The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-11-15
randolph Herald and News.)

The unconditional pardon of Horace F..
Graham by Governor Clement, imme-
diately following his sentence at the hands
of the supreme court, will be received with
two distinct and contrary reactions.
Those who held the former state auditor
as a criminal deserving no special consid-
Grafton, but rather the contrary, as one
proving false to a high trust, who repaid
public honor with personal dlshonof :;
those who feared the i'll effects if events
did not take their natural course those
who wanted an example made sufficient
to demonstrate that there is but one law
for high and low-these will condemn the
governor and perhaps impugn his motives.
On the other hand, those who from the
first have questioned whether MIR. era
ham really intended to rob the state; who
recognized his long and valuable public
service as q plea in offset; who held that
the ruin that has come to him by reason
of his course ought not to have added
to it the prison cell-these will justify
and applaud Governor Clement for his ae-
ton.
We class ourself among the latter.
We never regarded Horace Graham as
thief For years, under the system then
in vogue, he had state moneys in his pos
session. We believe he intended, upon
leaving Office, to balance the account, as
others had done. But business misfortune
overlook him and he could not. 1t was
unwise, wrong, for him to become so in
vOlved but there was lacking the intent
to defraud the state. If within a reason
able time he had voluntarily made good
the shortage, he would not have been &C
Cused, establishing the fact Of his guilt
lessness. 1t was not the taking, but the
inability to restore, that made him trOu-
BILE. And finally, through the assistance
of his friends, he did restore all that had
been taken, as we understand.
no n 81
the invaluable service which for the great
er part of his active life he rendered Yer
mont. He was an extraordinary public
servant able, fearless, efficient. He who
labored so faithfully, 50 diligently, so
Loyalty for Vermont could not have been
in motive false and recreant. Such a COM
bination does not, cannot, exist in the
same individual.
And what an awful penalty Horace F.
Graham has already paid for whatever
wrong he committed. From the first citi-
zen of this state, with whatever further
advancement he might desire his for the
asking, or the consent to serve, he has
fallen to a plane of dishOnOr and dis
grace. The dearest thing that life holds
has been forfeited. Is it not enough
without adding the felon's cell?
Governor Clement during his term of
Office has done some radical things. He
has not always pleased or satisfied the
LudJoIlLy. Out IAlS Iulus ~ 10 MS circuit
he has never shrunk from doing what
he believed to be just and right on account
Of criticism or opposition bound to follow.
We like such public oficials-men who
stand to their guns to the end, Drawing
cutlery. Timid, whiting, vacillating Off
Gals, anxious merely to satisfy a transit
tory and often i'll informed public opinion
are the real sources of weak government
And at the end the people have more re-
gard for a strong personality, even though
he may at times offend them, than for the
other kind. 1t took much courage on the
part of Governor Clement to interpose
the Graham pardon. We believe he did
it from proper motives, and that the flu
ture will Justify his course.