The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-02-24
Two Secret CireuIars.


dicating show we'll the Radical element is
stirred up in Gardiner. The Republican city
committee, it appears, taking unfair advan-
tage of the absence in New Hampshire of that
distinguished patriot, Mr.. S. Dudley Clay,
have issued SECRET circular to their myr-
mdons, instructing them how to render the
most efficient aid to the revolutionary prof.
ects of the Radical party. This is the way
in which these midnight conspirators have
laid out their work:
We ask your careful attention to the. fol-
lowing facts. At the last meeting of the Dem
ocratic State Committee 10 Augusta, it was
decided that the Democrats should make a
desperate effort to carry as many of the town
and city elections in March and April as pos
sible, and extraordinary measures were taken |
to further that object. They are trying to
accomplish that end in this city by an organ
ization called the p. L. t., by which they
hope to blind the eyes of class of Repuoh-. |
cans with oily promises that the expenses oI
the city shall be very much lesseneo anu the
government better administered unoer the
rule of liberalism than nnder .ne piesgho ruiz
Be not deceived by their clamor Their OBJ
iect is to get the control of the Municipal Gov
ernmenU. and they are willing to spend a good
deal of money to accomplish it.. They think
the spring elections will have great influence
upon the fall campaign and SO they will.
Therefore let every Republican in this CITY
be at the polls IN the first Monday in MARCH,.
Be sure that you nominate out-spoken capa-
BILE, honest Republicans for your Aldermen
and Coucilmen in the various Wards, and
then give them the benefit of every vote. If
any stay away from the polls, the Democrats
VIII claim gains. Eternal vigilance is the
price of liberty.
JOHN BERRY
DAVID DENNIS, Republican
F. A. PLAIsTED, City ..
j. j. MARSTON, COMMITTEES.
ID. U. PALMER,
Gardiner, Me, Feb. II, 1868.
The cool, deliberate villany of this PROPOSE
ton is absolutely startling. These men want
to carry the city elections. That we suppose
is a minor weakness from which the Demo-
Gratis are not wholly free. But hoao do they
propose to carry it? Not after the time-hon-
ored methods OF their opponents; not by rep
resentirg that the expenses of the city will be
materially affected by the opinions of city Of
ficers concerning the suffrage and the Alaba-
ma election; not by large operations in buy
ing and importing voters; not by the simple
process of wedding the check lists but by nom
mating capable, honest Republicans" and
supporting them at the polls. We need not
enlarge upon the depravity of this wiekedplot
When party has fallen so low t hat its lead
ers are willing to appeal to the baser passions
of their followers in such language, it IN high
time that something should be done. No
body has been hung for treason yet. Why
does not the chairman ofthe Democratic State
Committee, for instance, make it his business
to bring those Gardiner people before the
grand jury of Kennebec county for treason
ably censpiring to procure the no mination of
Capable, honest Republicans" for their mu-
nicipal officers? h a -t
The Democrats do these things better. We
have before us a secret circular which has
been widely distributed in this city. The Gar
diner committee with shameless effrontery have
signed their names to the document printed
above. The author of the Democratic circular
with becoming modesty withholds his name
The Gardiner people address their fellow citi-
zens as Republicans. The Democratic writer
calls his production "the Poor Mons Tract"
and it is very poor creatures tract, as we
shall proceed to show. In point OF originality,
the advantage is wholly with the Poor Man.
The Gardiner Republicans address to their
fellow citizens only such simple appeals as
might properly be and have been presented
through the newspapers. The Poor Man, on
the contrary, advances some statements which
no Democrats newspaper has dared to make.
Here is an example: t....
When Congress exempted government bonds
from taxation and pledged our earnings to pay
the interest on the bonds, it was hard trade
for us and hard trade for our children. We
did not suppose Congress had any right to
make any such trade. Where they got that
right we don't know; but of course they found
it somewhere outside the constitution" std
The originality of this line of argument
arises from the fact that Congress did not ex-
empt the bonds from taxation; that the ex-
emption of United States securities from local
taxation is established by repeated judicial de-
cisons, the highest legal tribunal in the land
affirming and reaf1irming that the constitution
which confers upon Congress authority to
raise money forbids the States to interfere
with the exercise of that authority Every
body who knows anything about the matter,
knows that. Here is another passage equally
striking ana nvvcl, f
! Other reforms will follow Internal Reye-
nue. Collectors will be N tional
Banks will be snuffed out; dollar will cease
to be an unknown and variable quantity, but
will be a known quahtity, worth one hundred
cents, sud every man will be taxed according
to what he is worth, and not according to
the number OF days he works.
These cheerful promises by man whose dis
position is too retiring TO allow him to sign
his name to them, involve some remarkable
consequences. We owe large debt, incur
red in the prosecution of a just war. That
debt is due not merely to "rich bondholders,"
most capitalists can do better than hat with
their money, They are held by the savings
hon I1rt L.
industrious poor; they are h Id by widows
and orphans, who without experience in bust
ness, have chosen to invest their small fortunes
in what they believed to be safe and prudent |
manner. The loan to the government was
made by capitalists, but it has been changing
hands ever since. five are to pay that sa-
cred debt, We must pay it out of our earnings.
Yet this Poor Man is going to abolish" inter-
nal revenue collectors. So the debt is not to
be paid. He is going to "abolish' the banks. |
Yet business cannot be done without the aid of
banks, in society so complicated as ours
Business,i therefore, is to be permanently |
disabled. Finally, dollar is to be worth a |
hundred cents, and property is to be taxed |
for State and municipal purposes only, we
suppose. These happy results are all to be Sc
the Democratic ticket" The expedient is
simple, in fact silly The expenditures of the
war though great were necessary. The debt,
though great, must be paid. The party which
means to deal honestly by the national credi-
tor, fairly by the negro, justly by the obstinate
rebel, is not the aristocratic party. The party
which sided with tie slavedriyer against the
slave and now takes part with the aristocracy
against the poor laborers of the South, is not
poor mans party anywhere. The anonymous
auth ,r of this false and delusive pamphlet is
poor enough in character and capacity, but he
is not representative of the plain people
whose spokesman he assumes to be.
f TILL. Magazines.
T THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, for March is re-
ceived from the publishers, Messrs. TIcknor &