Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-11-10
from the Cincinnati Enquirer. Nov. o.
The Election Yesterday.

T 7 IL would be undertaking its importanc,
even to institute a comparison between thu
L election held yesterday and any other sine,
| the foundation of the Government. Its i'm
| portance is not greater and more marked
| however, than were the extraordinary anC
| disreputable means employed to carry it by
the men in office. Heretofore corruption
fraud and villainy have been used to som,
extent in our elections, but in the one just
past they were reduced to complete anG
organized system.
Louis Napoleon was not more determin-
ed to convert the French Republic into an
imperial throne for himself and his de-
scendants, than those in power in this coun-
try were to perpetuate their dynasty and
we say it sOlemnly, he was not more un-
: scrupulous i'm the exertions which he made
to that end. If the elective franchise has
not been made as complete mockery as in
France, it has not been the fault of Abra-
ham Lincoln and his advisers.
In Great Britain the retainers and office
holders of the Crown are not allowed to
vote; but here a standing army of more
than million persons, civil and military,
was used by the Cabinet at Washington for
that purpose. In the last days OF the Ro-
man Empire, when degeneration and de-
graduation had overtaken 1t, the armies were
not more directly and unblushingly en-
ployed TO designate the person who should
be clothed in the imperial purple, than they
have been by Abraham Lincoln, so far as 1t
was possible for fraud, interest and force to
accomplish it. But never in France or in
ancient Rome did monarch have such vast
means of corruption at his disposal, or such
an overwhelming exhibition of physical
power at his command. No such test has
ever before been applied to republican in
stitutions in this country, and If they sur
vive the shock, it will be Providential
dispensation.
The election has passed into history, and
those who have been engaged IN it will
answer in the future to it as an arbitrator,
and to their own consciences for its results,
whatever they may be.
The friends of General Mcclellan and
those desirous of a change In the Admins
tration have nothing to reproach themselves
with, but can covet the most rigid scrutiny
of time. They have nobly striven to stem
the tide of official corruption and pr0fiiga-
cy. They have energetically thrown them
selves into the breach to save this last fab
ric of Republican liberty from being en-
tirely oyerthrown. They have bid defiance
to the gauntletcd hand of force, and they
have been proof against tile seductions Of
interest. They have resisted the tide of fa-
lnaticism, and amid obloquy, denunciation
and reproach that future generations viii
hardly be able to appreciate, they have no.
bly, discharged their duty as freemen, and
cast enlightened ballots for the preserva-
tion of liberty and the restoration Of peace
and prosperity to the land. All honor to
this brave and noble army-more than a
million and a halt strong-which In the day
of its extremity made a final rally for the
preservation of the Government.
They have well comprehended the nature
of this struggle, and they saw in 1t results
and consequences so infinitely momentous'
as 70 hush all partisan feeling In their dread
solicitude for the common future of all our
countrymen. Too many, alas! have not
seen IL In that light, and have voted as iii
were an old fashioned contest between rival
parties for the possession Of the Govern