The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-05-28
President Arthur.

republican 6tate conventions IOr Jne CHOICE
of delegates to Chicago have praised the
administration of President Arthur. These
expressions of appreciation have been
something more than the conventional
tributes which bodies of voters, in spirit
of party fealty, have paid, and might pos
sibly render under any circumstances, to
the national administration, at the head
of which is the party chief. In the case
of President Arthur the expressions of
approval and confidence have been char
acterized by sincerity and by an apprecia-
tive recognition of the fact that he has
conquered the Hateful circumstances under
which he became president, and has given
the country an administration distin-
| guished for its wisdom, its independence
and its devo lion to the real welfare of the
people. No administration since that of
Lincoln has been more conspicuous for its
merits, and it has been tested by stand
| ard of excellence that could not have been
applied in Lincoln's time. Indeed, the
standard of excellence by which Mr.. Ar
thur is Judged is the creation of an adj
ministrative revolution. Its vigorous con-
ditions seem to have been tenfold more
exacting in Mr.. Arthur's case. Things
which his immediate predecessors did
either without criticism or with the ap-
proval of the reformers, done by Mr.. Ar
thur, would have assumed very heinous
aspect. No president within the last
quarter of century has been so vigilantly
watched by his own party, and none has
so we'll stood the test of scrutiny. But
the interest with which his course has
been regarded, it is not creditable to be
compelled to say, has not been entirely
free in some cases from a suspicion that
it has been inspired by that austere virtue
which delights to detect the victims of its
espionage in some transgression, from the
pleasure its possessors derive and the
sanctity that accrues to them in exposing
and prosecuting the transgressor. A
clique of pseudo reformers, disappointed
apparently in the results of their pious
vigils and piqued by the praise and ad-
miration the presidents exemplary be-
havior and unassailable administration
have extorted, have been betrayed into
expressions which have unmarked their
characters and disclosed the venomous
and malevoleut passions by which they
are swayed. Wayne McVeagh, President
Garfeld's Encouragement, is type of
these malignants. He spent by the couch
of his wounded chief, in commendable
but unavailing tears, time which stern
regard for duty would have prompted a
true hero to devote to the then particu.
larly pressing service of his office. Be-
cause his immaculate soul could not brook
the incoming of the patriotic, able and
cultivated gentleman who, in constitu.
tional way, with honest but hampered
hands, with exceeding skill and grace,
was gathering up the reins of government
which for months had been trailing in the
dust, this snobbish statesman abruptly
turned tail, despite the new presidents
opportunities and the infinite embarrass-
ments of his position, and ran away from
the responsible but neglected task of
prosecuting horde of government plum
derers. And now the greatness of this
doughty reformer's soul, swallowing
Blaine like the most of his ilk but strain
ing at Arthur, has found further express
sion, during the past week, in an open
letter to Hon. B. II. Bristow, the key note
to which was struck in the infamous sen.
tence in which the writer says:
"At the threshold ought to warn you that,
while nobody envies Mr. Arthur the great
PRICE as far beyond his expectations as his
assassination yet nobody has forgotten the
pregnant fact that Guteau was the original
Arthur man, that he killed President Garfield
expressly to make Mr.. Arthur president, and
that he did make him president by that act for
nearly four years.
This is all that any candid or honorable
man needs to know of this bitter produc-
ton to rate it and its author at their true
oSduuhtus hO OCCdoiOu was iuOOIluBj
the call for which was signed by six hun
dred of New York's first business men, to
give expression to the reasons why a
president who has so wisely and faithfully
administered the duties of his Office should
be re-nominated for another term. Mr..
Bristow was one of the speakers. In the
following paragraph he spoke with just
commentator of the presidents course
"When President Arthur succeeded to the
presidential office, the country was distressed
and his party distracted. Now all seems
changed In the last election in this state the
republicans overcame two hundred thousand
majority Of the previous year, and 1t is
reasonably certain that good nomination at
Chicago next month will assure success in
November. The intelligence OF the country Is
pretty we'll united In the opinion that good
government and wise administration are not TO
be expected from any but the republican party