Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-10-24
paiIp Aennebet sOurnal.
Augusta, Friday Morning. Oct. "a, 1879
Maine and Ohio.

Maine and Ohio.
The democratic papers are endeavoring
TO console themselves for their defeat in
Ohio as they did for their defeat in Maine,
by asserting that fraud and bribery by the
republicans caused the result. The Maine
Standard says it has not the least doubt
THAT the same disgraceful transactions
took place in Ohio" as IN Maine. For a
paper which was the leading organ of the
truck-and -dicker party in this State these
assertions are very cool Its platform in
the campaign was a purely commercial
one. There was no principle in it except
to obtain or keep possession of the loaves
and fishes of office. The rallying cry was
Anything to beat the republican party"
Democrats and gaeenbackers alike were
sold out in the conventions, and truck-and-
dicker ruled everywhere in the manage
ment of the party. There was never be-
fore seen in the State so completely amer
cenary party as the fusion organization.
1t was a great lottery in which men were
invited to take tickets with the hope of oh
tanning office. Many of its nominees for
Office were selected solely because they
would "bleed" literally, and some of
them have been bled so severely that they
are nearly or quite bankrupt. This is the
character of the party the organs of which
are yelling themselves hoarse about the
republican party having carried the elcc-
tons in Maine and Ohio by ..illegitimate
Means
One of the organs which yelled most
Justify about bribery and fraud was the
Calais Times. 1t declared that it had an
abundance of verbal testimony and doc
umentary evidence to prove gross bribery
on the part of republicans in Washington
county. When invited to exhibit some of
this evidence for the public eye, the Times
declined to do so, giving it to be under
stood that part of the evidence-the best
of (which it had related to two cases
then before the grand jury at Machias, and
the least reliable part had been sent to
greenback headquarters at Augusta. The
result of the cases before the grand jury
we now know. There was not one
case that would stand the scrutiny of the
grand jury and the complaint was
dismissed. 1t also appears that MAORI
ty of the jury were democrats. The CAL
ais Advertiser says there were eleven
democrats and seven republicans on the
jury. And the Machias Union, the demo-
cratic organ of Washington county, says
that the cases were dismissed "quite unan
imously, Notwithstanding the Calais Times
had been telling for month how over
whelming the evidence of bribery was.
The Portland Advertiser which had urged
the prosecution of the alleged cases of
bribery in the courts sums the matter up
as follows:
1t seems that there was not one case of
bribery in Washington county that would
bear the scrutiny Of a grand jury. What is
to be thought, then, of the mass of so-called
evidence which was not submitted to the
courts but has been taken to Augusta? II
must be weaker than the so-called evidence
which was taken to Machias, and that was
too weak to stand alone.
When the truck-and- dicker party try to
make good their reports concerning lille
climate means'' used by republicans in
the elections they invariably fail but they
must have some excuse for the shocking
failure of their promises and boasts before
election, and so at every new defeat they
cry out about the corrupt means
used by the republicans, whether the field
is Maine or Ohio.