Mr. RAYMOND. I regret to say, sir, that I am entirely unprepared to commemorate in any fitting terms the character and services of the eminent Senator whose demise has been announced. Indeed, after what has been so well and fully said of his life and public services by those from his own State who knew him so thoroughly and loved him so well, I should feel that any extended remarks from me were simply beside the proprieties of the occasion. But I trust the House will bear With me while, in a few words, I comply with the request of those of his own State upon this floor, that I will at Icast express my own sympathy with them in their loss, and my concurrence in their estimate of his character. It was my good fortune to know the late Senator Contmun for many years last past. It was one of the most pleasing incidents of the an nual festival of our university commencement, to those of us who were then in college, that he was to be present, as he was always present when commencement day came round, to rehcarse to us the history of the troubles through which he had to pass to achieve the education to which he attributed his success in life, and to give to us. as no one could do so well, those counsels and suggestions of which we all stood so much in need. I learned then to admire his character and to love him for his kind consideration toward us, so much his juniors, so eager so ready always to profit by his example an to learn from his counsels. It was not my for time in after life to know him intimately. I used to see him only as we see each other in the casual meetings of public life. The more I saw him the more I honored him, the more profoundly I respected the great gifts he brought to the public service, and the high moral considerations by which his public actions were always guided. His mind was clear, acute, and strong. He never failed to discriminate accurately between all the views of every subject he discussed. His logic was clear, and strong as the English language could frame. There was nothing in his discharge of public duty that ever was low or narrow. He always rose to the level of every subject, and he did it without an effort, for the highest subjects were only upon the level upon which his mind constantly moved. He was entirely free from the small ambitions and smaller ealousies that too often eneroach upon the large generosities that alone give dignity to the details of a public life. In everything that he did he consulted the dictates of his conscience. He acted in public as in private with a view to what he believed to be Justice and truth, and the highest good of those in whose behalf he spoke or acted. Senator Conuxsn was not given merely to theorisin on public affairs; I think if I have not mistaken the tendency, drift, and principle of his public action, that he looked upon Governments and the Offices of Government as experimental in their nature;and the question which guided his conduct was not what ought to be done on the highest theory we can frame, “What would I do if I could have in own way in everything?” but “What is the est thing on the whole, which, under the present circu m stances, it is competent to accomplish?” He was, therefore, as far removed as possible from that class of public men whom the French were accustomed to designate doctrinazrca. He was a practical, direct, straightforward states man in the largest and best sense of that great and noble wor. I think Senator COLLAMER, moreover. showed largely, perhaps was to a certain extent the cause of, that moderation, that steady conser vatism in tone and temper, which has always characterized the noble State from which it: came. It has always seemed to me that Ver mont, more thoroughly and more truly even than any other State of the Union, presents a perfect model of a republican commonwealth. know of no State certainly and my acquaintance with it has been somewhat intimate where I believe the great principles of social equality obtain a more thorough foothold than in that Green Mountain State. I know of none in which the personal and civil rights of every human being obtain a more prompt, a more thorough, a more cordial recognition and I should state equally to the honor of that noble State, thatslie is alwa ssteady in the judgment of public affairs; an Senator colLAMER share her steadiness of judgment and action, never carried away by mere caprice or gusts of ublic temper. He was still always profound y respectful and deferential to that settled and permanent tendency and conviction of the public mind which, perhaps, is the surest test of political truth to which any person in public or private life can possibly rer. Vermont, Mr. Speaker. has been fortunate in the character of her public men, from a time beyond which my memory does not reach in her history. Shehas always had in her public councils men who conferred luster upon her, and gathered honor to themselves byt e manner in which they met every duty which devolved upon them. Some of their names in various Depts of the public service have been cited by the honorable gentlemen whose words preceded me. They are names that will live in history. They are names that reflect honor upon the professions with which they were connected; and Vermont still has in the public service in both Houses in this Congress, in the did lomatic service of the country, in the press, an everywhere elsewherepublic action can romote the public good, men whose names wiil be remembered for the good thus done the world. But among them all she has no nameaudit would be the highest wish I could wish her that in some future ay she might have some name though I Riel how vain that wish iStllflt will occup a higher place in the respect of allwho knew im, and a more profound position in the love and esteem of those who are immediately acquainted with him, than that of JACOB col