Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-11-05
TUESDAYS ELECTIONS.

cdu pOlltlCo-OhO e"A'
not permitted us to more than sum-
Marie theresults of elections which
will be remembered hereafter as
hardly less important than a Presi-
dental election. President Cleve-
lands administration was on trial,
and the popular verdict can surely
not be claimed to have been record
ed in its favor. Republican strong
holds remain strongly Republican
intensely Republican. Demo
cratic strongholds-especially free
trade strongholds, have either sur
rendered or trembled vislbly. If
the President and hts Cabinet can
extract comfort from the results of
Tuesday last, they are to be eulo-
gized for phenomenal cOmplacency.
If the Democratic party can feel IT.
self abnndantly rewarded by popu-
lar confidence as illustrated by
Tuesdays elections, it is to be con-
graduated upon its happy posses
sion of the Executive control of the
government and also upon the IA
cility with which it accepts the
shadow for the substance of power
and office.
The stubborn fact remains that
the administration, on its first Sc
rious trial before the people cannot
claim popular endorsements
Whether party discipline has been
relaxed and with it the propulsion
of party zeal, largely based upon
the hope of reward, or whether
other causes have been introduced
to bring about the results of Tues
day, those results remain and will
be discussed for months to come
PROFESSIONALLY they will give Re-
publicans hope and expectancy to
a degree commensurate with Demo
cratic disappointment and depres-
sion. An aggressive campaign has
been waged by Republicans
throughout the great commercial
and agricultural regions, and this
aggressive canvass has been met
by Democrats with a half.hearted
energy that betokened uncer6on
conviction as to public policy and
decided distrust of the people they
elected to control the country two
years ago. Notably have pro-
nounced Republicans of the strict
est school of protection been elect
ed to Congress. William Walter
Phelps, one of the ablest of the
champions of Protection, is trium-
phantly returned to Congress, while
Speaker Carlisle Is condemned at
home in his own city and county
and goes back to Congress by q
greatly reduced majority, and the
reason is palpably because of his
zeal as a free-trader. McCOmas,
the splendid young representative
of one Of the mountain districts of
Maryland, defeats corporations and
corrupt influences and goes back
to Congress as Republican and
protectioDist. The story of the
elections is uniform in other states.
Protection wins, while free-trade
Democracy retreats to stolen shelter
only to be exposed and condemned.
But after all it appears that old
Virginia is the commanding andpiv-
otal state in the politics in the prox'
innate future. On principle only,
with ample but silent fore-thought,
the grand old commonwealth that
made the union of states through
the great men she gave to direct its
birth and mature its growth, steps
outside of all prevailing party au-
thority and grandly emphasizes her
purpose to divorce herself from
mere party allegiance and to have
more regard for her material in'
terests than her politicians have
hitherto permitted. The election
of Jacob YOst in the Augusta Dis
trict is the distinct proclamation by !
Virginia that she is welded to Pro.
lection. That gallant and gifted |
Young man steps at once into a ma
tional reputation which his friends
know he will maintain, should |
health and strength be vOuchsafed |
TO him. In the district which the
free.trader. Randolph Tucker, so
long misrepresented, the young |
gentleman whose encounters with |
Mr.. Tucker made another candida
cy by that gentleman a doubtful
enterprise, defeats the Democratic |
candidate who was willing to put on
Mr.. Tnckers discarded shoes. What
greater emphasis in behalf OF Vir-
ginia's sympathy with protection
could be demanded than Jacob
Yost, the earnest, able and eloquent
advocate of protection overwhelm'
ingly chosen as the successor of
John Randolph Tuckeri
In the Southwest, Henry Bowen
returns to Congress, an advocate OF
protection, a man of the people, an
old-fashioned Readjuster and a Re
publican. He will represent the
most distinctively white-peOple's
congressional district in Virginia.
OF revolutionary ancestry, of Con-
federate associations inferior tonone,
be goes back to Congress upon his
own merits and that of the cause
he believes in and frankly avOws-
Republicanism and protection
The Seventh Congressional district
as been closely disputed. The