Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1854-06-30
The Meeting of the Office Holders,


dacity.
The Meeting of the Office Holders!
Those holding Office in the good old State of
Vermont under the present pro-slavery ma
tional administration of Frank Pierce and
Stephen A. Douglas, and under the State add
ministration of Robinson & Kidder, (minus
their free soil friend Thompson) held their
first convention at Montpelier the 2lst inst,
and very unique and peculiar convention it
was. Men of one stripe, all having the ear
mark of the administration checked like
baggage, Frank Pierce holding the dupli-
cates,-district attorney, collector and depu-
ties, marshals and subs,-postmasters and
public printers, hangers-on, and lick
spittles Of the administration, with enough
spectators to half fill the Court House. com
posed the convention. The plan of operations
was concocted beforehand. The old ticket
was first nominated, but as expected, de-
clined, except the treasurer and Merritt
Clark, William Mattocks, and j. A. Page,
were finally put in nomination for the ofhcs
of Governor, Lieut.. Governor, and Treasurer.
Clark was and is an old liner of the most
strictest sect. and a Douglas Nebraska Kan
sas bill man. lie was last year kicked out
of the convention after being nominated for
Governor, by some spirited free democrats )f
this place, who once went to Rutland ard
couldn't find convention which Clark was
holding In bedroom in the hotel They re-
membered the trick and the insult then, but
have forgotten, or forgiven it nOw. Mattocks
is one Of the burning and shining lights that
formed the celebrated truck-and- dicker Free
Democracy Of 1910, and has since been that
or nothing. Whose turn has now come to
cry " bribe,'' g corruption," truck-and-
dicker," " coalition }" Who is now trying
to - buy free soil votes - Such is the ticket
as heterogeneous, and incongruous as could
be imagined, and certainly having but one
feeling in common, and that is, love of office
All the resolutions but the ID We're passed
and without opposition When that was
reached. there were " symptoms 'of trouble
ii. X. Slayton, of Calais, young man appa-
rently of talent and promise, and Of hitherto
unwayering devotion to the party, and Hiram
Atkins, Editor of the Bellows Falls Argus
earnestly and mantully opposed tie resolu-
ton as wholly unnecessary and not express
sing the feelings Of the mass of the party
! In honest and manly terms they begged OF the
convention to lay that resolution on the table
| But it had been otherwise determined, and
the tactics and science of the Office holders.
| the merceRdry troops 0rHed by the admins
tration, now shone respondent Smaley
sneered at - the young converts and his
d" wise young friends, BARLOW, Kidder,
Colt, and Plympton, applauded the rcsolu-
ton as " embodying the glorious, and we'll
known principles of the democratic party.
the principles for which our forefathcrs
fought and blcd, and for which freedom (D
was everywhere struggling" One or two
DULLES near Atkins constantly INTERRUPTED
him by insulting and abusive remarks
Plympton, the president, left the chair to
Mr.. Colt, ia perfect Old Hickory, in form,
feature, gesture, intonation, character and
temper,) and commenced speech which he
suspended at Smalley's suggestion, --and
cheers misses, stamping, hurras, groans, bull
| lying, bluhnS, laughing, sneering. contemp-
tuous remarks, and cries of "queston, :"
"question,' while twenty men were attempt
ing to speak, were resorted to, to suppress
IA 30 d'S"nssion, and a frank avowal OF opinion
Inc game Wa successful. Colt was in the
| Char, and he was bound .o nut tbo tlino
through, whether the convention wanted It
or not He came down upon every man who
! opposed, with peremptory mandamus to
I" sit down. He was fit engineer for such
train, fit presiding officer for such meet
ing. Free discussion was strangled-the gag
! applied-and while dozen men were irving
to get the floor, he put the question-very
prudently calling for standing vote. Fifty
men sprang to their feet to expostulate-
cries of" Mr.. President came from all parts
of the house, from our neighbor of the Patriot
among the rest-but the presiding officer S
determined and shrill scream resounded
above the din and storm, and uproar and
"nose and confusion declaring the "reso-
luton adopted almost unanimously :" and
the convention broke up in little better than
| a row,
Our loco friends appear with a sorry
smile, or forced laugh in the street, while
they as good as give up the battle, They
stand as unsteadily upon the platform, as a
landlubber upon the rolling and pitching
deck of vessel at sea, and from their visages
one would almost suppose that they were a
hnle sick. But the Office holders are ex
pected to stand there-it would be unkind
and ungratetul and dangerous for them to re-
iuse-yet we knoO that the rank and file of
the party wH do no such thing. They will
now march to different music. fla corporal s
| guard OF voters, beside Frank Pierces h,red
men, can be found to support the principles
promulgated by the convention, we comics 5
that we have mistaken the feeling of the free
men of Vermont. Some Of the convention
packed, assorted, and free from combustible
material as II Wds.-arc smarting under the
ungracious and insulting treatment met bv
the minority, and they will speak out where
Smalley and Colt cant stihe discuss ion, and
where they can make themselves heard
lake the convention altogether, it was merely
n farce, which come near ending in Il tragedy
1t was machinery worked by the wire pullcrs,
and no expression of the feelings or opinions
of any party in the State Free sellers reru-
diate its action, straight out, democrats repu-
date it, and honest old liners dcnounce it
The last care not to daub with such untem-
rered mortar; and the other having been to
the verge, have turned back from the preci-
pice.-It, limchnrn.