The Portland daily press., 1874-12-09
The Hamlin Party and its Methods

SGdllu tuc PicCloe LaluLc VI Iue coutcob loI tuo
senatorship which is now going on, the foes
they must meet and the appliances which
will be used to sway them from just and hon
est judgment. So far as Mr.. Hamlin him
self is concerned, we have no harsh or un-
kind word to say. Upon him we make no
assault and of him utter NO scornful syllable.
That he has, for the last six years, been of
little service to the country and the party is so
undeniably historical that, If there be any
reproach in that, it comes not from us, but
from inexoraDle facts; and, in performing the
painful duty of calling it to mind, we have
had one plain purpose, and that was to re-
mind the Legislature that the friends Of that
senator deemed the last six years full reward
for his past services, and that these years
have laid us under no new obligation. Il
Mr.. Hamlin is not our special object Of
discontent-it is what he represents.
Hitherto men in Office have helped him.
Now he is in the field to help them. He did
not himself wish to be q candidate again.
He recognized how unsuitable it was that he
should demand another six years Of power
from people which had always showered
honors upon him with unstinted hand.
Everyone who knows anything of Mr.. HAM
Inns candidacy, knows that he is brought
forward in obedience to the demands of
ether mer, that he is TO be used to maintain
the ascendency CT set Of men whose con-
tinued rule of the Republican party has
squandered its prestige and may cause its de-
struction. There exists in the bosom of the
party another organization. 1t is small,
compact. well disciplined body of men. They
have recognized leaders and follow their
leaders implicitly. They are perfectly organ
lied throughout the state. They form a
united body in each Congressional district.
They ramify into each county, town and
even school district in the state. They have
their captains of hundreds, of fifties and of
tens. Their toes all point in the same direc-
ton. To change the illustration, it is a
series of parasites-the large ones dependent
upon the great central ''boss," having in
turn the next grade dependent upon Them
and so on to the very ground tier of blatant
little Hamlin men. 1t is the old story over
again where
Great feas have little feas to bite 'em,
And these have other fieas, and SO ad infnitum.
The central nourishing force is the Repub-
lican party, which languishes while the para
sites thrive. AS the larger part of them hold Of
flee they have ample time to employ the ap.
pliances of which we shall speak hereafter.
They are formidable body, not in numbers
or character, but in discipline, persistence,
energy and experience. This is all wrong
and must be broken up. There never should
be party inside the party. No permanent
combination of men should be permitted to
gain sufficient power to break down any
Republican who refuses its dictation, or suffi-
cient efficiency to overslaugh by skilled in
trigue the wishes Of majority of the party.
Every man ought to feel that being Repub-
lican is passport enough to all the honor he
deserves. He ought to be at perfect liberty
to exercise his freedom of choice as to per-
sons and measures, without any risk of de-
structlon by band of men who think of
themselves first and the party afterwards.
Mr.. Hamlin gives to this organization life
and power. His reelection means its perpet-
uation. The return of some vigorous and
able man means its overthrow. These are
the foes we must meet.
The appliances they will use are as numer-
GUS as trained experience can suggest. First
of all they are using and will use, slander
and detraction. The Bangor Wing, their
organ, supple to its masters and truculent to
all others, with true canine instinct, has de-
voted many columns already, and will devote
more, to aspe1sing the motives of all persons
the Republican party to dispute the wisdom
of the reelection of Mr.. Hamlin. To that
excellent journal we beg leave to say snce for
all: You cannot obscure this question by any
amount of collateral outcry-you would be
very glad to divert attention from the point
at issue by raising discussions about individ-
uals, but you cannot do it. 1t is question
of Mr.. Hamln and the Republican party, and
nothing else. The motive of the Press is so
simple and high, that we do not expect you
even to see, much less to appreciate it. To
people who can, we say that the Republican
party is sacred to us by its history replete
with noble associations, endeared to us by its
intelligence, its selfsacrifice, its devotion to
principle and honor. While we would do
the men we have spoken of no injury nor
the smallest injustice, we do not propose 10
stand idly by and see all that is brave and
good in the party we love go to destruction
in order that the rule which has brought us
to the verge of ruin shall continue long
enough TO push us over. No storm of intiml-
dation and abuse, no perversion of our utter
ances, nor aspersion of our motives can
swerve us from the plain path of duty. The
party shall not drift to destruction in Maine
without strong word of warning.
Besides SANDER, detraetion and misrepre.
sentation of motives, this party within the
party will try upon the Legislature all the
practiced arts of professional lobbyists. I'm
less they know members well they will not
approach them in person. They will study
the surroundings and connections of the
men they want, and will! reach them by in
sidious approaches through their friends.
When members receive, as they will, letters
or visits from this man and that, they may
think in their inexperience that there is a
popular throb in favor of Mr. Hamlin. Yet
this is one of the most common devices of
these adroit wire-pullers. These letters or
visits mean no popular uprising; they only
mean that this organization has induced in
one way and another this man or that man
into asking his "member' to do what the or.
eanization wants him to do. OF all the arti-
fees, which ever beguled unfortunate mex
perience, this trick OF getting upa procession
on man to deceive him as to public opinion
is the most effective. And yet it may mean
absolutely nothing. 1t would no: be difficult
in any representative class, to say nothing of
a county, to induce twenty or thirty men to
60, one after the other, to the member and
ask him to vote for Mr.. Hamin. The great 81
lent mass of constituents may think quite
otherwise, but there is nobody to organize them
into a procession ; but they al! have thoughts