THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
THE victory of the Republicans in the United States has been unexpectedly decisive. With the single and small exception of New Jersey, every State in the North, and, with the exception of California and Nevada, every State in the West, has declared for General Garfield, —who obtains, moreover, what Mr. Hayes had not, a clear and heavy majority on the mass vote. The Democrats, although they have recovered their full ascendancy in the South, and have broken the power of the Negro vote, have lost so heavily, not only in the North, but in the West, not only in a State like New York, which is always doubt- ful, but in a State like Indiana, where they expected victory, that many observers expect a dissolution of the party, and a German Democrat journal declares they have suffered their Sedan. The party, founded as it is, in the history of the Union, will not be dissolved, and will, of course, presently recover its courage, and clever politicians will soon be trying to explain away the result ; but such a defeat can only mean one thing. The great majority of the people outside the old slaveholding region lived through the war, and are still unwilling to trust power to the Democrats again. They believe they would use it to exaggerate the independence of the States, until the Union, and the principles of liberty in America, would be once more in peril. They think that the many imprudent speeches of the old Southern leaders about their " coming triumph " have a serious, hidden meaning. A great many side-issues were, of course, involved in the election, and some of them, such as " hard money " and ",free trade," exercised very considerable influence on the result. The Democrats are deeply distrusted by all who are in favour of cash payments,—that is, just now, all farmers, and even by the holders of the Debt which has recently been transferred in huge masses to American investors, and their vote counted heavily in the West. They are also disliked by all Protectionists, who, strange to say, while the majority of voters are unprotected freeholders, have recently gathered strength, probably from the notion that Protection is patriotic. The Republicans, too, have been financially very successful, have paid off much Debt without further increasing taxa tion, and enjoy the benefit of the revival of prosperity. In New York, again, there has been a revival of anti-Irish, or rather anti-Catholic feeling, caused by a demand for State aid to Catholic schools, which was considered important enough to draw a remark from General Garfield hostile to such grants ; and in one or two States, the Labour Party had utterly disgusted all holders of property. General Garfield, too, as a man who had risen from the ranks of society, was a candidate after the American heart ; and his rival, besides coming from West Point, vacillated during the election in a way which displeased even his strongest supporters. Still,none of these causes can have done more than influence the great result. Side-issues on one side are usually met by side-issues on the other, as we see in the conflict in this country between the publicans and the tem perance men, and the total vote always indi- cates the broad, though it may be momentary, popular decision as to the merits of the parties, The Republicans have seated their President for the sixth time in succession, have recovered their control of the House of Representatives, and have equalised parties in the Senate with a certainty of a majority in spring ; and the reason must be the preference of the people for their distinctive dogma, the superior claim of the nation over the claim of any State. It is to defend State-rights that the "solid South" votes for the Democrat party, and to defend the national right that the solid North accepts and enthrones their adversaries. The Republicans do not desire to see military rule in the South, but they do not wish to see the Southerners supreme and free to carry out theories of society and government which must in the end be fatal to the unity of the nation. The Northern and Southern theories are, as Republicans see, the theories of two civilisations. Nor, we may add, to their credit, do they wish to see any approach to repudiation, or any tampering with the currency, in order to make life easier to the insolvent. The perfect pecuniary honesty of the Republicans as a body is a very noteworthy fact, and, like the readiness of the French peasantry to submit to severe and sudden increases of taxation, disposes of a great many theories about the results of universal suffrage. The party &as ruled for twenty years, and during that time has incurred a Debt of five hundred millions sterling, but it has not only scrupulously paid the interest, but has levied and paid new taxes so heavy and so searching that the Treasury has been able to pay off a third of the Debt, and to raise its credit until it rivals that of France, far the wealthiest State in Europe, or of a thrifty monarchy like the Prussian ; and until, in a country where loans on mortgage are lent at eight per cent., its bonds, paying only four, are greedily bought up by its own citizens. The Americans are justly proud of that feat, which has never been surpassed in finance even in Eng- land, where an aristocracy set the example of severe taxation, and where the democracy, just before they acquired frill power, were relieved of almost all the Statelaxation which was not self-adjusting.
The steadiness with which English Liberals and moderate Conservatives since the war have adhered to the Republican side in American affairs is a very noteworthy fact, for there was a strong inclination once to lean the other way. The Liberals are all Free-traders, and the Demo- cratic unsoundness about the currency and the Debt is equally distasteful to both the English political parties. The bias is due, no doubt, in part to the place which the Irish have taken in Democratic councils—this victory, for example, is not welcomed by the Land League—and in part to the instinct, rather than reason, which teaches Englishmen that the Republicans are not Jingoes, that they have no desire for Mexico, which would only add to Southern strength; and no wish that Canada should enter the Union, except with the consent of most Canadians. But the root of the feeling, which is decided, though not strongly expressed, is, we believe, the sense that the Republicans, with many faults, the principal being in English eyes their intolerable tolerance for some kinds of corruption, do, as a party, seek to promote right objects,—human freedom, equality before the law, and open careers for all, independent of colour, creed, or caste. That they fought out the great war for these ends may be denied, though we believe they were conscious of them, even when the idea of nationality seemed to have sole possession of their minds; but since the war they have certainly struggled towards them, with an unsteady, but still unswerving -vigour. They have been the opponents of privilege, and the Democrats its friends. They have not, it is true, protected the negro at all perfectly. They have not been quite sincere in securing him the right to vote. They have been fettered by their State system, until they have allowed labour laws to be passed altogether inconsistent with the idea of equality, and Sheriffs to be wholly unjust between the races in the matter of the right of self-defence. But their disinclination to use soldiers is part of their respect for law, they have defended all the rights which, if the negroes were a little more determined, would make them perfectly free ; and while their opponents have preached State-rights, they have steadily adhered to the ultimate ideal, that there should be no distinction among citizens except for conduct. They have not been quite successful yet, but the future of the Republic depends on their success ; and the Eng- lish Liberals, perceiving that, have pardoned their irritating contempt for Free-trade, have overlooked their entire failure to realise their own promises of Civil-Service reform, and have steadily continued to wish them well. They distrust the Democrats in power, although Free-traders, and although better inclined to individualism than their rivals, because they believe that in the Democrat worship of the Constitution they would sacrifice to it the ends which it was elaborated to secure. The Republicans have been advanced friends of Liberalism, and that has been perceived here. We question, indeed, whether English feeling ever was more friendly to America than at present, or so friendly. Mr. Gladstone is still abused for the' Alabama' Treaty, but that Treaty did its work on both sides of the Atlantic, and suspicion has died away, until the majority of Englishmen are distinctly pleased that the party devoted to the preservation of the Union has triumphed at the polls. In other words, they are glad that the American Union should be undivided, and prosperous, and mighty,—a change of feeling which only those who fought for the North during the war can adequately appreciate. It is a revulsion of feeling, rather than a change, and it is mainly due to the wise, though imperfect government of the Repub- lican party during the twenty years.
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