Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1890-07-18
Speech of Acceptance.

Judge Powers. who was nominal.
cd at Middlehury last week by the
Republicans of the first district as
their candidate for Congress, in ac,
crptinG the nomination made an elo-
quent and earnest speech before the
convention, which was subsequently
unanimously adopted as the platform
OF the convention. Judge Powers
spoke as follows:
sincerely thank You for the high
honor | am informed that this con
ventlon has conferred upon me.
value this honor all the more from
the fact that my relation to the can.
vasS now ended has been tina, Of a
drafted man. ! prize the honor all
the more highly because, if your &C,
ton is ratified at the polls, shall as.
sumo the trust delegated, absolutely
untrammclIcd by promise or pledge
of any kind to any man or set Of men
whatsoever. But, however, do
now and here covenant with YOU and
with those you represent, that if
elected as your representative, will
endeavor with all my might, mind
and strength to so discharge the
duties Of the Office as to win your
approval.
The amicablH contest which has
engaged your attention for a little
time past has been conducted on
both sides, so far as | am advised.
along the lines of temperate criticism
and honorable warfare. The gentle.
man whom many of you preferred
IS your candidate has been nay long.
time personal friend, and I indulge
the hope that nothing Of late has
tran>pired TO make him less so today.
But lam reminded that conventions
arc 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
dlsagrecments whatever respecting
the substantial dogmaS Of the poIit.
ical creed we profess.
am aware that this is an "off
year" in politics, and that we are in.
cined to lapse into sort of political
Iethargy, and imagine that our 20.
lltical zeal can properly be inlamed
once only in four years. But, Gen
tlrmcn, this is grave mistake.
While we sleep Tie enemy will SOW
tares. Already our adversary is
eloquent 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 a 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
or low, white or black, can with un-
challenged right cast one vote for
such men and measures as his con-
science approves, and when each
vote so cast shall be honestly count.
ed in the tabulaton of results, then
you may say the mission of your
party is approaching its end
Its mission ended? When our
tariff regulations shall be so framed
as to impose upon the people the
llghtest practicable pressure, and
along the lines of a fostering par
TALLY towards American industries
and upon basis that will not only
divorce our wage earners from a
hopeless competition with the pau.
per 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 chill.
dren about him, to a higher level
and broader plane in the race of
life; then you may say the mission
Of your party has neared an end.