The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-09-08
"Grand Mass Meetingw
A Grand Mass Fizzle :!

y, S"e ihoSt complete failures OF the
present campaign came off last evening on the
occasion, as was announced in the Argus of
yesterday morning, of "Grand Mass Meet
ing OF the Democrats at City Hall, to listen
to Maj Gen. Tom Ewing, of Kansas, and Thos.
Q. Fields, Esq, of New York, the former of
whom was to reply to the recent speech of Sem
ator Fessenden, and the latter to that of Gen.
Hartman
Great efforts had been made to get up tre-
mendous demonstration, which should throw
all those made by the Republicans last week
far back into the shade. The various Demo-
cratic Ward organizations were ordered out,
from Company A, First Regiment" down or
up, to the Democratic voters of the several
Wards So great was the expected crowd that
only "a portion Of the galleries" was reserved
for ladies'" 1t was expected call creation" and
the rest of mankind" would be present to
greet the distinguished orators of the evening.
The meeting was called at 7 IL o'clock. Half
! an hour prior to that time the sweet music Of
the Band in Market Square attracted an i'm
mense crowd of-boys; interspersed with
few voters, and . considerable number of wO-
men. After playing half an hour the Band
and the women-very few legal voters being in
the crowd. Arriving at the hall, there was
found not the least difficulty Interfering or in
obtaining seats; and there was no crowd inside
to cheer them, the floor and galleries being but
sparseiy filed. '-'' Ns'i'.f' fsstE
About fifteen minutes afterwards Company
G, First Regiment Union Guards" composed
OF about fifty persons-aliens, boys, &c.-came
along from Wards and 2, escorting about as
many more persons These found no difficulty
in entering the hall or obtaining seats. The
expectation that there would be such crowd
that an outside meeting would have to be Or
ganized, was sadly disappointed, and no one
was obliged to leave the hall because entrance
could not be obtained. "Let the People Rally
for Victory" was the war cry of the call for
this meeting. 1t was the weakest response to
such cry we have seen this season.
A sort Of morbid curiosity led us into this
Jacobite meeting. These anti Jacobin assem-
blies are curious affairs, and if the gentle read
er perchance has never visited one he would
no doubt be glad to know what they are like
In the first place the 'Hibernian element is
strong and very efervescent. This leads to
enthusiasm. On the platform are seated gem
tlemen whose devotion to the cause Of the Ia
boring classes has left them poor, but with
consciences that never trouble them in the
slightest degree. The popular impression that
these men on the platform are almost driven
to insanity by their longing for Office, that they
have plenty to eat and to wear, that they are
rather comfortably off than otherwise, is pop
ular error. They are, as a matter of fact, men
who would accept Office upon no consideration
whatever If the truth we've known, their
own wants are but poorly supplied. Yet one
can but wonder at their rosy looks-wonder as
Mr.. Pickwick did at the celebrated Mr.. Sman-
| gle who had the extraordinary faculty of imi.
tating seven distinct cats in wheelbarrow
| and nevertheless found himself in a debtors
| prison. ls.f ii. s..7.,tr ~ r.,.
Such are some Of the general aspects of o
Jacobite assembly. That of last evening was
of rather moderate size at the beginning, when
| Col. Bradbury, the Chairman, introduced Gen
Thomas Ewing, Jr., of Kansas, and though
Gen. Ewing comes forward with something of
the state of Pendleton., himself, he is not the
man to hold Democratic audience WELL He
was but too recently Republican and h asn't
forgotten his good manners. He is not at all
abusive and 50 gets hardly an applause -
Thomas deserves better things. If his audi
ence were only observant enough of the man
ner in which he misstates the most notorious
facts, Of his utter reckessness as to figures, Of
his hearty endorsement of the intensified B lair
platform, they would. like him. As it is, he
only gets credit for being rather dull speaker
and rapidly thins out his audience. 1t must
ho al tbot =.
acting when it refuses to listen with patience
to man who adds millions to the cost of
maintaining the army, who talks about sub
jecting the whites of the South to four million
blacks and misquotcs Senator Fessenden's
speech-all because he will not accuse Butler
of stealing spoons and Grant of being drunk
ard :. crErf3 T ffLEk ffTFgAg Ayr Z
General Ewiug's trials were numerous The
first part of his address was a struggle to get
the Democratic party out Of the Nessus' shirt
of its war record that sticks and sticks, and
burns and burns, years having no power to give
relief. One phase of this struggle was a state
ment that the Democratic party contributed
its full quota to the army-forgetting that vote
of the army in 1864 that told SO different
story. he also afi med that the list Of Demo
oAeso'0 SOuoA"io 10 al uhiiiiAub do JtpuUlI-
can present. Here is his list: Couch, Gordon
Granger, Rousseau. Mcclellan, Buell. No
doubt every intelligent man in the audience
made mental comparison between this list
and Grant, Sherman. Sheridan, Thomas and
Howard. This was not the worst of it. An
iniudic;ous individual in the crowd cried out,
Don't forget torterl" This was too much for
poor Mr.. Ewing. He made q grimace that
would have furnished first-clase cartoon for
Punch. But he added Porter to his lst-a
man who was cashiered for insubordination
that would have resulted in his execution un-
der different form Of government.
After Mr.. Ewing came Thomas G. Field,
of New York, "a little, fat, round, oily man."
not of God, as the quotation goes, but of anoth-
er party. Mr.. Field, in his rollicking, Fal-
stafian way, began at once an abusive har-
angue that quite satisfied his hearers Ewing
had lost standing to begin with by declaring
that he had once been Republican. Field
made no such mistake. His announcement
that he had never been Republican was re-
sponded to BY cries of Good Good" Mr..
Field had nothing to say, and, therefore, said
nothing, nor have we anything more to say of
him or of the Jacobite meeting.