The Portland daily press., 1866-08-17
CROPS, POLITICS, sc.
BUcKFIELD, Aug. Is. IS

To EDITOR OF THE fhEbs.
I look out this bright morning from the
chamber where am writing, upon land
scape which is indeed beautiful and pictur-
esque. The wooded mountains, the green hills
and pastures and the cultivated fields present
scene Of surprising beauty and grandeur
Most generously will the husbandman be re-
warded this coming autumn for his labors
through the spring and summer. The fields
are heavily laden with crops and an abundant
harvest is in fair prospect. 1 have never seen
the country look so beautiful at this season |
of the year as it does now. Corn, potatoes,
and grain of all kinds promise an abundant |
yield. Many of the apple trees are also load
ed with fruit, and the farmer has great rea-
son to rejoice and be thankful to Him whose
promise of seed time and harvest never falls
The hay crop will not be large, and yet it is fair
The weather for the past few weeks has been
what the farmer calls Catching and much
hay has been wet, but now the prospect is en-
couraging, and haying will soon be over, and
what with the corn fodder and roots and straw
there will be no lack of food for horses, cattle
and sheep. So much for the industrious far
mer.
Here among these green hills and fertile
valleys the intrepid Democrats "the Oxford
bears" once held full sway and ruled the
country, but a change has come over the spirit
of their dreams. They are not now SO inpor-
tant as they were in Jackson's times, when
"old Hickory" some thirty years ago, put his
foot upon the fire eaters of Charleston and
crushed them out. If the Old Public Function
airy had done the same when Sumter was fir
ed upon by the traitors, and the leaders of the
Democratic party had faced the music, the OK
ford bears would have still been triumphant
and the late terrible war would not have been
a matter of history. But it was not to be in
the order of good Providence There was a
damned spot" on the American escutcheon
which must be washed out with the blood of
the country, and the devil was let loose for
season. He entered the hearts of Buchanan
| and his political confreres, and the relation
| between master and slave was broken up and
destroyed.
| Why it is that all great reforms in this
world must be baptised in blood is beyond our
comprehension. But so it has been and so it
may continue until all the evil days are end
ed, and the child can play on the den of the
cockatrice and receive no harm. How hap
pens it that the Oxford bears are thus thrown
into lean and hopeless minority? The an
| swer is as plain as the bright sunbeams that
now gid their hills and light up their valleys.
Their far off leaders played with slavery, and
for the sake of the "loaves and fishes" of Of
flee were willing the peculiar institution"
| should live and flourish. But negro slavery,
as one writer said of the Hartford Convention,
was shadow that every day grew huger and
huger and blacker and blacker. And SO it
was, and even the bears of old Oxford became
terrified" and many of them left their old po-
litical haunts never to return to them again.
No arts of the demagogue, no appeals to
party prejudices, no Philadelphia Conventions,
no Bell and Everett men, no conservatives of
| any school, no governmental patronage, not
even Andrew johnson himself, can bring
them back into the old Democratic fold nor in
duce them to fall into the arms of Southern
| traitors or embrace Northern Copperheads.
They have joined the great Republican party,
| fought under the old flag during the last five
| years, opposed Southern traitors and had no
| fellowship with their sympathizers. And can
such men be SO wrought upon by any political
jugglers as to forsake the principles that have
sent that unrepentant traitors shall again en-
ter the halls of legislation, make laws and
rule the country9 That is asking too much of
human nature. f- 80 y . - Ia 4
Those politicians and wire pullers who have
heretofore been accustomed to make the pup
pets dance must now content themselves to
remain in a. minority. The Democrats who
were too honest and patriotic to sympathize
with Southern traitors or affiliate with their
tools at the North, are now too wise, to take
any back tracks, and love their country too
much to join the enemies of its government
and free institutions. Those Copperheads who
are hoping for a change in their favor at our
election next month will find themselves most
egregiously mistaken. The changes are all
the other way, the boot is on the other leg,
and they will find it so ON the day of election ]
The people who have been educated in our re-
some Copperheads may dream of in their phi
losOphy. MOB
AS between Chamberlain and Pillsbury, the
honest, patriotic, unprecedented Democrats of
the country viii not find much difficulty in
a choice. While the former was nobly fight
ing the battles of the country and leading
his brave boys against its enemies and trail
tors the latter was sympathising with the
South and training in the Copperhead conn
war a failure The old political warehouses of
the Democratic party have lost their prestige
and power. They must wait until their rec
ord is blotted out before they can even hope to
feed again at the public crib. But alas! the
youngest of them will not live to see that day,
and the oldest ought to be asking for that
grace which they SO much need in the hour of
death. - z5sl1
The Buckfield railroad is running regularly
sv,er sc 4