The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1876-03-30
The Presidential situation View
ed from am Independent Re-
publican stand point.

We subjoin a sketch of the pending
Presidential situation, as drawn by an
Independent Republican journal, the N.
Y. Tribune. The reader will remember
that one hundred and eighty-four votes
will constitute a majority Of the Electo
raj College. The Tribune thinks that if
the Democrats hold their own in the
States they now control, they will have
207 votes. The estimate is not over
drawn, so far as the Southern States are
concerned. The mistake consists in pla-
cling Florida on the wrong size. AT the
last election she gave a Democratic ma
jOrIty. South Carolina is the only South
ern State which the Republicans can
count upon with any degree of certainty.
1t is fact full of instruction, that none
of the reconstructed States have relapsed
into Radicalism after having once thrown
off its yoke. The people, remembering with
horror their bitter experience of carpet-bag
rule, have redoubled their efforts to
guard against its return. 1t implies
insult, robbery, riot, the strife of races,
and all the evils which attend bad gov
eminent and disorganized society. A
people who have once tasted the joys of
just and intelligent rule are not ready in
an instant to abandon them for the tor
lures of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. From mo-
tives like these the people of these
Southern States will not fail of their
duty in the approaching election. For
tunately, the Democrats and Conserva-
tlves have fortified themselves In the
position they have achieved, by per-
fectly fair and just line of conduct to-
ward the colored voters. The record of
the Mississippi Legislature now in session
is not blurred by single act of bad faith
to that class. On the contrary it bears
evidence of the determination of the ma
jority to abide the issues settled by the
war, and to know no race, nor color, nor
class in the laws they enact. They have
refuted the predictions of their adverse
ries, and have allayed the apprehensions
and won upon the confidence of the
blacks, who had been deceived.
But, to return to the Trihune's view of
the situation. 1t is certainly impartial,
and corroborates our opinion, that, in
the present attitude of parties, New York
is the key to the situation:
At the South lies the strongly intrenched
main body of the Democratic force. The
electoral votes of nearly every Southern
State are held firmly in hand. ready TO be
cast for any candidate labeled Democratic.
on any platform whatever. In South Car
DINA, the election of Whipper and Moses
and the contest between Whipperi,m and
honesty, render it certain that the Repub
licans can retain the hold they now have
only by nominating distinctively reform
ticket. In Florida the same tendencies an
pear. But these are the only Southern
States in which the Democrats did not suc-
ceed at the latest elections. He has not in
telligently watched events who faDcies
that either in Mississippi, where Ames is |
under impeachment, or Alabama where
Spencer and decency are at war; or Louis
lana, where Pinchback insists that KeIIooo
ried for any Republican who does not com
mand much more than the party strength.
At the South, then, the Democrats are more
likely to gain than to lose votes, and the
latest elections warrant them in countinc
confidently upon the 127 electoral votes Of
all the Southern States except South Caro-
lima and Florida.
Their left wing is on the Pacific coast.
where they have carried California, Ore
gon, Nevada and COlora , at the latest
elections. This force of ifteen electoral
votes is not easily dislodged probably it can
ce broken only by amazing FOLLY in the Dem
ocratic Convention. At the East they hold
New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.
with nifty electoral votes. while Indiana. with
ntteen. forms strong nucleus in the center
Moreover, the balaace of power in Ohio
Illinois and Wisconsin. and even in Massa-
chusetts is held by indie pendent voters. who
by no means inclined toward Democracy.
are nevertheless resolved at any cost to
punish with defeat the nomination of any
Republican who has, by action or by ST.
lence, countenanced the shameful coTrnD-
tion in that party. Besides these indenpnd
emit States which the Republicans have vet
to win, the Democrats hold to-day Stats
having 207 electoral votes. At what noint
can the Republicans break this force