Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-06-07
CLEvELAND'S CHANCES.
Why the Democrats VIII Not Be Able &
Carry New York This Fall.

Why the Democrats VIII Not BE Able to
Carry New York This Fall.
Democratic State conventions are
meeting and grinding out Cleveland
delegates with clock-like regularity.
The New York convention, of course,
follows in the footsteps of its predeces-
sors. The unanimity with which
they all declare for the denomination
of Cleveland surprises no one who has
kept track of political events during
the past three years. Such result
could have been predicted any time
during the last eighteen months
There has been no more doubt about it
than there is to the result of an cleo
ton in South Carolina, Alabama or
Mississippi. 1t is aut Cleveland Gut
nuIlus. The Democracy exercises no
more choice in the mater than a Cir
cassian maiden does when she has been
selected to grace the Sultan's harem.
There is only one party to the bargain.
So it is as good rs settled that the
Democrats will for the seventh consec-
utive time 60 to New York for Pres
iden tial candidate. They began the
practice in 1864 and have kept it up
since. A pretense has been made of
varying it, by crediting General
Mcclellan to New Jersey and General
Hancock to Pennsylvania, but it was a
pretense only. This usage has not
sprung from the belief that New York is
now the home of the ablest and best
equipped men for the Presidency in the
Democratic party. 1t has arisen from
the fact that the Democrats must have
New York in order to elect President.
They can not succeed without that
State, and they are willing to subordi-
nate every thing to success, just as the
the Southern protectionists are willing
TO sacrifice their revenue principles to
the fetch of a Democratic victory.
Cleveland was elected once; therefore,
they argue, he can be elected again.
So they are going to renominate him.
A review of the result of the Demo-
cratic policy of depending upon New
York can not however, be very en-
couraging to the party. In only one
Presidential election since 1852 have
the Democrats carried that State by a
decisive majority. This occurred in
1876, when Mr.. Tilden was their candi-
date and they had the benefit of his
matches talent for organization. 1t
is true also that ut no time since its
formation were the fortunes of the
Republican party ut such a low ebb as
in 1876 The results of the business
panic of 1873 were then being felt the
most severely. and the cry of Repub-
lican corruption during General
Grants second term. and which few
exposures seemed to justify, made
many Republicans indifferent These
facts explain Tilden's success in the
State. In 1868 the monstrous frauds
of William NJ. Tweed, which have
since been proved and confessed, gave
Seymour an apparent majority of TO-
600, and the facts about the beggarly
plurality of Cleveland in 1884 are toe
well known to need repetition.
Out of the last eight Presidential
elections, therefore, the Democrats
have secured the electoral vote of New
York State only three times, and in
only one of these campaigns was the
Republican party united. This was in
1868, when it was overcome by the
glazing frauds of Boss" Tweed.
Such retrospect can not be encour-
aging to the Democrats. Going still
further back into political history the
facts are no more reassuring to the
Democratic party. Before the present
political situation, which is the result
of the rebellion, the Democrats went
twice to New York for a Presidential
candidate. In 1886 they nominated
Van Buren,, and he carried the Stale
and was elected. They renominated
him in 1910. and he lost New York and
was defeated, Taking all the facts
into consideration New York has been
an unfortunate State for the Democrats
to trust to. The new political condi-
lions make the prospects no brighter
for them than the old conditions. The
one fact which stands out more promi-
nently than any thing else in review
ing New York's political history is that
the Republicans can carry the State
when they are united and in earnest,
as they promise to be this year.-PhI-
Press.