The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-05-14
For her editorial articles see page three
AN OLD HOME WEEK IDEA.

Tie st. Adams Messenger is some.
what strenuously calling for observ-
ance # Old Home Week in that local |
ity ard in the State at large. 1t
would appear to be best to defer the
adoption of any plan for this celebra-
ton aud the sending out invitations to
exiled sons or daughters of Vermont
until after the nineteenth of June.
AT that time it will be known
whether or not the self eXpatriated
Sons who have been-or now are-the
representatives of their adopted fellow
citizens in State legislatures, their
Governors and judges of their courts,
the mayors of their cities, their Sen
ators and Representatives in the Con-
gress of the United States-a large
and distinguished throng will be
willing to come here as guests of a
people in the State of their birth-al-
belt their native State-which denies
to an eminent adopted citizen, resi-
dent for a generation, one of the UNI
alionable rights of citizenship, the
right to hold the office of Governor.
The States of their adoption have thus
distinguished these former Vermont
ers; some Vermonters abiding at home
are proposing to deny similar dis
tinction to one of the States adopted
sons, and to make it a precedent for
the guidance of future generations.
Could Vermonters, without blush,
ask these adopted children of other
States to come home and be witnesses
to the narrow, proscriptive spirit
prevailing here in such unenviable
and injurious contrast with the broad
and liberal spirit and practice in the
States of their adoption? Had a bright
child of Illinois, for example, come
from Chicago to st. Adams to make
Vermont his home and were he can
didate for the office, and the voters of
the first district should say, No, we
can't send you to represent us i'll Con-
gress. The Vermont Idea forbids.
We must have for Representative man
born among these hills, whose eyes,
from birth to manhood, have been
lifted up to their SUBMITS and from
them gathered their strength
and so on, vide the st. Adams Mes
senger's evolution of the great Idea,
to cover its sudden shift from Webb
and license to Proctor and prohibition
This is one side of the case. Here
II. Il. -
went from st. Adams to Chicago.
For several terms he has represented
the seventh congressional district of
Illinois, which includes part of the
city of Chicago and some of its en-
virons Under the circumstances at
tending the invention and exploiting
of the Messengers duplex, emergency
Vermont Idea, what might George
Edmund Foss, Representative in Con-
gress from the State of Illinois and
chairman of the naval committee, in
vited to return to the place of his
birth and former residence, think of
his hosts among whom was conceived
the Idea" which was the original
basis of the opposition to Gen. Nc
Cullough? Wouldn't he think it was
a mighty small, narrow, contracted,
retrogressive Idea? Wouldn't the |
inventor grow very small indeed un-
der Foss' scathing rebuke of the spirit |
that conceived it, and smaller still |
under his denunciation of the spirit |
and manner of its application to the |
distinguished object of its enforce
ment? Wouldn' the Honorable George |
Edmund Foss be able to see that, if he |
were to return to the shadows of these |
green hills which have bred and nour- |
ished such a fungus, he would him
self become it's victim when it might |
be proposed to make him Governor, or |
to send him to Congress? What |
chance would he have against the |
native born, all the year round, teth- |
cred to the soil Vermonter, who never !
went out to abide in Illinois, who |
didn't "have to prove that he was a |
Vermonter" still, who found Yer
mont "good enough for him" and |
here had vegetated all his life time
Charming prospect for wandering |
sheep returning to the native fold In
viting outlook for the stranger to come
within the gates and make his home
on the fairest piece of real estate
Gods sun shines upon Prescription,
gibe and sheer and maltreatment
The case of George Edmund Foss is
one of thousand, more or less. 1t
would not gain strength by further
illustration, by again citing exam
pies from the career of the late Presi-
dent Arthur, of vice president Nor
ton, of Governor and now Secretary
Shaw, ex-senator John M. Thurston
and so on, quite to infinity.
Verify, the vermont Idea" was a
brilliant conception; but before some