Year: 1879

natics by the rule they ought to follow if


they were in their right wits. Public


sentiment in Ohio being what every body


knows it to be, the question is whether,


with reference to the misguided public


sentiment, the Ohio Democrats have
! made the best nomination for catching


the votes of the political and social luna


tics who have gone crazy with "the Ohio
idea" 1t is not question of what is


best in ITSELF not question OF what is
most conducive to the success of the
Democratic party at large; but simply
question as to the likeliest means of de-
| feating Mr.. Foster in the actual state of
| public opinion in Ohio. The conditions
of the problem being what they are we
have no doubt that the nomination of
Mr.. Ewing is the strongest that could
have been made.


Last year the republicans carri ed Ohio
by paltry plurality of little more than
three thousand votes. That hairs
breadth success of the Ohio Republicans
last year was owing to the fact that the
Greenback party, or Nationals" as they
chose to call themselves, ran an indepen-
dent ticket. The total vote of this fac
ton amounted to 1882. Had it been
thrown on the Democratic side the DEM
ocrats would have carried Ohio last year
by majority of 35.17S. The inevitable
inference from the Ohio elections of last
year is that the combined Democratic
and Greenback vote would bring the Re-
publicans into hopeless minority. Had
Bishop or Rice been nominated yesterday
the Greenback party would hold the bal
ance, and, by running a separate ticket,
would easily insure the success of Mr..
Foster. The nomination of Ewing upsets
this calculation. The fact that the Green
back Convention at Columbus nominated
a separate ticket amounts to nothing.
The Greenbackers have not the slightest
chance of electing the ticket they have
nominated, and in the progress of the
canvass their rank and file will desert to
Ewing, who is as strenuous Greenback-
er as any of them. 1t will be made ap-
parent by the Democratic stump speak
ers that the real choice lies between Fos-
ter and Ewing, and the practical question
for the Nationals" will be whether they g
will elect Ewing, man of their own
stripe, or Foster, who is committed to
honest money. Before the canvass ends
the Greenback vote will rally around
Ewing, who is a zealot of their ideas.
Ewing is altogether the most formidable
candidate that could have been put into
the field against Foster, inasmuch as he
will make the separate Greenback ticket





one ninth of the Greenback vote of last
year to insure his election. Even the
Republican party of Ohio is more or less
infected with the soft money heresy, and
Ewing has chances of drawing off few
Republican votes. Mr.. Foster, instead
of having quiet walk over the course,
will need all the assistance he can find to
save him from defeat, whereas against
Bishop or against Rice he would have
achieved an easy success. 1t is probable
that in the last pinch majority of the
Greenbackers and few soft money Re-
publicans will rally around Ewing. Most
unquestionably the Greenback party in
Ohio holds the balance of power between
the two regular parties, and Ewing is so
conspicuously bird of the some feather
that he has excellent chances of captur-
ing large part of the Greenback vote


1t was made apparent on the first bal
lot yesterday that Bishop who was the
Tilden candidate, had no chance There
was never any possibility of his nomina-
ton unless he had a majority of the Con-
vention at the outset. The first ballot
gave Rice 262 Bishop 205, and Ewing
100 Bishops friends saw at once that
be was "a dead cock in the pit" and ral-
led to Ewing to head off Rice, who was
Senator Thurman's candidate. But this
triumph over Rice signifed
nothing for he was Immediately taken
I'D by the Convention and nominated by
for the second place on the
ticket; which is pretty emphatic repu-
liation of Tilden by the Ohio Democracy.
Between Foster and Ewing there will be
! lively and most vehement canvass, with
he chances so doubtful as to prevent any
tagging of political interest in the prog
ess of the battle.