New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-09-17
NEW.JERSEY PROBABLY REPUBLICAN,

NEVJERSEY PROBABLY REPUBLICAN,
The Democrats of New-Jersey have NOM
| mated Leon Albeit for Governor. by this act
they have done their full share toward giving
the State to the Republicans, and 1t only re-
mains for the Republicans to do their share
| also. Now that Mr.. ALBEIT has been selected
as the candidate his public course and legis-
lative record will be examined. Fragments OF
that record were given in Democratic jour-
nal at Trenton the day before the convention
met as strong reason for avoiding a nomina-
ton which, it was urged, wouldiput the party
on the defensive throughout the campaign.
The charges were not new ones. lt has
been q current report in the State that
Mr.. Albeit was warned by members of
his own party three years ago that an indict-
ment with specifications would be openly
made against him if he should come before
the people to ask for their votes, and that Mr..
Albeit needed the warning and refrained
from taking the honor which was within his
reach. The challenge was made openly this
time, and Mr.. Albeit could hardly refuse to
meet it and hope for any future political
position. Before the campaign is ended it will
be seen that the shrewdest Democratic man.
this nomination when it has been urged by
the more unreasOning and less cautious eles
ment in the party. 1t makes little difference
whether their motive was personal antagonism
or regard for the success of their party, or
higher and more honorable one; the fact remains
that they were not mistaken in believing that
Mr.. Abbett's nomination would put the party
on the defensive and deprive it of the hearty
support of many good citizens.
But the imprudence of this nomination is
more than equalled by the impudence of the
claim that the candidate is reformer and an
anti-monopolst. No one familiar with his ways
has ever yet charged him with possessing
enough virtue, political or other, to reform
himself or anything else. He may be innocent
of some of the accusations made against hin,
but they do not glance off from him as from
cOnspicuously pure man. There is no need OF
waiting till the light is thrown full upon his
career in the Assembly to prove the hOllowness
of his pretensions as defender of the people
against corporate aggression. His course as
counsel in the suits which handed over
the water front of Jersey City and Hoboken
to the railroads is more recent And II any
other consideration is needed to place HIM
where he belongs on an issue OF this sort 1t
is found in the character of the support he
received in the Trenton Convention. From
Mcpherson up, every man who showed any ac-
tive desire for his success was the substrylent
agent of some corporate influence. Mr.
Albeit will capture no votes by getting him
self photographed in the attitude of an anti
monopolist He has hold upon the short
haired. rough and tumble, bar-room end of the
Democratic party. He is also man
of intellectual ability and much adrOit-
ness as political manipulation. But
his reputation with the more substantial
and respectable voters of the State is not such
as to render his defeat difficult. If the Repub-
licans nominate a man of well tried and UNI
questioned integrity, of experience in public
affairs and good reputation with the substan-
stial voters outside OF the large cities, and of
popularity with the working classes, they will
elect him.
New-JerSey has gained in voting population
about so per cent. in fourteen years 1t is
singular fact that, through all the shftings and
political revolutions of that period, the two
parties have come out with nearly the same
relative strength that they had in 1868, when
the Democratic majority was $3.50 for Pres
| ident and 1923 for Congress. The change has
been slightly in favor of the Republicans, for
the Democratic majority last year for Congress
was only 2,O99, and for President in 1880
only 2,O1O. In 1865 and in four elections
| since, the Democrats elected the Governors; in
| 1865 by 1922 majority; in 1871 by 5,979,
| and in 1880 by a fraudulently -Obtaned Col
plurality, 1854 votes having been cast
| for Greenback and Prohibition candidates.
| During the years from 1872 TO 1878 lnclu-
| sive the Liberal and the Greenback movements
prevented any fair test of the strength of par
| ties, though it is to be noticed that the Re-
pubicans have increased their vote at every
| Presidential election; i'll 1858, for Grant,
| SO,l2l; in 1872, for Grant, 81, 651 in 1876,
for Hayes, 1O3, 517; and in 1880. for Gar
| field, l2O,555 1t is evident that in such a
State weak Democratic nomination, if
rightly met ought to turn the scale. A change
of barely a thousand votes at either of the last
two elections would have given the Republi-
cans Il majority, and they probably lost more
than that number in 1850 by the MOrey let
| ter and railroad manipulation, and in 1882
| by the discOrd and disbursement which gave
even Massachusetts and Ohio to the Democrats,
| and caused the immense majority i'll New
| York. With a fitting nomination to gain the
! support of "the plain people, in Mr.. LincOlns
phrase-a nomination to command the conf
dence of honest, sober and intelligent voters
the Republicans can elect a Governor and put
the State on the right track.
STRADDLES BY DEMOCRACY.
| tloE ,;n