The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1904-08-25
BoURKE CooKRAN's SPEECH.

Court of the United States as attorney
for the plaintiff. He had very
doubtful case, and his argument was
so wandering, irrelevant, deficient in
sense, unmindful of the facts or the
law, that when he sat down the emf
nent Justices, inpatient of the travesty
enacted before their distinguished
body, conferred hastily among them
selves, and announced to the attorney
for the defendant that he need not
speak for his client; the decision of
the court was already in behalf of his
interest. Probably the eminent coun-
sci appreciated as well as the Justices
of the Supreme Court-or better-the
truth and humor of the situation
Bourke Oockran's speech last even
ing was a similar instance of a man of
great talents exhibiting his capacity
for buncombe, disr5ga riding the truths
and facts of civil and political his
tury, and wandering aimlessly amid
the worst epithets of the English Ian
guage to exploit an utterly groundless
case against the men who have admin
istered the government thirty-sIx out
of forty -four years, from the times Of
Lincoln and Grant to those of Roose-
welt Oockran's prostitution of every
essential fact of. history during this
period was simply appalling. Demo-
Gratis alone saved the republio; Demo-
Gratis alone shouljer1d the musket to
save the Union; the breasts of Demo-
Gratis alone received the bullets of
rebels; Republicans employed the OPP
portunity rebellious war presented for
"plunder-r-r-r;" after the war Re-
publican government sent the carpet
baggers" into the southern States "to
plunder-r.r;" Republican statesmen
enacted the protective tariff for pur-
poses of plunder-r-r;" in Cuba,
Porto Rico and the Philippines the
sole objeUt of the war and the legisls-
tion that followed was 'plunder-r-r"
and so on, through every one of the
thirty-six years of Republican admin
istration, since Lincoln's presidency,
the sole and only object of the men in
government Office has been "plun-
deT-r-r.
No one can lie better conscious than
Bourke Cochran himself of the brutal
and beasty falsity of his sweeping ar
raignment and his indisc1imjnate
charges against the Republican admin
istration of this government, during
the fifty years that have passed since
the birth of the party The charges
and the arraignment are simply rhe-
torical-hot air, blown into the pend
ing canvass for partisan effect.
Bourke Cochran achieved his reputa-
tion and attained his eminence in ma
tional political affairs, in 1885, in ad-
vocating Republican policies. In
good cause his talents shone out bril-
liantly he has since been engaged, by
using every arJ and practice of the
arrant demagogue, to undo, to destroy,
the place he made in the national
esteem eight years ago He is the
dog returned to his vomit
49, OOOhA al ID S1CdtAJ
over the paralysis of republican
government in Colorado, and arraigns
Mr.. " ROosevelt's administration for |
not preventing this alleged paralysis. |
He processes to see coming, in conse-
quence of the Colorado incidents, the |
destruction of government republican |
in form, with the usurpation Of auto |
cratic and irresponsible authority, in |
every State of the Union, and the |
ultimate perishing from the face of |
this continenG of the American repub- |
lie. The only remedy, in his opin-
ion, is the election to the presidency |
of Judge" Parker. Is this orator
ical pessimist really lying awake |
nights lest his jeremiads become his
tory, and is he preparing sackcloth |
and ashes in which to celebrate the |
fulfillment of his prophecies, in the |
certain event Of the reelection Of the |
"black BEAST of his bleared vision,
Theodore Roosevelt? Or is he only
regarding the voters of this country
as so many children, dangling this buga-
boo before their eyes, appealing TO their
fears and at the same time ministering
to the appetite of his present clients, the
dyed-in-th ewool, unrelenting. never
changing Democrat, for unmeasured,
uncivilized abuse, and false and lying
campaign announcement OF the Repub-
licau party? The latter, unquestion-
ably. Bourke will continue to sleep
well, to wear fine raiment-and laugh
in his sleeve at the credulity of the
Democratic populace which greets
with cheers-and accepts as gospel
truth-his trilling tales of the Re-
publican "cor-r-r-uption.
Mr.. Cochran did not exhibit the
ordinary astuteness of the commercial
traveller. The wise salesman under
stands that he must sell his wares on
the strength of their merits, not the