The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-09-21
BY TELEGRAPH.
THE ELECTION.
Fusion Gains in Aroostook Towns.
AN OFFICIAL COUNT PROBABLY NEG
ESSARY TO DETERMINE THE RE-
suit

The returns are nearly all in, but many of
them have been received by telegraph and
therefore are liable to be inaccurate. The As
sociated Press sent the following bulletin yes
terday, which of course is based on the as
sumption that the returns received have been
accurate. Several errors have already been
discovered, and it is not improbable that others
will be, perhaps of sufficient magnitude to
wipe out Gov. Daviss apparent plurality.
The following additional returns have been
received:
Davis. Plaisted.
Fort Kent, Aroostook. ,.......,, Is 1853
Long Island, Washington. %
A net Fusion gain of AZ. Four more Aroos-
took towns remain to hear from, which gave
last year Davis 80, Fusion 10Y.
The vote from 499 towns as reported to the
Associated Press therefore now stands:
Davis. ........ .....,....... .............73,437
flaisted. lS6
Scattering ............. ................ 338
Daviss plurality ...........,... ........ PSI
Senator Blaine to Marshall Jewell
Boston, Sept. Ex-senator Blaine, who is in
the city sent the following telegram today:
BOSTON, Sept. 20.
To Hon. Marshall Je,ceu, Chairman Repubh-
/ left Maine on Friday last Intelligence
reaches me here today indicating that the
telegraphic reports of votes as published by
the Associated Press is in some cases modified
by the clerks returns they reach the office of
the Secretary of State, where they are open to
the inspection of the public. These notifications
are of such character as to render the contest
between Davis and Plaisted extremely close
possibly requiring the official returns to deter
mine which is elected. The official returns
cannot be counted or even opened until the
meeting of the Legislature in January. The
cry Of fraud in the count put forth by Mr..
Chairman Barnum is sufficiently answered by
the fact that both parties in Maine have re-
course to precisely the same authority for their
hgures--first the kilograms of the Associated
several towns. The agent of the Associated
Press at Portland, Mr.. Stephen Berry, is i'm
plicitly trusted by all parties, and is incapable
Of wilful misstatement or evasion. His expert
ence in summarizing election returns is as long
and as varied as that of any man in the coun-
try. Up to this hour there is not particle of
dispute between the parties in Maine touching
the returns from single town. The only DOS
sible opportunity for frauds in the election re-
turns under our laws is in the French planta-
tions of Aroostook, where the assessors sign
return expressed in language with which
they are entirely unacquainted. The Demo-
cratic English speaking agent who makes out
the return has abundant opportunity for mis-
stating the facts. do not assert that the re-
turns from those plantations are fraudulent.
for do not know it, but do assert and do
know that frauds have been committed there
In past years by Democratic agents, and re-
peat that nowhere else in Maine is fraud prac
ticable. The fraud of last year was not in the
returns at all, but consisted wholly in Gov.
Garcelon and his Councils rejecting returns
that were honestly and regularly made.
Mr. Chairman Barnum is also in palpabl9
error when he assumes that all the election re-
turns should be at Augusta the day after cleo
ton. He forgets that Maine is larger in terri
tory than the other five New England states
together and that the southwestern-most town
in Maine is nearer to any point in the state of
Delaware, nearer indeed to the city of Balti-
more than it is to the French plantations in
the upper st. John by any practicable route.
In this statement speak of actual distances.
In point of time the comparison would be still
more significant, for man can go from Au-
gusta to Chicago as quickly as he can 90 from
Augusta to Fort Kent. The talk of Mr. Bar
mum about the fusionists of Maine being
counted out is mere rant. There is rot Dem
ocrat or Greenbacker in Maine who has the
slightest fear of such result. The late Gov.
Clifford used to boast that the Wing party
was the only one in existence that would count
itself out Of power and surrender to its oppo-
nents on an adverse majority of one vote, al
luding to the case of Marcus Morton as gov
ernor.
The Republicans of Maine, when beaten in
1873, could have retained power on two or
three technical points in the count Those
who planned the Garcelon count-out of a year
later expected the Republicans to do it, and
suggested fear of it, but there was not sim
gle member of the party that ever harbored
such a thought. If Gen. Plaisted shall have a
single vote more than Gov. Davis the execu-
tive chair of Maine for the next two years is
as we'll assured to him as tho Ugh his majority
were 10 900.
(Signed) J. G. BLAINE.