St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-10-30
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMo."
(Copyrighted.)

arrangements with the author for their ex-
elusive pubication)
Already the earth is trembling with
the tread OF the armies that shall do bat
tie on Tuesday next. The hush of ex-
pectancy is over hearts and homes, not
knowing how the conflict will turn.
Look backward moment. The men
of &c batted for principle with scythes
and swords and fintlocks through bloody
ambuscades and retreats; winning by
defeat, and at last victorious at York
town. The men of '61 faithful until
death to their respective sides, drenched
the earth with the crimson tide of life at
the shrll call of the MIME bullet and the
shrek of the cruel shell.
And we OF 90? We will march into
the hercest political fight in 35 years
armed with ballots and nothing else. The
millions ranged on each side will advance
or retreat, triumph or bow defeated at
the behest of particles of paper noise
lessly directed to their errand by the will
OF freemen. Dead indeed must be his
imagination who is not thrilled by the
silent mightiness of the vote of the in
telIigent majority to overturn or up
build, to change the current of thought
or TO stem it. Such hexibility OF govern
ment is the perfection of civilization; a
crown of humane glory to a dying CEN
fury.
Then cursed be the men on either side
who, on platform or in private, talk
"lorce" and resistance. They would
turn back the hands of Time one hundred
years and make our country's sun set at
the end of a glorious century in murky
clouds of darkness, greed, hate, strife,
sectionalsm. They are fit comrades for
the blood.mad sans cuottes ofthe French
Revolution; they are unfit sharers in the
benign influences of our lree-wil govern
ment. Out upon these hends Ours is a
commonwealth of brains and conscience
and not of brute force, like the bastard
republics OF Central America. Their
constant turmoil of contending parties,
now in power and tyrannous, and again
out of power and outlawed, has as yet
no counterpart with us, blessed be the
God who helps the nation that helps it.
self Infinitely more safeis our president,
entrenched behind the suffrages of ma
jority of sovereign people, than any
fierce chieftain sustained in his despotism
by myriad soldiers.
These things of peace like sunshine
after storm, are ours to possess because
of those who wrought that we might in.
herit, and bled that we need not bleed.
Their physical contests, their wars, their
struggles, have built up an empire OF
freemen, vast non-mlitary nation,
seeking its highest development along
paths OF gentleness and peace. All that
they gained for us shall not be thrown to
the winds by those whose ideas of pat
rlotism are wrapped up in violence in
stead OF actual essentials like the purity,
honesty, and industry of the citizen, and
obedience by all to law and the repre-
sentatives who express the will of the
people.
Should Tuesday defeat your plans and
purposes, your line of action is clear
Work for majority next time" Rec
ognize the absurdity of force. Killing a
man does not make him agree with you.
To knock him down is very poor argu.
ment, and frightful commentary on
your own narrowness. Why narrow
ness? Because the man who expects all
Others to agree with him displays total
ignorance and misconception of what
a popular government is. In running so
vast a machine as ours opinions must
differ as to what is best to be done; they
always will differ and change more or
less and it is well that they should,
because the nation that lives grows, and
growth causes change, and change
causes new measures and a constant
re-alignnent Of political opinion.
You and and thousands besides must
climb up to higher plane of politics.
Then when we are high enough to look
over our neighbors' fences, to our aston
ishment we may find that he feels Just as
patriotic as we do and he probably is,
from his point of view. II you live in a
valley you do not get the view of your
sell that is visible from the towering
mass above; if you dwell on the hillside
the valley below is what you see. Yet
both hill and valley are there and both
are parts OF the eternal truth ofnature.
So the man who differs from you in poll.