St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1904-06-29

III
nent exceptions we may have to make it
is true that character never counted for
more in public life than it does today;
that the civic conscience was never more
sensitive to the needs of the hour than it
is now; that the possibility of conducting
the affairs of state on a sound business
basis was never nearer its realization,
in many common wea1ths, than now.
1t remains for good men everywhere to
seize the vantage ground already gained
and to build a fortress thereon that
shall be impregnable against all the
assaults of the unprincipled politicians
who boast, by their actions and some
times by their words, that they are in
politics for what they can get out of it
tor their personal advantage.
There is today trio of public officials
in our land whose names have been
prominently before the country for many
months. Since they represent different
shades of political belief, it may be
proper to call your attention to them in
connection with the subject before us. tor
they each staud-in the very prime OF
his splendid manhood-for high and
noble ideals; for honor, justice and
righteousness in public as well as in
private life. The hope of our nation
rests in such men as these and while they
are still living and fighting our battles
they should have accorded to them the
hearty sympathy and support of every
good citizen.
1 do not mean that they are ready to
be canonized as political saints; do not
mean to imply that they are free from
faults, nor do / mean to approve of all
their actions; but I do mean to affirm
that in the face of tremendous opposi-
ton, largely within their own political
ranks, they are doing most heroic, a
most patriotic, most magnificent
and in their seeking to raise the stand.
ard of public service; and if they are sus-
tanned as they should be in their lauda-
BILE endeavors, a bright and glorious day
ls soon to dawn upon our national life,
and the ideals which we have tried to
hold before you this evening will come
nearer to being realized.
One of this trio, is the sturdy, uncom-
promising hero of the Exposition city,
who seems destined to grace the guber
material chair OF that great state, borne
triumphantly thither by the enthusiastic
vote OF her best citizens, irrespective of
party.
The second is that fiery, undaunted,
high-nlinded district attorney of our
great metropolis, who entered upon his
office three years ago with the avOwed
purpose of making himself the servant
of the common people who most needed
his service, and who has so well sus-
tanned himself in that Office, so placed
himself within the reach of the most
oppressed classes that justice, though
not yet supreme, is more faithfully and
impartialy melted out in that great
cosmopolitan city. than it has been for
decades.
And the third, is he who has for many
years been the enigma and the bette noire
of the machine and spoils politician,
whom they sought to S1detrack, only to
hasten his political ascendency, and who
now seems destined to break all prece-
dents in the history of vice-presidents
who have filled out deceased presi-
dents term and to be unanimously nomi-
mated to succeed himselt-that upright,
strenuous, large-hearted man, the fear
less champion of the interests of the
common people, the avowed lover of
righteousness, of truth and of God-the
honored chief magistrate of our nation.
These are the men whom the state
and the nation should delight to honor,
not because they are faultless, for they
all are thoroughly human like ourselves;
but because they stand, with all their
imperfections, for a high type of personal
manhood, and for the best things in our
national life.
They embody in their own persons-if
may be permitted to voice my thought of
them the tender, afectionate, chival-
rous spirit that must always find a
prominent place in the life of the home;
the devout. manly worshipful spirit that
should ever permeate the life of the
church, and the heroic, uncompromising,
God-fearing and liberty-loving spirit
that is the only safeguard of nations
life.