The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-02-05
SENATOR BLAINE.

His Address TO the People Of Augusta RE-
thank you most sincerely and most
deeply for the manner in which you
have received me, and I congratulate
you that we once more meet as peaceful
citizens of Maine, under the protection
of legal State Government, chosen by
the people, with the validity Of its title
patent to the world. We have had a
long and trying contest with desperate
men, who sought to disfranchise voters
by the thousand, and to substitute a
false count for an honest ballot as the
source of power to State Government;
but, for all our troubles and trials, and
for all the wrongs we have so patiently
endured, we are this day richly r paid
when we remember the instrumental
ties by which we have triumphed with
out firing a gun, without shed ding a
drop of blood, without striking a single
blow, without one disorderly assemblage.
The people have regained their own
rights through the might and majesty
of their own laws. Friends at dis
lance wondered why we did not use
force on the very first day of the SEES
sion, and seat the Republican members
of the Legislature who were duly elect
ed. That might easily have been done,
for Republicans 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 stronger party. We should only
have established the fact that our tribe
could give the loudest war-whoop, and
could assemble the largest number Of
braves for a given battle; and, after
the battle was over, we should have
been remanded to the courts for
trial of our title. We preferred to go
to the court and have our title confirmed
in advance.
1t was our belief that as plaintiffs we
could not improve our standing in
court by committing a breach of the
peace on the threshold Of the Chamber
OF Justice. We remembered that we
were q New England community, and
we believed that of all the New En-
gland States Maine has been the most
exempt, from its origin to 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 trespass
and an unlawful occupancy of his land,
answered that in New England he
would proceed by writ OF ejectment.
but in Texas he would take double
barreled shotgun. We agreed with the
law student, and stuck fast to the writ
Of ejectment. We went before an hon
est court, before non-partisan court,
before court that could not be used
to promote the party interests of any
set OF men, before court as able and
upright as twas fearless, and as learned
as any that sits within the limits of the
Union, or on the Federal or State
benches, and with the judgment of that
court in our hands we quickly took pos
session of the State Government, and
firmly hold it to-day.
With the right incontestably estao-
lished, with technicalities, evasions,
bubbles, frauds. and forgeries all
brushed aside, the administration of
Daniel F. Davis stands to-day strong in
the confidence Of the people. The law
has again asserted It's supremacy. Or
der rules everywhere, and the people,
who but yesterday crowded in our
streets in the grim determination that
fraudulent Government should not
be put over them, have quietly returned
to their farms and workshops, content
ed, sure in possession of their birth
right and their inheritance. :
The conspirators who were foiled in
their bad designs are adding great folly
| TO their already terrible record. In
leaving the State House they have
taken away the seal of the State, and
| they have also distracted the returns
of the election, which they had pre-
viously falsifed. Perhaps IN this last
act they were endeavoring to murder
the witnesses of their evil deeds for the
past three months, but, whatever their
motive may be-petty and impotent
malice; or an attempt to hide the evidence
OF their guilt they may be assured
| that they cannot ennbarrass the State
| Government, and will only add, if that
be possible, to the guilty condemnation
under which they are now resting. In
selling the great seal they seem desir-
GUS OF emulating the infamy Of En-
| glands worst King; but they will find
the act as harmless to the rightful Gov
eminent as William found the spiteful
venom of James; and, should some
lucky fsh-net again drag the seal to
light, it would only be useful as lasting
memorial of Democratic and Green
back conspiracy and its impotent end.
Mr.. Chairman, the Republicans of
Maine and throughout the land felt that
they were not merely fighting the battle
of single year, but for all the future
of the year; not merely fighting the
battle Of our own State alone, but fol
all the States that are attempting the
great problem of State Government
throughout the world. The corruption
! or destruction of the ballot is crime