Michigan

The New York World last week had the following doublé leaded editorial on the political situation in Michigan: In the year 1835, when Michigan entered the Union, the National Republican party went out of existence and the Whig party was formed by a fusión of all the elements that were opposed to the Democratie organization. Van Buren was nominated on May 2oth, 1835, eighteen months before the election, and Michigan cast its first electoral vote for the Democratie successor of Andrew Jackson. On the popular vote Van Bnren received 7,332 and Harrison 4,042. In the '-log-cabin and hard-cider" campaign of 1840, in which the Democratie party was driven out of power by demagogie appeals and the effect of the financial storm of 1837, Michigan reversed its majority, giving to Harrison 22,933 votes and to Van Buren 21,131. lts United States Senators in the Twenty-eighth and Twenty - ninth Congresses were Whigs, but the majority of its delegation in the House were Democrats. in 1044 the btate returned to the Democratie fold and gave to Polk a majority of 3,466, and in the following year Lewis Cass entered the Senate. The history of politics "in Michigan from that time until the breaking out of the war is very like that of Wisconsfn. Several of its Senators, including Lewis Cass, Alpheus Felch and Charles E. Stuart, who was Douglas's leader on the floor of the Charleston Convention, were among the most distinguished members of the body. While the tariff was an issue Michigan was against the high protection policy of Clay, but when that seened to be settled, and slavery came tó the front, the people of Michigan, largely from Western New York, became ardent and steadfast Republicans. It was their boast that the Republican party had its birth "under the oaks at Jackson." One of the first leaders of the party in the State was Zachariah Chandler, a vigorous, energetic, intense man, who held the State and inspired its people from his entrance into public life until his death, a period of thirty years. His strong personality gathered about him a body of enthusiastic young men who kept the party fresh and alert even after it had begun to show siens of decav in other parts of the country. The young men of Michigan reduced Lincoln's majority in 1864, giving him 16,917 over McClellan. Afterwards Grant appealed to their imaginations, and in 1872 the State gave him the enormous majority of 60,100. Still later Garfield was their idol, and in 1880 he received a plurality of 53,890. In the mean time, however, the Republican strength had begun to wane. During the inflation struggle of 1872-4 Senator Ferry, of Michigan, was the soft-money leader in Congress. Grant had vetoed an inflation bill and Chandler was as firm an advocate of hard money as ever Thomas H. Benton had been. The Republican Convention of 1874 straddled the issue, but the Democratie State platform declared definitely against inflation. In the election of that year Gov. Bagley's majority, which had been 53,000 in 1872, was reduced to 5,969, and the Democrats elected four of the nine Representatives in Congress. Afterwards, owing to dissensions in the Republican ranks on this question, the Greenback party grew in numbers, and in 1878 cast 73,313 votes. A fusión followed and lasted until 18S7. While is existed the fusionists succeeded in 1882 in I electing a Governor, in 1883 a Supreme Court Judge, and in 1884 six of the eleven members of Congress. During this period the money question had been supplanted by the tariff, and the contest in most of the Congressional districts was made on that issue. In 1888 the Democratie vote in the State had increased from 78,350 in 1872 to 213,469, and while Mr. Harrison received a plurality of 22,923, the Republicans were in a minority. In 1890 the Democrats carried the State for their candidate for Governor by a plurality of 11,520. Since 1876 the political situation has been marked by the prominence given by the people to their material interests, evidenced first by a secession of Republican farmers to Grangerism, and then by the great strength of the Greenback party, which has been merged now into the Democratie party, the whole becoming a tariff-reform organization. In the Billion Dollar Congress Michigan had two Democrats and nine Repu6licans; in the -present Congress seven Democrats and four Republicans. The aggregate of the majorities of the Democratie Congressmen was nearly 10,000, and there was elected a Democratie majority in both houses of the Legislature. The Legislature enacted a law by which the Presidential electors must this year and hereafter be chosen by districts. Michigan is now entitled to twelve Representatives in Congress and fourteen votes in the Electoral College. Twelve of these are to be elected in the Congressional districts and the other two in two large districts made by a line running through the State north and south. It is expected that the Democrats will carry six of these districts; they ought certainly to carry four. Every effort should be put forth by the Democratie National Committee to win a substantial victory in the Peninsular State. Michigan has given up its devotion to the Republican party slowly and reluctantly, but for ten years the organization that once dominated the State has been in a minority. A unión of anti-Republicans, leaving the large Prohibition vote of the State out of the question, would probably give nine electoral votes against Mr. Harrison. J Consequently in the campaign of education that is about to begin Michigan should receive special attention. The next President must be a Demoer at.