The Portland daily press., 1878-09-11
Some lessons Of the Election,

a little, and we begin to see more
clearly what has been lost and won.
One thing certainly has been effected, and it
campaign, the Democratic organization in
this State has been disrupted. The Demo-
cratic party to the east of the Penobscot has
virtually ceased to exist. 1t has been swal-
lowed up by the Greenback party. In the
western portion of the State it has Jared
rather better, but even hereabouts it has
hopeessly compromised itself by its coquetry
with the Greenbackers. In one Congression-
al District only, the Second did it preserve its
honor untarnished. There the battle was
fought on the old traditional hard-money
platform of the party. Elsewhere it has COW
cred itself with disgrace, alienated many of
its best men, driven some of them into the
ranks of the Republican party and turned the
faces of others that way. 1t has entered into
disreputable intrigues before, but has never
before abandoned its name and organization
and merged itself in another party.
The Democratic party, then, comes out of
the contest shattered and discouraged. 1t
has rolled in the dirt for nothing It has
abandoned its principles and then been
cheated out of the promised reward for its
apostasy. The Republican party on the 9th.
er hand has come out of the contest in better
fighting trim than it has been in since 1876.
1t is more compact, more confident,
with finer morale, than it was
year or six months ago. 1t has healed
its differences. Above all it has preserved its
honor 1t has had no recourse to political in
trigues or tricks. Unholy alliances have
been spurned as pollutiDg. There were,
it is probable, hard-money Democrats here
and there who showed their disgust at the
combinations entered into by the leaders of
their party with the Greenbackers by re-
pudiatiDg those combinations and voting for
Republican candidates. But they did it with
out solicitation or hope of reward.
One thing seems to be indicated, and that
is that the Greenback party has come to stay,
and will be an active force in our politics for
some years. There is reason to believe than
it will swallow the Democratic party else
where as the Democratic party has been
swallowed in this State. The currency ques-
ton is the coming issue before the country
The Democrats sought to use it to divide the
Republicans, and have only succeeded in
shattering themselves beyond all surgery. 1t
is becoming more and more evident every day
that hard money Democrats, abandoned and
betrayed by their leaders, can find their only
refuge in the Republican ranks. OF the event.
full result OF contest on the question of the
currency there can be no reasonable doubt.
The Republican party surely has the great.
est faith in the honesty and good sense of
the people, faith which is its distinguishing
characteristic. Coming from them, it trusts
to them, and gladly enters upon cam
paign of argument and discussion, believing
that the citizens of this state and of the
country need but to have a full and
fair exposition of the issue ill order to
finally pass intelligent Judgment upon it.
The issue is made. The Republican party
squarely puts itself upon platform calling
for honest money, for the keeping of faith
with the national creditors, for the preserva-
tion of the honor and credit of the country.
Other issues will be lost sight of or ignored,
The hour of our temptation Is past. The
temptation to the Republican party in this
campaign to depart from the wise, reso-
lutte and patriotic course it has pursued since
the close Of the war, has been great. The
powers of reputation and dishonesty have
taken it up to the high mountain of political
observation and said, "this land is yours if
you will but worship us.'' The temptation
was sore one. The people were restive un-
der the burden of taxation incurred to re-
store the Union. They had forgotten or but
dimly remembered the causes of its existence
and thought only of the burden. There YVES
business stagnation and industrial distress on
every hand. Demagogues, always watching
for signs of popular discomfort, and always
eager to avail themselves of it for their own
political profit, exclaimed that the people
were not willing to settle the bills they were
so eager to run up during the war, that they
sought to shrk the obligations which they
then incurred and that the men or the party
that should attempt to stem the rising tide of
dishonor and reputation would be swept
down and destroyed by its wave. The Re-
publican party of Maine, though sorely
pressed, did not yield, to its everlasting honor
be it said, to the temptation. 1t was told that
it must espouse this financial heresy IL it de-
sired to hold the state aud secure national
predominence. But it rejected the bribe,
and stands today with its honor unsullied, its
selfrespect preserved, its courage undimin-
ished. 1t is still in line of battle, and conf.
dent that in the end victory must crown its