Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-11-14
The November Election.

4~dtNl dAu L1OlC COlupiclc 10 DOl
materially affect the results reported yester-
day morning. Republicanism has reasserted
itself ia the governments of nearly every
Northern State which voted on the 5th for
State officers, and Democracy fortified itself
with stronger majorities in the old slave
States, silencing Republicanism in South Car
olina and Louisiana by congenial display of
political ruffiaDism.
The result, except in New York and Con-
necticut, and in some counties of Pennsylva-
MIA, is pretty much as was anticipated it
would be. The Republicans have made quite
as many gains in Congressional districts as
they had reason to expect. The hope of some
of the more sanguine that they would capture
district or two in Kentucky, maintain their
footing in South Carolina, aid send a stall
wart or two from Louisiana, was delusive,
and there was nothing in the prospect to give
encouragement 70 it. Had the elections in all
the Southern States been fair and open, leav-
ing white and black to support whatever can
didates they chose, the Republicans would
ity in the next House. AS it is, the Demo-
cratic majority will be from IA to 20, in
Guiding the Independent and Greenback
Representatives, who, it is assumed, will act
with the Democrats on all partisan questions.
The Democratic majority in the Senate will
be s.
The tendency of the fall elections of 1878 is
toward division of parties on the old lines,
the Southern States being solidly Democratic
and the Northern Republican. The triumph
of the Democracy in Indiana and Oregon,
like its previous success in New York, Con-
necticut and New jersey, will be short-lived.
The inevitable result of solidifying the South,
taken in connection with the methods of its
accomplishment, will be to reinstate the Re-
publicans in every Northern Commonwealth.
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise and
the attempt to nationalize slavery were rot
more instrumental in creating sectional po-
litical division, than will be the policy of the
men who aim to get control of the tadminis'
tration of the country upon the basis of SOL
id South.
We may regret this tendency, but we can
not fail 10 recognize it. The voice Of the bal
lot-boxes tells its own story. Regrestible ss
this is, the present Administration is in no
wise responsible for it. The men to whose
hands it remitted the management of affairs
in South Carolina and Louisiana deliberately
and boastfuly determined to make their
States Democratic by process of electioneer.
ing that outrages the rights of American citi-
zens. They have shown capacity to make
the States Democratic by resort to means that
are always successful when employed by the
intelligent and strong against the ignorant
and timid.
We presume they have no more regrets to
express for this violation of political rights
than they have for the part taken by them in
the effort to destroy the Union. They seem
to be as proud or the one achievement as the
other. But can they count with any greater
certainty now on Northern support than they
could in 1861 The result of the elections
on the 5th of November can be instructively
studied in framing an answer to that ques-
ton. The reaction in the North is due as
much to the conduct of the rifle clubs in
South Carolina and to the policy oil intimida-
ton practiced wherever relic of Republican
strength remained, as to the blunders of
Northern Democrats on the financial and 9TH
er issues. Persistence In that policy will only
intensity the reaction that has set in north of
the Ohio river, and we shall see as conse-
quence the party lines running strictly along
the landmarks that twenty years ago sepa-
rated the free from the slave States. If that
is thought desirable result by our recon-
structed brethren, they are to be congratu-
that end.-GCin. Com.