The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1898-03-25
VIII Vermont Repeat an Errorq

In 1872, blinded of it's better purpose by
the puerile cry that man who had resid-
ed in Vermont for five years was not real
ly Vermonter, because he had business
interests in New York, in her state con-
lion, by majority of one vote, the
Green Mountain commonwealth turned
down one of the greatest men her borders
ever held-Frederick Billings-and has
ever after repented in sackcloth and ashes
the folly of her deed. Gladly later would
she have atOned for her blunder; but men
of that caliber seldom submit the second
time to the chances of modification in de-
feat. In the coming gubernatorial contest
Vermont is asked by some to repeat her
error of 1872 by the same asSinine plea,
raised against a man who for twenty-five
wears has been a resident in and a voter
in the state; who in business affairs is
connected with very many of her financial,
manufacturing and railroad interests;
who has in the last quarter of a century
paid no taxes on personal property other
wise than in Vermont; who has twice
represented her in national conventions;
who is more familiar with her state his
tory, early and late, her varied resources,
interests and possibilities than almost
any other man within her borders. Will
she repeat her blunder of 1872 and turn
him down to please the ambition of other
men? The coming state convention will
determine that question, and will deter
mine it as the people by their interest and
attendance at the caucuses for delegates
give or withhold honest expression of her
thought. For the primaries in Vermont
really constitute the election. Cen John
q. Mccullough of Bennington, who by the
earnest opportunities of his aCGuaintances
who have mark I'd his abilities, will be pre-
scented at the next convention as candi-
date for governor, was born in Newark,
Del. Losing by death his father at the
e 1Atl hon oh
crippled by meager educational advant-
ages and handicapped with a naturally
slender physical constitution, he might
well have yielded to unpromiSng sur
rOundings and given up the purpose to
make mark for himself in the world;
but his vigorous mentality, his greed for
knowledge for the sake of knowledge,
pressed him to another course, and at the
age of twenty we find him graduating from
Delaware College with high honors. From
the college he went to the Office of Saint
George Tucker Campbell in Philadelphia
and entered upon the study of law. While
pursuing his studies here he also attended
the University of Pennsylvania and re-
ceved at it's hands the degree of LII. b.
He was admitted to the bar in 1859, but
intense and mental application had
wrought its work upon his physical
strength, and he was advised that the on
ly way for him to avoid that dread disease
consumption, was to seek mllder climate
and he removed to California, going first
to San Francisco, then to Sacramento;
but the climate of these two being too
vigorous he removed to MaripoSa, and
here, at the beginning of the war, we find
a young lawyer with slender health and
no influential friends to push him toward
distinction. At this time Gen. Albert Sid
ney Johnston was in command of that de-
partment. An ardent secessionist, he had
by himself and his under officers who
sympathized with him, carefully inculca-
ted in the minds of its people the idea OF
withholding from the national govern
ment their aid, suffering the North and
the South to fight out the contest for
themselves, while they of that region,
without blOodshed or financial effort,
should build up a third and independent
republic upon the Pacific coast. The au-
thorities at Washington getting intOrma-
ton of this scheme, quietly sent Gen.
Sumner to suppant him, and Johnston,
with the officers in sympathy with him,
fled across the country and joined their
fortunes to the then rising Southern Con,
federaCy. But the impress of their teach+
ing had found Judgment among the people
of the state, and Gen. Sumner, who wassa
good judge of men, called to his aid uf7s-
energy, eloquence and patriotism of young
Mccullough, with the result that CalifOr
MIA became and was thereafter Steadfast
to the Union through all the subsequent
years of carnage. The value of Gen. Nc
Cullough's service to the nation at this
crisis can hardly be realized to-day, when
more than thirty years have passed. Cali
fornia recognized it then by electing him.
young as he was, a state senator, and then
making him attorney general. After his
term as attorney general he gave up polit
ical life in California, removing to San
Francisco, became the head of law firm
ipI hoH 10 ppn1 mo nfI N