Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-04-24

of liberty, ideas, alone fought on their side,
a long, sometimes almost hopeless contest
but with a vital energy and persistence that
led the way 10 victory at last. When the
issue can be fairly i)ined, the people are
ever on the side of liberty and justice and
truth and honesty and when they under
stand that party ties are only the withes by
/ bv which they are bound for the sport of the
! Pbilistines. they viii : break the withes as
thread of tow is broken when it toucheth
! the fire = The people can be trus ted, and
he who doubts them, libes them, attacks
/ Republican institutions, makes an argument
N favor Of government Of the few, denies
. the fact of our history, protests against the
! theory upon which alone our liberties can De
regarded as secure, and clouds with bis dis
trust every hope of the future OF the
Republic.
While, Mr.. Speaker, l am thus confident
that the people can safely BE- trusted, that
we do not need t) buy or briDe them to elect
honest men to Office, aud that they cannot be
bought or bribed to elect dishonest men TO
office, and while [ must believe this or else
surrender wholly my faith in a government
/ Of the people, cannot disguise my concern
at the general spread of the belief among
party managers that the people are good
natured, clever, and credul0us. fOrgiving evil
if they only find it mixed with some good,
and seldom looking beneath the sugar coat
1 ing TO discover the ingredients of the pill
they are asked to swallow tt is sometimes
too apparent that in years Of little political
excitement, amid the pursuits of their
/ busy lives, on their farms, in their shops, in
their traffic, they give politics over TO the
professional politicians, and with some de-
I gree of indifference either refrain from voting
OF vote the regular ticket.
/ And there is an idea, If not popular one,
certainly a common one, that certain
amounC of corruption is necessary in politics;
and out Of this word politician has come to
be almost term of reproach; yet by reason
Of 1t people have lost something of their
sensitiveness to dishonesty in officials, have
/ begun to have some disregard OF, if not con-
tempt for, the iiea that anybody expects
/ politics will be honest.
! One of Nast's recent and most significant
! political cartoons, whether SO intended or
/ not, illustrates this bad reputation, both Of
/ politics and politicians. An eminent person.
! age, with a face apparently saddsned, yet
with a mental vision possibly cleared by disap-
/ pOIntment, adm0nishes his companion upon
! the bench, in the language of the great car
dinal, to . fling away ambition But what
4 Is infinitely more striking and more melan-
choly, if true 70 tact and history, than any
warning ola shrunken and disappointed Chief
Justice to his portly AMI hopeful associate,
is the figure which stands in the place Of the
presiding genius of the court, with eyes
| blinded bv politics and holding scales in an
uneven balance in which political c0nsidera-
/ tiOns outweigh justice. Inc artist in his
/ Inspiration has but put into his picture the
popular idea that politics and justice are not
equivalent terms; and while he might have
changed the characters of his sketch, and
others besides members of the court might
/ have been introduced IN the foreground, he
would hardly have needed TO change the
figure standing on Its pedestal as the ruling
spirit in that arena. Representatives. Sena-
tors, Generals, Presidents, might, like the
/ procession of kings which scared the eye
balls OF Macbeth, have taken each his place
Ia the picture, and ike Nolsey, have sadly
admonIshed his fellow to fing away ambi-
ton, and still the figure IN the place of
justice, and which yet IS not justice, might
have remained unchanged.
But it cannot be true that this must re-
main eteTnally the same. Political necessity
cannot forever outweigh Justice and honor
and truth forever blind the eyes not ONLY
of those who preside IN cur courts, but of
those who hold every executive and ad
minlstratIve office from the highest TO the
lowest, Or who represent in this capital forty
millions Of people. Yet the artist has but
fallen in with the somewhat general current
OF thought when he thus suggests that poll
tics is corrupt, dishonest unjust for how
J
should not be dragged in its dirty waters
But why should politics be dirty busi-
ness What necessity makes it dis
reputable ? What demand is there that il
should sell justice What call is there upon
politicians tor any course that would be dis
honorable for the highest Judge or the most
honorable citizen in the land
1t is now in the power Of the Republican
party TO change all this, to make new
departure" !" abandoning this Democratic
doctrine of the spoils ana returning to the
practices Of the fathers of the rspublic
W neither the plan adopted by the President
TO secure purity in administration of public
affairs, and 10 make party significant of
something higher and more useful than
a struggle for Office and its emoluments and
plumber, is sufficient, or whether experience
and an honest purpose to accomplish some re-
form shall show better way, remains 10 be
seen. It Is IN the power of the President to
give this measure, as he has promised he
Will, "a fair trial = to modify and i'm
prove IL rs the test of practice shows will
best secure the end sought; to resist every
assault upon 1t in the pretended interest Of
party or Of tavOrites and to carry forward
10 a certain success work that, triumphant,
VIII give to his administration its highest
glory. and to himselfa renown more to be
desired than the lame from any victory
won by armed legIons. As the chosen leader
OF our armies he Won a splendid name in the
victories over treason. He can give that
fame a whittier luster if he will lead the peo-
pie IN their contest with that pernicious
doctrine which the Democratic party brought
IL 70 politics, which alone made rebellion
possible, and which ought to be buried in
the same grave with the treason which it
helped to quicken into It's baleful life.
Mr.. Speaker, we all remember the grand
and solemn words of Mr. Lincoln in that
brief but noble address at the conservation
of the national cemetery at GETTYSBURG.
Standing where two great armies-and, sad
dest of all, both armies composed of child
rem of the same great RepubIic-had met
and struggled for days in the shock of mur-
derOus battle, and where the defiant hosts of
treason were turned back in that rehuent
wave which never knew a returning flood.
and looking down on the mounds where sIeep
the nations dead, how truly he said;
We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we
cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living,
far above our power to add or deIract.n
And what purer or nobler thought can we
have upon which to build the future of our
common country thought in comparison
with which the strifes and contentious of
party for places and spoils seems little better
than the treason which there received it's
death blow than is contained in these other
words of Mr.. Lincoln
1t is for US, the living, rather to be dedicated
here TO the unfinished work that they have thus far
so nobly carried on 1t IS rather for TO be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before US,
tnat from these honored dead we take increased de
vOtiOn TO the cause for which they here gave the
last full measure of devotion; that here highly
resolve tnat the DEAD shall not have died IN vain;
that the nation shall under God, have new birth
Of freedom; and that the government of the peo-
perish from the earth.0