New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-10-17
NEW ORLEANS SUNDAY OCTOBER IT, 1875
Especial Correspondence of the Republican,
NORTHERN POLITICS..

loptclai correspondence OF the Republicanl
NORTHERN POLITICS..
The Alterations of the Ohio Election |
Eject Either Way Upon the Final Is. |
sue in 1S76-Whom tho Gods Would |
Nestroy They First Make NInd-C Con. |
federate.Democratic Folly and Repub.
iican success-Reiationso of Ohio Elec.
tiOu to National Politics, Etc.
NEW YORK, October IL, 1875.
Before this letter reaches you the result
of the political contest in Ohio will have
been telegraphed to New Orleans. 1t is
useless, therefore, to offer any predictions
as to the result; hut it is very important
to keep always and clearly in view the fact
that the Ohio election represents a contest
preliminary to other engagements which
will take place between the same parties
within the next eighteen months; these
| ''feld engagements" all bearing upon, and
leading to, the great Presidential pitched
| battle OF 1876. Whether the Re-
publieans carry Ohio now by
large or by q small majority or,
whether they simply reduce the Demo-
cratic majority, which in late elections have
| controlled the State, the moral effect of the
| tie Ohio election will remain the same.
| Ohio is now in the hands of the Democracy
1t has been SO for several years. The anti
| Republican majority which has effected this
result is very large. The utter overthrow
of this majority, or its essential "break up,
will foreshsdow the future of national poll
tics for years to come.
| Ohio, in her influence as the leading
State of the West, bears upon the following
vital political points, as involved in the
present contest there:
l. Upon the issue of inilation, from which
it will be impossible for the Confederate
Democracy to escape.
| 9. Upon the organization of the next
House of Representatives.
3. Upon the platform and presidential
nomination of the next National Demo-
cratic Convention.
4. Upon party issues and discipline of
the Democracy of Pennsylvania and New
York in the approaching State elections in
these States.
5. Upon the question Of harmony in the
Democratic political household.
G. Upon the action of the Liberal Repub
licans, and also upon the independent {"
Republican vote of the North.
First, of imitation. If the Democracy
carry Ohio it will be reg arded as the tri-
umph of initiation. The New York Demo-
cratic programme will, in such case, be
changed: SO will that of Pennsylvania. :.
Under such an impulse as this nothing could
| Ia &c
pudiation, to which Northern Democratic
initiation leads. This Confederate "yell"
will come from every Southern State from
Delaware to Texas The issue would then
be square stand-up fight in 1876,
for the credit and financial sAabili-
ty of the nation as against Con-
federate repudiators, aided by their
Democratic allies of the North. This de-
velopment Of Confederate: Democratic pur-
pose would do what similar developments
have SO often done before in the contest
between the party Of slavery and the party
of liberty for supremacy on this continent.
1t would bring the entire Republican vote
of the North into compact united strength
for the preservation of the national life,
for reputation means national death. Any
one who will take the pains to recur to the
political history of the country for the last
twenty years, will see how the great party
of progress and the cause of humanity have
not only been 'set forward" but often
saved by the same folly of their common
enemy which promises to save US now.
This political folly of the Confederate De-
mocracy was first conspicuously developed
in 1850 (let no one suppose that have
made mistake as to date here)-the Con-
federate League was first organized in 1850,
when Jefferson Davis, as the then recog.
nized head of the Confederate League, op.
posed the admission of California. Then
came the Kansas "tolly" Then came
the "folly" of armed sectionalized Sc
cesson. Then came the "folly" of
Andrew johnson and his policy, with its
political massacre of Republicans in New
Orleans (whence a large number of "bloody
shirts" were first manufactured). And now
we have new "folly," 60 plain that the
humblest working man or the plainest
farmer can see it, and that "folly" consists
in Confederate repudiation of the national
debt, aided by Northern Democratic votes
The popular reaction which followed the
California folly, which followed that of
Kansas, the fugitive slave law, the war on
the Union, and the attempt by Andrew
johnson in 1866 to place the Confederate
Democracy in control of the army and navy
and treasury and patronage of the general
government, will follow upon the triumph OF
imitation in Ohio. 1t may be doubted
whether the triumph of imitation in Ohio
is not the best thing which could happen
for the Republican party.
On the other hand, if the Republicans
carry Ohio tomorrow on the issue as
Joined there, then the tidal wave of Ameri
can national feeling may sweep on, increas.
ing in volume until in 1876 it completely
submerges the Confederate Democracy and
buries it out of sight forever as national
: political organization. Ohio will conse-
quently determine the fate of the Confed-
crate Democratic coalition.
If Ohio goes Republican or substantially
Republican, the next Speaker of the House
: of Representatives will be Liberal Re
publican or an ntislavery war Democrat