The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-09-16
Blanton Duncan and the Demo-
Gratis.

OF every person claiming TO represent our Journal
|
Blanton Duncan and the Demo.
Gratis.
Col. Blanton Duncan of Kentucky, the
| man whom the Democrats drove ont of the
State because he insisted on telling the
| truth about them, is taking cruel revenge
upon the Fusion leaders by exposing them
to the public gaze at time when they prefer
to keep entirely out of sight In letter to
the Greenback-Ldbor Chronicle, written be-
fore election but not published until last
week, he gives the inside history of the
efforts of Pillsbury & Co. oput stop to his
denunciatons of the Southern Bourbons,
and exposes the ulterior designs of the
| Maine Democrats in favoring coalition.
Mr.. Pillsbury is aptly described as the man
| who has great control over the trading ele-
ments of the Greenback committee
| On coming to Maine Col Duncan says he
warned the Greenbackers that fusion was
| dangerous, and was sought by the Demo-
| cratic leaders for two objects. The first was
| to get possession of the State offices by bar
| gain and intrigue and the second to induce
| the Ohio Greenbackers to transfer their
| forces to Gen. Ewing. The trading element
| in the Grcenback committee was in the ma
| jority, however, and Col. Duncan's warning
was not Needed After fusion was an ac-
complished fact he seems to have counselled
harmony, and in this spirit wrote the leader
which appeared in the Ne,v Era after the
Cumberland convention, and which the
Argus commended so highly.
But while TIE Colonel could counsel for
bearance on the part of others he could not
restrain himself. After fusion as well as
before he denounced the Southern Bourbons
on the stump, and his persistent exposure of
their crimes threw CONSERVATION into the
fusion ranks. The Democratic State Com
mittee began to receive dispatches from the
fusion leaders all over the State imploring
them to, in some way, suppress Duncan.
Coaxing was first tried. August 18th, when
Duncan was announced to speak in Rock
land, II. H. Monroe was telegraphed to ''see
Blanton Duncan and request him to make
no more speeches" ''He hurts us very
much," the despatch added significantly.
But the belligerent Kentuckian seems to
have been impervious to the coaxing process,
and so the next despatch sent by the
Democrats took the more imperative form of
Don't let Blanton Duncan speak tonight.
He hurts" He spoke all the same, how
ever, and continued to speak until he saw
row coming which he thought might injure
his Greenback friends, and then he Withdrew
after addressing the following note to the
fusion managers:
eff I had been governed by as little prin-
ciple as you are, would have gone to Au-
gusta, rented a hall, paraded a band of music,
and plastered your city with bills, announcing
that Pillsbury- Bunker had ordered the Green
hackers not to hear me speak, And would
have had the greatest audience ever gathered
in your limits, to hear me denOunce you, as
your conduct deserved. Had the election
only comprised the success OF you and your CO.
conspirators as to the State offices, would
- ~-~----a J-~---;--ss@-,,r COS tlns pi,t
would not assume responsibility now, which
might have injured the cause that uphold.
You are safe for the moment. You can be
ready after the election to render au account
to those whom you have betrayed, when will
be heard by the people of Maine"
True to his promise to be heard after cleo
ton he has written letter to the Louisville
Comier-Journal in which he points with
pride to the smallness of the Democratic
vote in the places where he spoke and says
that the truth seems to have done the DEM
ocrats anything but service. The future of
the Democratic party he predicts in this Ian
guage:
The great mass of Democrats in Maine will
now 90 to the Greenbackers and the hard mon
ey men will remain with the Republicans,
making a square issue in the Presidential con-
test on the financial question. 1t will be close
contest, and we will have to gain Republi-
can voters of this year to win it. And that we
will try to do, when it is patent from the over
whelming defeat of the Democrats this fall in
every Northern State, that there is to be no
further danger to the integrity OF the Union
from Southern Bourbon alliance with Cop
perhead-Tildenism Of the North.
Col. Duncan evidently knows good deal
more about what has happened than he does
about what is goiug to happen. He is prob
ably deceived by the belief that all those who
voted for Smith were Greenbackers from
principle, when the fact is that a large part
of them were simply Democrats masquerad
ing for a purpose. The two wings of the
Democratic party in this State-that wing
which voted for Garcelon as well as that
the same thing-success in the Presidential
election next year. Pillsbury and the trad
ing element conceived the idea of leading the
deserters from the Republican ranks into
the Democratic party. They knew they
must disguise themselves to accomplish this,
for in their true character they would have
produced as much CONSERVATION among Re-
publicans, as wolves in a sheep fold. So they
represented themselves as Greenbackers and
allowed themselves to be swallowed. They
perceived that year hence the Greenback
party would be virtually eXtinguished, the
financial question be virtually out of politics
and the Republican Greenbackers led away
so far from the Republican fold that it
would be difficult for them to get back into
it. The reason that Col. Duncan was sent
off was because he was stripping OFF their
disguise and presenting them in their true
character. With him about, telling the
people who they really were, it was impossi-
BILE for them to play their game with success,
therefore H. was got rid of. While Col.
Duncan sees through the trading leaders he
evidently thinks that the rank and file wele
sincere whereas the fact is that they either
were blindly executing the orders of their
chiefs, or else were in full sympathy with
their designs. In either case they can be
called back when the time comes. And
they hope to bring Republican Greenbackers
with them.
If Col Duncan suspects that they have
gone so far in the soft money business that
next year, he little knows their skill in the
somersault business. If Tilden is nomi-
mated on a hard-mOney DlatfOrm every Dem