Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1845-08-14

AS to the concession imputed to us about the
State debt, we never made it. We neither admit
ted or denied the statement of the Patriot But
granting what is the TRUTH that the gross debt of
the State amounts to $244,6l ~, why, unless for
the purpose of deception did the Editor Of the Pat
riot studiously conceal every item of the ofisetng
capital
Adding
The balance in the Treasury $l9,400,l5
Taxes collected 25,56775
State School fund 2l6,350 50
Money in hands of Co. Clerks and States
Attorneys 100000
And we have S2G63l5 50
Subtracting State debt S244642 ~
And we have surplus of S21 675 so
in the Treasury. Other items might be here inclu-
ded, but these IRE sufficient for our purpose.
The Editor talks of "cayng abouta slight va
ration IN the statement of the annual expenses"-
We showed that to answer his dishonest purposes,
he diminished the expenses of 1896 more than
$4,000, and we can now show that, with the same
end in view he increased the just and ordinary ex-
penses of 1913 more than 100000. Take the Au-
ditor's report for that year and deduct from the
gross debit side amounting 10 $lj0,5JG, the fol-
lowing items:
Cash in the Treasury Sl2,66G 46
Liquidation of old State Prison debts 1891 26
Debentures of Constitutional Con. $500 81
Cash loaned on account of school and
safety fund 2,957 60
Arrears of interest to safety fund banks 1926 95
Two acceptances of former Treasurer
for Insane Asylum 4,l20 90
Payments of borrowed money! surplus
money and interest 2O,G9G 90
Cash advanced 10 County Clerks by a.
doption of new system 1920 %
SS095D 70
and we have the true and proper expenses Of the
year, amounting to $69,e0G % which is $G0,26l
81 less than the Editor of the Patriot represented
He calls this "sghl variations" very well; if
he means by it that it is nothing in comparison
with the "rouserS" he sometimes perpetrates, we
perfectly agree with him. But he has no doubt
that his statements would be found correct if criti-
cay examined" Why, in the name of all that is
right and decent, don't he examine them then p
TO make unexamned statements of such grave
character is disgrace to himself, and an insult to
his readers We defy him to an investigation.
Again,
"IIe ought to know that much of the printing
for the State, and the most profitable, is not done
by contract to the lowest bidder"
When we want TO ascertain either what we
ought to know or ought to dc, we shall consult
different kind of oracle than the Editor of the
Patriot We do kno,o that four-fiths of the public
printing is done by contract and that the jobs from
the remaining fifth have been repeatedly offered to
the Patriot and it has uniformly declined them
All this we ready to prove.
But lastly,
I" He ought to know that the common sort Of peo-
pie have the faculty Of memory and will not be like
y to be affected quite to tears by all his cant about
Texas and Slavery, when they recollect the story
that the walls of the Masonic hall in this village
might tell of decided pro-slavery speech made
in the Clay Club last fall by young gentleman
who had, for some two years, basked in the sun
shine of the peculiar institutions at the South"
If the Editor means to assert that ever de-
livered speech in the Masonic Hail. or any where
[ese, in favor Of American Slavery, we do not mnce
terms but unhesitatingly pronounce it an unquali-
fed lalsehood. No man, either North or South of
the Potomac ever heard from our lips a syllable in
defence of this most accused of all villainies.-
Sooner should our tongue wither, than we outrage
humanity and insult high heaven by the utterance
of such heinous language. North or South, our
course has always been uniform upon this subject.
With all the Indignation we are capable Of feeling
or expressing, we have always denounced and ex-
ecrated the monstrous crime of holding men in
bondage. If baskng in the sunshine of the pc
cuiar institutions of the South" had any effect up
on us, it only served to deepen Adherence to
aggravate our hate and to add volume to our tones
, of reprobation The speech to which we suppose
the Editor alludes, was made purely because our
feelings strong upon the subject. We
were indignant, almost uncontrollaby indignant
that men, who protested to be the peculiar friends
of the slave, should be guilty of the mad ntatua-
ton of aiding to annex Texas to this Union where
by the existence of slavery would be incidentally
prolonged, and the horrors of the slaves condition
would be UNNECESSARILY increased; and we fear
lessly and unreseUedly expressed that Indignation
Under similar circumstances, we should probably
D do the like again. This is the sum of the whole
{ matter, and let the Editor make the most of it.
> He himself, we willing to admit, has always
Deen perfectly CONSISTENT upon thls 'esllo FROM
the day that he signed the note directed to that
| most estmable man, Samuel ]. May, informing
him " that by leaving town without any further at
r tempt to hold forth the absurd doctrine Of Anti
o Slavery, he would save him the trouble of using
! any other measures to that effect" down to the
present date, he has been a staunch, uniform, con
sistent champion of the STAKEHOLDER.
vnchin0 and advocating thn admission of Tex
a as areEacts perfectly harmonious The Editors
, consistency, we grant, is undeniable; and so we
y maintain is ours.
"The voracious crew who have fattened so long
upon office that they begin to think the Treasury
n their pirate property"-LaSt Patriot.
L. the ndnr of the Pairint inferred this lalsehnnd