USA > Maine > Maine; a history, Volume II > Part 30
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The Whig expressed the opinion that the victory would be only tem- porary. It said, "The Young Democracy may cavoort and prance under the lash, but the old wheel-horses will prove too heavy for them and refuse to budge the team except along the beaten road. At Portland they were not fairly in harness, many of the veteran stagers being out at pasture, but in August the whole herd will be corralled and pedigree will tell."
The postponed convention, however, although it nominated a sup- porter of the Old Guard at Portland, scarcely proceeded along the beaten path. The managers had worked earnestly for harmony and the conven- tion, with only two dissenting votes, nominated Gen. Charles P. Roberts, of Bangor. At Portland he had vehemently opposed the nomination of General Chamberlain, but he had served with courage and reputation in the Civil War as colonel of the Second Maine and temporary commander of the brigade of which it formed a part, and it was certainly a new departure for the Democrats of Maine to appear in the field with a Union soldier at their head. Moreover, the platform had little to say about reconstruction, but it accused the Republicans of extravagance and corruption and of destroying Maine's shipping interests, and demanded free trade as a right
"Whig, June 30, 1870.
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of the people. It denounced an act of the Maine Legislature allowing a town to consolidate its school districts and resolved "That while the Demo- cratic party are in favor of a judicious regulation by law of the sale of intoxicating liquors, they are opposed to the present prohibitory law and the restoration of a State constabulary."
After the adoption of the platform another resolution was added de- nouncing Chinese immigration.
The Democrats made great use of their candidate's military record, criticised Perham and declared that, if elected, he would attempt to force a State constabulary on the people. The Argus said on election day :
"For Governor, the choice is between General Roberts, a brave soldier who left home and family to face hardship and death upon the battle field, in defense of the Union, and Mr. Perham, who sat in his comfortable seat in Congress with his unsullied white necktie on, and voted himself forty- five dollars a day instead of the eight dollars a day paid before the war.
"If Mr. Perham did aught in behalf of his country, for which he was not more than doubly paid, history has made no record of it. The only thing for which he gained notoriety was his proposition to make soldiers' widows prove that they were not prostitutes before they could draw pen- sions.""
"This shameful indignity to the widows of soldiers received the con- demnation and contempt which it merited. Aside from this, we are not aware that Mr. Perham is distinguished for anything except ramrodism. On this subject he is a full blood fanatic and his election will give him an opportunity to show it. Voters, is that the kind of a man you want? No, we know he is not. Then vote for the gallant Roberts and elect him."
The Republicans replied by charging the Democratic leaders with cop- perheadism in the war, and dwelling on the disloyal record of Marcellus Emery, who had been nominated for Congress. They spoke of Roberts' short military record, he having resigned in 1862 on account of ill health. They quoted from Representative Dawes, of Massachusetts, who had said in a speech at Portland that if a pensioner forgot Perham he would forget his best friend, and declared that Perham would be guided on the temper- ance question by the wishes of those who elected him.
The election was a triumph for the Democrats. They made large gains on the gubernatorial vote and gains also in both branches of the Legis- lature. The official vote for Governor stood: Perham, 54,019; Roberts, 45,733.
"Whig, June 30, July 1, 1870.
"Mr. Perham, as chairman of the House Committee on Invalid Pensions, had reported a bill of this kind, but it applied only to cases where satisfactory evidence of improper conduct had been presented to the Commissioner of Pensions. The bill met with sharp opposition. Representative Ingersoll, of Illinois, declared that it could never have emanated from any portion of the country other than "the cold and frigid regions of Maine," and Mr. Perham made a vehement reply, praising .Maine for what she had done in the Civil War and what her sous had done in other States, including Illinois. The bill failed to pass.
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The first duty of the Legislature was to elect a United States Senator for the full term of six years. The choice, however, had been really made in September. The Republican nomination for Governor had been turned into a contest for position in the senatorial race, and when a candidate for Governor had been chosen the struggle was carried into the contests for nomination of members of the Legislature. The Whig said: "The Sena- torial question was obtruded into every local caucus, candidates were clas- sified as Morrill or Chamberlain men, members of the Legislature were nominated with a view to the special issue and in many cases were peremp- torily instructed by conventions to vote only for a specified individual. It was understood throughout the State that the September election was to decide the choice of Senator, this view was emphasized by the journals devoted to either candidate.""
The result was an overwhelming victory for Senator Morrill and the Republican caucus promptly ratified the informal choice by a vote of 105 for Morrill to 34 for Chamberlain, one ballot was cast for ex-Governor Washburn.
The next summer the Republicans renominated Governor Perham by acclamation. Their platform expressed pride in the record of the Repub- licans, declared that every American citizen should be protected in all his rights both at home and abroad, that a tariff was the best method of rais- ing the national revenue, and that the rates should be adjusted so as to "promote the interests of every section and branch of industry in the land ; special pains being taken to foster in every practicable way the honor and interests of the American laborer."
The Democrats though not openly divided as in their first convention of the year before were less harmonious than the Republicans. A move- ment known as the New Departure had started in the national party with that notorious copperhead, Clement L. Vallandigham, as leader, former issues in regard to slavery and negro suffrage were to be treated as settled and dead. The Young Democracy of Maine welcomed the movement joy- fully, but the older men were unwilling to admit that their former war cries were to be regarded as matters of history merely. They wished the State convention to declare that the Democracy, while denouncing the means by which the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments were passed, acknowledged their binding force until they should be regularly repealed. The resolution finally passed expressed loyalty to the Constitu- tion "as it now exists," but denounced the means by which it became the law of the land. The convention also denounced repudiation and demanded the payment of debts in lawful money (greenbacks?), demanded further civil service reform and appointment by examination, and accused the Presi- dent of packing the Supreme Court to obtain a reversal of the decision declaring the act making greenbacks legal tender, unconstitutional. Mr.
"Whig, Jan. 11, 1871.
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C. F. Kimball was nominated for Governor with only a few scattering votes in opposition, and this time he kindly consented to stand up to be knocked down. He, however, made a good run, receiving 47,578 votes to Perham's 58,285, there were 34 scattering.
In 1872 a President was to be elected and the Democratic party in its desire for success took, indeed, a new departure. The influence of the politicians with President Grant, the withdrawal or dismissal from the Cabinet of some of its ablest and best members and the serious corruption in the public service alienated many of the oldest and purest leaders of the Republican party. It was well known that General Grant would be renom- inated and a convention of "Liberal Republicans" was held at Cincinnati to nominate an independent candidate. Five ballots were taken without a choice, on the sixth Horace Greeley showed such a gain that he was mani- festly the winning man, delegates hastened to transfer their votes before the official announcement of the result and he was declared nominated by a vote of 482 to 187 for Charles Francis Adams.
The result was a surprise and a disappointment both to leading Lib- erals and to the Democrats. Greeley had been supported by some unsavory politicians, and his nomination was brought about in such a manner as to seem the result of a political bargain, both of which circumstances were extremely offensive to Liberals. The Democrats could not forget that Mr. Greeley had been fighting them in the Tribune from his youth up, first as a Whig and then as a Republican. Both the Democrats and the Liberal Republicans were opposed to a high tariff. Horace Greeley had always been an apostle of protection. While perfectly honest himself he was vain and easily influenced and many of his closest supporters were men of bad reputation.
Would the Democrats ratify such a nomination or the disaffected Republicans leave Grant for Greeley? In Maine the Argus promptly accepted the Liberals' nominee. In an editorial headed "The People's Candidate," it said: -
"Nearly everybody was looking in a different direction for the candi- date, and perhaps did not weigh, as the convention evidently did, the power which Mr. Greeley has with the masses of the Republican party. * * Every- body believes him honest, everybody believes him capable, everybody believes him faithful to the Constitution, the three Jeffersonian tests. He is for reform with all his heart, for a pure, simple, economical government ; and in his daily life he exhibits the simple virtue of the earlier days of the republic. The masses of the Republican party will rally for him as the Whigs rallied for Harrison in 1840, and if the Democrats shall support him as they ought not to hesitate to do, Grant will be beaten out of sight in the coming contest."
The Democrats of Maine accepted this view. Their State convention adopted as a platform various extracts from Greeley's letter of acceptance and instructed the delegates at large to the national convention to vote for
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Greeley. Not a word was said in the platform, of Maine issues. J. F Rawson of Bangor offered a resolution declaring that the Democratic party was opposed in principle to prohibitory laws and especially to those for- bidding the sale of domestic wines and cider. Mr. Rawson's proposal was greeted with mingled hisses and cheers and after much confusion the reso- lution was indefinitely postponed. Mr. Kimball was renominated for Gov- ernor by acclamation.
In the Republican convention also an attempt was made to dodge the question of prohibition. The platform committee, by its chairman, Nelson Dingley, reported a resolution declaring that "we view with satisfaction the great progress that the cause of temperance has made the past year, and especially extend our cordial sympathy to the Temperance Reform movement which is spreading throughout the State."
Mr. Dingley, however, announced that a minority of the committee presented a different resolution. This resolution reaffirmed faith in the principle of prohibition and its impartial enforcement. Joshua Nye moved to substitute the minority for the majority resolution. A Rockland delegate said that he "preferred that prohibition should be dropped from the plat- form, as he did not think it best to raise questions of a local nature in the coming campaign." The convention, however, by a very large vote substi- tuted the minority resolution. The platform pointed with pride to the Republican record, and declared "that the thanks of the people of this State are due to Congress, and to our delegation in that body for the recent legislation to promote the interests of ship-building and revive commerce ; and we accept what has been accomplished as an assurance that their efforts in this direction will continue until that great interest is placed upon an equitable basis."
Governor Perham was renominated by acclamation. The campaign was sharply fought. The Democrats met the charge of copperheadism by parading a list of Union generals who would vote for Greeley, and by pointing out that Grant's Attorney-General, Mr. Ackermann, had been a Confederate and that he was supported by Mosby, the guerrilla. General Kilpatrick came to Maine and spoke for Greeley, as did Theodore Tilton of the Independent and ex-Senators Trumbull and Doolittle, leaders in the Republican party in its early days. Sumner and Schurz supported Greeley and there was an interchange of letters on the subject between the former and Speaker Blaine, each written with much ability.
The Republicans denied that the real fathers of the Republican party supported Greeley, attacked the characters of Kilpatrick and Doolittle and accused Trumbull of having sacrificed the Republican majority in the Illinois Legislature during the Civil War to get office for a friend. They said that the secession of Sumner and Schurz was due to pique.
The Democrats also resorted to personal assaults. They tried to turn both the Catholics and the Jews against the Republicans by accusing Wilson,
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the candidate for Vice-President, of having been a Know Nothing and of having said in an attack on Senator Judah P. Benjamin that he was "ready to overthrow the government of his adopted country, which gives equality of rights even to that race which stoned the prophets and crucified the Redeemer of Mankind."
The Democratic papers accused Grant of being intemperate and of having declared during the war that he would resign if the abolitionists got control of affairs. Later in the State campaign the Democrats dropped national questions and concentrated their attack on the "cider law." The statutes had not only forbidden the sale of intoxicating liquors but had specifically provided that malt and distilled liquors should be so regarded. The Legislature of 1871 had added wine and cider to the list. The farmers were accustomed to make cider, their wives made wines from berries and fruits, and the Democrats attempted to use the law to turn the country districts against the Republicans. The latter did not always accept the issue. The Whig declared that the cider law was not Perham's measure. that he would have vetoed it had it been sent to him in a separate bill, that it was not even an essentially Republican measure, that some Democrats had pressed it for purposes of their own.
The election in Maine much encouraged the Republicans. Governor Perham was chosen by 17,000 majority, the vote standing Perham 71,888, Kimball 55,343.
The Argus said: "If Maine could have been left alone yesterday, and not overwhelmed with an army of plausible placemen, and an avalanche of greenbacks, she would have pronounced in more unmistakable terms for the great Reform movement, but as it is, all matters given grave considera- tion, we see no good reason to despair of the Republic."
In November, Grant was elected, receiving a very large majority both of the electoral college and of the popular vote. The Argus offered an explanation similar to that which it had given for the Maine defeat and announced that it bowed submissively to an inscrutable providence.
The Whig mingled its exultation with warning and a keen, truthful analysis of the meaning of the election. It said:
"It is incumbent on the Republican party to bear distinctly in mind, that the new lease of power and the gratifying credentials of popular con- fidence so recently bestowed, convey an obligation that it shall render in return the best service to the people. The errors of the party were not endorsed nor the methods and doctrines of all its politicians sanctioned, by the great national verdict of Tuesday; but the fundamental principles upon which it is established, the good which it has accomplished for the country so far overshadowing defects, and the general confidence in the sound judgment of President Grant, his honesty of purpose and his repub- lican deference to the will of the people, have won from the intelligent voters of the United States an expression of approval which bears with it the sovereign command to see to it that the power thus bestowed is put to only the most worthy uses. The popular verdict means that the doctrines of
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the Republican party are the doctrines of the people, and that so long as the party is faithful, fearlessly probing its own defects and zealously push- ing forward the work of reform in every needed direction, its mission will not be ended nor its support withdrawn."21
The warning of the Whig that the voters would expect the Republican party to reform itself, that they had condoned but not justified the ill doing of Republicans, was fully warranted, but the politicians paid little heed to such advice. Congressmen raised their own salaries and made the bill retroactive, commencing the increase with the first session, and at the time the Credit Mobilier scandal came to light. The Credit was a company for building the Pacific Railroad and a member of Congress had sold stock on easy terms to Senators and Representatives to influence them in favor of the company. Probably most of the members acted without definite ill intent but many of them became alarmed at the public indignation over the affair and equivocated or worse in their endeavor to conceal what they had · done. All this made excellent campaign material for the Democrats.
In Maine the Republicans attempted to break the force of the charges by pointing out that most of the Maine delegation in Congress had refused to take or had returned their back increase of salary, and by condemning corruption. Their State convention demanded the repeal of the Grab Act, as the increase of pay was called, denounced corruption and promised that they would allow no partisan feelings to shield the guilty from punishment. The convention also declared against the giving of more land to railroad or other corporations and the granting of the national credit to assist the building of canals or railroads, "believing that the direct tendency of that policy is toward prodigality and corruption." They also condemned the placing of riders on appropriation bills near the close of the session, and the increase of private legislation both State and national.
The nomination for the governorship went to Nelson Dingley. It was the reward of real merit and also of a very careful and thorough canvass. Various gentlemen had been mentioned for the place but as the date of the convention approached only three candidates remained in the field, ex- Governor Kent of Bangor, James M. Stone of Kennebunk and Nelson Dingley of Lewiston. Ex-Governor Kent, who was about to retire from the Supreme Bench, was out of the State during the campaign and the Whig, the paper that had brought him forward, said that it had taken action with- out consulting him. It claimed that a proper nomination was most import- ant, that the people were inclined to hold the Republicans responsible for the Credit Mobilier and the Salary Grab, that Judge Kent had neither been guilty of political abominations himself nor had he any connections with those who had, "his whole object would be to make his administration worthily round out an honorable public career."
Mr. Dingley's campaign began on Fast Day when he went to Bruns-
"Whig, Nov. 9, 1872.
-
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wick to address a temperance reform club and also to confer with some prominent men such as Governor Perham and Fred N. Dow. As a result of the conference he resolved to become a candidate for the nomination, a week later he met Chairman Blaine and others in Augusta and decided to publicly announce that he should seek the governorship. With the Governor and the chairman of the State committee, who was also the most influential politician in the State, supporting him, Mr. Dingley might feel reasonably sure of success. He had also other advantages. He was an earnest and sincere worker in the temperance cause and therefore had the hearty good will of the prohibition Republicans. He was comparatively a young man, being only forty-two years of age, and attracted the younger men of the party who felt that the oldsters had had their share of rule and office, and should make way for others. This gave him an advantage over Mr. Kent and the Lewiston Journal pressed it, by frequently referring with all respect to the venerable Judge Kent. Mr. Dingley was too young to have been for years identified with the machine and the circumstance was very useful to him. Various papers described him as no "trading politician," "a man of the people," "a man of the people and not a politician."
But Mr. Dingley's campaign for the nomination was made in true machine fashion. A private circular was sent by his friends urging early caucusses in Dingley towns in order to influence other towns, means were suggested to secure a full attendance of Dingley delegates and they were urged to be on hand the day previous to the convention "as it is before the convention that nearly all the work that tells is done." The recipient of the circular was told, "If you shall find that any influential man is in doubt perhaps it would be well to drop a line to Mr. Dingley requesting him to write to such person."
Governor Perham had been largely indebted for his nomination to the efforts of Mr. Dingley and he was not ungrateful. The Whig said, "Rumor has it that the ornamental portion of the administration (the staff) have found the most pressing and arduous of their official services in championing the Governor's favorite."
Before the convention met it was evident that Mr. Dingley's success was almost assured. The Waterville Mail said: "We expressed the opinion when Judge Kent was first named, that his age in connection with his long and well rewarded services, would weigh to his disadvantage. The political control of the State is in younger hands so that his election would disar- range too many plans. Very few men over seventy years old do much work which tells directly on a popular election, and the political sympathy between the voters of two score and those of three score and ten, runs through cooler waters than those which are agitated in an excited election. At the beginning of the contest Judge Kent went abroad from the State to rest. Mr. Dingley may have travelled some but not abroad. He belongs to the live men of the day, and no man better understands the company he is in.
Arlsen Digly af
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These reasons may be good or bad but they are evidently turning the tables."
The Republican convention met on June 19, and nominated Dingley on the first ballot by a large majority. The vote stood Dingley 816, Stone 211, Kent 170, scattering 6.
Mr. Dingley was born on February 15, 1832, in Durham, Maine. His parents, however, soon moved to Parkman in Piscataquis county and then to Unity in Waldo county. He spent two years at Waterville Academy and at nineteen entered Waterville, now Colby, College. He had already mani- fested an interest in politics and in 1852 made, what was, as far as known. the one bet of his life, a hat worth $4, that William G. Crosby would be the next Governor of the State. Unity sent him as a delegate to the Whig convention where he had the pleasure of witnessing the nomination of Mr. Crosby who, it will be remembered, though failing of an election by the people was chosen Governor by the Legislature. In 1853 as a result of a misunderstanding with the faculty he asked and received a dismissal from Waterville and entered Dartmouth. Young Dingley was a most loyal member of the Zeta Psi fraternity, and with some of his brothers at Water- ville, established a chapter at Dartmouth.
In 1854 he became editor of the Lewiston Journal, then a country weekly with about 1,800 subscribers. The editor not only wrote the editori- als but directed the papers to the subscribers and spent the remainder of his time setting type. On graduation he began the study of law in Auburn but continued his connection with the Journal. In 1856 he was admitted to the bar but in the following year he definitely abandoned the law for news- paper work and bought a half interest in the Journal. In the succeeding year he purchased the other half. Between the years 1862 and 1873, inclusive, he served six terms in the Maine House, being Speaker in 1863 and 1864 and then declining a re-election. The subjects in which he took special interest were temperance and education.
Mr. Dingley also played some part in national affairs. In 1866 he met General Grant at the studio of Franklin Simmons, the Maine sculptor, who was making a bust of the general, and his report of the interview in the Lewiston Journal was taken throughout the country as an admission by Grant that he would probably be a candidate for the Republican nomination for President. Grant had confided his intention to only a few close friends and was annoyed at the premature publication of his plans. He spoke to Mr. Blaine, who wrote to Mr. Dingley. "The latter, with his customary courtesy, expressed his regret that General Grant had been annoyed over the interview, but justified his publication of the article on the ground of newspaper enterprise and the fact that the general was introduced to him as an editor presumably seeking the latest political news. At all events the Lewiston Journal beat the whole newspaper fraternity in announcing Gen- eral Grant's probable candidacy for President."2ª
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