Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-09-12
The Maine Election.

contest We copy from some of the lead
ing dailies what they say of the matter.
The Boston Journal of Tuesday morn
ing sums up the result and adds:
In short, Maine sounds the knell of Gree
leyism. A fair fight has been made there,
W it'll a mutual consciousness of the impor
lance of the verdict on the national contest,
and the enemy are routed, horse, foot and
dragons. They have got no ''victory," they
have not reduced last years majority, they
have not defeated Mr.. Blaine nor elected
Pike-upon which two things Mr.. Greeley
was said to have set his heart-but, on the
contrary, they have seen the republican party
hampered as it has been, by local and acct
dental circumstances, actually and gloriously
advancing in strength among the people.
There can be only one Interpretation in this
handwriting on the wall, and the Quaking
knees and panic stricken hearts of the coali
itonists show that they have taken it home.
All honor to the republicans of Maine for this
timely, decisive victory.
The Boston Advertiser in an editorial
says:
The first returns from Maine show a repub-
lcan triumph surprising the most confident
predictions. The republicans have improved
upon their canvass, electing their State tick
ct, all their congressman, and the two branch
es Of the legislature, by majorities which no.
body counted upon. This is an uprising
worth celebrating; it is the first real verdict
for the Administration; it is a verdict purely
upon national issues; and given after the
most spirited canvass ever undertaken even
in that spirited commonwealth.
The New York Times is jubilant over
the result. 1t says:
Where is Greeley's strength? 1t ought to
have been brought out in Maine, if any,
where But it is not visible. Mr.. Kimball
Perham's opponent, declared in his letter
published only in yesterdays Tribune, that
the republican majority would not exceed
5000 to l0,00O-so upon their own showing,
the Greeleyites have sustained crushing de-
feat. Take their own estimates, and they are
the worst beaten party that ever appeared in
the field of politics. They have concentra-
ted their attacks on Speaker Blaine, and he
actually gains majority exceeding that
thrown for General Grant in 1868. Even
Bangor is with us, and Knox county we carry
for the first time in many years.
Every body of course will like to know
how Mr.. Greeley's organ. the Tribune,
manages to get over the situation and
keep cheerful countenance. 1t makes a
desperate effort, however. at extracting
consolation in the following
We Judge that Maine has given the Grant
ticket a majority of not quite sixteen thous-
and. In 1868, at the corresponding election,
it gave that ticket 90, 4o3 majority, on a full
vote of ISL ,2G5. All the Grant nominees for
Congress appear to be e-elected-Speaker
Blaine coming tolerably near his old ma lori
ty, and Chambers son. in law squeezing
through over Pike. Neal Dow is reported as
giving effective aid to the Grant candidate on
temperance grounds; and in some quarters it
is quite evident that the voters subordinated
national to local considerations. Five dollars
have been spent by the Grant managers for
every one they spent in 1868, and fifty for
every one spent by the Liberals. The re-
sources of treasury filed by taxing every
civil official, at home and abroad, the influ-
ence of Post-Office Department whose head
took the field to command in person, the pow
err of twenty-four hundred mile coast dotted
with Custom houses, the votes of the Kittery
Navy Yard. and the resources of political
organization we'll nigh perfect, coupled with
prospective pressure never equaled, have
thus fallen over 4 900 short of the majority
Of four years ago.
OF the difficulties and discoaragements I'M
der which this result was attained we do not
now need to speak. The Cincinnati move
ment is revolution, and revolutions do not
begin in populations like that of Maine. 1t
has been an absurd saving, plagiarized from
the old one about the keystone State, that as
Maine goes, so goes the Union. But the
Union did not go as Maine did in leaa, any
more than in lo4S. In fact, it has often been
C.I DH x-I. Al~~
measure of the current, not a means of
starting it. Let us use 1t as a measure.
We may estimate the change on the vote
of Maine, wrought by the Liberal Republican
movement, at about five per cent. We may
be certain that in no other part Of the Union
will the change be- less; in few so small
Well, five per cent on the last Presidential
vote shifts the States of Pennsylvania, In
diana, Connecticut, California, and Alabama,
from the Grant column to his opposite. Add
these to the States already democratic, and
we have 155 out of the 1874 Electoral votes
necessary to choice. But Missouri is clearly
ours, and her fifteen votes leave but fourteen
more to make up, after the Grant rout in Oc-
tober, out of New Hampshire, Rhode Island,
Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, and
others scarcely less probable ours.
The lesson, then, of the Maine election is
pam IL REVEALS u ptECchtdkc VI CuduSc,
which, with proper organization and work,
gives us Pennsylvania and Indiana in October.
After these, the battle wins itself.
The New York Herald snuffs in the
breeze from Maine an indication that Gen.
eral Grant is to be continued President. 1t
says:
The practical lesson of the Maine election
is TO teach the opposition that their efforts to
take any of these States from General Grant
will be unsuccessful. 1t is now as certain as
any future event can well be that Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and
Rhode Island will cast their electoral votes
for the republican candidate. In Massachu-
sets there will no doubt be a material falling
off in the republican strength, for Banks and
Sumner will carry with them large number
of the republicans; but unfortunately, in that
State the majority to be overcome reaches
seventy. seven thousand. However CALAMITY
the seceders may fight, they can never hope
to break down this enormous figure; and If
General Grant receives the thirteen votes Of
the State it is immaterial whether he secures
them by one hundred majority or by one hun
dred thousand. Connecticut alone remains
as disputed ground, and even there the
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