Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-10-24
The Recent Elections.

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brilliant as the first returns from the election
indicated. Mr.. Foster who is known as a
strong friend of the Administration and q
valuable working member of Congress, is
elected governor by majority of little less
than 5000 votes, and the legislature is Re
publican in both branches, thus assuring the
election of Republican senator in place of
Mr. Thurman, whose term of service expires
March (, 1881. In Iowa very large Republi-
can gains have been made, and the victory is
one the significance of which cannot be mis-
taken. With Maine restored to her natural
allegiance, and California placed on solid Re
publican ground, and Ohio and Iowa falling
thus squarely into line, it is evident that
tide of Republican success has set in which
nothing but falsity to principle and fragrant
disregard of the wishes of the people in the
selection of candidates, can prevent from
reaching a legitimate issue in the election of
a Republican President in the campaign of
1850.
In Ohio, especially, the contest was q ma
tional one, fought almost entirely on nation
al issues Whatever was left of the Green
back or soft money craze was buried under
the result of this election but, vastly more
important than this, in point of significance,
is the fact that in this election, which in real
ity ranks as the first great political event of
the season, we have the first response of the
people of the North to the spirit displayed by
the Southern Democracy in the extra session
of Congress- and the tactics which rendered
the session necessary. The meaning of this
response is conspicuously plain. To the bet
ter class of Democrats, North and South, it
must demonstrate the utter hopelessness of
the policy which their leaders, flushed with
success in their newly acquired power in
Congress, have mapped out. The Ohio vic
tory has given the only answer which the peo-
pie of the North can or will ever give when the
obliteration of the results of the war is pro-
posed, or the integrity of the Union is ques-
toned. Cold-blooded political outrages in
the South, deliberately allowed to go una
venged in the face of President Hayes's pa
cific administration, and the insolent, threat
ening. aggressive attitude Of the Southern De-
mocracy in Congress, have caused a tingling
of Northern blood, and h swell of old-time
patriotic feeling, which has shown itself in
an enthusiastic and irrepressible Republican
victory.
In counting the causes of Republican sue
ess President Hayes lays much stress on the
return of good times, and rightly so, beyond
doubt. For six years the responsibility for
hard times was thrust upon the Republicans
with more or less effect, and now that good
times have come and come to stay, there is q
natural reaction of feeling in favor of the
great national party under which the country
has seen its days of greatest prosperity. But
there is one other consideration, and We be-
lieve the most important one of all, which
cannot, with safety, be lost sight Of Five
years ago when the great revulsion in favor
of the Democracy came, or began, with some
thing very like crash, the reaction was not
because of hard times, or because the great
heart of the people was any less friendly to
Republican principles than it ever had been
| but it came because of the disgust with and
| distrust of the corrupt ring or machine man
| agement which had crept into the counsels
and methods of the party in power. The
! people were wiser, purer, and more honest
than the leaders, who, by ire-pulling and
skilful manipulation, had usurped the party
control. When a Democratic House of Rep
resentatiyes, and afterward a Senate of the
same stripe, were chosen, it was as a protest
and a rebuke, and not because the people
were converted to faith in the Democratic
party. The leaders were by this means
checked in their headlong career, and the
better element of the party has come to the
surface. Most important of all, the clean,
upright, straightforward Administration of
President Hayes has won back to the Repub-
lican party thousands of men who were es-
tranged from it purely out of dissatisfaction
with its leadership and reckless management
Confidence in the party having thus been re-
stored, and Southern aggressveness having
compelled its various elements TO cohesion, it
needs, as We have said, only fidelity to prin-
ciple, and the nomination of men who stand
for principles, to assure the result of next
years national canvass, and renewed lease
of power for the great party of equal rights,
national honesty, and genuine reform.