The Portland daily press., 1867-09-21
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND. .rsafG
Saturday Morning, September 81, 1867.
The State Libeled .


1 If an action of slander could accrue tn a
State suit of that kind might reasonably be
brought by the people of Maine against those
individuals who allege that the diminished
Republican vote at the recent election was
due to a feeling of dissatisfaction on account
of the magnitude of the national and local
Indebtedness and the consequent burdens OF
taxation. 81. ........ ta
4 No considerable portion of our people are
idiots or blacklegs; yet nothing less is as
sumed in the above proposition. 1t Is severe
enough to say that there are fourteen thou
sand adults in the State who stayed at home
because they allowed themselves to be cajol-
ed into the belief that the manufacture OF
cider is the objectionable sin OF the Radical
criminal code. The farmers particularly are
the subject of this sander. 1t is asserted that
men whose fidelity to the party of reform and
progress has been tried by all the tests of four
years of war have vulnerable point-their
orchards. Lie about the fruit trees that were
planted by their grandiathers, and you have
them. Throw a shadow upon the ancestral
currant bushes, and you catch the whole agri-
cultural population in the Democratic net.
1t may be that few individuals deserve this
insult to their intelligence, but to say that, as
general rule, the farmers of Maine are
susceptible of being influenced by considera
tions of that kind is to contradict matter of
common knowledge-that they every winter
send to the Legislature representatives of their
own class, who are in every respect the peers
OF the men with whom they are associated.
The true reasons ofthe comparatively small
Republican vote are summed up in one word
indifference. Some thousands of our vot-
ers were so preoccupied with their own affairs
that they had not noticed the new dangers
menaclng the Republic. The new crisis does
not come like that of 1851 with the clash Of
arms following an open proclamation of war,
but is brought upon us by men who day and
night make protestatiOn OF their devotion to
the Union and the Constitution. 1t was not
yet fully realized that the country is in
more danger from Andrew johnson, managed
by the Blacks, Blairs and Binckleys, than it
ever was from the gray-clad cohorts OF Lee
Had it been realized-as it probably will be
before the next election-the general apathy,
which really did have an effect, would have
given way to a eneraluprising
We repeat, then, that the true reasons why
the Conservative party was not more thor
0ughly beaten at the late election furnish an
adequate explanation for the diminished
Radical vote, without having recourse 10 9TH
ers that can properly be adduced only with
| reference to men OF strongly developed Grim
inal instincts. For If Republicans absented
themselves from the polls because they fell
that the burdens of taxation were heavy, they
must have expected relief through the antic-
ipated success of the Democracy. The only
relief promised by that party is through repu-
diation of the debt incurred in suppressing
their rebellion. S That idea cannot be
entertained for moment. The Republicans
of Maine, whether under the influence of apr
athy or enthusiasm, are perfectly well
aware that no temporary exemption from taxa
tion is the slightest reeompense for the over
R gsas feed q S5ie upon sa1 serious
I debasement of the national credit. They
remember, Mississippi. The, odium arising
| from the reputation Of the debt of that single
| State was for years equivalent 10 peniter-
tiary UNIFORM for any American travelling in
foreign parts General Reputation, however
| effected, would make America the outlaw OF
l nations ..