Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-10-19


Comments supplied from Washington only
complicate the iollies and mysteries of the
Ohio election. If the result occasions DO
surprise in Ad administration circles why was
principle sacrificed with a view OF avoiding
it? 1t is traceable to causes which have
gradually acquired strength sufficient to
make it inevitable. Why did the Republi-
can managers add to foreordained defeat the
disgrace involved in wanton abandonment
of convictions previously cherished? And
if the President is able to extract consolation
and even encouragement from the fact that
the policy condemned by the Republicans
commends itself to the Democrats, why
should the Administration trouble itself to
prevent Democratic success? lfthe Admin
istration looks with complacency upon a
Democratic victory in the State where the
President and Secretary of the Treasury
WELD much personal influence, how shall we
hereafter estimate the relationship of parties
TO the Administration, its personnel and
policy? Finally. are We to conclude that
the country has entered upon a modernized
era of good feeling, The President caring
more for the friendly professions of the par
ty that labored to keep him out of his office
than for the party that struggled to place
him in it, and depending for his reward
upon the magnanimity Of partisan opponents
rather than upon the honest appreciation 9i
long tried friends? These are not irrele-
want inquiries, as at first glance
they might seem to be. They are
closely connected with the history
and mystery of the contest just over in
Ohio, and they have an obvious bearing
81 f,.,, 10 nf h.
party toward the administration to which it
gave existence. The Times characteriEes
the course of Stanley Matthews and Judge
West in the campaign as pitiful temagOgue-
ism, and true Republicans there stood alOof
1t concludes as follows:
" Much indifference among the Repub-
licans must be attributed to the Presidents
Southern policy. OF all Influences which
have contributed to the defeat, this is the
most potent The veterans Of the Western
Reserve feel rightly or wrongly that the
cause they cherished has been BETRAYED,
and the feeling is visible, more OF less dis
tinctly, everywhere 1t does not prcdomin-
mate, but it is sufficiently strong 10 leave IA
mark on election day. OF what avail is the
assurance that the Presidents policy EFFORTS
praise from the Democracy? The fact re-
mains that the Southern people do not allow
the conciliatOry acts of the Administration
to wean them from their alliance with the
Democratic party, and ;has the Democrats,
while hailing the President as a practical
expounder of their views, continue to vote
for their own candidates. Considering the
subject a. one of principle, the President
may refuse to be swayed By partisan pre-
dilections even though the party be that to
which he is indebted for the authority be
exercises If the South evineed its sym
pathy with him by sharing his bipartisan
ideas of duty, the sensitiyeness of Northern
would be materially nbated
The concessions, however, are as yet all
on one side and the Republicans are di-
vided in consequence. What the division
may amount To, few more defeats will
enable all of us to understand. -