Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1878 — The Election in Maine. [ARTICLE]

The Election in Maine.

Monday’s election possesses emphatic political significance. Maine is a Commonwealth which has ranked as one of the reliably Republican States since the organization of that party. It has for twenty-two years annually placed a Republican in its Executive chair, and in that time has sent but one Democrat (L. M. D. Sweat, of Portland,) to the House of Representatives. During this time the Democratic organization in Maine has steadily preserved its vigor, despite its chronic minority condition, ana has never failed to make an active campaign an indispensable preliminary to any important Republican victory. The date of the annual election has as to make the contest in that State in the years of general elections both important and spirited, and politicians have always awaited its returns as affording the earliest instructive indications of the drift of any uncalculated currents of public sentiments. In 1876 the Greenback party began systematic work inMaine, effected a skeleton organization, and managed to gain a foothold in districts which were suffering from the prostration of the ship-building and lumber interest*.

But it polled only slightly over 500 votes in the September election of that year, and did not give but about 650 to the Electoral ticket of Cooper and Cary. The agitation, however, was kept up, and in last year’s Gfiibernational election over 5,250 votes were given to the Greenback candidate. Throughout last fall and winter, while Republicans and Democrats relaxed party work, the holding of Greenback meetings, the-organization of Green- . back clubs, and the circulation of (greenback papers were untiringly pushed, add at the town-meetings of last spring upwards of 20,000 votes were cast for local candidates on Greenback tickets. From that time until early summer there was a rush into the Greenback organization, and its spreading for weeks seemed like an epidemic. At the usual’time the “ old parties” placed their tickets in the field and commenced work. Their treatment of the new factor in the contest was characteristic. The Republican ConvenItion declared for a policy of uncompromising hostility to that party, and its papers and its speakers have fought the campaign through unflinchingly and courageously upon that line. The Democracy, true to its mischievous instincts, went half way to “ Nationalism” in its platform and the whole distance in its tactics, going even to the extent of a complete alliance with the “Greenbackers” in one Congressional District and in seven of the sixteen counties. — : The Republicans have not swept the State; they have not elected a solid Congressional delegation; they have unsecured the large Legislative majorities which have been theirs usually. But by the courage and the honesty and the sterling good sense of their canvass they have held firmly together the great mass of their vote and have maintained the integrity of their organization. The Democracy has not even saved honor from its wreck. Its voters have deserted by thousands into the “National” ranks. Of the three parties it is the lowest in the poll. With the cheap cunning, sp characteristic of its petty leaders, hundreds of its votes were cast for “ National” candidates in special cases; the aim of these tactics was merely Republican damage, but the net result has been its own disastrous overshadowing by the apparent “National”strength. The “Nationals” have demonstrated their importance as a factor in present political contests. Their actual successes in Maine were chiefly due' to Democratic assistance. The Republican plurality in Maine is large, and the vote but slightly diminished from the average. Every week of active campaigning improved Republican prospects, and the only mistake in the tight was the delay in its commencement. The result establishes these facts: That “ Nationalism” means placing the Legislative power of the Government in the hands of demagogues like Ladd and Murch. That the Republican is the only party which possesses the requisite vigor for meeting this dangerous assailant. That the vitality of the Democracy is so sapped by “Nationalism” that it affords a pathway for rather than a barrier against that public peril. — Detroit Post and Tribune.