The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-07-17
THE DEMOCRATIC RALLY.
A Small and DispiriIed AssembIase.


ticeable feature was lack of numbers and en-
thusaSm. At half-past seven, the time fol
which the meeting was called, a hundred per-
sons perhaps were in the hall. This discourag-
ing outlook led the managers to station the
| Portland Band in front of City Building, where
it discoursed war airs, stolen, like most Demo
cratic war trophies, from the Republicans Sey-
eral people collected and were amused by a
transparency on which Tilden and Hendricks
| appeared in rapi alienation, admirably illus
trating the now you see it and now you don't
policy of the party. But all efforts failed. At
half-past eight the hall was not half full. The
band yentured in, however, and struck up the
| stirring strains of the Marseillaise, the Demo-
| cratic campaign hymn for 1876. The "To
| Arms" has apparently become popular in the
| South so soon, especially at Hamburg, where
one massacre of negroes has already taken
place since the ST. Louis Convention.
AT the conclusion of the war hymn, Mr.. j. S.
Palmer called the meeting to order, nominating
w. II. Clifford, Esq, for president, and several
members of the Veteran Corps for vice presi-
derts.
The ex-Lion of the Wy-dee somehow got the
d
stead of preside, and roared ever so gently for
some hours. The most noticeable part of his
speech was the rap he gave the Argus, declar-
ing that the contest is not a scramble for office,
and denouncing as "pernicious" the Jacksonian
Democratic maxim that to the victors belong
the spoils. This statement appearing to cast
GOODNESS over the meeting, he qualified it by
suggesting that as the present officers are very
bad they ought to be turned out anyhow. But
he evidently did not share in the horror of an
off1ce-holding aristocracy entertained by the
Argus. The Democrats he said, have been
out of Office too long to know how to steal.
| Mr. Clifford forgets how good their memories
are.] He further distinguished himself by as.
surfing his hearers that the old Democrats who
did wrong and made mistakes are all dead, and
that the young fellows. meaning himself and
his Kind, are honest and are going to be very
good. The venerable vice presidents did not
look happy at the statement that they were
dead, and indeed appeared a trihe incredulous.
Gen. Anderson, who sat behind the speaker,
snorted right out, and many Of the spectators
began to slip away. 'What has Clifford been
talking about?" asked a late-comer as he hur-
ried upon the platform. "About an hour and
a half too long," was the growing response
After remarking Oh all Platforms" he per-
GRATED with quotation from the American
Topper. He then sat down. By the way, Mr.
Clifford still spells negro with two g's.
Presently he got up again. The audience,
thinking he was going to make another speech,
made rush for the door. He treasured them.
however, and introduced, with unconscious
self-sarcasm, Gen. Anderson as ''the first
speaker of the evening"" Gen. Anderson was
greeted with loud and loug-continued applause
in which the shrill whistle of the Democratic
gutter-snipe was plainly audible. He first
gave an entertaining account Of the st. Louis
convention, in the course of which he described
some of his Democratic brethren as represent
tatives of the slums Of New York. Proceeding
to discuss the probabilities Of Democratic sue
cess he prediced another revolution more wide.
spread and more successful than the last if
the Republican candidates, revolution that
Grants bayonets could not subdue. This state
ment provoked wild yell of approval from
the audience. Then turning his attention to
Mr.. Clifford's speech, he gave the ears of the
Young Lion vigorous rubbing. He said be
knew no Democratic mistakes that needed
apology before Democratic audience. He
was not there to apologize for any past act of
the Democratic party. If that party had
majority of the people it was entitled to ma.
jority of the Offices There was nothing wrong
in that. He did not understand how any Dem
ocrat could dispute it. Andrew Jackson never
said tfo tho vio.orC holopo fha
William L. Marcy did, thus formulating in,
words the practice of Jackson's administra.
tion.1
Gen. Anderson then passed to the plea for
the South saying that the Southerners had
submitted more fully and entirely than any
Northern man would have yielded. 'The iron
nature of Northern men," he went oa to say,
could never have yielded as the more generous
and pliable nature of the Southerner has.
They had been beaten, their property torn from
them, their slaves placed over them, aul still
they have yielded assent. They only ask the
right to live. lin view of the presence of sew
enty Confederate Colonies in the House this
is pretty good.] Lett US say to them, we have
conquered you, destroyed all your property, but
we are willing 10 give you the rights guaran-
teed to you in the Declaration of Independence;
everything else we have takeu we will hold
ourselves bound to accord to you. does this
mean the refuRding of the cotton tax?) Is
this asking too much of yoa, meu of the
North? Are we to be led on in another crusade
against them by all those terms of sectional
animosty that have pervaded the North for
the last dozen years?" Gen Anderson pro-
oaaHad in ctro;,, fos - q
closed with call for reform.
Hon. L. d. NJ Sweat followed Gen. Ander-
son. He began by remarking that he wished
no man, and especially no woman, to remain
and listen to his few remarks. Many of them
took him at his word aud withdrew, though
some men evidently thought there was hint
for them to remain in the suggestion to the
women, and so Kept their ssats to enjoy the
fun. But they were disappointed; Mr.. Sweat's
speech was eminently respectable. He de-
nounced the Republicans and defended the
Democrats. Singularly enough he did not
enumerate among Republican sins the squan-
dering OF the public domain on bankrupt rail
roads. The South, he said, fully accepts the
situation, and did so as far back as 1866. (How
many negroes have murdered since then Mr..
Sweat?. Falling into his favorite line of proph-
ecy he predicted the electionof Tlden, and called
the reporter to mark his words. THAT individ-
ual, remembering a somewhat similar proph-
ecy made by the same gentleman in 1872, glad
ly does So. The most noticeable part of his
speech was the assertion that Tilden sent
Tweed into exile. Slippery Sans collision
with the sheriff who permitted the ex-ssates.
man to escape from Jail has never before been
acknowledged by Democrats Mr.. Sweat then
closed with the avowal of his belief that "there
is salvation abroad" This indication that the
speaker was under conviction was great graf
ification to the sober-minded ia the audience,
The meeting then came to an abrupt close.
1t cannot be called a success.
THE OLD SToRY.-Saturday night officers
Rice and Langmaid found sailor in Staffords
block who was intoxicated and had been pretty
roughly handled His face was cut and mis-
nose was bleeding to an alarming extent. He
was taken to the station and DR.. Brooks stop-
ped the flow of blood and dressed his wounds
He told the same old story that to one who has