Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-02-23
Tho Change in Political Sentiment.

The New York Sun thinks that "Cleve-
landifm will not swamp the Democracy"
but We are at loss to see upon what it
bases this opinion. Certainly about all the
elections since the 18th of last March have
gone to show that he has already accom-
plished that result. IL these expressions
of popular sentiment count for anything,
they show conclusively that the Democratic
party is doomed to overwhelming defeat at
the next general election. The latest
pointer to this fact is the astourd-
ing Republican majority in Penn
sylvania. This state has long been
very sturdily in the Republican column,
save when dissentions within the party
were responsible for the election of the
Democratic governor, Pattison, but never,
in its most succe ssful days has the Repub-
lican party in that state achieved any such
victory as was won by Mr.. Grow in the re-
cent election. When General Grant Sc
cured plurality Of nearly 100000. in his
famous contest with Horace Greeley, poll
ticians of both parties thought that the re-
cord would never be exceeded. Demo
cratic editors have delighted to use these
figures for comparison to show the deca-
d ,nce of Republicanism in that state, and
to assure their readers of the rapidly ap-
preaching time when Pennsylvania would
be securely in the Democratic column.
Strange to say, we have seen very little
reference to that state in their columns since
the triumphant election of Mr.. Grow. Sure
ly the remarkable change of sentiment
among the voters of that great state could
not entirely have escaped their attention.
They ought, too, by following the career
of the Democratic party since the 18th Of last
March, to discover the reasons for it.
1t is not to be expected that they be wise
enough to grasp the fact that this change in
the political sentiment is not confined to
the state of Pennsylvania, but is true of
the great maj ority of the states of the Union.
The Democratic mind is usually insensible
to public opinion, until it bangs him about
the ears upon election day. So it is under
existing conditions. An Overwhelmingly
Democratic Congress has turned deaf ear
to the demands of the American people,
voiced in every possible way that popular
sentiment can find expression. They
have stolidly ignored the large
popular verdicts against hem in
the state elections; they have paid
no heed to the mountains of petitions that
have been poured in upon them from every
section of the land; the delegations that
have appeared before their committees
have had no influence. the voice of the
people as it has found expression through
the press, has been powerless to arrest their
attention. They have evidently proceeded
upon the motto 1.-THE Public be Did" The
tremendous Republican gains which appear
wherever the people find an opportunity to
express themselves at the polls show
that the lease of power of this
party will be brief one. I'm
fortunately the present unpatriotic and in
competent chief executive will have three
years to serve before the people will secure
the opportunity to relegate him to obscurity;
but next November they will have the
chance to turn down the Democratic House
of Representatives and, unless all the signs
of the times are misleading, they will do so
with an emphasis that free trade aeitators
will not forget for generations to come.