The Portland daily press., 1875-04-13
Our New York Letter.
The Connecticut Eleciion-Two Glasses Of
RepubIicans-The Beecher Trial.
NEW YORK. Anril u. 1873.

NEW YORK, April II, 1875.
Connecticut is not credit to the New Eng
land ssterhood. The agricultural portion is
we'll enough, but those manufacturing towns,
into which SO many foreigners migrate, do
manage to roll up Democratic majorities to
an extent alike grisVous and surprising to the
staid Puritans who stand by the teachings of
the fathers.
The Republicans this time girded on their
armor for vigorous campaign. They made it.
Their vote was handsomely increased and real
lied their expectations. But the extraordinary
accession OF numbers to the other side was alto
gether unaccountable, and has given rise to
grave suspicious of foul play. To be sure it is
a common resort of defeated parties to impute
fraud to their adversaries. But then it is very
strange that there should be indications of an
enormous increase of population In a single
year, and that, too, in season of inactivity
and depression. And it is a remarkable COIN
cidence that this expansion should occur stimuli
taneously with the removal of the checks
which had previously been imposed upon the
franchise The Democrats may be great stick
lers for honest voting, but it is a curious fact
that they invariably oppose every measure
which looks to the preservation of the purity
of the ballot.
However, take it either way-attribute the
result to sudden and rapid growth of popula-
ton, or to fraudulent tampering with suffrage,
it is not an unmixed evil. II it were desirable
to cure the country of any hankering for res
toration, by exhibiting Democracy in its most
offensive form, the Conn scticut article is suit
able pattern to show. The ancient Bourbons
up there have been all their lives apologzing
to their customers southwark for having been
born or reared so near Plymouth Rock. Dur
ing the war they rejoiced-openly if they dared
to, secretly if that was safest-at every disas-
ter which befel the Union arms. They scowled
at every volunteer who crossed the border to
reach the front. They resisted the draft, op-
posed the granting of supplies, secuted every
proposition of aggressive warfare against re-
bellion, and ncknamed the soldiers of the
Republic "Lincoln's hirelings." When the
war was over they were for giving up every
thing we had fought for. and have been clam
orous ever since for blotting out every memory
of the civil strife. Give them control of ma
tional affairs and they would make it very un-
comfortable for anybody who had ever worn
the blue. Manned soldiers unable TO conceal
the evidences of their participation in the
struggle, would be rather inclined to encourage
the belief that they had been the victims Of
accidents. Military titles would be deprecated
unless acquired by service in the Confederate
army. Sherman and Sheridan would fall into
disfavor and be liable to insult for the part they
took in the bloody drama. There would be
more raneor, vindctiveness and deDunciation
of loyal men, than was felt in the very heat of
the contest in Northern hearts towards the
malcontents who fomented and prosecuted ii.
1t is just as we'll that the people should have
a foretaste of the future. in time to calculate
al its probabilities. If they really want to be
led by the genus Copperhead, Connecticut is
the state in which that reptile most abounds
and is most malignant
The Republicans of the nutmeg state are as
general thing quite as pronounced and in
earnest as their adversarIes. They didn't go
into the canvass, wringing their hands and
whining canting, groaning over the imperec-
tions and short comings of their party, making
excuses for continued adhesion TO it and giving
a sort of qualified credence to every ridiculous
falsehood that was put in circulation about it.
Mr.. Green, their candidate for governor, so far
get up an indignation meeting on the strength
of a telegram, and without any possible oppor-
tuuity to ascertain the facts, waited for accu-
rate information and when he found that the
President and Gen. Sheridan were entirely
right, as they are apt to be, manfully expressed
his appreciation of their conduct by firing q
hundred guns, performance which rebounds
very much TO his credit. 1t shows pretty
clearly that he is not one of those weak-kneed,
feeble-minded, halting, hesitating, doubling,
timid disciples, who have just life enough to
float with the tide, and are not worth rush
in the way of stemming it, This class of Re-
publicans are an awful dead weight upon the
Their faith is weak, their Gre
dulity strong. There is no lie SO barefaced
but they will give it certain degree of cur
rency by assuming thatit may possibly be true,
and growing lachrymOse at the bare idea of
such thing. In this way three quarters of
the rubbish that is adrift in the political stream
was set and is kept afoat They unconscious
ly stimulate the manufacture Of malicious