St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-01-04

arisen new emergency is upon the
Republicans of this State, and Mr..
Chandler has again hurried from Wash
ington to point out the path which the
Republican party of this State shall
follow. He takes ten columns of his
newspaper at Concord to make the way
apparent, and when one has followed
through the tangled web of fact and
fiction, of inference and guesswork,
put together with hostile intent and a
lawyers cunning, we find that it is the
same old patchwork of assumption and
villifcatiOn that the New York Sun and
a few other malignants have been
weaving for six months past. In short
Mr.. Chandler demands that the Repub-
licans of this State shall repudiate the
President and his methods. We mis-
trust the wisdom of the adviser; we
more mistrust his advice. If followed,
we have no doubt that it will lead both
to disgrace and defeat, just as the adj
vice of the same person would have re-
suited had it been followed in regard
to the Senate steal.
The Republicans of this State can do
better; they ought to do better; we
believe they will do better. The path
for us to follow is safe and honorable.
1t requires no yielding of private opin
ion; it opens into no doubtful or tor
tuous by-ways. The Cincinnati plat
form laid down certain broad and pro-
gressive principles and declarations.
Elected on that platform, to which he
was by conviction and sympathy fully
committed, President Hayes could not
honOrably escape the difficult duty of
attempting to carry it into practice.
Not even Mr., Chandler, if we under
stand him, raises any question that this
Such being the case it is the equal duty
of every Republican to sustain him in
his sincere efforts to perform that duty.
He may make mistakes; he would be
more than human did he not. He is to
be the chOOser of his own methods, be-
cause he is called to act, while we have
little to do but praise or grOwl. He is
compelled to act on the best light and
information that he has, baffeted by
circumstances and hedged by difficult
ties, which he alone can understand.
TO expect the best thing always to be
done or the best appointment always to
be made is an expectation that only a
demigod in the Presidency could meet,
and which no President ever yet has
met.
The one comprehensive fact remains,
that it was the unavoidable duty of the
President to attempt to carry out the
reforms and principles embodied in the
Cincinnati platform it is equally the
duty of every Republican to help and
encourage him; that help and encour-
agement we cannot extend by silently
-oPouiy r0Pudiatius him, uuloes VIC
are prepared silently or openly to re-
pudiate the principles we profess. If
any Republican thinks that his party in
this State can win on any line of Ie-
pudiation, he should give to Mr.. Chan
dler his instant and hearty support
but we must remind all such that when
those Senators returned to the Senate
from which they had been unwisely led
to secede, they scrambled back as soon
as they could and have only been too
glad to draw veil over their outside
ever since. Mr.. Chandler
may be a better pilot in a storm than
President Hayes, but our experience
with both compels us unhesitatingly to
choose the latter. At the same time we
will do MIR. Chandler the justice to say,
that if we wanted to take our country,
our party and ourselves to destruction,
we know of no pilot whose grit and
pei sistence would take us there any
sooner than Mr.. Chandler's.