Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1895-08-15
The Rutland HcraId's Libel of Gov.
Woodbury..

y ST. JohnSbury hOtel-kceper. who had
sold liquor for over twenty years and
made a good deal of money by the illegal
traffic, whose bar or drinking place in his
hotel was considered by "A large proper
ton of the best citizens to be a serious
damage to the morals of the town, and of
whom an upright judge had said that he
had sentenced more than "a score of men
for crimes committed under the influence
Of liquor sold at that place, was prosecut-
ed, plead guilty to a number of offences
and was duly sentenced. For refusing to
pardon this confessed criminal Gov.
Woodbury. was bitterly attacked by the
Rutland Herald. That paper asserted that
the governor as the owner of the Van
Ness House, was himself a rumseller
and guilty of the precise crime for which
the ST. Johnsbury hotel-keeper was sent to
the House Of Correction. The daily papers
of this city, one of which is not under
stood TO bc friendly to the prohibitory law
pronounced the Herald's statement false
and libelous. They informed the Herald
and the public that liquor was not sold
in the Van Ness House, and never had
been since Governor Woodbury. had owned
it; that he had violated no law. and that
he had never derived any profit. directly
or indirectly, from the sale of rum
These dcnials We're made by the Herald
the occasion to repeat its libel, in even
more offensive form. Its editor, as it's col
umns show, sent some drinking persons
to Burlington to obtain if possible some
evidence of violation of the law on the
part Of the Van Ness House or to procure
some violation of the law, which should
M 'ica'c tho owner of the propertv
Failing IN that part of their mission, the
"p!os sent out messengers who obtained
'or them Whiskcy in bottles, which they
drank in thoir private rooms. The Herald
saw lit to consider this to he proof that
the governor was a rumscllcr 1t averrea
that his hotel, and so he himself was
selling liquor in the ordinary way"
straight along. days and nights and
Sundays, week after week and year after
year. 1t declared in substance that the
governor of Vermont was a criminal and
ought to be in prison. 1t said in so many
words: Landlord Howe sold rum, Land
lord Woodbury. did the same thing. Land
lord Howe, to put it in prohibitionist
of them himself. The same thing was
true of Gov Woodbury..
Rumsellor Howe has gone out of business
as landlord and is in prison. Rumseller
Woodbury. continues in business and is
governor of the State of Vermont"
If this SANDER had been confined to the
state of Vermont the governor would
undoubtedly have permitted it to go UNI
noticed. He must know that no ntelli-
gent person in Vermont believes any
statement because it has been made in
the Rutland Herald and that so far as
Nermonters are concerned no man can be
damaged by anything from that source,
except its praise and he could have safely
lett his untarnished reputation as law
abiding citizen, a faithful magistrate and
a Christian man to take care of itself.
But the thing has gone far beyond the
confines of Vermont. The Springfield Re
publican, in a column editorial, headed
Gov Woodbury. as a Rumseller," re-
produced the Heralds libel The New
York Evening Post. the Hartford Courant,
and other journals of large circulation
gave stlll wider currency to the SANDER,
in communities where the character of the
Herald as a mud-geyser is unknown and
to the damage of the good name of Gov.
Woodbury., and of the fair fame of the
State of which he is the chief magistrate.
He could not see it to be his duty, either
for his own sake or that of the State, to
permit the SANDER to SO uncontradcted.
He accordingly on Wednesday last ad-
dressed TO the Herald the following
letter;