Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1888 — REPUBLICAN VIRGINIA. [ARTICLE]

REPUBLICAN VIRGINIA.

Indianapolis Journal. At the rate the solid *South is melting away there will soon be no solid South. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and the maintenance of the solid South depends on the solidity of of every state. Complete returns of the recent election show the sodility has practically ceased to exist Jn two of the states. West Virginia is republican, and Old Virginia is so nearly so that another pull will bring her over. Official returns in the latter state give Cleveland a majority of only 1,535 in a total of over 300,000. General Harrison received 150,442 votes, and Mr. Cleveland 151,977. No state can be called solid whose vote is so nearly balanced as that Northern states that generally give a larger democratic majority than that are called doubtful states, and are so. So is Virginia to-day. There is no doubt that with a fair vote and honest count, the state would have gone republican in the recent election by a decided majority, and “the Mother of Presidents” would have had the distinguished honor of leading in the break from the solid South by casting her electoral

—— vote for the centenial republican president, a lineal descendant of oue of her own distinguished sons. But without going, behind the returns the figures show by what a slender thread the democrats hold Virginia. They tell the story of the decline and fall of the democratic party in Virginia, and indicate the quarter in which the first big break in the solid South is to come. b 5 The vote Wtot lor General Harrison wm much the largest "ever given to a republican candidate For president In 1872, Geneial Grant, with his great popularity and military prestige, and with feeble opposition received 93,468 votes. In 1876, Hayes received 95,558 against 139,670 for Tilden, the democratic majority bein& 44,112. Fouy years later, Garfield received 83,639 votes against 96,449 for Hancock, the democratic majority being 12,810. In 1884, Mr. Blaine polled the very respectable vote of 139,356, against 145,497 for Cleveland, reducing the democratic majority to its then lowest figure, 6,003. Now comes Benjamin Harrison with 150,442 votes, against 151,977 for Cleveland, whittling down the democratic majority to a paltry 1,535. The figures show that from 1880 to 1888. the republican vote increased from 83,639 to 150,442. No Northern state can show a better growth of Republicanism than this. It is plain that if the tide continues to run as it has during the last few years one more presidential election will place Virginia safely and solidly on the republican side. Thus, while the democratic party has been hugging the solid South to its bosom, and building uir-casttes of potitical power on its indefinite continuance,- its majority in one of the solidest States in the Solid South has been melting away. While Southern Bourbons have been holding sweet converse with the ghost of the Confederacy and gloating over the idea that they had a great political grievance, which was to be their perpetual stock in trade, the great state of Virginia has slipped her anchor and quietly sailed off into the open sea of republican progress and prosperity. For that is where we may expect to find her in the future. The vote eas?E for General Harrison was largely a white vote, and is the most interesting and conclusive proof yet furnished of the great emancipation movement now going on in the South. Northern republicans bid hail and welcome to 01$ Virginia. The mother of Presidents leads in the march of Southern -prfegressji.... ...Li • ~ <! ‘j_ d