USA > Maine > Maine; a history, Volume II > Part 11
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Another extremely arduous piece of business for the Democrats was the preparation of a new liquor law. Here, like their opponents in 1855, they were embarrassed by all the difficulties of a coalition. There were Democrats who wished free rum; there were others who honestly desired an effective prohibitory law, but who believed that the act in force was unduly stringent and gave great opportunities for espionage and tyranny. The subject was referred to a special committee of which Phineas Barnes, of Portland, was chairman.
After long delay, and changes from the original plan, an act was passed allowing the sale of liquor by a limited number of persons varying according to the population of the city or town where the license to sell was granted. Liquor thus sold was not to be drunk on the premises and must be unadulterated. Liquor might also be sold by innholders to strangers who were travellers or lodgers. No liquor could be sold to a minor without the written direction of his master, parent or guardian, to any Indian, soldier
"Cornish, "The Removal of Judge Woodbury Davis," Maine Law Review, May, III. Newspapers of the day.
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in the army, drunkard or intoxicated person, or person of whose intem- perate habits the seller had been notified by his relatives or the public authorities. Notice by the relatives should be presumptive evidence and by the public authorities conclusive evidence of such habits.
The Republicans attacked the law and at the same time attempted to rouse prejudice against it among the "liberal" wing of the Democrats, as too stringent, and as discriminating against the poor. The Temperance Journal called the attention of the Irish to the severity of the bill and said : "There is a good deal of sense in the remark of an Irishman to us the other day, 'To the divil wid these haypocrites, they like rum for themselves and wanted us to vote wid 'em, and now they tell us that Maine law is good enough for us. The divil take 'em, we'll have free rum or Maine law all round.'" To which the Argus replied "that (free rum or Maine law) is what those who make a trade of temperance are trying for."
"Whether the Legislature had acted wisely or not, it at least did some- thing. To the Republicans indeed this seemed no excuse. The Kennebec Journal burst forth :
'Believing, we rejoice To see the curse removed.'
"After One Hundred Days of terror, ending with a violent, revolution- ary procedure (the removal of Judge Davis), the Thirty-fifth Legislature of Maine has adjourned sine die. The evil they have done will, we fear, live after them-they have done no good to be interred with them."
There were many, however, who cordially approved the repeal of the prohibitory law of 1851, but the Kansas question in its various ramifica- tions proved fatal to the Democrats. The outrages in the territory con- tinued, and on March 22 occurred the assault on Senator Sumner. Mr. Sumner had been engaged in bitter personal debate with Southern Senators. He had made a long speech exposing the Kansas fraud, bitterly attacking South Carolina and using abusive language concerning Senator Butler, of that State, pointedly referring to his intemperate habits. A relative of Mr. Butler, Representatives Brooks, of South Carolina, avenged his State and his kinsman by attacking Sumner when he was quietly writing at his desk and beating him into insensibility with a heavy cane.
There was an outburst of anger throughout the North at what was regarded as an assault on the freedom of debate and an attempt to silence Northern members by violence. In Maine, as in other States, indignation meetings were held. A meeting in Portland resolved that the assault was without parallel in the history of the country for brutality, cowardice and atrocity, and that defended as it was (the Southern press almost unani- mously approved of Brooks' act), "it assumes the character of a public wrong which demands redress by the united reprobation of every upright citizen of the country, without regard to party ties or previous political associations. . That this ferocious, brutal, and ruffianly attack ought
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to be regarded not merely as an attack on the individual, nor only on the State he represents, but on all the Free States, and ought to be firmly met by the expulsion of the ruffian from the House of Representa- tives which he disgraces by his presence."
John Neal said that "he never was an abolitionist, but it seemed as if God had determined to make him one, and not only him, but the whole North."
Similar meetings were held at Lewiston, Brunswick, Bangor and other places.
The Democrats condemned Brooks, but declared that the Republicans were trying to turn non-partisan indignation meetings to their own advan- tage. The Argus said that the Portland meeting was called without dis- tinction of party, but that it was perverted to a Black Republican caucus.
The Bangor Journal, a Straight Whig paper, said of the Bangor meet- ing: "The apparent fraudulent attempt to turn recent occurrences of the nature of public calamities, into party and personal capital, extracted the enthusiasm from many, and the suspicion of heartlessness disgusted others." The Republicans replied that Democrats were invited to take part in these meetings, but failed to do so.
It was a presidential year, but the question who should be the candi- dates did not excite much interest in Maine. The Republicans nominated John C. Fremont, a dashing young officer and explorer who had obtained much of the credit for the American conquest of California in the Mexican war. His principal opponent was Justice McLean of the Supreme Court, a sort of perpetual candidate or half-candidate for the presidency. On an informal ballot of the convention the Maine delegation stood 6 for Mc- Lean and 5 for Fremont. On this ballot Fremont had a large majority and was then unanimously nominated.
The leading candidates for the Democratic nomination were: Presi- dent Pierce, James Buchanan and Stephen A. Douglas. The struggle was long, but Buchanan led from the first and on the seventeenth ballot he was nominated. The Maine delegation had given Buchanan 5 votes and Pierce 3 on the first ballot. The candidate was therefore acceptable, but the plat- form, which specifically endorsed the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, was a serious blow to Democracy in Maine. Senator Hamlin and State Chairman Morrill promptly declared that they could no longer remain members of the party. Mr. Hamlin made his renunciation on the floor of the Senate. Mr. Morrill sent his withdrawal to the State committee.
The Democrats of Maine at first bore the desertion of their Senator and their chairman with more calmness than might perhaps have been expected. The general feeling in regard to Hamlin was that now he had only done formally what he had done long before in substance.
The Maine Democrat said that it was glad that Mr. Hamlin had taken his position openly, that he had kept well with both parties until his term
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was nearly gone, when, "finding it no longer possible to straddle the political fence, he coolly steps over to the opposition." The Bangor Democrat said that the platform adopted by the Cincinnati convention was not the cause, but only the occasion and excuse for Mr. Hamlin's action. "He has done more than any other person in the State to abolitionize it and create and foster a sectional sentiment. There is nobody to go with or follow him to the Black Republican party, as all under his influence have gone there before him, he only lingering behind to cover their retreat." A little later the Argus attacked him fiercely, accusing him of clinging to office, and com- paring him to Richard III and Henry VIII.
The Republican papers greeted their new ally with hearty praise. The Republican National Convention met a few days after Mr. Hamlin's renun- ciation of Democracy and he was suggested as a good compromise candi- date. The Maine delegation prepared to present his name. But Mr. Ham- lin went to Philadelphia and quietly killed his "boom" before it was born. Personally he favored the nomination of McLean, but he cordially accepted that of Fremont. He spoke with much force at ratification meetings in Faneuil Hall, in Portland, and in Bangor.
Mr. Hamlin's speeches were received with the greatest enthusiasm and his friends determined to nominate him for Governor. Mr. Hamlin was opposed to this, for he believed that if nominated he ought to resign the senatorship, and Governor Wells would appoint a Nebraska man as his successor. The convention, however, nominated him by an overwhelming majority and also passed a resolution asking him to retain his seat in the Senate. Mr. Hamlin complied with their wishes, took the stump, and made vigorous speeches all over the State.
The Portland Expositor and the State of Maine, two papers of the Straight Whig school, came out for Hamlin. He also had the doubtful honor of being supported by F. O. J. Smith, and by that rather malodorous fossil, Col. Joshua Carpenter.
The Whigs of the Legislature voted in March that it was not advis- able for the Whigs of Maine to make a nomination for President and Vice- President, the State committee was requested to call a convention in June or July to decide what course should be taken in regard to the State and National elections. On July 1, about 150 delegates assembled. The Bangor Whig asserted that the Whig committee had previously met at Portland and that the leaders wished to endorse the Democratic nominee for Gov- ernor and President, and the Cincinnati platform, but dared not do so for fear of the rank and file.
The first question for the convention to decide was whether or not they should recognize that the Whig party was moribund, declare it dis- solved, and go home. Such a course, however, would have been bad prac- tical politics, as a delegate from Norridgewock pointed out. The Whig described him as saying that the Whig party was in better condition and
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could do better work for the country now, with only 10,000 votes, than when they had 30,000 and no offices; with 10,000 votes they could obtain a fair share of the spoils, and therefore it was better to keep up the organization. For this or some other reason the Whigs decided to remain alive, but to avoid giving offence to their friends, the Democrats. Accord- ingly, they nominated a candidate for Governor, George F. Patten, of Bath, but after a sharp debate laid on the table without a roll-call resolu- tions declaring that Pierce in consenting to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise had wickedly violated a time-honored compact, repudiating the Cincinnati platform, and condemning union with the Democrats.
This failure to take ground against the extension of slavery further diminished the ranks of the Whigs. The State of Maine now declared that it would never have gone into the fight the previous year to defeat the Maine law and reform abuses in the State if it had foreseen that the alli- ance then made with the Democrats would have rendered impossible a reso- lution condemning the National administration. Mr. Cochran, of Waldo- borough, a staunch Whig, who had supported Reed the previous year, joined the Republicans.
The main issue of the campaign was slavery and the Nebraska bill. The Republicans formally and officially freed themselves from the embar- rassing subject of prohibition. Not only was nothing said about it directly, but the question of slavery was described as all engrossing, and the con- vention declared that "we earnestly invite the affiliation and co-operation of men of all parties, however differing in sentiment on other questions. The present is a crisis so momentous, that all other issues-State and National -should be suspended." The convention, however, denounced the removal of Judge Davis as a revolutionary attack on the judiciary, and the charge proved excellent campaign material.
Democrats and Republicans alike angled for Whig votes. The Demo- crats brought to Portland Senators Cobb of Georgia and Benjamin of Louisiana, former Whig leaders, to urge their one-time brethren to follow them into the Democratic party. Benjamin said, with truth, that most of the old issues were dead and that many Democrats favored improvement of rivers and harbors by the general government. Rufus Choate wrote a letter to the Whig State Committee declaring that the one duty of the hour was to defeat the Republicans, and stating that while it was doubtful what was the best method, and that he would not advise, he himself intended to vote for Buchanan. Four of the Democratic candidates for Congress had recently been Straight Whigs.
On the other side, the Bangor Whig asked how Henry Clay Whigs could support Buchanan, who had been so closely connected with "the bar- gain and corruption charge" in 1825.
Each side praised its own candidate and assailed that of its opponent. The Argus said that Buchanan "is one of the few men yet living of the
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second generation of statesmen to which belonged Clay and Webster and Calhoun. He has the confidence and support of his great compeers. Benton and Marcy and Van Buren (so Van Buren was pardoned for 1848 and had become a great compeer), who all deprecate the election of Fremont."
The nomination of an "elder statesman" is not always wise. He may appear venerable as a relic of the age of the giants, he may also seem an anachronism and wake the memory of almost forgotten scandals and errors. James Buchanan was neither a great nor a magnetic man and his nomina- tion belongs to the latter class. Immediately after the Cincinnati conven- tion, the Jeffersonian declared that Buchanan was "An old Federalist, an old bachelor and an old fogy." The charges were all true. Mr. Buchanan had been a Federalist during the War of 1812 and in 1816 he delivered a Fourth of July oration in which he defended the doctrine of that party. The Kennebec Journal now reprinted extracts from this unfortunate speech. The candidate was also a bachelor, and though there is no law requiring a President to be married, and though Mr. Hamlin was probably mistaken when he said that "his frozen heart was never warmed by woman's charms, and so there can be nothing on earth that will soften him to any humanity," the Republicans were as eager to reproach the unfortunate Buchanan with being unappreciative of the female sex as if the voice of the suffragette had already been heard in the land.
The Democrats had endeavored to win votes by dubbing their candi- date "Old Buck." The Bangor Whig said of this move: "The attempt to popularize the name of Buchanan by a familiar nickname is a ludicrous failure. . . . Stiff, priggish, formal, reserved, unassociated with a single generous, or useful, or gallant action in the whole course of a barren life; remote from the people in every thought and sympathy, and taste, Mr. Buchanan stands quite aloof from the endearing familiarities of would-be worshippers. If he has earned any epithet it is due to his abhorrence of marriage. Call him by all means, Old Bach, the woman-hater."
That he was an old fogy the events of his administration were to suffi- ciently prove.
An unjust charge of bygone years against Buchanan was revived by General Cochran, who said in a speech at Bangor: "Long ago we Whig mechanics used to be pointed to James Buchanan as the most obnoxious man of the modern sham democracy in the eyes of American working men as the man who thought our wages should be reduced to the European of ten cents a day."
The Democrats, on their side, vigorously assailed Fremont. Howell Cobb in a speech at Portland ridiculed his California exploits and declared that he was a man "with no political past, no political present, and no political future." He was accused of sending a challenge to a duel and of being engaged in improper financial transactions.
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The old appeal to the pocketbook was again made by the Democrats. The Belfast Free Press said that the prosperity of Maine depended on com- merce, that a Black Republican triumph might destroy the Union and would certainly alienate the South, with the result that Maine would lose a million dollars in freights. It was charged that the Democrats sent revenue cutters with custom-house officers on board along the coast, and that the officers were declaring everywhere that if Hamlin were elected the fish- ing bounties would be withdrawn.
The gubernatorial election resulted in a complete triumph for the Re- publicans, Hamlin leading Wells by some 26,000 votes. The official count gave Hamlin 69,574, Wells 43,628, Patten 6,554, scattering 58. But in elections in the October States the Democrats were successful and in No- vember Buchanan carried the country. Maine, however, gave Fremont a majority over Buchanan of more than 27,000 votes, Fremont receiving 67,379 and Buchanan 39,080. Ex-President Fillmore, who had accepted a Know-Nothing nomination, obtained 3,325 votes, which came chiefly from the Straight Whigs.
One of the first problems the Maine Republicans had to face was the choice of a Senator, as Mr. Hamlin's term would expire on the 4th of March, 1857. It was understood that the Governor-elect wished to resign and succeed himself at Washington. The Democrats of course declared such conduct to be extremely improper. The Argus said: "The man ( Ham- lin) plays with office, as a child with baubles, and bestrides the State like a Colossus, while the Kents and Morrills of his party must be content to 'walk under his huge legs and peep about to find themselves dishonorable graves.' "
The Lewiston Journal said that it was dishonest to hold himself out as a candidate for Governor and after his inauguration to resign his place to another not thought of by the people. The Kennebec Journal admitted "that it would be uncandid to deny that some very excellent and sagacious members of the Republican party have questioned the propriety of remov- ing Mr. Hamlin from the gubernatorial chair at so early a period."
Nor was the objection confined to words alone. Lot M. Morrill, who, according to Mr. Hamlin's grandson, had agreed to his retention of the senatorship, now came forward as a candidate.
The leading Republican papers, however, approved of the re-election of Hamlin. The Whig pointed out that he had been the most acceptable chairman of the Committee on Commerce for years, and that such a repre- sentative in the Senate was particularly useful to the shipbuilding and com- mercial interests of Maine. The Kennebec Journal, after mentioning the objections to the re-election of Hamlin, said that it thought that on examina- tion they would be found to be groundless, that it had been generally expected that if Fremont were elected Hamlin would be a member of his Cabinet, and that it was wholly immaterial to Maine whether he became a
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Cabinet officer or took a higher place, that of United States Senator. The Oxford Democrat regretted that certain Republican papers were attempting to make a false issue against a gentleman who might be a candidate. "For the Republican party to force one of its prominent members into a posi- tion against his will, and then use that (position) as an argument against him, appears to us to be unfair, unjust and impolitic."
When the caucuses met, the House Republicans nominated Hamlin by a vote of 73 to 40 for Morrill, and 4 scattering; in the Senate caucus Hamlin received 23 votes and Morrill 6. There was also to be an election for the fragment of Hamlin's expiring term, and three ballots were taken for a candidate without result. The next evening the Senate Republicans nominated Dr. Amos Nourse, of Bath, on the first ballot, and the House Republicans on the second ballot made a similar choice. The principal opposing candidate was F. O. J. Smith.
Dr. Nourse had been nominated by Polk as collector of the port of Bath, but was rejected by the Senate. At the time it had been asked whether his appointment had been defeated by Southern influence or whether he was a sacrifice to the manes of Tylerism. The Kennebec Journal now said that he had expressed in private conversation his sense of the impro- priety of Calhoun's letter to the British Minister justifying the annexation of Texas because of the needs of slavery, that a tool of Calhoun brought the matter forward in most exaggerated style and frightened the Southern Senators from voting for him.
It is known today that there had been much opposition to his nomina- tion among the Maine Representatives, presumably on account of his views on the subject of slavery. President Polk wrote in his diary under date of December 22, 1845, "Gov. Fairfield of Maine called in company with Colonel Robertson of Bath, Maine, and in the course of a few minutes Mr. Rice, the editor of a paper in Maine, called the Age, came in. Gov. Fairfield and the other two gentlemen earnestly insisted on the nomination of Mr. Nourse to the Senate as Collector of Bath. They were apprised that four of the Maine delegation in Congress had protested in a written com- munication against his appointment. After much conversation on the sub- ject Gov. Fairfield became excited and made some remarks which excited me, but the matter was fully explained before we separated."
The presidency of the Maine Senate was of unusual importance this year, as it was known that Hamlin would resign, and that the president would become acting Governor. The office was bestowed on Joseph H. Williams, of Augusta, a son of Reuel Williams and son-in-law of Lot M. Morrill. The State treasurership was given to Benjamin D. Peck, an anti- slavery and prohibition leader and editor of the Temperance Journal.
The Argus said that he had been chosen by the influence of Hamlin, Peck claiming the treasury as a reward for assenting to the prohibitory law being ignored in the last campaign and for other services. The Kennebec
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Journal in an editorial probably written by James G. Blaine, said: "Mr. Peck will discharge the duties of the office with ready facility and scru- pulous integrity. The surest guarantee of this is the fact that Mr. Peck's bondsmen have been taken not from his personal and political friends merely, but from the solid men of Portland, without restriction of party. Some of them, indeed, have been especially hostile to him in politics, but they have tested the 'ring of his metal' and know that a more honest and trustworthy man does not live. . . . Mr. Peck's urbanity of manner, his industry and facility in the despatch of business, and his inflexible integrity will, we predict, render him as popular and acceptable as any who has ever had charge of the treasury of Maine." A few years were to make this praise sound like bitter sarcasm.
While the Republicans were struggling over the offices in the gift of the State, the Democrats were fighting for the favor of the new national administration. A small group, including Nathan Clifford, John Appleton, editor of the Argus, and W. B. S. Moor, had the chief authority and were nicknamed by their opponents the Board of Trade. All these gentlemen were well provided for. It was expected that Clifford would be taken into the Cabinet and given, not his old position of Attorney General, but that of Postmaster General or perhaps that of Secretary of the Navy. The South- erners, however, led by Senator Toombs of Georgia, vigorously exerted themselves in favor of Toucy of Connecticut as the New England Cabinet officer. Mr. Toucy had succeeded Mr. Clifford as Attorney General under Polk, and had formed an intimate friendship with Buchanan. He had entered the Senate in 1851 and had just been defeated for re-election be- cause of his support of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Buchanan's personal regard for him, his martyrdom and the Southern influence combined finally obtained for him the secretaryship of the navy.
But in December, 1857, Mr. Clifford was given the high honor of a nomination as Justice of the United States Supreme Court, to succeed Justice Curtis, who had resigned. There was danger, however, that he would receive merely the honor of a nomination, coupled with the disgrace of a refusal of the Senate to confirm. His legal reputation and learning were small. It will be remembered that he had wished to resign the attorney generalship under Polk. Some of his political brethren quoted a saying of John Holmes about third-rate county court lawyers, and it was reported that there was opposition of former friends who claimed that he had prom- ised them his influence in obtaining offices and failed to keep his word. Membership of a "board of trade" has its drawbacks and dangers as well as its advantages and pleasures. In Maine there was open criticism of the nomination. The Saco Democrat made a severe attack upon him. The Bangor Whig said that it could not believe the report, which, however, was true, that Senator Fessenden had voted for his confirmation.3
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