Year: 1878

being the last spring election in New
Ham pshire; second, by its relation to w.
E. Chandler's demonstration against Presi-
dent Hayes and his title third, rs immedi-
ately following the attempt to remove
Collector Simmons, of Boston, the people
of New Hampshire depending mostly on
the Boston press for guiding their judg-
ment of public events. These three par
ticulars relieve the New Hampshire election
from the insignifcance it would otherwise
have in an ''off year" like the present.


No intelligent observer will undervalue
the rapid progress which has been making
within the last few years toward uniform
election day in all the States. This change,
when completed, will prove salutary in
most respects. It will prevent the domestic
affairs of the States concerned from being
overshadowed by national questions in the
years when elections are important, and it
will deprive certain States of an undue in
fuence in federal politics. This can be
best illustrated by reference to the former
predominance Of Pennsylvania. Being,
next to New York, the most important of
the States, Pennsylvania, when it held its
State election in October, was often able
virtually to decide the Presidential
election. Candidates were nominated
by both parties with reference to
their ability to carry Pennsylvania, and
platforms were habitually constructed with
similar view. Whenever one Of the great
political parties carried the Rnnsylvania
October election in a Presidential year that
party felt secure of clecting its candidate
for the Presidency, the floating mass Of
voters whose only wish in politics is to be
on the winning side following that indica-
tion. The consequence was great con-
centration OF money and influence in the
preliminary States, and sometimes colo
nization of voters from neighboring States,
in hope Of deciding the national contest in
advance. There were three States to whose
elections the attention Of politicians
was strongly directed-namely, New Hamp-
shire, whose election being the earliest in
the year was regarded as ''the first guns
Maine, whose vote in September was sup
posed to furnish clew to the drift of public
sentiment; and Pennsylvania, whose ma





either side, was held to be decisive by the
party which carried that State.


The recent tendency to hold all the State
elections on the same day as the Presi-
Dental election promises some important
results in national politics. When NIL tho
struggling States shall have been brought
into line and the whole country marches
u. ~ ha otot;
to colonize voters from neighboring States
aud less temptation to control particular
State elections by tremendous concentra-
ton of outside money and influence. To-
morrow New Hampshire will hold her last
March election; Connecticut has already
shifted her election day from April to
November, and a constitutional amend
ment is now pending in Indiana looking 10
similar change. Ohio will not long hang
in the rear, and when she has changed her
election day the other struggling States will
soon fall into line. It is matter for sincere
congratulation that we are approaching
uniform election day throughout the
United States, and the last spring
election in New Hampshire is note
worthy rs an indication Of that
progress. A uniform election day will
bring another danger into prominence, rs
we will presently show; but that dan
ger admits Of an easy remedy, if the
country has sufficient foresight to apply it
in time.


When all the States shall have come to
hold their elections on the same day
it will more frequently happen than it
has done heretofore that the result of
Presidential contest will be left in
doubt after the people have voted.
The preliminary elections scattered along
through the year, though an evil, have not
been IN unmixed evil. Their general effect
has been to render the Presidential election
perfectly decisive, and to foreclose all con-
troversy as to which WAS the successful
party As general rule the preliminary cleo
tions, and especially the October elections,
have SO far removed doubts that the whole
vast flock OF citizens who hang loose upon
the skirts Of politics have gone over in a
body to what seemed the stronger side, and,
until the last election no doubts were en-
tertained, after the returns were in, as to
which ticket had been elected. To this
rule there had been no real exception until
1876. To be sure, the Presidential election
has been twice thrown into the House of
Representatives; but III 1901 it was because
the constitution, as it then stood, did not
permit separate vote for Vice President,
and Jefferson and Burr, both democrats,
had an equal number of electoral votes;
on account of the number of can-
didates. These exceptions do not invali-
date the general rule. Until the last election
the result was so clearly foreshadowed by
the preliminary State contests that the pub
Lin nnticinatad ,uhat Il would ha and fla