The Portland daily press., 1863-08-22
Lewis Barker, Esq, of stetson.


In his speech in the City Hall on Thursday
evening, Hon. A. G. Jewett, OF Belfast, made
an exposure Of a reasonable proceeding not
very complimentary to certain gentlemen Of
this city and State, which il is well 10 put on
more permanent record. We heard Mr.. j.
throw the same facts in the faces of the trail
torous convention that nominated John w.
Dana in 1861, and which refused TO endorse
the war even to the extent of indicating the
authority Of the Constitution and Laws and of
putting down rebeion;-a course OF conduct
so fagrantly disloyal and reasonable that Mr..
Moore, now of the Advertiser, went home and
denounced it In the Belfast Journal, in terms
worthy of his head and his heart.
1t seems that in May, 1861, a meeting of the
Democratic State Committee met at the Preble
House in this city. Mr.. Jewett was there. not
as member, but as proxy for the member
from Waldo. 1t was the Douglas State Com
mittee, with which the Breckenridge men had
no rightful concern, for they had organized an
opposition Committee, ofwhich Moses Melon
aid, Marcellus Emery, John Babson and 9TH
ers, were members. About forty persons were
present besides the Committee when Mr. jew
EFT arrived, at ) o'clock p. NJ. When he en-
tered the room, John w. Dana, of Fryeburg,
was speaking, contending that the war was
without constitutional warrant, that Lincoln
had violated the constitution in sending the
army across the Potomac, and urging that the
Douglas State Committee should issue an
Address to the people of the State, and demand
the recall of the troops to the Washington side
Of the Potomac. 1t will be borne in mind that
President Lincoln had then issued no procla-
maticn-except to call for $1,000 men--and
had inaugurated none OF those measures now
denounced by the copperheads.
Samuel j. Anderson took bold and unequiv-
ocal ground before the Committee in favor OF
the right Of secession; that JEFF Davis had a
right TO take his State out of the Union; that
any State had right to secede, and that there
was no constitutional right in the government
to oppose such secession by force.
Moses Mcdonald introduced mana ma
tive OF Maine-but said to belong Mr.. Jewett
believed, in Louisiana, where ne had resided
for years. Mcdonald examined him as a law
yer would witness in Court, questioned hin,
as to Southern sentiment, whether there was
any Union feeling at the South, and whether
If JEFF Davis should take possession of the
Federal capital, and depose Lincoln and drive
him out, and establish the Confederate consti
tuition and Confederate authority there, hi
,coutd be likely to aliow Ne,c England 10 com,
into his Confederocy, The answers of thi
Southern traitor to the more infamous North
ern traitor, showed that while New Englan,
could not be allowed any voice in forming tn,
new Confederacy, Or in deciding upon its in
stitutions, she might, perhaps, be admitted Z,
membership afterwards, procided she did no
resist the efforts Of the Confederotes. or fun,
nfsh men to make acar upon them, Accordin.
to Mr.. Jewett, sixty men sat there in tn,
Preble House and listened to such questioning
as this, only a few Of them offering a singl,
word OF remonstrance! Mr.. Pike, of the An
gusta Age, was there, and continued to trouble