The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-02-24
Ought Senator Edmunds to be
effected?
WATERBURY, February %. 1873

WATERBURY,, February %, 1886.
Mr.. Editor The Boston Herald, the ablest
hti-Blaine journal in New England, has be-
IN to champion the cause of Senator Ed
unds. Here is its latest lead:
If the republicans of Vermont desire to retain
10 services of Mr. Edmunds In the senate, of which
ere can be no question: they will need to give close
tenton TO the caucuses held to nominate me mbers
the legislature the coming summer. A good deal
quiet wire pulling and feeling about is going on,
other candidate RaoWng that Mr. EGmnnds Is
bt man who will exert himself to promote his own
ectiOn to any office, the politicians who are for any
ason opposed to him are ready to take advantage
@ and m @ 9 RI fa baS Se
lily to he forewarned of this effort TO defeat It, Mel
er the ambition of aspirants for his seat nor the
vengefq feelings Of partisans who could not bend
nc TO- their purposes should be permitted
he of its foremost statesmen"
The Herald may rest assured that the re-
ublicans of Vermont are competent to
banage their own affairs. There is no pur-
ose on the part of the opposition to SEN
tor Edmunds to conceal their determine
ION to defeat his reelection, if posi-
lie. The republicans of Vermont who
oppose Senator Edmunds are ready to JUS
fy their hostility on the ground that he
as forfeited the confidence of his party by
is conspicuous disloyalty to the party dur
ng the last presidential campaign. Senator
Edmunds has twice been candidate before
he national republican convention for the
presidential nomination. In 1880, in adj
ance of the Chicago convention, Mr.. Ed
|nunds' jealous hate for his brilliant fellow
|enator, Mr.. Blaine, persuaded him to write
strong letter for circulation in the infuen-
bal political circles of his party in Vermont.
This letter, while nominally a private one,
|Eas written for public purpose. That pur-
pose was to prevent any man being sent to
chicago as delegate in 1880 who in any event
you'd vote for Blaine. In substance Mr..
|sdmunds wrote to prominent personal
}ervations of Mr.. Blaine's actions in the
United States senate he had become satisfied
|hat he was the voice and brain of Jay Gould's
lobby in the senate; that whenever he and
Ex-senator Thurman had joined hands to
|lefeat Gould's schemes James G.. Blaine
Invariably started up from behind Gould's
breastworks, musket in hand;" that, in his
opinion, Blaine could not be elected, and
bven if he could he ought not to be. This let
Ter was shown to the leading republicans of
he state, and it so far imposed on the credu-
lily of the convention that Vermonts dele
cation to Chicago in 1880 was privately
pledged to oppose Blaine to the last, al
though Vermont was really Blaine state.
In 1880 Senator Edmunds also denounced
MIR. Blaine in conversation for his alleged
tuplicity in the passage of the electoral COM
mission bill. Edmunds claimed that Blaine
his aid to Edmunds to help the
bill, and then spoke and voted against the
bill on its passage. Senator Edmunds sue
ceeded in 1880 in thoroughly poisoning the
minds of many upright republicans in Ver-
mont and elsewhere against Mr.. Blaine;
md so, when Mr.. Blaine was nominated for
PRESIDENT in 1884, these republicans inquired
If Mr.. Edmunds whether he still held to his
estimate of Blaine as corrupt and danger
Jus man, as expressed in his letter and con-
versation in 1880. Senator Edmunds replied
by referring them to his speech delivered
August 26, 1884, when Mr.. Edmunds pre-
Il l.
Turning to this speech we find that Mr.. Ed
nunds treated Mr. Blaine with conspicuous
contempt. He stabbed Blaine to death with
he stealthy dagger of his subtle silence; he
for the mugwump republicans,
described the doubts and difficulties that
lad embarrassed conscientious voters since
he nomination of Mr.. Blaine, and solved
hem to himself by saying that the defeat of
he democratic party now, and he " fears"
or the next twenty-five years, is "a need
alrly paramount to any other" In other
words, Mr.. Edmunds argued that an error of
political policy, enforced by a democratic
with an honest man at it's
lead, is more dangerous to the safety of the
epublic than republican administration
With corrupt statesman at its head. The
riends of Mr.. Blaine were justly indignant
It the conduct of Mr.. Edmunds, and his dis
INGENIOUS attempt to stab the candidate to
he heart with his voice, while he ostenta-
iously gave him his vote OF course if Mr..
knew that Mr.. Blaine's character
vas so corrupt that he could not commend
lin to the party he had no moral business
o vote for Mr.. Blaine, since to say that a
epublican scoundrel is better choice for
PRESIDENT than democrat of unsullied pub
ic integrity is to place premium on party
and to invite the scoundrels to
intrigue for it's leadership and capture its
nominations. Mr.. Edmunds is too good a
ogician not to see that if he could not speak
or Blaine, because he believed him corrupt,
much more was he bound not to vote for
him. But Mr.. Edmunds imagines, we sup
bose, that he can eat his cake and have it
oo-he can stab the party by his cold, sneer-
ng solemn silence during the campaign,
md yet retain the confidence of his party in
Vermont by advertising the fact that he
yoted for Blaine after all. One blast upon
Mr.. Edmunds' bugle-horn would have been
worth at least five thousand votes to Blaine
n New York state, where he was beaten by
plurality of less than twelve hundreds one
blast upon Edmunds' bugle-horn would
nave given us a republican administration
instead of the present conglomerate of south
,rn brigadiers and political tramps that
cad the northern democracy. Mr.. Ed
nunds refused Mr.. Blaine his voice, but
'ullenly gave him his vote. His voice, that
Gould have secured Blaines election, he re-
used; his VOTE that was as worthless as a
wafer in the lips of dying man, he ostenta-
tiously gave Mr.. Blaine with a sardonic
smile. To stab Blaine by his silence, and
then vote for him at last, was like killing
man with malice and then asking his
friends not to forget that he went TO his
funeral furnished flowers for the corpse,
and cried as bitterly at the grave as Peter
did after he had three times deliberately
denied his Master. BLAINE REPUBLICAN.