The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-07-18
WITHDRAWING.

morning contemporary has conceived the
ludicrous idea that there is slime enough
from now till November in which to remove
all the stains on the record of Horatio Seymour,
and make him morally presentable-like the
blackleg witness i'll "Great Expectations"
who was dressed up for Mr.. Jaggers' purposes
"like spectacle pieman." 1t can't be done
Mrs. Macbeth" in the old play, found that
the most liberal use of lotions failed to cleanse
"lttle hand" that had blood on it. Horatio,
we say it regretfully, has the blood of more
than one victim on his hands. There is no
more doubt that his opposition to the prosecu-
ton of the war and his persistency in queru-
lous criticisms of the administration prolonged
the war, than there is of the truthfulness of
Abraham Lincoln, who has made the asser.
tion. 1t is true that at times he displayed
considerable activity in raising troops, and we
have never denied it; but this he was Obliged
to do by his official OATH by public sentiment
and by the penalties that are denounced against
treason. All the while he was forwarding
troops, his words of encouragement and his
disloyal mutterings neutralized the effect of
his reinforcements. All rebellion prayed for
his election in 1862, and shouted when their
prayer was answered az If for military VIC
tory. His speech to the New York rioters in
lieu of the. vigorous repressve measures
loyal man would have adopted cost the army
that was driving Lee out of Pennsylvania
$4,000 men, Here is an extract from his adj
dIess to the New York mob:
Do you not create revolution when YOU saw
that your persons may be rightfuly seized,
your property confiscated, your homes entered?
are you not exposing yourselves, your own in
teres's, to as great peril as that with which
you threaten us? Remember this: that The
bloody and reasonable and revolutionary doc
trine Of public necessity can be proclaimed bu q
mob as weu as by Government. (Applause)
In whitewashing this man, to whom his char
liable opponents impute hereditary insanity,
our contemporary publishes his proclamations
upon arriving in New York city at the time of
the riots, adducing them as evidence of Sey-
mour's active exertions to suppress the disor-
der. One OF these proclamations says: 81
know that many of those who have participant
ed in these proceedingss would not have al
lowed themselves to be carried to such ex-
tremes of violence and of wrong, except under
an apprehension of injustice; but such persons
are reminded that the only opposition to the
CONSUMPTION which can be allowed is an appeal
to the courts"
~'J - A'''N 'SSh hothihS lucI lHdu tulo
as parody on Antony's speech, in which he
strove to calm rising tumult by reminding
the friends of the dead usurper that the men
whose daggers had stabbed Caesar were "hon-
orable men," A fair paraphrase of the lam
guage Of the proclamation above quoted would
be, my friends, you have been amusing your
selves and at the same time redressing certain
wrongs inflicted upon you by the government
by burning orphan asylums, hanging "nig-
gers" at sight and causing the loss of hun.
dreds of lives. There is good reason for what
you have done, but really it is my unpleasant
GUY 40 "o'o.--- &C the State to remind Won
that these proceedings are open to tue UD1S-~
ton o, irregularity and for that you must seek
redress in the courts"
We have not at hand any exact statistics as
to the extent of the resources of the globe in
tae constituent elements of whitewash, but
II all these resources should be brought into
requisition, and all the moral whitewashers in
the universe set to work upon Seymour they
could not obscure for an instant the fact that
he was during the was the unrecegnized lead
er OF Lees Northern army, and that the Reb-
els justly regarded every one of his triumphs
as their own. tt't'-- .iii.i e'i.f