Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-11-04
DEFEATED Bur Nor DoWNoAsr.

DEFEATED Bur NOT DOWNOAST.
Something dropped on Tuesday. 1t seems
to have been the Democratic party. The
fall was great, and produced something Of a
ooncussion.
1t was the fall of the military idea in
American politics. For nearly century it has
been regarded as incumbent upon one
party or the other to nominate a military
man for the chief magistracy of the country.
Washington owed his elevation to his mill
been President but for the battle of NewOr
leans. Harrison would mot have reached the
elevation he did were it not for Tippscanoe.
Taylor was made the executive of the repub-
lie on account of his services in the Mexican
war; Pierce for the same reason. Grant
would never have been thought of except for
the part he bore in the war of the rebellion,
nor would Hancock have been mentioned as
q candidate if he had not been the hero of
Gettysburg. Garfield, though nominally a
soldier, was but briefly in the field, and hence
he is the chosen representative of the Ameri-
can people for four years to come.
One cause of the Democratic defeat on
Tuesday is the protest of the American peo-
pie against military predominance in po-
litical affairs. They fear the military power
as jsopardizing their liberties. They will
have no more of it in the executive office.
The business men feared a change.
Thanks to good crops the country is in
prosperous condition. Many men, appar-
emily intelligent, seemed to regard the dis
pensations of providence as the especial
work of the Republican party, and lest the
Democratic party and providence might be
at variance they voted for the Republican
candidates.
The tariff question no doubt had an i'm
portant influence upon the resul.. The
manufacturers of the East represented to
their employees that the election of the
Democratic candidates would involve COM
plete revision of the tariff, and that
in consequence of that revision
they would be obliged to suspend
operations, and that the working men would
be thrown out of employment as result.
Men who ought to have known better voted
for the Republican ticket in Difference to the
wishes-and sometimes as a result of the
dictation-of their employers.
The representatives of the South in both
branches of Congress contributed more or
less to the disaster. They talked too much
and too injudiciously, and created suspicion
in the minds Of many idiots as to the loyalty
of the people they represented. The old war
issue is still effective in some localities and
among some classes.
The disagreement between the rival fac
tons of the Democratic party in New York
was healed at too late day, and led to the
diminution of the party vote in that city.
This lost the most important State in the
Union to the Democracy.
There are score of incidents of the cam
paign that might be instanced as causes of
the Democratic rout. But they are not es-
sential. The fact that the people most keenly
appreciate is that the party is beaten. There
is no profit to be derived from lachrymose
demonstrations oyer the spilling of can of
the tactical fluid. The true way is to go TO
work to repair the damage done, and by
every means endeavor to restore the party of
the people to its former ascendancy in local,
State and national affairs. The means to be
employed will manifest themselves in due
time,