Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-10-19
From the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The Election-Duty of Democrats.

ed a considerable majority Of the votes of the
people of Ohio within the State, and is elected:
that Mr. Vallandigbam, with the largest vote in
his favor Of any defeated candidate for Governor
in our political history. has failed to receive a
majority. This result, to those who have given
close attention to the indications, is what has
been anticipated; and, although it is a result
which we regret, it is not one, so far as it has
been fairly achieved, of which we have any right
to complain. The people are the party interested,
and if the people want John BrOugh for their
Governor, the principles which he represents to
be those upon which the State Government is to
be conducted. and the national policy which be
advocates to be continued and applied tn them
selves, they, have a right TO be g%ratifed. We
hope the people have had better reasons for vot-
ing for Mr.. BFough than we have been able to
discover-better reasons than have been argued
by the organs OF the party in power to influence
their suffrages; that they have been impelled by
neither fear, nor by faBaticism, nor by party or
personal interest; that they have gone To the
polls, not as slaves. nor as hucksters, nor az
madmen, nor as party janizaries, but as
freemen, faithful to their convictions, and, if
wrong, only wrong in being honestly mistaken.
We hope, furthermore. that they will not be
disappointed in the administration of the man
whom they have elected; that their Governor
will be more faithful in practice than he has been
in doctrine consistent; and that the responsible
ties of official life will lead him 10 a knowledge
of facts in our condition as a State, which, rs "A
candidate, he has seemed unable 60 comprehend.
The vote which Mr.. Vallandigham has received,
given under such circumstances of discourage
ment, will teach him and his advisers that there
is a numerous, united, faithful and ~resolute mi
nority in Ohio-a minority too large to be over
looked in respect to its influence, too firmly uni
ted to be safely treated with contempt, and too
powerful to admit the attempt to outlaw it as
made up of criminals, to be of any avail.
The election of Mr.. Brough If we are to
judge by its antecedents-puts the government of
Ohio in the hands of the Administration at
Washington. To prepare the way for this is the
sum and essence of the doctrines urged by that
gentleman and his collabOrators. pending the
election. The State as a body corporate and
polite, endowed with some of the attributes of
independence, must either disappear (being
merged in the m sovereignty exercised
by Mr.. Lincoln in the name of the %natiOn) or
Mr.. BrOugh the Governor sworn to support the
State Constitution. must become a very different
thing from Mr.. BrOugh the candidate of a party
which only recognized State existence in fact, to
condemn it as a thing illegitimate and foreign to
the true theory of our Institutions.
We have the right to assume that Mr.. Brough
the Governor will be the legitimate successor of
Mr.. Brough the candidate; that his administra
ton will exemplifv the political dOgmas to which
he has willingly committed himself; that his oath
to support the State Constitution will be construed
according to the latest party revelation. We may
therefore bid-we hope but tempOrarily-adieu to
the State of Ohio. From this time forth the
Estate of Ohio" will be only a territorial. not a
political designation. The power which the State
OF Ohio once had to protect its citizens, has some
time since disappeared. In electing Mr. Brough,
the people have sanctioned this act of dismantle
ment. This gone, there is little remaining for
which to contend; and the choice of a man who
publicly told the people, in order to gain their
support, that il they did not elect him willingly,
force would i~nterpose to put him ia the place to
which he aspired, seems to remove all the obsta-
Giles which stood in the way Of the work of State
humiliation. To elect a man who threatened to
be a dictator in case he was not elected, is to elect
n dictator.
We will not here stop to mourn over the close
of the political history of the State of Ohio, nor
predict evil to the people because they have per
mitted the revolution which has extinguished il
"a "A political entity to succeed. We will rather
look for, its resurrection in due time; for we feel
that a people who once enjoyed the benefit of
legal guarantees to their rights and liberties will
not long do without them The form of the
elective franchise still remains-sole relic Of con-
stItutional freedom; and. this remaining. the sub
stance may at some time reattach, and the people
become as willing to restore as they are now to
demolish.
There being no State of Ohio, Mr.. Brough is
only a titular Governor of the State. He attains
by his election nothing but a place, to which the
President might have appointed him. How much
satisfaction this reflection will give him will de-
pend upon his relish for a title which is, in fact, a
misnomer. He will write Governor after his
name. and act as an agent of the powers that be
at Washington. As his predecessor did not, so
be will not be required to see the people of the
District Of Ohio; aud we have the right to look
upon him as simply a relic accidently left of a
state of things that has passed away.
To the members of the Democratic party we
have only to say that they have done their duty.
For the result they are not responsible. Chagrin
over a party defeat is unmanly, as in exultati0n
over a party victory. All the loss that a party
%sustains in failing 10 achieve power and Office is
nothing. and We have no tears to shed over de
feated candidates Had Mr.. Vallandigham been
elected. it would have given rs pleasure. because
it would have seemed TO rs not only an act Of
justice to an individual. but the assertion Of an
important right by the people But Mr.. Vallan-
digham will be none the less Mr.. Vallandigham
because he is not elected; nor rights cease to be
rights because they are not permitted for a time
in allegiance Time will. at length. make all
things even; and because we are unable to see il
now. does not prove that even these adverse
events may not. in the end. appear to be things
tnat were neeueo 10 more Iuiiy prepare tue way
for a more desirable consumation.
IL Is not proper to he discouraged. Indeed,
there is no room for encouragement. We can
not avoid the risk in which is placed all that is
politically desirable. The greater the danger,
the greater the demand for constancy. The
stake is our whole estate. and the game must be
played. In the election of Mr.. Brough, we have
a virtual promise that civil war will not, for the
present, be brought upon US by the Government;
that there will be no immediate forcible seizure
of q people whose legal defenses have been
demolished. We shall still be permitted to
think, and perhaps 10 communicate our thoughts
one to another; and such power and virtue as
there is in opinion may. in time. produce that
general popular action which il necessary to re
trace without danger or CONFUSION the wrong
path which we as a people are pursuing
~ The total killed in the several divisions OF
Tho 00fh arms coros of the Armv of the Cumher