MAINE. 



515 



The Democratic State Convention assembled 

 at Portland on June 18th. Mr. Charles W. 

 Larrabee was made both temporary and perma- 

 nent President. On taking the chair he spoke 

 at some length, alluding to the counting in of 

 Hayes, and saying that we intend to abide by 

 the result, but lauding the present investigation 

 by which the truth may be known hereafter. 

 He thought all these questions should he set- 

 tled within the Constitution. The action of 

 the Electoral Commission was the natural out- 

 growth of Grant's administration, in which 

 the Southern States were kept in a state of 

 vassalage. The day is past when all questions 

 can be answered by waving the bloody shirt. 

 He honored true soldiers, but despised bummers. 

 Democrats demand an administration of the 

 Government for the people and not for the 

 Government, and a settled financial policy, so 

 that people can be secure by receiving com- 

 pensation for their labor. The following reso- 

 lutions were adopted: 



Besolved, That we still hold to the principles of 

 the national Democratic party as announced in its 

 conventions arid supported by its press for the last 

 ten years, and wherein we demand 



1. Payment of the bonded debt of the United 

 States as rapidly as possible. 



2. No further issue of Government bonds whereby 

 equal taxation with the other property of the country 

 is avoided, for we believe that equal taxation of every 

 species of property according to its real value, includ- 

 ing Government bonds, is due alike to the moneyed 

 and labor interest of the country and consistent with 

 the Democratic principles, which abhor privilege and 

 know no class, condition, or section. 



3. That we are opposed to an irredeemable cur- 

 rency, but believe in currency for the Government 

 and people, the laborer and officeholder, the pen- 

 sioner and soldier, the producer and bondholder. 

 We are opposed to the present national banking sys- 

 tem, and favor the gradual substitution of greenbacks 

 for national-bank bills. 



4. We fully endorse the action of the majority of 

 the members of the House of Representatives in their 

 investigation of the election frauds by which the 

 country was cheated and robbed of the honest and 

 rightful possession of the offices of President and 

 Vice-President of the United States, and insist that 

 the guilty parties, whoever they may be and wherever 

 found, should be punished, truth and justice vindi- 

 cated, and a repetition of the like offense be made 

 impossible. 



5. We demand that all legislation shall he so enact- 

 ed and so administered as to secure to each man aa 

 nearly as practicable the just rewards of his own 

 labor. 



6. Annual elections and annual sessions of the 

 Legislature are unnecessary. It is the duty of the 

 Legislature to submit to the people for ratification 

 the amendments recommended by the late Constitu- 

 tional Commission changing the elections and ses- 

 sion of the Legislature to biennial, also changing 

 the time of elections to November, and also abolish- 

 ing the Executive Council. 



Resolved, That fourteen years of misgovernment 

 by the Republican party since the close of the war 

 now finds every industry of the country prostrate 

 and labor seeking in vain for employment. It has 

 "been a rule of rings in the interest of officeholders 

 and monopolists, and there is no hope of prosper- 

 ity but in retrenchment and reform, and no hope 

 of reform save in the expulsion from power of the 

 reigning dynasty and the restoration of the National 

 Democracy. 



The following resolution was Jaid on the ta- 

 ble by a vote of 181 ayes to 167 noes : 



We oppose all laws which are unjust or unequal 

 in their operations, and especially those that oppres- 

 sively afflict the poorer and humbler classes of soci- 

 ety. The existing legislation in Maine relative to 

 the sale of liquors as now executed works wrong and 

 hardship. Amendments, we believe, are necessary 

 so that the suppression of an evil in society may be 

 promoted without violation of the rights of any 

 citizens. 



Dr. Alonzo Garcelon was nominated as the 

 candidate for Governor by a vote of 210 out 

 of 329. 



The Republican State Convention assembled 

 at Portland on July 30th, and 903 delegates 

 were present. Mr. Lewis Barker was made 

 both temporary and permanent President, and 

 took the chair with merely an expression of 

 thanks. The following platform was adopted : 



The Republicans of Maine in convention assem- 

 bled, as an exposition of their political aims and 

 principles, declare as follows: 



After twenty-two years' control of the State Gov- 

 ernment, they invite the most rigid scrutiny into the 

 manner in which their great responsibilities have 

 been discharged, and point with satisfaction to the 

 fidelity, economy, and success with which the pub- 

 lic affairs of the State administration have been con- 

 ducted, and the material and moral interests of the 

 people cared for. 



Temperance among the people may be greatly pro- 

 moted by wise prohibitory legislation, as well as by 

 all those moral agencies which have secured so benefi- 

 cent results ; and it is a source of congratulation that 

 the principle of prohibition, always upheld by Re- 

 publicans, is now concurred in by so large a majority 

 of the people, that it is no longer a party question, 

 the Democrats for several years having declined to 

 contest and dispute it. 



The Constitution of the United States declares 

 that "the citizens of each State are entitled to all 

 privileges and immunities of citizens in the sev- 

 eral States," and we hold it to be the primary and 

 sacred duty of the national Government to protect 

 and maintain the exercise of all those civil, politi- 

 cal, and public rights by every citizen of the United 

 States. As Republicans we are solemnly pledged to 

 maintain these principles; and until they are cheer- 

 fully obeyed, and if need be vigorously enforced, the 

 work of the Republican party is unfinished. 



The Republican party is committed to nnremitting 

 efforts not only to secure the legitimate results of the 

 war, the sovereignty of the Union, the equal rights 

 of all citizens, and the free and untrammeled right 

 of suffrage, but also to redeem the pledges which the 

 Government made to those who furnished the means 

 or gave their services to save the Union ; whether 

 these pledges are in the form of bonds or greenback 

 notes, we insist that both forms of the debt of the 

 nation shall be paid with the same fairness and in- 

 tegrity with which the honest man seeks to pay his 

 individual debts. 



We demand honest money for the people. Our 

 currency must be made as good as coin, and redeem- 

 able ill it. The Government promised this ; the 

 Republican party has legislated to perform it ; and in 

 the course of resumption, now nearly accomplished, 

 there must be no steps sideways or V>ackward. 



We congratulate our fellow citizens on the unmis- 

 takable evidence that the near approach to a stable 

 currency is preparing the way for an early perma- 

 nent revival of business and industry, so long de- 

 pressed by causes growing out of a gigantic civil 

 war, among which a depreciated and fluctuating cur- 

 rency is most prominent, and greatly aggravated by 



