New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-18
Dirty or HONEST yOrERS IN MAINE.

The men who tried to steal a State last year
are Tor Hancock Why not' With them are
the men who have stolen Alabama, and other
Southern States, by means not less dishon0r-
able. 1t is the party of Free Fraud, just as
the Republican is the party of Free Speech
and Free Men. The difference ought to be
app eciated in Maine, and will DC.
Credit is due to most of the voters of the
Greenback and Democratic parties in Maine
for honesty of intention. They wanted 10 carry
a State; not to steal 1t. They were sadly
mistaken as to the causes of their opposition
to Repubhcanism, but they did not mean to
make scoundrels of themselves, nor will they
unless they excuse and try to reward the
thieves. That must be the test, after all.
The political swindlers who cOntnyed tue
Infamous fraud of last year were the leaders
of two parties, and those parties are now
united. The same leaders are at the front.
If the fusion succeeds, some of them will be
elected to offices of high trust and honor, and
all will be rewarded. The voters of the two
parties will do as they like about it, If they
want to make the crime their own, and
to take on their own brOws the brand OF
shame, they Can do so by votes for the
Fusion party.
Men of Maine who read and think can
hardly need to have the facts brought home
to their minds. The State chose Il Republican
Legislature of that there was and is no sort
of doubt. Men who knew this, who had no
doubt of it then and have not the face to
pretend. that they doubted now, set about the
work of stealing the State. They had no ex-
cuse, and knew it, Elections III Maine are well
l,,, nj ;,c+ I,x bn hon,
sincularly free from fraud. The Republicans
have held the State for many years, had votes
enough to hold it again, and were united,
while their opponents were divided. The
count was so shameless and Infamous that
decent Democrats by the hundred cried out
against it, and the thing would never have
been tried but for the plots of that clique
which failed to get electoral votes by means
of ciphers and brides in 1876. 1t was
the beginning of foul scheme to
steal the Presidency this year. If the
fraud had not been defeated in Maine,
the men of that State would have had no
more chance this year TO make their votes
felt than the men of Alabama have. Scoun
drts III Office would have made what return
they pleased, votes or no votes.
There il not an honest man in Maine who
does not feel that ii would be foul shame
if the thieves who did this thing should now
be lifted to high honor and power by the peO-
Die whom they tired TO rob. Yet there can he
no vote for the Fusion ticket that IS not n
vote TO crown with honor and trust with
power this same band of thieves. There are
| Democrats who mean to be decent and have
no taste for a part in a theft so vile and
wicked. But they are partisans, and long to
help their party, which seems to them to DO
| right III its aims, though wrong beyond meas
ure III the means chosen in Maine They
must choose; will they make the swindle
their own, and defend and reward 1t by
their votes for the sake of party 1t Is
| for them to say. Even for their party
it would be far worse in the long run
to have such "A crime upheld by Their votes
than TO have il marked with such iniaDy, and
hunted down with such punishment, that no
man could afterward say tnat the Democratic
voters had made the CRIME their own.
, 'ahe Greenback voters have no such cause