The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-10-15

NEW YORK, Oct. IA, 1873.
The Western elections have not turned out
IS well as they ought nor as bad as they might.
OF Ohio there is no ground whatever of COM
plant. 1t is grand thing to see the majority
of voters ranging themselves on the side of
hard money in State which has first and last
generated more false and pernicious notions
about finance than any other section of the Unit
ed States. There is not Democrat left in Ohio
who ventures to declare himself favorable to
resumption. Psyne's detection two years ago
was mounful example of a sacrifice of convic-
tion on the altar of party expediency. Thur
mans more recent cspitulation has been q
theme of wonder alike amcng his supporters
and his opponents. A great many Of ths Re-
publicans of Ohio entertain very queer crotchets
about the currency question. Stanley Mat
thews is blind guide on all matters OF finance.
Sherman's soundness on all points of the me-
tallic creed is not implicitly believed in by
every body. 1t looked at one time as If the Re-
publicans would recede from the grand position
they held in 1875, when they planted them
selves squarely on the hard money doctrine,
and gained victory that inspired the whole
country with hope and courage. There were
symptoms of wavering subsequently, but the
President fortunately has exhibited frmness
and tenacity in upholding his opinions and his
influence has no doubt helped to turn the scale
Gen. Garfield is entitled to as much credit
for keeping Ohio straight as any man living.
He is the sort Of man who never trims nor
palters. You know Just where to find him
every time He didn't wait to see whittier the
multitude were drifting. He started in early
and with emphasis to maintain the proposition
that il was the duty of the government to re-
deem its notes in specie at the time when ID
had plighted its faith to do SO. 1t is difficult
to be sure to reconcile any other course with
the sense of honor which presumably actuates
every American statesman; and yet we do
know that large majority Of the Democrats in
Congress; aye and some Republicans, more
shame for them, did resort to variety of pre-
texts and subterfuges to shirk this imperative
obligation. Even now the principal hope of
the country is that resumption will have be-
come an accomplished fact before the repudia-
tionists can get time to interpose legislative OBJ
stacles to it. It has resolved itself at last into
question of time, whether the national faith
can be placed on a solid foundation, before .
domestic foe can get ready to assail it.
Viewed in this light, and taking into account
the imminent peril which unchecked Demo-
cratic ascendency would involve, there is rea-
son for thankfulness that Ohio has been re-
gained. There is no small degree Of credit due
for this result, to the sturdy and sensible Ger
man immigrants who are altogether too realis-
tic and practical to be deluded by the fantasy
that sham money can be successfully substituted
for the genuine article. 1t isn't very creditable
to our Anglo-Saxon pride that the phlegmatic
Teutons should show themselves our superiors
in the simplest rudiments of finance; but these
slow Dutchmen have taught our people several
useful lessons in politics; they were in the ad-
vanced guard in the early antislavery days;
they have always been tenacious of personal
rights; they are indeed through their innate love
of civil liberty, natural allies Of Republcanism.
We have driven off good many Of them through
our propensity to favor sumptuary laws In this
State, and especially in this city, we had at one
time large proportion of the very best Ger
mans on the Republican side. The Legislature
inteifered with their lager; this they resented
as an invasion of their special privileges. The
prohibitionists on the other hand, insisted on
maintaining a separate organizations: in that
way, we lost the German voters, and didn't get
theirs: the sale of lager wasn't interrupted for
any length of time, nor TO any degree worth nam
ing, and we never have been able to recover our
lost ground.
There are, it must be confessed, class OF
Germans whom it would discredit any party to
nurture. They are the socialists enlisted under
citizen Schwabs banner, whose chief employ
ment is to drink beer and blow up the govern
ment. They are disaffected towards society in
general and want new deal, fresh division
of property. But these fellows are only to be
found in cities. The hardy tillers of the soil.
who thrive by their labor and save something
out of their earnings, have contributed very
largely to the material prosperity and the poll
ical perpendicularity Of the Northwest
The returns from Indiana are as satisfactory
as could have been expected. The adverse