The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-05-25
The Lieutenant GOvernorship.

lie LIEUTENANT WORCESTERSHIRE
The candidature of DIR. H. d. Holton
of Brattleboro for the Office of lieuten-
ant governor is received with expires.
sions of favor and approval, by indi-
viduals and by the newspapers, that
are born of a recognition of the fact
that his nomination, in no conventional
sense, would be one "eminently fit to
be made" and of the further fact that
the times especially demand that the
State shall put forward for office the
men most competent to manage its af-
fairs. Since the divorce of the Office
from its late service as ladder by
which aspiring candidates climbed into
the governorship, the fear has been ex-
pressed that it would become prey to
men whose chief reason for being
placed in the executive Office of second
rank was their desire to bask in the
light of its honors and to acquire the
brevet title of governor. There has
been, also, an apprehension that the
Office would thus lose something of it's
proper dignity, and that its Importance,
in view of the possible succession of its
incumbent to the governorship, would
be moderated.
The nomination Of DIR. Holton would
be an all sufficient answer to sug-
gestions of this nature, and would
place an effective quietus upon all APP
prehensions of the kind in question.
1t would also become precedent, dis
tinctively established, for the guidance
of future conventions, for DR.. Holton
is qualified by his natural abilities, by
his experience in public affairs, by his
familiarity with the needs of the State,
by temperament and mental poise, by
travel and observation, by the practical
turn Of his nature, by his varied &C.
complishments, by the dignity and
purity of his character, to be the Gov.
ernor of the State. He is, withal,
man of the people, humane in all his
sympathies, man that inspires conf
dence and invites approach and candor
in counsel by the unaffected urbanity
of his manner.
DIR. Holton is practical man, prac-
tical in his ideas and his means for car
rying them out. He is man with con-
science, and he is man with backbone
and it is not bad idea to have in
Office a man of this stamp, in the emer-
gencies that will arise in the admins
tration of the State government In the
immediate future. Experience has
been admonishing this people that in
various departments Of administration
the weaknesses that creep into gov
eminent in times of profound quiet have
made some inroads here in Vermont.
In spite of warnings and protests, the
course Of legislation and administration
has sometimes been swerved from the
straight and narrow way a government
for the best interests Of all the people,
and for the best attainment of desirable
ends, should travel. A test has recently
been applied, in the summons of the
National government, and the end OF
the test is not yet. Reorganization, in
the light of developing experience,
must begin and proceed on practical
lines. Men of enlightened intelli-
geace, of broad views of things, I'M
hampered by personal or political
cliques or associations, competent to
judge, and free and independent in
their judgments, should be at the head
of the government.
Precisely of this character, pre-emi-
nently man for the times, is DR.. Hol-
ton. The United States will be fore
ed, by the logic of circumstances
and the pressure of events, into the
development, out of the existing con.
tention with Spain, of new National
policy; and Vermont, along with her
sister States, in this enlarged sphere of
National influence must bear her part,
so gloriously sustained in the past and
so brilliantly continued by her sons, in
Congress and on the seas, in the pend
ing National struggle. In the institu-
ton of the ways and means the State
must devise to meet it's new obligations,
the first requirement will be the selec-
ton of strong men for the executive
departments. A man will be nominat-
ed for Governor whose traditions, per-
sonal quality and experience are an
ample guaranty that, 80 far as depends