The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-10-26
The Ohio Idea,

Under the above caption Don Piatt
Of the Washington capital, an indie
pendent paper with strong Demo-
cratic proclivities, gives his unbiased
opinion of the recent election held
in the State he votes in Ohio.
1t is seldom such papers as the
CAPITAL tell a political truth, but
when they do they should have cred
it for ii. Here it is in full.
The result Of the election is as
much OF a puzzle to the politicians
as the election in Maine. We must
confess to a surprise ourselves. We
were under the delusion that the
much talked of tidal wave was
sweeping from East to West.
We can now see that faith in a
Democratic tidal wave was a delu-
sion. The victory in Maine was not
Democratic, and had we given the
Maine election the proper considera-
ton we could have seen that it did
not indicate a Democratic triumph
in Ohio.
The fact is the people of the Uni
ted States have no confidence in the
Democratic party but what is
worse, the Democratic party has no
faith in itself.
To appreciate this we must remem-
rber that while the country was suf
fering from a financial depression
that paralyses trade and threatens
starvation, the Democratic party has
not offered one measure OF relief or
one word of sympathy. The people
saw the long session of Congress
wasted in unseemly partisan SQUAD
BILE. in which no serious attempt was
made to relieve us of our burden OF
taxation, by reducing the navy,
wiping out a useless and eXtraVagant
! standing army. cutting down the
| hudury host OF Office hclders, taking
from the national banks their priyi-
| leges and restoring to the people
/ their proper currency Of greenbacks,
( making attempts to fetch under con-
/ troll the huge corporations OF the
country, that are choking our COM
merce to death, and ruling the land
with a rod Of iron; arrcstlng the an
/ ticipation Of the bonded debt, and
securing resumption by recognizing
/ the greenbachs as money.
ANY one Of these measures would
have aroused the suffering people
and given confidence to the party of
fering and sustaining it.
The trouble, however, as we have
said. with the Democratic party, is
that it is not Democratic. Its larger
part is made up of the solid South,
while thelesser is dominated by New
York and Pennsylvania. In these we
haye nothing of Democracy but the
name. The governing element Of the
South is not, and never was faVOra-
bic to human rights, that underIie
and make solid the true democracy
Before the war it grew rich on the
individual ownership of black labor
and class ownership of white labor
and since the war a corrupt Republic
can organization has handed over
both, bound hard and foot, to theil
former owners. The shotgun anG
revolver have taken the place of the
guarantees of the Constitution. La
, Dor works and votes for the govern.
ing element, and while their masters
put their profits in Government
bonds they rally the slasses to theil
support at the polls.
The South has no sympathy with
the oppressed labor at. home or il
) the North.
The emocratic leaders of New
York and Pennsylvania are capital
lists and the representatives Of capi
tai. Mr. Randall in the one, ant
Mr.. Tilden in the other, are the sor
of men Democrats are made of.
1t is the old story, told Us once by
iamsrtine, when accounting for thu
fall of the French republics: "Iht
Republican leaders," he said, "fOunC
themselves one morning on the wrong
side of some barbados" The Dem
ocracy to day are on the wrong sid'
Of the barbados.
While Ohio loses for the Democra
cy Indiana gains. There is more
success in Dan. Voorhees, instinc
than in all the Democratic intellec
of the South, New York and Penn
; sylvania combined.