The New York herald., 1871-09-13

I
Yorks
The general results of the Maine election,
10 their bearings upon the impending Presi-
Dental contest, correspond with returns from
California. They embrace popular endorse
ment of General Grants administration which
cannot be misinterpreted in reference to the
Presidential succession. They show that on
| the Atlantic coast as on the Pacific seaboard
| the administration is tower of strength to
the republican party, which the democracy in
their present demoralzed and disorganized
condition cannot shake, while the figures Of
the August elections in North Carolina and
Kentucky indicate that the prevailing public
sentiment of the interior Of the country is in
accord with that of our Western and Eastern
extremities. Indeed, we have seldom, during
the last forty years, had better showing than
this for the party in power in the local cleo
tions of the year next preceding that Of the
| Presidential contest. In 1867, our political
readers will remember, the republicans in these
local elections were so frequently beaten, and
the democrats were so remarkably successful,
that they were confident Of carrying the White
House, Congress and everything else before
| them in 1868.
Mr.. Kimball, the late democratic candidate
for Governor in Maine, clearly understood the
general apathy" which, as the rule, prevails
in the ranks of the dominant national party in
| these purely local contests between the two
| great parties Of the country. Hence, antici-
pating a short vote on the republican side, he
| issued circular to the democrats in every
hole and corner of the State, calling upon
them quietly to bring out their whole strength
to the polls on election day, for that in so
doing they would catch the republicans nap
ping and electrify the democracy of the nation
with glorious victory. Unfortunately, how
ever, the general apathy" this year appears
to have fallen most heavily upon the demo-
cratic party, and so the appeal of Mr.. Kim
ball met With No encouraging response, and
the expected democratic gains in Maine are
not forthcoming
But why this unusual apathy among the
hitherto never tired and always "unterrified
democracy2" Many causes have operated and
are operating to dishearten them. They are
without leaders on national questions and
without any fixed or common platform. The
''new departure" instead of harmonizing, has
operated to demoralize them, and the general
hue and cry raised against Tammany Hall has
turned the tables against them in reference to
administrative frauds, extravagances, corrup-
tions and spoliations upon the public treas
| ury. The republicans, on the other hand, on
| the principles and measures of General Grants
administration as their platform, and under the
standard of General Grant himself as their
candidate for the succession, have possessed
and do possess all the advantages OF q COM
mon cause we'll defined and common pur-
pose, North, South, East and West. Against
this common cause of the republicans-the
maintenance Of the domestic and foreign pol
icy of their national adminstration-we see,
from these recent elections, h ow impotent are
the efforts of all such disappointed soreheads
as Sumner, Fonton, Greeley, Trumbull, Gratz
Brown and Carl Schurz, to divert the party
from its fixed purpose, the recollection of Gene
raj Grant in 1872.
In the New Hampshire election Of last
spring Er. Sumner gained short-lived vic
tory over General Grant in consequence of
that apple of dscord, the Generals st. Do
mingo annexation scheme. That hint, how
ever, was sufficient for Grant, and, with his
abandonment of that scheme, Connecticut was
wrested from the democrats, and the uniform
pressure of all the State elections since has
been in favor Of his administration, and in
favor of its continuance through another four
years term. We suspect that the October
elections in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Iowa,
will tell the same story as these Of September
in California and Maine. In 1867 the demo-
Gratis carried Pennsylvania, by nine hundred
majority, by default, and the republicans on
the same day, losing the Legislature in
| Ohio and with it United States Senator,
narrowly escaped with their Governor.
General apathy" among them did the busi
ness. They were getting demoralized at last
by Johnsons administration, and were all
adrf. in regard to their Presidential candidate.
But it was johnson, after all, who saved them
in his stupid quarrel with Stanton, whereby
| General Grant, from his decisive course in that
| controversy, made himself at once the repub-
| lican champion against Chief Justice Chase,
'Old Ben Wade" and all other republican aspi-
rants of that day.
But the decentralization and the prevailing
Indifference of the republicans in the State
! elections Of 1867 do not exist in 1871. The
boot is on the other leg, aud the only doubts
! and misgivngs in regard to the elections of
this fall of any consequence are in regard to
the November result in New York. On the
10th of July last it appeared to be reasonable
supposition that Taulmany would carry the
| State by at least fifty thousand majority but
on the llth and the 10Th, from the new issue
| raised in that Orange procession, the whole