The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1871-12-22
ne Real strength of u
Democratic Party.

The fact that many prominent
Democrats have proposed that their
party shall make no nomination 70,
the Presidency next year, and 40.
cept candidate from the Anti Gran
Republicans, has been cbronisled by
Grants friends as proof that the
Democratic party 10 not merely
powsrless but virtually dead. and
therefore that in the next campaign
it win only be necessary for Grant
to walk over the course and pocket
the stakes. --..
That : coalition among all the ad-
vccates Of reform in the coming
national contest, with Republican
Of Democratic antecedsnts at its
head, would be the most certain
mode Of Sighting the battle for the
reform ofcorruption in the national
Administration, we have no manner
Of doubt; but waving this programme
and supposing the battle to be wag-
ed under such . Democratic leader
as William s. Groesbeck, with =
candidate for Vice-President like
Gratz Brown, those Republicans Who
should assume that tho Democratic
party was dead, and that the cam
paign was to be merely funeral pa
geant, would be pretty sure to find
the corpse q pretty troublesome one
to bury. ...<
What then is the present strength
Of the Democratic party? What
forces can it bring into the field in
1872, whether waging the contest
without allies, or as a member of
coalition? In answering these ques.
tions a few facts are of more value
than Z volume of defamation.
The popular majority for General
Grant in 1868 was 800, 5ss, Virginia,
Mississippi, and Texas not voting at
all. and Florida choosing electors by
the Legislature. How small this
seemingly large majority really is,
will be apparent when We graduate it
by a scale which the mind can readi-
ly comprehend. In round numbers,
the Presidential vote 10 1868 was
$500, 900, and Grants majority
$4,000. This, on a reduced scale,
is saying that in vote Of $50 his
majority was 81. II, for example, in
that township of Westchester county
where lies the domain Of Chappaqua
the Republicans should, after fierce
contest in which $50 votes were CIV
en-, elect Supervisor by barely 81
majority, would not Dr.. Greeley be
justified in insisting that if the Re-
pablicans hoped to maintain their
supremacy in that town their Super
visor must behave himself? And
this is tbs precise position in which
the figures of 1868 place Gen.
Grant.
In tho Congressional elections of
1870 each party did its utmost. The
losses of the Republicans was heavy.
Their majority in the House chosen
with Grant was 96. Their majority
in the present House is 80, showing
. falling off of GA mem bers, and being
among the greatest changes from one
Congress to tho next in the history
of the country. Moreover. though
the House is nominally Republican
by this narrow majority, a few test
votes have already proven that it is
anti-Grant.
How stood the popular vote in the
last Congressional elections? In
. few of the Southern States the re-
turns are partially imperfect; but by
going over the canvass with care in
those States which gave Grant his
800. 5sS majority. it will be found
that tho majority given therein to the
Republican candidates for the pres
ont House over their Democratic op-
ponents is about $4,000. We are
certain that it does not vary 5000
from those figures. Here is = SAM
pie Of the two classes ofreturns. We
select eleven States which fairly
represents 81. sections of he Union,
namely; Maine and Massac chusstts in
the extr reme East; New York and
Pennsylvania Of the great central
cluster; Illinois and Iowa in the