The Portland daily press., 1880-08-31
To My Old Friends, Republican Gre en-
hackers.

Oc1Ck0rS.
AS there is to be nothing personal in this
letter except my unchanged personal regard
for you, do not deem it necessary to call
your name or to sign mine.
You and are about the same age-some-
Thing more than so years. We were both edu-
Gated in the Wing faith and acted as such as
long as the Wing party lived. When the Re-
publican party was born we became part and
parcel of it. Many time have we exchanged
political ideas and opinions, many a pleasant
hour have we spent in discussions of Horace
Greeley before he fell. In the campaigns of
'56, go and '64 it was our lot to work together
in the same municipality, and in those cam
paigns am sure we did what we could to Sc
cure the triumph of Republican principles and
candidates. Since about the last mentioned
date we have been separated by the demands
of business, and haven't had any chance to
talk politics. 1 have kept on voting the Re-
publican ticket, straight, ever since. Some
times have hesitated-when the candidate
was personally distasteful to me, or when it
was in the power of the nominating conven-
tons to nominate men for certain offices whom
1 considered better for the place, but on the
whole deemed it best to let the Republican
party decide it, and L could afford to abide by
the verdict. This used to be your view of the
case.
Since then you have changed your action, as
understand, sometimes not voting at all, and
sometimes voting the Greenback ticket 1t is
on this point that ]. wish to say few words.
In 1873 for some years following there was
great business depression, not only here in
the q. S. but all over the world. We were,
really, all the time in better circumstances
than many parts of the old world, but we did not
feel their ills-only our own. Trade, manu-
features, commerce, everything was deranged
and thrown out of joint. Corporations failed
individuals failed, crops failed. Money was
hard to get, and if we got any we didn't know
what it was worth, or what to do with it.
In this great crisis everybody in the U. S.
instinctively looked to Congress to devise some
method of relief. But here was trouble.
All the different ideas that honest men and
dishonest men could conceive were presented
and urged. We were in new place and the
wisest men we had in Congress or out were in
doubt
There was very general belief that our
Government, owing the immense debt that it
did might put its promises to pay that debt in
to such shape as to furnish the circulating
medium for the people, and by making these
promises non-interest bearing thus relieve
the people from great burden of interest
money.
After considering all these ideas, from the
most conservative hard money notions to the
widest schemes of initiation and irredemabil-
ity, Congress at last settled that on the LIST of
January 1879 specie payments should be re-
sumed. This gave slight relief to the coun-
try, but it was only slight, for SO many de-
clared, and same believed that this was i'm,
possible, that there was great doubt and he's
itancy about resuming business.
But as the time grew near, the matter
seemed to look easier, and before January list
came round resumption had practically come
1 know that we are told that it is only partial
and transient, but it is practical, neverthe-
less The United States Bank notes are so
easily converted into coin that nobody is in
commoded in the transaction OF business
Resumption settled, confidence restored, the
pent up money began to seek an outlet. Man.
ufactories workshops, trade of all kinds started
up and kept up. We are told that the great
crops of the country contributed more than all
else to the success of resumption. Very we'll
1 don't think any very discouraging augury
| can be discovered in that.
Now L think that all that was good in any of
| the Greenbacker's ideas was dead when re-
| sumption took place; that settled it. For
about two years all that has been said about
| the Greenbackers is post mortem.
Now, what bothers me is that man like
| you should continue to act with the Fusionists
| know that you are in an unnatural and IN
| comfortable alliance. 1 know that you are
| acting, politically with men forl whom you
| can have no respect or esteem, while men for
| whom you entertain the most respect are act
| ing with the Republican party. I know you
| well enough to be sure that you understand
| the State steal OF last year, and that you can
not have any sympathy with it. 1 am sure
| you cannot have any great anxiety TO aid in
| electing Gen. Anderson to Congress. He isn't
| your kind of man at all. Reed is; why not
| vote for him9 1 don't see how you can be very
| Jealous for the election of Gen. Plaisted.
| am sure that every nerve and fibre in your
| system thrills with fire when you read of the
| recent splendid success of the Democrats in
| Alabama-60,000 majority. You know very
well that if all the legal voters in Alabama
dared to vote, the Republican majority would
be more than half that
A vote for Plaisted in September will be
counted everywhere as vote for that kind of
| Democracy in November.
1t seems to me that you can't throw that
| kind of vote. Gen. Weaver has Just been in
| Alabama and is coming to Maine. He can if
he will, substantiate the truth of the deviltry
in Alabama-at any rate he has done SO since
ne left there.
Gen. Wade Hampton, very unguardedly, at
| Staunton, Virginia, in his earnest effort to
heal the breach in the Democratic party in
Virginia, let the cat out of the bag. He puts
it that this is the same old fight, and that the
| principles at stake now are identical with
| those for which Lee and Stonewall jackson
fought. This is true, only he let it slip out,
and now it is troubling the Northern wing of
the party.
! | know you will pardon me in saying the
above to you. l cannot believe you will lon
ger act with party with which you have so
! Little IN common. REPUBLICAN,.