Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-08-28
THE RUTLAND HERALD.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2s, 1878.
THE ALTERNATIVE.

ON Tuesday evening the Massachusetts,
Tichborne opened the ball at Mechanics
Hall, Worcester, and spoke his piece in
reply to George F. Hoar, and renewed
his attack upon the press, the clergy and
upon common decency. He had a large
audience, about equally divided between
his friends and his enemies, and he was
greeted with cheers and Kisses in about
equal proportions but he spoke his
piece with vigor, 1aying without mercy
every one who dared to speak word in
favor of common honesty as opposed to
the salary steal. The General has a good
memory, his command of invectives is
absolute, and he could not be caught in
the same trap that extinguished him at
birmingham. Mr.. Godfrey, OF Mllford,
was present to ask the chief swlndler OF
the crab scheme some questions, but
was souelched by the united efforts of
the band to play yankee Doodle" the
cheers Mr.. Manning called for, and the
man who screwed off the gas.
This is the first speech in the guberna-
torial canvass, and foreshadows the
course of the Butterflies in Massachusetts,
until the count of the votes shall show
the election of Washburn for another
term; and the old Bay State will be
made nasty by the same kind of enter
tainments given at low comedy theatres
In the purlius of the great cities. But
Ter can aud will use more vile and OBJ
scene epithets and personal vulgarities
than any man living, of which his
Worcester speech was a sample. 1t IS
perhaps unfortunate that the choice OF
candidates Is narrowed to where it is,
but it must be manifest that the only
formidable candidates before the Repu5-
lican Convention will be Butler and
Washburn, neither of whom are as
popular as a leader of a great party
should be.
Governor Washburn is not man who
has courted popularity. He is an earn
est prohibitionist, and has made himself
unfriendly to the beer-selling and beer
guzzling portion of his party, by con-
sistent advocacy of the temperance mea-
sures that have been before the Legisla-
ture and people of Massachusetts, He
vetoed the Lee and New Haven Railroad
Job, and won the hatred of the jobbers;
but he represents the honorable tradi-
tions of the party, as well as its morali-
ty and decency. Washburn must be
nominated and elected, for every divi-
sion of the party is but a diversion in
favor of the other man, whose name
calls up only recollections of failure,
fraud and clustering egotism. The peo-
pie of Massachusetts must make the
choice between the two, and we do not
believe that a majority are so lost to the
good name of their State, to the purity
of politics and the decencies of common
life, as to vote for Ben Butler for Gov
ernOr.
We some time ago, through personal
preference for gallant soldier, a pure
patriot and one of the cleanest states
man of the old Bay State, expressed a
hope that Gen. Devens might be the
choice of Massachusetts Republicans in
this election. Since then the people of
Vermont have had an opportunity to
see what glorious choice that would
be, but the gallant General is probably
wiser than we, when he declines the
honor and heartily supports Gov. Wash
burn for reelection. We think we
now see the necessity of every good
man in the State that is afflicted by so
graceless a citizen as Butler, doing the
same thing. We believe with a con-
temporary who, yesterday, said, owe
believe that if the Butler element shall
gain ascendency in the Republican party
of Massachusetts, the work of disinte-
grafton will be commenced, if not actu-
ally have been accomplished" and we
think further that it ought to be so, for
great party in State like Massachu-
sets, that cannot protect themselves
from an endorsement of such hideous
corruptions and dishonors as Butler ever
did and ever will represent, ought to be
dismembered and lost. We hope the
General will continue to make speeches,
for the better people become acquaint-
ed with him, the more cordially they
detest him, and if he can spread his
slime over the whole State, the people
will resent his vulgarity and fraud, and
will wash their hands of him and his I'M
holy ambition.