Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-08-23

sadly disappointed the managers Of the bolt
1t would have been a curious thing indeed,
if, with all the drumming, something OF
meeting could not have been drummed to-
gethcr in Franklin county. A place OF
seven thousand inhabitants like St. Adams,
would Of itself furnish good sized crowd Of
spectators, out to see the fun, whatever it
might be. But even of the Franklin county
people, who formed the great bulk Of the
Convention, the proportion Of sound and
earnest Republicans was very small. George
Billiard, Of Fairfax, Mr.. Barlow's lawyer,
was there ofcourse. and Col. Albert Clarke,
Mr. Barlow's spokesman and organ grinder I;
but aside from these, if these are such,
where were the representative and leading
Republicans of Franklin county-tho we'll
known names, which We need not recite Z
One looks in vain in the proceedings Tor
them. They are conspicuous by their alb
sencc from the record. From outside oil
franklin county, hardly anybody of any
account appeared that had not been begged
and urged by special inducements to 60 !;
and not many of those. Respectable as the
meeting was in numbers and character, it fell
woefully short of tho expectations of those
who got it up; and in some other respects
it was even more lacking. 1t lacked, for
instance, all semblance of spontancity. The
speakers, such as they were, generally felt
obliged to apologize for their presence. and
the speeches of course failed to present any
decent justification for the bolt. The un-
manufactured enthusiasm was confined
wholly to the Greenbackcrs, who formed so
considerable portion of the crowd; and it
was as the great original Vermont Green
hacker, and not as Republican, that Mr.,
Barlow was chiefly commended for support.
The platform is well enough, save in the
portions in which it panders to the preju-
dices of the Greenbackers, as in its allusion
to 'bended capitalists" otherwise styled by
Mr.. Kearney "lecherous bondholders :" but
it, too, fails to present any reasons Tor the
bolt. Mr.. Upper was wise to make the
briefest possible attempt at justifca-
tion of the bolt, and to attempt no
specification Of the "facts with which
the public is familiar" Those facts
that after prolonged canvass, in which
a greal deal of money was spent by
Mr.. Barlow and none by General Grout,
except in sending hundred or TWO dollars
worth of newspapers throughout the Dis
trict, Mr.. Barlow was fairly beaten before
the people in the choice Of delegates; that
he was fairly beaten in the Convention ; that
the nomination was heartily made unani-
nous that MIR. Barlow aequiesced in the de-
cision, personally and with emphasis accept
ed the result and promised to make no
further opposition to the nominee; that his
friends admitted, over and over sgain, that
they had been squareiy beaten in fair and
open way; that his spokesmen and organs
declared in word and in print that the choice
of the Convention was worthy one that
the nominee would do credit to the District
that he had won friends even among his
opponents by his manly and gallant canvass,
and that they would not bolt, but would
help roll up the largest majority possible for
Gen. Grout-do not justify bolt; but, on
the other hand, stamp it as the most utterly
reckless and causeless bolt on record in the
history Of our State.
Mr.. Barlow in effect received double
Grecnback nomination, on Saturday, at Essex
and St. Adams. If it were a supposable
case that the Republicans Of the Third Dis
trict had suddenly lost their wits, and
became ready to join the Grecnbsck craze
and that even as Greenbackers they could
accept as their representative, man who
lacked the manliness to avow his financial
opinions and carefully suppressed them
throughout the entire CANVASS during which
he was seeking the Republican nomination
man whose word is naught, who has shown
himself capable of dropping the hand Of an
honorable opponent given in pledge of ac-
ceptsnce and friendship. and going home to
fight him by undcrhanded and dishonorablc
means-if this were supposable case, then
it would be supposable that this bolt could
succeed.