The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-03-13

While the other cities of our State have
rolled up such large Republican majorities it
must have appeared strange to see Bath with
only 30 majority in a vote of $50 As the true
state OF the case is carefully excluded from
the papes here, l must ask your leave to oc-
cupy small place in the Press, which / be-
lieve is free press, to set forth the facts.
Our present Mayor, Mr. Hayden, by his en-
beavers to execute all laws, including the
LiquOr-law has become obnoxious to all that
class ofour population who symathize with
| liquor sellers. Accordingly they mustered in
| full force at the Caucus, and aided by dis
affected Fire Company who fancied Mr.. Hay
den stood in the way of mlking a large hole
| in the City Treasury, they put in nomination
| DIR. Putnam who had been Mayor the sevan
preceding years, never dsquieting them, so
that they had had peace in all their bor-
ders."
A nomination has heretofore with us been
considered equivalent to an election, so that
boiling appears strange. Nevertheless such
nomination under such circumstances rather
shocked the good people of Bath, and with
out any nomination, organization or con-
certed action they votedspontaneOusly for Mr..
Hayden with theabOve result. As Mr. HAYDEN
has for more than thirty years openly and
avOwedly advocated what are now the distin-
| gushing doctrines OF The Republican party,
| the whole vote might be claimed as Republi-
can; but the fact is, politics had very little to
do with the case. Men of all parties partici-
pated in the caucus, and voted at the polls, in
accordance with the interest they took in the
local questions, excepting those who felt
bound always to sustain regular nominations.
Under the circumstances of SO large vote
being obtained without any concerted action,
the large majority at the caucus, of more
than 30 per cent. Of the whole vote, having
been reduced at the polls to less than four
per cent, the friends of good order and so
briefly were content to rest the matter until
another opportunity came round without any
farther action at this time.
The paper came out for Mr.. Hayden before
the election, tdintly, to be sure, and ave" say
| I'VE voted for him" but since the election an
| article was admitted on the opposite side con-
tanning queries requiring and challenging an
| answer
| An answer was prepared but refused inser-
| tiOn on the ground that Sour duty 10 the
| party would not allow anything more TO be
| published What has produced this change,
whether belief in the religion Of the Parsee,
-thelduty OF woIshping The rising sun, or St
PauPs declaration in Romans l3-2, or wheth-
er the former course was predicated OH an
erroneous belief as to which side would winY
Whatever may have been the cause, the
effect is to muzZle the press. What "parties"
operated in the late election may be seen by
slight analysis of the vote.
Ward three gave 115 for Putnam, 80 for
Hayden. Ward four gave 1O6 for Putnam,
| "a for Hayden. These wards contain nearly
| all the liquor shops in the city. In Ward
hve where the remaining one is located and
where both candidates reside, the vote stood
"a f'r Putnam, 80 for Hayden.
Not much discenment Is required to see
what would have been the result, had the
election been uninfuenced by liquor. T.
CANDDUs.
The foregoing communication comes to us
from responsible gentleman of Bath, backed
by other responsible names requesting its pub
lication, and we publish it with not the slight
est disposition to interfere with the local affairs
or troubles ofour neighbors. We would preferto
keep our columns free from such matters, but
the parties feel that they should be heard, and
failing to get hearing at home they ask us
to indulge them.
And here, least we may do injustice to the
local paper of that city, we will say, that none
but those who have had experience in such
matters can fully appreciate the embarrass-
ments under which the conductors of such
papers often labor. The field is small, the
circulation of the paper is necessarily quite
limited, and with the united patronage of the
whole city theproprietors find the publication
of daily paper severe tax upon their time,
their energies and their means, and can i'll
afford to do anything that tends to divide the
support upon which it IS dependent. Defeat
ed parties, especially when defeat is believed
to have been secured by admixtureO of improp-
ermeans or influences, unavoidably feel agriev-
ed and naturally and rightfully perhaps de-
mand more of such papers, by way of explana-
nation, than winning parties-always exact
ing and possibly overbearing-are disposed to
grant uncompainingly. Under such cir.
cumstances the editor is often obliged to close
his columns when his own instincts and sym-
pathies would lead him to do otherwise. How
this may have been in the Bath case we do not
pretend to know; we only mention what to
ourselves is well known fact ofexperienee, as
possible explanation of the course taken by
our Bath contemporary, OF which our CORE
spondent complains.
One word more; we are personally acquaint-
| ed with both Mr.. Hayden, the mayor for the
past year, and DIR. Putnam, the mayor eject,
and have ever felt proud to number them on
our list of friends. We should be unwilling
| tobe,;eve the great interests of the city would
sutfer in the hands OF either. We do not think
1t any disparagment of the former that large
strata Of the population opposed him for chief
executive officer of the city; we are equally
unwilling to believe the support which the
latter received from the same class is evidence
of his unsounduess or infdelty to the best
interests of the city. Few men in the civ are
more personally popular; he has very lew enc
mics, and as long as we have been familiar
with men and parties in that city we have
known that the ticket headed by his name
was hard to beat
| The PARAGUAYAN Wharf.-The London
Times of the 21st ult., in its city article says
"The advices from Brazil and Buenos Ayres
by the French mail encourage some hope that
the Paraguayan war may be approaching its
termination. 1000 needle guns had been Is
sued to the Brazilian and Argentine troops,
| and had baen found yery efficacious. The re-