The Portland daily press., 1863-05-29
The State convention-As We Expected.

papers in this city seized with avidity upon
the crude and ill-advised remark of a contem-
porary, in relation to the death of the Repub-
ican party, and, of course, is by no means
pleased with the position of the Press on this
subject. We expected as much. Nothing
could better please the disloyal men of Maine,
or encourage them in their disreputable cru
SADIE against the authority of the general Gov
ernment than to have the Republican organi-
cation abandoned, and the loyal men of the
State left without the usual and indispensable
means by which to combine their efforts and
give efficiency to their will.
Men who are the most forward in condemn
ing parties and party organizations are usually
those who have been the most unreasonable
and relentless partisans; and they seldom de-
nounce such organizations till they have either
exhausted all the favors their party can con-
fer upon them, or have found it the insupera-
BILE barrier in the way of their demagogue
schemes and ambitious designs. The con-
temners of parties, in nine cases out of ten,
are those who have hung upon the skirts of
party organizations until they have been shak-
en- off, and they only wish for new combina-
tions-for new cut and deal of the cards
that they may have another chance to crafty
their propensity as soldiers of fortune
Since our article of Wednesday morning, in
which we labored to show the necessity Of
preserving in all its vigor the organic power
Of the Republican party-not to subserve any
mere party purposes, but rather as a protec-
fsva
country's enemies-we have been exceedingly
gratified to find how general has been the re-
spouse to that article on the part of our most
undoubted Union men. One gentleman, oc-
cupying a high position in this Congressional
District, in private letter, expresses his
thanks, not only in his own behalf, but also in
behalf of his loyal friends, for the timely sug-
gesticas of that article. 1t takes the only de-
fensible view of the action of the State Com
mittee: the only view consistent with the
active cooperation of our city and town COM
mittees in securing delegates to the proposed
convention. We have faith that all will result
well, and that all really loyal men will be
found cordially acting together on all ques-
tons having either direct or a remote bear
ing upon the great national struggle in which
we are engaged. But it is a monstrous propo-
sition that, for purposes Of united action, the
true men of the State-those who have never
been doubted-should be ignored, and, to
please quasi rebels, treated with GOODNESS and
disrespect. No good cause ever succeeded by
such means; no such cause ever can or ought
to succeed by such means.
A man who refuses to be loyal, to act in
loyal manner and to vote for loyal men, to
stand by the right and to act with those who
are ready to act with him, simply because
some of those who would act with him haze
been pro-slavery men or anti-slavery men, is
not more than half converted to the loyal
cause, and, at best, brings the Offering of but
half of his heart to the altar of his country.
Messrs. Butler, Dickinson, Hamilton, Brady,
and others, have heretofore been considered
pro-slavery men, ready to go unreasonable
lengths to satisfy the South, to "eat dirt" if
you please, to prevent the shareholders from
assuming hostile attitude towards the gen.
eral Government. On the other hand, such
man as Garrison, Phillips, and few others,
believing the Constitution hopelessly given
over TO perversion, and that the Union had
become only bond by which to Cypress the
poor and defenseless, proclaimed their hos
tility alike to both, and were willing to see
both destroyed that humanity might be re-
lieved of burden and the oppressed go free.
But now we find Butler and Phillips, Dick
inson and Garrison, all demanding the over
throw of rebellion and the restoration of the
authority of the national Government from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to
the Gulf They are all ready to work together
to secure this result. To the mind of Butler
andhis fellow sympathizers, slavery has proved
itself the most dangerous element in the land:
the evil spirit which would overthrow all that
is sacred in our political history; and to save
the nation and to give eternal life 10 Liberty.
he would see the vile curse abolished forever.
Garrison sees in the Constitution no longer a
"convenant with DEATH but the bond of free.
dom as well as of Union the Magma Charta
Of Liberty as well as the indissoubIe tie of
nationality, and, therefore, he would defend
and preserve it for humanity's sake, as he
would the apple of his eye.
NV" why shouiu huy patriot complain tlat
these men, heretofore enemies, and heretofore
working, mutually though with different weap-
ons, for the subversion of the governrnent-the
one openly and designedly and the other no
less surely because ignorantly-are now cor
daily cooperating for one common purpose
the unfolding of our common government.
the overthrow OF all that opposes it? WHY
should not all patriots rejoice at such a spec
tacle? Ifpatriotic, how can men refrain from
rejoicing? And if man stands aloof and,
folding his hands, refuses to labor because
these men are in the same boat that he is re-
quired to aid in propeling, how can we regard
him except with suspicion, or how can we feel
undoubting confidence that he will not desert
his position in the hour of greatest extremitvp
We insist upon it, that to-day there can be
but two parties - the loyal aud the disloyal.
patriots and traitors, the friends of the govern
ment and its foes, those who are for their
country and those who are against it. In this
State, while We do not claim that the Repub-