Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-04-01
The War Record and Enrolment
or Maine.
Speech Of Mr.. FARWELL Of Augusta,


Speech Of Mr.. FARWELL Of Augusta,
Delivered an the House of Representatives on
Wednesday, March 23, 1870.
Mr.. SPEAKER The subjects embraced in
the resolves under consideration, have for a
long time attracted public attention, and have
uniformly been branded as ''hateful, un-
patriotic and fraudulent" To the character
of the 'credits" which have been thus assailed
and condemned, l shall mainly address my
remarks this afternoon.
If time will allow and the courtesy OF this
House be granted me, shall also review. it
may be with some severity, but with no mall
| ice, the Report of the Commission on the
/ Equalization of the War Debts" which was
submitted to the Legislature in the early part
of the session.
For five years and more the public mind of
Maine has been kept in state of feverish
excitement by wild rumors of ''peculation and
fraud" in connection with the filling of quotas
Of towns by individuals, and the assignments
OF ''credits" "naval commission men" during
the great struggle for the Union, by State and
National authorities.
! Men high in official position and struggling
with duties imposed by national misfortunes,
have been subjected to honest but unfriendly
]
men while they have been ruthessly assailed
/ by the Ignorant malice of the partizan and the
mischievous inventions of the enemy Of good
government; and private character has been
smitten down by this storm from 6elow.
These disgusting fabricatiuns and insinuations
have obtained root and growth, and been kept
alive by the nourishing they have received from
cheap newspaper spondents-the very
emessaries of disorder and scandal--the pre-
/ L. ls1.o Ill
good men and the defenders and betrayers of
all parties-a class of offensive idlers, who,
for penny line, will furnish the dreamy in
ventions of the groggery and the club house
| for the gratfcation of the curious and the
gossipper, for the furtherance of the schemes
of the conspirator and the black mailer.
These tolerated rogrants with their compan-
ions in mischief and invention, hirelings of a
disordered ambition and vicious surroundings,
have for years assailed persons, character,
authority, until their nauseating pretensions
and thieving assumptions have rendered gen.
eral newspaper correspondence obnoxious to
the charge of being ''mannfactured to order"
1t is to refute the statements of these loose
tongued assailants who were the enemies of
the Union then, and the promoters of disorder
now, that / feel constrained to speak. 1t is
to bankrupt and throw out of employment
these kinds of destroyers who are canded and
incrusted with secretions of infamy, that
shall attempt to expose the counterfeit nature
of the capital upon which these ''whelps OF
the Blue Knight have SO long and so infa-
mously flourished
do not come to this discussion, Mr. Speak
er, with any elaborate preparation. l cannot
hope to be so grand and ornate as the gentle
man from Cherryfield. Indeed shall only
talk to you in the high and simple language
of truth and justice, remembering that in facts
consist the strength and power of my
| statement. l shall not advise against this
commission because a public demand seems
to be made for it, though evidently stimulated
thereto by class Of beings who contribute
little to the good of society. More. Public
servants and private character have been
wickedly assailed by one class of persons fol
base and unworthy purposes, and by another
through the influence of the clamor of these
political excresences. If the four investiga-
tions which have been had upon this and kim
dred subjects, at an expense of more than
twenty thousand dollars are not enough to
teach the intelligent people of Maine the
character and purpose of these clamorous
agitators and calumniators, then surely l will
not attempt to circumyent tins further inquiry
while l will nevertheless seek to give them
some facts not always accessible to the hon
est inquirer.
appearance of this destroying report of the
commission on the equalization of the war
debt" supplemented by the elaborate and
explanatory report of the gentleman from
Cherryteld-b PARDON the committee
now under consideration, that the State of
Maine had made up something of a war record
of which she might we'll be proud. 1t had been
affirmed that the patriotic record OF Maine
was applauded wherever liberty was appre-
ciated and oppression detied. In number,
character and bravery, Maine stood the peer
of any State that touched the ocean. Limit
ed in numbers to the smallest grade of States,
yet intelligent, patriotic, self-sacrifcing as
she was she may well challenge comparison
with the largest and most loyal in the Union.
But it is not my intention TO go into this mat
ter of State eulogy. | am to examine the
character of the 'credits" denounced by these
reports, and if possible, vindicate them from
the aspersions which have been so long
thrown upon them. In thus attempting
shall be supported by official documents, evil
dence that cannot be controverted, that these
classes of men or credits, were genuine in
character, properly possessed and regularly
quoted and allowed. 1t is not questioned that
Maine had more men in the naval service
during the war than any other loyal State,
which, at any point, touched the Atlantic
ocean, in proportion to her population. Yet,
Notwithstanding the vast proportionate pre-
ponderance of her naval enistments, the
number allowed to the general credit of the
State and to the districts thereof are less
by ten per cent. than those claimed by and
allowed to any of the other Atlantic or mari
time States. Ofthe more than seventy thousand
men who went from Maine into the general
service, less than eight per cent. of that num-
Der was allowed us for enlistments in the
naval and marine service. In fact the whole
number of men in the naval service claimed
here or allowed in Washington, except new
enlisments, is thirty-two hundred and forty
nine men. With sea coast of more than two
hundred and twenty-five miles, and with re-
ceiving ships at Bangor, Belfast, Portland or
Kittery, it is not first class wit to pretend
that we had not three times thirty-two hun
dred men in the naval service at the COM
mencement of 1864. Boston with less than
100000 inhabitants, under the same law
that credited these few thousand to Maine had
allowed on her quota six thousand of these
''credits," when she did not furnish probably
one halt of them. By this arrangement Bos-
ton must have saved to her treasury quite