New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-09-09


THE AUTOCRAT-A POPULAR hoNE"hNi
WITHOUT GENERALsHIP'
Maine has so often astonshed the politicians with
Its suddcu determination just previous to the fresi
dental election its position has grown into one OF
almost national Importance Falling Just before 'iie
great November crisis, its own GuDernatoriai No'e
has been frequently mistaken as the Keynote Oh te
triumpb which succeeded in the broader canvass ol
tbo notion. After Maine lwent for Gov. Kent IN
the famous contest of $780, when Harrison was
elected President, people began to say as Nalno
goes so Goes the Union" But the state went Deul-
ocratic the very next year. and staid so through
the election and administration OF Taylor the next
Wing President after Harrison. Maine renamed
;ndoed bonelesslv Democratic until 1854, when
L,son p. Morrill,. who ran on the Prohibition and
Nothing ticket was elected, and the State once
more astonished everybody by defeating the hereto
fore dominant party by vote of H565, in a total
vote of 9O6S3: there being four candidates IN the
field When the KnOw-Nothing organization as
appeared Maine again surprised the politicians ny
rejecting Morrill, on the Republican ticket oy a
small plurality In the following year, 1885, though
RepubHcansm was defeated in the nation,
Maine elected q Republican Governor, Hanmoal
Hamlin. by a handsome majority, beng content
with that notable victory without claiming 10 nave
given color 10 the national election; ana SO again
the Union did not go as Maine did FROM that tiiie
until the present. the Republican majority in the
State has been secure ranging from 10000 to lSVOO
ordinarily, but running up TO a much larger figure
during the years of the Presidential election. The
largest vote ever cast in the State was in 1865, when
nader the influence Of the combined military popu-
larity of Grant and Chamberlain, the latter was
elected Governor by about 10000 majority in total
vote of 131 49, In the Presidential election which
followed in November of that year, the total vote
fell off TO 1855. of which Grant had majority OF
nearly 10000.
The present canvass like that of 1856 when Maine
declared for Republieanism in spite OF heavy ma
tional majority against the new partly has been
conducted purely on national issues. The Liberals
have made a gallant fight on the necessity 1or
reformation of the public service, the justice OF
reconciliation between North and South and the
expediencv of acknowledging and fostering the
homogeueity of these sections. The Admins
trationists have contented themselves with inn
pugning the motives of the Liberals, assailing the
character of their candidates and speakers, and de-
Tending Observation-Disclosures of the Government
But neither party has discussed local questions
there have been none to discuss except in the case
of Gov Perham, whose responsibility for the Cider
Law has made him enemies in some instances In
spite of the promise of Speaker Blaine that they
would make it all right next Winter" For the
most part the whole discussion has been of national
questions or of personal character.
Charles r. Kimball the Liberal candidate for Gov
ernor was put in nomination by the Democracy OF
Maine before the Liberal party Of the country was
fairly organized. After his own nomination. he was
delegate to the Democratic Convention at Baltl-
more which nominated Mr. Greeley Subsequently
he was Endorsed by the Liberal Republicans OF
Maine though without any expectation of his
election. Indeed neither The TRIBUNE nor any
other recognized exponent of Liberal principles has
ever encouraged the opinion that the new party
would be able to do anything more than largely re-
luce the majority of the Republicans IN the last
Presidential year; that itself substantial
victory. And when the campaign opened and LIB
erals began TO talk about deduction of 10000 from
the old Republican majority in Maine, none OF
them had made any calculation for the prodigal
use of money in cOTupting the voters OF the state
the OverpOwering influence of an army OF oihce-
holders and the terrorism Of party discipline All
of these are the appliances of party securely lodged
in power but not to the extent that they have been
employed in the State. Money has literally flowed
like water. and, where open and shameless attempt
10 purchase would not be safe it has been used in
the various coTupting measures with which the
adrot Administration managers are familiar. The
men who spent the money, the places where they
spent it, and the purposes for which they used this
corruption fund, are known and noted. Notably is
This true in the Congress Districts of Blaine and
Hale one of whom has behind him fortune made
in politics" as the euphuism runs; and the other is
backed by a rich father-in-law. But, more
than all this, every postmaster in Maine
is an apostle of Grantism. The whole army OF
Ofice-holders largely increased by Blane's cunning
management is for Grant. And with beautiful
Difference to the fitness of things the Grant party
offc hold trOrn otb
Maine when the stump was bare of volunteer talent.
The Postmaster-General was there, and so was the
Postmaster of New-Orleans Cabinet Ministers, Con-
gressmen and Senators. eager thrOng, and all for
Grant were turned into the field of labor to earn
their places and keep them if they could. But the
most powerful of any of these agencies perhaps,
the rigid prescription which was observed toward
those Republicans who showed any sign of joining
the Liberal organization. To adhere to the new
party was to be called a traitor. Through
the whole canvass sort of military dis
cipline has been observed, and the pithy
saving that tins Administration is a camp
has been admirably illustrated by the camp
government which has been administered by the
Grant managers. One of the Grant organs in Maine
spoke OF Mosby, the ex Rebel guerrilla. as "the gal
liant trooper of Virginia" but Sumner denounced
as "a traitor the fact that Mosby goes for Grant and
Sumner does not makes all this difference in terms
And this bitter relentless which has been waged
against an honest expression of political opinion has
been potential enough in its influences to deter
many Of the tmid, sensitive souls who the right
and yet the wrong pursue" from expressing their
own convictions. II is dreadful thing to leave an
old party the heroes of 1856 found it SO; they of
1872 share while they benefit by their experience
And this peculiar feature Of the Maine canvass is
the explanation of the of the large doubtful
- II l.