Year: 1879

Nature and Purposes-Reasons Why


the Greenback Issue is Still Alive in


Maine.


Maine politics for the past year have been
an enigma to people in other parts the coun-
try. Why they ask, should a ~ s.liarly in
telligent State in the far East be badly afflicted
with the soft-money folly, after the Western
States have nearly outgrown it? Why should
crude and dishonest notions of national finance
crop out along the Kennebec and the Penob-
scot rivers after they have been argued out of
existence ON the Wabash and the Miami? And
why, above all, should this singular phenome-
non occur in 1878 on the eve of specie pay
ments, and continue in 1879 after the logic Of
successful resumption has demolished what
little remained of the Greenback mania in
other sections of the country? Everybody
knows that in Pennsylvania Ohio, Iowa, and
Michigan there is nothing left of the former
Greenback organization but the disappointed -
leaders and handful of fanatical dupes All
over the North, except in this extreme eastern
corner of the country, the fight OF this year is
square one between the Democrats and the
Republicans over the issues raised in the late
session of Congress. Yet here in Maine the
Democratic party has almost gone out of exist
ence, and the Greenbackers are making bold
push for the Governorship and the control OF
the Legislature. Looking at this .ious state
of affairs, and hearing the same untruths and
half-truths repeated about the currency and
the national debt which were exploded in Ohio
as long ago as 1875 and 1876 one is almost
ready to sympathize with respectable citizen
ha chall
to abolish the school tax as soon as possible
".Here we have been levying higher taxes for
public education" he says, ethan any other
State, and it turns out that we have moro fools
in proportion to the population than any Sec
tion of the country"


At the first dip into the politics OF Maine
correspondent naturally seeks solution to the
puzzling circumstances Of the existence OF
formidable Greenback party, reiterating all the
stale soft-money and reputation talk current
in the West from 1868 to 1876 1 cannot say
yet whether the explanation hear is broad
enough fully to cover the facts but L give it
for what it may be worth, hoping in time to
discover other reasons if any exist. 1t is said by
Republicans that the hard times did not begin to
be much felt in Maine until 1876, and that the
real pinch did not come until 1877. As the
State was the last to suffer from the general
depression, it is naturally the last to recover.
1t has no great agricultural crop to make the
farmers prosperous by succession OF good har-
vests. The hard-times croakers cannot be an
swered as in the West by pointing to vast ex-
panses of ripening corn and fields OF golden
wheat. Nor is it dstinctvely a manufacturing
State like Pennsylvania, where the clang at
the forge and the roar of the furnace puts to
shame the false logic of the cheap-money ora
tors The wave of returning prosperity is not
wholly unfelt here, but it has not yet produced
any conspicuous effects which the defenders OF
a sound currency can show to confute the
sophistries of their antagonists and when they
refer to what is going ON in other States tney
are charged with Misrepresentation The
Greenback orators brazenly affirm that the
country is worse off than ever, and that "Sher-
mans sham resumption" is hurrying it to per-
dition.


The second cause assigned for the strength Of
the Greenback party, and one to which L think
even more weight should be attached than to
that Just cited, is the Generalization OF the
Maine Democracy. The Democratic party in
this State has been SO long out OF power that II
has come to be without leaders of force and
character to hold it up to principles or even to
the policy laid down by the leaders of its ma
tional organization. The prospect OF getting
office causes it to lose its head and eagerly to



traditions of half century are thrown to the
Winds and theories advocated which are abb
horrent to what used to be looked upon as car
dinal Democratic principles, and this for the
mere chance of a few seats in the Legislature
and few county and State offices. The Maine
Democracy has always been hard-money
party up to this year, and has had no sympathy
with Pendletonism or Bill Allenism or Ewing
ism or any of the forms which the reputation
idea has assumed in the West. Even last year
it did not openly abandon either its principles
or its organization. This year it has abandoned
both. Its State ticket is a mere catch to save
the votes of the stubborn old-fashioned Demo-
Gratis who will not support the Greenback can
didates There are few thousand OF these
men-perhaps twelve or fifteen thousand IN
all-but all the rest of the party is shamelessly
may be twenty thousand simon-pure Green
hackers in the State; but the remainder OF the
organization which is making so much noise is
composed of Democratic Hessians detailed 10
swell the franks OF the new party and make
demonstration of strength to draw off Republi-
can votes. -


The Democratic papers are practically
Greenback organs. Their columns are filled
with articles attacking the financial policy oil
against the Greenback nominees, and very lit
tie in favor of their own candidates. All their
effort is to gain votes for the Greenback ticket.
The depth of abasement into which these Or
gans have fallen may be judged from the TACT
that they were all in times past as earnestly in
favor of resumption and hard money as the
Republican papers themselves. iou have al
ready heard the terms of the coalition between
the Democrats and the Greenbackers There
is no secret about it here. Indeed, there would
be no use trying to keep it secret, for the ac-
tions of the parties betray the bargain. fu,
sion tickets are run for county offices and
members of the Legislature, while the State
tickets are kept separate. The scheme con-
templates defeating the choice for Governor by
the popular vote, the election OF Smith, the
Greenback candidate, by the Legislature, the
preservation of the relations between the par
ties to the trade through another year, the sue
cess of a coalition electoral ticket in 1880, and
the return of Pillsbury, the old Bourbon DEM
ocratc leader, to the United States Senate IN
place OF Hamlin. The Democrats furnish the
money to run the Greenback campaign. They
hold no public meetings OF their own. Iney
keep their State ticket in the background and
make no efforts to gain votes Tor IT, Its only
use is to enable faithful hard-money Demo-
Gratis to vote straight party ticket and keep
them from staying at home or going over TO the
Republicans in disgust venture to say there
never was an instance before III the pontlcal
history of the country where great party SO
deliberately demoraized its own organization
and threw away its principles for a chance OIL
beating its antagonist


The money to run the Greenback canvass, L
have said, comes from Democratic sources.
There is good reason for believing that large
share of it comes directly from Mr. Tilden's
barrel. Is it possible, you will ask, that Mr..
Tilden can be accessory to the scheme for
breaking up his own party in Maine and ap-
sorbing it in the ranks of the Greenback or
ganization, whose doctrines he abhors? Yes;
and he knows exactly what he is about, too.
He makes no mistakes i'll the game he
is playing. If the Republicans can be beaten
in Maine this year, the coalition operating
against them will be solidified in 1880 into the
support of Tilden electoral ticket, and the
result of close Presidential election may be
determined by detaching from the Republican
column New England State which has led
the way in the struggles for freedom and ma
tionaity for twenty-three years. The scheme
is certainly not exactly the one which states,
man who depends on great moral forces
ought to be engaged in but is it to be expected
that the man who tried to steal the vote OF
Oregon by the bogus Cronin electoral college
will be shocked at its unprlncipied eharacter'


E.v.S.


Letter from Scott.


The Wallace Burlesque-Old Coffee-Pot