USA > Maine > Maine; a history, Volume II > Part 6
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It was the custom for the Senators and Representatives of each party from a district where there was a senatorial vacancy to hold a caucus and nominate a Senator who was then supported for election by the whole party. Accordingly, the anti-slavery Democrats helped elect a Hunker to fill a vacancy from Washington county because he had been nominated by the Washington Senators and Representatives. There was also a vacancy from Cumberland. Here there had been two
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Democratic candidates for election, Charles Megquier, anti-slavery, and George F. Shepley, Hunker. The Democratic Senators and Representa- tives from Cumberland voted 15 to 2 for Megquier, but the Hunkers made an alliance with the Whigs and the coalition elected Shepley. The motto of the Hunkers was "Anything to beat Hamlin." The Whigs justified their action on the ground that it would help them to elect a Whig to succeed Senator Bradbury.
The success of the alliance caused great alarm among Mr. Hamlin's friends, and they sent to Washington for him to come to Augusta and advise them. On his arrival he found that his opponents were demanding that resolutions against the introduction of slavery into free territory, passed by the Legislature in 1849, be repealed or modified. The refusal of Mr. Hamlin and his friends to agree, induced several wavering Senators to remain with the bolters throughout the struggle. Some of the Hamlin men were inclined to yield in the matter, but the Senator gathered his forces, bade them stand firm, assured them of victory, and warned them against personalities. "Don't abuse my opponents," he said; "let them do all the abusing and trading. I am going to win, and I want as little hard feeling as possible after it is all over." The Hamlin men closed their ranks, but they were not strong enough to prevent the Hunker-Whig coalition from postponing the election a month.
Most of the leading Democratic papers opposed the bolt. Among those that did so were the Bangor Jeffersonian, Saco Democrat, Belfast Journal, Augusta Age, and Portland Argus. The Bangor Democrat, always viciously Wild Cat, approved it.
On June 20 the House again balloted for Senator. Mr. Hamlin re- ceived 67 votes, or 8 less than a majority ; Mr. Evans, the Whig candidate, obtained 42; the Free Soilers gave General Fessenden 15 votes ; 20 Hunkers voted for Governor Hubbard, and there were 5 scattering votes. Next day Governor Hubbard wrote a letter forbidding the use of his name and urging support of the regular nominee. The Hunkers then united on John Ander- son. In the Senate there were 13 votes for Hamlin, 3 less than a majority, 7 for Evans, 6 for Anderson, 4 or 5 for Fessenden. After eleven ballots had been taken in the Senate and ten in the House, the election was post- poned for another month. The Hunkers again attempted to repeal the instructions to vote against the introduction of slavery into free territory, but the Whigs refused to assist them, and they failed disastrously. They then tried to slip through some resolutions that appeared to reaffirm the former ones, but which were not actual instructions. Here, too, they failed.
The contest was sharp and rough. One prominent Hunker invented a story which he so told as to intimate that Hamlin had negro blood in his veins. The candidate's friends were ready to proscribe and to raise the cry of "no more neutrals." A letter to the Jeffersonian declared that the opposition to Hamlin came mainly from collectors of customs in Aroostook
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and Washington counties, that the appointments to these offices were referred to the Committee on Commerce, of which Mr. Hamlin was chairman, and that he would consult the people as to the men they wanted. The meaning of this was clear. The Jeffersonian said in an editorial of July 23, 1850, that no neutrality was permissible, that all men who did not sustain regular nominations would be held accountable; that if they or their friends should be put up for an elective office "Mr. Hamlin's friends will remember them. BE SURE OF THAT."
Mr. Hamlin had seen his election defeated by a minority refusing to yield to a majority. He now determined to seek help outside the Demo- cratic lines. Careful management, however, was necessary to prevent this bringing more loss than gain. In the Senate there were eleven men who were warm supporters of Hamlin, four others it had been hoped would vote for him against their personal preferences, because he was the regular nominee. But two had been won over by the Hunkers and two were very uncertain. It was feared that Free Soil support for Hamlin would drive them over to Hunkerdom. There were five Free Soil Senators. Two were ready to aid in electing Hamlin. A third, an elderly Senator, Ozias Blanchard, of Blanchard, was undecided what to do. General Fessenden, the candidate of the Free Soilers, had no chance of election. He sym- pathized with Mr. Hamlin as a man persecuted by the slave power and used his influence with Blanchard to induce him to vote for Hamlin. Joshua R. Giddings and Neal Dow also labored with Blanchard and he promised to vote for Hamlin. In the House, too, a sufficient number cf Free Soilers had been gained.
The arrangement with the Free Soilers was kept secret until the mo- ment of balloting. They had agreed to secure the election of Hamlin if just before a vote Blanchard should tell them that the time was come by drawing a ballot from his left side pocket. The signal was made. Blan- chard and Allen, of Industry, voted for Hamlin, as did the Democrats whose desertion was feared, one Free Soiler threw a blank ballot, and two did not vote; twenty-nine ballots had been cast. Fifteen of the votes were for Hannibal Hamlin and he was elected.
Shortly after the election of Hamlin, the gubernatorial campaign began. The Democrats renominated Governor Hubbard; the Whigs nominated William G. Crosby, of Belfast, in whom, according to a letter to the Whig, ability, integrity, general fitness and availability were "happily combined."
When election day came, Governor Hubbard was chosen by a small majority. The vote stood: Hubbard 41,203, Crosby 32,120, Talbot (Free Soil) 7,267, scattering 75. At the same time a constitutional amendment was passed, making the political year begin as formerly in January and pro- longing the term of office of the Governor and Legislature chosen in the summer of 1850, to January, 1853. The change of 1844 had not resulted ME .- 23
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in shortening the sessions, as was hoped, a spring and summer meeting was inconvenient for the farmers, who made up the majority of the Legisla- ture, and the return to winter sessions was carried by a large majority.
The year 1851 was a quiet one politically, both in Maine and in the nation. There was no Governor to elect, and there was now a reaction from the fierce struggle over slavery, and a readiness to acquiesce in the compromise, even among many who had opposed it. There was indeed a serious difference of opinion in regard to the fugitive slave act. The Democratic Clarion, of Skowhegan, said of it: "Humanity sickens at the picture, and we turn away from the operations of the law with very loath- ing, and pronounce it a foul stain upon our statute book." Some who accepted the other parts of the compromise made a reservation in regard to this law. The Jeffersonian, Age, Saco Democrat, Oxford Democrat, Belfast Journal, even the Argus, objected to making the maintenance of the act unchanged a test of party feality.
The attention of politicians was turning toward the selection of a can- didate for the presidential campaign of the ensuing year. There was a strong demand among the New England Democrats that the choice should be made from one of their number, and the New Hampshire Democrats declared in favor of the nomination of their fellow-citizen, Levi Woodbury, who had been an aspirant for the office for many years. Thomas H. Ben- ton, Hannibal Hamlin and other Democrats who were opposed to slavery extension, joined in a carefully planned effort to secure his nomination. They believed that his record as an old Jacksonian would gain the support of the Southern Democrats, but that he could be relied upon to veto any measures for the extension of slavery. Benton wrote a eulogistic article on Wood- bury, describing him as the rock of New England Democracy, and sent it to Hamlin, who arranged for its publication in various Maine newspapers. Woodbury's friends believed that his chances of success were good, but their hopes were disappointed, and their plans to put the Jackson Demo- crats once more in control of the party disarranged by his sudden death.
There were three principal candidates for the Whig nomination- President Fillmore, whose strength was in the South; Mr. Webster, who was supported by the greater part of New England; and General Scott, who was the candidate of the anti-compromise Whigs and of the availa- bility men. The Whig papers in Maine were inclined to support General Scott. Anti-slavery was strong in Maine, and the people of the State had not forgiven Mr. Webster for the Ashburton treaty. On matters of policy the Whigs of the Union were even more seriously divided than on the ques- tion of a candidate. The South demanded an endorsement of the compro- mise. The "Conscience Whigs" of the North were utterly opposed to any- thing of the kind. The Kennebec Journal objected to "sectional tests." "Let the compromise of 1850," it said, "take its place in silence beside its antique namesakes of 1820 and 1833."" A little later the Journal said :
'Kennebec Journal, Jan. 19, 1852.
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"And so it becomes a question solely for Southern Whigs to decide whether or not we shall have a Whig President at the next election. If they insist upon incorporating this test (approval of the compromise) into the code of the Whig party, then it is inevitable that the Whig party is sundered and defeated. And what is worse than that, it is equally inevitable that a great sectional party will rise upon its ruins."
The friends of the compromise, the Silver Greys, were not, however, inactive in Maine. They made an earnest attempt in Portland, led by John A. Poor and R. A. L. Codman to elect delegates to the district and State conventions, but their candidates were defeated and a resolution praising Webster was voted down.
Undiscouraged by their failure, the Silver Greys held a great meeting at Portland which was addressed by out-of-State speakers and by some leading Portland citizens. Mr. Poor said that he saw many faces from other parts of the State, to which he wished to extend the hand of friend- ship, which caused the Argus to remark that the only way to do it would be to pull their noses. The meeting passed resolutions against sending only opponents of the nomination of Fillmore or Webster to the National con- vention, and stated that they opposed all measures calculated to divide by the introduction of personal prejudices or sectional issues, and they called on their delegates in the district and the State convention to resist the pledging of the National delegates to the support of one particular candi- date over all others.
The State convention, however, endorsed Scott, and elected George Evans and William Pitt Fessenden delegates-at-large. For Governor, they nominated William G. Crosby, of Belfast. Mr. Crosby was a Whig of the highest type, a refined and cultured gentleman of excellent moral charac- ter, conservative by nature, desirous of improvement but only if it could be obtained without agitation, disorder, and interference with vested rights. He had been secretary of the State Board of Education, an office corre- sponding roughly with that of superintendent of schools today, and had shown himself a zealous and valuable officer.
The National convention met on June 16. Fifty-two ballots were taken without result. On the fifty-third, General Scott was nominated by a small majority. The contest had been bitter and hard fought, as well as long. The first vote stood, Fillmore 133, Scott 131, Webster 29, and until the fiftieth ballot there was but little alteration. Many of the Fillmore men were well disposed to Webster, but hesitated to change, fearing that enough Southern votes would be transferred to Scott to give him the nomination. It was calculated that if the Free State delegates could muster 41 votes for Webster, 106 Fillmore men would come to the support of the New Englander and he would be nominated. Had the Maine delegation been willing to vote for him, probably enough New Yorkers would have joined them to secure Webster the long-coveted prize. The Maine delegates were
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plied with the most earnest entreaties, but not one would yield. William Pitt Fessenden, on his return, said in a speech at Portland that they did not feel justified in abandoning Scott ( for whom they had been instructed), but Mr. Webster's friends laid the blame on Mr. Evans, who was the leader of the Maine delegation. It is said that he had desired to succeed Justice Woodbury on the Supreme Bench, and that when Curtis, of Boston, was appointed, the defeated candidate believed that Mr. Webster was respon- sible, and now took revenge.' The New York Courier and Enquirer de- clared, "Never was malignity and hatred made more manifest than in the manner which the delegation from Maine proclaimed their vote.'"
Though Maine was pleased with the candidate, she was greatly dis- satisfied with the platform. When Southern delegates left Fillmore for Scott, they exacted a pledge that the compromise of 1850, including the fugitive slave law, should be accepted, its strict enforcement insisted on, and that agitation should be deprecated and a promise given to discourage it everywhere. Such a bargain was gall and wormwood to the anti-slavery men. William Pitt Fessenden, who was on the Committee on Resolutions, fought it both in the committee and the convention. He wished the Whigs to follow the precedents of 1840 and 1848 and go into the fight with a sol- dier for a candidate and no principles to encumber them. But the South insisted on its pound of flesh, and the resolution was adopted by a vote of 212 to 70.
The Democratic convention was also much divided on the subject of a candidate. Forty-eight ballots were taken without result. On the forty- ninth the convention "broke" to Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, a dark horse whose nomination, however, like that of most dark horses, was the result of careful planning and strategy. One of the principal con- trivers was Senator Bradbury, of Maine, "a college mate and lifelong friend of Pierce.""
The reception of the nomination of Pierce was not unlike that of Polk. The Whig asked, "Who in all the great West, who in the South, who among the mountains and plains, has read of or heard of Frank Pierce, of New Hampshire?" The Argus praised Pierce and declared that the rush of the followers of the great men to unite upon him proved that he was no com- mon man. The campaign both in the State and the Nation was somewhat listless and was marred by personalities. In February, before the Whigs had chosen their standard-bearer, the Argus had assailed their leaders, paying particular attention to Webster. "We will not," it said, "draw the veil from his too well-known private life-at least not at present." It accused him of aristocratic principles, of receiving large salaries as Senator
'Rev. A. V. Bliss, a son of the late Charles E. Bliss, of Bangor, for years an enthusiastic student of Webster, states that Evans wished to be minister to England when Edward Everett was appointed to that position by Tyler and that he blamed Webster, then Secretary of State, for his disappointment.
'Quoted in Argus, June 8, 1852.
"Whig, June 9, 1852.
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and Secretary of State, but of never having enough. "The masses may honor his unquestionable talents-so might they those of the archangel who fell'-but they would never dare trust either of them with the high interests of the country. They must have a man who with commanding ability, shall be like Caesar's wife, 'without suspicion.'"
The Argus said that if Fillmore should be nominated he would be defeated by the corruption of his administration, and that Scott would be an automaton President. After Scott's nomination an effort was made to stir up the Irish and other Catholics against him. The Argus quoted from a letter in which he had said that the Cardinals in a papal election were accustomed to vote first for themselves and then for the most superan- nuated, in the hope that there would soon be another papal vacancy and they would have another opportunity of grasping at the tiara. The Argus also spoke of Scott's violent temper and of his making charges against officers which were not sustained, and revived the story of his quarrels with De Witt Clinton and Jackson. Scott's vanity was notorious and the Argus remarked that in his short letter of acceptance "I" occurred fourteen times.
The Whigs replied that the men who attacked Scott defamed Harri- son; and by implication at least they accused Pierce of intemperance, incapacity, and cowardice. They declared that an allegation that Scott had issued an order against enlisting foreigners was a lie, and that by his threats of retaliation, backed up by preparatory measures for carrying them into effect, he had saved the lives of twenty-three Irish soldiers whom the English had captured in the War of 1812 and were going to hang as traitors. They pointed out that New Hampshire, Pierce's own State, excluded Catholics from various offices. They also reminded the voters that Pierce's father had approved of the Alien and Sedition laws. The Advertiser criticised Pierce for voting against appropriations for certain internal improvements. The Argus replied that Pierce had approved of them all, but that they were in a bad bill, and that the Democrats favored internal improvements which were of general benefit.
Scott's supporters praised him for settling the Maine boundary ques- tion. The Argus answered that the people had not yet forgotten the terri- tory Maine had lost under the Whigs. The tariff was also brought into the campaign. The Democrats declared that the tariff of 1846 was better for Maine shipowners than that of 1842. The Barnburners had come back to the Democratic party and John Van Buren, and John A. Dix, the Free Soil candidate for Governor of New York in 1848, spoke at a Pierce meet-
"Had the editor in mind Whittier's lines :
"Of all we loved and honored Naught save power remains, A fallen angel's pride of thought Still strong in chains."
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ing in August. All the signs pointed to a victory for the Democrats, and the election justified their utmost hopes. Pierce carried Maine, having 9,000 majority over Scott, and swept the country, only four States, Ver- mont, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Tennessee, voting for the Whig can- didate.
The Whig papers in Maine took their overthrow calmly. The Adver- tiser said : "Our candidate is not responsible for our defeat. He has suf- fered from a division in the party which must have insured the defeat of any candidate nominated by the same convention with the same platform." As a wag put it, the coroner's verdict on the defunct Whig party was "died of an attempt to swallow the fugitive slave law." The Advertiser counselled the Whigs to stand firm, to resist the extension of slavery, but not to meddle with it where it existed. The Bangor Whig showed little disappointment. It said that the leading locos had killed each other off and then all had united on Pierce, who was known to be ready to follow the South. Such was not the case with Scott, but his friends allowed sup- porters of the other candidates to shape the issues, and thereby cooled many without securing the active co-operation of those who differed from them. It also said: "The doctrine of intervention (in behalf of Hungary) in one direction, free trade in another, and money in others, have all united with disaffected Whigs of every caste, whether from gen- eral or local causes, and all have gone in a body for Pierce. His party today is the most incongruous that was ever combined in this country."
The campaign of 1852 was the last National one made by the Whigs. They had been organized to deal with issues most of which were now set- tled for the time being or obsolete; they lacked the insight and courage necessary to meet the new questions which were dividing the country, and the prophecy of the Bangor Whig that the demand of the South for the acceptance of the compromise would mean the destruction of the Whigs and the rise of a great sectional party in their place was quickly fulfilled.
The year that witnessed the passing of the Whigs as a National party was fittingly marked by the deaths of their two great leaders. When Clay secured the passing of the compromise of 1850 his work was done. He returned to the capital, but took little part in legislation, his strength failed, and he died at a Washington hotel in May, 1852. Daniel Webster con- tinued his advocacy of the compromise and his work as Secretary of State to the last. But he was bitterly disappointed by his failure to obtain even a respectable support in the Whig convention of 1852; he highly disap- proved of the refusal of his old party to enthusiastically support the com- promise, and in September he died at his home in Marshfield, oppressed by a sense of failure.
High honors were paid in Maine and throughout the country to the memory of Clay and of Webster. Old opponents joined in the tribute the more readily since they had approved the public conduct of the dead states-
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men during the closing period of their lives. Old friends pronounced their eulogies, but often these were less cordial than they would have been had not the speakers felt that the men they praised had at the last failed to answer with the best that was in them. The Advertiser, however, though disapproving of the compromise, said of Clay that when engaged in the advocacy of the numerous important measures he proposed he avoided par- tisanship, and "invariably addressed his strongest appeals to the noblest feelings of our nature. . . . Many a year and age will pass away before the world looks upon his like again."
The year was also marked by another death of interest to the State, though not to the Nation, that of William King, the first Governor of Maine.
In a presidential year, the campaign for Governor usually plays but a small part, but in 1852 it was fiercely fought and aroused great, perhaps equal, interest. It was the custom, if one party remained in power, for the Governor to serve for three terms, the second and third nominations were little more than a form, and to avoid the trouble and expense of a State convention they were made by a legislative caucus. There was much feel- ing between the Hunker and the Hamlin wings of the Democracy, but at first it seemed that the former would agree, for a price, to the renomina- tion of the Governor. On January 26, 1852, the Whig said that probably . the Wild Cats, upon promise not to kill Governor Hubbard, will be allowed to sweep the cupboard of all else it contains. The seeming outside advantage of form will be taken by Speaker Sewall and his drive (the Hamlin men) as ample consideration for the substance."
But the treaty failed. It may be that Hamlin's supporters were less ready to efface themselves than the Whig supposed, and the opposition to Hubbard was very bitter. He had given great offense to certain old politi- cians by some of his appointments and by what his friends described as a refusal to let them plunder the treasury. He had, moreover, signed the prohibitory law of 1851, had presided at a temperance convention at Au- gusta, and had made a speech praising the law, acts which the opponents of the new liquor legislation found it hard to forgive. Owing to the amend- ment of the constitution changing the beginning of the political year, Hub- bard would, in January, 1853, have served parts of three years, that is, from May, 1850, to January, 1853, or two years and eight months and the Hunkers claimed that he would substantially have had his three years. They therefore demanded that the State committee issue a call for a con- vention, but the committee refused to do so. A legislative caucus was held which renominated Governor Hubbard. The Hunkers thereupon "withdrew from the caucus amidst the derisive caterwauling of the Hamlin wing."
But the anti-Maine Law men were seriously considering an organized bolt, and the Democratic papers assailed them, not with caterwauling, but
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with arguments and entreaties. The Belfast Republican-Journal urged that Hubbard might have doubted both the wisdom and the constitutionality of the prohibitory law, but that a doubt was no reason for vetoing it, and that its constitutionality was a question for the courts. As to his speech to the convention, if he thought the law worked well there was no reason that he should not say so. The Journal pointed out that it was not merely the governorship which was at issue, but that the defeat of Hubbard would help elect Scott. The article was copied by the Bath Times and the Bangor Jeffersonian. The Argus repeated its substance when Hubbard was nomi- nated and said: "It is not the Governor alone that would be risked, but the House of Representatives-the subordinate State and county officers- the United States Senator (Senator Bradbury's term expired March 4)- and even the next presidency. All these might be lost by the defeat of our candidate for Governor, some of them certainly."
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