The Portland daily press., 1880-09-10
The Contest IN Maine.

The contest in this State has brought out
in strong contrast the distinctive features of
the two great parties which for weeks have
been making Maine battle ground. On
the one hand the Republicans, represented
on every stump in the State by speakers of
wide reputation and long experience in pub
lie affairs, have discussed in the broad spirit
OF National craftsmanship, the great ques-
tions that the people should consider calm
ly and soberly and decide in an bipartisan
and patriotic spirit. On the Republican
side there has been an open, fair and con-
sistent fight made. The great party that
elected Abraham Lincoln, that carried the
country through the hot and hurried days of
the war, that met and settled, one by one,
the great questions that grew out of that
war, that conceived and carried to a sue
cessful issue the plan of resumption, that
has given us currency good wherever civ
ilization is found-that party has had moth
ing to conceal, nothing to take back, no
new promises to make, no old promises to
ignore. The Republican party has come
before the people of Maine and pledges it.
self in the future to repeat the past, to ad-
minister the government in the interests of
the whole people. 1t asks that the will of
the people be respected, that National hon.
or be kept free from spot or blemish, and
that the people hold the plighted faith of
the Nation as a sacred thing. 1t enters it's
protest against the attempt of Garcelon and
the men who rode and spurred him to tram
pie down popular rights, as it enters it's pro-
test against all outrages upon the popular
will anywhere. 1t stands forth as the cham
plon OF free speech. 1t claims for itself and
for all others the right of free discussion. 1t
would protect Mr.. Randall and his brother
Greenbackers in their right to speak in
Maine or in Alabama. 1t stands firm for
the right OF every citizen to vote for the
candidate OF his choice. And it asks, also.
that having voted, his vote shall be
counted. Believing that it represents the
people, that its success will be the success of
the people, the triumph of right, the secur-
ing OF free ballot, an honest count and
free speech in all the States of the Union,
NFFSNSS W eAAS POOPlC VI Iudl1t 10
between it and the mongrel party, the un-
holy alliance, the combination for spoils
that paradoxically calls itself the .sUnion
party" but is everywhere Extensively known
as the Fusion party.
On the other hand the Democratic and
Greenback party, united in one, rolled to-
gether, one flesh made of twain, become one
IN issues as in name, proclaim as the sole
rallying cry in which their voice can join,
Anything to beat the Republican party.''
They can give no valid reasons why that
party should be beaten and driven from
power. The Democrats have many reasons
they might advance but dare not proclaim
for their reasons would be an Impeachment
OF the war undertaken for the Union and a
dispute OF its result. Their allies have had
one plank of their platform taken from un.
der their feet by the success of the resump
lion act and the other broken down by the
| enormous weight of the 10000 fraudulent
majority in Alabama So, bereft of all cam
paign cries but one they can shout in com.
mon, they cry, Anything to beat the Re
publican party" They dare not impugr
the record of that party; they dare no,
openly dispute the great questions which il
and the people consider settled. And even
their audacity, brazen and shameless as il
is, is not quite equal to the open declaration
OF their secret wish, their real desire for ''s
change"-a change in the offices.
Contrast these two methods of making
campaign. Contrast the history and tn,
professions of the parties which are callin.
for your choice, voters of 3taine, and theI
make your decision.