The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-08-09
ARTHUR ROPES. General Editor.
Some of the Consequences of rlattery.

Free Press patronizing reference to
the Herald as one of the newspapers of
the west side that must be comprised
in "the only" list that shall give "the
fullest possible Indication of the set of
the current" over there. So the Jester
launched out into an editorial article
of about a columns length, on State
politics, which was intended to be Sc
rious but was in fact more ludicrous
than some of his very foolish squibs on
men and affairs of Vermont.
The purpose of the jester, become
serious and setting up as an indicator
of the direction the current of public
opinion is streaming, was to show that
G. s. Page of Hyde Park is unpopular,
and in proof cites the election figures
of 1890, when Page was the Republi-
can candidate for Governor. This was
piece of folly that professional fool
ought to have avoided, and its folly is
all the more conspicuous from the cir
cumstance that the jester, having been
given a character for sense and sobri-
ETY. by his rival, was trying to play his
new and unaccustomed role. Probably
the Herald man is the only person in
all the world who would have conceived
the idea of Pages unpopularity, and
would seek to verify the conception by
the figures of the State election of 1890.
This effort of the licensed joker in
his role of the man of wisdom has its
really serious as well as its really funny
side, but where he intended to be seri-
Gus he is funny, and where he sought
to be funny the consequences are real
ly serious for him, or the interest he
personally represents. Taking some
part and interest in the hot canvass of
1890, this paper retains some impress
sion of the incidents and circumstances
of the campaign and of the times sue
ceeding. The bitterness of the clash
of personal ambitions was turned to
amity and sweetness. Mr.. Pages
most determined opponents became his
most devoted friends,-that is, those
who used sense and reason-and his
most earnest supporters were subse-
quently among COL Woodbury's fore
most champions. Gov. Page vacated
the Office of Governor with stronger
following than many men who have
entered the Chief Executive Office
without opposition, and his great popu-
larity at the close of his term was the
evidence of signal triumph over very
adverse conditions. The measure of
Mr.. Pages popularity is to be found,
not in the election figures of heated
personal contest in the relaxations of the
"off year" of Vermont politics, but in
the general estimation in which he was
held at the end of his official term, and
has since been held.
This much may properly be said in
vindication of the truth of history from
the whiting or unwilling aspersions of
folly. How serious are the consequent
ces of folly, unbridled, Judge Powers
may realize should an analysis of the
election figures of 1890, to which the
jester of the tombstone city daily has
appealed, be made. Should the student
of political facts examine the election
returns of the period, and discover that
in 18S8-year of national election-in st.
Adams, for example, Dillingham-Page's
immediate predecessor received
majority of 444 votes, and that Pages
majority in 1S90-the "off year''-was
1926; should he find that Morristown
gave Dillingham; 269 majority, but that
in 1890, the year of Pages candidacy,
this Republican majority was turned to
a majority of SO for Brigham, the Dem
ocratic candidate for Governor, indica-
ting change of 1872 votes to the Dem
ocratic party,-should facts of this
character appear in an analysis of cleo
ton returns of the period, what might
the conclusion be? In st. Albans, j.
Gregory Smith, an Ex-Governor of the
State, had been opposed to- Pages can
didacy. Loyal to his party, his fight
ended when Page was nominated.
Hence the practically undiminished
Republican majority in that town in
1890. In Morristown resides H. Henry
Powers, the Republican nominee for
Representative in Congress in 1890,
who, also, was opposed to Pages
candidacy. Did the judges opposi-
ton cease with Pages nomination.
Contelnporaneous history makes him
responsible for that Democratic ma
jority in 1890, and the wiping out of
the Republican majority of 269 at the
election of 1883.
The Herald does not seem to have
been altogether happy in its reference
to the election figures of 1890. The
jester should stick to his cap and bells,