Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1882 — WHO BLUNDERED. [ARTICLE]

WHO BLUNDERED.

[From the Chicago Inter Ocean.] The Republican State ticket in Ohio has been defeated by a Democratic majority as heavy as that given for Bishop in 1877. In the last Congress the Republicans had fifteen of the twenty Ohio Congressmen. In the next Congress they will have only six of the twenty-one elected on Tuesday, a net loss of nine. Of all the Republican defeats in Ohio this is the worst. From 1855 to 1862 Ohio was as steadily Republican as lowa has been in later years. In 1862 the Republican candidate for Secretary of State was defeated through party indifference. This was so good a lesson that, beginning with a majority of 101,000 in 1863, the Republicans held the reins until after the Presidential election in 1872. In 1873 Republican indifference paved the way for Allen’s election, and this was followed by a sweeping Democratic victory in 1874. But in 18723 the State was redeemed with Hayes as candidate for Governor. In 1877, however. Republican dissatisfaction with the President’s Southern policy resulted in the election of Bishop, the Democratic candidate for Governor, by a plurality of 22,520. In 1878 the State swung into the Republican line again, and since that year there had been a steady increase in Republican majorities, Garfield having a plurality of 34,227 in 1880, and Foster a plurality of 34,309 in 1881- The latest returns indicate that this year the Democratic plurality will be about as large as was the Republican plurality last year. This is bad enough, but the worst phase of the matter is that relating to Congressmen. The Republicans cannot well afford to lose control of the first Congress elected under the new apportionment, but Ohio’s example and influence are heavily against them. In 1874 the Democrats elected thirteen of the twenty Ohio Congressmen, in 1876 only six; in 1878 they elected eleven, and in 1880 only five. This year they elect fifteen of the twenty-one, the Republicans doing worse even than in 1874.

Several causes contributed to this sweeping Republican defeat. The iutense feeling growing out of the action of the Legislature on the Sunday observance and temperance questions was carried into the preliminary canvass, and when the convention met it was difficult to reconcile differences. In 1881 the Republican platform declared “that public interests require that the General Assembly should submit to a vote of the people such amendments to the constitution of the State relative to the manufacture and sale and use of intoxicating liquors as shall leave the whole matter to the Legislature.” The Democratic platform had a resolution declaring “in favor of the largest individual liberty consistent with public order, and are opposed to legislation merely sumptuary.” The Republican plurality with the temperance issue thus treated was 34,309.

In the convention of 1882 one division of Republicans claimed that the temperance issue should be treated as it had been in 1881, while the stronger division took other ground. In an attempt to reconcile the factions the temperance plank of the platform was made to read: Resolved, That the tax-paying people of the State demand that by specific taxation the traffic in intoxicating liquors shall be made to bear its share of the public burdens, and that the constitution, so far as it mav be an obstacle in the way of the exercise of the people, through their representatives, of practical control over the liquor traffic, to the end that the evils resulting therefrom may be efiectuallv provided against, should be amended at the earliest date allowed by law. This, it is claimed, met the new phase of the case presented in the decision of the Supreme Court declaring the Pond liquor law unconstitutional, but the resolution was not satisfactory to the extremists on either band, and the leaders and papers proceeded to interpret it, and to define the issue as presented, in accordance with their own views. Gov. Foster early in the canvass took advanced ground, and expressed the opinion that the Republican party would gain more than it would lose by making a square fight on the temperance question. It was conceded that this course would alienate many Germans, but it was believed that it would bring the 16,000 Prohibition votes of 1881 over to the Republicans. Senator Sherman took more moderate ground, and there were many who took the position that the temperance issue was not before the people at all. The Democratic platform declared that that party was opposed to legislation merely sump- - tyiary, and the campaign managers neglected no opportunity to influence the Germans and liquor-dealers against the Republicans. As the campaign progressed, more and more attention was devoted to the prohibition question and the Sunday issue, speakers on both sides becoming more outspoken. The result was that the German Republicans deserted in a body, and the Prohibitionists gave the Republicans no assistance. There were four tickets in the field, the Prohibitionists voting for their own candidates, and in some counties forming alliances with Democrats. The experiment of making concessions to the Prohibitionists resulted disastrously—as disas-

trously to thetemperanoe cause as to the Republicans. In other words, the Prohibitionists of Ohio have secured the defeat of the party most inclined to grapple with the temperance issues, and have put in power the party which has officially notified them that it is steadfastly opposed to legislation on any phase of the temperance question, and because they have done this the people of the State will doubt their honesty of purpose and the Republicans will be inclined to question their motives. The German Republicans who connived at the defeat of their party for the sake of rebuking a faction, or who allowed themselves to be misled by loud talk about what might happen, are as short-sighted as the extremists on the other side. They have been hoodwinked by the Democrats, and have probably turned over the next Congress to the Bourbons. It is plain that somebody blundered in Ohio, and it is doubtful whether the November States can make good the ground lost.