News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-07-23
The Good State of Vermont.

FORE THE VERMONT PRESS AssOCIA-
TION AT BOSTON.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
! | always meet the representatives
of the press with pleasure and perfect
confidence, for they have saved me
so many times, have so often made
me say good things when | knew |
said very poor ones, and have COW
cred all my shortcomings with such
q mantle of charity. that | have come
to feel entirely safe in their hands.
And if | was inclined to criticise the
Vermont press at all it would be only
for the good fault which it seems to
me is a marked characteristic of the
people of our state in general, and
that is that we are too modest by
half in regard to the merits of our
own state.
We are somewhat like the lawyer
of whom it was said that he was an
excellent man and a very sound law
yer, but that he had an unfortunate
habit of putting in his evidence with
out letting the jury know it. Per-
haps we have something of the same
unfortunate habit. Knowing the fact
so well ourselves, we do not take
quite pains enough to let the great
jury of the public know how good
state we have.
! Now if we are to lay our modesty
aside and let the evidence of our vir-
tues be known to the jury, will will
! lingly admit, and it will doubtless be
conceded by all, that the press can
take the initiative in this new de-
| parture with less strain and violence
to their personal feelings and previ-
Gus methods and characteristics than
any other class of our people.
You will doubtless claim for YER
mont that it is the best place to stay
in, to liveNin as well as be born in,
the best place for a home, and as
good as any for all ordinary bust
ness ; not good for the doctors, for it
is so healthy they will have few pa
tients nor for the lawyers, because
the people are so honest and law
abiding that they will have few
clients, but good for the ministers
and teachers, because we believe in
schools and churches, and especially
good for editors because the people
are intelligent and all read the papers.
And you can fairly claim much
more than this. For it is my firm
conviction, based upon a very care
full consideration of the subject, that
there is to-day no better state for the
farmer, whether he is worth five hun
dred or five, thousand dollars or
more, and that'it offers to the bust
ness men, the. investor or laborer, as
good il not a better opportunity for
average success than any section of
the country. The great prizes may
not be frequent, but the wretched
failures are unknown.
An opportunity to compare our
state, its people. it's resources and its
opportunities with other sections of
the country must tend to make us
contented with our lot. / know that
agriculture is depressed and values
low, but there is this same complaint
from all sections, and from many with
much greater force than from u.s.
Many who have gone from Vermont
in recent years to the West and South
wish themselves back, and many who
have not gone themselves, but have
sent their, money, wish that back. |
fully believe that our state has passed
its worst period of depression, that
farm values have passed the turn,
and the demand is better and the
pressure to sell less that fewer of
our young men willleave and more of
those who have left will return, and
more who are seeking desirab bile homes
will come from other states, and that
we are on the eve, not of a great
boom, but Of steady, healthy in
crease of prosperity.
No state has less of the extremes of
wealth and poverty, and none has a
population more homogeneous in
character, and not one is so purely
representative of the old New En- |
gland stock. This last proposition
is one of great Importance in consid-
ering the character of our people. |
and it is so obvious to even a casual |
observer that it requires no proof |
The reason for it is plain. Originally
settled from Massachusetts, either |
directly. or by way of Connecticut, we
have had much less admiXture from |
foreign or interstate immigration |
than any other New England state,
and the land being better has been
more generally held by the descend
ants of the first settlers No state
has preserved the peculiar New En-
gland institutions, political and So
cial, so generally as Vermont For
instance, we have to-day $40 town
ships with the identical old New En-
gland township government, the best
system of local self-government ever
devised by man. Only one township
has changed since the organization
of the state to city government, al
though several are larger than many
cities in other states, and have wise
ly, as | think, chosen to retain the
old system of town government as
long as practicable. Our other city,
as you know, was originally char
tered as such, soon after the Revo-
luton, and was organized and named
out Ofcompliment to our French al
lies and their great Minister, and as
a sample to show Boston and other
newer cities how they might manage
their affairs when they got too pop
ulOus for town government.
1t is to be noted, too, to the credit |
of our state, that we have withstood |
the temptations and dangers so fire.
quently resulting from the over
whelming concentration of political |
power in one party. We do not re-
quire the danger of defeat to insure |
good government. We have it be- |
cause the people believe in it and will |
have no other. We have had honest |
elections and no legislative scandals. |
We pay our debts, not from neces- |
sity, but because we believe in paying |
them. Besides the great war expen- |
SEES, that were common to other |
states, we paid our soldiers nearly |
two million dollars, in addition to |
their government pay; but yet the
state paid off its war obligations, |
and has been out of debt for a dozen |
years or more.
| believe that there is nota state
toward which the sentiment of loyal
ty and affection on the part of those
bred in the state who have sought |
homes elsewhere is so strong and
universal as it is with Vermonters. |
have had opportunity to learn of
this in meeting SO many Vermonters
who have settled in other sections of
the country This feeling is shown
by the remarkable success of Vermont
associations in the different cities,
and in SO many other ways that it is
certain there must be good ground
for this love for the state on the part
of her absent sons. They find on
it with other SectiOns that