The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-08-01
ROPES. General Editor.
Call Him Out,

July OF tnat year, hon. hOSWel W. |
Horn of Michigan had made one of
the best campaign speeches ever heard,
to a packed assemblage in Trinity church
vestry, and had aroused the Republic
cans to the highest pitch of enthusi-
asm. Flags and banners had been CIV
en- to the breeze, rallies had been held
and Senator Edmunds had made
strong presentation of the issues of the
canvass at Waterbury.
AT the organization of Republican
club in this city, on the suggestion of
Hiram A Huse, Esq, an invitation was
given Hon. B. F. Fifield to address his
fellow citizens of this and neighboring
comm unities on the issues of the can
vass at such time as he might desig-
nate. Early in August Mr.. Fifeld
made, in Trinity vestry-which was
densely crowded on that occasion-an
address that struck the key note of the
campaign with such force and clearness
that it resounded throughout the re-
gions of the East and the West. The
political questions of that time, among
the gravest the American people had
ever had submitted to their considera-
ton and answer, involving the har-
vesting in their fullness and maturity
of the benefits to civil liberty of the
war of the rebellion, were discussed
with broadness of treatment that
was not surpassed, or rarely equalled,
throughout that very memorable can
vass. With incisive phrase and trench.
ant statement Mr.. Fifeld set forth the
dangers to the government involved in
the triumph of the Democratic party.
Said a prominent local Democrat, at
the close of Mr.. Fifleld's speech, Gun
less these arguments are successfully
answered, 1 shall vote for Garfield and
Arthur"
Well, the Democrats sent their heav-
lest artillery to Montpelier and into
Vermont to answer that speech. They
were peppering away at Mr.. Fifield's
structure of fact, deduction and argu-
ment all summer long. They raised
some dust but they never loosened a
stone. The rains of Democratic ora
tory descended and the floods of their
"answers" came, but Mr.. Fifield's fabric
stood, for it was founded on rock.
Demands for copies of the speech came
from all parts of the North and it was
one of the most extensively circulated
documents of the campaign.
A new and q most important era in
the national history has dawned. 1t
has revived old constitutional ques-
tions, and raised new ones both of the
Constitution and of policy. No man is
better qualified or more competent
than Mr.. Fifield to discuss, to illumin-
ate, these questions, or to instruct and
edify the people respecting the vital
issues of the pending canvass. There
is the question of the extension of the
Constitution to the new possessions,
the advantages or disadvantages that
come with the new acquisitions of ter
ritory, the whole broad subject of Sim
perialism," as it has come to be called,
tn ugh the term is woful misnom er
There is the matter of the Democratic
attack on the national judiciary and the
defiance of the federal authority under
the specious phrase denouncing ''gov-
eminent by injunction" There is the
financial issue, paramount by its own
potency. Why not call Mr.. Fiield out
to discuss these questions before the
voters of this and the other communities
of Central Vermont, as he did the is
sues that were dominant twenty years
agoP
Mr.. Fifeld has been always close
student and observer of public affairs.
He has kept abreast of the national
movement and has associated with men
eminent in national affairs. Through his
native abilities and his long training in
the law he is competent to discuss
great national questions exhaustively
and to come to right conclusions, now
as he was twenty years ago-and more
also. In recent years he has had the
leisure to read, study and observe. He
is out of politics. He is only an inter-
ested spectator of current personal
contentious. He is in a position to
speak with judicial force and impair
TALLY. Having close at hand man
of such ability and eminence why not
begin the campaign here in Montpelier
by inviting him to the "stump"? Mr..
Fifeld might not respond. The JOURNAL
does not know. 1t has never sounded
him on the subject. The Republican
city committee can ascertain.
The JOURNAL might amend the sub
ject of this article. 1t might more
properly read, "Call Them Out" There
is Dillingham;, and Ross, and Prouty