The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-08-27

ruption. He vilifies and we must retort.
He lies; and we must be content with an
'organ which tells half truths. He is
venomous in attacking our pure and
patriotic party; we are not justified in
failing to expose the hollow pretenses and
the hypocritical insincerities of a selfish
and dangerous party. The partisan has
now reached the last stage of his disease.
He no longer rejoices in the truth. He
rejoices 10 iniquity-if it has been dis
covered in, or is imputed to, the enemy.
He will listen to no evidence against the
methods Of his own party; he demands
no evidence to substantiate the truth of
charges against the managers of the OPP.
posing party. He justifies the immorali-
ties of his own party managers as neces-
sary criticism is disloyalty; plans of a
comm ,nder are not to be enquired into
too sharply on the battlefield; political
campaign cannot be carried on like Sun
day.school picnic you cannot expect to
have clean hands while you are handling the
guns; squesmishness does not lead to vic
tory they all do it with such pleas as
these the partisan satisfi 30 his conscience
and iusti6es his party. If his conscience
still troubles him, he allays it with a
promise. We will reform the party from
within. After victory, purity. One
thing at time; now we must drive the
enemy from the country; then we will
drive the corrupt elements from our own
party.
Partissnship iuhsmes partisanship.
Good men on either side catch the con-
tagion. Falsehood follows innuendo /;
open calumny re.enforces secret suspicion.
Every miserable subterfuge, mean eva.
sion, petty concealment, or open false.
hood shot from one camp arouses re-
turn volley of the same ammunition, and
more of it, from the other. And the par.
tisan, who began by wishing that his
neighbors should think evil of his oppo-
nents, ends by thinking illimitable evil of
them himself and obliterates his charity,
obscures his reason, aud dims his love of
truth, justice, and fair play in his passion
for party victory. When he has reached
this stage there is no hope for him till
the campaign is over, and he looks back
from his victory or his defeat the morning
after election and wonders at the force
and fury of his own fanaticism.
"There is not one of us who is not
liable to this disease. 1t is in the air.
The pestilence will grow worse till
November. Be on your guard against
the first approaches of it. Bs charitable
toward all political opponents; study to
think the best, not the worst, of them.
All is not fair in war. The means do
not justify the end. An honorable man
is no match for the devil with his own
weapons. Fight fire with water. The
purity of your party is worth more than
its triumph. Honor is worth more than
victory. Be suspicious of suspicious.
Search for good motives, not for evil
ones. A presidential election is not a
war, but a deliberation. This is not a
political campaign, but political parlia-
ment Half the nation is not in arms
against the other half. There are evil
elements in all parties, and honorable ele-
ments in all parties. Look about you.
Have you not among your acquaintance
st. John man, a Butler man, Cleve-
land man, Blaine man? He is not a
thief nor vsgabond. He is not Cati-
line nor Benedict Arnold. If half the
country were the rascals which the other
half of the country would have us believe
them to be, there would be little hope for
its future. The great heart of the Amer
lean people is honest, true, patriotic.
Have faith in it. Be proud as you will
of your party; but be prouder still of
your country.
Partisanship once poisoned with its
pestilential breath the air of literature.
If, says Bardo, in Romola, 'my elucida-
tions should clash with any principles of
Interpretation adopted by another scholar,
our personal characters will be attacked,
we shall be impeached with foul actions
you must prepare yourself to be told that
your mother was fish.woman, and
that your father was renegade priest.
l myself, for having shown error in
single proposition, had an invective writ
ten against me, wherein l was taxed with
treachery, fraud, indecency, and even
hideous crimes We have made some
advance in charity; the admirer of Mat.
thew Arnold no longer thinks it necessary
to charge his critics with violation of
all the laws of the decalogue. Partisan
ship once poisoned the air of the church.
1t was this bitter spirit which infamed
religious rancor, and made possible the
rack in Spain, and the whip and carts
tail in New England. And there are
even now good Protestants who hear with
reluctance any word of commentator of
virtues in the Roman Catholic COM
munion. But we are learning to differ in
theology without wrath or bitterness.
Partisanahin has heen exnallad from IN