Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-01-11

The St. Adams Messenger prints column /
from the writer who has been filling tic |
Democrat and Sentinel with attacks upon the |
University of Vermont and State Agricultr-
raj College, in which he represents himself
as taken to task by the FREE Press for frank
expressions Of honest opinion in regard to
the management of the University The
Messenger seems to take, to some extent, the
same view of the matter. Honest soul it
has seen no indication of "any desire to
break down the institution or to traduce its
president" This is saying that it has not
seen the attacks on the University, or can
not see hole through ladder. Fair and
honest criticism of the University no friend
Of the college deprecates, from any source.
Mere personal attacks upon the president of
the University We should care nothing about,
if we were in his place, from that source.
To any decent reply to our criticisms, We
should not only not have objected, in any
other paper. but our own columns would
have been open to it, if place in them had
been asked for it. 1t was only when the
attacks upon the University passed all bounds
cf truth, fairness and decency, and exhibited
the unmistakable purpose not to benefit
or reform, but to injure and break down
the institution "a purpose not the less
distinct because far exceeding the authors
power to harm,-that we protested. Our
protest expressed the feeling of the
great majority of this community, and
we have had the heartiest thanks from many
quarters for it. If the Messenger thinks
that the Freedom of the Press, or the Consti-
tuition of Vermont, is assailed by sugges-
ton of the right of the patrons of paper to
demand, as condition of their support, that
it shall not persistcntly violate all fairness,
truth and decency, in its treatment of bencf-
icent public institutional has very
different idea Of the case from ours. The
Vermont Bill of Rights declares the right OF
the people to write and publish their senti-
ments concerning the Transactions Of .gorgn-
nlent"-the Messenger finds it convenient to
omit the words We have put in italics; but
that right, Is we understand it, does not
involve the right to write and publish, with
out objection on the part Of any one, false,
slauderous and vituperatiye abuse of institu-
tions established and maintained solely for
the public good. The Messengers sounding
vindication of 1.-THE liberty of the people is
really, as practically applied in this matter,
oaly an UNFOLDING of some very low and
gross exhibitions of individual malice
There is, of cen-ss, the usnsl quantity Of
personal slaps at the editor Of the FREE Press,
in this REPLY never published till the
Messenger took pity on it; and, as usual, We
take no time or space in replying to them.
Wecare nothing about them. We may say,
however, that if We had been actuated by
personal dislike in this matter, We should
not have been very likely to let go I'M
noticed column after column of this sort of
stuff, from quarter so open to attack
In the discharge of duty to the public,
We have said some severe things of the
author OF these assaults but never anything
sharper than the things the Messenger used
to say of him, when he was writing up tie
Vermont Central management, for pay.
Since he has quarrelled (he knows WHY
with his former employers, the Messenger
thinks everything of him and if he will
only hate Gov. Smith, he may hate and
abuse anybody or anything else, and the
Messenger will bid him God speed. 1t is only
the other day that the Messenger copied and
endorsed as ''too true" a most slanderous
attack on the State of Vermont, describing
1T as community of murderers, abOrtlonists |
and rascals-thc murders being committed |
with Amazing frequency" by eminent,
church going Vermonters. and "abortions,
seiuctions and rascalities being as free as
air. here. This false and gross attack on
the good name Of our State was acceptable
to the Messenger because it also contained
the false assertion that railroad ring con-
trolled all political action in this totally de-
moralized community" If the Messengers
craze can thus reconcile it to the
grossest abuse of our State as community,
of course no State institution need expect to
escape attack through its columns. if an
enemy Of 1.-The Smiths asks the use of them
for the pnrnose