Year: 1877

have Secretary Sherman's assurance that
1t will come then, and all the Treasury
asks is to be let alone. 1t is impossible,
rs the Tribune ought to be able to see,
for the Ohio Republicans to get up any
warmth or enthusiasm over a question
which is here regarded as settled and
filed away. 1t is a mistake to suppose
that the light Republican vote was due
to any weakening on the finance ques-
tion. What was needed was some live,
new issue. Wanting that, the Repub-
licans had nothing to talk about. The
Democrats were in the same dilemma,
but the superior discipline of their voters
got out larger percentage on election
day, and they thus won most that there
Cleveland Leader.


Ohio has simply refused to indorse
John Sherman and his resumption policy.
Chicago Tribune.


The lesson of the Ohio election is not
difficult to read 1t is that, in the Re-
publican party in his own State, the dis
content with the Presidents Southern
policy has been sufficient to lead to de-
feat when the issue was made upon ap.
proval of that policy. 1t is that, while
that policy is precisely what the Opposi-
tion has demanded, the Administration
can expect, instead of support, that the
Opposition will hasten to take advantage
of the weakness of the Administration,
occasioned by Republican discomfort with
it's policy. The defeat is not SO over
whelming that it need fill the President
with CONSERVATION. 1t probably would
not have occurred but for the active
though covert hostility to the Administra-
ton of the Republican leaders of the
war-horse" school, whose hostility is to
civil-service reform, which would keep
the war horses from the public crib. The
President, as must have been antici-
pated, has, by his civil-service policy,
alienated the professional party man
ayers. BY his Southern policy he has
taken step in advance of the extreme
radical wing of his party. 1t is impos
sible for him to successfully adhere to
his policy in either regard without party
support strong enough to sustain his Ad
ministration throughout. The Ohio cleo
tion does not demonstrate that he will
fail to receive such support. 1t does
make clear that the President can make
of the result in Ohio the utter defeat of
his policy, by accepting that result as
conclusive. 1t simply puts him and his
Administration to the test. If he be
sincere in his civil-service and Southern
policy, if he be courageous and man
of resources, he will not surrender be-
cause of this repulse on the first skir-
mish. The result in Ohio is not the verdict
of the nation. And, whether the result
in Ohio six months hence would be what
it was last Tuesday will depend largely
upon the backbone and address with
which the Administration, meanwhile,
pursues its policy Chicago Alliance.


Much the larger part of the indiffer-
ence among the Republicans must be at
tributed to the Presidents Southern
policy. OF all the influences which have
contributed to the defeat this is the most
potent. The veterans of the Western
Reserve feel, rightly or wrongly, that
the cause they cherished has been be-
trayed, and the feeling is visible, more
or less distinctly, everywhere. 1t does
not predominant, but it is sufficiently
strong to leave mark on election day.
The concessions are as yet all on one
side. Republicans are divided in conse-
quence. What the division may amount
to few more defeats will enable all of
US to understand. M Y. Times.


The direct bearing of this election
upon national politics is very slight, ma.
tional issues having been avoided in the
contest by both sides. But, indirectly,
it may have an excellent effect upon the
Western Republicans. Two years ago
they met their adversaries in Ohio on the
high ground of national honesty, and
after a hard fight they beat them glori-
ously. This year they have fallen back
from the noble position which they then
conquered, and they are overwhelmed.
Another year they will perhaps under
stand that honesty is the best policy
N. Y. Tribune.