The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1904-03-24
THE GOVERNORSHIP.

not the oldest, many OF the old politi-
oians-the old rounders" recall
not biennial spring when, long be-
fore the last Of March, the frost was
not out of the political soil, the
streams free of ice, vegetation we'll
advanced, the lilies and lilscs of pol
iticsl aspiration budding or in full
bloom, and the larks soaring high in
the armament. But tie calendar
seems likely to record six weeks of
winter for the first month of spring,
and State politics is equally dilatory
in getting out of winter quarters. A
misguided robin, here and there, pipes
a thin and uncertain note that con-
geals in his throat but the political
public refuses to turn down its collar,
much less to take off its winter over
coat
The cawing of bird of sable plum
age, which mas winged its flight
from the tree tops of the Rutland
woods, has been heard in the land,
the most significant, and somewhat
omiuous harbinger of the advance of
the political season Tie eastside
husbandmen, in particular, have their
minds on their crop prospects Will
they dare to pillow and manure their
fields and plant them with corn with
out reckoning with this bird of i'll
omen which So early in the season
or out of season-is off his perch to
view the landscape DER? Is there
enough of terror in the mountain
rule, set up as scarecrow in their
preserves, to keep this menace at
wholesome distance? Or, if they
should plant their grain, when it is
sprouting in the mold warmed by the
rays of solar partisanship, not deferred
by the threatening attitude of the
piebald man of rags and his wooden
gun, will this defiant apparition from
the westside groves swoop down and
despoil their incipient harvest?
Verify political farming, also, hath
Its anxieties.
Some years ago, the momentous
issue in State politics was promo
ton To be, or not to be, lieuten-
ant governor, and then Governor, that
was the question. TO be- had long
been the reply. The people waxed
angry thereat, and their wrath
gathered strength and force and took
on direction. In the State conven-
tion of 1886, a candidate for the office
of lieutenant governor, by dexterous
Vancouver in the convention, snatched
his nomination from rival aspirant
This candidates spokesman pledged
the delegates-and through them the
people-that his man, if nominated,
would not use his Office as scaling
ladder to break into the Chief Exec
utive chamber. This act of self abne-
CATION was greeted with wild APP
plause, and the candidate was chosen
hands down. Four years later, in
1890, the skirmIsh in convention over
this issue became a general action be-
fore the people 1t vas a battle of
unprecedented severity. The whole
oVhtC ICoOuHucu WIN tu6 uiu VI IIt
conflict, and delegates made forced
marches by night to be in at the finish.
Promotion" went down in signal
defeat, Not to be, has since been
the paramount rule of party action.
Times change and men change with
them. One may be less particular
about his beliefs when he is not per-
sonally or Immediately affected or in
convenienced by them. One might be
justified in changing his opinion under
changed conditions. For example,
he who in 1890 subscribed to this prop
osition:
| believe the custom of immedi-
ately promoting lieutenant governors
to be Governors, which prevailed in
our State from 1876 till broken by the
State convention of 1886. is unwise !;
and / am opposed to return thereto
by the nominating conventions of the
Republican party,
one, we say, who, in 1890, sub
scribed to the foregoing proposition,
and ardently contended for its adop-
ton, under changed conditions of men
and localities-and personal ambition
might persuade himself that, while
non-promotion was good law and
doctrine to lay down tor the guidance
of Ohittenden county candidate, half
a generation ago, it was a poor rule
and worse doctrine to apply to him
self, in 1904. He might reason, also,
that the statute of limitations had run
on the announcement of 1890 This,
if true, might satisfy legal obliga-
ton, but would it silence conscience
and reconcile consistency? But, in
practice, the proposition that won be.
fore the people in 1890 has since been
re-affirmed biennially. 1t has had
willing acquiesoenoe. On what ground
do the persons Immediately interested
propose to have the conclusion OF
1890 upset