The Portland daily press., 1874-12-24
THE PRE- s.
THURSDAY MORNING, DEC. "a. IA
The Hamlin OperatiOns.

We had occasion some days ago 10 warn
the members of the Legislature against the
devices of that trained body of office-holding
mercenaries who are organized inside of the
Republican party and are united together by
| ties that bind them closer than brothers
the ties of place and pelf They are busy
now. Their sleighs glide swiftly over the
SHOWS of Maine. The granite islands have
| given up their dead and the quarries have
| sent forth the swift messengers who are Or
ganizing to quell the insarrection of the peo-
pie. These men may be met on all high
ways. Daily they report to the chief Of
| staff in the United States court house, and
the process of sitting the cry of the people
and of "getting' the Legislature goes on.
| All the devices we have enumerated are pre-
pairing. All their energies are being put
forth. But it is all useless. The game they
are playing kills them the most surely If they
succeed
Misrepresentation is prevalent as we pre-
dicted. The Bangor Wing, with that cum
ming which is calculated to deceive fools only,
Publishes letters purporting TO come. from
Portland, making absurd statements in re-
gard to the PRESS which demonstrate that
the stuff must have been fabricated in the
Wing Office or somewhere else outside of this
city; it also asks in preternaturally know
ing manner if there has been a meeting in
Portland against Hamlin and if this thing or
that thing was done or said. Considering
that the Wing knows that it never had the
faintest rumor ON which to ground its ques-
tions we are justified in a few words of gen.
tie chding. Ofall the liars in the world the
liar by innuendo is the meanest. When
man delivers himself of good round heaven
defying lie, we can have kind of Mortified
respect for him as for one who risks his soul
and knows it; but fellow who insinuates
falsehood, who tries to get all the benefit
from lie and yet dodge the devil is rather
too cheap to waste powder on. The Bath
Times, with that taste for ancient literature
which so becomes it, has been raking over
our old files and reproducing what was said
in the columns of this paper six years ago.
We are glad to see that journal making quo
tations from the Press, even if they be six
years old. Quotations from almost any paper
would raise the average of the Bath Times.
The Press supported Mr.. Hamlin six
years ago because il preferred him and
thought he ought to have six years in the
Senate to atone for an injustice done him by
the party and to fitly complete his public ca
reer with the definite understanding and
averment on all hands that this was to be
the end. If Mr.. Hamlin has done anything
during the last six years to merit further
honors we should like to hear the name of it.
Those valuable. papers, the Bangor Wing and
Bath Times, may say what they please.
They work their work and get their pay.
We shall pay little attention 10 them. Our
business is with their masters. They may
busy themselves about ancient history and
indulge in personal detraction and mis-
representation, but all sensible men
see that it is only the ink which the cutie
fish throws when he concludes that he can't
fight and means TO run. What have the peo-
pie of the state of Maine to do with what
somebody thought and said six years ago or
one year ago? Do these men think that
these cheap side issues, dead and buried utter
ances Of mistaken men, are to move other
men to-day, or to divert the people from the
high purposes which, in the interest Of good
and honest government, they mean to ac-
complish? Are the hopes cherished six
years ago, that Mr.. Hamlin's election was to
open vista Of honor for him, and of great
deeds for the country, to be set against the
certainty that he has utterly failed to fulfill
the hopes or do the deeds? We believed then
that his experience, his powers and opportu-
mites would honor the party and help the
country. We knop to-day that they have
done neither. If his supporters desire TO eni
phasize the fact that many men who aided
him six years ago, refuse for good cause to do
so now, we can swell their list for them be-
yond their widest dreams. But this is the
first time in the history of the world, that
any mans friends have undertaken to boast
the number Of people who have lost conf
Gence in him! 1t is like bolstering up the
credit of trader by telling the number of
banks that used to discount his paper but
now refuse.
Another innocent and amiable little device
with which these men are seeking to beguile
the people, shows its footprints in some of
our exchanges. Toby Candor, who has been
in Mr.. Hamln's personal service from the
beginning of time, and whose opinions on
this subject are cut and dried for him by the
managers, writes his "views" to the Bos-
ton Journal on the politics of Maine, and
straightway the Hamlin organs reprint To-
by's lucubrations as the "opinion of that able
and judicious Republican newspaper, the
Boston Journal"
Play your little games, gentlemen. They
helped you to win the fight six years ago, but
this is different year. Then your play was
under ground. Then your politicians were
fighting other politicians, and the people
cared precious little which of you won. To
day you are fighting the people, and what
you do is not going to be laughed over in pri-
vate rooms, but proclaimed on the housetops.
You are some of you good fellows, without
horns or tails, but you have formed an organ
| ization which menaces the life of the Repub-
lican party, which purposes to give six more
useless years in the United States Senate to
a man whom the people do not want and are
determined not to have, which has parcelled
out the state for ten years to come, and the
federal offices for all time, and to which the
people do not mean to submit. To you we
present just few words for serious medta-
tion. If you are beaten, you are still men,
bers of victorious and successful party, but
your organization is dead as it ought to be.
Te a.
but kill your party.
ELSEWHERE will be found an abstract of