University of Virginia Library

15. LETTER XV.
UNCLE JOSHUA SHOWS REMARKABLE SKILL IN THE SCIENCE OF POLITICS,
AND ADVISES MR. DOWNING BY ALL MEANS TO STAND AS A CANDIDATE
FOR GOVERNOR.

Dear Jack:—I never felt nicer in my life than I did when
I got your last letter. I did think it was a kind of
foolish notion in you to stay down there to Portland all winter,
and then hire out there this summer. I thought you'd better
be at home to work on the farm; for your father, poor old
gentleman, is hauled up with the rheumatize so, he won't be
able to du hardly a week's work this summer. But I begin
to believe Jack knows which side his bread is buttered yet.
For if you can only run pretty well as a candidate for Governor,
even if you shouldn't be elected, it will be worth more to
you than the best farm in this county. It will be the means
of getting you into some good office before long, and then
you can step up, ye see, from one office to another till you get
to be Governor. But if the thing is managed right, I'm in
hopes you'll get in this time, and the Downings will begin to
look up, and be somebody. It's a very good start, your being
nominated in that are paper down to Brunswick. But there's
a good deal to be done yet, to carry it. I'm older than you
are, and have seen more of this kind of business done than
you, and of course ought to know more about it. Besides,
you know I've always been reading the papers. Well, in the

first place, you must fix upon the name of your party; I'm
thinking you better call it the Democratic National Republican
party, and then, ye see, you'll haul in some from both of the
two clever parties in the State. As for the Jacksonites and
Huntonites, I wouldn't try to get any support from them; for
after the rigs they cut up in the Legislater last winter the
people back here in the country don't like 'em very well. I
think it would hurt you to have
anything to do with 'em.
Then you must get a few of your friends together in Portland,
no matter if there ain't no more than half a dozen, and pass
some patriotic resolutions, and then publish the duins of the
meeting in the paper, headed, THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE; and
then go on to say, “at a numerous and respectable meeting
of Democratic National Republicans, held in Portland at such
a time,” &c.,

“Resolved, unanimously, That we have perfect confidence
in the exalted talents, the unspotted integrity, and well-known
patriotism of Mr. Jack Downing, [or perhaps it should be the
Hon. Jack Downing,] and that we cheerfully recommend him
to the people of this State as a candidate for the office of Governor.

“Resolved, That his well-known attachment to the interests,
the principles, and usages of the Democratic National Republican
party, eminently entitles him to their confidence and
support.

“Resolved, As the sense of this meeting, that nothing short
of the election of that firm patriot, the Hon. Jack Downing,
can preserve the State from total, absolute, and irretrievable
destruction

“Resolved, That a county convention be called to ratify

the doings of this meeting, and that the Democratic National
Republicans in other counties be requested to call Conventions
for the same purpose.

“Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published
in all the Democratic National Republican newspapers
in the State.”

We will then get up such a meeting in this town, and pass
some more highly patriotic resolutions and send 'em down, and
you must have 'em put into the paper, headed A VOICE FROM THE
COUNTRY. And then we must get a few together somewhere,
and call it a County Convention, and keep rolling the snow-ball
over, till we wind up the whole State in it. Then, ye see,
about the first of August we must begin to pin it down pretty
snug in the papers. Kind of touch it up somehow like this:
Extract of a letter from a gentleman of the first respectability
in York County to the Central Committee in Portland. “The
Democratic National Republicans here are wide awake; York
County is going for Mr. Downing, all hollow; we shall give
him in this county at least a thousand majority over both
Smith and Hunton.” Another from Penobscot: “Three quarters
of the votes in this county will be given to Mr. Downing;
the friends of Smith and Hunton have given up the question,
so satisfied are they that there is no chance for them.”

Another from Kennebec: “From information received from
all parts of the State, upon which perfect reliance can be
placed, we are enabled to state, for the information of our
Democratic National Republican friends, that there is not the
least shadow of doubt of the election of Mr. Downing. It is
now rendered certain beyond the possibility of mistake, that

he will receive from five to ten thousand majority over both the other
candidates.”

If this don't carry it, you'll have to hang up your fiddle till
another year. And after the election is over, if you shouldn't
happen to get hardly any votes at all, you must turn about
with perfect indifference, and say the Democratic National
Republicans didn't try—made no effort at all—but will undoubtedly
carry the election next year all hollow.

P. S — If you get in I shall expect my son Ephraim to have
the office of Sheriff in this county. The other offices we'll
distribute at our leisure.