The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-08-20
N Y. Tribune
Duty of Honest Voters in Maine.

The men who tried to steal State last year
are for Hancock. Why not? With them are
the men who have stolen Alabama, and other
Southern States, by means not less dishonor-
able. 1t is the party of Free Fraud, Just
the Republican is the party Of Free Speech
and Free Men. The difference ought to be
appreciated in Maine, and will be.
Credit is due to most of the voters of the
Greenback and Democratic parties in Maine
for honesty of intention. They wanted to
carry State; not to steal it. They were sadly
mistaken as to the causes of their opposition
to Republicanism, but they did not mean 10
make scoundrels Of themselves, nor will they
unless they excuse and try to reward the
thieves. That must be the test, after all.
The political swindlers who contrived the
infamous fraud of last year were the leaders
of two parties, and those parties are new
united The same leaders arc at the frsnt.
If the fusion succeeds, some OF them will be
elected to offices of high trust and honor. aud
all will be rewarded The voters of the two
parties will do as they like about it. If they
want TO make the crime their own, and to
take on their own brows the brand of shame,
they can do so by votes for the Fusion party
Men of Maine who read and think can bard
ly need to have the facts brought home to
their minds The State chose Republican
Legislature; of that there was and is no sort of
doubt. Men who knew this, who had no
doubt of it then and have not the face to pre-
tend that they doubted now, set about the
work of stealing the State. They had no ex-
cuse, and knew it. Elections in Maine are
well guarded by wise and just laws, and have
been singularly free from fraud. The Repub-
licans have held the State for many years, had
votes enough to hold it again, and were united
while their opponents were divided The
count was SO shameless and infamous that de-
cent Democrats by the hundred cried out
against it, and the thing would never have
been tried but for the plots of that clique
which failed to get electoral votes by means OF
ciphers and bribcs in 1876. 1t was the begin
ming of a foul scheme to steal the Presidency
this year. II the fraud had not been defeated
in Maine, the men of that State would have
votes felt than the men of Alabama have
Scoundrels in office would have made what re-
turn they pleased, votes or no votes.
There is not an honest man in Maine who
does not feel that it would be q foul shame If
the thieves who did this thing should now be
lifted to high honor and power by the people
whom they tried to rob. Yet there can be no
vote for the Fusion ticket that is not vote to
crown with honor and trust with power this
same band Of thieves There are Democrats
who mean to be decent and have no saste for
part in theft 80 vile aud wicked. But they
are partisans, and long to help their party,
| which seems to them to be right in its aims,
though wrong beyond measure in the means
| chosen in Maine. They must choose; will
they make the swindle their own, and defend
and reward it by their votes for the sake of
party? 1t is for them to say. Even for their
| party 1t would be far worse in the long run to
have such crime upheld by their votes than
to have it marked with such infamy, and hunted
down with such punishment, that no man
could afterwards say that the Democratic vo-
| ters had made the crime their OVID.
The Greenback voters have no sach cause
| for doubt. The crime was not their own. The
| party which robbed Republicans in Maine has
| robbed the Greenback men in Alabama and
| will rob all men in all States where it can in
| order to win. No sensible and clsar-headed
| Greenback man thinks that the choice of
President, If by any chance it could be thrown
into the House, would not be made by the
| party Of Free Fraud That party would vote
| out of their seats twenty members, il necessary,
in order to get the votes Of majority Of
States. No party except the Democratic party
Sy hs psops is e Ss
back men want to make Democratic infamy
their own, in order to get themselves beaten
by Democratic fraud? 1t will come to that IT,
| by helping the party Of fraud to honor and
4 power in Maine, they can give it strength
enough to win in other States.
No other crime, In free country, needs to
De hunted down 50 surely and swiftly as the
crime against the rights and majesty of the
| people. In 1876 there was Just wrath because
| tie people of several Southern States were
robbed of their rights by fraud and terror and
bloody violence, but the victims were mainly
black, and the scene was far off, and many
men did not know what to believe. The peo-
ple Of Maine have seen with their own eyes
that foulest of all crimes in free country.
They need no testimony from afar off and ig-
norant Witnesses no flood Of affidavits; no
accounts by political pilgrims, to tell them
how the matter stood. The crime was done
before them, in broad day, aud those who tried
to rob State Of its right to rule itself are
known. Maine has them within reach OF its
lash. If they 60 unwhipt, we may look for
vote stealing to become fashionable hereafter