The Portland daily press., 1886-09-03
THE MAINE STATE PRESS,
BLAINE AT DOVER.
In an Able Speech he Shows the In
consistency of Gen. Dow's Course.

In an Able Speech he Shows the In
consistency of Gen. Dow's Course.
DOVER, Sept. although the camp meet
ing in Foxcroft and the fair in Bangor have
taken large number of people from this
vicinity, still large audience from the towns
throughout the county has gathered at the
meeting, which was addressed by Messrs.
Blaine and Gibson this afternoon. So far as
the weather was concerned, the gathering
was highly favored. The day was perfect
one, and the attendance large. 1t was esti-
mated at between 5000 and 5000. Every OBJ
tainable position within hearing distance
was occupied. Mr.. Blaine was many times
during his speech interrupted by enthusiastic
applause. The meeting was called to order
by j. B. Peakes of the State committee. G.
HI. B. Woodbury. of Dover, was vice presi-
dent. Mr.. Blaine was introduced amid
great applause. He confined himself princi-
pally to the protective tariff and prohibition
questions, speaking about thirty minutes.
Mr.. Gibson followed with characteristic
speech in his own inimitable manner.
After referring to the tariff and the strong
majority in Maine fer protection, Mr.. Blaine
said that in fair contest between the Re-
publican and Democratic parties the former
would always be sure of a large majority.
The only hope the Democrats have of cut
ting that majority down is from the vote of
the Third Party Prohibitionists, and this
vote, probably small in any event, would be
nothing in this State except for the active in
terposition of Gen. Neal Dow. The course
of Gen. Dow is the one inexplicable feature
of the campaign. 1t is contradiction of
the position which even in the last two years
even within the last two months, he has
steadily maintained. 1t is perhaps not fair
to hold man answerable for his opinions of
% or 80 years ago, but there should be a
statute of limitation, l admit, on political
tions, but | think that mans consistency
might, at least in moral and political issues,
be as long as the six years responsibility for
financial obligations. In January, 1885, Mr..
Dow was criticised by some persons, by
some Third Party Prohibitionist, for main
tanning his adherence to the Republican par
ty. He warmly defended his course, and re-
hearsed in glowing colors the triumph of
prohibition under the Republican admins
tration in Maine, and reproachfully said to
his censors: ''When you have done the same
in your State, you will be in position to adj
wise us as to what is the best and wisest to
do in mine" Six months later Gen. Dow
again replied to an article in the North
American Review, which declared prohibi-
tion in Maine was failure. He argued the
mode in which the prohibitory law was ad-
ministered under Republican rule, declaring
in effect that it had destroyed and removed
95 per cent of the liquor traffic in the State,
and added: 'The Republican party of Maine
has always, at all of its conventions, pro-
claimed to all the world the vast benefits,
moral and material, coming from prohibition
and they have finally, by a solemn vote, put
prohibition into the Constitution as the re-
suits of an experience of more than thirty
See Seer ana rhs S Oy yyad maaeny aen 3oM d vnfee
am confident will be held by all
unprejudiced people to be conclusive that
the Maine law has not been and is not now
failure, but great success" Five months
later, in November, 1885, Mr.. Dow declared
that 1.-THE Maine law is as well executed as
any other on our statutes, and the effect is
good and the moral and material interest is
SO great that it cannot be measured by any
mode of computation now known to US"
Eight months later in June, 1885, nearly two
months ago. Mr. Dow wrote to the English
Temperance Alliance that "The Maine law
administered, mark yOu,-"by the Repub-
lican party has driven every distillery and
brewery from the State, has stopped nine
teen-twentieths Of the liquor traffic, and had
added $10,000,000 annually to the wealth of
the State. After these four public and pro-
nounced attestations to the candor and eff
cheney of the Republican party of Maine in
its support of prohibition, Dow at the end of
20 days, mounts the public platform and de-
clares that the Republican party is no more
trustworthy in prohibition than the Demo-
cratic party, which has for all these years
been steadily opposing prohibition, and now
the Democrats cunningly hiding behind a
political sneer are waiting to have Dow and
his associates do their work of their own party
The Democrats invoke his aid to defeat Mr..
Reed in the First Congressional District, to
defeat him though he is the leader of the
Republican side of the House (applause) and
represents the political principles for
which Mr.. Dow has been fighting for nearly
Dow's party to defeat Captain Boutelle in
this district, ,salthough he has been the most
earnest of Republicans, and as stringent a
total abstinence man as there is in the State.
They invoke his aid to defeat Mr.. Milliken
in the Third District, although his zeal and
activity in the support of protection are OF
vast interest and advantage to his constitu-
ents. To cap the climax the Democrats in
woke Mr.. Dow's aid, and are receiving it, to
defeat Nelson Dingley, with his long and
consistent record OIL zeal Tor the temperance
cause, to elect in his stead Alonzo Garcelon,
of whom l hereon say nothing Qaughter),
and the Democrats further invoke Mr.. Dow S
aid to elect a Democratic Legislature that
will send an anti-prohibitionist and anti
protectionist to represent Maine in the Sem
ate of the United States. | don't
wish to speak of Gen. Dow in other
terms than those of personal respect.
We have been friends too long to permit me
to speak of his kcourse, except in words of
deep regret. To speak of it with the pro-
found belief that he will himself awake
from it some time as from an ugly dream. OF
all men in the State of Maine, who might be
expected to have been in coalition with the
Democracy to be aiding and abetting their
designs to help their candidates, certainly
Gen. Dow in the opinion of his friends
would have been among the last. applause
Mr.. Blaine spoke at length Of the material
interests of Maine, of the vast increase of
wealth in the State since the Republicans
gained national power in 1861, Of the deep
and abiding concern which all the great in
dustries of Maine had in maintaining pro
tective tariff, and it was because OF these
great industrial presents and of the destruc,
tive effects which a repeal of the tariff would
have upon the labor of the State that he ap-
pealed to the voters of Maine to be con-
sistent with the Republican party, Republi-
can policy and Republican representatives
in COnprnSS IT oud annlaucp and cheering.