Year: 1878

| posed after the Maine election of that year,
and sung by whig glee clubs throughout
the country, is as pertinent now as it was
in that noted campaign, when "Tippecanoe
and Tyler too were borne into Office on
wave of popular enthusiasm which has
never had parallel in this country. The
"news from Maine, Maine, Maine" in that
! great year Of political intoxication was really
a very small matter Although it was as
serted in the hiIarity of campaign song
that '.Maine went hell-bent for Governor
Kent" the majority of Kent over Fairchild
was but trife over four hundred. It's
great significance, its potent effect in other
States lay in the fact that one of the
| stanchest Of democratic States had been
conquered by the wings and that the dem
ocratic power had been broken in one of its
strongholds.


The defeat and modification which has
just been inflicted on the republicans of
Maine is noteworthy for similar reason.
Ever since the first organization of the re-
publican party. nearly quarter Of
century ago, Maine has been one of
the truest and stanchest Of republican
| States. This is the first time when the re-
publican ascendancy in Maine has been
broken or shaken in loEg period of twenty
| two years the most eventful years in the
history of the American government 1t
would be an exagg Grafton to say,
in the language of the Tippecanoe
campaign song, that Maine has ''gone hell
| ~ 1~,,k
that party in Maine for the first time trails
its banners in the dust. 1t has lost the first
election in that State since the republican
party sprang into existence on the repeal
| of the Missouri Compromise in the admins
tration Of Pierce SO startling a change
will not be without effect in other States.
Its most immediate and striking effect will
be in Massachusetts,, where General Butler
is running for Governor. The astounding
thing in this Maine election is the surpris-
ing strength developed by the greenback
party, and the still more surprising dis
tribution Of that strength between the cities
and the rural districts. 1t is the agri-
cultural people of Maine that have
been most deeply inocculated with
the new doctrine, and not the workers
for wages in the towns. The greenback
party having destroyed the republican
ascendancy in Maine, where such result
was not expected, the supporters OF Butler
in Massachusetts will be as much encour-
aged as the whig party was by the Maine
election in 1S40. The Butler party will be
elated and confident and will expect the
politics Of Massachusetts, to be more COM
pletely revolutionized than the politics Of
Maine. But there's many a slip 'twixt the
cup and the lip, and the sanguine hopes Of
General Buffers partisans may be dashed to
the ground. 1t is certain. however, that
the Butler vote will be largely Increased by
the surprising demonstration Of greenback
strength in Maine.


| The mortifying check encountered by the
Maine republicans is Of broader signif-
canoe than its local effect in New England.
There can no longer be any reasonable
doubt that the democrats will control both
houses Of the next Congress. They were
already sure of the Senate after the 4th Of
March, 1879, and they may now count with
equal certainty on the House. In order
to control the next House the democrats
did not need to make any gains, but only
to escape losses. They have already made
gains in most unexpected quarters. In
ste ad of three republican members from
Vermont they will have only two,
and instead Of the present five from
Maine they will have only three.
They have lost Oregon and its
one republican member, and the
tide is running SO strongly against them
that they will be compelled to regard this
check in Maine as fatal and irretrievable
disaster There does not remain the slight
est chance OF republican majority in
either house of the next Congress.


The democratic party will feel encour-
aged, and, with the sanguine spirit which


is its besettng infrmity, it will be conf
dent of carrying the Presidential election.
1t has, indeed, excellent chances if it does
not throw them away. The saying of Gen.
eral Grant that the democratic party may
always be relied on to perpetrate some
egregious blunder whenever it has pros
pect of success was founded on SO much
observation of democratic follies that the
republicans will not quite despair, although
the political current is sweeping them
down stream. We think q change of ad-
ministration, after SO many years of repub-
lican supremacy, would be for the good of
the country, and we therefore hope that the
democratic party may not mar and ruin its
really bright prospects by doing things
which would deprive it of public confidence.


The success ofthe democratic party in the
great Presidential contest of 1880 is staked
on the use it may meanwhile make of its
assured control of the legislative depart
ment of the government. We have no
great fear that it will be so foolish
4 Il