Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-08-16
THE sNOBs' CANDIDATE.
(From the Manchester Mirror. }

(From the Manchester Mirror.)
There is one independent or non-par-
tisan journal that drifts easily and nat
urally to the support of Hancock. the |
magnificent. This is the Present Gen.
tury, a weekly publication which claims
to be the mouth-piece of the aristocracy,
native and imported, of the city of New
York. 1t speaks for the fashionables of
the great metropolis. for the men and
women who spend money that they new
er earned. and who hold labor in con-.
tempt, who are always fond of talking
of "the upper and lower classes of soci-
ETY." who are authority upon the styles,
and who ape. in weak and pitiful
fashion, the snobs, and fashionable dead
beats of the old world. OF course, such
a paper holds self-made men to be
nuisance, and the notion which accords
them any sort of recognition very vul-
gar one and of course it wants kid
gloved gentleman whose hands were
never soiled by labor, and whose limbs
were never disgraced by anything coar-
ser than broad-cloth, for president. 1t
thinks the time has come to establish an
aristocracy of birth and wealth, from
which not only the leaders of society,
but the rulers of the people, shall be Sc
lected, and of course it supports Han
cock. Its reason for so-doing it gives
with refreshing frankness in an article
in its last issue, which reads as follows
Gin what respect is Mr.. Garfield more
desirable as an executive and representa-
| tive American because he once drove
mules on canal tow-path? A canal is a
result of engineering skill, and so is a
tow-path, and mules are means of loco
motive power; but how do canals and
mules and tow-paths fit man to be the
representative, politically and diplomati-
cally, of one of the great powers of the
planet?
As a general rule, poor men and under
bred men, especially if ambitious, are
readily bought; and Garfield was poor,
and underlined, and ambitious; and as to
his being bought, the evidence is all
against him. Of course much can be
said by way of explanation. All that
Joseph Surface desired was opportunity
to explain things, coupled with credulity
on the part of his audience. But in the
career of man like Hancock, educated
as he was, and never forced to resort tc
mule-driving and navigating a tow-boat
to gain livelihood, there is nothing tt
explain. A crystal is always crystal
but lump of dirt may be washed long
time and remain lump of dirt still.
For generous act you would go to {
prince rather than to a mule-driver, es
pecially if the mule-driver were reli
gious fanatic and saving up funds to q
to school with view of making money
by it. One may imagine, but canno
well depict, the envy, the ambition, TIL
ceaseless pangs of social, political, ant
financial longings, which have fastene,
on this poverty-stricken lad of an Obi,
canal tow-path whom an accident ha
called to a nomination for high office
But human nature is not so constitute,
that such men can appropriately fill hig
offices. We must still attach some i'm
portance to good breeding, to an educa
ton at the critical period by which one
, forbidden to lie or steal or commit an
act unworthy an officer and a gentleman
The tow-path is not the normal school O
the presidency of the United States"
/ Here we have in all its length, breadth
r and thickness, the spirit which has in
spired the Democratic party of the Sout
for years, the old idea that working me
are the mudsills of society, or, as thi
Hancock sheet puts it 'slumps of dirt,
whose proper place in the economy {
t politics is to minister to the pleasure an
profit of those who have been blesse
9 with ''good breeding and education
We ask every man who believes in tn
mobility of labor" who thinks it no dis
grace to have been spoor underlined an
: ambitious" and who counts it no discret
it to poverty stricken lad to have ell
;. tertained social, political and financi,
: longings," to read the above CAREFUL,
for it contains, above and beyond an,
thing we have before seen in print, tt
;. animus of the Democratic campaign
q its social aspects.
f Garfield must not be president becaus
h he was poor boy and educated himsel
4 Hancock must be elected because he h.
always been gentleman, and was ssne-
er forced to resort to mule-driving an
70 navigating tow-boat to gain livel
e hood" This is the doctrine. How G
IS you like it, American working-men
|e In contrast to this let us set the folloy
, ing extract from speech delivered /
Gen. Garfield on the 21st of NAV, 1877
while the army bill was under discussion
% Remember that nearly half the popul
s ton of England are agriculturists, al
the laborers in that class amount to M
o less than three or four millions they ha,
80 above them the landlords, and abo,
them the several ranks of nobility, al
: above them the royal family. The ba
O. riers are well-nigh impossible. BIT
he thank God, and thank the founders
80 our republic and the later patriots, wi
Mt have made the truth of the declaration
al independence reality, here in Ameri
there are no classes. Applause.
Our society does not resemble the cru
of the earth with its impossible barrie
ce of rock; but resembles rather the waite
a of the mighty sea, deep, broad, boun
no less, but yet so free in all it's parts tt
:. the drop which mingles with the sand