The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-07-01

man you saw only the initial battles of the war
when our troops, though brave were raw. and
when misfortune resulting from incompetent
command, seemed to be the fate of our armies
The gigantic conflict of trained soldiers. the
bloody and frightful battles, the glorious yicto-
ries under experienced and skillful generals. in
great part ensued after you had left the SER
vice. And it is your conduct after you retired
that think will never be forgiven or forgotten
| by the true-hearted soldiers of Maine.
Had you returned to reassure the falling con-
fidence of those at home; to urge the yolun-
teerlng OF soldiers aud the reinforcement of our
armies, and to have held a high front for tho
cause OF the Union, your course might have
challenged approval and even admiration.
Indeed the most cynical could only have said
that you conciously felt able to serve the Union
cause better at the rear than the front, and
would have credited you accordingly. But.
General, you did not follow this course. You
Joined the enemies of the Union You allied
yourself with Mareellus Emery, who had then
returned to his home, whence he had been
driven, skulking fugitive from the hot wrath
of Bangor loyalty. You became the associate
OF Eben L. Pillsbury whose name was then as
now identified with all that was disloyal and
despicabe in Maine politics You became a
political co-laborer with those in New York and
elsewhere who incited riots to resist the draft
and your whole influence was with those who
were trying to prevent the sending of more SOL
diers to relieve the brave boys from Maine tin
Gliding the Regiment you had yourself COM
manded who were then battling herocally at
the front. You united warmly with Emery and
Pillsbury in supporting Bion Bradbury in 1868,
though in the convention which nominated
him for Governor resistance to the draft was
openly advocated and applauded and Gen.
Samuel j. Anderson as the immediate personal
representative of Mr.. Bradbury, distinguished
himself by the boldness Of his anti-war utter
ances. In 1864, you gave your best efforts to
the election of Joseph Howard as Governor
when the Bangor Democrat boastfully pro-
claimed that JUDGE HOWARD HAS EVER BEEN
OPPOSED TO THE PRESENT WAR AND HAS UNI
FoRMLY BEEN PEACE DEMOCRAT IN THE
broadcast SENSE OF THAT TERM" You cannot
forget, General, that when you were swinging
your hat for Judge Howard, he was decid-
edly outspokeu against the constitutional
amendment which permitted the soldiers of
Maine to vote in their camps-taking the
ground as you did by supporting him, that the
soldier who was daily perillng his life at the
front, had no just right to vote, but that the
traitorous copperhead in the rear should enjoy
that priselige to its fullest extent.
In the Presidential struggle Of that year, you
earnestly opposed Mr. Lincoln and joined with
the venomous and disoyal hordes who abused
and villifed that greatest and best friend of the
soldier. You publicly united with those who
declared the 1oar a failure" as IL would have
been, General, had all the soldiers followed the
example set by yourself. You openly affiliated
with the desperate faction that demanded an
immediate cessation of hostilities" at the very
moment when Sherman had taken Atlanta and
was preparing for his great March to the Sea.
and when Grant was drawing bis deadly lines,
closer and closer around Richmond and Peters
burg. You were the Jealous co-worker with
Emery, who rejoiced in every Union defeat
and who traitorously declared in his paper that
LNcoLN's HIRELNGs HAVE MET THRIR DUE
FATE. THEY FIND NOW THE HOSPITABLE
GRAVES TO WHICH THE CHIVALROUS
SONS OF THE SOUTH WILL WELCOME THE
INVADERS OF THEIR HOMES"
You were, repeat, tue political associate Of
Eben f. Pillsbury, whose infamous teachings
in Franklin county led ignorant men into
riotous resistance to the government which
he had not the courage himself to join,
and who distinguished himself even above
Emery by the brutality and blackguardism
with which he assailed the Union cause, and
especially for the vile language which he ap-
piled to Mr.. Lincoln personally.
In view of these facts, General, was struck
when 1 was an observer and reporter of the
convention which nominated you, by the poetic
fitness there was in selecting General An
derson as its presiding officer. 1t struck me as
still more appropriate that Eben f. Pillsbury
should be your godfather in the convention,
and in presenting you for nomination should
soil you with the slime of his eulogy-assert-
ing that you had been true to Democracy as he
understood it Sin all its vicissitudes." And
even more significant than all was it that Mar
cellus Emery should put himself forward as
your pers onal spokesman and keeper, and in
vite the public to a pre-. arranged serenads-
which, with speeches already in type, should
surprise you with the unexpected intelligence
of your spontaneous nomination.
As candidate of the party which signal
lied itself by opposition to the war and by un-
frendliness to the soldier, you are an appro-
pirate selection; but to put you forward as q
''patriot soldier" is not only broad farce, but
it is positive insult to that vast host of heroic
men in Maine who fought the war through to
the bitter end and who offered themselves for
slaughter on the battlefield and for death in
the trenches, while your voice was heard in
the rear in full chorus with those who de-
maHded that 'the war should cease, /" that the
draft should be neutralized and embarrassed,
and that our brave boys in blue, as Mr. Emery
had it, should be consigned to hospitable grave
| by the chiualrous sons ofthe SOUTH Had all
soldiers been as patriotic as yourself, General,
| it is quite easy to see that the Confederate
| cause would have triumphed, and that we
should have had sundered governments or if
we had remained united, it would have been
| with Slavery as the cornerstone of the repub-
| lie, with Jefferson Davis as President, and
with Robert E. Lee ss general-in-chief of our
| armies.
The choice of the soldier voters of Maine
and / am speaking for none other-lies be-
tween yourself and SELDEN CONNOR OF
the heroic record, the patriotic devotion, the
| personal sufferings of the latter, shall not
| speak. venture only to say that, as it seems
to me, the dead heroes of the war, those who
| fell on the same field where Connor was well
nigh mortally wounded, and those who fell on
other like bloody fields would stalk forth in
CHASTITY cerement from honored graves, if their
living comrades could so far forget their glory
and their duty as to give their support to
Peace Democrat of 1868, and withhold it from
| soldier who never finched nor faltered. who
entered the service as a private, who fought
his way up to high rank, and who stood in the
hottest of danger in the forefront of battle
until he fell covered with wounds and with
honor.
1 am, General, very respectfully,
Your Obedient Servant
z. A. SMITH.