Year: 1879

Political Prospects.


Last week we published number of
extracts from Republican newspapers


which regard the Democratic State ticket


with much favor, and this week we add
the testimony of nearly score of other


we'll known and staunch Republican pa
pers. These papers represent the senti-
ment, not only of the editors, but of the


best informed and most reliable men in
their party. There is strong feeling
among the soundest men of all parties in
this State that change of State admins
tration would be highly beneficial. No
person who has watched the progress of
current events has failed to notice the de-
plorable tendency of the Republican adj
ministratiens, both state and national,
toward rendering all official positions the
property Of unprlncipled partisans, to be
traded off to the shrewdest manipulators
of oaucuses and conventions, with little
or no regard to the interests of the pub
lie service. In national politics 1t can be
accurately determined at the beginning
of campaign just how the immense ar
my of government officials, scattered
through every part of the Union, will


work, and just what positions they will
take and the methods they will adopt to
manipulate caucuses and defeat the will
Of the people. The superlative humbug-
gerry and disgraceful failure of President
Hayes civil service reform, and the ut
ter contempt with which the politicians
and leaders Of his own party regarded
his celebrated civilservice order from the
time it was issued, have attracted gener>
al attention, But the scramble of greedy
Republicans in Minnesota for the State
offices, has been, to the people of this
State, even more conspicuous and deplor>
able than that displayed in national poll
ltics. We do not 60 farther than some
of the prominent Republican papers when
we declare that the dickering, trading
and manipulating resorted to by the Re-
publican candidates for the State offices
was simply disgraceful. And even now
the party is rent by contest over the
disposition to be made of some of the
leading clerkships in the State offices,
certain politicians claiming them as re-
ward for their political influence. Well
informed Republicans recognize this con-
dition Of affairs, and it is not astonishing
that in many instances their honesty
proves stronger than their political rela-
tions, and that they are doing all they
can for the success of the Democratic
ticket, without going so far as to entirely
desert their party standard. The most
partisan Republican will concede that in
the Democratic convention there was ab-
solutely no wire>pulling. In the Dem.


ocratic caucus held at the capitol pre-
vlous to the convention, the Ramsey
county delegation expressed desire for
the delegates from the various counties IN
other parts of the State to present the
name of a candidate for Governor, and
pledged themselves to support such can
didate. The ground was carefully


looked over, and the delegates from all
parts of the State were unanimously of
the opinion that the Hon. Edmund Rice
would make the strongest candidate, and,
If elected, the best Governor, that could


be selected. In the convention his nom-
lnat1on was made unanimous amid the


most intense enthusiasm. The St. Paul


Dispatch, though uncompromisingly Re-
publican in politics, very justly declared
that "Hon. Edmund Rice, the nominee
tor Governor, is a man against whose
record tor party fealty no Democrat can
raise his voice, and against whose public
or private character no Republican will
presume to utter syllable of reproach. )"
At the last election for State officers the
Republican party had majority of nine-
teen thousand, though the Republican
majority on the vote for congressman was
only 1853. The Democratic ticket cam
not be elected without the aid of several
thousand Republican votes, but the pros
pect now looks favorable that there is the
requisite number of Republican voters
whose sense of public duty and desire
for the public welfare are stronger than
their party fealty. The ticket has the
advantage of commanding the respect of
the better elements of all parties, and
while we do not claim that its approval
at the polls is certainty, we do claim
that it is highly nrohahla