St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-09-12
Mr.. BLAINE AT HOME.
Allied to an Established System Of
Political Corruption.
wholesale Purchase of Votes and. Debase-
mint of Citizenship.

Ne" YORK. Sept. 10.-This mornings World
prints the following dispatch from Augusta:
Inc apologists OF Mr. Blaine have been busy all
DAY trying to justify his cowardly dodge Of a
vote on the prohibitory amendment He tried
10 explain it himself last night when he said be
dlu not vote on the question because il was state
issue The election of Robe was also state issue
out ne voted for it, His prohibition friends like
Neal Dow and Arson Morrill, are ready enough
TO forgive him under the circumstances They
would nave forgiven HIM almost as readily IL he
had voted against the amendment, it it were evil
ueht TO them he would gain political adj
vintage thereby. The party which sup
ports Blaine here and keeps him in
power Is as bad US he is. 1t would
follow him to any extremity, al. excuse him for
every wrong. In Augusta he has built up po.
htlcai system that is thoroughly Illustrative of
MS character. He it was who made bribery at
the polls fine art, and who fastened upon the
civil service of this state set of bosses and
strikers whose chief work is to serve party ends
IN ways good or bad. All the political dirts
work in Augusta is done by Office holders. These
are nearly all Prohibtionists and church nerS1
Ders, from Joe Manly, the eminent postmastes,
down TO the Waterman at the state house but
they viii make a compact with rumseller in the
twinkling Of an eye
some OF the more richly plumaged ones get
drunk when they are outside the state limits.
MIR. Manly knows this is not a SANDER There
are forty clerks in the postoffice of the city OF
augusta, the whole population of which is not
over o,oOO That is about as many as are gen.
orally found in postoflces of cities having 100 600
lhhaoltants. These clerks are expected to do
political duty The forty clerks of the postoffice
are forty political messengers, whom Boss Manly
SENDS hther and thither on whatever mission he
sees fit. These chaps and others were out in
full force Monday and helped to distribute the
huge corruption fund that was given to carry
this city fer Robbie by an increased majority.
Dozens of men who have heretofore voted the
Democratic ticket sold out for fixed price to
bribers after they had learned that there was no
prospect of remuneration from their own party
leaders. Some Of them were so persistent and
anxious that they came to a Democratic leader
and said that they had been offered SO by Joe
Manlys agent, but that they would not desert
their party if they could get but half that sum-
1heY we're sent back, and, it is supposed took
the money from the other side, for they voted
the Republican ticket l mention these facts. to
indicate IN some degree, the corruption that
prevailed at the election Monday. 1t is not a
statement out of the way to say that $4,000 men
in Maine sold their votes
The Republicans have won dearly bought
victory IN MGine-dearly bought, both because
OF the actual dollars and cents it has cost and Of
the sacrifice they have made of the most sacred
principles that underlie free government. If
truthful account of the bribery practiced
throughout the state could be given, it Won
not be believed. The bold audacious and inso-
lent purchase of votes right here in Augusta is
simply incredible to one who did not see it. The
only way the American pesple could be convinced
os such wholesale corruption of the ballot would
be TO loO& down and behold for themselves men
bought and marched up to the polls in herds like
so many servile hearts. 1t must be matter of
some humiliation to the friends OF Mr. Blaine TO
know that the most fragrant outrages in the
whole state were committed in his own city
where the voting population does not exceed
2.020. Talk of COpiah and Danville of southern
prescription, Of the negro of any wrong or in
justice TO individual freedom or the public vel
fare!
Faults found in some quarters with the Ma
tional Democratic committee because it did not
make better canvass in Maine All accounts
ganization and their affairs were badly managed
from the first. still the National committee
could have accomplished but little, even though it
had been provided with money TO squander on
Maine, 1t could not have competed with the
Blaine manages in the business OF buying and
corrupting voters Blaine was compelled to
make good showing in his own state at what
ever cost. His exhaustive labOrs, his navy yard
frauds, his swnding alliance with Greenbaclers
and Prohbitionsts and his wholesale expendi-
ture of money has produced what? Less than
Republican majority in a presidential year.