New-York tribune., 1874-05-20
HISTORIC PARALLEL.

A HISTORIC PARALLEL.
The Legislature of Connecticut yesterday
elected William w. Eaton to represent the
State in the United States Senate In place of
Senator Buckingham, whose term expires in
March next. To the thoughtful student Of
American politics it is an event OF more than
ordinary significance. it will be in March
eighteen wears since Connecticut was repre-
sented in the Senate by Democrat. The
last Democratic Senator was Isaac TOucey,
who went from the Senate into Mr.. Buchan-
ans Cabinet in March. 1857, and retired from
public life at the close of that Administration
in 1861. From 1854 on to the time of his retire
ment probably no public man in the State
was more unpopular or would have had less
chance for an elective Office than Mr. TOucey.
He is succeeded in the Democratic line, after
lapse of eighteen years, by gentle
man who was one of his most intimate pOlit-
ical friends, and who shared his opinions and
the unpopularity they brought. Indeed, Mr..
Eaton. being Younger and more engaged in
active politics, brought upon himself much
more bitter and uncOmprOmising hostility
than was felt toward Mr.. TOucey. who was in
some measure protected from assault by the
shelter of his political retirement. The
younger politician asserted the opinions OF
the elder in the most aggressive and offensive
manner. and in so doing fairly extorted the
admiration of the manly and sincere among
his opponents, who, much as they detested
his opinions, could not withhold their respect
for n man who so manifesuy exhibited the
courage of his convictions.
With all this there has not been a time
hn hat
William w. Eaton had the slightest chance to
attain what has notOriousy been the measure
of his ambition, seat in the Senate OF tho
United States That he has at last attained
il. and that Connecticut has deliberately
turned away from the men who have had her
confidence for over twenty years, to lift to
her highest representative position the man
she has feared and hated most, and whose
political opinions she has repeatedly reDudi-
ated and disOwned, is an event OF peculiar
significance. Whoever should have said two
wears ago, when the Republicans, strong in
their majority, quarreled and split into factions
over the election of Senator, that VIM. w.
Eaton would be the next Senator elected,
would have been compassionated as lunatlc.
Such A prediction few months later, when
the State was carried overwhelmingly for
Grant, would have been wilder still. What
causes have been at work since then to cre-
ate such a revolution it may be worth the
while of the party which has seen power slip
away from it to study. There are certainly
lessons to be learned from it which If they
are wise they will heed. Possibly it is too
late to change the downward current; 1t may
be there is not time, even il there were the
disposition, to accomplish what has been 80
often promised, and which alone can save
them-reform within the party. In Connecti-
cut at least honest Republicans have ceased to
believe them, and have by their votes shown
their lack of confidence.
The political history of the State is not
without an almost perfect parallel for the
present condition with the situations reversed.
In 1862, the Democratic party rode into power
upon a wave that annihilated its old opponent.
But it soon lost its head and abused its
opportunities. In 1853 it was as strong in
Connecticut as the Republicans were in 1872.
1t held almost undisputcd control. TO have
intmated in the Spring of 1853 the possibility
of the election of an AbolitiOnist to the United
States Senate the next year, or any year, would
have been too absurd for the widest
political dreamer. Mr.. TOucey sitting in the
Senate was as confident of the continued su
premacy of his party as Mr.. Buckingham in
the same position was last year of the suprem
acy of his. Mr.. TOucey, like Mr.. Buckingham,
upheld his party. Mr.. Eaton and the party
leaders at home sustained the party just as
Gen. Hawley and the party leaders have the
present Administration. The Democratic party
woke up one fine morning in April, 1854, to
find themselves routed, horse, foot, and dra-
goons, and sent into twenty years. minority
and on another fine day little later Senator
Toucey had the modification of presenting to
the Senate the credentials of Francis Gillette,
a lifelong AbOlitionist, as United States Sen
ator from Connecticut. The Democratic party
had forgotten its trust and been deaf to the
protests of the people. The people had risen
up and asserted their sovereignty, and in the
extreme of their indignation had smitten their
| betrayers in the face by the election of q man
who represented the absolute antipodcs Of the
party iu power. And even that rebuke was
| unheeded: it was too late to learn. The
party clung to its mistakes-and has had
twenty years in which to answer for them.
In the same spirit in which conservative
| Connecticut swung over from Buchanan's
administration to Francis Gillette in 1854, she
| has swung from Grants administration TO
| Wm. w. Eaton in 1874. Some Republican
politicians in Connecticut have made mistakes
fatal mistakes. They have followed the
Administration and sustained the party.
clarifying the one and singing peans to the
other, when they knew in their inmost souls
that the one was petty, personal, and un-
,ortby ond tho other blind folso o,l no..