The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-10-28
HO, All to the Borders, VermOnters,
Come Down!

On Tuesday, September /, the voters
of Vermont, the advanced guard of the
political forces allied for the main
tenauce of the national constitutional
authority and the preservation of the
national honor, had brush with the
motley cohorts mustered under the
black banner Of reputation and the red
standard of anarchy. The result of the
encounter was an inspiring victory.
The national ensign was full high ad-
vanced." Nota stripe was erased, and
an unwonted light streamed from every
point of the g Pole Star of Freedom -
the sign and promise of greater
triumph when the main armies shall be
marshaled on the national field under
the November sky.
Vermont's magnificent majority of
nearly $4,000 in September for the ma
tional cause decided the issue of the
national election in November. From
that day, and from that other day when
the Pine Tree State gloriously followed
the lead of her Green Mountain sister,
the only question was, What will be
the size of the majority for Mckinley
and Hobart? What will that majority
be, not only in the electoral college,
but in that wider arena in which can
didates for the presidency less fire.
quently triumph, the popular vote?
Vermont by taking thought thereto
may not add one vote to the electoral
majority, but there is left from her
total vote a margin wide enough to fur
nish several thousand to the majority
by which the people shall express and
emphasize their condemnation of the
consorted infamies of populism and an
archy.
From the day when Vermont and
Maine spoke, the national cause has
steadily advanced. The pilgrims to
Canton have carried with them, in a
steadily. swelling volume, the evidences
of mighty popular uprising. The linn
its that conservative judgment had fixed
for the victory have been again and
again enlarged, as the tidings from the
great battle-ground of the canvass have
settled the doubts as to state after state
and added it to the frightening column
of those states in which the triumph of
the vote for sound finance and the ma
tonal honor is assured. At first 270
electoral votes, or 46 more than ma
jority, was the maximum claim of the
national leaders. Then the reports
justified the claim that 302 electors will
follow the die ates of honor and pa
triotism, and now it is confidently ex-
pected that 1926, with a possible addi-
ton of Al more, will be the measure of
the loyalty of the American people, as
shown by the votes of their electors, to
the fundamental principles of their
government, and their determination
that those principles shall not be re-
moved from their rock foundation to a
foundation of shifting and treacherous
sand.
Vermont cannot contribute more
than her four votes TO the enlargement
of the majority for the national cause
in the electoral college. To the SWELL
ing of the popular majority her posi-
bilities are limited only by the number
of her legal voters. 1t was clear that
party lines were broken in the Septem-
Der election. The patriotism of Phelps,
and thousands of others, rose sublimely
above partisanship. Then was the
time for patriotic Vermonters, regard
less of political associations, to write
their message to their fellow-citiz ms
on the clouds, aud they did it. That
message was read and fervently inter-
preted to the utmost bounds of the re-
public. We see the results to-day in
the indubitable signs of the welded
union of all patriotic citizens, strong as
that feeling that bound all the North to-
gether when the flag was fred on at
Sumter. Why should there be, on
November Sd, any division among
Vermont voters? Why should not that
unity that made Vermont victorious
when environed with foes and men
aced by the Continental Congress pre-
vail on election day? Bryan, or Bry-
anism, is greater menace to Vermont
to-day than were the hated "Yorkers "
or the agents of the states on her Dor
ders, at Philadelphia, century and 6
quarter ago. In those times, when
their interests were imperiled, Yer
monters swarmed to the borders under
their leaders-and life was not worth
living to the mountaineer who heard
the summons to defense and needed il
not. Vermont, Freedom and UNITY
the legend that illustrates her arms
Uas horn in the heroic neriod of III,