The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-04-14
DemOralized and Disheartened.

1t is very evident that the Democratic
leaders are not looking into the future
with any degree of happiness.
Throughout the heat of the debate
which attended Ben Hills assault on
Malone. the sentence which sunk deep
est into the minds of thoughtful Demo-
Gratis was this, from the speech from
Senator Hoar:
"There are Democrats in the South who do
not intend to live any longer in the graveyards
and among the sSm6s' whose @ race ,s Is tpwa,o psi
sunlight Of the future generations OF the coun-
try Is already beginning to be visible"
1t was this vision seen through the
of the hour which caused the
iron to enter into their souls. The dis
aster of the late general election was the
sorest blow that has befallen the Demo
cratic leaders since they began to rally
from the defeats arising out of the war.
They made little concealment of this.
They felt certain of success. In the
Seymour, the Greeley and the Tilden
campaigns they had strong hopes. In the
last, the Hancock, they had unbound
ed confidence. This feeling was not the
outward boasting for effect; it was
deep seated conviction which all who
could talk with their leaders in the inti-
macy of close acquaintance could not
help recognizing. 1t was y confidence
which caused many prominent Repub-
licans serious misgivings. On the side
of the Democrats its was never shaken
until the sudden strength of the busi-
ness and commercial interests in the
very close of the campaign began to ar
ray themselves so strongly against
change. Till this strength was fully
developed many Republican managers
had little to hope, and some were filled
with encouragement. The Democratic
disappointment was never more bitter.
After twenty years absence from Ex-
ecutive power they saw the scepter
snatched away just as they extended
their hands to grasp it. They not only
saw the Presidency in the hands of
their opponents, but the House of Rep
control. Their only foothold in the af-
fairs of the National Government was
the Senate. and that held only by a ma
jority of one. This and the Solid South,
and what there was of their honor, were
disastrous wreck.
Such was their situation as they as
sembled at the special session. They
Ielt IL hceily, Out HeNcrtucleSS Wcrc
confronting each other with the decla-
ration that the Democracy never dies,
and pointing to their unbroken South
with one hundred and thirty-eight cleo
toral votes, they began to talk with a
tinge of the old confidence, of the ease
with which the remaining forty-seven
could be secured at the North in 1884,
At this point, while they were trying
to cheer themselves with dim visions
of future victories, the unexpected
"No" of Malone rang on their
startled ears like the first shot of a dis
astrous surprise. They saw their lines
pierced where they thought them i'm
pregnable. and their strength of
strongholds, the solid South, exposed
by the enemy. To pass out of power
as factor in control of the one branch
of the National Government which
they had been able to recover since the
war, was not the worst Of the misfOr-
tunes, bad as it was. In 1861 the
rebels withdrew from every branch and
fell back with confidence, and even ex-
ultation, upon q solid South. 1t was
because Mahone's "No" shattered
this stronghold that they find them.
selves demoralized and disheartened.-
II. Y. B., in Cincinnati Gazette.