Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-10-06
The National Campaign.

The intense interest Of battle joined
along the entire line now animates the cam
paign. The preliminary trials Of strength
in Vermont and Maine, conflicts between
the advanced guards of the two political
parties, disclosed elements both Of strength
aud weakness in the calculations OF the
leaders, and developed the peculiar tactics on
which the Democracy seem mainly TO rely
to win the requisite contingent of electoral
votes from the doubtful northern states.
Profting by the knowledge gained from an
actual trial of strength, the two political
hosts have Joined battle with an earnestness
and determination in marked contrast with
the bounce" that always characterizes the
opening of campaign either in politics or
in war. Each party has settled down to
the conviction that victory can be won only
by hard work, and the careful outstanding
of every resource that chance or sagacious
management can bring to their aid.
In the first encounters the advantage has
been unquestionably with the Republicans
In Vermont the issue OF the election was
an overwhelming triumph for that party and
inspired its friends with the presage of
victory in the national contest. In Maine
the disappointment to Republican expecta-
tions arose more from the fact that extrava-
giant and unreasonable hopes were not
realized than from any actual reverse to the
cause of national Republicanism. 1t was a
reverse of feeling rather than Of fact, senti-
mental rather than material. 1t served an
excellent purpose in infusing into the Re-
publican canvass the vigor and cautious
energy born of good, healthy scare, and at
the same time of unmasking the tactics of
the enemy. 1t was a timely lesson to Re-
publicans, and they have shown themselves
apt and intelligent scholars by quickly APP
pretending its significance and promptly
acting upon it. In the end the outcome of
the Maine election may be demonstrated to
have been, all things considered, the iuspir-
ing source Of a national Republican triumph.
The next points where the party strength
and the effects of party tactics will visibly
and significantly appear are Ohio and Indi-
ana. Elections in those states will be held
on Tuesday, the 10Th instant. In Ohio the
election is for secretary of state and members
Of congress. Ohio is as surely Republican
as Vermont. As none Of the leading state
officers are to be chosen, the election may
lack that signal interest which attaches to
gubernatorial elections, but the bearing of
the result upon the presidential question
imparts to it significant Importance as
Garfield's state. The Democracy, with char
acteristic brag and buster, have laid claim
to the state, and the Maine tactics have been
vigorously applied there with the hope of
deriving all the moral advantage that would
result from reduction of the Republican
majority. Our friends there are wide awake,
and, forewarned and forearmed by the events
in Maine, the Democracy may find in Ohio
another Vermont.
In Indiana the case is different Though
some sanguine Republicans claim the state,
the cooler heads have never seen more than
fighting chance to carry the state and are
content to make the best fight they can and
abide the result--if victorious, a sure har-
binger of Garfeld's election in November
if adverse, transfer of the decisive battle
ground to New York As Democratic
victory in Ohio would virtually decide the
contest against the Republicans, so a Re-
mn lioap via in TpI;apa tuon1J ino
certainly foretell the doom of Democratic
prospects in November. Indiana has been
Democratic state since 1879, and all the
calculations in this campaign have been
based upon the assumption that the state
will remain as solid for the Democracy as
the south itsef-and it will if Kentucky does
its duty in the work of fraud. In an honest
election she is as naturally Republican as
Ohio or Illinois. But if bribery and COLOMBIA
ton again defeat the popular will, the Repub.
lican column will have suffered no loss from
what was deemed essential to success at the
commencement of the campaign,-the deci.
sion of the contest will simply be adjourned
to New York, whose position of decisive
control over the final result nothing would
mocracy, thoroughly alarmed for the safety
of Indiana and realizing the fatal Importance
of defeat at that point, have put in full
blast all those agencies by which the state
has been kept in the Democratic column.
The Republicans have vigilantly watched
the progress of the work Of colonization.
Many of these imported voters are spotted,
and this old-time outrage upon the ballot
will not go unchallenged. Election day in
Indiana will be looked forward to with ex-
treme solicitude by all good citizens who are
patriots before they are either Republicans
or Democrats.