, 1878-10-31
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER,
WASHINGTON. d. c., Oct. 70. 1873.

dNII'I'IllS VI IIcIlO'Ia'y anu NaI
money from the terribly demoraIiaed
condition into which they were
thrown, by those first received and
evidently written immediately sue.
ceeding the cessation of hostilities,
before the casualties suffered by
their opponents on the more distant
portions of the field had been fully
ascertained. But the failure of the
former to hold their grip in Ohio is,
among them, tabooed subject OF
conversation; and whatever cause
for rejoicing they have found in de-
tails OF results elsewhere, is rendered
less delicious from being coupled
with the remembrance that the last
one of the chief stakes played for in
the October elections, and that
" favorite son" was so wounded and
crippled as to have forever made him
ineligible as his party's nominee for
the Presidency for which he was in
training. The merciless gerryman-
der of the State last winter was fatal
to any reasonable hope on this part
of Republicans to retain their ascen.
dency in the Congressional delega
ton. Indeed, they must be conceded
to have done better than well under
the circumstances; and onl y the vote
ON the State ticket can be regarded
as correctly indicating the sentiment
of Ohio votes towards the Demo
cratic administration of State affairs
during the present year. II they can
discern anything reassuring in it,
their organs Of vision must be pre-
t. t'rnatural!y acute, sharper than that
OF the longest. sighted politician
here. Mr.. Thurman deliberately
turned his back on the record of his
whole public lite and in mirage,
seemingly sent to test the sincerely
of his prolessed principles, he saw
the front door of the State House
opening to him from the new direc-
ton. But the illusion has faded
away, the White House is really at
his back; the stream on whose farth-
est bank he lies stranded, rolls be-
tween him and it; the bridge he
wantonly burned is considered past
repair, and he seems so hopelessly
separated from the goal Of his ambi
ton as was the rich man in torn ent
from the safe haven in which he saw
Lazarus, across the fiery gulf that
eternaIly divided one from the other.
There is little disappointment ex
pressed in any quarter here over the
result in Indiana, except that the
Greenbackers, or Nationals, failed
most signally where they had boasted
of overwhelming strength. AS in
Iowa, the Republican defeat in Con
gressional districts now held by them,
is chiefly attributable to the accept.
ance of Kearney's advice by Green,
hackers and Democrats, by" pooling
their issues" But the prevalent
opinion that the tidal wave of the
Greenback craze, touched high
water mark in Maine and is already
eb5ing, seems not without founda-
ton. Its western limit is evidently
some distence east Of Colorado. The
election Of less than a dozen mem
Der of Congress in four States which
make the central point Of its origin
and whence it radiated to the outly.
ing territory, is the extent of its sue.
cess. Even to accomplish this much
aiean aid was necessary. How much
Democracy will have gained in the
long run can be Approximately com
puted when it is remembered that it
consented to the sacrifice of its party
organization, even to the surrender
of its machinery in the districts
where such ruinous concessions were
demanded as the price of the alli-
ance. The loss OF CoDgressmen is
to he much regretted at this juncture
by Republicans; but Tuesdays cleo.
tions were not without many ell.
couraging to its vast majority in
favor of the preservation of the Ma
tional credit, and unalterably oppos-
ed to committing the Government to
the cheating and swindlng policy
advocated by the mass Of Democrats
as well as by Greenbacker's proper.
Ben Hill is one of the caterie of
Southern politicians who have been
masquerading here in Washington
some years, under the guise Of devo.
ted patriotism and conservative state
manship, which knows no South,
North, East or West, but only their
reunited country for which it would
be sweet to die. But Benjamin, like
some of the others, had his part so
indifTerentlv pOmInittad that ha hac