The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-06-22
FOR GOVERNOR,
SIDNEY PERHAM.
Are Democrats Good Republicans 2


Third District-JAMES G. BLAINE.
Are Democrats Good Republicans?
The sole ground on which the Democracy
base their claim to restoration is that, on the
whole, they are rather better Republicans
than the Republicans themselves. They pro-
fess to have abandoned their old heresies and
to occupy substantially the same position that
their adversaries do, possessing at the same
time the advantage of a long and morally re-
freshing rest from the cares and noxious in
fuences of official position.
Now if there were any foundation for such
an assumption, it would be worth while to
take the matter of their restoration into seri-
Gus consideration. But even then it is quite
certain that the Republican party would be
preferred on the ground of the striking supe-
riority of its personnel, embracing in its
ranks, as it does, a large majority of men of
moral religious and intellectual culture, as
well as of literary and scientific celebrity.
But is the conversion genuine? 1t will be
said-th by accepting the nomination of so
conspicuous Republican as Horace Greeley,
they will give at once proof of their sinceri-
ty and pledge for their future good behav-
ior. But before it was determined to unite
upon Mr.. Greeley, that gentleman had be-
come Democrat, and had joined with them
in declaiming against those laws by which
alone the constitutional guarantees Of civil
and political equality can be upheld and en-
forced. He had thrown away from him, as
useless burdens, the principles he had been
honestly carrying all his lite, the moment he
engaged in that wild, frenzied chase for the
Presidency. So that there is no proof of pen
itence in the nomination of Horace Greeley.
Besides, a large number of the Southern
whites frankly avow that they content them
selves with the editor of the Tribune only be-
cause his particular friend, the late President
of the Southern Confederacy, is not an avail
able candidate. And with equal frankness
Northern Democrats confess that they only
take man whose past radcalism is so made
quately atoned for by his present conserva-
tism because the candidacy of older, truer
and more highly esteemed Bourbons would
be sure to add one more to the long series of
Democratic defeats. ,l !. t3 a.l
1t will be said again that Mr.. Greeley's YER
sion of the Cincinnati platform, already ac-
cepted in advance by the Democracy, is an
ample guaranty of the sincerity of the pre-
tended change of heart. We do not at all
understand it so. A platform, like any other
declaration, must be construed in the light of
contemporary history and a knowledge of the
character and intentions of its trainers. In
the mouths of men who have just refused to
allow the enactment of laws to protect freed
= rrynr or surfrage and m the en-
oyment ofpersonal safety, what avas dec
laration that all the rights acquired through
the war ''shall be enjoyed evermore?" The
position of the Democracy on the subject of
the Constitutional amendments is as unsat-
isfactory as it ever was. They "accept'
them, to be sure-that is, they recognize
their existence; but there is no great merit
in that. They might as well undertake to ig
more the existence of the sun in heaven
There it is, whether we will or not But we
have yet to see any admission that the prin-
ciple of those amendments is right, or any ex-
preston of regret or confession of error on ac-
count of the protracted, bitter and malignant
Democratic opposition thereto. or, more i'm
portant than all, any pledge that, if restored
to power with full control of the subject, the
Democracy, will enforce their provisions by
appropriate legislation. s---
Surely the Democrats would now,
when the possibility of regaining power
is before them as tremendous incen-
tive to sacrifice their old prejudices, exhibit
proofs of the genuineness of their CONVEX
sion if they ever would. But even now they
always fail in every practical application of
their newly adopted creed. When it comes
to legislating, your reconstructed Democrat
knows nothing of constitutional power to
make the amendments something more than
an empty form of words by supplementing
them by appropriate legislation. No Demo-
cratic legislature voluntarily passes laws in
harmony with the new and humane theory
of our government. No Democratic legsla-
ture has shown its friendliness to the fif-
teenth amendment in any more practical
way than by Withdrawing the assent thereto
given by some Republican predecessor. The
conclusion is inevitable from the public acts
and declarations of the members of the oppo-
sition party, that at heart and in intention
they are as invincibly hostile to the changes
of the last ten years as they ever were. And
if the country is so credulous as to give them
an eccentric, vacillating, easily-managed
President, over whom the Blairs have already
gained their fatal ascendency our opinion is
that the worst apprehensions in regard to
their actual purposes will be speedily justified.
------------ ----------- r.. -
Mr.. KIMBALL, the Democratic candidate
for Governor, enjoys deserved reputation for
sagacity But he occasionally mods. And at
Bangor the other day, in his speech of accept
ance, he nodded with such violence as would
have snapped off the head of less sturdy
gentleman. Talk about the decline of the
shipping interests being an appropriate speci-
fication in any denunciation of the Republi-
can party! Why that sort of talk will short
ly come to be regarded as conclusive proof of
idiocy! 1t dtocdys was extremely absurd.
since all the world knows it was Democratic
cruisers that swept our commerce from the
seas. But the absurdity is now doubled and
quadrupled when our Representative in Con-
gress, aided by his Republican colleagues, has
for years been trying to restore shipbuildng
by giving that business fair chance with
other branches Of industry, and after score
or so of defeats at the hands of his Demo-
cratic associates, was at length successful in
obtaining quite satisfactory legislation, in
spite of their continued opposition, at the
session of Congress that has just closed. u T.
AND now our Mr.. aPillsbdry, of Augusta,
appears in the meeting of those liberal Re-
publicans in New York, and being an honora-
BILE man, must belong to that very select and
in Maine singularly exclusive body Mr.
Pllsbury has been Wing, Democrat, anti-war
leader, and last summer explained Mr.. Kim
balls pictorial, the central figure of which
was grotesque caricature of the good FL. G.
Mr.. Pillsbury promised Maine to Mr.. Greeley,
but as prophet Mr.. P. has always been a
failure. All through the war he made pre-
dictions, and since he has seen great Demo-
cratic victories in the future. Let him keep