The New York herald., 1876-09-13
Tho Maine Election-What Does II
signifyt

There is, of course, no candor either in
the boastful exaggerations of the republi an
press over the success of their party in Maine
or in the quibbling attempts of the demo-
cratic press to belittle the result. The simple
truth is that the republicans have won the
Maine election by larger majority than
they expected. They have every reason to
be satisfied, but there is nothing in the re-
turns to warrant frothy exultation. BY the
trick of comparing 1876 with 1875, instead of
comparing it with the September election of
1872, they make it appear that they have
gained nine or ten thousand, whereas they
have lost four or five thousand as compared
with their September majority in the last
Presidential year. But the democrats have
no reason to complain of this false standard
of comparison, for they attempted similar
imposition last year. They represented
the great reduction of the republican ma
jority in Maine last year as an absolute and
permanent democratic gain, protesting
an expectation that the republican ma
Jorty, which had been SO signally
reduced, would be wiped out in the
election Of this year There was not the
least hint of suggestion in the democratic
organs one year ago that they did not expect
to keep all they had gained, or that they had
only won an evanescent advantage, which
would be taken from them in the next cleo
ton. Had they been told that the small
republican majority Of 3,S72 in Maine would
rise this year to $4,000 they would have
secuted the idea. They boasted in 1875 that
Maine was in q fair way to beco me q demo-
cratic State in 1876, and now. when that
vaunt is disappointed, they pretend that
they have done as we'll in this election
as they had any reason to expect
They tell us that they have reduced
the republican majority of 1872, and
are therefore on the sure road to victory.
But will they explain how it happened that
they judged so differently last year? Why
did they make predictions which are full
filled by ''the rule of contraries?" What
the democratic. organs said Of Maine last
year was grotesquely inconsistent with what
they Say now. 1t is true enough, however, that
the proper standard of comparison is the Sep
tember election of 1872, and that the repub
lican majority of that year has been reduced
about four thousand
But. in spite of tho reduction of the re-
publican majority in Maine from seventeen
thousand to thirteen thousand, there has
been no material change in the relative
strength of the two parties in the four years.
A powerful influence has been wanting this
year which was operative in 1872. The
turning point of that canvass was the North
Carolina election in August, which fell
Greeley. North Carolina has since
changed her election to November. The
republican victory in that State, in August,
1872 had an electric effect on the country.
1t demonstrated that Mr.. Greeley had been
nominated on a false theory-demonstrated
that he had no hold on the negro vote or any
considerable proportion Of the white repub-
lican vote, and that he was probably des-
tined to defeat That August result in
North Carolina was worth at least four
thousand votes to the republican canvass in
Maine. Due allowance being made for this
difference Of circumstances the result in
Maine this year is not materially different
from what it was in September, 1872. But
the republican party could lose great deal
from its strength in 1872 and still elect the
President
The recent elections in Vermont and
Maine, in which the republicans have sub
stantially held their own, prove that one
chief element on which the democratic party
has relied for success will have no particular
potency. We refer to the suffering and dis
content resulting from universal business
stagnation, which was expected to turn large
masses of republicans against the govern
ment. AS the distress is general throughout
the country this cause should operate in all
the States alike, and as it has had no percep-
tible effect in Vermont and Maine it cannot
be expected to produce much effect any
where. In this view these elections are sig
nificant, and tend to discourage the demo-
cratic party
Nf HNA