706 



VERMONT. 



V 



VERMONT. The Vermont Republicans 

 assembled in State Convention at Montpelier, 

 on February 25th, for the selection of four 

 delegates afc large to the National Republican 

 Convention, which was to assemble at Chi- 

 cago on June 2d. The Convention was nu- 

 merously attended, above five hundred mem- 

 bers being present ; and, as soon as it had been 

 organized, the following resolution was adopted 

 by a unanimous vote : 



The Eepublicans of Vermont present to the Ee- 

 publicans of the country George F. Edmunds as a 

 suitable person to be made the candidate of the Ee- 

 publican party for the next President. We do this not 

 wholly or chiefly from our State pride in a man whose 

 public service lias been so honorable to the people 

 whom he has represented, but because his pure life, 

 his eminent ability, his valuable public service, and 

 his unflinching Eepublicanism, have marked him, by 

 a higher title than the accident of birthplace or resi- 

 dence, as a person fit to be President of the United 

 States. Himself a representative of what the Eepub- 

 lican party ought to hold as its most precious posses- 

 sion, an unwavering fidelity to the principles upon 

 which the party was built and has won its great repu- 

 tation, and of the intellectual power and moral sense 

 and courage through which alone it can preserve what 

 it has so worthily achieved, his candidacy would be 

 of itself a declaration of principles and the sign of 

 success. 



The four delegates appointed to the Chicago 

 Convention were, John Gregory Smith, of St. 

 Albans ; John W. Stewart, of Middlebury ; 

 Frederick Billings, of Woodstock ; and George 

 W. Hooker, of Brattleboro. 



The following resolutions were adopted : 



Resolved, That the Eepublican partv, organized in the 

 interest of freedom and equal rights, has established its 

 right to live, not only by carrying the nation through 

 the most gigantic civil war in history, but by success- 

 ful maintenance of the theory that this is a nation and 

 not a mere confederation of independent sovereign- 

 ties : by the payment of nearly eight hundred millions 

 of the public debt 5 by the accomplishment of a re- 

 turn to a specie basis of the currency, and by impor- 

 tant retrenchments and economies in the administra- 

 tion of the Government. 



Resolved, That the developments of the past four 

 years, in the disclosures of plots to subvert the choice 

 of the people in the election of a President by bribery 

 of electors ; in the practical overthrow of popular 

 government in seven States of the Union by terrorism 

 and ballot-box frauds, and in the recent desperate 

 attempt to steal the State government of Maine, as 

 part of a scheme to taint the vote of the State in the 

 next electoral college, furnish occasion for .just alarm 

 on the part of friends of a republican form of govern- 

 ment ; and that all honest and patriotic citizens should 

 resist these tendencies to anarchy, and put the stamp 

 of their condemnation on such practices, by their votes 

 at the polls. 



Resolved, That the Eepublican party must be sus- 

 tained, as the only effective barrier to the success of 

 such treasonable schemes, and as the efficient sup- 

 porter of the national unity, credit, and honor, until 

 free thought, free speech, "a free press, protection of 

 the person, property, and civil rights ot the citizen in 

 any part^of the Union in which he sees fit to reside, 

 irrespective of color, party, or religion, and the right 



of every voter to cast one free, unmolested ballot at 

 each election, and to have it honestly counted, shall 

 be established throughout the length and breadth of 

 the Union. 



Resolved, That while we record our firm determina- 

 tion that the results of the war for the Union shall not 

 be lost, we have no hatred toward our brethren of the 

 South. We ask of them only what we hold ourselves 

 bound to render obedience to law, maintenance of 

 order, equality of rights, and acceptance of the fair 

 rule of the majority in elections ; and for all who hon- 

 estly accept these fundamental principles of demo- 

 cratic government we have only the kindly and fra- 

 ternal feeling which should animate the citizens of one 

 nation. 



Resolved, That we commend the Administration of 

 President Hayes for its successful resistance to the 

 attempts of the Democratic party in Congress to sub- 

 vert the independence of the constituent departments 

 of the Government, and to coerce the President into 

 the signing of bills making important changes which 

 he could not approve ; for its support of honest money 

 and a currency of intrinsic value ; and for its efforts 

 to purify and keep clean the public service. 



Resolved, That we welcome every well-directed ef- 

 fort to raise the standard of official and personal char- 

 acter in the public servants and representatives, and 

 to elevate the civil service by making the choice and 

 retention of public officials dependent on honesty, 

 capacity, and fidelity, rather than on the caprice of 

 personal favor of Congressmen and heads of depart- 

 ments. 



A resolution was offered, "directing the 

 State Committee in the future to call the State 

 Conventions for the selection of the whole 

 delegation from the State." 



The Republicans convened at Burlington, on 

 June 23d, to nominate their candidates for 

 State officers and two Presidential electors 

 for the State at large, which resulted as fol-' 

 lows : For Governor, Roswell Farnham, of 

 Bradford ; for Lieutenant-Governor, John L. 

 Barstow, of Shelburne ; for State Treasurer, 

 John A. Page, of Montpelier. For Presidential 

 electors at large, William W. Wynde, of Brat- 

 tleboro, and William Y. W. Ripley, of Rutland, 

 were nominated. 



The Committee on Resolutions reported the 

 following, which were adopted as the platform 

 of the Convention : 



Resolved, That we, the Eepublicans of Vermont, in 

 State Convention assembled, do hereby adopt as our 

 platform of principles for the coming campaign the 

 platform adopted by the National Eepublican Conven- 

 tion at Chicago. 



Resolved, That with Farnham, Barstow, and Page 

 as our standard-bearers, the State of Vermont hereby 

 pledges to her sister Commonwealths to give her ac- 

 customed Eepublican majority in September, to be 

 followed in November only by a greater and grander 

 victory under the banner of Garfield and Arthur. 



The Greenback-Labor party held their State 

 Convention at Essex Junction, on June 24th, 

 about fifty members being in attendance, and 

 nominated the following ticket: 



For Governor, Madison O. Heath, of John- 

 son ; for Lieutenant- Governor, Columbus F 



