St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-07-31
President seeIye's Speech.
AT THE N. Y. INDEPENDENT CONFER
ENCE.

very dolt speeches, DN WOrthlIy nOteu
men, observed that they were all
pitched to the same key. An apollo
getic note was the Keynote with every
speaker. Every speech -7as a labored
defense. The great leaders of the
great party seemed to feel that this
was the party's greatest need. | doubt
if any one of us is inclined to follow
their example. The position which we
occupy we are willing should be at
tackled. If it cannot defend itself let
it cease to claim its ground. What is
this position? We are called indie
pendent republicans, and we accept
the appellation. In all that gives
sacredness and strength to the name,
in the love of liberty, in the reverence
fOrlaw, in the recognition of human
brotherhood, and the regard for human
rights, in the demand for just laws
and an upright administration, which
have been the glory of the republican
party, we are still republicans. We
are Independent republicans, claiming
for ourselves the right of private judg
ment,-which requires each man to
determine for himself whether pre-
scribed course is right, and which does
not permit n man to follow a party
except as the party itself follows truth
and wisdom.
As independent republicans it is not
party. We have no wish to jump from
the frying-p pan into the fire. If we
shall take the democratic candidate it
will be for his own record and not
because of the democratic platform.
The democratic party, as a party, does
not inspire us with high confidence or
hope. But no one can carefully note
the signs of the times without discover
ing that great breaking up is going
on among political parties. There is
a wonderful shifting of party lines just
now. Men who have always been re-
publicans will vote for the democratic
ticket at the next election, and men
who have always been democrats
before are now ranging themselves in
the republican ranks. New affiliations
| to II surprising extent are going on all
around us. Like is seeking its like in
new combinations and disapprove it
as politicians may, disregard it if they
choose, no hing can disguise the fact
| that great change is actually taking
place in the parties of the land, and
these parties after the next election,
| if they retain their names, will he diff
ferent characteristics than they have
ever had before.
| What is our proper attitude toward
this great and significant factg Some
thing other, | take it, than simply to
range ourselves on one side or the
other of these newly dividing party
lines. We have n message to carry
with us where we go, we have IL for
ward movement to urge, Il movement
upward as well as onward, unto a
higher light of law and Il purer atmos-
phere of liberty, to which all the land
may be lifted, and in which the other
lands may rejoice. Whatever may be
said about the candidates of the two
great parties now before us, | think
few men will find little in either of
their platforms to commend. | find in
both abundance of tame or turgid plat
itudes, but do not find broad princi-
Piles of craftsmanship in either. | see
in them no evidence of flr-seeing
vision either of the present or the
future | find in both intolerance and
narrowness, and while both are bold
in affirming what no one denies, do
not see in either any courage which
dares to set its foot on any principle
which the majority of the house might
he unwilling to declare. In this both
paI ties bear unconscious witness to the
shifting ground they occupy and tO
the disintegration actually going on
beneath their feet
I OF the great questions which demand
our attention to-day, first and fore
most is that of temperance. There is
no other question affecting our ma
tional life which is comparable in sig
nificance with this. There is no other
business of such tremendous interest
to all our welfare as the liquor traffic
Say what you will about the choice,
} of men, and blame the intemperlt,
classes as You may for yielding to theil
appetites, it remains true that the
liquor traffic is responsible for four
fifths of our poverty, for seven -eighths
| of our crime, and for Il proportion o
our disease and vice and wretchedness
: to say nothing of our taxation, =
, which makes every other instrument
: of evil almost insignificant. How tt
. treat this appalling source of woe, how
= to check, how to control, how to make
2 it to cease,-is, | repeat, by far the
most important question in our ma
? tional politics to-day, and hold it tt
5 be very weak in the republican party
to have ignored it and very wicked il
the democratic party tc have put sucl
! an utterance about it i'll their platform
> as they have done.
2 Next in Importance is the socia
/ question, the question, how the rela
-: Al,
, society may be most perfectly adjusted
: How shall man live in peace and pleas
antness everywhere with his fellow
man? This question is coming to th'
. front among us. We hear murmuring
2 or mutterings of it all about us. Gu
1 public men must give it their atten
D ton our political parties must adjus
5 themselves according to its behests
3, This question if wisely settled, set
tied not on grounds of transient expe
D diency, but as divine justice and Chris
tian love require, will of itself settl
wisely all questions about the right
4 of labor and of capital, all question
] of the tariff and taxation, for all thes
Y questions root themselves in the singl
B., issue of human brotherhood, and W
h ought to be clear sighted enough t
o see, and courageous enough to confess
Ii that human brotherhood is the Onl
r true and normal relationship of ma
e with man, and that it is the true wea
d for nations as for individuals to bea
C one another's burdens, and so fulfil til
e law of Christ.
o | hardly need speak of civil-servic
o reform, for wh.n | reflect upon wha
e has been done in this behalf the las
five years,-the prodigious advance i
public sentiment and official actio
G toward the establishment of our civ
k service on the very grounds which i'll
,e dependent renuhIicans have AWAY