Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1859 — The Prospect Before Us. [ARTICLE]

The Prospect Before Us.

[From the New York Tribune.

The Congressional Elections preliminary to the great contest of 18G0, having taken place in nearly all the States in the Union, we have data sufficient for reasonable calculations about the result of that contest. If Kansas be admitted next winter, the number of votes to be cast in the Presidential election will be 30G. Of these, the Free States will give the following proportion:

Maine .. 8 New Hampshire... . 5 Vermont 5 Massachusetts 13 Rhode Island 4 Connecticut 6 New Y0rk........ .35 New Jersey •• 7 Pennsylvania 27 Ohio 23

Michigan 6 Indiana . 13 Illinois 11 lowa. . . 4 W isconsin 5 California 4 Minnesota 4 Oregon 3 Kansas 3

Total 186 The Slave States as follows:

Virginia 15 Delaware .3 Maryland 8 North Carolina 10 South Carolina 8 Georgia.. ...... . .10 Alabama 9 Mississippi ~

Louisiana 6 Arkansas 4 Tennessee.. . . 12 Kentucky 12 Missou-i 9 ' Floriday 3 Texas 4

Total <■ 129 The majority necessary to elect a President is 154. Can the Republicans obtain that number! No reasonable man doubts that the eleven States that supported Freemontin 1856 wijl vote for the Republican nominee in 1860. Here is the list:

Maine 8 New Hampshire. ... 5 Vermont 5 Massachusetts 13 Rhode Island 4 Connecticut 6

New York. 35' Ohio 23 Michigan 6 . lowa 4 Wisconsin 5 I I

Total Republican vote 114; It woni'J u e ' uare |y posible by an unwise ‘ nomination, or by evincing an illiberal spirit toward those who really wish to co-operate : with us, to throw away a couple of these . States. But, believing that no such unto-| ward events will happen, we count 1141 votes as certain for the Republican candidate. To insure his election, he must obtain 40 more votes. Where can he look for: them! The remaining Free S ates, and their strength in the Electoral College, is as follows:

Pennsylvania 27 New Jersey 7 Indiana 13 Illinois 11

California 4 I Minnesota?. 4. Oregon 3 Kansas 3 I

Total 72 With no aid from the South, were the Republican candidate to carry all the above named States except Pennsylvania and New Jersey, he would still fail of an election by two votes. He must, then, receive the support of either Pennsylvania or New Jersey. Now, all who are familiar with the peculiar posit'on of parties in those two States must feel morally certain that they will vote together in 18G0 as they did in 1856. Causes: that will control the result in the one, can hardly fail to operate with like effect in the other. We have little faith in the sagacity of the man who does not arrive at this conclusion after a careful survey of the condidition of parties in those States. A prudent calculator would set down Indiana, Illinois, California and Oregon among the doubtful States. We think the Republicans htve the b°st chance for them, and, with a judicious nomination, will carry them all. But, even if we lose them and can se-1 cure the 41 votes of Pennsylvania, New Jer-: sey, Minnesota and Kansas, these, with the 114 cast for F-eemont, will give our candidate 155, being one more than is necessary, to elect him. Republicans must, then, so arrange their programme, that they can beyond contingency carry Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Prudence will assign Indiana to the same position. Can we secure the electoral votes of these States! Unquestionably we can! The same elements that combined last autumn to return members to the House of Representatives, need but to unite in the Presidential election, and our success is sure. Is such a union desirable! think it is. Some of our Republican cotFrnpora- l vies talk as though they thought it was not. Do we understand them? In our judgment, the main body of those Republicans, Democrats and Americans, in the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Indiana, who, by acting in concert, achieved victories in October last that gladdened all our hearts, have need only to pursue the even tenor of their way, exercising toward one another a little liberality apd patience, apd treating in the good faith Qf there is no more cplty in their co-operating to win a common triumph in 1860, than there was in 1858. Will such Republican journals—there are very fpw—qsi criticise or anathematize the Tribune for advocating such a union, in such a crisis, op such terms, for such objects, be kind enough to take the above figures, work out the Presidential problem in their own

way, and give us the benefit of their calculations? Will they waive, for the moment, the reading of homilies, and go to the blackboard! When there will they demonstrate how we can get along without the electoral vote of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Indiana! Or, if they admit that we must have them, or faifiwill they for a brief period ignore generalities, objurgations, and all affectation of superior virtue and integrity, and take the election returns of 1856 and 1858, and tell us how we are to obtain theso 1 votes! Gentlemen! you don’t like our plan. Give us yours! Don’t turn us off with an eulogy on Republican principles and the Republican party. We understand all that now. Electing men to office is, to a certain extent, a matter of arithemetic. Go into the three States we have named, enumerate the Republicans, note them down, and add up the column. Of course, you will not count the Democrats or Americans! T Our faith in a glorious triumph next year is firm and unfaltering. It springs in part from the disorganized condition of the Democracy, torn by dissensions about principles, and rent by feuds among leaders. But it springs in larger measure from the confident belief that when the Republican party stands face to face with the crisis, on the threshold of the struggle, it will “pshaw!” out of countenance those who object to a union between men who agree in sentiment then, merely because they differed in opinion four years before.