Claiborne Guardian

The Late Elections

If it be true that as Indiana goes so goes the Union the Democracy may as well lay down their arms. But from a Republican standpoint this won't do. We presume that all Republicans unite in claiming the election of Hayes in 1876, yet Indiana was carried by the Democracy in the October election of that year. While the prestige given to the Republican party by this victory is very great it is by no means sufficient to discourage the Democracy when all the facts connected with that election are closely examined.

Conscious of the moral prestige to be acquired by such a victory the leaders and managers of the Republican party have spared no pains, labor or money to bring about the result. It is now a conceded fact, one that is not gainsaid or denied, that the party in power holding the national purse strings are able to use the national treasury to an almost unlimited extent. So many and various are the items of expenditure required to move the complex machinery of this government that it is comparatively easy to doctor the books and to divert from its proper channel funds appropriated for legitimate purposes. In the financial affairs of an individual a million of dollars is an enormous sum. But in the financial affairs of a government it is not so. When our national debt is reckoned by billions and our daily receipts of revenue amount to many millions nothing is more easy than to appropriate to various purposes one, two, three or five hundred thousand, and these amounts when thrown into one State will so weigh down the scale as to overbalance what would be the popular will were the fight alone to make the fight without government on the side of the administration all the aid that the money of the government in the hands of a dishonest administration can buy.

Now it is always claimed that Indiana is a doubtful State, and being so it is easy to understand why so little is required to turn the scale either way. If it once be admitted that the party controlling the treasury will use the government money in the election then the election may be made to go their way.

That such use is made of national funds is as certain as anything can be that is not proven in a court of justice. Such practices are among the open secrets of our political history. We take it that the result in Indiana was brought about in this way, and that the only thing it proves is not that Indiana is Republican but that the Republican purse was the longest. It was like a financial contest between a Louisiana bull farmer and W. H. Vanderbilt. The only benefit which accrues to the Republican party from this victory is the great prestige that it gives that party by partially checking for the first time the Hancock boom.

This victory may change the weak and wavering of either party, and may make uncertain converts to the Republican ranks of those men who are never to be relied on for any party. The effects of the victory would be fully counterbalanced by a Democratic victory in a doubtful State to-morrow. But that class of men who are firm in their devotion to the party will not change a whit. They may experience a temporary discouragement not from the victory itself, but in the thought that the means that secured that victory are a proof of the great corruption that like a funeral pall enshrouds the nation. But their patriotic devotion to country and party will be increased tenfold and when they gird up their loins for renewed, more arduous and nobler exertions it will be found that their additional enthusiasm will more than compensate us in the end for the weak, wavering, irresolute time-servers we have lost. For we may declare it to be true that when the national struggle comes on no more millions can be stolen for Indiana. While it is a fact, as we wrote in the beginning, that in matters of national finance a few hundred thousand or even a million is a small matter, there is a limit to the steal. There is a point beyond which it is not safe to go. A hundred thousand may be filched with impunity to carry Ohio and Indiana to-day, but five or ten million may not be stolen in November to carry these same States with the addition of Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, and two or three others. They dare not go to a point when they cannot account for the leak that lets out in such profusion the golden flood. We feel, therefore, that we are safe in saying that the Republican party have in order to secure a certain amount of prestige performed an amount of labor and spent a quantity of dollars that they can possibly appropriate for the same purpose in November. And we believe that any amount of labor or expenditure will lead in defeat.

There are other facts that should be taken into consideration when we would estimate the result. In a State election for all officials from governor down to constable as was the case in Indiana, there are many considerations of a local or a personal nature that have much to do in shaping the result. No matter how closely party lines may be drawn it will be found that there are many Republicans who will receive Democratic votes. There are local schemes advocated by Republican candidates in which Democrats have a personal interest greater than is their devotion to their party, when they consider that their State affairs are not to suffer by a vote for their individual interest. However wrong all this may be it is certainly true. Further it is true that contests are so close and the rotation is so frequent that party differences have not become so marked as they are with us. In the South in nine cases out of ten the word Republican is synonymous with dishonesty, and we dare not permit our personal interests to allow us to vote for a political opponent. When we remember that it is not so in Indiana we can understand how a Democrat may sometimes vote for a Republican.

But none of these matters can become a part of the great November contest. Then the lines will be drawn, the public treasury will not pour out so bountiful a stream, and we confidently look for a different result. Let none lose faith in our final triumph. The only effect that the Indiana election should have is to spur true Democrats to greater exertions at the general election. Even though the solid South may be certain for the presidency, as we have congressmen to elect let there be no cessation of work. Our majorities must increase, and the spirit of the people must be kept up by the local exercise of the rights as freemen.