The Portland daily press., 1872-11-09
GatIin Guns In POliti s.

Men owe something to their country
as well as to their party. But in their dis
appointment and rage over their unprece-
deited defeat of Tuesday, the Democrats for
get everything but partisan feeling. They
know aud Hedven knows that the result was
Ii nestly obtained-that it was in the nature
of things and that it was inevitable ever after
Fenton and the Blairs took the Cincinnati
Convention out of the hands of Schurz, Wells,
White, Bryant and Grosvenor. Yet they say
to all the world that the defeat of Mr.. Gree
Leg was comprised by ''fraud'', violence,
"office-holders' and military satraps."
They thus argue that democracy is an entire
failure, that the will of the people does not
prevail, and that the country has already
fallen into the hands of a military oligarchy
The 1rgus expressed the opinion the morn
ing after election that an honest vote would
have elected Mr. Greeley. On the morning
after the Louisiana election, which occurred
on Monday, the New York World had the
following in New Orleans dispatch:
We gain two Representatives in Congress
from the Orleans district. A large number
of colored people voted the Liberal ticket.
The United States troops, with Gatlin guns,
were brought into the city to intimidate
voters, and attachments were likewise sent
to Shreveport, Franklin, and other places
but there was quiet election everywhere
The Custom-house is astounded by the re-
suit All the schemes OF the Grant managers
in the State have failed.
Herein is contained the only specific charge
we have yet seen in support of the general
allegation that intimidation was resorted to
for the purpose of helping Grant. Mark the
result! Nobody was interfered with in the
slightest degree, the only effect of the pres
ence Of the troops being indicated in the in
genuous statement that "there was quiet
election everywhere" Moreover, this State
of Louisiana, which was selected to suffer in
special degree the lawless violence of emil
itary satraps," was the scene of the only sub
stantial triumph of Greeleyism which any
where occurred. o sanguinary satraps
Death dealing guns Blighting military
despo ism" ARE these your fruits? Through
out the Southern States there may have been
used for what was really, though not nom
inaly, police duty, one soldier to say one thou
sand people. The result in the South
speaks for itself The peace was preserved,
wherever the troops were posted, at least.
but all the Rebel strongholds, all the places
where treason died hard and died late, all the
crossroads haunted by murderous Ku-Klux,
went strong and bright for Greeley $50 much
for Gatlin guns in the extreme South. As nei-
Their they nor any other of the federal appli
ances whose malign influence is said to have
been felt in the election, were used in the
border States of Delaware and Kentucky, the
cutting down or destruction of their former
Democratic maiorites, perhaps the most sur.
prising and gratifying feature Of the election,
cannot be attributed to federal interference
of any kind. And is our unprecedented ma
jority in Maine the result of violence or fraud ?
Has any one seen stray Gatln gun posted
on Munjoy,o or Bramhall, or Cushnoc heights
Were there brides? Whence was obtained
thearmy that SO thoroughly ''intimdated''
Pennsylvania that it gave over hundred
thousand majority ?-anJ what particular sa-
trap commanded it? Did some office-holder
command the servile people of Skowhegan to
vote in the proportion of about five to one fol
Grant ?-and would San honest vote' have
reversed the proportion? Nonsense! A man
who has either regard for truth or a spark Of
patriotic pride as an American will not thus
attempt to belittle and degrade the highest
functions of Democracy, by attempting to
show that they are exercised by the people
under brides or duress