Bisbee daily review., 1906-08-12
BY sAvoYARo.

It is not true. as one frequently hears, that Presidential elections are always determined in favor of the party which prevails in the Congress sicnal elections held two years before. That may be the rule but the ex- captions are numerous, and some of them notable. To go farther back than the Thirty-fourth Congress. which held Republican plurality and Republican Speaker; yet two years later James Buchanan, a Democrat. was elected President of the United States. When Lincoln was first elect. ed President the Speaker of the then existing Congress was not Republi- can, though John Sherman would have been the Speaker had he not signed the Helper Book" Whether the Forty-Fourth Congress was an ex- ception depends upon your politics. If you are Republican, you will say it was an exception, for that Congress, chosen in 1874. was overwhelmingly Democratic, though R. B. Hayes was inaugurated President :a 1877; but if you are Democrat, you will hold that the Congressional election of 1874 foreshadowed the result of the Presi- dential election of 1876, when MT. Til den got the majority and Mfr. Hayes got the office.
 Certainly the Fory-Sixth Congress was an exception. Chosen in 1878, l. had a Democratic majority, and Samuel J. Randall was it's Speaker, yet Garfield was elected President in 1880. There was a reason for that, however-democratic stupidity. That party attempted to make the wrong they said was done MT. Tilden the is- sue, though they condoned it by r. fusing to make Mir. Tilden the candid ate, as if you could have the issue without the man. Why didn't you renominate him, then?" was hurled at every Democratic spellbinder who un- dertook to denounce the theft" of the Presidency.
 In 1886 the Democrats elected a ma Jority of the Fiftieth Congress. and NIT. Carlisle was chosen Speaker, but in 1888 Harrison was elected Presi- dent. This was notable exception. Since that time the Presidential cleo tions have always been forecasted by the Congressional elections held two years earlier. When Cleveland was elected in 1892 Crisp was Speaker. "hCh "ShlulSg was elSCleQ III 1850, Reed was Speaker. When Mckinley was reelected in 1900, Henderson was Speaker. When Roosevelt was elect ed in 1904, Cannon was Speaker. And it is very probable that the President chosen in 1908 will be one of the same politics as the Speaker of the Sixtieth Congress. But there are enough ex. captions to the rule to make the thing uncertain, and, as in baseball, the ele. ment of chance helps to make politics fascinating.
 As a rule, issues have overshadow- ed men in American politics. The personality of Clay and Jackson did wholly obscure the issues between their respective parties. On the other hand, there was little in the Republi- can National Convention in 1880 but the personalities of Grant and Blaine, one handicapped by the unpopularity Of the third term and the other load. ed down with the "Mulligan letters" In 1854 the repeal of what is mis. named the Missouri Comprdnise,' '' really the Missouri Restriction, was the issue, with know-nothingism a big sideshow. The north went anti-slav- cry, anti-Catholic, anti-foreigner, and the Thirty-fourth Congress was more