Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-01-25
Vermont In the Next Congress.

Vermont In the Next Congress.
Vermont holds rank among the states
of the Union, unique for its moral and po-
htical influence. Population, area, geo.
graphical position, wealth and variety of
material resources, great cities and world
wide commerce, considerations that give
other states national Importance, are not
the elements which have determined Yer
mont's enviable position among her sister
states The explanation of her honorable
prominence must be sought in other direc-
lions. The significance attached to the vote
of this state by each party in the late presi-
Dental campaign is not forgotten. In the
national senate she has been the empire
state for many decades. The achievements
of her troops in the wars of the colonies and
of the republic are celebrated in story and
song, and gid the pages of the national
military history. To say that Vermonters
are proud of their state is mild embodi-
ment of sentiment inherited from her his
toric Green Mountain Boys, and intensified
by the events of her later history. By spe-
cial organizations the Sons Of Vermont,
scattered all over this Union, cherish their
distinctive characteristics, and keep alive
their devotion to the land Of their birth
with its traditions, its customs, its history,
its mountains and its streams.
In the long and stormy political contests
to secure for freedom the bloody harvest of
the civil war, with constancy that has
never wavered, Vermont has emulsted at the
ballot box the chivalry of her soldiers in the
field. Her unselfish devotion to principle
has been so far removed from suspicion
that it has never been deemed necessary to
placate her by asking any son of hers to
seat at the national council board or to any
of its high executive or administrative seats.
Nor has the proposed selection of presi-
Dental candidate from among her citizens
ever been received with any great degree of
seriousness, though the entire executive de-
partment of the national government might
be filled from within her borders by men
pre-eminent for "wisdom and virtue" While
hordes CT ofice-seekers in Washington have
been camoring for the rewards of party
service, Vermonters have stayed at home,
ready, in spite of persistent ignoring, on the
recurrence of the quadrennial contest with
grim earnestness again to do their whole
duty. The steady integrity and the general
intelligence of her citizens, the comprehen-
sion and practice in their simplicity and
purity of republican principles, have caused
Vermont to be regarded throughout the ma
ton as a sort of model republic. The great
men she has sent to the national councils,
the natural product of her institutions, have
sustained this high estimate Of the quail
ity and character of Vermonters as
class, and it is these moral and intellectual
characteristics to which her high national
prestige is mainly attributable. Political
speakers have remarked these qualities in
Vermont audiences, and in addressing them
have been put upon their mettle to bring
forth the best things that reason and COM
mon sense could conceive. Buncombe and
demagoguery have signally failed as means
of influencing the political opinions of the
people of Vermont.
1t was not our purpose to write eulogy
on Vermont. We have briefly alluded to
the history of the state for a purpose other
than of vain graduation. Its brilliant
prestige is dear to every true Vermonters
heart. That prestige must be maintained.
1t is jewel whose luster the present gener-
alton must not allow to grow dim. Rather
it must be given heightened brill ancy.
But prestige has power neither permanently
to perpetuate itself nor to Withstand indif-
ference or the decline which comes of indif-
ference. The time is at hand when the
question of maintaining the power and in
huence of the state in national affairs must
be seriously considered. 1t may not be I'M
profitable to inquire incidentally if the state
has not been running to certain extent on
the reputation of other years. if in point of
fact it has not been drifting down the current
for the want of stalwart arms such as once
kept her PROV steadily headed towards the
headwaters of national influence. This
anxiety and foreboding relates to the states
future representation in the lower house of
congress. We are on the eve of new order
of things under which our numerical
strength in congress will be reduced. How
shall the state counterfeit this loss of voting
power, arrest retrogression and retrieve its
old time position of decisive and controlling
influence? The answer is found in its past
and present senatorial career. Notwith-
standing the increase in the membership of
the senatorial body, Vermont has not only
maintained its influence there. but advanced
it to the rank of undisputed leadership.
The question of choosing two representatives
to replace the three we have had will soon
come up. 1t is already the subject Of much
quiet speculation, and ambitious men are
scheming to win the prizes more coveted
from the diminished chances of winning
them. There is simple way to settle this
question OF our future representation in con-
gress, and to settle it right. The people of
the whole state must take the matter in hand
and firmly resolve that what we lose in the
quantity of our representation shall be more
than compensated in quality. Fortu-
nately theremedy is abundantly within reach.
The state is rich in able men. From an il
lustrious number the best must be chosen,
who shall not only make good by their
talents the states numerical loss, but shall
regain for it its lost prestige and make
Vermont the empire state of the house OF
representatives as well as of the senate. II
is the plain duty of the voters of Vermont
in this business to send to the rear all aspi
rants of greater ambition and presumption
than of mental force and character There
is neither time nor place for petty personal
ambitions, All such must be put under foo
and none but men of the highest order o.
ability and character selected. People o.
Vermont, think of this matter for yourselves
carefully, independently and intelligently
and when the time comes for action, in tn,
caucus, in the conventions, and at the poll,
vote your own convictions, and the result will
be all that the most patriotic Vermonte
could wish.
THE ST. ALBANs CRUsADE.-The Gran,
ndoa If Good TampIa ra xuhich hald ita nv