Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-10-27
Money In the Campaign.

Money is the great moving power in all
enterprises, commercial or industrial, social
or reformatory, political or religious. In
advancing ends in the great domain of
effort, there is legitimate field for the use
of money, and in each one there are oppor-
tunities for the corrupt use of money.
In the pending political campaign no factor
has been kept more conspicuously before
the public eye in one form or another than
the money feature. 1t has passed into the
vernacular of the canvass under the name
of the barl "a term inherited from the
last presidential election, and which Mr..
Tilden's great wealth and his ability and
apparent disposition to use it by the barrel
to compass his election contributed to the vo-
cabulary of significant political terms. By
reason of the free use made of money in this
campaign, and the apparent selection of
certain candidates on the score of the size
of their barrels" rather than for any emf
nent fitness for their Office, this election has
sometimes been facetiously denominated
" the ballot of the barrels" If, by this
Characterization, it is intended to insnuate
that the elections are to be bought, to be
carried by the force of money rather than
by the influence of appeals to mems reason,
we should have cause to distrust the per-
petuity of our government A campaign of
the magnitude to which our presidential
contests have grown cannot be carried on
without an immense expenditure of money
on both sides, and every dollar of this
expenditure may be as legitimate as the
outgoes of the most scrupulously conducted
religious organization in the country. In
the dissemination of political information,
in paying the expenses of political speakers
aud the wages of men who are devoting
their whole time to political labor, and in
many other ways, money may be and is
legitimately expended. But charges have
been rife just before and just following
each of the important elections held in the
north during this campaign that money has
been used to bride voters. Mr.. Blaine ex-
planned the unexpected issue of the election
in Maine by the use, on the part of the De-
mocracy, of large sums of money during the
few days Immediately preceding the election.
Just before the Indiana election loud claims
were made that money would be used on
election day, and circunstantial accounts
were given of the sending of immense sums
to that state for alleged illegitimate pur-
poses. Mr.. English's candidacy was said to
lot cd htrt b. al
ence he could bring to bear to carry In
diana Now that the state has gone Repub-
lican, the chairman Of the Democratic COM
mittee boldly charges his disappointment,
among other things, to the corrupt use of
money by the Republicans. That there is
any wholesale buying of voters on either !
side no man, in the cooler moments which |
will follow this fiery campaign, will main
tain. In all the charges and counter.
charges thus far made, there has been a |
gratifying indefniteness and conspicuous
lack of proof. Our government is in the |
keeping of individual voters. When these |
become like merchandise in the hands of |
men who hold the spigot of "barrels," the
end of our government is at hand. We do |
not believe American politics has sunk to |
this degrading and dangerous level We |
believe that in by far the great majority of |
cases appeals to the intelligent judgment of |
the reading and reflective American voter |
have been at the bottom Of the political up |
heayal which the recent elections have dis
closed, and that the great contest in Novem-
Der will be decided in the same high court. |
We believe in the virtue of the American |
voters as body, and have seen nothing in
this campaign to shake our belief