The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-03-23
LESSONS FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE.

The Republicans of New Hampshire
place a premium upon stealing. There
were Babcock and Shepherd, and the st.
Louis Whisky Ring and the Credit Mo-
bilier, and Leet and Stocking, and the
brothers-in-law, and the usurpations of
The Army and Navy in the South, and
Richardson and the Chorpenning matter,
and the Secor claim, and the Pacific Mail,
and Robeson's activity, and Landaulet
Williams, and Delano, and Schenck, and
the Sanborn contracts, and an innum-
merable list of similar Republican beau
ties and, last of all there was Belknap.
One year ago the Republicans did not
have majority on the popular vote, only
a plurality of l72. The Republican ma
iority on joint ballot of the Legislature
was only seven. Babcock and Belknap
and the st. Louis Whisky Ring, with some
other things, have been added within
welve-month, and the Republican ma
iority in both branches of the Legislature
has. so fir as we can Judge at this writing,
been trebed, and the plurality of 172 has
been lifted to majority Of perhaps 1000.
And this, in New Hampshire, is the effect
of the ex xposure of Republican corruption.
There was no motive for men to change
their votes save as mark OF devotion to
public virtue. More people vote in New
Hampshire to the square inch than in
any other State in the Union. No voter
in the State stays away from the polls,
and It is difficult to keep voters from 9TH
er States away. Bribery is alarmingly
common. But from State election with
every voter out, and where every child is
politician, some inferences may be
drawn. As we have said, this voting
population of New Hampshire is inhe-
rently different to that of Ohio, for ex-
ample. But if, after Babcock and Bel
KNAPP and the rest, this icy State shows an
emphatic republican gain, can the Demo-
cratic party nationally hope that Belknap
will enable it to carry a majority of
the remaining thirty-six States ?
If men say that the voters of New Hamp-
shire were bribed it is still true that Re-
publican money is ample to cover the re-
naming States, and that the force of the
Belknap exposure will never again be so
potent as in the few days just past while
it was so freshly abhorrent. Connecti-
cut is Just ahead of us. What reason is
there to hope that the degradation of one
of the highest officers ofthe Government
will affect hundred votes2 The excite.
ment touching it will presently subside.
The one lesson taught by the New Hamp-
shire election is that the Democratic par
tY must hold up something to the peo-
pie besides an individual Republican
thief for men outside of New Hampshire
and Connecticut failed to present to the
people benifcent measure. They ig-
nored the vital issue, and they will prob
ably lose Connecticut as they have lost
New Hampshire. Possibly they will by
and by learn that in espousing the peo
pies side of the money question which
touches all business and all prosperity,
lies the path to political success, as to
common justice. If the Democratic party
will not learn that lesson, the coming
Presidential election will be an enlarged
photograph of New Hampshire, and with
good reason. The wayfaring Democrats,
though fools or bondholders, ought to be
able to read that fact by this time,