his influence and exer- 

 tions. He is not an eloquent but a very fluent 

 speaker, with much readiness of repartee, and 

 skill in the art of extemporaneous argument. 

 He is master of a strong and incisive English 

 style, and never varies his voice above a cer- 

 tain pitch, but talks with a calm, self-contained, 

 conversational manner which compels atten- 

 tion. He is especially noted for the keen sar- 

 casm and drastic humor with which he meets 

 his opponents in debate, yet the keen conten- 

 tion in which he habitually indulges never goes 

 far enough to cause a break in his personal 

 relations with any other Senator. The most 

 remarkable trait in his character is his freedom 

 from all enmities and personal piques. His 

 distinguishing characteristics as a legislator are 

 his clearness of perception and quickness to de- 

 tect any flaw or imperfection in a measure be- 

 fore the Senate, and his unswerving hostility 

 to anything like irregularity in its proceedings. 



