Litchfield enquirer., 1876-05-11
New York Evening Post.l
The connectcur senatorship

The Connectcut Senatorship
 The contest for the Connecticut senator ! ship has within a few days put on new aspect. The political prophets stoutly ! assert that Representative Barnum by ''an active but quiet canvass" has pledged enough of the new legislators to secure the prize. In this connection it is we'll worth remembering that the Connecticut democrats signalizsd their accession to power three years ago by serious polit- ical error. From an excellent list of can- didates for the senaforship they selected Mr. W. w. Eaton, party leader of the ''war horse type, and who, unless pug mac ty, extravagent partisanship and an habitual delight in making the fur fly" are marks of the statesman, had slight qualifications for the position. Neverthe. less the choice of Mir Eaton in 1874. bad as 1t was was almost stroke Of statesman ship Tn comparison with the political blunder which the Connecticut democrats now seem likely to make by. electing Mir. Barnum.
 Fer Representative Barnum it should be explained, has not even the aggressive virtues of the political horse The war-horse, if lmpulsive and thoughtless. Is blunt and open in his DO iticai methods We may deprecate his impetuosity and wron -headedness, his blind devotion to party Or his rhetorical absurdit e., yet we must concede that when he prances upon the platform or rushes into the breach on the eve of election, he at least does his fighting in the. 6eld But of Representa- tive Barnum it has always been said that he fights in the dark. He is reputed to be the secret fiscal agent of his party in Connecticut. His name has become vide ly notorious by association with corrnp ton in his district at congressional elac- tions. So directly were his bad practices brought home to him in 1867, that he was prevented from being unseated only by the discovery of similar misdeeds on the part of the opposing candidate. His shameful neglect of his public duties, and his absenteeism, have been such that few months ago they provoked the just criticism that he ''ran for congress every two years, and all the rest of the time ran away from it." The fact that MT. Bar mum is president of two railroad compan- ies and the director of extensive iron in- terests that center at his home, would not be thought to add to his fitness for the senate, even were his political character unimpeached. It is no wise strange. also, that we find him an ultra. .protectionist, and one who represents the most vicious type of protection, in that his ''principles" are not matter of doctrine but of selfish and personal interest. Mir. Barnum, in short belongs to the market, not to the forum; and every claim that he has to par ty gratitude rests on that bad principle of money-power in politics which 1t should be the first aim of every good citizen to extirpate.
 If the Connecticut democrats pcrpetrate this folly and fill the honored seat of Mir. Ferry with such man as Mir. Barnum. they must do it with their eyes open to the risks and consequences. The thought full voters, who measure parties by per- fOrmances and not by pledges, will be prompt to understand what the proceed ing means. If on the eve of presidential election, when the air is thick with warn- ings to both political organizations, the democratic legislators in New England state defy public sentiment, what trust shall we repose in the party at large in broader fields of administration? If dem- ocrats when on their good behavior pass by such men as David A. Wells or Cover nor Ingersoll to "reward" BGrnum-if they thus ignore and insult every patriot ic impulse for much needed reform and purity in public morals-we can very cer- tainly prophecy that next November they will hear of something to their disadvan- tage.