Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-09-06
He Charges TWO Attempts by
Them to Purchase His
influence.
An Interesting Chapter on Re
form Methods" in Maine
LEwIsTON. Sept. 5.

the straight greenback state commlttee SENDS
the Associated Press a printed slip, the chief
portion of which we copy below, which he
says was to appear in Them Steers Tues
day afternoon, under the signature of Scion
Chase:
If there are honest men who believe what
the fusionists are now spreading over the
State, that l am Influenced by republican
money, to such want to say that the offers
Of brides have come only from the other side,
and date back to the time Of the last Presi-
Dental election. The next day after the
Weaver electoral ticket was nominated, Gov.
Plaisted and Frank Hill of Exeter, made q
pilgrimage to Chase's Mills. They came
unlimited. Their mission was to persuade
me to do what my conscience did not approve
to take down the straight ticket and support
the fusion ticket.I was then editor of Chase's
Enquirer. Gov. Plaisted said if 1 would fall
into the fusion line l could have all the SUBJ
scribers l wanted. Gov. Plaisted said that
Mr.. Hill would pay ME $500 on the spot to
start and steady the game, and my paper
should be put in every school district in the
State. Arguments were used to show me
that on the fusion line should live and die
a great and honored man, and the end of the
straight road was obscurity Gov. Plaisted
plead with my wife to show her how much
better it would be for us. He failed to con-
vince Aunt Ann, and went away without
having accomplished his object, but returned
the next day with another aid, Richard Frye
of Bethel, who was on the straight electoral
ticket. While Gov. Plaisted, Frank Hill
and Richard Frye were trying to persuade
and bribe me to lie down in a bed of roses to
the end of my days received the following
letter from the secretary of the board of
trustees of the Enquirer Publishing Co.,
showing me the bed of thisties in store for
me if did not change my course.
LEWISTON, Sept. %, 1880.
l have been informed this morning that
you propose to advocate a straight electoral
ticket, and do not propose to abide by the
almost unanimous decision of the State con
vention yesterday. | felt sorry that you
could not see your way clear yesterday to
abide by the convention. Yoa, no doubt,
have listened more to advice from abroad
than at home. None know better the poll
tics of Maine than our own people. The
time has got to come when we must reOrgan-
ize our forces; but the tide is now set in
favor of fusion, and no man or dozen of men
can change the course until after election.
Should you attempt to run the Enquirer
;,,{ nfo ssstpa finLatv in Iafia Of
the party you have done so much to build up,
am informed that only one issue will be is
sued before change of editors will be de-
manded by the stockholders. Public senti-
ment is power that destroys kings, even,
and overrides all law and sets at naught the
counsels of the greatest and best of men.
You cannot afford to make a mistake now
You hold power over the greenback party
of Maine which you could WELD for good by
going with the party, but if you bolt your
usefulness is gone. felt last night you had
made mistake. and for your sake came
home sad and sober. We must govern our
actions by circumstances, but we cannot
govern circumstances.
Believe me sincerely yours,
G. 5. CoNANT.
To the above wrote the following reply:
CHAsE's Mills, Sept. "a, 1880.
c. S. Conant, Secretary Of the Board of
Directors of the Androscoggin Greenback
Publishing Co.:
Dear Sir-In accordance with your sugges-
ton retire from Chase's Enquirer, and re-
turn its management to the Board of Direc-
tors. When the Enquirer passes under
fusion management, l implore you for the
sake of my other children, to change its
name can be resigned to the Enquirer
buried, as l am resigned when stand over
the grave of my only daughter. The En-
quirer dies fighting for the cause as a dying
soldier on the battlefield finds an honorable
grave.
The Enquirer has been under my sole
management, and alone am responsible for
its utterances. If have done harm to the
greenback party am sorry: if have done
harm to either or both of the old parties, 1
am not sorry.
Your letter is very respectfully drawn, and
refers in complimentary terms to my past
labors and future usefulness, but it breaths
the spirit that pitched Lovejoy's press into
the Mississippi river. The stockholders of the
Androscoggin Greenback Publishing Co. own
the press and type that make the Enquirer's
thunder, and turn over the property into
their hands.
Six years ago. left the pillow standing
IN the furrOW, anu 1elt y call 10 preach, and
print a newspaper. l deserve 40 credit for my
past labors, to which you refer, for l could
not help doing the work did. To support
fusion electoral ticket in Maine, is to dis
courage and dishearten our friends in every
State in the Union; and 20 back to the pillow
to take little rest, where l can be found
when wanted. This dark night of fusion will
soon pass away and the sunlight of common
sense will again have sway, and then there
will be work for me. l can put no fire into
fusion campaign, and if l did not enter my
solemn protest against it by word and deed,
should feel myself traitor to the cause so
near my heart
Our cause can never die. The conflict
we are waging is irrepressible. We have not
to wait until better men are horn. before VIC
tory perches on our standard, for the green
back mothers, from the white birch hillsides
of the north, to the land of the olive and the
orange, are teaching their sons that the green.
back road. like the road to heaven, is straight
ahead"
Gov. Plaisted took the stump for Hancock.
I took the stump for Weaver, and the men
who tried to buy me spread the word all over
the State that myself and Weaver were hired
by the republicans.
l continued to run the Enquirer until the
next October, when the threat contained in
C. s. Conant's letter was carried out The