Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-05-02

The friends of james G. Blaine, in the per
son Of William Walter Phelps and Blaine's
thick and thin supporter and organ, the New
York Tribune, have made a disastrous at
tempt during the past week to bolster up Mr..
Blanes character by trying to pull Mr.. Ed
munds down to his level Tho attempt be-
gan in a two.column defence of Mr.. Blaine,
which Mr.. Phelps printed in the New York
Evening Post in which he alleged, in effect,
that Mr.. Edmunds. while owning an interest
in the securities Of the Burlington and Mis-
souri, railroad, had supported in the Senate
bill ito restore the land grant to the road
MIR. Phelps's language on this point was as
follows:
''when sat as a delegate-at-larFe in the last nation
al convention, Senator Edmunds aud Senator Window
both candidates for the Presidency and should
gladly have supported either Senator Edmunds was
understood TO have block Of Burlington and MISSOURI
securities and Senator Window had not only block
in the securities Of the Northern Pacific company but
was one Of its directors Yet you hnd NO fault
with these gentlemen. Nor would you and differ IN
giving the highest rank to Senator Grimes but both
he and senator Edmunds acquired their interests IL
the Burlington and Missouri road when they were IL
the Senate They both supported the bill TO restore
the land grant TO their road. il was passed on the
day with the Little Rock bill. Both measures
were Just, and both passed in the House and
Senate without dissenting vote Why must we sus-
pect that Mr.. Blaine had secret ana corrupt motive
and that other members and senators had none?
In reply to this covert imputation Mr.. Ed
munds at once wrote a letter to Mr.. Phelps
in which he informs him in blunt English
that he never did anything of the kind charg
ed He tells him that he finds, by an exam
ination of his old Rccount-books that some
three months after the passage Of the Bur
| lington and Missouri bill be subscribed for
some stock in the company and paid the
same price for it that other people were
then paying that be held it some years, and
then sold it in the open market for the
same price that other people were selling at.
! In order that Mr.. Phelps may not fall into
similar errors if he has any future occasion
to write letters for publication concerning Mr..
| Edmunds, he invites Mr.. Phelps to come to
his house and examine his books and papers,
which, he says, will be freely placed at his
disposal The pith of the letter is in this
paragraph;
at is Of some consequence among men who intend
to be truthful, do doubt you do, to be some
what accurate in making statements about the acts
and duings OF other people If you or anybody else
wishes to know anything concerning my business or
other transactions at any time shall be happy 10 put
Won in possession of precise information you will
be certain that what you say is true. am neither
willing DESTROYS to be either candidate or Presi-
dent-which everybody who has ever spoken or writ
ten to me upon the subject knows; but as naturally
like stand well in the estimation OF my fellow citi-
zens dislike TO be accused Of either corruption bias,
sehshness acting on public questions IN which /
have private interest when such accusations are IN
| true
Mr.. Phelps withheld the publication of the
letter for two or three days, in order that he
might accompany it with reply. His reply
is apologize in tone and fails to substantiate
its writer's original charge.
This attack on Mr.. Edmunds has had an ef-
feet precisely contrary to what was intended
for it, as any wise man might have foreseen.
1t has not helped Mr.. Blaine, and it has given
greater prominence than ever to the move
ment for Edmunds The papers everywhere
are crying out For Shame ~ ''For Shame ~
and declaring that Mr. Blaine cannot be help.
ed by trying to get Mr.. Edmunds into the
same boat with him. The New York Times
boldly and significantly says that ''It the de
fence of Mr.. Blaine is continued with the
weapons brought into play during the present
week, nothing can prevent the nomination oil
Senator Edmunds at the Chicago convention.
The Tribune alone stultifes itself by persist
ing, like sulking school-boy, that Mr. Ed
mundss letter changes nothing that his &C
ton did not differ in the least from that o.
Mr. Blaine-that He did precisely and ex
actly wat Mr. Blaine did-no more and nj
less. An honest man cannot censure one
without censuring another"
On this point the New York Evening Pos
says
'In order to put Mr. Edmunds in similar predic
nment with Mr.. Blaine, he ought to have written t
the Burlington and Missouri people, pointing out tn
Acter Senator 3 reason for being let IN tn
ground floor and telling them that he ''Woud not b
deadhead in the enterprise, because he could max
himself useful in various channels and that b.
would like to have "a definite proposition To max
the parallel complete he ought 10 have said afterwar
in public debate that the Burlington and Missouri
Road derived benefit whatever from the Legislation
Of Congress or from his vote and when his letter
proving the contrary were about TO be laid before
investigating committee, he should have been throw
into state OF extreme agitation and terror, and hav
gone to the holder Of the letters and impored him
spare him (Edmunds) from exposure and ruin. Fail
ing to move the stony hearted man by such appeals
he should have borrowed the letters on promise 1
return them, and then he should have violated hi
promise and kept lem till some Of them were drag
cd from him by al imperious public opinion
Mr.. Blaine's pRrtsans have the thanks o
all Vermonters for giving the Edmunds move
ment the best boon" yet.