Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1876-03-24
The state Convention at Burlington

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lington the Goth inst. 1t will be for the
interests of the republican party and o
the country, that Vermont shall be rep
resented at Cincinnati By her best anC
strongest men. The exigencies of thu
time are such that the highest wisdom
and integrity should enter into thu
councils of the party. There is an i'm
preston abroad that the party machinery
has been run too long mainly in the in
terests of office-holders and professional
politicians. 1t is time for the best mer
to come to the front all round. II can
not be denied that the country is in 9
bad way. Business is depressed to an
extent beyond anything in the expert
ence of this generation. The crash Of
business houses goes on week after week
and day after day. Thousands of indi.
viduals and establishments are strainiug
every nerve to escape bankruptcy. I'M
portant industries, from whence multi
tudes drew an honest livelihood, are
PROSTATE individuals and families are
curtailing unnecessary expenses on every
hand, and habits of extravaganza in
dulged so generally by all classes during
the last decade, are giving place to a
sober economy in expenditure and living
"a lesson greatly needed to be learned
by our people as the only solid founda-
ton on which new prosperity can rise.
For more than two years these things
have been going on. How much further
they may go no man can tell. We have
not seen the end yet-that is sure.
Another thing. During the last de
cade also our politics have been getting
shamefully corrupt. The public SER
vice of the country has become sadly
demoralized. The spectacle of official
dishonesty revealed to the eyes of the
people in these last years is sickening,
humiliating and disgraceful to the last
degree. 1t is confined to no party, but
pe'vades all parties and more or less
all sections of the country. 1t has
grown up alike under Boss Tweed
in New York, and Boss Sheppard in
Washington. From the great CONNER
cial and political centers of the country,
it has spread to the little navy yards Of
the seaboard and the trading posts of
the frontier. There has been a general
lowering of political morality, lapse OF
public honesty among those who have
had the conduct of our municipal, state
and national governments. Now the
republican party, as the dominant polit-
ical power in the nation for the last twen-
ty years, is held to some extent response
BILE for this condition of affairs. The
average voter doesn't chop his logic very
fine, nor 90 far to seek remote causes for
results. And the most. partizan view
must admit that it is not difficult to find
administrative acts and omissions that
are justly open to criticism. We have
no time or desire to specify these, but in
stances will occur to every intelligent
reader We think it is time for the re-
publican party to take new departure
before the country. There is no other
instrumentality through which the mis-
chiefs that infest the body polite can be
so well combatted and overcome. The
democratic party is reactionary, bour-
bonish, and can never regain the con-
fidence Of the nation. For many years
it has been slowly dying of dry rot. 1t
has no cohesion of principles. All its
traditions are opposed to its ever becom.
ing the party of reform. Numbering in
its ranks many worthy men, its Office for
twenty years has been chiefly obstruc-
| tive, though sometimes useful as club
to beat the republicans into decency. In
something like three months time the
rival parties will have their presidential
tickets in the field. In the canvass that
follows, the publication of our politics
and administrative reform cannot fail to
hold a prominent place. The republi.
can constituency will look to their rep
resentatives in the state and national
conventions, to give them candidates who
will command the confidence of the
country, whose past record and official
services are pledge for the correction
of existing abuses and for pure admin
istration. 1t would be gratifying to see
higher style of craftsmanship in the
executive chair of the nation. The
greedy parasites that have fastened upon
the party in these later days of its pros.
perity must be shaken off, and the voice
of the republican masses must be heard
once more along the line, with emphasis
not to be mistaken, "B,mmers to ht
rear-honest men to the front! I"
The early assembling of our state con
ventions makes it highly appropriate that
Vermont, through the character of hel
delegation there to be chosen, and by
suitable expression of opinion on impor