Year: 1876

which we shall be able to announce to-mor-
row. But in the brief interval Of suspense
while tho ballots are deposited and counted
it may not be amiss to cast retrospective
glance on the remarkable canvass which has
just closed in these two States.


The feature on which we desire to fix at-
tention has not the interest of novelty but
as IN old practice has been carried to an
unusual extreme this is as good an occasion
as is likely to occur for pointing out its ten
dency. We refer to the practice of import
ing speakers from all parts of the country to
influence State elections. Long usage has
made this kind of outside interference so
familiar that it will perhaps be diff
ficult to make readers perceive its in
congruity with the theory of our in
stitutions. But in reality such practices
sap the very foundation of federated re-
public, which commits only national con-
Germs to the general government and re-
serves local affairs for local control To be
sure there is no violation of law in this COM
pete subordination of State to federal
politics but it is nevertheless a total de-
parture from the spirit and genius of our
double system of governments, each having
its separate and independent sphere of
action. State politics do not depend on
State questions, but on federal questions,
and this departure from the spirit of our
system has never been more signally illus
trated than in the heated canvass which has
been waged this year in Ohio and Indiana.
These States have glowed like furnace at
white heat but the bellows which have fed
the combustion supplied wind from the
country at large, delivered through intrud-
ing pozzles. But of what interest is it
to the country at large whether Williams
or Harrison shall be the next Governor of
Indiana, or who shall be elected to the
trivial Office of Secretary of State in Ohio !?
People outside of these States do not care a
straw about the local offices or the candi-
dates who aspire to fill them. But the two
great political parties invade these States
and fight great battle over their local
officers, making them mere pawns in the
game of national politics. There is, indeed,
nothing new in this it is in perfect con-
formity with accepted and long-settled Gus
tom, against which the most extreme State
rights men have always been as far from
protesting MS the most high-toned cham
pions of Capitalization. Nobody has seemed
to perceive that it subverts the indepen-
dence Of the State governments. 1t is
not State interests, but federal inter-
ests, which determine who shall be
the next Governor of Indiana and
the next Secretary of State in Ohio. This
voluntary engulfing of State interests in
the vortex Of national politics by the uni
versal consent Of men of all parties shows
that the founders of our system had no true
idea of the way it would operate in practice.
The States have no practical independence
within their own sphere SO long as they per-
NIT their local officers to be chosen with sole
reference to federal questions by the aid of
outside influence exerted to promote purely
federal objects. State interests are mere
chips tossed on the wave Of federal politics.
It is preposterous and even grotesque for the
democratic orators to declaim loftily about
reserved powers and State independence
while they are as forward as the republicans
in making all State offices mere tail to the
federal kite.


We do not believe that the over
shadowing influence of national politics
in State elections will ever be got
rid Of The most that can be hoped is that
it may be somewhat mitigated and re-
strained. 1t has reached such an excess in
4. =
as ought to convince the country that a par
tial remedy is expedient. 1t could not 90
to such extreme lengths if oil the State cleo
tions were held on the same day, because,
in that case, the politicians of both parties
would find employment at home, and there
would be no possibility of converging oil
their efforts to single focus in ono or two
States. We have no doubt that this remedy
will be applied and that all the States will
be forced to come into line and hold their
elections on the same day. Congress can
promote this object by vigorously in
sisting that all its members shall
be chosen in November The act
of 1872 requiring this has caused great
strides toward uniformity within the
last four years, and if o weak exception in
favor of few tardy States had not been
made by the act of 1876 the result would
have been already attained We trust that
at its next session Congress will repeal the
act of 1876. The few struggling States will
then have ample time for amending their
constitutions, and if they choose to forfeit
their representation in Congress it will be at
their own peril


Crowds and Disease.