Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-08-08

HON. HENRY BALLARD on THE ISSUES OF The
cAMPAIGN-THE CANDIDATES coMpARED-
TIE RECORD OF THE TWO PARTIES.
An attentive audience Which filed the
town hall gathered last evening to hear Hon.
Henry Ballard of Burlington speak on tho issues
of the campaign. beginning with q refer
ence to the political responsibilities of the in.
dividusl citizen under our form of govern.
ment Mr. Ballard asked the initial question.
What is the great question in the present
campaign The Independents say that con-
dition of political millennium has been reached
in which no great issue divides the two par.
ties. 1t is merely question between candi.
dates-of personal fitness. Very well, then,
who and what is Mr.. Blaine? The salient
points in Mr.. Blaine's career as state and na.
tionRl legislator and member of Gariield's
cabinet were briefly sketched. This career,
tho speaker said, extends over G period OF q
years, during which Mr.. Blaine has been ex-
posed to the white aud searching light of pub
lie opinion and to-day he stands forth as a
man who Is and always has been right on all
great public questions. The animosities out
of which have grown the attacks on his pub
lie record were traced and shown to have risen
out of Mr. Blaine's debate with Ben Hill in
the congressional session of 1876. when
Mr. Blaine incurred the deadly and eternal
hatred of the Bourbon democracy.
The charge that Mr. Blaine sold his Office
as Speaker Of the House for money was tax
on up by Mr.. Ballard and plainly dealt with
A bill in aid of a railroad in Alabama THE
Little Rock and Fort SMITH which had
passed the Senate unanimously, came up in
the House on the last night of the session.
member offered an amendment which
would have killed the bill Mr. Blaine, as
Speaker, having no personal knowledge of or
interest in the bill whatever, but simply do
ing his plain duty, ruled out the amendment
as not germane 10 the subject The bill then
passed the House without objection. The
next fall, when negotiating with the pro-
iectors of this railroad for some of its stock
he said to them, You see that last spring
did you favor when didn't know it," He
bought some Of the stock at its full market
price and lost heavily in the operation-and
this is all there is to the charge about the
Mulligan letters A Democratic committee Of
the House, which carefully investigated the
whole matter, never reported because they
could not convict Mr.. Blaine, and would not
exoneTate him.
Gen. Logan's record as a citizen and q
public man was then taken up. 1t is true,
the speaker said, that, before the war, Gen
Logan was proslsvery Democrat. but be
was not the average kind of such Demo
crat. lie was not the kind of man that new
er forgets anything and never learns any
thing. When the great hour was struck,
when the integrity of his country was asssil-
ed, he lifted the flag of his country above
that of his party, and since that day his rec.
ord as a soldier and statesman has been one
OF the most patriotic and brilliant that any
man has made.
MIR. Ballard next reviewed the record and
character of the Democratic candidates
Cleveland has record as lawyer who never
reached the higher courts of his state, as
sheriff, as mayor of Buffalo, and as governor
of New York for year and half, during
which time he has chiefly distinguished him
self by vetoing every measure which was
supposed to be for the benefit of the work
ing men. Referring to the dark cloud of
scandal which now hangs over him, the
speaker said, "This is the first time that
great political party has dgged in q ditch,
aye, grovelled in the gutter for its standard
bearer" The copperhead and obstructionist
record of Mr.. Hendricks was reviewed and
that gentleman was shown to be a man after
the Democracy's own heart-the fit candidate
of party (which is always sitting down in
the old nests in which the Republican party
has already Matched brood of chickens and
sent them of cackling by themselves"
From this point the speaker passed to re-
view of the political history of the last 40
years and showed how in 1856 and 1860 the
best blood of all the parties went into the
Republican party-a party whose record dur
ing "a years of power is known and read OF
all men. Passing to the platform of the two
parties the tariff question was takeu up and
the ridiculous and impossible position of the
Democratic party in attempting to straddle,
with its patent device of tariff for revenue
only" between protection on tho one eI-
treme and free trade on the other, was held
up to the laughter of the audience.
The vital questions of civil rights and OF
the right to protection Of American citizens
abroad as well as at home were discussed. In
speaking of the Democratic party's use OF
the catchword reform, the speaker brought
down the house In a long continued round Of
applause by his remark, There is magic in
that word reform-ReJoJmer =" ~
Mr.. Ballard closed his address by urging
the duty which rests on every voter at this
time, and the importance OF maintaining
Yermonts old.time Republican majority in
the September election. THE duty Of the
hour, " he said, lis every vote that is oil"
Mr.. Ballard is q graceful, earnest and