State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1831-1836, 1836-11-01
permanency of our Republican Institutions.


of our Republican Institutions.
Fellow citizens--wc want REEaRM /
IA real, honest reform. Not u reform |
which shall glut the vengeance of party, |
or make abuses the preext for still greater
ones. But reform which shall lay open
to the most rigid scrutiny and probe to the
boilom, every Department Of the Execu-
live governmental reform which shall re-
store correct prime pies 10 lis administra-
ton which shall arrest the tide of party
prOScrption--allay the bitterness OF party
strile-respect virtue, intelligence, indus
Try, fidelity and conscientious PATRIOTISM
spurn the host Of iawning sycophans aud
greedy haterers- no candidate for
the succession exhibit President less
solcitiuus To build up an Executive party,
to applaud his administration right or
wrong, than To commend himself and his
measures to the calm and rational ludg-
ment of oil his counlrymen.
Such reform we think that Gen. Har-
risnn is peculiarly fitted to accomplish To
give him the power to Go It, we shall give
| linn our cheerful and decided support. We
ask you, fellow citizens, to cooperate with
us III this good work. We do not aim to
! inspire your energy and zeal in this effort,
/ BY shouts Of anticipated triumph. There
/ is inspiration enough in the principles we
advocate. Those principles, we commend,
/ fellow citizens, To the sober consideration
! which you owe il To- yourselves and your
country To give them. They deserve sue
ress; and il shall he through no want o!
zeal ON our part, Us we trust it will not be
/ on yours, that they shall not be successful
aud even SInully triumphant.
! Thus far, we have dwelt exclusively on
! The question of the Presidency. The cleo
ton olthe Second Officer in the government
} is one of great importance, and deserves
great consideration. The contingency may
/ happen which shall pace him in the chair
of State; while, in his ordinary functions,
as President OF the Senate, he possesses he
power Of exercising an important influence
over the proceedings of that body. The
casting vote of Mr.. Van Buren, to which
we have referred, admonishes US that the
power Of giving such vote, should be en-
/ trusted 10 no one, in the sDundness Of whose
principles we have not the fullest conf
dence.
III considering the claim: OF RICHARD VI.
JOHNSON to that office, we cannot forget
the declaration made by him Immediately
after tue lection OF Mr.. Adams, that g his
" administration must be put dolcn, though
1T should be Pnre as the angels at the right
" hand Of the throne Of GOq'--a dec!ara-
ton which, ASIDE from the profliracy OF
the principle involved in it, carries on its
face, sufficient evidence that he is unified
to preside over the deliberations Of the
I rravcst bndy OF legislators upon earlh.--
/ His support of" the most obnoxious meas
ures ul tho present administration, and a.
mong them, The syslema ic attempt TO pros
trate at the feet ofthe Executive, the Senate
| Of the United States, the very body over
whose Deliberations, he is, If elected, 10
preside, crowns, and readers iusuperable.
the objections we have against him.
Nor can we feel Indifferent To his yell
knorn domestic history, -evincing, as il
does, a strange disregard Of every thing
which gives interest and endearment 10
the most sacred Of human relations. We
cannot overlook such considerable in Sc
letting al incumbent for The second office in
the gift of the Nation.
In FRANCIS GRANGER we have a
candidate OF distinguished talents, amiable
department, sound principles, and pure lie
devoted, during his whole public career,
10 the advancement of the genuine Repub
lican Principles OF ancient days--hcartilv
and honestly opposed TO the misruIe OF the
present administration, and pledged TO sus-
tain all the great interests which are dear
to the people Of Vermont.
Fellow citizens, you are aware that there
has been diversity of views amonr those
who compose the Convention which now
addresses you. 1t consists Of men who
have belonged TO two distinct parties. and
who have, at some periods, been found ar
rayed in political hostility against each 9th
er. We are brought together, not Ms a
formal coalition of discordant political prin-
clplcs, to effect specific object-but bvthe
force Of principles, which, whatever NAV
have been our diversity Of views on one
subject, have long been held in common bv
us all. The present crisis gives to those
principles an unwonted Importance. We
rally to support them, in the persons Of
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. and
FRANCIS GRANGER. While their on
position to the anti-republican doctrines.
and practice, OF the present administration
renders them acceptable to us all, their oD-
position to Freemasonry renders them ne
cullarly so, to those OF this Convention who
have been organized to oppose that institu-
ton. HE GREAT PRINCIPLES on which that
opposition has rested, are fundamental in
our republican institutions. They yet live,
and will continue to live, long after Free
masonry shall have been forgotten. The
Antimasons Of this Convention, while an
plying those principles to masonry. have
also applied them TO the msrule Of the pre-
sent administration, and must continue Inns
TO apply them. They cannot be guiltv of
the inconsistency of publicly declaring, as
the entire antimasonic party of this Stale
did two years ago, that the principles of
the party necessarily led it to oppose The
mlsrule Of the Administration, and now, |
when the country is called on to pronounce
Il definitive Judgment upon thai n,;sruIo