Year: 1872




Although the returns published this morn
ing concerning the Georgia election make q
considerable reduction upon the sanguine
estimates of the night of the struggle, there is
sufficient left yet to allow Of considerable
jubilation in the liberal and democratic camps.
Georgia is now said to have gone for the lib
eral candidate, James M. Smith, by ma
jority of at least thirty thousand, over
Walker, the republican. The figures
first quoted by triumphant partisans
in the flush of victory will generally bear the
application of the pruning knife, and Georgia
is no exception to the rule. Last years cleo
ton gave q democratic majority of close to
twenty-seven thousand. This would show o
clear gain of three thousand something for
the liberal coalition to delight in, certainly.
There is every evidence that this campaign
for the Presidency will, in many respects, be
one Of the most curious on record. The most
striking thing in this relation will undoubtedly
be the fluctuations of popular opinion on the
voting strength of the two parties. We have
never before, apparently, had SO many citi-
zens in that state of doubt as to how
they will cast their votes for President known
in common parlance as con the fence
Thus the variations in the estimates Of
national strength tell more readily upon the
masses and excite keener interest than here
tofore. The liberal movement was in every
respect an experiment which, having proved
successful in single State, is in process OF
being applied to the Union While, there
FORE the various Fall election States register
their voices for one or the other side with
increased or diminished force, the voters Of
the other States make nice calculations about
the prospects Of the coalition and the adminis-
tration parties. In olden times, when strict
party lines were drawn, the citizen who
espoused party and its cause held heart
of grace and deposited his ticket with the
faith of martyr Now, in addition to the
novelty of the main or national question
at issue there are local questions at stake in so
many States that there is great difficulty in
deducing an exact moral from their votes. Is
it the ferment Of the popular mind on the eve
of quiet, political revolution, or is it merely
the increased value of the great offices at stake
which makes the simple man of business, as
well as the grasping Office holder, as sensitive
to the effect of State election as q magnetic
needle to an electric stormp The difficulty Of
answering this query would not be great, if it
related alone to the feelings of the ofice-holder;
but to account for the widespread nervous
tension OF the people is not so easy


To appreciate the forces at work it is neces-
sary to look back over the series of quotations,
SO to speak, in the Presidential market, since
at Cincinnati. This sturdy offshoot of repub-
lican opposition to President Grants adminis-
tration grew SO amazingly fast that in less
than couple of months it had won the ad-
miration and affection of the democratic
1 party, who, seeing that its parents were poor
but honest, forthwith proceeded solemnly to
adopt it at Baltimore. It came out
of the Convention as fully armed as
Minerva out Of the brain of Jupi-
ter, and was hailed as the heir apparent
to Jefferson and Jackson all over the land by
the protesting disciples of that school. 1t was
curiously and comically regarded at first, and
public opinion at once took opposite sides in
/
Arthur who was to rise up and clear the land
Of the heathen-i e., the carpeNbagger, the
corruptionist and the incapable; the other re-
garded it as Ginx's Baby in state of prema-
ture manhood-a thing to be the pet of bogus
philanthropists and coddled and cuffed alter
natcly by its wealthy protectors until one
night early next November it was to be driven
to suicide by q plunge in Salt River. Never,
probably, in the history of American politics,
were the sages so quantity divided in their
representations. But time was going ahead.
The young Arthur was sent down with shield
and spear to North Carolina, and when the
struggle came on and the battle was fought
both sides claimed the victory. HE is
the true King Arthur" shouted the lib
erals, ''for has he not carried more
Congressional districts and reduced the
victory Of the Governor" 'Bah /"
replied the Grant men, che is Ginxs Baby,
for the State has gone republican" Among
the Green Mountains was his next essay
There was no hope for victory there, and,
although the Young Liberal fought but little
among the hills, it was voted all the more that
he was Ginx's Baby The battle in the Bor-
der State, among the pines of Maine, where
he fought plucky fight, sent him away
with little comfort, and some who
called him Arthur week before were
joining in the outcry against Ginx's
Baby. This was saddening to the phi
losophic onlooker, and gave much cause
for comfort to those who had scoffed from
the beginning. 1t was concluded among the
friends Of the STRIPPING that his foremost BAN
ner-bearer should go forth and do combat
among the States where the Young Liberal
would have his greatest fight So Greeley
went forth, as his Merlin, and by the weight