The Portland daily press., 1868-07-28
PiIl.bury-,.e mniue seymour.

tack upon any man, in public or private life.
But when men are candidates for high official
positions who have been guilty of such crimes
against their fellow citizens and have been
convicted of such want of veracity as to destroy
their character for integrity, it is the duty of
public journals to hold them up to reproba-
ton and to revive the recollection of their past
offenses.
The Democracy of Maine have been guilty
ofa deliberate insult to the people of the State
in bringing Eben +. Pillsbury forward a third
time a candidate for Governor. We shall
treat Mr.. Pillsbury with the utmost candor
and fairness, presenting him exactly as those
who enjoy his personal acquaintance or have
investigated his history know him to be- In
the first place, to give the greatest possible
prominence to his merits, there is not more
courteous, affable gentleman in the State than
Mr.. Pillsbury. We have reason to believe
that he is a man of temperate habits and that
in his professional life he is faithful to his eli
ents and upright in his business transactions.
He first became prominent as public man
through the reputation he gained by his de-
fense of Doyle, who was tried and found guilty
OF the murder of little girl in the town of
Strong. Nofriend Of his has been reader than
we to accord unstinted praise for his conduct
subsequent to Doyle's conviction and imprison-
ment Believing the man to be innocent Mr..
Pillsbury has spared no effort to protect him
from the last penalty of the law, which has
sometimes been imminent, and to bring the
parties whom he believe to be guilty to punish
ment.- ,.,.1 4. ... $3.50. -.r.
We enter thus fully into an analysis of Pills.
burys character in order that we m ay preclude
the possibility of charge of malice in present.
ing the other side of the case, for a uery black
picture is that other side
The generic defect Of Pillsbury's character
the defect which includes and explains all 9th
ers-is that he is a demagogue He desires Of
hcial preferment. A sagacious man of Quick
moral perceptions. and honorable instincts
would endeayor to gain prominence by desery-
ing well OF the State and appealing to what is
noDlest and best in the people. Pillsbury does
not tDeiieve IN the integrity Of the people, and
consequently he appeals not to their virtues
out to their vices, not to their honesty but to
tnelr rascality, not to their patriotism, but to
their disloyalty The events of the summer of
1858 afforded a crucial test of the patriot;sm Of
every man and woman in the United States
II was the eliminating point in the rebellion.
inen was the time for an ambitious man to
round his fortunes on the enduring gratitude
OF bis countryman by identifying himself with
the patriotic cause. But Pillsbury, affected
with dimness of moral vision, vainly imagined
tnat ne could exalt himself by infiaming the
disloyal feelings and playing upon the coward.
Ice OF those whom he could influence. AS edi.
tor of the Pennington Patriot he even went
beyond his leader, Seymour of New York. in
opposing every step taken by Lincoln to
suppress the rebellion. Such influence as he
mad was gwen in behalf of the rebel cause az
olst'nctiy as if he had accepted commission
inJeh Davis army. At the time when the con-
scrlption act was being enforced in this State.
every issue of his paper instructed its readers
that the act was oppressive and unconstitu-
t'onal On the 11th of July, 1863 at a meeting
OF the Democratic clubs of Kingfeld, Free
man and Salem, held in the latter town. Mr..
Pnsbury excited in his hearers such feeling
OF ansagonism against the conscription act, that
wnen during the next week the proper officers
appeared TO distribute the usual notifications
to persons drafted, violent resistance was
made, and it was not till troops were sent to
those towns that the law could be enforced.
We do not allege, nor have we ever alleged that
fillsbury directly advised his hearers to resist
the draft by violence, but what we do say is
that the teachings of his paper and the incen-
diary nature of his speech made him directly
responsible for the only rebel insurrection that
dishonored the State of Maine during the war.
And the man who created the only diversion
in favor of Lee in the State of Maine is a third
time put forward by Marcellus Emery Elliot
OF Freedom, and Anderson of Portland, as a
candidate for Governor in the year of grace
1868.
There are other unpleasant things about Mr..
fliisbury, as public man, reference to which
we defer till another occasion 3t m