Arkansas true Democrat., 1861-05-02
tron, Mnntgomery County.
Mir. IDA, April l9, 1861.


 Ep1roRs TRuE DEMOCRAT:
 have frequently heard it declaced that eff the democratic party had acted harmo- niously they would have elected their man." that "thc South has no body to thank for inc election of Lincoln but herself" etc. Now I must confess that l have looked with a considerable degree of charity upon all this, when coming from steady. old de mocrats, but with very little when coming from old line whigs, know nothings, etc, who have during the last and other nara fought battles for the constitution stooo aloof from the democracy and carried on little ambuscade guerilla war; under the pre- tenee of working a change Tn the naturah- zation laws, prescribing Roman Cathoiics' ar savino the Union; though they were to somo evtent excusable, as they must have falt ,.or1 much chagrined at the demonstra- +;on that the only earthly arma bic to save, had become paralyzed under the welght of nortbern fanatcism and southern vltupera- t;on. bnt that most of this should continue evan after the popular vote has been pub lished again and again, giving all who have seen if. and can add and subtract, an op- nortunity to convince themselves to the contrary, is simply astonishing. there- fore for the convenience of those whc have not totan the trouble to work 1t out, for tba conviction of those who have been hon. estlv deceived by such assertions, and tor I+bo ;0.fconyenience of those who may hate to give up such potent weapons; and farther that Unionists may see what they piesd Tor Union with; that co-operatlonlsts may see inc strength of that which they seek to overthrow. and that secessionistS may fully appreciate the gigantic proportions ot that from which they must escape-l have ar ranged the following table based upon the official returns of the popular vote Tn the several States, and published in many Journals, the one that consult oe,5 @ 'le March No. of DeB"'''''1''Vlew ne oe- sign is to .a}ow into convenient form, ser;ee ofcalculations demonstrating the fact tbot Lincoln received a majority vote not . nInralitv vote in fifteen northern States, tbe electoral vote of which was more than necessary to elect him President. In order tbot it may be clearly understood by all what mean by ajority vote and also | bv plurality vote, l will give the defini- tion as laid down by Webster, and follow with an example of each. He says of ma ioritv, "the greater number, more than half;'' of plurality, "in elections plurall- tv of votes is when one candidate has more | votes than any other, but less than half ot | the whole number of votes given. It IS thus distinguished from a majority, which | is more than half of the whole number
 Example of majority: Maine gave Bell ZOOS; Breckinridge 6,3SS, and Douglas % .476; all of which added together amount | to 37 .S72-take this from 62,370 cast for Lincoln and you have 24, ,497, Lincoln's | majority.
 Example of plurality vote: California gave Bell S,794; Breckinridge 34,O4l; Douglas 3S, ,060, and Lincoln 3S, 702-ta1e Douglas 3S,060 from Lincoln's 3S,7O2 | and you have G42, Lincoln's plurality. So he carried this State by plurality Gas he did 'Oregon) notwithstanding that there were 119, ,597 votes cast, and only 3S, TOP | of them for him; showing a majority of | 42, 193 against him. New Jersey would | have gone the same way had it not been for | the fusion ticket. And 1 will frankly ad- init that had the northern States been gen. erallv as conservative as New Jersey, Ore gon and California, that the election might have been thrown into the House by the success of the fusion ticket in New York; vet it would not have been lost, as such conservative States would not have made Q black republican house. But after all, is it reasonable to suppose, that had the north ern States been thus conservative, that the democratic party North would have been forced by anti-slavery pressure, so far in an anti Lecompton and squatter- sovereign direction, as to have caused disruption of the party? l think not, but that all would have stood by the decisions of the supreme