The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1868-09-15
GOV. se,mour ana aIIis rriend..

The trouble with Gov Seymour is not
that he called the mnrdering, cowardIy,
draft mob his friends, but that they were
his friends, The propriety or policy of a
magistrate conciliating rioters by fair
speech and smooth phrase is not to be
questioncd-provided that is his STYLE
There is better way, and one that leads
more directly to the point-the way that
wos taken at Boston about the same time.
Double,shotted canister and ball cart
ridge is what such mob, in nine cases
out Of ten, must come to, and the sooner
the better, the earlier. the more merciful.
The whole bloody work of those three
days at New York might in all probabili-
ty have been saved, had title Of the ress
olution been exhibited which 50 summa-
rily ended the campaign on Charles
river,
But this is a matter of temperament
and habit mainly, not of moral character
No one thinks OF attributing TO the then
mayor Of Boston, completely with the
pro.slavery rioters in 1885, because he
spoke Mr. Williams and his mob OF "gent
| tleman of property and standing" fair,
| when they clamered for Garrison's life,
and assailed with cowardly threats and
violence & women's prayer meeting, 1t
merely showed that, though the flower of
earth in his public and private life, he
was not the man for such a crisis. No
one, again, would have expected any
thing different from Mr. Edward Everett,
had he been governor Of Massachusetts
in 1868. He would have poured oil on
| the troubled waters to the best Of his
| rhetorical ability; he would not have de-
fed the storm. Notwithstanding his
hadsome offer to buckle on a knapsack
and shoulder a musket, to suppress an
imaginary slave, ,insurrection, it is doubt
full if he would have proved very formi-
dable to an actual mob at home. He
would have sought to tcmporize, TO con-
diliate, to evade. ...
No the damnation of Gov Seymours
speech is not that he called the mob his
| friends, but that they were so and knew
it, That speech is not to be interpreted
by doubtful canons of criticism, but in tie
light of the speakers character, and of
his conduct before and after. Just as
Charles Levi Woodbury. and the fellows
of that sort in Boston were whispering
tocethering at their club. and smiling
with unusual cheeriulness, while the mob
was gathering at the Dock square gun.
shops and breaking in the doors of the
Cooper street armory, 50 Gov Seymour's
whole bearing and demeanor, his acts of.
fetal and private, his i'll timed denunca%
tions of the policy cf the administration,
and his friendly associations with the
leadir . spirits Of that violence, showed
more plainly than any single thing could
have done. that lis sympathies were with
those who were resisting the law. SO
that. while no one believes he expected or
desired the worst acts of those bloody
davs. or found any pleasure in them, or
was anything but honest in his efforts TO
stop the pllaging anI massacre, it is diff
fcult for a candid man ihat lie was glad
to have disturbance enough occur, to en-
barras, the government, to stop the draft,
and 10 set a fire in the rear of our long
suffering army in the field; and that
this never would have taken place. had
he been Of different mind.
In Judging OF such an act, everything
depends upon the character ef him who
performs it, and on the circumstances of
the case. Archbishop Hughes also spoke
the mob fair, but no one attributes to
him sympathy with their proceedings
Other men might have temporizcd with
the rioters and npologized for them, with
out suspicion of completely in their of,
fenses. Governor Andrew, on at least
one occasion, protested against the action
of the federal covernment-as the New
York World took great pains the other
day to shown language as strong, cer-
tainlv. as Governor Seymour ever used.
But he didn't do it while the mob was
up. lie didn't do it when the streets
were running with blood, and the fen
dish instincts and propensi,ies which lurk
ever at the heart Of a community had
burst out into madness and crime of every
kind and name. No. Then his face