The Portland daily press., 1880-01-23
Maine as an Example.

Let not more fortunate States take pride
to themselves that they are exempt from the
scandals which have Of late disgraced
Maine They are simply sparel for pres
ent time, so long as the Democratic party,
bound to rule or ruin, lives among them.
The attempt to steal the Presidency was the
beginning. The attempt to osteal the govern
ment of Maine as the prelude of another at
tempt on the Presidency, was the second
step, and the next blow wiz fall wherever
the opportunity next offers. A party whose
members unhesitatingly announce their con-
tempt for all legal decisions, justice and
equity, will stick at nothing. The rise of
the Greenback party here gave them their
opportunity, and the promptness with which
they put Col Blood and other communists
in command, and the readiness with which
they thrust forward the red hand Of cccfa.aa-
grafton shaking torch as threat to their
opponents, shows what they wish to do.
And yet how terribly they will undeceive
themselves if they think to enjoy power got
in that way. When the Jacquerie got con-
troll in France in the olden time, they des-
froyed and devastated until all society united
against and destroyed them. When the
wild spirit of revolution obtained control, its
leaders found themselves powerless to direct
the storm they had raised, and the torch,
the knife and the guillotine reigned supreme
Once more it raised its hideous head during
the Prussian War, and called itself the Com
mune, and again the world stood aghast
We have the same thing among us to-day.
1t is lingering trace of early barbarism. 1t
takes us back not simply to the dark ages,
when bloodshed prevailed, for they did re-
spect the idea of property and marriage then,
but to those earlier days of whose history
we read only in the pages of buried caves,
when man fought man to tear away his prey
or his offspring. That is the condition to
which we should revert if these doctrines
could be carried out. First the Commune
confscates the property of the rich, then
takes the property of the poor, revels in
lcentiousness, all become poor alike, and all
debased together. If the Democratic party
go where their leaders are pointing, that is
where they will arrive; and when all is lost
for a generation, they will be seeking aid to
chain the demon they have loosed.
Can any one doubt the possibilities when
he sees Col. Blood put forward at the first
opportunity? Is there State where they
cannot find some able, unscrupulous Demo
cratic leader who was traitor in the war,
ready to sell his State to the enemy, and
ready ever since to sell it to the devil if he
can obtain money or place? Is there any
State where you cannot find a.rich dema-
gogue ready to grind the face of the poor
and yet ready to incite them to revolution if
he can thereby obtain power? Is there any
State where crafty, unscrupulous, low fell
to follow these men? Is there any State
where there cannot be found some Demo
Gratis mean enough to join these men in or
der to regain their lost power?
If these men exist in other States, what
lacks but opportunity for them TO try the
same tactics introduced by Mr.. Tilden? And
if they are. e.introduced, can they hope every
where to find the Republicans patiently
waiting, day after day, for the slow process
of the law, or will they sometimes lose their
self-command and inaugurate civil war?
Maine has gone through a terrible trial
and has come out with her garments un-
stained with blood; but who of her sister
hood dare willingly risk such an ordeal?
Everywhere society is made up of three
classes The moral men who love and re-