The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1875-11-04
How Radical Party Capital is Made.
A recent number of the Kennebec Jour
nal has the following:

nal has the following:
| A private letter Just written to Us from Jack
| sonvile, by prominent citizen of that place,
| who is native of kennebec county, and whose
| statements are entitled to the fullest credit,
| SAYS:
! I'VE have had Republican Senator assass-
| mated only Il few weeks since. 1t certainly was
| a political murder, and some of the Democratic
| journals could not wait until lie was buried be-
| fore they were whoopin@ for Democratic ma
| jority in the Senate. 1t is quite true-and the
New York Tribune is authority for it-that the
| Southern white people can carry every south
ern State if they Try.
| How do they try: Let Mississippi, Louis
| lana, Alabama and Georgia answer. 1t Florida
does not remain Republican for some time to
| come, ''ou can rest assured that the assassin
can be thanked for it.
There is great cry in some papers that the
| war is over and the 'Republicans have not
| found it out 1t is not so. If the dead from
political causes were to be collected, even for
| one year, it would highten some Of these peace
| crying papers.
| AT the trial preliminary of the accused as
| sassin, man incurs the displeasure of these
high-toned gentlemen. if he dares to express
any belief regarding him, except that of his in
nocence. 1t is not IA free country, even though
we have Il Republican Governor.
1t is free so long your views coincide with
theirs. We must have Il strong Republican
government, until political murdercrs and as
sassins are unknown.
have given you facts"
1t we say that this has been emphatical-
ly denied by good authority on the spot
where the report is said to have Originate
ed, we suppose the average republican
will reply that the denial is by some rebel
and therefore not entitled to be believed
But it has been denied by authority that
even the Kennebec Journal will not ques-
ton. The jacksonville Union, edited by
n. X. Sawyer, ESD long prominent
citizen of Maine, comments as follows:
Who the appointment citizen of Jackson
vile is who is a native OF kennebec coun-
ty and whose statements are entitled to
the fullest credit" we have not been able
to ascertain. But we can say without the
fear of IL successful contradiction, that his
statement should be taken with u great
! dcftI Of aU0tcal1ce; and more than this, the
heart that conceived such thoughts, and
| the hand that penned them, do not belong
| to tair-minded, nor q sensible man, nor
| an honest one, either.
! Who gave this writer the authority TO
declare that the murder of Dr. +. G. John
son was political murder? Are not our
luries and the court of this circuit now in
vestigating this very murder? and had
we not all better suspend judgment, or
refrain from rushing into print with our
preconceived views until the courts have
investigated the subject? Will the Jour
nal and its correspondent please answer?
| Our only wonder is, that our old friend
| the editor of the journal, should lend his
| columns to such absurd statements. We
knew Dr. johnson well, and something Of
his history in North Carolina, his native
| State, and also under what circumstances
he came into this, as we'll as the current
events of his life in Columbia county a
! portion Of this history we have from his
own lips, and q portion came to us in
way that torbids us to make public use Of
the same; and with this evidence within
| our knowledge, ne are not justified in de-
claring that he was murdered for political
| reasons, for his lite had been an active
| one, making many enemies, and of those,
| it seems to us Just as likely to commit the
! dastardly crime of murder as any disap-
pointed politician
What worse enemy of the Republican
party or of this State, can there be, than
| one who will recklessly declare. as this
scribbler does "that this is not a free coun-
| try" Even Governor Stearns, Maine
man. a strong partzan too, declared in his
last Annual Message, as follows:
| 'Freedom of political opinion and action has
| been accorded TO all, and recognized as an es-
| senta principle of free government Equal,
| civil and political rights are denied to none,
and the most cordial good VIII prevails among
IAN ala, of ~
| gressional enactment or other interference to
| secure to any class of our citizens the full en-
ioyment of their constitutional rights n
| | believe there is a true desire for a more per-
feet restoration of friendly and fraternal rela-
| tons and mutual confidence between all sec
tons of our common country. The citizens Of
| Florida are loyal to the government, and would
cheerfully render any assistance in their power
to uphold and defend it, and doubt if any State
has a more loyal and patriotic class of citizens
than the people of Florida to-day.
| The Governor, it seems, thinks differ
| emily from this native of "kennebec coun-
ty'' and he is an old citizen.
AS an evidence of the feeling of the
Democrats, we quote from the proceed
ings of their Congressional Convention
held in this city in September 1874, it be-
ing part of General Finley's speech before
the Convention, and after his nomination
for candidate for Congress:
l should oppose with uncompromising resist
| ence any and all Federal legislation which is
| designed or calculated to advance mere party
| ends, at the expense of the public interests.
| | enter most heartily into the sympathy eX-
pressed in your resolutions in behalf of the
patriotic Cubans, who are SO nobly struggling
| for set-government.
| AS all our theories of government are based
upon the intelligence of the people, should
ALWAYS favor the maintenance of schools for
public instruction.
| should advocate to the fullest extent of my
limited powers all measures which, in my judg-
ment would be calculated to restore and pre-
serve harmony to all sections and races, and
which may tend to the solid and lasting estab-
lishment of the Union on the principles of the
Constitution.