Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-07-07
The Present Outlook.


he is free from embarrassing political sur
roundings and from obligations to disrspu-
table politicians-as frankly as candid re-
publicans will admit these things in respect
to Governor Tildeu. So much being granted,
we may further take for granted that repub.
licans and democrats, including those Of
them who have been most eager for reform,
will fall back within their respective party
lnes,--Ne,D York Eceniag Post.
For reliable, unbiased opinion and ripe,
political judgment the Post is proverbial.
Those who regard the democratic ticket as a
weak one and easy to beat are as much in
error as they that see in the nomination Of
Hayes the highest promise of reform. When
We look at the enormous patronage controlled
by the president and see how the character Of
his appointments determines largely the color
and shape Of civil service, and when we
remember that nine out of every ten Of
Grants appointments have been either COM
promises or absolute failures, the demand, so
often sounded for reform is quite justi6able
That both parties have done the best they
could, working under the cir cumstanccs that
hampered them, is not to be questioned.
One candidate appears as a pure and rather
able man, comparatively unskilled in poiti-
cal tactics and promising more by what he
has not said than by what he has. As yet
he is without national reputation. The other
candidate is noted for being cOol-headed,
far-seeing politician who, whether from the
instructive love of it or not, has been smash.
ing rings in the most Understanding state in
the union. The odOr Of Tammany still clings
to his raiment and the animus of his oppo-
nents will be to give their own perspective
to his record. The majority of voters lack
sufficient interest to examine the evidence,
point by point, that affects his case, being
content to think by proxy. This is emil
nently true wherever complicated questions are
involved, as for instance in the Brooklyn
affair Hence the danger Of being wrong.
The so.called liberal, however, halts at pres.
ent between two opinions awaiting develop.
ments
Though hardly satisfied with the result
at Cincinnati, be yet fears to cast his vote
fora man who has ever been mixed up with dis.
reputable political complications. The name
and memory of Tammany are odious.
There is the additional apprehension that in
event of Tiden's election, the councils Of
the government would be largely controlled
by the old rebel element. To such an opin-
ion, however, not all are quite ready to com.
nit themselves. Nevertheless however much
the presidents individuality may character
ize the administration, he is more or less in.
huenced by partisan counsel, Would Til
den be strong enough to carry through his
views of service reform and finance against
the tremendous pressure Of a united opposi-
ton ? Is he really in earnest or is it all a
sham These are the questions that per-
pick many freemen. At any rate if his
personation Of the reform character is arti-
fetal he has sustained the role commend
ably.
But while the republican platform con.
taius no eloquent indictment of special cor.
ruptonists, and suggests no definite scheme
by which to purify the civil service, the
democratic platform in its attempt to recon-
cile contradictory principles, has alienated
thousands Of votes by its squirting action
with reference to the financial question.
This is especially the problem Of which one
party or the other must render the solution.
Hard money is the only money that intelligent
people will trust aud itueeds noargumeut here
to prove what is already proved that gold is
the worlds universal medium Of exchange,
having certain properties that render it the
only stable and invariable currency.
But the western democrats believe other.
wise. Hence that peculiar aud janus-faced
plank in the st. Louis platform. And it is
thought that such tampering with the money
question will have a greater tendency to
achieve Tildens defeat than any of his connec-
tons with New York politics. The democratic
party of itself cannot elect its candidate.
Without the alliance of the fraction of re-
publican party that is yet dissatisfied with
the Cincinnati ticket it is doomed to another
four years disappointment. But few
weeks of exposing, digging up correspond.
ence, and biography making will yield all
the data needed to establish conviction whore
now there is either vacillation or distrust
Here in Vermont the enthusiasm will be
small, the only question being how large a
republican MAJORITY The real battle field
will be the debatable states where will be
repeated, no doubt, all those nefarious prac.
tees of corruption which have brought poll,
tics into contempt. And if we may say it
the present administration will exert no
small influence to secure q cOngenial success
sion. 1t IS devoutly to be wished that il
Hayes and Wheeler are elected-and the
present indications point strongly in that di
rection-such men as Don and Simon Cam.
eron will not remain the controlling forces il
contemporary politics.
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