Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1867-04-24
The Connecticut Election.

The Argus and Patriot of last week had tn
following
''SLIGHTLY MIXED. Our usually clear
helded neighbor of the FREEMAN seems to hav
go this ideas 50 slightly mixed under the eff
tects of the Connecticut election. In his pape
of last week he says the House is republican b,
10 majority, when in truth it is but H. ant
that % the vote several thousand les
than last year,, when in fact it was larger
The total vote last year was 81 Alb, and THU
year it was S7.7S7, or 800 more than las
year 1t is all well enough for the FREEMA,
to attempt to smooth over the defeat of it,
party, but it should keep truth on its side il
doing
We were led into the error in respect t.
the whole vote in Connecticut by carclessly
reading the returns in the New York World
Oemocratic), which, in giving a recapitula-
ton of the vote in Connecticut two DAYS af
ter the election, put the aggregate vote this
year several thousands less than last wear II
we had looked at the returns in detail, we
should have found that this aggregate was less
than the whole vote, majorities only were
reported in several instances. We also had
Democratic authority for statement res
pecting the Republican majority of sixteen
in the House, which was reported in the
World three days after the election as fol-
lows: ''The House, l27 Republicans and
III Democrats. Republican majority l6."
We shall be careful hereafter not to rely up
on Democratic reports of elections
But the Argus is not quite right in its own
figures The vote in Connecticut this wear.
according TO the official count, is, English
IL sos Hawley &c, 57S. The aggregate vote
is, "a ,I43, (not 81, 7S7 as the Argus report
ed), and English's majority 9S7. Last year
the vote was, Hawley IS ,974; English 49,
433; the whole vote being 81 ,4O7. or 6 $50
less than this year. The official count gives
the Republicans only ten majority in the
House, (not eleven the Argus has it
While the Argus condemns us for inaccura-
cies, it ought at this late day to be more ac-
curate itself Its own mistakes ought to
make it more charitable in its Judgment, and
not suffer it to attribute to design, errors
which every newspaper is liable to make
even after the utmost care and fairness in
examining figures
So far as our article, TO which the Argus
objects, attributed the Republican defeat in
Connecticut to light vote, it was based up
on misrepresentation. But our contempo-
rary ought, with its structures, to have been
fair enough to have said that the FREEMAN
attributed the defeat much more to other
causes than to the light vote. We said
But more than all these endorsements the
.IzC1 L l. 4
tIcut has disliked impartial suffrage more than
any other New England State, and is the on
ly state east of the Hudson river that keeps
up the odious and undemocratic discrimina-
ton against black men on account of their
color. In 1868, when a proposed amend
ment TO the state constitution, abolshng
this discrimination, was submitted TO the
popular vote, it voted down by a ma ior-
ity of over 5000, although the state had been
carried by the Republicans the preceding
spring by nearly 1000 majority. Dixon.
one of the United States Senators from the
state. elected as Republican, followed
johnson into the Democratic party, and Sen
ator Foster, who failed last year of a re-
election to the Senate. has proved to be
rather cold in his Republicanisn. In short,
there have been altogether too many of the
Republicans of Connecticut, who have been
of a shaky kind. inclined to follow Weed
anu raymond rather tnan 10 cut loose from
all temporizers and fight the battle squarey
for equal rights and impartial liberty. The
issue was made So squarely this spring, the
Republicans coming well up to the position
occupied by the Radicals in other states that
these time-serving Republicans either staid
at home voted the Democratic ticket. and
thus contributed to the result which has
made the Democratic party drunk with ex-
ultation all over the country The Republi-
can party has thus, at the expense of defeat
got rid of this dead weight of politicians
without principles, and will be stronger in
the future without them than it ever could
have been with them
Wemust again remind our Democratic CON
temporaries that they seem to be more joyful
over Connecticut than the facts warrant
Last year English was defeated by 54l votes,
and he is elected this year by 9S7 majority
\ change of 764 votes would make this diff
ference. Isn't that rather too small gain
in 81 LAB votes TO make so much fuss over?