Year: 1874

Loulslnna holds her election to-day. and
there will be elections tomorrow in twenty
four other States of the Union. OF these
twenty-five States eleven elect Governors ard
a few more choose legislators and minor State
officers, but Representatives to Congress are
to be elected in the whole number, making an
aggregate of two hundred and eighteen
members. These elections are looked to
with an interest even beyond what is
due to their great number and intrinsic
importance, because there is general
feeling that a considerable change is going on
in the relative strength of parties, and 1t is
only by the results of the November elections
that it's extent can be measured and the future
predicted.


The only valuable consequence of the ex-
pected democratic gains which can as
yet be very clearly perceived is
more equal division of parties The
efficiency with which political parties act
as censors of each other depends on their be-
ing strong enough to impose mutual
fear and restraint Our public affairs
have suffered for many years because
the opposition was not strong enough
to hold the party in power to sense OF re-
sponsibility, and it will be a great gain to
honest government if the democracy rises to
such position of comparative equality as will
compel the administration party to be more
circumspect. We do not dispute that, in oc-
casional great emergencies, balanced state Of
parties is undesirable. During the political
events which followed the war, for example,
it was fortunate that the great revolution
which established the rights of the colored
race was SO strongly supported that the mi
nority could entertain no hopes of ever re-
versing it. The preponderant and overwhelm-
ing strength of a political party which intro
duces so great a change insures stability in the
new policy; but it is rare indeed that the oc-
casion is great and critical enough to make
the feebleness of the opposition party public
advantage. There are some great and fercely
contested measures for which no such safe
guard is needed. The purchase Of Louisi-
ana and the annexation of Texas were
measures which maintained themselves from
the moment they were accomplished.
No party would have ventured to
disgrace the nation by reinquishing
those possessions when once made part Of
the national domain. But the civil equality
of the negroes was question of a different
order. It's establishment was one Of those
rare conjunctures in which the resistless
strength of an overwhelming party is needed
bulwark of order and security. But when
such momentous occasions are fairly past, and
little is involved in public affairs beyond the
ordinary administration of the government
it is misfortune for one party to be so
strongly intrenched in power that its blunders
and misgovernment will not enable its adver-
sary to dislodge it. Patriotic republicans
should feel no uneasiness at the prospect of
their party being bound over to good be-
havior by the coercive restraint Of powerful
4 opposition. How promptly the republican
party plunged into indefensible errors and
abuses after its great triumph in the last
Presidential election! Congress forthwith
espoused the cause of Kellogg whereas if
the party had not been led by its great TIL
umph to fancy itself too strong to be
shaken it would not have risked such blum
dsrs. If the democracy make their expected
gains in the elections tomorrow the republi-
cans will be under moral compulsion to set
their house in order, and the country will be
more wisely and honestly governed.


But, aside from the benefit Of having the
administration placed under the active sur
veillance of an opposition strong enough to
put it in fear and hold it to good behaviour,
it is not easy to see that any good will come
of democratic gains in these elections. This
political campaign lacks the dignity Of con-
test for great principles. The success Of
neither party will decide any question of pub
lie policy. Our political parties are not
divided on great practical measures. There
are inf1ationist democrats and ant-infationist
republicans, and vce versa there are protec-
Zionist democrats and free trade republicans,
and uice rersd. No distinct line of demarka-
ton between the two parties can be discov-
cred by comparison of their platforms.
Even the third term question is not an excep-
tion, for, although the democrats are unani-
mously opposed to third term, there are few
republicans who as yet openly favor it.
Ask the first twenty republicans you
meet if they go for third term,
and every one of the twenty will
answer no unless he happens to be on
oface-holder, when he will evade the question.
1t is humiliating truth that there has been
no real contest of principle between the two
political parties in this canvass and it fol-
lows that the elections can decide nothing be-
yond the probable fact that republican AFRO
gance and recklessness will be abated by o
formidable democratic opposition.


1t may indeed be said that in this State the
democratic party presented distinct body of
political doctrine. But on the currency ques-
ton it agreed with the Eastern republicans
! and differed from a great portion of the West