A brief history of Maine, Part 19

Author: Varney, George Jones, 1836-
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Portland, Me., McLellan, Mosher & Co.
Number of Pages: 674


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5. Petitions for the enactment of a prohibitory law in Maine were refused by the Legislatures of 1844 and 1845; but in 1846 a law was enacted which pro-


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THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.


hibited the sale of alcoholic liquors absolutely, ex- cept for medicinal and mechanical purposes. It was the first law in Maine, or elsewhere, that made the sale of liquor as a beverage illegal. This was a long step forward; but the penalties imposed were so slight that the law was practically useless,-except that it called public attention to the evils of the traffic, leading to renewed effort and better laws.


The cause of temperance was growing. In the following year the Supreme Court of the United States decided, without a dissenting voice, that pro- hibition laws were not inconsistent with the Consti- tution of the United States, nor with any act of Congress.


6. Meanwhile the people were becoming more and more enlightened in regard to the tendency of strong drink to destroy prosperity and degrade men and women, so that really good society might nowhere be found. The progress of the arts and sciences were holding out to mankind new and wonderful means of a superior condition of life, in the machinery for the manufacture of every conceivable article, and in the application of the steam engine to transport men and merchandise with great rapidity and small cost over sea and land, so that there came to be many new and profitable occupations for such persons as were qualified to engage in them. But the nice machin- ery could not be run by a person in any degree affected by intoxicants. Passengers would not trust themselves on railroads and steamboats if their lives were to be endangered by tipsy employés; so that the material forces of civilization, as well as moral and intellectual ones, were urging to sobriety and the banishment of the dangerous alcoholic drinks.


7. In 1842 the organization called "Sons of Tem- perance " was organized in New York city, and its divisions were speedily extended into Maine. Un- like the Washingtonian societies, its membership was


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formed chiefly of temperate people of good reputa- tion. It was largely social in its character, but secret iu its proceedings. The society proved very effective in cultivating a sound sentiment in the community in regard to beverages, and greatly aided in bringing about the adoption of more stringent laws relating to the liquor traffic. Nor was this the only associa- tion which contributed to the cause of prohibition. Others were the Independent Order of Rechabites, organized in 1842; the Cadets of Temperance, in 1845; the Temperance Watchmen, originating in Durham, Maine, in 1849; with the later organizations of Good Templars, the Juvenile Templars, Band of Hope, and the Loyal Temperance Legion.


8. The Legislature of 1851 was composed largely of temperance men ; and on the last day of the session it enacted the first prohibitory law that has proved , effective. The governor in that year was Dr. John Hubbard, of Hallowell, a Democrat, but who, as a physician, had accurate knowledge of the injury wrought by strong drinks; and he signed the new law the very day it came to him. This was the fam- ous "Maine Law." It was framed chiefly by Neal Dow, since so well known in America and England as the advocate of prohibition; who also, in 1844, had circulated at his own expense the first petitions for prohibition.


9. Up to the close of that day the dealers were selling their liquors freely, and had their usual large stocks on hand; the next morning all sales were unlawful, and their liquors were liable to be confis- cated and destroyed ; but the authorities very prop- erly allowed them a reasonable time for their removal. Very soon, in the cities where large quantities were kept, long processions of drays, full of barrels and casks of the mischievous spirits, were to be seen on their way to railroad stations and steamboat landings, going off to affliet communities in other States.


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Governor Hubbard, who had signed the prohibi tory law, was re-nominated by his party, but a large number refused to support him, and nominated an anti-Maine Law candidate. From this action it re- sulted that none of the several candidates voted for received a majority, and the election therefore de- volved upon the Legislature ; and William G. Crosby, a Whig, was chosen.


10. The law was amended, in order to make it more effective and acceptable, in 1853, and again in 1855. In the spring of the latter year a city agency for the sale of liquors for medicinal and mechanical purposes was established in Portland. The Mayor, in that year, was Neal Dow, who had himself taken care to purchase suitable liquors for this purpose, and they had been stored in City Hall, in which place the agency was to be opened.


The statement was thereupon circulated that Mr. Dow had, in violation of the State law, engaged in the liquor business himself. The police had been search- ing stores and dwellings for liquors kept for illegal sale, and the Marshal was called upon to seize and destroy " Mayor Dow's rum," as well as that of others. The Mayor called a meeting of the Alder- men in order to transfer the liquors to the city, as had been intended ; but while they were in session, the Marshal, armed with a warrant from the Police Court, seized the whole stock.


11. A crowd had collected about the depository of the liquors in old City Hall, in Market Square, which, in the evening, greatly increased, and manifested a purpose to destroy or get away with the liquors. No doubt some believed Mr. Dow had, by means of the law, secured a monopoly in liquor selling, and was about to engage in it for his own profit; but most knew the truth, and were moved merely by malice against the prohibitory law, and were glad of an op- portunity to avenge themselves upon its author.


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1855


THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.


The crowd still continued to increase, grew violent' and stones and brickbats were thrown at the doors of the City building. Soon after ten o'clock Mayor Dow, accompanied by a portion of the Rifle Guards, ap- peared upon the scene and ordered the crowd to dis- perse. They did not obey, but on the contrary, be- came more violent, and the Mayor gave the order, " First platoon, fire," but the order was not obeyed ; and the Mayor, escorted by a part of the company, left the scene. After the Guards had retired the riot- ous demonstrations increased. The police fired blank cartridges into the crowd, hoping to frighten them


away, but without success. About eleven o'clock the Mayor, with a portion of the Rifle Guards, under Captain Roberts, returned to City Hall. The doors of the liquor store were flung open, and firing began upon the crowd. A sailor was killed and ten or twelve persons wounded. At this the mob dispersed.


12. The Mayor was severely censured for ordering the fire, and was tried on a charge of having liquors in his keeping. The legal proceedings were long con- tinued, and it finally became evident that the whole movement proceeded from the hostility of those who hated the law ; and the persecuted magistrate was acquitted.


At the election in the autumn following the liquor agency riot in Portland, the vote for the Maine Law candidate for Governor showed increased favor to the cause, but a plurality of votes defeated him ; while a majority of the members of the Legislature proved to be against prohibition ; and Samuel Wells of Portland, who had been the Democratic candidate. was elected Governor. In the following session the prohibitory law was repealed and a stringent license law substituted. Then followed nearly two years when lignors were freely sold wherever there were found sufficient patrons to pay the annual license fee. There quickly followed a large increase of pov- erty, crime and public disorder.


1881


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THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.


13. In 1856 the members elected to the legislature were almost unanimously anti-slavery men, yet the license candidate for governor was defeated by an adverse majority of 20,000 votes. Slavery rather than temperance was the issue that year, but in the next year the increased drunkenness brought the question of prohibition or license into prominence. The legislature elected in 1857, therefore, contained many ardent temperance men, and in March, 185s. the Maine law, much improved, was enacted to go into effect on July 15th, 1358, with a provision that it should be submitted to the people the month previ- ous. The new law was approved by a large majority. Prohibition now became the settled policy of the State, and while neither of the national parties gave hearty support to the strict execution of the law, neither has since ventured to set itself plainly in op- position. At length, after more than thirty years experience of the benefits of the prohibitory policy to the moral and material interests of the State, a con- stitutional amendment embodying the principle of prohibition, was, in September, 1884, submitted to the people, and they chose to put it in the constitu- tion beyond the reach of repeal or change, at any one election, by a vote of nearly three to one, - a majority twice larger than any party or any proposition ever before obtained in Maine.


14. The constitution of the State now prohibits forever the manufacture of intoxicating liquors, and their sale, except for medicinal or mechanical pur- poses and the arts. The amendment went into effect on the first Wednesday of January, 1885.


The share of Maine in the national drink bill. if she filled her proportion, would be about thirteen millions of dollars, but it is believed that one million will far more than pay for all the liquor smuggle! into the State, or sold in violation of the law. So it will be seen that there is an annual saving by pro-


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hibition of about twelve millions of dollars directly, with an indirect saving in money and material, nearly, or quite as large. It is this saving and the resulting sobriety which renders Maine so prosper- ous, her people so intelligent, and her communities so happy, compared with places where the sale of liquor is unrestrained.


15. While there had been Temperance parties in Maine in 1853, 1869, and from 1880 to 1884, their organization had only served to stimulate other par- ties to enact and execute prohibitory laws. When the first prohibitory law was enacted the government was Democratic, and had been so for many years. In 1857, when the prohibitory law was replaced upon the statute book, the Legislature was largely Repub- lican, and so, also, was the Legislature of 1883, which framed the Prohibition amendment and submitted it to the people.


The reader of this history has found mention of many political parties, and some statement of their principles is necessary to an understanding of the influences which shaped public affairs.


16. The present Republican party was formed in Maine early in 1856, a little in advance of its organization in other States. The first three govern- ors of the State also belonged to a Republican party, but it was another one, having different principles, for the conditions of the two periods were different. The Republican party of 1820 took its rise at the period when the constitution of the United States was formed. Those who favored placing large pow- ers in the national government, were called Federal- ists, while those who thought that the States should be nearly independent of national control, were called Anti-Federalists, and then Republicans. Of the first. were Washington and the elder Adams, while the opposition was under the lead of Jefferson and Madi- SO1. During the French Revolution the Federal


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. party sympathized with England, while the Republi cans favored the French.


17. In the political excitements of that period the Republicans were stigmatized by their opponents as democrats. The name, though given as a reproach. was adopted ; and the party of Jefferson and Jack- son called itself Democratic-Republican, but its members soon came to be called Democrats, and their organization has ever since been the Democratic party. Foillowing the second war with England, the Feder- alst party came into a minority, and the name grew unpopular, and it adopted the designation of Na- tional Republicans.


18 In Maine. in 1830, therefore, these were the names of the two parties in the field. Governor Hunton was the nominee of the latter party, and the successful candidate. In 1831 the Democratic-Re- publicans had their turn, electing Samuel E. Smith as governor. By 1834 the last word of the name was dropped, and Governor Dunlap was elected as a "Democrat" simply ; and the National Republicans shortened the name of their party and vindicated their patriotism by adopting the name of Whigs, which had been the designation of the party of In- dependence at the period of the Revolution. These continued to be the names of parties in Maine until 1852, when the Anti-Maine Law party was formed. This drew so many votes from the Democratic party that its candidate for governor was defeated. Thus far Edward Kent was the only Whig elected gov- ernor in Maine, while the Democratic party had Governors Dunlap and Fairfield, Hugh J. Anderson. of Belfast (1844-1346), John W. Dana, of Frie- burg (1847), and John Hubbard, of Hallowell (1850-1852).


19. In consequence of the formation of the new party, there was formed in 1852 the Maine Law party. to antagonize it ; having for its candidate, in the fol-


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1855


lowing year, Anson P. Morrill, of Readfield. But William G. Crosby, the candidate of the Whigs, was elected governor, also obtaining the office in the following year by the choice of the Legislature. In 1854 Anson P. Morrill was the candidate of the Maine Law party and of the new " Know Nothing " or American party, and was elected by the Legisla- ture; no candidate having received a majority of the popular vote.


20. In the years since 1841, when the Liberty, or Abolition, party first appeared in Maine, the anti- slavery sentiment had been growing. In 1848 the party threw upwards of 12,000 votes. About this time the Free Soil party was formed, having a prin- ciple that gave it a national and a more popular character. It attained to considerable magnitude in the Middle States, and the Abolition party became merged in this-George F. Talbot being its first gubernatorial candidate in Maine, in 1849. It threw a variable number of votes until 1854, when they were divided between the Whig nominee and Anson P. Morrill, the candidate of the Maine Law and Know Nothing parties, giving him the largest num- ber, but not a majority ; and his election, also, came from the Legislature. In 1855 the Democrats had their turn again, electing Samuel Wells, of Portland, to the gubernatorial chair.


21. At this period new questions were claiming the attention of citizens, and, naturally, new parties were formed upon the new issues. The Temperance, the Abolition and the Know Nothing parties each had aims peculiar to itself: that of the Abolitionists or Liberty party being the abolition of slavery in the United States; and that of the Know Nothing or American party, opposition to foreign influence (es- pecially the Roman Catholic) in our public affairs. The Free Soil party, which the Abolitionists joined, had merely a more practical plan than they, but this


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also, a little later, became absorbed in the new Re- publican party. The latter arose in consequence of the effort of the slave power to gain possession of Kansas, where the resulting " Border Ruffian " out. rages were arousing the indignation and exciting the alarm of the most conservative people.


22. The principles of the new Republican party. formed in Maine early in 1856, were found to be con- sistent with the views of many of all other parties; while its leading principle of opposition to the ex- tension of slavery rapidly gained for it an immense following. John C. Fremont, the Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains, was its candidate for the presi- dency of the United States, while the pro-slavery candidate was James Buchanan, a Democrat, and who gained the election. In Maine, however, the Republican candidate, Hannibal Hamlin, was elected by a very large majority. Governor Hamlin having been chosen United States Senator, Lot M. Morrill. one of the noblest characters in American politics. was elected as his successor.


23. No other parties than the Republican and the Democratic appeared again in elections in Maine until 1860, when there was a small Whig vote ; but there was none the next year. There was, however. in this and the following year, a new organization called the War Democrats, who were simply Demo- crats who desired to support the government in the suppression of the rebellion by military force. Cole- nel Charles D. Jameson, of Bangor, was its candi- date in both years. After its second campaign it- members joined the Republican ranks, or went back to their old party. Again it was Republicans and Democrats until 1873, when Joseph II. Williams, of Augusta, who had twice been acting-governor. was the candidate of the Liberal Republicans. Tik leading principle of this new party was leniency to ward the States which had been in rebellion. tu


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1879


POLITICAL PARTIES.


1876 appeared the Greenback party, whose platform of principles varied in different States, but agreed always in advocating an exclusively paper currency of national treasury notes, similar to the greenbacks issned during the war of the rebellion.


24. The governor was elected by popular vote every year from 1856 to 1878, when the Greenback party threw a larger vote than the Democrats. The Republican candidate had not obtained a majority, and the Legislature elected, choosing Dr. Alonzo Garcelon, of Lewiston, the Democratic nominee.


25. In 1879 the three parties had cach a candidate, bat in members of legislature and in county officers there was much fusion on the tickets of Democrats and Greenbackers. and some certificates of election to the Legislature were granted to persons not entitled to them by the vote, these persons belonging in most cases, to one of the two fusion parties. When the day of the legislative session arrived, some of the Republicans, who supposed themselves elected, ap- peared to claim their places, but found them occupied by persons holding illegal certificates, so that for a time there were two legislatures. There not having been an election of governor by the people, the fusion Legislature chose Joseph L. Smith, national Green- backer. The contention between the rival bodies was severe, and threatened civil disorder, but Major Gen. Chamberlain, commander of the State militia. held possession of the state house and kept the peace until the question at issue had been decided by the Supreme Court of Maine. The decision of the court gave several of the contested seats to the Republi- can claimants. It also made the doings of the fu- sion body invalid : therefore the Legislature, as now constituted. proceeded, according to the provisions of the constitution, to select a governor from the four who had received the largest popular vote. The two receiving the largest number of votes in the House


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1880


of Representatives were Joseph L. Smith of Bangor. and Daniel F. Davis of Corinth ; and these names being sent to the Senate, the latter gentleman was chosen. Governor Davis was a young lawyer who had been a corporal in the war of the rebellion, and was Republican in politics.


26. An amendment to the constitution adopted this year, directed the election for governor, State senators and representatives to be held biennially after 1880, the official term also being made two years, while the regular session of the Legislature was fixed to occur once in two years, instead of annually.


In 1880 another amendment to the constitution was adopted, by which a plurality of votes only, instead of a majority, was made sufficient for the election of a gubernatorial candidate.


27. At the same time Governor Davis was a candi- date for re-election, and there were also a Temperance and a Prohibition candidate ; while between the Demo- crats and Greenbackers there was such cordial and extensive union of forces, that in the published sum- mary of votes, they appeared not at all under their names, but as Fusionists. Their candidate was Har- ris M. Plaisted, of Bangor, who was elected the first governor under the new plurality rule, and the first for a term of two years. In ten counties the Repub- lican candidates were elected with two or three exceptions, but in the other six nearly all the officers were divided between the Democrats and Greenback- ers, who in a few cases were voted for on distinct tickets. Fusionists also were elected to Congress in what were at that time the fourth and fifth Con- gressional districts, one being a Greenbacker, with free liquor tendencies, the other a Democrat and Greenbacker.


There were still more numerous differences of sen- timent in 1882, candidates being nominated by the Republicans, Fusionists, Greenbackers, Independent


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Republicans and Prohibitionists ; but the Republican candidate, Col. Frederick Robie, of Gorham, was elected over all by a handsome majority.


What beneficial movement began in Maine in 1841 ? At what Ante was the first law enacted in Maine, making the sale of in- intoxicating liquors as beverages unlawful? Who was the framer of the law of 1851, known as the "Maine Law" ? In what year was prohibition incorporated in the Constitution of Maine? Does the credit of the establishment of prohibition belong to any one political party ? What pirties have existed in Maine ? Was the Republican party of 1820 the same as that of the present time ? What two parties have had the longest existence ?


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1SCI


CHAPTER XXXIV.


1. THE antagonism between free society and a civ- ilization based upon human slavery was marked in our country by the rise of the Abolition party, and of the Free Soil party, into which the former was merged. and by the formation later of the grand body of the Republican party, which embraced the other two. The members of these parties saw that slavery was debasing to the master as well as to the slave. and that it was unfavorable to the highest national prosperity ; they also found the system to be aggress- ive and grasping in respect to both government and territory. It was for these reasons that the northern people arose in their might and said to the overbear- ing slaveholder : "Thus far mayest thou go, but ho farther "; and with the principle, No more slave ter- ritory, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.


2. Maine had first suffered from the slave power at the very outset of her career as a State : again, in 1837, her commerce with Georgia had been injured by re- strictions imposed only upon Maine vessels by that State, contrary to the Constitution of the United States : again in several years following 1854, hun- dreds of her families who had removed to Kansas, were subjected to unnumbered outrages, even pillage, arson and murder, by " Border Ruffians " from slave States, who, incited by the slave power, were deter- mined to change free Kansas into slave territory. With the triumph of the Republican party in Lin- coln's election in 1860, the slaveholders found that the control of the government had passed from their hands; and they determined to secede from the


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Union and set up a nation of their own, with human slavery for its corner-stone.


3. Then came the attack of the Secessionists upon the United States fort, Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, April 12th, 1861; and the consequent call of President Lincoln for 75,000 vol- unteers, for three months, to assist the navy and the regular army in the defense of the national prop- erty in all parts of the country, and in the capital itself.


Immediately the hills and valleys of Maine re- sounded with martial music. In several towns vol- unteer companies were formed within twenty-four hours after the President's call reached them. The Lewiston Light Infantry was the first company to fill its ranks and be accepted and ordered into service by the Governor. In four hours after the enlistment roll was opened in Cherryfield, fifty volunteers bad entered their names. Other towns did as nobly, if not so quickly. Many individuals did much beyond what could have been required of them, to save the nation.


Henry Humphreys, of Thomaston, offered to arm and equip a company of artillery himself, at an ex- pense of fifteen thousand dollars.


4. The President's call was issued on April 15th, and on the 16th Governor Israel Washburn sent ont a proclamation calling members of the Legislature to a session on the 22d, for the purpose of considering and determining necessary measures. On the as- sembling of the Legislature, an act was passed pro- viding for the raising of ten regiments of volunteers, and authorizing a loan of a million dollars. On May 3d the President issued another call for troops, this time for volunteers to serve three years.




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