News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-07-17
JUDGE POWERS SPEECH.

Mr.. President and Republicans of the First
Congressional District: Isincerely thank you
for the high honor which am informed this
convention has conferred upon me. | value
this honor all the more from the fact that my
relation TO the canvass now ended mas been
that of a drafted man. prize the honor all
the more highly because, if your action is
ratified at the polls, | shall assume the trust
delegated, absolutely untrammeled by prom
Use or pledges of any kind to any man or set
of men whatsoever.
But do however, now and here, covenant
with you and those you represent, that if
elected as your representative, L will endeavor
with all my might, mind and strength, to so
discharge the duties of the office as to win
your approval.
The amicable contest which has engaged
your attention for little time past, has
been conducted on both Sides so far as | am
advised, along the lines of temperate criticism
and honorable warfare. The worthy gentle
man, whom many of you preferred as your
candidate, has been my longtime personal
friend and | indulge the hope that nothing of
late has transpired, to make him the less so
to-day.
But | am reminded that conventions are
assembled not to do honor to men, but to do
homage to principles and however much we
may honestly differ respecting the one, we
have no disagreements whatever touching the
substantial dogmas of the political creed we
profess.
| am aware that this is an ''off year in
politics and that we are inclined to lapse into
a sort of political lethargy, and imagine that
our political zeal can properly be infamed
once only in four years. But, gentlemen, this
is a grave mistake. Whiewe sleep the enemy
will SOW tares. Already our adversary is elo-
quent over the slogan that the mission of the
republican party is ended. That with the
abolition of slavery and the settlement of the
great questions of reconstruction which have
agitated the public mind for quarter of
century, it has no further work to do
But has the mission of your party ended?
When every citizen of the Republic be he
rich or poor, high orl low, white or black, can
with unchallenged right, cast one vote for
such men and measures as his conscience ap-
proves, and when such vote so cast shall be
honestly counted in the tabulation of results
then you may say the mission of your
party is approaching its end.
Its mission ended? When our tariff regula-
tions shall be so framed as to impose upon
the people the lightest practicable pressure
and along the lines of fostering partiality
toward American industries, and upon a basis
that will not only divorce our wage-earners
from hopeless competition with the pauper
labor of the old world but will give to every
workingman in the land the chance to lift
himself with the wife of his youth and his
children about him to higher level and
broaderplane in the race of life, then you may
say the mission of your party has neared it's
end.
It's mission ended? When every soldier who
wore the blue, and the widows and orphans
of those who fell in defence of the flag against
the assaults of rebellion shall have been paid
that just measure of public reward which is
their rightful due, and which our government
is rich enough honest enough and proud
enough to pay; then you may say the mis-
sion of your party is approaching its end.
Its mission ended? When that relic of bar
barism; that foul blot upon the civilization
of the 10Th century; that cankerworm that
is eating at the very vitals of our religion
that stencil in the nostrils of intelligent man
hood, Mormonism, shall have been, by legal
methods, everlastingly cut up by the roots,
then you may say the mission of your party
is nearing its end.
Its mission ended When every anarchist
who comes here from the old world to stir up
strife among our people, to overthrow our
social institutions and to undermine the
foundations of the government itself shall
have been hanged upon the highest tree that
grows in our American forests, then you may
say the millennium has come.
No, Mr.. President, the mission of our party
will never end, until all the great industrial
social and political problems, which concern
the hody-politic, have been settled upon a
basis that will accomplish the highest good to
the greatest number. and until the blessings
of the most advanced education of the widest
civil and the broadcast religious liberty shall
abound throughout the republic from the
east to the west and from the north to the
south.
Let us then, laying aside all our differences
close up the ranks and push on the column
and let the watchword now and henceforth
be. Forward.
The address was warmly received
and by his dignified appearance and
appropriate and timely utterance,
the Judge soon won the heart of every
man present. Immediately at the
close of his remarks, Col Sawyer, of
Hyde Park, arose and remarked that
the remarks just listened to would
make the best possible platform or
set of resolutions that the convention
could adopt. Acommittee composed
of one from each county was named
by the chair to present to the conven-
ton the names of gentlemen to con
stitute the district committee. Their
report was adopted and the members
of the First Congressional District
committee are: j M. Slade of Mid
dlebury, III. G. Root of Bennington,
III. S. Peck of Burlington, Warren