The Portland daily press., 1882-08-10
The Fruits of Fusion.
Boston Journal.)

ADosIOH OouIndlJ
The fusion of all those in Maine whose cry is
anything to beat the Republican party and get
the offices is now in its fourth year, and its
legitimate fruits begin to appear in confusion,
distrust and dissension. This is illustrated in
the recent county convention in Cumb erland
county. We speak OF one because, although
there was one held by each party, both were
controlled by the same set of political manip-
ulators. The two conventions met and, despite
Gov. Plaisted's letter to his friend "Sam," for
bidding bargains and alliances, the first thing
each convention did was to appoint conferenc
committees to parcel out the offices for which
the respective conventions should make nomi-
nations. This preliminary arranged so as to
secure the nomination of such men as had pre-
yiously been agreed upon, except in one case,
the conventions proceeded to their work
The Democratic convention got into an ex :
citing wrangle at once over the nomination
of Senator from the Portland section of the
county. Mr.. Charles Mccarthy, leading
Democrat of Portland, opposed the nominal
ton of Mr.. D. W. True on the ground that
the caueuses in Portland had been packed by
him. He further charged that the party eau
cuses have been so packed by few managers
in Portland that no respectable Democrat can
consistently attend them. Mr.. True was one
of the counted-in Senators of the Garcelon
conspiracy, and Mr.. Mccarthy was opposed to
carrying that scandal into the campaign. Fur
thermore, it was too much to ask 1900 uatur-
allied and Catholic Democratic voters in
Portland to vote again for a man who had been
a member of a secret society organized to os-
tracise foreign-born citizens and Catholics
the Patriotic Sons of America-and hundreds
of them would vote against him. The ballot
was taken, and when the result was an
nounced Mr.. True had 101 out of 126 votes.
The two commi tees could not agree as to
which convention should nominate the
candidate for County Attorney, and agreed to
leave it to a joint ballot. As the Democratic
convention was the larger, its candidate, a
Democrat, was nominated, defeating very
prominent Greenbacker. When the ticket
thus nominated is considered as whole, it is
found that two of the four candidates for SEN
ator are residents of Portland ana a
third a resident sof an adjoining town,
and that the candidates for all the
county offices except one Commissioner
ing towns. A Greenbacker publishes letter in
the Portland Press in which it is charged that
the straight-out Democrats controlled both
conventions, and that the ninety Portland del
egates in both conventions acting together
were able to overslaugh the representatives OF
"crosS roads and back lots" Several delegates
went home indignant, while the Irish Democ-
racy, which constitutes so large part of the
party in Portland, is not only ignored by hav-
ing no representative on the ticket, but feels in
suited because one if not two candidates have
been members of a secret society hostile to
them within ten years One convention reaf-
firmed the Tilden platform and the other the
Greenbsck heresies. This is, however, of lit
tie consequence, since the combination exists
simply to get offices, and the defeated ones,
who are the majority, are dissatisfied because
those who are more adroit have won the priz-
es. Fusion no longer fuses. Next time there
will be only one convention-the Democratic.