Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-03-17

WooDsTocK.-We published a brief
paragraph from theSpringfeld Republican
of the wanton attack of DIR. Powers on
Gov. Washburn at the Woodstock town
meeting. 1t was not to be supposed that
an honorable man in Vermont would give
vent to such an exhibition of temper and
TRADE as thus described in the last issue of
the Woodstock Standard.
Woodstock town meeting, on Tuesday,
was made the scene of one of the most
disgraceful, disgusting, " horrible
performances it was ever our fortune
to witness. The business proceeded with
no particular jar, and with more than
usual rapidity, till the sixth article in the
warning, which contemplated considera-
tion of matters connected with the rail-
road, was reached; when, after little
skirmishing by DR.. Randall, DIR. Powers
toek the floor, and for an hour and half,
or thereabouts, poured forth upon the
heads of the directors of the Woodstock
Railroad, and into the tomb of Governor
Washburn, stream of abuse and vitu-
peration which in volume exceeded the
utmost conception of man, and in inten-
sity of expression would have put to blush
the most villainous purlieus of Billingsgate
in its palmiest days. There was nothing
too mean for his vile tongue to utter, and
no rascality and wickedness, unless it was
something of minor Importance, which
was left out of the charge he brought
against these men; while his appeals to
God to witness his innocence, his recti-
tude, his virtue, were positively sickening.
Not only this, but he even went so far as
to denounce as liars the reverend gentle
men who oficiated at the funeral of Gov.
Washburn few days ago. -..... ....-.
All this was the prelude to series of
whereases and resolutions, wherein he re-
peated the anathemas of the speech, and
which he deliberately asked the town to
place upon its record. Ostensibly the OBJ
iect of the resolutions was the appoint
ment of an agent to investigate the af-
fairs of the Woodstock Railroad Company,
and had he confined himself to that not
voice in the hall would have been raised
against it. Indeed, the directors, as it was
well known, court the fullest investiga-
ton, but the dish he placed before the
meeting was anything but what it pur-
ported to be. The enormity of the thing
was startling. Here was man moving
for the investigation of certain alleged
transactions, and then in the same breath
proceeding to try, condemn and execute,
without benefit of jury, or clergy, for that
matter, as they were all placed ia the
same category, body of men among the
most estimable, upright, and heretofore
considered honest and truthful, which the
valley can produce-men who were born,
reared and have grown gray in the midst
of this people. These men he stigmatized
as liars, rascals, scoundrels, villains, fools;
wicked men, men chasing a mad ambition,
and so on through catalogue which is
we'll known to be peculiar to himself. Had
it not been startling the people of Wood
stock would hardly have listened to 1t
with the patience they did.
But there was another side to the pic
ture. In few exceedingly well chosen
and dignifed terms Warren c. French,
Thomas Middleton, and DR.. Boynton, re-
piled to DIR. Powers TRADE and showed
gp the bideousness of his speech and re-
solutions, and the latter was dismissed by
an overwhelming "aye," when this calum-
niator of the living and villifier of the
dead skunk away out of sight of his indig-
nant fellow-citizens. In the morning he
was elected selectman, but in the evening
he could not have been elected to any
thing. 1t was indeed vile nature ex-
posed and a weak judgment made mani
fest. e. E ..-.
We give no report of his speech, as 1t
was too indecent for family reading. "a
little boy who heard it went home and
said, "Fatber, DR.. Powers talked Gacfut-
N.y Neither do we propose to spend
much ink over it; but we cannot, in jus.
tice to ourselves as well as the public,
suffer the occasion to pass without stig-
matizing such an outrage as it deserves.
We feel the greater indignation for the
reason that many strangers were in town
in attendance upon the Supreme Court
and were witnesses of the scene. 1t was
their unanimous verdict that it was the
most outrageous thing that ever came to
their knowledge. They blushed for Wood
stock, but we beg of them to remember
that Woodstock emphatically repudiated
the calumniator. 81