St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-05-18
Public Opinion.
THE oAKEs AMEs RESOLUTION.

THE DANES AMES kESOLO IION.
The Republican deplOres the adOp-
ton of this resolution, no one dissent
ing, not merely as a campaign blunder
for the majority, but as a confession of
the moral callOusness of the state
which fills us with alarm. Is there no
sense in this old commonwealth of the
distinction between honesty and brib-
cry among Legislators Is IA mans great
success in his enterprise to obliterate
all his moral shortcomings Are we to
count the Goulds and Ameses as on a
par with Washington and Franklin,
Lincoln and Sumner, and the hundreds
of less famous, but no less scrupulOus-
~ honorable men in public life to-day
So says Massachusetts by the voice of
her legislature, and so she makes it
more difficult at the polls to maintain
those distinctions between men which
rest on their moral differences. The
Legislature chooses the briar to honor,
as did the people. The moral sense of
Massachusetts is indeed in decay
springfield Republican.
THE DEMOCRATIC CRY OF FRAUD.
The democratic papers are never
tired of ringing changes on their jeers
at eXPresident Hayes for Occupying
an office to which he was never elect
ed" We should think their readers
would say about the stale stuff, as the
Disguised ex-sOldier of the confedeIacy
did to jeff Davis drivel about the lost
cause, "Oh why can't he let up ?" Mr..
Hayes was declared, by the count and
the vote of the two houses of Congress,
to he elected President and his title
was just as lawful as that of any of his
predecessors. This count and vote
were based, it is true, upon the decis-
ions of the electoral commission. But
this body was created by Congress
Mr.. Tilden's representatives in both
houses favoring it. Is it patriotic or
manly to submit to arbitration quar-
rel that threatens the peace of the ma
ton, and then howl for eight years
over the decision Do these men gam
BILE only when they are dead sure to
win ? Do they bet only on certainties I?
In the light of the cipher dispatches,
their chronic cry of fraud is not edi-
flying. Boston Herald, Independent.
CONSERVATIVE TENDENCIES OF THE
COL0RED VOTER.
The negro has shown his cOnserva-
tive tendencies as cOnspicuOusly since
his freedom as during slavery, when he
stood by and protected and provided
for the wives and children of cOnfeder-
ate soldiers when they were fighting to
perpetUate his bondage. Had the con-
servative party been truly conserva-
tive and had it observed the conditions
under which it was placed in power
lived square up to the commands of the
constitution of the nation and state, it
is not improbable that to-day there
would exist more or less division
among cOlOred voters, as well as Il
larger proportion of the white people
voting the way the negro now votes
for the republican party as the only
truly conservative party the state or
nation has known for the past twenty
years. Let the democratic party of
Virginia and the south cease its war
fare upon the rights of the negrO-let
it cease its insiduOus hostility to the
public schOols-the only means the
negro has for improvement and add
vancement-let it deal with him as IA
human being-with soul and mind to
enlighten and expand, ii moral and in
tellectual being to he elevated and fit
ted for the better uses of life-and it
may then consistently appeal to him
for his support at the ballot-bOX. But
so long as that party maniteSts a dis
position to abridge and circumscribe
guaranteed rights, to mock him with
his freedom by depriving him of the
rights of freeman, it will he natural
for the negro to vote against it
StauntOn Nirginian.