Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-10-13

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1880.
Bugbears.

In his southern claims letter TO Theodore
Cook, General Hancock lightly disposed OF
the anxietes of his correspondent by char
acterizing as "a bugbear the argument OF
the Republicans that Democratic success in
the next presidential election would render
possible the payment Of large mass OF
southern claims for damages suffered during
the late rebellion. The authorities define a
bugbear as " anything imaginary that causes
needless fright" something frightful, as
specter." For anything Of a spectral or
ghostly character for anything that is i'm
aginary and unreal, these "bugbears "
have an exceedingly tangible form and ex-
istence, and they are even more obstinate In
their disregard of candidate Hancock's order
to lay low than was the "truly" spectral
apparition of Banquo, when Macbeth or
dered it to "down."
The claims now before the two houses Of
congress aud being pressed,-claims for
cotton, claims for the destruction of prop
erty for quartermasters stores, for every
conceivable injury that war can infct,-
are these unreal, imaginary, are they bug
bears 2 On the files Of the senate and
the house are found demands for untold mil
lions of dollars to improve streams that do
not exist-where, as Zach Chandler said,
"you would have to pump the water TO get
up a stream at all" Are these demands
q I,,u nn fha, axy,at nrlxr 10, ha
spook- stricken minds of Republican stump
speakers? ? Is Senator Edmunds' intellect
of such weak quality that it is helpless
prey to " bugbesrs" which are poweress to
erect single hair on candidate Hancock's
valiant head Z Do the scared eye-balls of
Republicans follow only impalpabe charac-
tiers, sketched by spectral hands on ghostly
scrolls, when they read the congressional
records where are filed the claims which the
cooler vision of Hancock discerns to be merely
"bugbears 2" year ago there was circu-
lated through the south, and it obtained
hundreds of thousands of signatures, pc
titon of the following tenor: ave, the
people of the United States, most respect
fully petition your honorable bodies to enact
law by which all citizens of every section
of the United States may be paid for all
their property destroyed by the governments
and armies on both sides during the late
, war between the states in bonds, bearing
three per cent interest per annum, maturing
within the next one hundred years;
and we also petition that all soldiers,
or their legal representatives of both armies
and every section, be paid for their lost
time, lost limbs and lost lives while engaged
in the late unfortunate contest" Now,
there is a sober, serious, downright bug
bear" the woods down south are full of
them, and only waiting for the election of the
great ghost-layer, Hancock, to vanish in thin
air before the magical wand of his veto.
Remembering Tam O'Shanter's narrow es-
cape from the witches, Hancock, if he is
elected president, will keep his fleetest steed
saddled to make good his escape, when, in
the exercise of his first veto of confeder-
ate claims bill, like Tam's unlucky "weel
doom Guilty sark," he breaks the spell and
suspends the mad reveling of the Demo
cratic spirits only to direct the whole troop
against himself. Like Tam he will be for
tunate if he succeeds in passing the "key
stane - OF the bridge, leaving only Meg's tail
in the hands Of the pursuing demons.
Another source of unseemly alarm on the
part of Republicans is the " "bugbear that
is, the imaginary,-bill now pending i'll Con
gress to re-organize the supreme court of the
United States. The first section of this
bill runs as follows; BE it enacted by the
senate and house of representatives of the
United States of America in congress as
sembled, that the number of justices OF
the supreme court of the United State,
shall be aud it is hereby increased to twenty
one; and that twelve associate justices, ad
diiional to those now constituting the court
be appointed by the president of the United
States, by and with the advice and consent
of the senate" Through thirteen sections
the details of the reconstruction of tn,
court are elaborated. This bill was intro
duced by Mr.. Manning, southern Demo
crat, January 26, 1880. Its evident purpos,
was fully explained by Senator Conking il
his great speech recently in New York. Tn,
object of the bill is familiar knowledge t.
all the people. Some obliging correspond
ent should now give the superb spooklaye
an opportunity to thrust his pen, so mucl
"mightier than his sword" in the prouC
phrase of the Democratic campaigner
through this Republican goblin and shoy
the people that it is all an unsubstantia
phantom.
Repudation of honest debts by southern
Democratic states, the annihilation OF half
million southern votes by the Ku Klux, an'
legion of minor Republican hobgoblin
in disguise, are shaking with fright lest thi
ruthless slayer of their brother should turl
the headlight of his mighty intellect upol
them, and their true character as bugbear
appear in the brightsunlight of publicity.
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