The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-08-20
\ SQUEEZED ORANGE.

The lesson to be drawn from the ex-
posture of Clements methods in Or
ange, how Republican caucuses for
the election of delegates to the State
convention were carried 10y the votes
of Democrats, how bribery was made
and how in some instances money
offered for votes was spurned, is OBJ
vious.
In his speech to his followers in
Burlington, July 1G, with brutal di-
rectness Mr. Clement charged Gen.
Mccullough with bribery, and charg-
ed that his nomination was the fruit
of bribery; by reason of such bribery
he, Clement, had been defrauded of
many delegates to the Republican
State convention, and the inference
was plain, if the assertion was not
direct, that he had been defeated be-
cause of Mccullough corrupt use of
money in the pre- convention canvass.
With beastly emphasis Clement reiter-
ated his charges. The grosser his
language, the coarser his defamation
of Mccullough personally, the louder
and ~sore fervent the plaudits of his
hearers.
The millennium, unhappily, has not
yet dawned, neither III politics nor in
religion. The fountain rises not
above its source, neither in physics
nor III morals. There are black sheep
in church and state, in business and
financial congregations. The black
sheep cannot, or are not apt to, change
their color when they enter the white
fiocks cropping the heritage in the
pastures of politics. Has there been,
i'll the century past, political cam
paign III Vermont or any other State,
or national canvass, during which
somewhere in the broad domain of
political activity some wicked things
may not have been attempted, or clear
ly have been done: Because one mem
Der of his flock falls from grace is his
| pastor to be charged with infidelity
Is the pastor necessarily and therefor
untrue? Because some too Jealous,
some injudicious, or some straight
out and willful political sinner,
with the promise of glass of rum,
or the payment of sum of money
small or large-buys mans vote
is the candidate in.whose behalf such
sin is done necessarily guilty?
In making at Burlington his charges
of bribery, which he is repeating all
about the State, Mr.. Clement held
Gen. Mccullough personally cognizant
of and directly responsible for the al
legations of bribery he was making
Even if any or all his charges were
true, Mr.. Clement knew as we'll as he
knew anything that Gen. Mccullough
was unknowing to the acts alleged
Clement was well acquainted will
Mccullough, he knew his high integ
rity, the purity of his personal char
acter; he knew he was incapable OF
ordering or approving bribery in an,
form he knew if the bribery agains
which he was inveighing-if it ha,
been done-must have been with
out the knowledge, intent or ap
proval of Gen. Mccullough, directl
or indirectly. He knew as well as h
knew anything that the circumstance
on which he was basing his infamou
>
regrettable incidents of the canvass
and he knew-or might have known
that before him were followers of hi
banner who may have been, in hi
interests, doing the things he wa
denouncing
No one believes that Clement Ina
directed his agents to buy votes {
has winked at such purchase if it Ia
been done without his knowledg,
The trouble with Mr.. Clement is tha
he has not been willing to acknov
ledge that any candidate is liable I
be misrepresented by some of his SUI
porters that in some communitie
or among some men, political moralit
may be on the same low plane
other moralities; that in such con
munities, or among such men, mo
ality in hot political contest is N
likely to rise above its plane in 9th,
affairs.
In consequence, in his intensely hol
er-than-thou campaign, like Hump
Dumpty, Clement has had a great ia