Vermont Watchman And State Journal

For the Watchman.
No. 2.

TO THE HON. C. P. VAN NESS. EX-GOVERNOR OF VERMONT

Sir,—It is very disagreeable to be under the necessity of exposing to the public the faults of others; and more especially so, when they have heretofore held responsible and lucrative offices, and administered the government under which we live with honor to themselves, and to the general satisfaction of the community. But when I find that any person is in the habit of addressing the public, and making false statements, and from those statements draw false inferences, which are calculated to lead the rising generation into error, I cannot, consistently with my sense of duty, withhold my disapprobation from such; and shall use what feeble abilities God has seen fit to bestow upon me, in exposing such proceedings to the public.

In my last address to you, dated at Middlebury, August 10th, 1840, I made a statement respecting your management in your public addresses, generally, by which your chief aim was to convince the Freemen of Vermont that the present Whig party was composed, principally, of the old federal party, and that the old democratic, or war party, are now supporters of Mr. Van Buren, and as a confirmation of your statement you referred to the members of the Legislature of Vermont of 1813, and in your address at Woodstock, in May last, you used the following language: "Let us come to some proceedings which have taken place in our own state. In the year 1813, the federalists obtained a majority in the House of Assembly, but we still retained the greater number of the Council. A resolution was passed by the latter body and sent to the House for concurrence, which proposed that the members of both houses should convene on a day mentioned, to offer thanks to Almighty God, for the victory obtained by the American army under Gen. Harrison, near the river Thames, over the combined forces of the British and Indians. On concurring with the Council in passing the resolution, ninety-five (all the republicans) voted in favor of it, and every federalist, there being 108, voted against it. Now these 108 were federalists, (that is for war with their own government.) I affirm that but one ever has come over to our party. I find also that 33 of them are now dead, but of the 75 living ones, every man, except the one already alluded to, is a thorough going modern Whig." I was present and heard your address at Brandon, Aug. 7th, and you there admitted that two of those 108 had come over to your side. You stated likewise that out of those 95 which voted in favor of concurring in passing the resolution, 25 were dead and 70 living, and of those, 40 were now Van Buren, and 30 were Whigs. In my letter to you, I stated how a part of those 95 now stood in relation to their politics, and stated that I did not believe that 25 Van Buren men could be found out of the 70 living.

I have now ascertained from good authority, which I believe cannot be disproved, the facts contained in the following table, by which you will find that your statements are not corroborated by the facts.

Whole number of Democrats, 103
Now Van Buren men, 24
Whigs, 37
Dead, 30
Unknown, 4
Did not vote on the resolution, 8
Whole number of Federalists, 109
Now Van Buren men, 6
Whigs, 50
Dead, 47
Unknown, 5
Did not vote, 1

By this table you will see that 6 of those who voted against that resolution are, or were, Van Buren men at the time you made your address at Woodstock, Zadock Wright of Vernon, having died in June last, who was one of the 103 and a Van Buren man. The four democrats not heard from have removed from the state, and from the best information I have been able to obtain I think they are now whigs, if living. They were from Hancock, Lincoln, Westfield and Worcester, all whig towns. The member from Berkshire, I have put to Van Buren on the ground that he was a Jackson man 8 or 10 years ago, when he removed to the west. His brother, who now represents that town, is whig. I stated that Mount Tabor was loco now, it was a mistake, the member from that town has been dead many years. -

As you may have a curiosity to know where those 6 Van Buren Federalists are from, they are from Monkton, Salisbury, Chittenden, Vernon, Readsborough, and Reading. As to the member from Readsborough I will remark that on looking over the journal of that year I find that he did vote both ways, at various times. It appeared that when Mr. Deforest, a federal member was not able to be in the House, that Mr. Dupy would vote on the federal side, which was the case when the question was taken on the resolution mentioned; and when Mr. Deforest voted, Mr. Dupy would vote on the democratic side generally.

The Council that year was composed of 8 Democrats and 4 Federalists and only 3 of the democrats and one of the federalist are now living, and all whigs. They are Messrs. Mark Richards, Elias Keyes, Horatio Seymour and Solomon Miller, making out of the democratic part of that legislature now living 40 whigs and 24 locofocos.

I think that you can but discover by this that your statement at Brandon was not true. Now sir, as to the leaders of the old federal party, I was as much opposed to them during the last war as you, or any other person; but still I did believe that 9 out of 10 of that party were as true Americans as any people whatever that we had amongst us, but that they were deceived by the leaders of the party. I well remember that when I went to Plattsburgh, Sept. 10th, the day before the battle, I had many old federalists by my side, but I have no recollection of seeing Martin Chittenden or Stephen Haight and many other federal leaders, which now belong to the locofoco ranks, in that action. It matters very little to me whether a man was a federal or democrat 25 years ago, provided he is right, true blue American now. The old federal party was disbanded under Mr. Monroe's Administration and united with the democratic party, and what 'God has joined together let not vile man put asunder.'

Most respectfully, I remain as usual, yours,

LEONARD DEMING.

Montpelier, Oct. 19, 1840.