The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-08-26
THE RADICAL COUNTY CONVENTION.

The knot of Office holders in this County,
who constitute the radical party in the pre-
cinct, and lead by the nose mass ofmen who
ought to know better than to submit to such
guidance, met at the Court House on the 18th,
and went through the motions as prearranged.
they were very fair average sample of the
class who have their suction pumps in the ma
tional, state and county treasures, and the
moving motive Of the gathering was to keep
them there.
The programme as arranged was thoroughly
carried out. as the strings We're successfully
pulled. First Brother Milliken moved, then
Brother Thurlow moved, and Brother MILL
ken moved again, and so on to the end The
last years ticket was renomnated entire
Cushing and Garcelon for Senators Mcdonald
for Treasurer, and Webb for Commissioner.
Probably the funniest performance was the
resolution on temperance, which reads as
follow
Resolved, That the psohbitory liquor law is the
work of the Republican party Of Maine. That we
sun adhere To- its principles and have confidence IN
The success of its enforcement.
| Whether tie law is the work Of the party, or
the party the result Of the law may be Ques-
tonablc. The general opinion is that they
are . kind Of Siamese twins, the product OF
one birth, that are on exhibition, like the tenn
perancc lecturer who took his drunken broth
er along as a fearful example. The Cham
berlainitcs-may 'adherc to its principles. " 81
long as such adherence pays, but there is
mighty little adherence to its practice among
| them.
What was meant by having ''contidcnce in
the success Of its enforcement" was for some
time apuzZle. They don't say that they have
confidence in the operations the law to make
men temperate, or to suppress the liquor
salcs-but i'll 1.-THE success of its enforcement =
The Singul;lrity Of the phrase suggested some
hidden 1jokc-so we set to work to mravel it,
First we reasoned, that gathering Of Office
holders like this, would measure the success
of the enforcement of any law by the amount
of fees it brings to their pockets. Thinking
we would ascertain how successfully the law
had been enforced, measured by this stand
ard, we turned back in the file of the Ace tc
the last published bill of costs in criminal
cases, April term, ninc-tenths of which were
| liquor cases, and found the footing to be six
hundred and thirty dollars. TO compare il
with the same expenses of another county
of about the same population and situation in
all respects, we obtained the figures ottho cor
responding April term IN Knox county, and
find that TO be eighty dollars and eighty-nino
cents "a difference in favor of the Democrat
ic county of $40! That's the exhibit OF
the expenses of the two counties, under man
a@emcnt Of the two parties.
No wonder this gathering Of Office holders
have confidence in the success of the enforce
ment of the liquor law, when it makes the
pockets Of the people bleed SO freely Ne
wonder they adhere to its principles as close
" as lecchcs to Il full-blooded patient. 1t is
proper that they should claim this Kind of pro-
hibition as 1.-The work of the Republican par
ty". We can fancy these patriots, after the
green rank and file have departed, slapping
each other on the back, and taking Il drink all
round to ''thc success of its enforcement"