Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-10-22
Harrison, Cleveland, Fisk.
Which?

lt0u anu bLS cOuSCIcHOlOuo NOUOi
must soon decide who shall receive
! his ballot. There are two questions
which enter into the matter; the
first, as to the character of the NOM
inee; the second, whether he repre-
sents the principles which best con-
duce to the welfare of the country,
should he be placed in the presiden-
tial chair. Benjamin Harrison, the
republican nominee, is by common
repute and the consent of all parties,
man of spotless character. He is
a member of the Presbyterian church,
and adorns his profession by godly
life; as a citizen he is neighborly,
public spirited, honorable and worthy
in any sense. His record as pat
riotic man and a successful soldier
is all that it need be. AS a politi-
clan he has been frank and square,
and has never stopped to the tricks
or the wickedness, SO often resorted
to in the political field. So honor
able, open-hearted, popular and able
has he been that he has almost al
ways been successful in state poll
tics, even when pitted against such
men as Worries and Hendricks, and
this in a state where none but the
ablest on either side can hope to
succeed. Gen. Harrison's career in
congress reflected honor upon his
state and the country, and had it
not been for the wickedness of his
political rivals he would have con-
tinued to represent Indiana in the
senate. Since his nomination he has
shown in long list of speeches that
he is most thoroughly informed on
all topics pertaining to governmental
affairs, and that he is conversant
with the affairs of men, their wants
and their desires, whether they dig
in the mines or engage in the higher
avocations of life. His speeches
have shown him to be a much great
er man than many had thought him
to be, while they have shown the
goodness of his heart and the pat
riotic and noble purposes which in
spire his actions.
Personally Grover Cleveland has
not grown in the favor of any I'M
biased and we'll Informed man, since
his Inauguration as president. The
disgraceful and humiliating scandal
of four years ago might, perhaps. in
some degree have been atoned for
by a life of responsibility and pu-
rity but the facts, unless those who
have the inside history are woefully
mistaken, are such as to lift off no
burden of former disgrace. Nobody
wants to think about, much less to
talk about the things that have to
do with the personal and home af-
fairs of the man who dwells in the
White House at Washington. Speak
ing of his work as president, there
would be differences of opinion. A
man of dull sensibilities, mulish will,
limited in knowledge and experience,
bigoted in his opinions, he has jam
med through the months of his adj
ministration, doing less harm than
might be expected. He started out |
on the counterfeit assumption of re-
form, and has done little or nothing
more than to turn republicans out of
nearly all the offices in the country, |
regardless Of law, civil service pre-
tensions, decency or feeling. He
has filled the places made vacant |
with those who were most active in |
democratic partisan politics, while
his pretense for turning out the |
MANNED soldiers, the honest aud ex-
perienced official, and the best of |
men is that they have been engaged |
in "offensive partisanship'' words
meaning in his vocabulary, republic
ans. AS was shown but few weeks |
since in the n. Y. Tribune, many of |
the men who have been used to dis
place republicans have been disgrace
ed in the eyes of the country by be-
ing participants in every manner of |
crime. While it might have been
expected that man who owed his
election largely to the south, would
have been friendly to that section
of the country, it is humiliating to |
every patriot, whether he was a sol
dier in the rebellion or not, to feel |
that those who were traitors have |
been exalted to the cabinet, to the |
place of foreign ministers, to the |
best and most honorable positions in
all the country, by man placed in
the chair by merest accident, man
who was among those in the time of |
his country's peril, who was hundreds |
of miles from the field of conflict. |
Mr.. Cleveland started out with sew
eral prominent and important things |
which he hoped to do, but for some
reason he has failed in all of them,
as hopelessly as he failed in his civil
service reform, so, that really he
has nothing to show for his three
and a half years service except his
change of federal officers and his
free trade message.
Clinton B. Fisk, who will receive
quite a large vote from the party
prohibitionists, is a man of good
character. He is a popular speaker,
and if it were possible to make him
president, would do the duties of
his office well. AS his candidacy is
of no Importance in itself, except so