Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-02-17
Democrats and Greenbackers.

Whether the moving appeals of the Ma
tional Democrat for the greenbackers and
democrats to enter into permanent we'd
lock, be successful or not, will be known
in the course of time. The look at the
present for such result is decidedly du-
bious.
Saying nothing about the nfrlicity which
has attended and still attends the coalition
in this State, in which the greenbackers
beat the bush" and the democrats caught
the bird" there are considerations OF
more importance than any of local char
acter which stand in the way of perma-
nent union of these two parties.
1t will be noticed that the greenback
members of Congress have decided to act
as distinct party. They do not propose
to allow themselves to be swallowed
by the democracts. Such an example will
not be lost upon the greenbackers of the
whole country. 1t is having its effect
upon them in this State.
For reasons which tend TO cause separate
action of the two parties we have not far
to look. First, greenbackers in the South
where the real strength of the democracy
lies, are as much prosecuted and defraud-
ed as republicans, by the democratic party
of that section. The testimony before the
Teller committee has already shown this
The democrats of the South do not intend
al ,hnn al IN OH
foothold in Dixie's land, SO they just treat
them as they do the epublcans-trample
them down by brute violence. Now it is
not possible that greenbackers in the North
are going to remain united with a party
that employs all the devilish arts and
methods of the Ku-Klux and Red-Shirts to
keep down greenbackers in the South,
Until there are fair and free elections in
the South the greenbackers can get no
footing there, and they are beginning to
find it out, and to see that aiding the dem
ocratic party of the North is the wrong
way to go to work to get fair elections in
the South.
Again there is large portion of the
democratic party which will never con
sent to union with greenbackers on
financial principles. They are as far
from greenback doctrines on the main
question as they can be. They are bitter
and bold in denunciation of fiat money, or
of making the government the issuer of the
currency of the country. They are OPP
posed to straddling these matters, as is
done in Maine by greenback demo-
Gratis. A good illustration of what we
mean will be found in the following arti-
Gle from a late issue of the New York
World, the leading democratic paper east
of the Alleghanies. The World SAYS:
Our esteemed contemporary, the Cincinnati
Enquirer, is of the mind that the democrats
Of the East must either "seck an immediate
combination with the greenback party or be
'disgracefully defeated next fall :" and il
therefore recommends the democrats of the
East, as we understand it, to form such COM
bination with the greenback party on the basis
of an agreement THAT every dollar that cir
''culates in the United States as money, be il
gold silver or paper shall be issued by the
Government, and shall be full legal tender
''for all debts, public and private" This at all
events is plain and explicit proposition and
should have as plain an answer. II is aprop-
osition that the people of the United States
shall adopt in time of profound peace the
policy imposed upon them byrepubican finan-
ciers in the time of civil war. 1t is PROPOSE
ton that the Government of the United States
shall be clothed with power at the discretion
OF a Congressional majority to levy forced
loans to any amount it may please, at any
time it may please, and upon any pretext ii
may please to adopt, upon the people of the
United States. 1t is proposition in
other words to combine the worst evils
ever inflicted by monarchial des-
potism upon any people with the worst evil.
ever anticipated by any people from com
munistic revolution. And it is proposition
finally to do this under the flag of a party
which has no such solid reason of being in its
principles or in its traditions as its rooted
hostility to despotism under all its DISCUSSES
"A party founded and built up in the faith
that the powers Of the American government
are defined and fixed by the American Con
stitution, and that the right of the people to
enjoy the fruits of their labor cannot be law
fully impaired by the agents whom the peo-
pie commission to make their laws. We shall
not be so uncivil as to say that we do not be
lleNe tne Enquirer speaks Tor the democrats
Of Ohio and of the West when it intimates
that they are ready to open the Presidential
campaing of 1880 in combination with the
greenbackers of Ohio and of the West upon
this basis. Perhaps they may be- But we
have right to say that we do not believe the
democrats of the South are ready to open
the Presidential campaign of 1880 on any
such basis. And we are very sure that the
democrats of the East will resist the omen.
ing Of the campaign of 1880 on any such ba
sis at any cost.
In the facts presented above there APP
pear to be abundant reasons why green
hackers and democrats may not act in har
mony, and we judge from the signs of tn
times that the Maine greenbackers under
stand very well that combination with TIN
democrats is about played out.