The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-08-25
The Bangor Rebellion.

Since the Democratic State Convention the
Bangor Commercial, which heartily dislked
both platform and candidates, has not thrown
great deal of enthusiasm into the cam
paign. While loyalty accepting the decision
OF the party majority its editor has not been
able to resist the temptation to poke fun at
the chairman OF the State Committee and to
ridcule the wild dreams of success in which
that Sellers in politics so freely indulges. The
commercial man made good fight for prin-
clple in the committee on resolutions against
the men of expediency. The only conces-
sion to his views however that he could obs
tain was the resolution denouncing the elec-
ton OF Hayes as secured by fraud. He made
agood fight in the convention for his candi-
date, Mr.. Talbot. As he entertained little
hope of success his disappointment was not
great and he good-naturedly accepted the sit.
uation. He sat upon the platform when the
license plank he introduced was defeated and
satirically smiled, knowing that he could 60
dry as long as the fifty thousand other Dem
ocrats of Maine. He complacently heard
Mr.. Williams nominated with a cheer, for
he thought this as good year as any in
which to kill off Mr.. Williams and be done
with that toolishness forever. After the adj
journment he went home to do good cam
paign work.
8 But the acceptance letter of Mr.. Williams
is little too much for the philosophical good
nature of the Commercial man. Mr.. Viii
liams has scontemptuously thrown over the
only plank which Mr.. Emery succeeded in
saving from -old hulk when she went to
pieces on the stormy waters of the conven-
tion. That has proved little too much even
for the man whose spirit has been chastened
by a hundred defeats. The wrath of the
''Penobscot Lion," as his friends delight to
call him, is at last aroused. He has ceased
purring and leaps from his ambush with tail
way up, and howls and spits tremendous.
Such caterwauling has not been heard
among the Democracy for years. The claws
are unsheathed from those velvety paws, and
instead of the kittenish little pats he has
been giving Pillsbury and the others the Lion
will strike with the full strength of his strong
arm. A wild thirst for blood possesses him.
The reason for the terrible rage into which
the Commercial has been thrown is to he
found in that passage of Mr.. Williams's letter
in which he says that in the second resolu-
ton of the Portland convention he nowhere
finds any impeachment of President Hayes
title, that that title is valid, and that the
charge of of fraud refers to the action of the
returning boards and not to the decision o
the Commission. 'What shock is expert
rienced by every Democrat" says the Com
mercial, when he comes to that paragraph
"Mr. Williams's Interpretation is without
warrant or justification, to characterize it by
no harsher terms, and is an insult to the
wellknown and declared sentiments not only
of the Convention but of the united Democ-
racy of Maine." ssWhat excuse, what palla-
ton has Mr.. Williams to offer?" "We have
no patience with this attempt of Mr.. Will
liams 10 trife with the plain and direct lam
guage of that resolution" "That attempt
would be unworthy the trick of a pe.tifogger
in police court" "What can be Mr.. Viii.
liams's motiue in thus falsifying the spirit
and letter of the resolution of the Maine
Democracy".
Thus the Commercial goes on for two col
umns and closes by making direct declara-
ton of war against Mr.. Williams in these
words:
Shall the Democrats of Maine condone and
ment?' Shall they permit the unmistak able
language of their resolution to be misinter-
preted and construed into an ffimation of the
validity. of Hayes's title to the Presidency
Shall they be proclaimed by their candidate
TOR Governor as giving their sanction to the
infamous decision of the majority of the Elec-
tlon Commission, as righttul and in accord
with the Constitution and the law? Shall the
Democrats of Maine by such an interpreta-
ton and such proclamation by their candi-
date for Governor, be thus discovered from
their noble and patriotic candidates for Pres-
dent and Vice President who were chosen to
the Chief Magistracy of the Union, and from
the 4,30O,0 900 of their brethren in the other 81
States?
And right here most serious and important
question confronts every true democrat in
Maine. 1t is this: Can they make this great
crime of the Electoral Commission against
popular government SO odious that no party
| will dare to attempt its repetition, "by voting
for candidate who, in his letter of acceptance,
| pronounces the title of Mr.. Hayes to the Office
| of President valid, and the decision of the
Electoral Commission judicialy right? Upon
| what times have we fallen! Oh, the humilia-
| tion. the degradation. that this great "fraud
first triumphant in American history" should
first be "condoned once condoned' here on
| the SOIL OF Maine by one who has Just been
| honored by nomination for Governor by the
| Democracy of the state!
Shall the Democrats of Maine endor Sc this
| endorser of the Great Fraud?
1t is evident that the Commercial has the
! right Of It. Everybody knows that the Sec