The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1880-02-06
VOL. %.
THE MAINE CONTEST.

On Wednesday evening of last week
an immense meeting was held at Angus.
ia, Maine ex-governor Morrill, presid.
ed, and senator Blaine was the principal
speaker. The following extracts from
his speech are interesting. They fully
explain the position of the Maine Re
publicans through the trying contest
they have had. After thanking the
meeting for the enthusiastic reception it
had given him, Mr.. Blaine said:
1--WE have had long and trying CON
| test with desperate men, who sought
| TO disfr2nchise voters by the thousand.
and to substitute false count for an
honest ballot as the source of power
| in the state government, but for all
our troubles and trials, and for all
the wrongs we have so patiently
endured, we are this day richly
repaid when we remember the instru-
mcntalities by which we have triumph
ed. Without firing gun. without shed
ding drop of blood without striking a
single blow, without one disorderly as
semblage, the people have regained their
own rights through the might and mai
esty of their own laws. Friends ut a
distance wonder why we did not use
force on the very first day of the session,
and seat the Republican members of the
legislature who were duly elected. That
might easily have been done, for Rcpub-
licans were present in the proportion OF
four To one; but when we had got
through with it we should only have
proved that we were physically the
strongest party. We should only have
established the fact that our tribe could
give the loudest war whoOp, and could as
semble the largest number of braves for u
given battle, and after the battle was
over we should have been remanded to
the trial OF our title. We preferred To 90
to the court and have our title confirmed
in advance. 1t was our belief that as
plaintiffs we could not improve our
stand in court by committing breach
Of the peace ON the threshold of the
chamber of justice We remembered
that VIC were II New England communi-
", and we believed that, of all the New
England states, Maine had sieen the
most exempt, from its origin 10 the year
1879, from every form of defiance OF law.
A law student in Yale College, when
asked what he would do in case of IN un-
lawful occupancy of his land, answered
that in New England he would proceed
by writ Of ejectment, but in Texas he
would take a double barrelcd shot gun
We dSiCCh Win tut itN SluutUl. anu
stuck fast 10 the writ of ejectmcnt."
Speaking of the fraud attempted by
the FusiOnists, Nh Blaine said the APP
paliing feature of It was the unanimIty
of the support it had from the leading
Democrats and Grecnbackcrs. He men
toned ten prominent men of these par
ties who repudiated the fraud, and these,
he said, were all But vast numbers of
the rank and file opposed it, and many
of these have become utterly and perma-
nently estranged from the party leaders
In conclusion he said:
"The Republicans of Maine, and
throughout the land, felt that they were
not merely fighting the battle of a single |
year, but for all the future of the state |
Not merely fighting the battle of our
own state alone, but for all the states |
that are attempting the great problem of |
state government throughout the world |
The corruption and destruction of the |
ballot Is crime against free govern |
ment, and when successful is Il subver- |
sion Of free government. 1t is this fact /
which has carried the interest in the |
far out and beyond cur own
borders, and il is this fact which renders |
our peaceful and lawful victory of such |
priceless value. One year ago, in the |
North American Review, in discussing
the cognate question, and before / !
had ever dreamed that Il crime against
the ballot was possible in Maine, / used
some words which | venture, il closing
my remarks, to quote, as opposite to the
great subject we are now considering:
The mighty power of II republic of So
100000 of people, with a continent for
their possession, can only be welded
permanently by being welded honestly
in fair and generous struggle, by par
tisan power. Let us not forget those is
sues and those ends which are above
party. Organized wrong will ultimately
be met by organized resistance. Impair
tial suffrage is our theory; il must be-
come our practice. Any party of Amer
lean citizens can bear TO be defeated, but
no party of Americans will bear to be
deirauded. The men who are interested
in IA dishonest count are units, and the
men who are interested in an honest
count are millions. | wish To speak for
the millions of all political part es, and
in their names to declare that the repuh-
Tic must be strong enough, and shall be
strong enough, to protect the weakest of
its citizens in their rights. To this sim
pie and sublime principle let Us, in the
lofty language of Burke, attest the adj
vancing generation between which, us Il
link in the great chain Of eternal order,
we stand"