Year: 1874

Pennsylvania will have no part in tht
October elections of this year, and this fac
is in itself almost as important as the elec
ton which, under her new constitution, she
will hold in November. The simple change
of the month for an election would not have
in any other State such important results.
But in this case. by this act of her people,
Pennsylvania has relinquished her ancient
place in the politics of the United States.
She is no longer of greater weight in the
councils of the people than Massachusetts, or
New York or Illinois, excepting so tar as she
is superior in craftsmanship or patriotism,
which just now does not constitute much OF a
title to pre-eminence.


Formerly, when nearly all the States held
their elections in November, Pennsylvania
was one OF the few exceptions, and of these by
far the most important. In all periods OF po-
itical excitement, when President was to be
chosen, or the character of Congress deter
mined, the nation eagerly awaited the action
of Pennsylvania on the second Tuesday OF
October as revelation OF its own purposes
Nations, like individuals, need glass IN
which to see themselves, and Pennsylvania
was this mirror to the North Outside OF
party politics and their machinery of great
conventions, wigwams and torchlght parades,
exists power in the people which none of
such methods can touch 1t is invisible in
the canvass it is suddenly disclosed at the
polls. This is the service which the October
elections in Pennsylvania rendered-to show
in one representative and powerful State what
was the moral sense of the people upon
national questions of men and measures
Nor only was the moral conviction to be
thus shown, but also the drift of that political
enthusiasm or party panic which often has
more to do with the determination of results
Here, too Pennsylvania was valuable as an
indicator; for her politicians were wonderfully
clever, as the Yankees use the word, though
never quite clever enough as it is defined by
the English.


Now, this career of political supremacy is
ended. Pennsylvania steps down and out,
and becomes as commonplace a State in
canvass as New Jersey or New York.
She will be powerful henceforward only by
her vote and not by her example The time
is past when Presidential candidates
sat up late in the cool October nights
to hear the returns from the Key
stone State, and cried ''We are beaten or
'sWe have won," as the balance inclined
against or for their party. She has ceased to
be the guide of her sister States in the North
and West The fact is rather confusing, and
leaves our fall politics all at sea- Indeed, it is
Qaa &c NH bioh
annual voyages had always found pilot out
side Of Sandy Hook ready to take them into
the bay, should suddenly find themselves
obliged to find port unaided. We perceive
the effect Of this change now, as the October
elections approach and Pennsylvania is silent.
Turning from this dumb oracle, once SO elo-
quent of future contingencies we may interro-
gate Ohio, or Indiana, or Iowa, for their
prophecies Of November, but not with the
same faith that we were taught to repose in
the old Keystone State. The sensation is
very much like that which would be produced
If the weather predictions were discontinued
and no one should know whether to take out
his umbrella or wear white hat. Neither
democrats nor republicans can judge any
/
'scloudy and threatening over the New Eng
land and Middle States in November, or
whether political sunshine is to gleam upon
their hopes in the West and South.


Thus it will be seen that the transfer Of the
State election from October to November in
Pennsylvania affects to considerable extent
the politics of the whole country, and, alto
gether, we think the change is for the general
good The belief that as Pennsylvania went
so must the country go was frequently proved
to be correct, but it often amounted to
o political superstition. 1t is not for
the interest Of the country that ma
tional questions should even appear to be
determined in advance of the time appointed
for their settlement, or that one State should
have so great moral influence over the
others We saw in 1872 what the example Of
the Keystone State could do in a national
canvass. Mr.. Greeley and his friends had
been making prodigious efforts in the West
and South, and he himself was then speaking
night and day through the press of the United
States and performing the feats OF Hercules.
The democratic and liberal future was bright
with rose color and the confidence of the
united parties was unshaken Even in the
republican ranks were signs Of doubt and
dread. There were thirty thousand liberia
republicans in Pennsylvania, we we're told
not counting Colonel Mcclure, who made
thirty thousand and one. Suddenly came the
October election in that State, with 0
republican majority of thirty or forty thou
sand, and Mr.. Greeley and his friends fell at
once into absolute despair and ruin. Theil
whole canvass was abandoned; every poll
tician from Maine to Texas who had hesi-
tated rushed to swell the enthusiastic legions
of Grant. Men who were really for Greeley