Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-05-01
The St. Aibans Messengers Gratitude

One Of the most pitiable exhibitions
made by the st. Adams Messenger is its
effort to belittle the grand man who with
drew from the gubernatorial canvass in
1895 and made possible the nomination of
the Hon. +. c. Smith without opposition
for the high position to which he was sub
sequently elected. It is no secret that the
campaign Of Mr.. Smith was not par
ticularly encouraging when he and his
friends in conference received the an
nouncement of General McCulloughs
withdrawal from the field at that time.
General Mccullough enacted no promises
of support from Mr.. Smith in return for
his favor in giving his younger rival a
clear field at time when it was i'm
portant that Mr.. Smith should receive the
nomination. II he was ever to reach the
executive chair.
How has General McCullough's mag
unanimous action in that campaign been re-
ciprocated by the Messenger? The slogan
Of the neighbor has evidently been not
only anybody but also anything to beat
Mccullough. 1t was first for DR.. Webb and
then for Mr.. Proctor, swallowing in it's
support of the one candidate the argu-
ments it had used in support of the other,
and it has vaulted from one issue to an
other with as much ease to all appear
ances as 1t has juggled gubernatorial cam
ddates. 1t sought to belittle General Nc
Cullough by appealing to the official record
of the Senate of which he was a member,
,at IA 4, q,
presiding officer of that body, and when
the colleagues Of General Mccullough were
asked without reference to their attitude
toward the different candidates for gov
ernor to give an estimate of his services,
it endeavored by every means in its power
that request.
1t did not succeed in soaring any one of
them. and the Messenger, evidently as
Stunning that all the letters We could secure
had been published, tried to neutralize the
effect Of their publication. The neighbor
spoke too soon, however, for it must hear
the testimony of still others who served in
the Senate of which General Mccullough
was president pro tenn.
But the effort Of the Messenger to belittle
the record of General Mccullough is not the
only evidence Of petty smallness that it
has shown in the present campaign. When
General Mccullough stated frankly to va
rious individuals his belief that the pro-
Ihtitory law would stand because ma jor-
ity of the people of Vermont were in it's
favor, and his belief that the majirity
should rule, he left no doubt as to what his
norship. The Messenger. which has been
malignant in its opposition to the prohibit
tory law and in its advocacy of open sa-
looms for Vermont, Immediately raised its
voice in the cry that General Mccullough
had lodged the issue. evidently seeking to
clearly hated would be in danger if General
Mccullough We're elected.
In the intensity of its desire to cry down
q grand man who had shown he could be
generous to a foe, the Messenger evidently
forgot that it lived in a glass house. Be-
fore the Messenger which is temporarily
endeavoring to hide its bitter hatred of the
prohibitory law raises false cry of dodg-
ing, when man has told exactly what his
official course will be IL elected, let the
Messenger state how an inquiry regarding
the attitude of the two candidates for the
governorship in 1898 toward the prohibitory
law was treated. who answered that in
quiry and who lodged when E. Curtis
Smith was elected governor?