St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-07-04
THE STATE CONVENTION.
sTICKNEY AND ALLEN WERE
THE WINNERS.


mas a harmonious gathering and the
ooIv contest was over lieutenant-gov
.,or The convention was called to or
der by George H. Babbitt of Bellows
Falls. chairman Of the Republican State
committee. Prayer was offered by Rev
NJ Norman Seaver, of Montpelier AL
fred E, Watson, of Hartford, secretary Of
tbe committee read the call tor the con
,ention Mr.. Babbitt announced as n
+emnorarv organization Alex Dunnett oil
Ct Iohnsbury as chairman, with E. 7.
Parsons OF Island Pond as secretary and
T W. Sault Of Vergennes and Charles
Ratchelder of White River Junction assis.
+ant secretaries. Mr.. Dunnett was
warmly applauded as he stepped upon
the platform and he addressed the con-
vention as follows:
~ thank you for the honor of being called
IN preside briefly over your deliberations.
The business of this meeting is to name can
didates for our various State Offices. Itgoes
without my saying it that they will be good
ones and entitled to receive every republican
cote Except for the larger purpose of ex-
pressing our feelings on national issues in the
peamnaign which is to follow, we might as
well ask the secretary to cast the ballot for
the State
PARTY politics is and from my earliest re-
membrance has been of two classes, con-
structiye and destructive-one party trying
TO do something, the other to prevent It,
The constructive party designs and executes,
thinks and acts against the opposition OF the
other The democratic party of our time
holds the unique dis inction of being under
all circumstances and conditions the destruc-
five party. Their construction is destruc-
ton Buchanan in go turned the govern
ment over to Lincoln with a bankrupt treas
ury and the bulk of its military equipments
In the hands OF its organized enemies. Cleve-
land was deprived of the opportunity to de-
stroY it in his first term by a republican on
gress; but, in his second administration the
party came into full power and to those
whose memories are four years long, | need
not recount the Egyptian darkness and
gloom which settled on the finances the in
dustries, the labor and people OF this coun-
try; how money went into hiding; banks
instead OF fostering industries, struggled for
their own existence, business stopped, indus
try ceased and labor looked in vain for work
This soup house period OF our history is too
fresh in your memories to require lengthy re-
hearsal. What a sickness that wasl 1t
arose from free trade, and was rendered
more acute by uncertainty about the cur
rency. The goYernm ent was borrower at
high rate. Everyone who was trying to
do business WanICu 10 DOT1OW, ana no one
dared to lend. The democrats discovered
that the country was sick. violently sick
strong remedy was needed. They pre-
scrbed tree silver in the ratio of 6 to 1 and
no change in the tariff. 1t is almost a won
der the people did not take it. They were in
that advanced stage of sickness when folks
are usually ready to take any kind of quack
medicine but they did not. There are two
chief reasons why they did not
First-They thought it was dishonest. 1t
F.f La 6
our institutions that the body of our people
are honest; and beyond that they are filled
with a notion iustilled into them from child
hood that honesty is the best policy" and
that all schemes and theories based on dis
honesty work ruin in he end.
Second-They could remember back four
years, when times were different, when the
republicans were in power, when the McKin-
ley tariff law was in force.
And, as the prodigal son left his husks and
went back to his father so the American
people forsook all democratic schemes and
went back to republicanism and Mckinley
ism They voted for sound money, all meas
ured by its worth in gold, and tariff framed
in the interest of our own industries, The
will of the people has been coined into law
money has returned into circulation; bust
ness is again under way: banking is in its
normal condition labor is employed at re-
muneratiYe wages, and plenty fills the place
OF want. Nobody wants another free trade
tariff We have all had our vacation, and
very few want free silver. There is rather
more currency now than there is market for,
currency that is good around the world.
The questions hich now n ore sharply di-
vide the people grow out of things not in ex
istence at our last election. They relate to
our newly acquired territory. II you hear
anyone talking about anti expansion or an
ti.imperialism, do not waste your time listen
ing to him He is back number. We have
already expanded. The expansion question
respecting the Philippines is just as dead as
the same question regarding Florida. Louis
lana, California or Alaska. All that remains
is the question of how we shall govern it.
We propose to govern 1t by using the native
inhabitants and institutions, and making the
people as far as possible selt-governing; but
to maintain law and protect life and prop
erty at all hazards. The democracy say we
should withdraw our army at once. Inc
chief object of our forces to-day is to protect
the people there from the guerillas left from
Aguinaldos rebellion. The mere statement
of the proposition that this government
should withdraw its forces and leave tie
peareable and helpless people to the mercy
OF the armed desperadoes is sufficient to re-
tute it. But they say again they want to be
IN power so they can extend greater liberties
70 these Ieope. Their souls yearn tor the
FilipinOs. They chung to slavery and the
right to extend it until they exhausted the
strength, means and life of the government.
They have stood and now stand openly and
bodily for the doctrine that this is white
mans country, and not black mans,
and to this very moment they are
enacting laws which go clear up to,
II they do not trench upon, the cons itutional
limitations in their efforts to disfranchise the
colored men of the South And yet they
claim they want to give us lessons in human
liberty venture the suggestion that Yer
mont republicans do not want any lessons
IRON them When Vermonters would learn
lessons of liberty they go to their own state
constitution and read in it the first constitu-
la sNEc 1nN
Bennington and behold the grandest monu-
ment Of the revolution, a tribute to the
struggle of their fathers for liberty. They go
tc the national cemetery and look at the
graves OF thousands of her sons who died
battling for liberty. They look at their own
green hills where liberty seeps. They need
no instruction from the democratic party.
The republican party with which Vermont
mas been allied from it's formation in 1856,
was born in the interest of e. eater liberty,
and stood in SO and go against the expan-
SION OF slave territory. In 1868 under her
administration the millions of bondsmen in
Inc South were made free After the war it
procured the constitutional amendment for
ever prohibiting slavery; and down to the
present time it is I he only political organiza-
uon in the land which has made any efforts
10 secure to our colored people the full
measure of their rights. In the administers
uoh Which is now nearing its close it inaugu-
rated and carried through the policy which
released the West Indies and the Philippines
rom Spanish tyranny, and replaced the
royal banner of Spain with the stars and
stripes of our great republic. The glory of
the party, that which will cause its name to
Snlne in all historic time on the pag's OF
history is the mighty work it has done for
human liberty. Can we not trust it to light
me lamps of liberty in our new possessions
We glory in the mighty record OF the past
me names of our leaders, from Lincoln
through Grant and Hayes, Garfield and Har-
Ilson to William Mckinley, summon before
us the mighty events of forty years which
nave moved the star of empire westward
rom our mother land until it is rapidly
ttsing to its zenith over our republic. Yet
the World stirring events of the administra-
tlon SO soon to close are replete with the