Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-07-18
GOV. LONGS sPEECH
A. the boston Ratification Meeting on
Tuesday Evening.
MIR. BLArNE's RECORD.


MIR. BLAtNEs RECORD.
certainly had supposed there was some
thing proved against Mr. Blaino till I re open
Cd and reGxamined the record, ~ it should DO
ro-opcnod and rccxaminod by every ono Of
you. Aud il on that il turn out only that Mr..
Blaine is not your ideal If IL be that the on
ly charges against him were never even re-
ported upon 10y the Democrats Of tho House
Of Representatives, who made them and in
committee investigated them, but were by
them utterly abandoned il it be that, a. a
business man Of enterprise and push, no has
exhibited those qualities Oh an cntorprsing
and pushing business man in Boston exhibits
them, except that IL all tho business transao.
tions of the latter woro brought to light they
would very likely not bear the light half 80
we'll IL it DO that in 1881 the Democrats OF
the Senate unanimously confirmed him for
the highest Office in the cabinet, to which Gar
field appointed him if it be that his noigh-
bors and friends, irrespective Of party, who
have known him, imam and boy, all his life,
instead of ropudiatng him, bear testimony
to his worth, and that every college in his
state is now calling him to its commencement
comforting upon him its highest degrees and
posing him before its graduates; if it be that
great newspapers once indicated him from
the aspersions which now in the heat of "A po-
litical contest they alloge as the reason of
their opposition il it be that tho vigor OF his
foreign policy, now 20 glibly condemned, was
only that Of John Quincy Adams, whom Mas.
sachusetts once frozo out for his resistance to
British aggression, and would be that of
George +. Edmuuds, who has the most pntr
otto views concerning American control Of the
Isthmus, and was in fact n patriotic effort, os.
pocially commended in Harper's Weekly, for
tho extension of American commerce aud
American markets, and for a fair competition
with tho English manufacturer for tho trade
of the western world then it is certainly
worth while to pause before rc commit our
selves to a snap judgment. Aud certainly tho
people nW pause before they brand this man
knave or corrupt
WHEN AN INDEPENDENT MOVEMENT WILL sue.
CEED.
am not of those who snecr at tho indie.
pendonts They are of us only little moro
so. | am told that at the Mcionaon they
howled and yelled little more in proportion
| to their numbers than We did ut Chicago and
we did pretty woll-and that they were intol.
Grant of free speech, which we wero not. II
they form party, their machinery will be
| just like ours; they will hate ono another
| just az heartily as we do they will have just
the same 'riiT ralI, " and the crow on their
| platters will be just rs tough ~ it ever WAS
on our own. grant and claim the right to
| protest and bolt when good cause exists But
| bolts and independent movements arc mere
vapors unless they rest on good caus.. We
are told that the Republican party WIS horn
as an independent protest and departure from
! the old Wing and Democratic parties We
reply by citing the bankrupt bolt against
Grant in 1872, and the unviudcated Outcry
against Arthur in 1880
| But il there not some theory 10y which they
and we are both right? There is, and it is
| this. Those new movements have succeeded
| like that which begot the Republican par
| ty, and are founded upon q new principle as
that WAS founded on the principle Of person
al liberty and the protest against slavery.
| Those have failed which, like the Greeley
movement in 1872. were founded upon mere
! personal preferences or personal prejudices
Sumner, great and venerable name, devoted
to principle, led one Of those movements to
triumph. The same Sumner intense with
| personal aversion, saw the other tumble I'M
der his lead into wreck of ridicule. In my
youthful enthusiasm followed him, and that
| Greeley movement taught me something. 1t
taught me that principles aud sontu, hts aud
convictions take deep hold on people who
arc so thoroughly educated as ours in politl
cal philosophy. 1t taught me that they are
often wiser, because more disintorestsd, than
their prophets 1t taught me that they will
take a new departure at any time when it in
wolves principle like that Of economical re.
form or human rights, a4 when in the Free
Soil start they voted for Martin Van Buren,
whom they despised but that they will not
take it when its purpose Is 10 abandon the
principles they cherish for no other OBJ
ject than to put up or put down this or that
personal leader. They will abandon their
leaders to follow a new principle they will
not abandon their principles for the sake ef
following new leaders or deserving old ones
They know, what the enthusiast sometimes
forgets, that the eternal principle is Of far
more consequence than the accidental man
Of so much more consequence that if they
stand by it, ii will control him to its and their
service, and not he it or them TO his They
followed Sumner in his crusade against slay-
cry. They were wiser than Sumner when, the
work of the Republican party unfinished, he
would have led them into the Democratic tolls
because he thought Ulysses S. Grant an un-
worthy man. Time has shown that the poo-
pie were right, and that it was fortunate that
the Democratic party and Horace Greeley
honor be to his memory for the great good
work ho did in his time-did not come into
power, because in 1872 large body Of re-
spectacle citizens distrusted General Grant.
There is no sane Republican who to-day has
any stake in the humantios or material inter
ests of his country who doubts the wisdom OF
that decision.