The Portland daily press., 1871-04-15
a paavor who Understands his Business.

This spring the Republicans Of Lewiston |
paid the penalty of making that city the most
remarkable place in the world of its size ior
t .e vigorous suppression OF the sale OF in'o
icatin9 liquors. In America, at any To-
there is not another city of fourteen liio"eA
inhabitants where the sale OF rum Is "o 1",0
as well az do ;ure forbidden. The large safes
ut the citv LIQUOR agency last year, as compar'
I'd with those at other agencies Ia Tue ola.e,
show conc,usiyely that the prohibition of the
evil traffic was, up to last March, an absolute
verify. Those large sales told, too, most
significant story of an appetite unappeased,
surviving all the intimidations of the law.
They told OF a thirsty devil lurking in the
blood of Lewiston's sober-seeming citizens
that would yet find means to assert himself
So last March, taking advantage of certain To-
cal dissensions, King Alcohol was restored in
due form after his temporary abdication' ana
now reigns in the person OF his deputy Lie
Democratic Mayor. DIR. Garcelon was eiect-
ed Mayor over Col Frye because IL was pe-
lieved, and with good reason, that ne woulo
resist that invasion of the rights OF the people
that infringement of the bill OF rights, mag
mn cbata and writ of habeas c0rpus-thaL
creates; of all the outrages perpetrated by the
Radical party against the democratic spirit OF
our institutions-the prohibitory liquor law.
Accordingly the new Mayor has just bestow-
ed signal reproof ON some of his too ofiicious
police, who, with zeal that entirely lacked
discretion, seized some liquor that was being
transported in cart through the streets of
the city. he has issued an order directing
that hereafter no liquor shall be seized while
In transitu. We notice that some stupid good
people complain of this order on mere tech
nical point. They say that this intervention
Of The Mayor in behalf of popular rights is lille
GAL They cite the law which declares that
liquor believed to be for sale in any place in
this State may be seized. But these techni-
cal qubblers are singularly forgetfnl of the
higher and more general considerations on
which Democratic officials act. Notification
and rebellion-the enforcement of slavery on
Kansas and the driving out of Yankee school
teachers from the South-Gen. Blair's new
crusade against the constitutional amend
ments and the reconstruction acts-deprivine
freed men of their ballots and killing carpet
baggers-none Of these things are strictly lie.
gal, If one chooses to split hairs when grea'
principles are at stake. 1t is not quite consis-
tent with the terms of some of the statutes
for the Ku Klux bands to make monthly
average of two or three hundred murders, but
Democratic members ofCongress justify them
viewing their transactions from a "hieher
law" standpoint, and rightly observing that
Congress is the original Ku Klux," and that
the centrslizing tendencies of Gen. Grant
and the Republican party must be resisted
Mayor Garcelon is merely following time hon
ored Democratic precedents, and the exam
pie of his party leaders. Ia his humble way
he emulates the example of Senator Blair
he finds the liquor law Unconstitutional, rev.
olutionary and void" So he nulli6es it
that's all.