The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-08-10

wealth that has been produced within tbs last
twenty wears. The census now in progress
clearly discloses that the future. progress OF
Maine depends largely upon the establishment
of manufacturing industries and Just while
we are, from year to year, increasing our en-
terprises in that direction, the Democratic
party proposes rash and radical change in
our system of revenue-a change fatal to the
future development of the water power ana
industries in Maine. As if the Democratic Ma
tional Convention had particularly selected
Maine for resentment and injury, they demaud
that in future the commercial policy OF the
country shall include rec ships, which means
that q British or Canadian ship, built on the
waters of the Clyde, Or on the st. Lawrence
or on the st. John, shall have precisely the
same rights and privileges under the American
scot or Kennebec, on the Hudson or on the
Delaware. OF course the demand for free
ships is made with the view of getting ships
cheaper, and If that be necessary this year it
will be still more necessary next year aud the
year after in still greater degree. This pol
icy will not long continue until the United
States will be completely dependent upon
Great Britain for her commercial marine and
ship building will become one of the lost arts
in America. Then, of course, if we shall
choose tolindulge in the luxury of naval esss
Enlistment we shall have to depend on Great
Britain for our vessels of war and this policy
might prove strikingly convenient in case hos
tilities should ever break out between England
and the United States. If you shrink back
from this absurdity of depending upon our
chief rival in the world for the means of pro-
viding our naval defences, then say to you
that the maintenance of governmentkshipyards
for the construction of vessels of war, after
you have destroyed or surrendered your mer-
camille marine, would cost the government far
more in dollars and cents every year than it
would require from the national treasury to
maintain line of steamships by proper gov
eminent aid from all the principal ports in the
United States to all the principal ports of
Europe, Asia and South America. The United
States will soon have to determine whether
she will haul down her colors as a commercial
nation Or whether she will adopt the same
means for building up great commercial ma
rine that England has so successfully pursued.
The Democratic party propose to abandon
the contest, strike the flag, surrender to Great
Britain and become the mere dependent on
the great nation which we are easily able to
rival and surpass. Free ships as announced
in the Democratic platforms means the throw
ing open of our coasting trade to vessels 1of all
nations. From Washington's administration
to this hour the coasting trade has been re
served for vessels of American construction
sailed by American crews, and the proposed
Democratic policy is the swift destruction of
the great leading interest in Maine. With all
the dulness of shipping consequent upon the
war and the piratical cruisers Name has built
day Lincoln was inaugurated, vessels that ag
gregated nearly ambition and half of tons,
costing the day they were launched $4,000
600 OF this vast sum the larger proportion
was paid to mechanics and it has distributed
| itself throughout the length and breadth of
| the State and especially throughout the coast
| towns-more than $12, 900 day for every Sec
ular day of every year during the whole period
| the Republicans have governed the nation. If
Maine wants to strike that down and declare
shipyards in Canada as well worthy OF protec-
ton by ourfgovernments as shipyafds on the
New England coast then let her vote for
Hancock and English and she will
probably have leisure in the silence Of
| folly that drives her to assail the in
terests of her own homesteads and her own
homes.
In addition to these great national rea-
sons for the people of Maine renewing their
| expressions of confidence in the Republican
| party, we have State issue of portentous mag
| nitude. From the foundation of the govern
| ment of Maine in 1920, down to the year 1879,
we were blest with good government and hon.
est administration. No matter which party
was in power, whether the old Democratic
| party or the old Wing party, or the Republican
party, there was general confidence on the part
of the whole people in the integrity and up
rightness of the administration. Election
frauds were unknown in the State; suffrage
was perfectly free, and election returns were
conducted with scrupulous care and impartial
ty. In the entire sixty years in the election of
legislature annually there had been but fifteen
cases in which the Irregularities and detective
ness of returns were such as to deprive the
Governor and Council of the power to give the
certificate to the man who was probably eNct-
| ed, and in every one OF these cases when refer
red to the legislature the rightful man was
seated. But when Governor GarceJon and his
Council came to count the returns of last years
| election they found returns defective in SO
many towns that thirty-seven members of
the legislature actually elected were count
| ed out and thirty-seven men that were actual
| ly defeated were counted in, and thus the leg
| islature, strongly Republican in both branches,
was changed to Democratic or fusion MAORI
| ty in both Senate and House. These thirty
| seven defective cases all happened to be Re-
| publican, and the town officers of Maine, who
| in sixty years had made but fifteen mistakes or
| one on an average every four years, were sud-
| denly found by Gov. Garcelon and his Council
| to have made thirty-seven fatal blunders in a
single year, and all these mistakes by a singu-
lar freak of fol tune happened in Republican
towns. The Democratic returns were alleged
Republican returns that were defective" S 's''''
| Well, I need not rehearse the scandalous
| story. 1t is familiar to all of you. 1t involved
| every possible form of official misconduct, ly-
ing, swindling, forging, fraud and force, and
| every other offence necessary to achieve the
result arrived at. 1t was simply setting aside
the verdict of the people of Maine without re-
gard to law, fact, honor, decency or truth.
And these men, after this atrocious offence
against popular rights and honest elections,
are now appealing to the people to be
indicated. They were not able to
usurp legislative powers They were not
| able to pass the scrutiny of an upright judi
| ciary, one of whose ablest judges has always
| been conspicuous member of the Democratic
| party. Up to this time it has only been Gov.
| Garcelon, his Council and their immediate
aiders and abetters that have fallen under
| popular condemnation, but at the approaching
| September election every citizen of Maine is
| called upon to vote his appreciation or disap-
| source of popular power and to destroy the
principle of popular election. A vote for Gen.
Plaisted will everywhere be taken as an ap-
! proval of the fraud; a vote for Gov Davis will
| everywhere be taken as condemnation of the
| fraud.
| Hon. Thomas Fitch of Nevada followed Mr.
Blaine, making speech iull of telling
points, and which was listened to with close
| attention.
Upon the adjournment of the meeting
the procession was reformed and march
ed to Post Office Square, where; the most
beautiful banner which ever foated in the
state was raised, bearing the names of Garfield
and Arthur, Hon. VIM. P. Frye and Governor
Davis, which was most heartily cheered by
| thousands, during which there was magnif-
cent display of fireworks. Music for the even
| ing was furnished by the Bath Cadet band and
| a drum crops. This was unquestionably the
| grandest meeting ever held in the lower Ken