Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-05-29
IsIt a reform AdmInIstra.,on


The Phoenix having insisted from the first
that there ought to be no captious, narrow
minded criticism of President Cleveland's
administration on the part of Republicans
but that it should be judged on it's general
tenor and allowance made for inevitable mis-
takes we shall not be accused of fault find
ing or unfairness if we call attention to some
recent appointments and removals which can
not be explained on reform" basis. One
of the worst of these is the appointment of
@. r. Meade, leader in the -Copiah county
outrages, to be postmaster at Hazlehurst,
Miss. Meade is the ruffian who presided over
the meeting, which was called after Matthews
was shot for persisting in voting the Repub-
tican ticket, and passed resolutions approving
his murder. Leaving politics entirely aside,
an appointment like this is an affront to the
moral sense of the country. Meade Is moth
ing better than murderer, and to give him
federal Office is to reward him for helping to
keep Mississippi ''solid" for the Democracy
at the muzzle Of the shotgun.
Another recent appointment which is more
conspicuous than Meade's, because it is to
more important place, is that of Zachariah
Montgomery of California to be assistant at.
torney general for the interior department
The record on which Mr.. Montgomery is
best known is that of a violent and blatant
opposer of the common. school system. In
1879 he published an attack on the schools
which in tone and temper might as we'll have
been the product of German socialist of the
red-handed stripe. 'Our boosted New Eng.
land school system" he said, ''as now by law
established throughout the length and breadth
of the American republic is poison fraught
with seeds of human misery and death"
Where this system prevails, he continued,
there ia more vice, more pauperism, more
suicides more victims OF criminal lust than
where it does not 1t removes children from
the control Of their parents, and makes il
possible for an irresponsible board of school
directors to appoint hberiine or harlot as
the tutor of your daughter, and so on to the
end of this strange illumination. Added to all
this is the fact that Montgomery was violent
copperhead and secessionist during the war.
On his behalf it is urged that he is an able
lawyer and an anti-monopolist, and that he
will have nothing to do with the bureau of
education but will devote himself TO the re-
view of land claims.
In paragraph elsewhere copied from
Boston Journal despatch allusion is made TO
the recent removal of an old soldier, Mai. s.
w. Saxton, who has never meddled in politics,
from an important place in the first control.
ler's office where a man of experience is i'm
peratively demanded. Not long ago Judge
Ferris, formerly a member of the Southern
claims commission, and man eminently
adapted for any place, was removed from
the second auditors office for no reason ex
eept political one.
All these appointments and removals are
az bad in their way as were the Pillsbury and
Troup appointments in New England, and
the list might be considerably extended were
this necessary. The independent papers
vince under them and rise up and "rebuke"
them, and by way of palIation they insist
that these mistakes are not the work of the
President but of his cabinet officers. 1t ia
hard TO see how this excuse helps the case
however, for il Mr.. Cleveland is the man Of
iron whom he has been reported to be he
will rule his cabinet and compel It's members