Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1880 — Letter frrin Philadelphia [ARTICLE]

Letter frrin Philadelphia

Correspondence of the Sentinei. Mr. Editor: Douotles® l®,ng ere this some, more or less, of your readers, have mentally, if not openly called yunr correspondent to account for what now ®e®ms a rwh prevision of the result of the Presidential election in Pennsylvania Your correspondent feels that he owes it to himself to be heard in self vindication, and if h® doe® not vindicate himself so much the worse for him. My letter was written in advance of the compact mad® at Mentor, the high contracting parties being Grant, both th® Camerons, father and son, Senator Don, Conkling and Logan. The outcome of that council was to put life into a dead carcass; in other words, the Camerons and their satellites, from former indifference to the contest and contempt for th® “329” candidate, bounced right Into it, ®pened all their “bar’ls,” and ourfßtate Committee, as well as the National Committee, were too blind to “see it“ in time to arrest the stampede. Later years have planted a class of population In Pennsylvania, which has grown on what it has fed, Cameron’s largess, until it has become a pow’er—an irresistable one, so long as the masses prove as pliant, and Democrats with resources too stingy so have the courage of their conviction to do their part towards meeting such emergencies—let me rather say towards anticipating them. It I enter into a full analysis of that thought I ®hall exhaust my paper, and your readers’ patience, and will only suggest on® point wher® Democratic liberality may be invested with a certainty of larger returns than in any other field: I refer to the duty of Democrats sustaining th® newspapt that support th®ir principles and ergani* zation. In this they ar® fatally derelict, and in marked contrast with the republicans, lher® 1® rarely a republican country newspaper in this State that does not receive an annual cash stipend of from one to five hundred dollars, whicn is paid in consid eration of a gratuitous circulation oi their issues to peopl® who otherwise wouid nevei’ take a pap®r. It is impossible tor anybody to be in constant receipt and perusal of a single newspaper and not be influenced and directed by it. The republican National and State Committees alike provided for a liberal distribution of their prominent organs among Democrats all over the country, and this in addition to the fund annually supplied to their local organs. Th® Democracy Is mainly composed of th® masses, dependent for subsistence upon theii dailv toil, and not at such remunerative rates as to induce many of them to invest even lhe pittance they cost in their home journals.— Their republican neighbors in like circumstances would be alike unprovided but for the forethought aad good sense of th®ir leaders, and thus are kept by this silent influence in the ranks, while the dissemination of republican poison amo®g Democrats is met by bo counteracting antidote. There is a republican majority in Pennsylvania, som® thousands less than th® ®olored vote, yet only available when th® quid pro quo is fertl.® coming. Had the candlpat® not surrendered in that iac®rvlew with the distinguished republican chief® I hav® named, that vot® would have been at sea, and but partially polled. The Greenback vote, which I lament to say is too largely drawn from our ranks, was kept up to It® recent size by money cunningly placed. Garfield’s majority is a little over 14.000 —his plurality torn* 35,©00. I think you can see the pelnt without further elimination, and ftoqult me of misleading you, for when I wrote the facts wer® precisely as I stated. Indiana came as a demoralizer, electing' Porter, and was not without its influence. We appreciated th® cause, and reallwed howjyeu had fought the whole republican party of the United States. Ido think, however, that if Indiana had not gone thus awry we should still have saved the Keystone for Hancock. It did not, and proved perhaps, that “last feather.”

Th© election over, and to th© surprise of every »ne not in the “ring” of political traders, the DaGolyer candidate is chosen. While th© opponents of Grant accepted Garfield as the dernier resort, they made awfully wry faces at Arthur, and by a singular coincidence of events it was Ar thur who was able to make the bargain and sal© by which the Democratic majorities in Hew York and Kings county were se reduced as to make that result an accomplished fact. It is a dreary topic, th!» treachesy which has disappointed our hope, and I dis. miss it without further observation.

We are not fairly out of one political muss until we are grappling with another in this city, and qnite as absorbing locally. War has been declared between Boss MoManss and Boss Cameron, and a t«st of their i strength among their partisans, postponed in the national contest, by mutual osnsent, looms up formidably jipw. Mo Manes as the head of the thieving and corrupt gas trust, is a bull-head©d, earnest and resolute

enemy, aud one not to be despised. He antagonized Cameron at Chicago, and perhaps contributed more to d • feat Grant’s nomination thanany other man. Cameron, altho -gh a resi- | dent ■ Harrisburg. before MeMane® coming to ’he front as a formidable leader, nud tilings all his own way in Philadelphia. .Hid the contest in the coming hlrutvle is for the recovery of his old pres-ge. it. promises to be bitter, ami out of it will com® revelations thai will immage. if not ruin republican ascendancy. In any event it will bo the opening wedge to th®, breaking up of rrepublican party, even though a ioeal contest. Congratulate ue. We have 5 out fares at last—not via city railways, but through the triumph of the Herdic coaches. Herdie! Ah yes, that name opensup amine of ihterest. but tnv yarn has been spun to sufficient length this time. H.