

MAGNESIUM. 



MAINE. 



603 



the fulfilment of the claims now made in vir- 

 tue of this grant. The moral obliquity of such 

 a course, which would throw the country back 

 into the barbarism from which it is but just 

 emerging, to satisfy the greed of a trading com- 

 pany, and compel the confirmation of an unjust 

 grant, seems not to have occurred to the writer ; 

 but on a question where the moral sympathies 

 of all Christendom would be opposed to her, 

 France cannot afford to ignore the ethical bear- 

 ings of her action. 



MAGNESIUM. H. Sainte-Claire Deville and 

 II. Caron describe (Ann. de Chim. et de Phy- 

 sique, Ixvii. 340) their most recent and im- 

 proved method of obtaining this metal in 

 absolute purity, with an account of its proper- 

 ties in that condition. The pure metal has a 

 density of 1.75, is very ductile, and when 

 burnished affords plates of a slightly bluish or 

 violet tint, and of great lustre. The surface 

 tarnishes in the air, but not more rapidly than 

 that of zinc, and the oxidation is never very 

 deep. The metal fuses at about the fusing- 

 point of zinc ; a little above this it burns with 

 an intensely brilliant flame. The preparation 

 of the pure metal magnesium, as in the case 

 of pure aluminium, is growing into import- 

 ance in connection with the arts and with com- 

 merce ; and it has been suggested that the 

 former metal may at no distant day become 

 extensively used as a substitute for silver. 



MAINE. The political campaign in this 

 State commenced on July 1st, when a conven- 

 tion of the Kepublican party, numbering nearly 

 1,300 delegates, from 300 towns, assembled at 

 Bangor, to nominate candidates for Governor 

 and other State officers. The call for the con- 

 vention was made by the Republican State 

 Committee, but embraced all persons in favor 

 of sustaining the administration in its efforts to 

 subdue the rebellion. On the second ballot 

 Samuel Cony was nominated as candidate for 

 Governor; and subsequently a series of resolu- 

 tions were adopted declaring, in substance: 

 First That it is the solemn duty of all loyal 

 men to take a firm stand in favor of the na- 

 tional administration in conducting the war. 

 Second That the convention would " unite as 

 one man in sustaining the civil and military 

 policy and measures of the Government, with- 

 out qualification or reservation." Third That 

 those assemblages of northern citizens who 

 had protested against the arrest of persons en- 

 gaged in discouraging enlistments, " while they 

 have expressed no execrations against the foe 

 now invading the free States," were not to be 

 trusted as counsellors in the present crisis of 

 the country ; and Fourth That Vice-President 

 Hamlin and the two Senators in Congress be 

 requested to repair immediately to Washington 

 and urge upon the President " the importance 

 and' necessity of placing along the coast a 

 sufficient naval and military force to protect 

 the commerce of the country from the piratical 

 depredations of the rebels." Mr. Cony, who 

 had in the previous year been a prominent 



member of the party known as the "War Dem- 

 ocrats," and had canvassed the State in favor 

 of the election of Jameson, the candidate of 

 that party, accepted the nomination and the 

 platform of principles established by the con- 

 vention, and during the succeeding canvass the 

 Eepublicans and the War Democrats, by whom 

 he was supported, formed an organization un- 

 der the name of the Union party. 



On August 6th, the Democratic party met in 

 convention at Portland, about 900 members 

 being present, and organized by the choice of 

 Samuel Jaycox, of Fairfield, a former Whig, as 

 president. The prominent candidate for Gov- 

 ernor was Bion Bradbury, who had been se- 

 lected in the same capacity the previous year, 

 and as doubts existed in the minds of several 

 delegates as to the views which lie held re- 

 specting the conduct of the war and the policy 

 of the administration, a letter from him on the 

 political position was read to the convention. 

 The following extracts indicate the purport of 

 this communication : 



The convention has most important duties to per- 

 form. It assembles amid the unspeakable horrors of a 

 bloody and desperate civil war. The country is oscil- 

 lating between despotism and anarchy. The long con- 

 tinuance of the war has stirred the deep passions of 

 men. The voice of reason is almost drowned in the 

 terrific storm that rages around us, and madness rules 

 the hour. The times and the occasion demand calm 

 deliberation and the_ exercise of the highest wisdom 

 and the noblest patriotism. All mere party views sink 

 into insignificance, and the intensely absorbing ques- 

 tion arises, what can be done to save the country from 

 impending ruin ? It seems to me that the hope of re- 

 storing the Government rests in the united action of 

 all conservative men, in resisting the fanatical spirit 

 of radicalism largely pervading the land, which now 

 controls, with its revolutionary doctrines, and per- 

 nicious influence, the counsels of the present national 

 administration, and in substituting in its stead an en- 

 larged patriotism and a liberal statesmanship which 

 look alone to the conservation of the Constitution and 

 the restoration of the Union with all the rights of the 

 States unimpaired. 



After recapitulating what he considered the 

 arbitrary and unjust acts of the administration, 

 he continued: 



Are the people of Maine ready to concede the claim 

 set up by the national administration to that despotic 

 power w'hich could deprive them of their dearest rights 

 and most sacred privileges of all those noble guaran- 

 tees affecting life, liberty and property, which are se- 

 cured to them by the grand old Constitution established 

 by their fathers", as the embodiment of the great prin- 

 ciples upon which rests the base of the mighty fabric 

 of the Government? I believe the people will never 

 acquiesce in such doctrine. * * * * 



But opposition to the present war policy and war 

 measures of the administration is not opposition to the 

 Government. The administration is not the Govern- 

 ment. Those in authority are but the agents of the 

 people to carry on the Government under the Consti- 

 tution. They may exceed or pervert their constitu- 

 tional powers they may destroy the Constitution 

 itself. Under such circumstances, to oppose the ad- 

 ministration is to support the Government. 



To uphold the Government, to maintain the Consti- 

 tution, to restore the Union as it was is the first duty 

 of every citizen. To fail in the duty is to be false to 

 ourselves, to posterity and to the great cause of con- 

 stitutional liberty, and it is equally a duty to protest 



