The Republican journal., 1877-09-06
, OperatiOn of the act creating the cleo

the operation of the act creating the cleo
toral commissioned act that in terms
provided for appeal to the courts, and
thus preserved the legal rights of all con-
cerned. He will stay there until his term
ends, or until proceedings shall be taken
in the courts, resulting in giving that high
place to the contestant. The practical
portion of the second resolution is that
such reversal of the verdict of the people
"must not be repeated" SO says Mr..
Williams-so say we all.
While the subject of Democratic candi-
dates, their relations to the platforms, and
their claims upon the support Of the press,
is before us, will Brother Emery pardon
us if we refer to a former campaign in
Maine, in which the Commercial took a
different course? just before the recent
State Convention, while the question Of
condemning the prohibitory liquor law
was under discussion in the papers, the
Commercial had an article in favor Of
such condemnation. In course of that
article it said
We dislike very much to consider the policy Of a
course Of conduct where grave pftActple is in
volved We hold that 'honesty is the best policy
in politics well as in all other affairs of life, and
that it is policy to follow where principle leads or
points the way.
Take then, polite view of the case Two
ha DarnD State Convention at N
gusta, under the advice of the Chairman of the
State Committee and those of his views the
liquor question, failed to condemn the Prohibitory
Law. The resolutions ignored it entirely. Gen
Roberts, the nominee of the Convention for Gov
ernor, comprehended the sentiments of the people
Maine on that subject far better than those who
moulded the platform. In his speech in this city
on the evening of his nomination, he supplied the
deficiency of the platform, and In the most EN-
phatc language denounced the Prohibitory sham
Policy men raised their hands i'll holy horror,
They shook their heads, and told of the enormous
losses the Democratic ticket would sustain in con
sequence of that most injudicious condemnation
of Prohibition by Gen. Roberts. Every Repub-
can paper in the State took the hint from the Dem
ocratic policy lamentations and paraded that para
graph of the Generals speech in flaming capitals
What was the result
There not a campaign speech made, or a
dollar expended. on the Democratic side during the
canvass. On the other hand Blaine flooded the
State with circulars and perambulatedi it in person
making speeches from Houlton to Saco. And yet.
when the vote of the State was declared, although
it was an loft year in politics, it was found that
Gen. Roberts had received larger vote by hoa-
sands than had ever before been given to any
Democratic nominee for Governor in the history
of Maine. save in the exciting Presidential cam
paigns Of 1868 and 1872 and that the Republican
majority the smallest that it had been for
twenty years More than that the bold and manly
declaration OF Gen. Roberts III his speech carried
into either branch of the Legislature that year
more Democratic members than had sat there for
twenty years before.
'tHe that is first in his own cause
seemeth right" says Solomon, ''but his
neighbor cometh and searcheth him"
And when we search our Bangor neigh
Dor. we find a remarkable discrepancy
between the treatment accorded to the
candidates of 1875 and 1877. The plat
form of the present year is held to be a
thing so sacred that Mr.. Williams is not
permitted even to construe its obscurity
or attempt to evolve from its vagueness
the most probable construction, under
penalty of attack by the Commercial, fol-
lowed by suggestions that he be not sup
ported at the polls. On the other hand,
when in the estimation of Gen. Roberts
the convention failed of its duty in con-
demning the liquor law, he laid his hands
upon the sacred platform, and made it
over-or, in the language of the Com
mercial "supplied the deficiency of the
platform, hot only without rebuke, but
actually deserving and receiving its praise .
1t involves the reader in terrible mazes
of doubt to be told that one candidate
is to be allowed to comprehend the
sentiments of the people far better than
those who moulded the platform" and
that his successor is not to be allowed
even to attempt the comprehension of
that which is incomprehensible. The
honest Democracy will be at a loss to
understand this sort of navigation Of the
Democratic ship-this steering safe and
proper course by a compass that reverses
itself so suddenly, and controlled by a
wheelsman who alternately swears that
starboard is port and that port is star
board.
We well remember the nomination Of
Gen. Roberts. His name was presented
to the Convention by Hon. E. f. Pills
bury-now so mjustly assailed and de
rided by our Bangor neighbor-in a very
handsome speech, in which he lwelt
without eXaggeration upon the many eN-
cellent qualities of the candidate - his
high sense of honor, his unstained private
life, his brilliant military record his great
personal popularity. 1t was an excellent
nomination, and at an suspicious time,
The country was still feeling the ground
swell from the great political tornado
which gave a Democratic majority of
seventy in the United States House of
Representatives, and swept even Massa-
chusetts into the Democratic fold. What
might have been accomplished if the Re
publican papers had not had a preteXt
for ''parading the paragraph of the Gen
erals speech in flaming capitals" can
never be told. The poet says that
''Of all the sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these, 1T might have BEEN"
But while we look mournfully and re
gretfully into the past, and not without
misgiving into the future-beholdin as
we do our brother of the Commercial,
like the angel of the Apocalypse, with
one foot on the principle" of the sacred
ness of platforms, and the other planted
on the deficiency supplied resolutions Of
rs, there comes over us a doubt, like the
shadow of a lowering evil. Did Gen.
Roberts, after all "supply the deficiency
in the PLATFORM? We read in the record
that those excellent and reliable Demo
Gratis, James c. Madigan, Geo. W. Stan