The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-07
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THE CONNECTICUT ELECTION.


in Connecticut. With full vote, as far as
returned, of between ninety-two aud ninety
four thousand, the election of Governor re-
mains in doubt. The latest returns show
that Governor English has plurality of i've
votes, with a hundred errors yet to be cor
rected in the official count. The old proverb
that one swallow does not make a summer is
illustrated in the comparison between the
Democratic victory in New Hampshire and
the Democratic disappointment in Connect-
cut The fact is that the sudden shock which
the Republican party got from the reverbera-
ton of the Democratic cannon announcing
triumph from the battlefield in New
Hampshire, woke them up to the ne
cessity of looking after their interests
in Connecticut. They braced themselves
up, stiffened their muscles, and put on
their dignity for a good square fight, aud
there is no doubt but theyfought it we'll. The
administration, too, was alive to the fact that
Connecticut must not be permitted to add
another success to the Democratic cause in
New England; and hence every effort was
made on Monday last by the labors of federal
officers, and, it is said, by the influence of
Federal money, to q great extent, in helping
out the necessary electioneering expenses to
defeat Governor English. The colored vote
also, which was brought to the polls for the
first time at this election, took at least eight
hundred votes from the Democratic mai ority
of 1870; for it is fair to conclude that the
newly y-created colored voters nearly to q man
went for Ex-Governor Jewell. The iority
OF Governor English last year, being only
eight hundred and y-three, would thus be
easily demolished, compelling the Democrats
to build up that majority from other sources,
and these sources appear TO have been dry.
In many respects the Connecticut election
is curiosity in politics. The mashinery
was admirably managed on the part of the
Republicans. The clever scheme, whereby
the voters were made to believe that Tam
many Hall had seized upon the State, by
means of an imaginary despatch from Gov
ernor English to Mr.. Tweed, was an admirable
contrivance. Tammany itself could not beat
the trick in adroitness The despatch pur-
porting to come from Governor English to
Mr.. Tweed, which we may safely assume was
never written and never worried the tee-
graph wires, was cunningly circulated
in the weekly edition of a Republican
paper at Hartford-the Courdnt-
throughout the country districts
with such appeals to the prejudices
of the farmers and others in the rural places
as brought the spectre nOir of Tammany be-
fore them in hideous aspects. Shall the
honest voters of Connecticut or "the thieves
of Tammany" carry this election? was the
question presented to the rural voters. Natu-
rally enough they were alarmed at the alter
native; they were not going to be sold like
considerable strength to assert their claims to
New England backbone. Hence, in mea-
sure. the full vote polled. It was cunning
trick, well devised and lucky in its operations;
but all is fair in politics, as in love and war.
We hardly think, after all, that the st. Do
mipgo question, made hot and irritable by
the fierce assaults of Sumner and SchurZ upon
President Grant, had much to do with the
result in Connecticut. We are disposed to
think that the Republicans there looked with
considerable Indifference upon the quarrel.
In short, they probably were about equally
divided in their views as between President
Grant and Sumner, and rather liked the bold
ness of the Massachusetts, Senator than other
wise At all events that question was skill
fully withdrawn from sight in the canvass by
the Republican organs aud orators. 1t was
not trumpeted in the columns of the radical
press. neither was it proclaimed from the
radical stump. The only issue supposed to
carry any weight with it, which was presented
carefully up to the last moment, was this
terror that Tammany was controlling the
State with its greenbacks, its cohorts of ruff
fans and it's innate and dangerous corrup
tions We are told now that MIR. Tweed il
Thonlme Qui rit, and that he enjoys a very
hearty laugh over the affair OF the bogus
despatch.
It NAV not be SO diff cult after all to dis
cover the reason why this election in Connec
when we consider that local quarrels exsteC
in almost every district in the State, and spill
tickets were the common rule almost every
where. The Second Congressional district
for example, was lost to the Democrats il
this way. The bitterness existing against tn
Democratic candidate MIR. Kendrick) since
his opposition TO Mr.. Babcock two years ago
which gave the district to the Republican
candidate (Mr. Kellogg, confronted him a
the polls on Monday, and resulted in the re
election of Kellogg. The Democrats coul
not forgive Kendrick, and thus they permitte
him to be sacrificed. There seemed to b
that kind of feeling among the Democrats a
through the State, extending even to the loci
elections. Those who calculated the
family quarrels were going to demo
ralize the Republicans therefore counte
without their host. They appear to hay
voted "the ticket fair and squar
The negro vote, after the applican
for the franchise had stood the test of Il
''reading clause" which declares that ever
voter must be able to read at least one sectic
of the constitution, probably amounted to
little over thousand. 1t is fair to concluC
that seven-eighths of these negroes voted I'll
Republican ticket, thus throwing seven
eight hundred votes into the Republican m
joTity. In the uncertain state of affairs it
not unlikely that the election of Govern
will pass from the hands of the electors in
those of the Legislature, in which case,
the Republicans have a mai ority of TWEEN
on Joint ballot, in both houses, Mr.. Jew
will, of course, be declared the duly elect
Chief Magistrate of the State for the ensui
wear Thus the Connecticut election inste
of being test of the progress of Democra
sentiment in New England turns out to b
-. Ill