Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1850-01-11
The Constitutional vention,

Nothing could have given more satisfaction
to the public than the signal rebuke administer
ed by the majority of the Constitutional Conyen-
ton, now assembled at Montpelier, to the petty
schemes of the petter demagogues who at
tempted to make party capitalin the organiza-
ton ofthat grave and dgni.ied body The ma
nPnvers Of the miscellaneous and inconpruous
leaders" of" Free Democracy =" most emphat.
icalIy" returned to plague the inventors The
attempt Of these spurious friends Of Freedom
served only to expose, in the competest mar
ner, their utter weakness in the body over which
they proposed to ride We are thankful for this.
at any rate. Instead of the so majority"
claimed by the yrrmoH Pa'ri,t. with loud.
sounding phrase Free d ,mocracy has M ,o1
Joriiy at al in the Constitutional Convention.
Upon this point the defeat of Mr.. VLAs. who
was The regular csuc IS nomiuc, of Free De-
mocracy' for President, is concIn,iye Free
Democracy showed its strength and it, weak
ness when it gave It's partisan nominee lO4
yotes.-And from that vote he ran down. in
three ba!otngS, to 90-prccisey the vote, on
the first ballot, for Governor Coo IpGr.
TIE reason Of this is apparent. The mom
bers Of the Convention were not elected on arm
P'rtyt(S rhNete-. Two,,hirds OF the people,
probably, did not 60 to the polls The only act.
i've eIectoneerers were these new born Free
Democracy "icaGer>,' who issued a discracelul
and mendlcious "circular,'' Just before tie
election, yng'y asserting that the Wings were
opposed to the amendments that Win Conn.
ell of Censors had recommended This circu-
lar is still eXiant, signed by Ehc ir9 D Barber.
Stephen Smith, Homer ". Haaion. Asa O AZ.
dis, and !. T. hiadsr, as the Free Democracy
State Committee, and headed con ileaiiql''!
These patriotic workers in the dark call on
the Democracy" to secure a majority of del
egates because a Taylor plot" was "un-
masked % to resist the amendments! If such
plot was uNuASKED,' why this EFT and
"e'Fin'lA proclamation OF it by these suf
terlng tree-demrcracy SUMS? a plot that is
unna~kel already, it woa,d seem to com.
mon Yankees, might be met openly and man
lully.
but there was no such pot. and these
" mousGg politicians knew it, Na plot was
either entered into, or unmasked, till their own
secret circular, rs false As it was contemotiblo.
was exposed. The people of Vermont received
II with silent contempt as it deserved. 1t hur-
r'd nobody to the Po.ls-it alarmed nobody,-it
excited nothing but disgust among right.minded
men. The people knew what value to place
upon the cry Of "wolt" in partisan pacard
headed by T.. d. B rjer! Tat NOTORIOUS gem
teman had offered his Invaluable services IA
sare nc country quite too often before National
rum always stares him in the face whenever the
People refuse to entrust the party to which he
temporarily belongs, with power He grows
frantic with the great sense Of the danger to
the popular liberties of excluding him from
office! SOFAS we have said, nobody was alarm
ed by his secret circular, and genera impress
sion prevails that the country is safe"
but the circular in question did disclose
the fact that the leaders" sf = Free Democra-
cy' intended to make party capital of the cleo
ton of Delegates. Accordingly the great organ
of the di'organizers, the W. PATRIOT went into
Mysteries Of JOY over the result Of the election
setting it down as tremendous flee-.iemo = Qey
triumph WEI io''B-'eaH, dusHleT-Housc
whiggery,'-at the rate of so majority"
Tho Convention assembled and the re-
suit is before our readers. A decided majority
of that Body, the highest known to the Consii-
tuition, both in dignity and importance, (for they
are virtually charged with the duty of altering
or repeating the organic law Of the State) did
not look upon themselves as constituted for the
purpose of affirming the decisions of party
caucus they promptly repudiated the secret
circular patriots and their nominees l-beng
no ways intimidated by even the PERSONAL pre-
se"ee of that prince of political popinjays, Ed
'card d. BIrber, and the rest of the Free demo-
crazy State Committee" one of whom (the
unfortunate 4" SMITH OF Weston') was mem.
Der of the Convention 4
We rejoice at this result, and the whole