Year: 1879




Democratic DisintegratiOn.


The Rockand Opinion has accepted the
grecnback nominee As its candidate for Gov
ernor this year, and placed the name of .Io-
seph l.. Smith, of Oldtown, at the head of
its editorial columns. In taking this step in
advance of the action of the democratic CON
vention. called to meet at Bangor July lst,
the Opinion practically admits what has long
been evideut to unprejudiced observers, that
the democratic party in Maine is breaking up.
if indeed it has not already gone to pieces.
The Opinion has heretofore been a great
stickler for democratic usages and democratic
candidates, and has empted the vials of its
wrath upon the heads of all who have pre-
sumed to differ from it. Now it has placed
itself outside of the lines of the party of
which it has been so fierce champion, and
endorses a man who is not a democrat, who
never was a democrat, and who stands on
platform of which the financial planks, at
least, are utterly opposed to democratic prin-
ciples and practice. The Opinion, it should
be stated, not only accepts the Greenback
candidate. but endorses the greenback plat





sistently stand 1t gives Gov. Garcelon a
parting kick, in saying that the democratic
leaders ''would not make an effort to elect
him again if they knew they could succeed;
and of the call for a democratic convention
at Bangor il SAYS: ''rhe action of that con
vention will have no moie affect on politics
than the assembling of sew
ing circle And this from a journal
which has been so ready heretofore
to call the democracy of Knox to arms to
battle for democratic principles. True, the
Opinion had heretofore so weakened in the
democratic faith as to sit at the feet of the
soft money god in company with Solon
Chase Brick Pomeroy, and the free lovers
and communists of Chase's Chronicle; and
it is therefore hardly surprising to find it bid
ding defiance now to the rules and usages of
the democratic party.


The Opinions change of front will not con-
vulse the universe, however, and is of no
real Importance in itself. We have referred
to it simply as one of the many evidences of
democratic disintegration in this State-a dis
integration which is the natural result of the
folly, to use the mildest possible term of
the party leaders and against which the Jour
nal has labored earnestly but in vain. The
democratic party in Maine, which in 1877
cast 60, ABB votes for Hon. J. G.. Talbot for
! Governor, last year cast but 2S,2lS for Garce-
lon, against STOOL republican and II ,37l
grcenback votes; while this year it is practi-
cally dsbanded and out of the field. 1t is
even uncertain whether the convention which
the Opinion says ''will have no more effect
on politics than the assembling of sewing
circle" will be held; and if it is held, it will
in all probability simply seal the death war
rant of the democratic party in Maine. This
is perfectly logical result of the suicidal
policy of the past year. When the wreckers
were permitted to cut the moorings of
the staunch old democratic ship, it was only
II question of time when she would
drift into the breaker; and go to pieces.


The condition Of the National Democracy
is little, if any, better than that of the demo
cratic party of Maine. OF its prominent
members a few, very few, have protested
against the departure from time-honorcd prin-
ciples and precedents; but not one of them
has had the courage to remain true to his con-
victions. All have meekly succumbed to the
will of the revolutionary majority The So
called democratic party of Thurman and Hen
dricks is no more the democracy of jackson
and Benton and Marcy and Woodbury., than
the party projects of Thurman and his asso-
ciates are an expression of the political beliefs
Of fJackson and Livingston. In the eagerness to
secure the spoils of office, all that gave to the
democratic party its past prestige and power
have been forgotten or ignored, its future in
fuence destroyed, and the very means adop-
ted to ensure success can only result in de-
feat and disaster The two great parties have
changed front on the money as well as on 9TH
er questions The field the democracy have
abandoned is now held by the Republicans
THAT which now goes by the name of demo-
cratic party" says the Chicago Times sis
party of fiscal dishonesty; party combined
in hostility to honest money, in favor of pro-
jecting the practice OF papa government into
an unlimited system of financial swinding
and of entering upon all manner of paternalistc
Improvement schemes in order to demoralize
and curse the country with pestilence OF
sham money imitation. The men who now
employ the word democrat as the convenient
handle of party organization have wrcnched
il from meaning it once had and made it
synonymous with almost every form of polit-
zeal badness; almost every method of econo-
mic humbug and fraud" All of which is
true. On the other hand the stone which the
democratic builders have rejected has become
the corner stone of the republican party,
which is to-day the party of honest money a
party which upholds the national, faith the
party of law, order and and reform.


While the democratic leaders, or rather
thost " no coHtfOi what was once the demo-
cratic party, but is so no longer, are appeal
ing to the passions and predjudces of the ig-
norant--the repudationists, the Communists
and the fiat money fanatic cs--the republican
party adheres to the good old democratic doc
trne of hard money, and will have the sun
port of the intelligence of the country, of its
commercial and industrial interests-in short.
OF all who believe in honest money and an
honest government. Speaking as we feel we
have the right to do, for the hard money dem
ocrats of this section, at least, we declare
now, AS we have frequently done heretofore.
that they will not sacrifice their principles bv
adopting the policy Of the so-caled democrat
ic leaders in Maine; and that they will not
vote for any candidate, Of any party, who is
not in full accord with their views on the
money question. They will adhere to
democratic doctrine of hard money wherever
It may lead them, and at whatever cost, be-
lieving it to be the only true and honest poll
cy and believing, too, that an honest dollar
for all, and a stable currency, can alone en-
sure both individual and national prosperity